Book of Cain

The Book of Cain was created to tighten up the Diablo lore and help the developers keep continuity through the Diablo series, and gives the basic history of the Diablo universe.

In the world of Diablo, heaven and hell are fighting an eternal battle for control of the Worldstone. This massive crystal can be used to build worlds without end and shape reality to the controller’s whim. The Archangel Tyrael ordered the Pandemonium Fortress built around the Worldstone, and it is much more massive than what we have seen in the games so far. Pandemonium is the main focus of the fight between heaven and hell and different sides have held it for different lengths of time.

Worldstone (fan art)

Tyrael’s brother, the Archangel Inarius, decided he didn’t like the eternal battle and breaks away from the angels. He brings some of the other angels with him, but strangely, he also enlists some demons to go with him as well. Inarius and his helpers “stole” the Worldstone from Pandemonium. Essentially, they veiled it in a dimensional pocket so that heaven and hell couldn’t see it and that’s where they formed Sanctuary. Over time, the Nephilim, offspring of these angels and demons, diminished and became men.

Angiris Council

The Angiris Council is the angelic counterpart to the Lords of the Burning Hells and similarly, each angel has its own sphere of influence that defines who they are.

Tyrael, Angel of Justice

• Tyrael, Angel of Justice – Tyrael is a very rigid guy, and he is all about order. When he finds out about sanctuary, and sees the selflessness, honor, and heroism that man is capable of, he breaks away from his legal world view and becomes the outlaw on the council.
  
• Auriel, Angel of Hope – She is the most upbeat person on the council. Wise and hopeful, she holds the council together.
  
• Malthael, Angel of Wisdom – He is the voice of reason on the council, and when he talks everyone listens because he is usually right. When Inarius and his followers take the Worldstone, Malthael freaks out. The core of his reality is suddenly gone and so his character darkens and becomes grim.
  
• Imperius, Angel of Valor – Imperius is a loud voice on the council, and tries to bully the council to get his way. He is the best at combat and has killed billions of demons. He clashes with Tyrael at times because of his pride, especially where mankind is concerned.
  
• Itherael, Angel of Fate – Itherael is the lorekeeper of the heavens. While he cannot see the future, he sees the ribbons of possibility that weave into the future and so the council often turns to him when faced with tough decisions. Mortals weren’t meant to exist, and so he can’t see anything about man’s destiny and that freaks him out.
  

Lords of the Burning Hells

The Lords of the Burning Hells are a combination of the three prime evils and the lesser evils. The three Prime Evils – Diablo, Mephisto, and Baal – are the eldest and strongest and rule over the lesser evils, Duriel, Andariel, Belial and Azmodan. Belial and Azmodan started a civil war in hell because the Prime Evils were interfering with Sanctuary. In time, even the armies of the Prime Evils turned on them and they were exiled to Sanctuary in the Dark Exile, where they were hunted and captured by the Horadrim. The only two left in Diablo III are Belial and Azmodan.

Azmodan, Lord of Sin

• Belial, Lord of Lies – Belial is a master of deception, but he likes to use underlings rather than get his hands dirty. He likes to manipulate his opponents and corrupt things slowly. Belial has been messing with Caldeum, his minions have driven refugees to the city, creating hunger and disease.
  
• Azmodan, Lord of Sin – Azmodan’s Lieutenants are the seven deadly sins. One of these that we will meet is the Maiden of Lust, or Mistress of Pain, who likes to torment people and get under their skin. Azmodan himself is all about power and ruled hell after the Dark Exile. He is very greedy and unlike Belial, doesn’t hide. Azmodan is behind the invasion that Deckard Cain has been warning people of, and he always seems to be two steps ahead.
  

The dark wanderer (from Diablo II; the hero of the original Diablo), is currently possessed by Diablo and has now been given an identity. The developers wanted a character with a strong emotional investment in the events, and so they chose Leoric’s oldest son for this role.

Three new zones revealed

• Caldeum, the Jewel of the East
  

Caldeum is the major trading center of the world. There is currently a big refugee crisis here that has led to malnutrition and disease. We know Belial is behind this crisis but we don’t know how or why.

Caldeum, the Jewel of the East

The three major groups in Caldeum are the Zakarum Priesthood, the merchant families, and the Ishari Sanctum. These three groups are constantly vying for power between each other, but under Emperor Hakan they put aside their differences for awhile and the city grew into the wealthy powerful trading center it is today.

