How can you fairly rate a game that’s been in development for 12-years, but wasn’t forgotten once by its legions of hardcore fans? How can one be expected to cram over a decade’s worth of hype, hoopla and expecations into a single review?

Like this: Diablo III was well worth the wait.

That may seem like a bit of a rushed statement, but Blizzard’s long awaited sequel delivers in ways that not only satisfy its most hardcore fans but also manages to be remarkably accessible jumping on point for newcomers. It’s not perfect, and it’s bound to have its fair share of doubters — but Blizzard has created one of the most intense cooperative experiences that’s going to be tough to put down for quite some time — let’s just hope it’s not another twelve years.

Okay, let’s get it out of the way right off the bat — Diablo III requires a constant internet connection (yes, even during single player gaming) that all but crippled the game during its initial launch. It was immeasurably disappointing for a lot of gamers (and thus the reason this review is so late) to wait over a decade for the game to finally have it in their hands, only to be constantly stopped at the proverbial front door by the dreaded Error 37 message.

In the last week since the game’s release, Blizzard has been hard at work trying to fine tune the servers and while they’re not at 100% yet, they are notably better than what we initially saw. It’s not something that you should let stand in the way of playing Diablo III, but it is something you’re going to want to take note of before jumping in.

If you played Diablo II at all, the next chapter in the series is sure to be a familiar journey for you, as Blizzard has taken a definite “if it’s not broke — don’t fix it” stance with their long awaited title, choosing only to fine-tune select aspects of the game. For most, this is good news, as Diablo III plays, looks and sounds like a cleaned up version of what’s come before. Diablo III is a click happy dungeon crawler where you’ll spend hours on end looting, leveling and smashing stuff –and yes, it’s insanely addicting.

Still though, the improvements made by Blizzard fit in very well here. One of the biggest changes is just how streamlined the combat mechanics have become. Your primary and secondary attacks are mapped to the left and right mouse buttons respectively, and your 1-4 buttons are used for additional skills. It may seem like a small change, but it’s an increidbly accessible system, that is easy for those new to the game to jump in to. In truth, the entire Diablo III experience is streamlined to allow newer users a much easier jumping in point.

Don’t let that fool you though, Diablo III is still a very deep game. Of the five character classes (the Barbarain, the Monk. the demon hunter, the wizard and the Witch Doctor) all play uniquely and there’s a distinct learning curve to some of them — even if they often seem like rehashes of characters from previous games. Diablo III is as deep as you want it to be, as you can play through the game with little customization or dive deep in and fine tuning your character, which adds an incredible amount of depth and challenge to an already deep experience.

The main draw of Diablo III though, is just how much fun it is to log in with friends, or even complete strangers and hack and slash your way through the game. You can set your game to be public, allowing anyone to jump in or private in order to just play alone or with friends, but I was very surprised with just how much group chat was used. In almost every play session I was able to strategize and plan with fantastic players, each with different ideas on how we should be going about our quest. It was almost refreshing in a way, and gave the game a brand new feeling.

The Blast Factor: Diablo III is bound to have its doubters, and that’s to be expected after twelve years in development. Boiling the game down to its core mechanics and most basic principles though, there’s no way to deny it – -Diablo III is one hell of a good time. Not everything works, but the majority of it does — and splendidly so if you’ve got friends joining you in the process. But hey, you didn’t need any free time did you?

Fans have been waiting over 12 years for the release of Diablo III, and today they finally go their hands on Blizzard’s latest offering. The game not only set a Blizzard pre-order record of 2 million copies and became Amazon’s most pre-ordered PC game of all time, but just last night, over 8,000 midnight launch events were held across the country.

“This launch is a culmination of many years of hard work by our development team, and many years of passionate, dedicated support from gamers around the world,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We’re grateful for the enthusiasm of our players, and for the help of our beta testers in getting the game ready for release. Now that Diablo III is live, we hope everyone’s ready to have a hellishly good time slaying demons and collecting loot in Sanctuary.”

But before you relish in the hellishly new adventures you’ll be playing through in Diablo III, be aware that the game does come with a few bugs, and one in particular may lock you out of your game.

Here’s a list of the currently known bugs and errors players have experienced in the game and possible solutions. Blizzard is looking into correcting all these errors, but in the meantime, be careful who you trade with!

Error 37
This error indicates that the Diablo III server is full and is likely the result of high login traffic. If you receive this error message, please wait and try again.

Error 3005 and 3006 (time outs)
If you receive either of these messages while playing, please wait and try again.

