Diablo Watch

Now that E3 is in the past, what made us think Diablo 3 will premiere at E3? Wishful thinking? Crazy fan art?

I’d say it’s our business savvy. Come on, Blizzard, listen to your local customers.

• We’ll buy Diablo 3 for $69!

• We’ll shell out $99 for a Diablo 3 Collector’s Edition.

• We’ll also buy all kinds of figurines and don’t forget all the books we’ll buy.

I’m putting a $100 bid for the first Diablo sorceress you make (make it like a little Barbie doll!).

An often overlooked aspect of Diablo (the original one) was that it got a huge following that spawned a ton of user-generated content. Jarulf did an amazing Diablo guide in the most laborious way possible - arming weapons and swinging them at enemies for hundreds of times.

When Diablo Hellfire came out a year later, he kept at it, expanding the information through and through. An amazing effort. I’ve put up my own site about Diablo 2, so I can tell that the amount of effort that went into this guide was simply beyond anything I could do.

If you’re a real Diablo fan, this guide will probably bring a tear (or two) to your eye: Jarulf’s Diablo and Hellfire guide. If you need a Diablo 2 guide, you should visit this Diablo 2 website. There’s plenty of Diablo 2 downloads as well: Diablo 2 cheats, saves, maphacks, item editors, runeword recipes, etc.

I was going through Ebay looking for some Diablo 2 items for my sorceress. All of a sudden, I hit the following item - a Blizzon ticket that includes a beta key for an “undisclosed” Blizzard game.

Now, without getting all psyched… this could very well be for the WOW expansion.

Yet, a few bloggers have been swearing it could be Diablo 3. Looking at the news we’ve been getting recently - Diablo 3 is still in the making. After all, Blizzard recently recruited an art director to work on it.

On the other hand, I remember I got several Diablo 2 cd keys during the closed beta which was quite a few months before the game was released. We’ll see what happens at the Blizzcon.

Bill Roper, the producer behind Diablo and Diablo II, has been working hard on a game called Hellgate: London. Obviously, the game has some relation to Diablo. There have been rumors that the team left when the management at Blizzard felt that their version of Diablo 3 is not “fun”.

Since the team has left, Blizzard have been recruiting new people to join “the team behind Diablo I and Diablo II” for “an unannounced PC project.” There were positions posted in February for an art director and a team of designers.

Hellgate: London has been in development for some time as well and this is probably putting some pressure on Blizzard to hurry up with their Diablo 3. Otherwise Bill Roper will get it all.

Note: If you need a Diablo 2 guide, you should visit this Diablo 2 website. There’s plenty of  Diablo 2 downloads as well: Diablo 2 cheats, saves, maphacks, item editors, runeword recipes, etc.