Hakan II, a child found through a Zakarum ritual, is now emperor because of Hakan’s recent death. The Emperor’s personal guard, the Iron Wolves, were to protect him in a regency arrangement to prevent him being taken advantage of. However, they were kicked out of the palace and the new Imperial Guard won’t let anyone see the Emperor.

• Dahlgur Oasis
  

The Dahlgur Oasis is the farming region where most of Caldeum’s water comes from, and the biggest reason the city is prosperous. According to legend, the prophet Dalgur came and took the leaders of Caldeum out to show them the oasis so they could prosper. He asked that it be named after him and then disappeared back into the wastelands. No one has seen him since.

This is where most of the refugees are from. The area is infested with minions of Belial. There is very little farming going on, if any, and people are starting to starve.

• Archives of Zultun Kulle
  

The archives have been sitting for hundreds of years undisturbed and still soaked in Zultun Kulle’s magic. Zultun Kulle is a new character, one of the original Horadrim founders.

We don’t learn much about him, other than he turned bad and was considered the most dangerous man in the world. The Horadrim, wizards and some other groups got together to kill him, but somehow he had gained immortality. In an attempt to keep him from coming back, they cut him in half, burying his head in one part of the desert and putting his body in an alternate dimension.

On the Diablo III lore panel, were Chris Metzen, Senior Vice President of Story and Franchise Development, Kevin Martens, Lead Content Designer, and Leonard Boyarsky, Senior World Designer.

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The map for Bethesda's Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was revealed this weekend at the Igromir gaming show in Moscow.

The map, handed out in Russian and originally uploaded onto elderscrolls.net, was translated into English and may not be exactly what we see in the actual game, but it is still very exciting to look at. There appear to be nine major cities, each marked by its own crest, as well as several smaller towns in between.

Skyrim is a very mountainous place, but even so, the map is fairly large. In addition to mountains, it also features rivers and lakes, as well as the Sea of Ghosts on its northern border.

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This morning on their twitter, BioWare revealed that Mass Effect 3 will have a multiplayer component.

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A lot more about it will be revealed on October 19th, when the Austrailian gaming magazine PC Power Play (http://www.pcpowerplay.com.au) releases its November Issue, but according to Eurogamer, the multiplayer is "an online enabled co-op mode that is standalone and features competitive elements."

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Hey guys!

I've compiled a list of PC games being released for the rest of this month. They are listed by release date, and tell you the price, what kind of game they are, whether or not it is available on steam, and if there is a website for the game I've listed that as well. The games listed at the end without a date are some that have an October release listed but no date that I could find to go with them.

In the future when I do these, they will be done before the beginning of the month so you have a better idea of what is coming out the next month.

Enjoy
Andraste



October 11th

Dragon Age 2: Mark of the Assassin - ($9.99)

Bioware; Electronic Arts

• Style: RPG
  
• Website: http://dragonage.bio...da2/addon/mota/
  

Sideway - ($9.99)

Sony Online Entertainment; Play Brains; Fuel Industries

• Style: Platformer
  
• Website: http://www.playbrains.com/sideway/
  

Cursed Crusade - ($39.99)

Atlus; Kylotonn

• Style: Action Adventure
  
• Website: http://www.thecursedcrusade.com/
  

Might and Magic Heroes VI - ($49.99)

Ubisoft; Blackhole Games

• Style: RPG
  
• Available on Steam
  
• Website: http://might-and-mag...s-6/en-GB/home/
  

Dead Rising 2: Off the Record - ($29.99)

CAPCOM; Blue Castle Games

• Style: Action Adventure
  
• Available on Steam
  
• Website: http://www.deadrising-2.com/
  

October 12th



Orcs Must Die - ($14.99)

Microsoft Game Studios; Robot Entertainment

• Style: Strategy
  
• Available on Steam
  
• Website: http://www.robotente...mes/orcsmustdie
  

October 14th



Renegade Ops - ($14.99)

SEGA

• Style: Action
  
• Available on Steam
  
• Website: http://www.sega.com/...s/renegade-ops/
  

Rugby Challenge - ($49.99)

Sidhe

• Style: Sports
  
• Available on Steam
  
• Website: http://rugbychallengegame.com/
  

October 16th



Skylander Spyro's Adventure - ($9.99)

