So we're all pumped for Diablo III, right? That's great and all, but I noticed something curious in a few of the screenshots. I'm no "graphics ho", but take a look at the following screenshot:

http://us.blizzard.com/diablo3/_images/screenshots/ss109-hires.jpg

My, that's some seriously low poly stuff for such a high-budget, seriously anticipated game. Let's take a look at the Monk in the above picture up close:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/234933/Pics/hugemonk.jpg

No doubt highly distorted, I know, but there's clearly a gap in quality here. The question is - why? To compensate for low-end systems? Perhaps - but I'd wager that the amount of people that would pass this game up because of "crappy graphics" is significantly greater than the amount of people with lower-end systems that would be opened to Diablo III due to the current apparent specifications.

But, hold on. Just for kicks, let's compare Monk to a character from Hudson Soft's "Dungeon Explorer" for the PSP:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/234933/Pics/monkchick.JPG

Eerily similar, no? Both suffer from different levels of scaling here, but we can tell that the overall level of detail is the same. There is only one logical explanation for this - The "Diablo III" that we've been shown is actually a heavily up-scaled version of Diablo III's PSP port! I cannot tell you why Blizzard choose to port to the PSP specifically.

What about the playable demos? Easy - emulators. Faced with the opportunity to receive a full-scale Blizzard title on their platform, Sony was eager to give Blizzard the technology.

So then, what of Diablo III's true form? The truth is, again, available for all to see:

"It's gonna be Unreal!"
-Somebody on the Diablo III team at some point in time

Crafted in full using Unreal Engine 3, no doubt.

I rest my case.

I realize the zooming in of screenshots was ultimately necessary for the "it runs on a PSP" punchline but you can get a better view of the actual characters from their class pages: http://us.blizzard.com/diablo3/characters/monk.xml

Also so many people reeled in here. You're making me sad guys. Read the whole post.

Locked for successful trolling.