Blizzard Reveals Official Diablo 3 Global Launch Events
Blizzard's official Diablo 3 party will be at the Irvine Spectrum Mall, located in Irvine, California.
Blizzard unsurprisingly plans to kick off Diablo 3 with a bang around the world by hosting launch events on the eve of the game's release.
The company said on Wednesday that on the night of May 14, key retail partners in the U.S., UK, France, Germany, Sweden, Poland, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, and the region of Taiwan will welcome gamers who want to be among the first to purchase the upcoming PC game. Naturally specific times are up to the retailers who are actually willing to open their doors around midnight.
Here in the States, the official launch event will be hosted by Blizzard and GameStop in the Great Wheel Court of the Irvine Spectrum Mall, located in Irvine, California. The "festivities" will start at 8:00pm PDT on May 14 and include multiple giveaways, entertainment, and contests offering exclusive Diablo 3-themed prizes including laser-etched desktop PCs from Intel. The team will also be on hand to meet with players and to sign physical copies of the game.
Available at launch will be the Standard Edition of Diablo 3 which will have a suggested retail price of $59.99, and the Collector's Edition which will be priced at $99.99. The latter version will include the game along with the following goodies:
* Exclusive aesthetic artifacts for Diablo 3, as well as an exclusive World of Warcraft in-game fetish shaman pet and exclusive StarCraft 2 Battle.net portraits and army decal
* A behind-the-scenes Blu-ray/DVD two-disc set with over an hour of interviews detailing how the world of Sanctuary came together
* The Art of Diablo 3, a 208-page art book that catalogues numerous pieces of Diablo 3 art, from early concepts to final 3D renderings
* The official Diablo 3 soundtrack CD, containing 24 original pieces from the game
* A 4 GB USB soulstone, preloaded with full versions of Diablo 2 and Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction, and corresponding Diablo skull base
"In addition to the official US launch event, other retail locations around the country will open at midnight to support gamers looking to pick up their copy of the game the moment it goes live," Blizzard said on Wednesday. "Please check with your local retailers for further details."
World of Warcraft junkies wanting to get their hands on Diablo 3 without shelling out an additional $60 can join the more than 1 million players who have already signed up for the World of Warcraft Annual Pass. Through this promotion, with a 1-year commitment to World of Warcraft, players will receive a free digital copy of Diablo 3 -- which they'll be able to start playing immediately on May 15 -- as well as an exclusive World of Warcraft in-game mount and access to the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria beta test.
This offer will no longer be available as of 12:01 a.m. PDT on May 1, the company said.
Just like StarCraft 2, we expect to see GameStop and other retailers open their doors just before midnight in anticipation of selling all their copes of Diablo 3 at the stroke of midnight, especially the tasty Collector's Edition. As Blizzard stated, check your local favorite retailer for launch details.
God bless America and our internet monopolies (at&t) for their third world like service.
No money from me blizzard
God bless America and our internet monopolies (at&t) for their third world like service.
Spending real life money for virtual stuff does seem dumb to me however. But seeing as its not a requirement I don't have an issue. I'm sure we'll be able to play the game and never once go to the auction house if you so choose. To not buy it for that reason is kinda dumb as well.
No lan play, new classes, or different game play from Diablo 2 is what could hold me back. And the only one I'm really worried about is different game play.
How is starcraft 2 a disappointment/bad successor? I would love to know, because I think is a great game and squeal, and it brought more people into the starcraft community, no more under ground bw communitys that are hard to find (apart from team liquid and what not.)
And how is MoP a bad successor? Its not even close to coming out yet
Played the beta weekend and i can't wait to play it. Playing with mates on skype, can't really beat it.
I was worried about the online play, having to start at different points and such. but you can join at quest points rather than just enter a world so it's easy to play with mates.
It's the same hack n slash that got even simpler as you get into action quickly but the quality of the gameplay is so good I'm dumbfounded.
Those games suck really bad or are 5 years old. smh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hios-L3Lrk0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcmNy-wO6ZY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8g7Hk3roQ8
Losing the Internet connection may not be a huge problem after all. The guy who recorded these videos played the entire beta with each of the 5 classes, total 6 hours. I watched them all, and he only lost the connection once.
In Diablo 2 I made some 20+ accounts all filled with different builds. In Diablo 3 I will only need about 10 characters so may not be very re-playable. Maybe blizzard will make some good changes early on. At least I'm hoping they do. This top down view old style game needs all the advantages possible.
This is exactly what they did, and they pretty much stated that as a fact. Their goal was to allow players to build any character they want and use any skills they want and still be effective to try to minimize the min-max builds. The fact that you had to follow exact guidelines to build your character in D2 or else it is a failure in Hell is what they are trying to avoid. There are upsides and downsides to this. If you think about it, they didn't really dumb down the game, they made it more complicated, because now you have different builds for each character type that could be relevant and certain items with specific stat bonuses on each that would be required to max your characters potential. They essentially took 5 'classes' and made an infinite amount of possibilities out of them.
Now I am sure there will be some builds that are more effective then others, and those will be fleshed out, probably within the first week, but I think the attempt to diversify the classes is a noble goal in development. It was annoying to see nothing but firewall/blizzard sorcs, hammerdin pallys, and whirlwind/shout barbs and nothing else.
Now I am sure there will be some builds that are more effective then others, and those will be fleshed out, probably within the first week, but I think the attempt to diversify the classes is a noble goal in development. It was annoying to see nothing but firewall/blizzard sorcs, hammerdin pallys, and whirlwind/shout barbs and nothing else.
True, I remember WW barbs then Frenzy then what ever at each patch, so with so many people playing and with Youtube you can find an OP built very fast, I can even say those starter kit testers like me have already found one or another build to make it in inferno and beat the game in one day.
I never followed guides as they were for noobs. Most all my builds were great in hell. This is what made the game better than others that always had limited gimped balanced skills to save time. They took 5 classes and allow unlimited respect making only 5 possible builds. Diablo 2 had thousands of great builds. The one I really like was the barb druid using the helm for over 10k health. Even this build had several great alterations. Diablo 2 is the only one with anywhere near infinite possible builds. This was the reason it was unchallenged as the top game for near 5 years.
Diablo 3 will have one best build for each class and everyone of that class will has that exact same build. I guess you forgot the static sorc, fireball sorc, necro exploiders, plague/chain lighting zone, barb druid, zallyadin, shockadin, and ect. The three I could take down the ubers with was the hammerdin, zallyadin, and my 10k barb/druid. Firewall sorcs were never good and when they did do decent damage no one would let you in a group for the lag it caused.