The Diablo 4 June quarterly update dives into character design and art direction

An extensive overhaul with a focus on close-up detail.

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What you need to know

Blizzard Entertainment shared the latestquarterly updatefor its upcoming action-RPG,Diablo 4, on Wednesday. In this update, the team at Blizzard talked about using a physically-based rendering pipeline, ensuring that the different materials such as metal, leather and flesh all react to light properly. Notably, the asset quality is high enough that different cutscenes, such as thereveal trailerfor the Rogue, were all created in-engine.

There are also some new looks at character designs, such as for the big bad Lilith, as well as the playerSorceresscharacter.

Source: Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard is also providing customization options for player characters, such as your character’s face, hairstyle, facial hair, jewelry, makeup, and body markings such as tattoos or body paint. You can see some examples below.

Finally, there are some new animations, providing examples of what different monsters look like in motion. You can check out one of these videos below, featuring a disgusting foe called the Blood Bishop.

Diablo 4 isn’t set to be available this year, thought the upcomingDiablo 2: Resurrectedremaster is currently scheduled to be released on September 23, 2021.

Whenever Diablo 4 does arrive, it’ll be available on Xbox One, PC and PS4.Xbox Series X,Xbox Series SandPS5versions have not technically been confirmed yet but are all but guaranteed to be coming as well. For more on this ambitious upcoming title, you can take a look at ourBlizzConline 2021 interview, where Blizzard talked about PvP, cross-playand more.

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Legacy of evil

From the franchise’s simple beginnings to a glimpse of what is to come in Diablo 4, this book is perfect for any fans looking for the horrific inspirations and concept art that helped shape the games.

Samuel Tolbert is a freelance writer covering gaming news, previews, reviews, interviews and different aspects of the gaming industry, specifically focusing on Xbox and PC gaming on Windows Central. You can find him on Twitter@SamuelTolbert.