Diablo 3 Beta Coming in Q3 2011

[radio667]

from g4tv.com ............... As we reported earlier (http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/712484/diablo-3-beta-dates-to-be-announced-today/) , Blizzard has just announced a few Diablo 3 beta details in their financial call: get ready to roam through Sanctuary later this year. According to Blizzard Co-Founder Mike Morhaime, Diablo 3 internal live testing began last week and players can expect a Q3 (October to December) launch for external beta testing. Morhaime also mentioned that Blizzard is trying to launch Diablo 3 this year, but Activision CFO Thomas Tippl said that they do not expect a new title to launch this year.

If past Blizzard beta testing is any idication, the Beta invites will selectively go out to those who sign up via Battle.net (http://us.battle.net/en/) on so be sure to do that sooner than later. Diablo 3 is the latest installment in Blizzard's fantasy action role playing game series and has been in development since 2001.

No comments were made regarding the console integration of Diablo 3.

As more Diablo 3 news flows in, we'll be sure to get it out for you as soon as possible. But let me just speak for everyone here when I say hell, it's about time.

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk123/ilovehonda2/diablo3.jpg

[Creeper]

w00t!

[Phanataz]

Hell just froze over.

[radio667]

LoL :D !!

[MadMikey]

Updated my beta preferences. :rockon:

[Kaotik]

Thats good news!

[Phanataz]

Woah, Radio..looks like you brought Kao back from the dead :P

[radio667]

By the power of D3 ;) !!!

[The_Stranger]

Never played Diablo, but I have enjoyed some games that were obvious Diablo clones (impulse buys when they were super cheap on Steam for a day ). Mayhaps I will have to finally get the original.

[Kaotik]

Woah, Radio..looks like you brought Kao back from the dead :P

Blizzard seems to revive me alot.

[MadMikey]

Installed DIII beta last night. Haven't had more than a few minutes to play. I'll let you know how it looks.

:D

[radio667]

Can't wait for the mad Review :D Woot !!

[MadMikey]

So I finished the beta. I've never played I or II, so I didn't know what to expect. I started off with a wizard, but wasn't really enjoying the game much. Then I started a barbarian and he was much more fun to play.

It probably took about 4 hours to see all of the content. I tried to explore every area thoroughly before moving to the next, killing everything along the way. While this helped to collect gold and items, it ultimately was just a time killer. After logging off and back in again, my maps were hidden as if I had never been there and all of the creatures respawned. I did get to keep all my loot, though. :)

Here are my thoughts:

I think the beta was too easy as a barbarian. I didn't die once. I was able to make my own gear that was actually useful to me at my current level (unlike WoW).
As a low-level barbarian (I finished the beta at level 10), the process was pretty much just smash everything. Little to no thought was required.
By level 10, I only have a few skills to work with so I couldn't really get a feel for how my character was going to grow.
The way the dungeons changed was nice. Clear a dungeon, log out and log back in again and it was a different dungeon with full respawns.
I watched my son play all the way through then played through myself and the dungeons were different.
I hoped that multiplayer (4-player co-op) would be like instances in WoW, but it was pretty much run as fast as you can and just spam-kill everything. There was no skill or strategy required. To say the least, it was quite boring. It didn't seem that multiplayer was any more difficult that single player.
Unlike WoW, you don't have all of your skills at your disposal. From your newly acquired skills, you have to select which you'll take with you. You can only change them out at certain locations. This may be important for specific battles/bosses in the future, but in the beta was pretty much meaningless.


It was definitely fun to play, but got kind of tedious toward the end. I'll definitely be playing through on the other classes to see if it becomes more challenging.

For multi-player, I'd like to see that putting together a well-balance party was required to be successful. Different strategies for different bosses would make it much more interesting. This was just ground and pound and I probably won't try it again until the next beta update.

Speaking of, after some beta updates, your characters start over. This has already happened to me once.

All in all, it was fun to play and I'll be buying this when it comes out.

[radio667]

Thank You for the review :) Mike !!

I might get this too .

[MadMikey]

Just played it through as a demon hunter and it required a little more care. I had to maintain resources (hatred and discipline). I started out trying to play the DH like a barbarian, but that didn't work. I did have to choose the timing of different skills a little more carefully.

This run only took about two hours as I just ran away from a lot of mobs to see how quickly I could get it done. When I killed the skeleton king, I was only level 7 but the XP from completing that quest leveled me up to eight.

I'll definitely be playing the other classes as well.

[radio667]

Diablo III Beta Patch Notes - Blizzard (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/3123246179)

You Rock :D Mike !!