Error 3006 (affects Demon Hunters)
When playing a Demon Hunter, giving a shield to your Templar before you kill Jondar and hire him can disconnect you from Battle.net and give you an Error 3006. Blizzard is working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible and may address it via hotfix.

Error 14009 and 315300
If you are experiencing either of these issues and are using Windows, create a new user account with administration powers (http://www.wintuts.com/Manage-User-Accounts). From there, log into Diablo III.

Grayed-Out Login Button
Please make sure that you are using your Battle.net email address and password to log in to the game. Do not attempt to log in with your BattleTag.

Character Creation Issues
While most of the character creation issues have been resolved, it’s possible that if you attempted to create characters previously and did not log out, you may have actually maxed out your character list with “invisible” characters. If you are still receiving an error creating new characters, log out and log back in and then check your character list.

Hell is about to break loose yet again as the action RPG, Diablo 3, brings evil back  when it launches May 15. Need the lowdown on this game? We’ve got veterans and newbies covered — here’s a rundown of what’s new, what’s still the same, and why the threequel is well worth the $60  price.

What’s New

• Online Required. Yes, you need to be connected to the Internet to play the game, even for single- player campaigns. If you have a slow or intermittent connection, then it might be time to consider an upgrade before running Diablo 3.
• Five distinct classes. You can choose between the Barbarian, Demon Hunter, Monk, Witch Doctor or Wizard. To sum up their playstyles — the Barbarian and Monk are close combat specialists, the Demon Hunter is a marksman and trap expert, while the Witch Doctor and Wizard are squishy but devastating
  casters. Each class uses a different resource (no longer Mana for everyone), wears three class-specific equipment, and has a distinct storyline.
• More convenient loot runs. Diablo 3 is an addictive item collection game. Hundreds of hours are spent killing demons to collect rare weapons and equipment, but this time Blizzard has made hauling back loot easier and more convenient.
• Bye Deckard Cain, hello Leah. You’ve seen the trailers. Deckard Cain is presumed dead when a falling star crashes into his home. Her niece Leah takes up his mantle as your trusty lore guide. So what will happen to our unidentified items? This function has been integrated into the inventory system, so no
  need to worry on how the Last Horadrim’s exit will affect your gameplay.
• Crafting. Aside from item looting, Diablo 3 now allows full-blown item crafting. Basically, the junk items you loot can be salvaged and used to make new items via special artisan NPCs — the blacksmith for weapons, armor and accessories; and the jeweler for gem sockets and upgrades.
• Auction house. Diablo 2 players know how rampant third-party buying for gear and runes became in the game. Time-starved players simply didn’t have time to farm the best items, so they instead bought them via the shady gray market. Blizzard changes all that with a new legit auction house system
  that allows players to buy and sell loot between each other. Of course, Blizzard takes a small cut in all transactions.
• Inferno difficulty. For the truly hardcore, Inferno offers a difficulty mode like no other. It’s the ultimate challenge after Normal, Nightmare and Hell modes, with mobs and bosses set at a higher level than you.

What’s Still the Same

• Hack-and-slash grind. Diablo 3 is setting up to be the same — if not more — of a time sink than its predecessors. If you’re looking for a game that can be completed in a weekend, or something that offers a variety of gameplay, then move on because Diablo 3 is anything but those.
• Dark, mature setting. No watered down kiddy themes here. Diablo 3 continues with the twisted and often blood-spattered premise of a world besieged by demons. The situation in Sanctuary grows even more dire and desperate, with your hero only one of the few standing between humanity’s survival and its annihilation.

Why It’s Worth It

• Campaign longevity and re-play value. Diablo 3 will keep you entertained for years to come. Its content is single-player campaigns are sprawling and easily take up 100 hours per class, and that’s not even scratching the higher difficulty modes, team play and PvP arena play.
• Bigger, badder bosses. Screen-wide behemoths will appear more often, making fights feel and look more epic.
• Explore the greater Sanctuary. The first two Diablo games only showed us a sliver of Sanctuary, and restricted us to a handful of locales. Diablo 3 opens up the world to the lands only hinted at before, from the wizard homeland of Xiansai to the lost city of Ureh.
• Star-studded heaven and hell cast. Call us fanboys, but the confirmation that Archangel Imperius and Diablo will both appear in-game has us pumped. Developers also said that plenty of new characters will be introduced, obviously to address criticism that only a handful of characters really stand out in the franchise (as compared to other Blizzard titles like World of Warcraft and StarCraft).

We hope this overview gives you a rough idea of what to expect in Diablo 3. Do you have anything to add? Chime in at the comments. Our Diablo 3 review will be coming out very soon, and we won’t be pulling any punches.

