Diablo 3 Beta Details Arriving Soon?
There's talk that details surrounding the reported Diablo 3 "external beta" will be revealed to the public on August 1st. The news arrives after Blizzard quietly distributed an invitation to a special Diablo 3 press event at their campus in Irvine, California just days prior on July 27.
Although details weren't provided, G4 believes that the Diablo 3 press briefing will cover unannounced features, additional details in regards to the game's world, possibly a full disclosure on a bonus class called the Banker, and of course the Diablo 3 beta. The August 1 date attached to the Diablo 3 beta stems from the press event's required embargo which is coincidentally August 1.. and also falls within Q3 2011, the same timeframe the beta is expected to launch.
But MTV's Multiplayer claims that the Diablo 3 press event will actually be dedicated to the upcoming beta. "Since the event is dedicated solely to the "Diablo 3" beta, we expect to learn some of the more pertinent details about its release, including the release date, contents and how folks will be able to register to participate," the site reports.
MTV Multiplayer also points out that launching the beta next month before the press event wouldn't make sense, as gamers would get the scoop before the invited members of the press got their exclusive teste. Thus, Diablo 3 fans will likely not see the beta until August 1 or sometime shortly thereafter.
The Diablo 3 beta was first revealed during Activision's first quarter investor call last month. Blizzard president and a co-founder Mike Morhaime even admitted that the Diablo 3 team was conducting a company-wide test of the product and planned to unleash an external beta to the gaming public in Q3 2011.
"The game is looking great and we are currently targeting a Q3 launch for external beta testing," he said. "The development team is working hard to try to launch 'Diablo 3' this year, but I want to be clear. We do not have an official release date or window yet."
Given that BlizzCon 2011 doesn't take place until the end of October, launching the beta during the show wouldn't give Blizzard ample time to test the game publicly if it plans to go gold before the end of the year. But as Morhaime said, the game will be done when it's done. That said, all the rumors and speculations surrounding the Diablo 3 beta will remain just that until details are officially revealed on August 1.
In the meantime, go play Dungeon Siege 3 which is available now for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and the franchise's home territory, Windows PC.
All my friends have indicated their interest of the game too, it will be a great title to social with my friends.
Not to mention the crappy 2007 graphics! I'm crossing my fingers that the images/video they've displayed in the past were just made overnight to show gameplay.
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/dungeon-siege-iii
Just save your dimes for Diablo 3!
What!?!?!?! God no! This game is nothing like Dungeon Siege 1 or II, or Diablo for that matter. You need a gamepad to play it properly. It's more like Gauntlet Dark Legacy with deeper RPG elements.
What the hell does that have to do with diablo 3? It's not even the same type of game?
There really is enough advertising on your website you don't need to slip more, as actual text, into the news articles those stupid mouse over blue texts are bad enough.
Wow did I loose a month somewhere?
I think not, I will stick to playing "The Witcher 2"
I hear you on that. I don't remember when we saw the 1st gameplay footage and graphics of the game, but I certainly hope that once they have all of the gameplay elements smoothed out, they might go back and update their graphics a bit. I fear though that the game will be released using the graphics engine that Diablo III was originally designed on.
Maybe you guys remember, that of the things that upset many of the fans of the Diablo/Diablo II games was that the new artwork in the upcoming Diablo III just looked too cartoony and cheery. (the fact that they've gone WoW on it with idiotic block-like polygonal graphics doesn't help its situation much)
People went so far as to start a petition for a "Renewed artistic direction for Diablo 3" which I just checked has 63,937 signatures.
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?d3art
I have to say that this is indeed one of the things that worries me the most too, is that they'll go nuts with auras an lighting/particle effects, and that it will somehow be so distracting as to detract from the core "feel" of gameplay.
I'm not going to hold my breath that Activision/Blizzard will actually listen to these petitions, but I do remember the first time my buddy and I played the original Diablo. There was a very particular feeling about it, and at times it was even creepy, especially combined with MAtt Ulemen's awesome original music.
I'll buy the game no matter what, but I fear that I'll end up disappointed in the style of the "art" of the graphics.
Blizzard is good though about making sure that their games run on computers of a wide range of graphics capabilities.
Whatever....... Go Diablo III !!!
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Dungeon-Siege-3-PC-Gaming-keyboard-controls-Nathaniel-Chapman-action-rpg,12994.html
do they also promise to fix the @$%&ed multiplayer? i see no promise of that
I started the diablo series when I was about 4 and now that I'm 23... I guess I'm hoping it will blow me away, but from the trailers I can't help but ask for more than just a hack and slash rpg. With games like Sacred, I really wanted to love, but I just couldn't
u mad bro?
My favorite time was me and two friends. Didn't even know their real names, but we hacked and slashed Diablo and the Cow King endlessly for their loot. Three Hammerdins, each running a different aura. Nothing could withstand our wall of hammers.
I'm perfectly fine with the graphics of D2, under the condition it is just as fun as D2.
640x480 (800x640 with LOD) capped resolution is unbearable on a 23" 2048x1152 monitor though. My Motorola ATRIX phone runs 960x540, and can output 1920x1080 via HDMI out in webtop mode (which is awesome).
Please, unlocked and custom resolutions Blizzard.