Please respect other members. Please do not post links or information about hacking/warez/cheats.
Read the rules of these forums as we rarely warn before banning. Lost or need RSS check the forum map.
Looking at the cinematics on you tube, I found this one interesting. It's 10 minutes of unused character speeches. From abandoned quests, bonus dialogues not used remarks, jokes, etc.
Seen the unused butcher cinematic?
Did you know there were versions of the ending cinematic for the rogue and sorcerer? They differ only in showing those chars screaming after stabbing in the soulstone.
Just goes to tell that the game was rushed. They probably left all those things because they didn't have time to remove them, wanted to patch them in or just show what they would've done if they had time. Sometimes we as fans don't remember that not everything in the previous games are born out of serious consideration but just the need to meet the deadline or coincidence. Hope they got enough time with Diablo III.
I don't think Diablo was rushed. They delayed the release date until after Christmas, if I recall, which is usually a marketing disaster.
Mostly it's just work that got created along the way and thrown out because it didn't fit or they didn't want to spend the time to make it fit. Just because extra sounds etc are there, doesn't mean they are useful or even good. In terms of not having time to remove them - that's exactly correct. Why bother removing 50 mbs of data off a CD that still has 200mb of free space on it? It's not going to hurt anyone, and in fact modmakers are grateful that it was left over. This is a bit sloppier than what you tend to see in games released nowadays, but I don't think it's anything that maligns the game or Blizzard North in any way.
As lanth said, there's a ton of stuff on the cds not used. Dozens of images and item graphics, especially in the inventory window. Lots of those for D2 also, which is odd when you look at how few graphics they had for things like jewelry, or charms. And several item types use the same graphics in the inv window D1. battle/long war bows, for instance.
That cow armor is used in Hellfire The Bovine Plate, what, lots of Defense, -30 to mana... ideal for Barbarians. As for the ending videos... The warrior is moved to Diablo II as The Dark Wanderer, so story-wise it makes more sense.
I think most people would be shocked at how much is taken out of every game before it is finished.
Making a well balanced game at times is throwing a bunch of ideas out there and see what sticks. Many are removed for balance issues, story, software issues that can not be gone around or outside of the engines abilities, and player confusion (this is a bigger issues then you might think).
Leaving these things in the data flies does give the maker an advantage for updates or addons if they so desire. With D1 they were just were never used.