Blizzard Entertainment, the folks behind the hugely popular Warcraft and Diablo franchises, announced today that it has banned over 320,000 naughty cheaters from Warcraft III and Diablo II.

“We’ve recently banned over 320,000 Warcraft III and Diablo II accounts that were found to be violating the Battle.net Terms of Use,” said Blizzard on company forums. “If this is a first offence, the CD key associated with the banned account will be suspended for 30 days, while repeat offenders will see their keys banned permanently. All account ban decisions are final.

“We would like all players to remember that abuse of unintended mechanics and/or use of third party programs is a violation of the agreement made when signing on to Battle.net, and can subject your account to disciplinary action up to and including a permanent ban of its access to the service.”

If you’re affected by this we don’t feel entirely bad for you, because you cheated in some manner.

Source: Blizzard

BlizzCon 2009 is officially happening.‚  The fourth annual convention for all things Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center, August 21^st and 22^nd.

This year’s BlizzCon will be bigger and better than ever before.‚  Due to a high forecast of attendees, floor space will expand from three convention halls to four.‚  That’s an entire extra hall for you and your raiding pals to soak in Blizzard’s latest offerings.

Blizzard has been known to keep secrets, but when they’re ready to divulge, BlizzCon is usually where it happens.‚  Who knows, maybe we’ll finally get a glimpse at the World of Warcraft movie fanboys have been screaming for, or perhaps, their next non-World of Warcraft MMO.‚  One thing is for sure, whatever coveted secret Blizzard decides to unveil will blow our minds.

Mike Morhaime, CEO and founder of Blizzard Entertainment says,

“We’ve been amazed by the incredible response to each of our previous BlizzCon events,” and that‚  “We’re pleased to be bringing the convention back to Anaheim this year, and we look forward to this new opportunity to meet Blizzard gamers from around the world.”

And why shouldn’t he be. ‚ With hands on time with pre-release titles, discussion panels with Blizzard developers, competitive and casual tournaments for attendees, great prizes, commemorative merchandise based on the Blizzard universe, and a silent auction, this year’s BlizzCon looks to be aiming for new heights.

Keep an eye on the BlizzCon 2009 official site for further details regarding ticket availability and pricing.

About Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

Best known for blockbuster hits including World of Warcraft^(R) and the Warcraft^(R), StarCraft^(R), and Diablo^(R) series, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (www.blizzard.com), a division of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI), is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment software renowned for creating some of the industry’s most critically acclaimed games. Blizzard Entertainment’s track record includes eleven #1-selling games and multiple Game of the Year awards. The company’s online-gaming service, Battle.net^(R), is one of the largest in the world, with millions of active users.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements: Information in this press release that involves Blizzard Entertainment’s expectations, plans, intentions or strategies regarding the future are forward-looking statements that are not facts and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Blizzard Entertainment generally uses words such as “outlook,” “will,” “could,” “would,” “might,” “remains,” “to be,” “plans,” “believes,” “may,” “expects,” “intends,” “anticipates,” “estimate,” future,” “plan,” “positioned,” “potential,” “project,” “remain,” “scheduled,” “set to,” “subject to,” “upcoming” and similar expressions to help identify forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause Blizzard Entertainment’s actual future results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements set forth in this release include, but are not limited to, sales levels of Blizzard Entertainment’s titles, shifts in consumer spending trends, the impact of the current macroeconomic environment, the seasonal and cyclical nature of the interactive game market, Blizzard Entertainment’s ability to predict consumer preferences among competing hardware platforms (including next-generation hardware), declines in software pricing, product returns and price protection, product delays, retail acceptance of Blizzard Entertainment’s products, adoption rate and availability of new hardware and related software, industry competition, rapid changes in technology and industry standards, protection of proprietary rights, litigation against Blizzard Entertainment, maintenance of relationships with key personnel, customers, vendors and third-party developers, domestic and international economic, financial and political conditions and policies, foreign exchange rates, integration of recent acquisitions and the identification of suitable future acquisition opportunities, Activision Blizzard’s success in integrating the operations of Activision Publishing and Vivendi Games in a timely manner, or at all, and the combined company’s ability to realize the anticipated benefits and synergies of the transaction to the extent, or in the timeframe, anticipated, and the other factors identified in Activision Blizzard’s most recent annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. The forward-looking statements in this release are based upon information available to Blizzard Entertainment and Activision Blizzard as of the date of this release, and neither Blizzard Entertainment nor Activision Blizzard assumes any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements believed to be true when made may ultimately prove to be incorrect. These statements are not guarantees of the future performance of Blizzard Entertainment or Activision Blizzard and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond its control and may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations.