Diablo III Message Board older than one year ago

“WooooOOOoooo! Mystery… strange tomes, funny hand-writing… AND! CUE! FANTASY WORLD!”

An except from the script, there.(more…)

The big news from Blizzcon is starting to pour out of the holes in the internet, and the biggest news is that Diablo III is going to be free to annual World Of Warcraft subscribers. Signing up for the annual pass gets you Diablo III for nowt and new in-game mount for WoW, Tyrael’s Charger. And there we were thinking WoW subs were going to decline. Clever boys.

Check out VG247′s liveblog for loads more.

I am sorry, I’m feeling especially belligerent today. I’m just so cross that I’ve spent all morning waiting for Rage to download, because apparently it was impossible for us to have PC code ahead of release, even though other places were given it. THIS IS 2011 WHAT’S THE PROBLEM. Anyway! Half an hour to go, and in the meantime I’ve been drooling over the various loot I could potentially find in Diablo III when, if ever, it finally launches. Following on from their character build generator, Blizzard have released a visual database of most of the game’s weapons, armour and assorted toys. Or, at least, the base versions of said equipment – you’ll be upgrading them in all sorts of exciting ways via the in-game crafting system. Interesting stuff, as numbers and pictures of weapons go. Like all things Diablo III, you’ll need to be online to look at the database, of course.

My first port of call in the database was, of course, hats. I’ll be aiming for the Resplendent Stechhelm, I think.

It's time to think about a new mouse; Blizzard Entertainment has confirmed it's aiming to release Diablo III in early 2012.

I don't think anyone realistically expected Diablo III to arrive before the end of the year. The studio had admitted 2011 was in the realm of possibility but always said that was never a guarantee, and the idea of Blizzard taking a few more months to iron out the kinks is right in line with Blizzard tradition of "when it's done" or "as close to perfect as humanly possible."

You're right to be skeptical about today's news, but what makes the news more reliable is because it's been written down in a press release. Prior to today, Blizzard hasn't committed a specific release date range for the game in official form. That's not to say Diablo III couldn't slip past early 2012, however.

"With every game we make, the temptation is always very strong to launch as soon as possible. However, we didn't put so many years of work into Diablo III to release a game that was almost ready," said Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime in the press release.

On the plus side, Blizzard will be extending the beta test for an undetermined amount of time and "potentially adding more testers than initially projected."

Bad news, everyone: Diablo III won’t be gracing your hard drives this year, I’m afraid. Blizzard have announced their joyous but cruel hacker-slasher has slipped to early 2012. No real reason given, but Blizzbozz Mike Morhaime suggests it’s just a matter of wanting to put more dev time into D3. Could it be that the beta has turned up unexpected problems? Or that they’re using the extra time to include an offline mode? No, that’s just my wishful thinking speaking.

Morhaime quote below, anyway.(more…)

Diablo III‘s ‘always-on’ DRM is obviously a matter of much controversy, albeit a more nuanced one than that of Ubisoft. Where Ubisoft implemented the grotesque system purely as a claimed measure to fight piracy, Blizzard’s logic at least has some elements that offer benefits to the player. Battle.net, online ranking, drop-in-drop-out co-op, the auction house, and constant live monitoring of your progress, and monitoring to prevent cheating, can all be argued to be in the players’ favour, in a way that Settlers VII crashing its single player because the internet blipped does not. But it doesn’t make the problem go away, and I want to strongly argue that Blizzard reconsider their decision, in the face of its simply breaking their game. Because no matter how perfect your connection, it will affect you.

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The Diablo III closed beta has just begun, and we’re fortunate enough to have access to it. (Which is a shame, as I was supposed to be getting married on Saturday.) So I’ve of course put aside that silly plan of going to sleep and blitzed through the first couple of hours to bring you the very earliest of impressions of what’s on offer.

I’m writing this as someone who played Diablo 2 long ago, thoroughly enjoyed it, but never obsessed over it. And certainly only ever played solo. (Which may well describe my life after this weekend if I’m not careful.) Here I’m going to give you my initial reaction to playing the third game of the series, tonight.

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Jim: i am totally downloading it!John: I’m totally downloading it too!Jim: We are so cool.

Blizzard should be kicking off its Diablo III beta test any day now (it's currently in the "Friends & Family" phase, which is right before the floodgates open), but you're impatient, there's a solution.

The company has launched a "Skill Calculator" online, which basically allows you to start rolling a character ahead of actually having to spec one out in the game.

In essence, the addiction can start early. Way early. It's also incredibly mean, given the beta test hasn't started yet, though one could argue it will be even meaner for the players who never get into the beta.

If you haven't had a chance to look over the skill tree for Diablo III, now's a good time to brush up. If you haven't picked a class to jump into yet, here's an easy way to become familiar with the new ones.

Click.

With the Diablo III beta looming at last, Blizzard have flung open their heavily-defended wrought iron gates of informational doom -allowing an unfettered browse of the various skills and modifiers on offer in their forthcoming hacky-slashy opus. This comes by way of a extensive Skill Calculator, with which you can both try to devise the ideal character build for you, or simply explore the full delights of the game’s various abilities. And delights they are – if you’re expecting D3 to offer subtle, incremental ramping up of skills, as per WoW, you’re in for a treat. This, clearly, is a game that entirely embraces over-the-top, giganto-slaying.

THE NUMBERS. THE NUMBERS ARE SO BIG.(more…)