Activision

• Style: Adventure
  
• Website: http://www.skylanders.com/
  

October 18th



Rocksmith - ($79.99)

Ubisoft

• Style: Music
  
• Website: http://rocksmith.ubi...ith/en-US/home/
  

The Sims 3: Pets - ($39.99)

Electronic Arts

• Style: Simulation
  
• Website: http://www.thesims3....o/pets/pets.htm
  

October 19th



Dungeon Defenders - ($14.99)

Trendy Entertainment

• Style: Action RPG; Tower Defence
  
• Available on Steam
  
• Website: http://dungeondefenders.com/
  

October 20th



Cities XL 2012 - ($39.99)

Focus Home Interactive

• Style: Simulation
  
• Available on Steam
  
• Website: http://www2.citiesxl...ex.php?rub=news
  

October 24th



The Haunted: Hell's Reach - ($19.99)

ValuSoft

• Style: Shooter
  
• Available on Steam
  
• Website: http://www.hells-reach.com/
  

October 25th



Stronghold 3 - ($49.99)

SouthPeak Games; FireFly Studios

• Style: Strategy
  
• Available on Steam
  
• Website: http://www.stronghold3.com/
  

Battlefield 3 - ($59.99)

Electronic Arts; DICE

• Style: Shooter
  
• Website: http://www.battlefie...om/battlefield3
  

Disney Universe - ($29.99)

Disney Interactive Studios

• Style: Action Adventure
  
• Website: http://disney.go.com...-universe/index
  

Heavy Fire: Afghanistan - ($19.99)

Mastiff

• Style: Shooter
  

October



Deus Ex: Human Revolution, The Missing Link DLC

Square Enix; Eidos Studios

• Style: Shooter
  
• Website: http://deusex.com/themissinglink
  

The Grinder

High Voltage Software

• Style: Shooter
  

Ignite - October 28th

Nemesys

• Style: Racing
  
• Available on Steam
  
• Website: http://www.nemesys.hu/Ignite
  

Grotesque Tactics 2

Silent Dreams

• Style: Strategy, RPG, Adventure
  
• Website: http://www.grotesque-game.de/
  

Football Manager 2012

Sega; Sports Interacvite Limited

• Style: Sports
  
• Website:http://www.footballmanager.com/
  

Payday: The Heist - ($19.99)

Sony Online Entertainment

• Style: Action
  
• Available on Steam
  
• Website: http://www.payday-th....com/enter.html
  

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Watch intense 64-player vehicle warfare - including jets - from the Battlefield 3 multiplayer map Caspian Border! This marks the premier of jet gameplay as played at GamesCom 2011. Caspian Border is a multi-faceted, vehicle heavy map that exemplifies classic Battlefield gameplay.

This game looks amazing, and thats coming from someone who is not a huge fan of the Battlefield series, maybe its the FrostBite 2 Engine that makes it more appealing to me.

Battlefield 3 is due for release for PC, PS3 and Xbox on 28/10/2011 and if you pre-order the digital download copy you get to play the game 48 hours before anyone else.

For more information about this game visit http://www.battlefie...uk/battlefield3

What do you guys think about this game, are you going to buy it or have you already pre-ordered it? I personally can't wait to get into one of those jets.

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It is set to be held at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas on November 18th and 19th and will coincide with the launch of Minecraft’s full release. @Notch made it a point to emphasize that this will NOT be the end of development for the game, stating:

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We’ll just go back home and keep working on Minecraft directly after MineCon, but it does represent a huge milestone where the game finally leaves beta, something we’d never been able to do without our fans, so it feels natural to celebrate it with them.

Tickets are on sale now! The early bird special has tickets costing $99 until September 30, with the regular price and onsite ticket prices set at $139.



MINECRAFTERS WILL ENJOY

• Official Minecraft launch
• Keynote speeches (including one by our very own Notch)
• Build contests
• Breakout classes with all different Minecraft topics
• Costume contests
• Exhibits by leading gaming and Minecraft related companies
• Meeting friends from around the world
• Commemorative merchandise

So what do you think about Minecon and will you be attending?

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Mojang have posted a a video showing pistons due to be released in the upcoming patch.

There is apparently 2 types of pistons one is normal and the other is sticky. A sticky piston is made by placing a slime-ball on top of a piston in the crafting window, and an image of how to make a normal piston is to the right.
Here is the video that demonstrates the new pistons:




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