Monday 31 May 1999

Information Gallery Updated - Flux [5:18pm pst]

A slow news weekend, so to give you some actual content to look over, we've made an update to the Information Gallery main page.  Revisiting an old and controversial screenshot with new information, we have reached some new conclusions.  You can check out the text, animation, and pretty pictures here.  Thanks to Fester for noticing the old shot in the archives and promptinge to m do a feature about it.

Sunday 30 May 1999

Blizzard Fansite Interview - Flux [5:11pm pst]

As we announced a few days ago, DiabloII.Net was randomly selected to perform this month's Diablo II Fansite Interview.   The deadline for submitting your sample questions for us to ask was last night at midnight, so please don't send anymore, as we have tons already.  Literally hundreds of people sent in emails with an average of three or four questions each, so obviously we have plenty of ammunition for the interview now, and we have been sifting through them all day.  We will be sending off our ten finalists later today, and hopefully Blizzard (Bill Roper) will have time to bang out some elucidating answers, so look for the article to be posted later this week.  We'll have full discussion of the interview, as well as a feature where we answer lots of the questions we received, as quite a few people asked about lesser-known but already confirmed features.

More on Diablo II From E3 - Flux [6:36am pst]

For the last couple of weeks, swollen as we were with E3 news, we choose not to post about every new report or preview or article about Diablo II at E3, just because it would have been real spammy on this page, and most of the little ones weren't adding anything in terms of new info.  So a lot of them (the move average ones) went directly into Ticky without any comment being made here.  Well, with the news slower now, at least this weekend, here's a "new" D2 at E3 article for your reading pleasure.  The tip comes courtesy of Righdon [HKW], and in his words, "Doesn't seem to be badly written but also doesn't provide anything in the way of new info."  And of course that sums up most every D2 article we see on gaming sites these days.  Well, half of it at least. ;)

Elsewhere, there is a quick news item on The Vault Network that you can read here.  It's an excerpt from a sort of diary of E3 by Brad Wardell of developer Stardock, and he has a few comments about Diablo II.  A sample:

And speaking of Blizzard another big winner at the show was Blizzard with Diablo II. D2 is actually much more impressive than I thought it would be thanks to one of their developers getting the bright idea to use some of the Direct3D features and making the world look a lot more 3D..."

Anything off with that remark?   To quote Righdon, since he was kind enough to send in the news with clever comments included, "Of course the irony in the above quote is that Blizz is not supporting the Direct 3D API in D2. In any case we know what he means although he may not be technically correct (unless I'm way off in my understanding of the issue)."

So don't feel so alone if you are one of the many who don't have any idea which sort of 3D chip set does what, even industry insiders get confused from time to time.

Diablo II on Game Spot TV - Flux [6:26am pst]

We reported earlier this week that there would be some coverage of the Diablo II on this weekend's Game Spot TV.  Well, several people have seen the show so far, and apparently there was nothing mentioned about Diablo II at all.  You can see some more info about this in a post in our forum by Righdon, but it looks like the GS TV show we had been promised was not at all what was aired.  So either the interviews with David Brevik and Bill Roper either got edited out, or perhaps they will appear on next week's show.  So if you missed it, don't cry yourself to sleep.

New Fan Fiction - Flux [6:11am pst]

Our newsletter co-editor, Rexx Laww, has parts 1-4 of his new story, A Brother's Revenge up today.  They join a number of other interesting works of fan fiction on our hosted site, The Dark Library.  You can see all the excellent submissions on the stories page there.

Saturday 29 May 1999

Player Matchups - Elly [12:15pm pst]

What do Israel, Spain and Philippines have in common? Well, they are the latest countries to find their way into the Player Matchup section along with a stack of new personal profiles. The 'Classified' ticker provides a small selection of the latest additions to the section. In addition, most countries have new profiles, which are indicated with a 'N,’ while updated profiles are annotated with a 'U'.

NewsForge - Elly [11:20am pst]

Gaile and Rexx are just putting the finishing touches to the latest NewsForge ready for dispatch this weekend.  If you have not yet subscribed you can do so by clicking me.  Please note that if you have already sent in your email address there is no need to re-subscribe.

Friday 28 May 1999

Diablo II at 1024x768? - Flux [3:22pm pst]

We had heard in the past that Diablo II would be playable in two screen resolution sizes, at 800x600 or the more common 640x480.  However today Juju of Diablo II France sends word of a new article in the French Magazine Joystick (a gaming mag I hope/assume ;) that was published after E3, and it states that Diablo II will work at 1024x768 as well.  Good news indeed for those of us wuth larger monitors running at higher resolutions, however as this "fact" has never been stated before, we are somewhat dubious at this time, and are seeking confirmation from Blizzard.

Wednesday 26 May 1999

Official Posts - Elly [10:20pm pst]

A couple of posts over on Blizzard's War Room forum today which are of particular interest.  We've seen over the past weeks Blizzard's front page gradually alter in design to reflect a Diablo II theme and it seems it won't be stopping there.  Shlonglor confirmed some larger plans today:

"This is the look that will remain until the new site design goes up this year although we make change it a little here and there.

Warblade just added a Diablo II watermark to the graphic because there was some confusion as to what the cinematic shot on the main page is about. For your info, all those shots will be from the Diablo II cinematics, those shown at E3 and those that will be in the game. GFraiser, Web Designer."

If you've been experiencing some problems downloading from Blizzard's FTP site recently this post, also from Shlonglor, will shed some light on the matter:

"The FTP server is being upgraded so downloading might be difficult until all of the files are updated on the site."

Composers Score Key Success - Gaile [9:45pm pst]

Good news for those of us who care deeply about game music (and surely that  means *all* of us, right?)! In a huge leap forward into the 21st Century, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences announced today that the Year 2000 Grammys will, for the first time, allow music from interactive games to compete in the annual competition in both the "Best Soundtrack" and "Best Song" categories.

Best part is the higher profile this will give excellent composers like Blizzard’s Matt Uelmen. But we all stand to gain: It’s possible in future we’ll see more game music CD’s, bigger music budgets, and more mainstream musicians - even major bands - involved in the whole game music scene. Catch the article on The Adrenaline Vault and cross your fingers when the nominations come out that we see Diablo II in the list. :-)

Many thanks to Righdon[HKW] for the nudge on this.

Calling all Questions - Elly [4:30pm pst]

We are very pleased to announced that Blizzard has chosen DiabloII.Net for the June Diablo II FanSite Interview.  Yes, that's all very jolly but what does it mean for you?  Well it means you get to sling on your thinking cap and send us your questions.  Be warned though we have our own list already but we would like to consider yours also and pick what appear to be the best and most popular questions.

I'd like to point you in the direction of our Uber E3 Report also as it's busting at the seams with the latest information and will help ensure you don't ask questions already answered.  You can either email us with your questions or use this form here.  We can only take questions submitted before midnight [PST] this Saturday, 29th May so chop chop.

Diablo II Minimum Specs - Flux [4:22pm pst]

There has been a lot of debate in our forum, and also questions asked in emails, recent about the specs of the machines that were running the Diablo II demo at E3, and what that means for the home user and the final game.  Blizzard has said the goal is to get Diablo II to run perfectly smoothly on a P166 with 64 RAM and a 3D card.   Which means probably a P200 if you do not have a 3D card.  Also, the machines it was running on at E3 were PII 350's, with 64 RAM and 3D cards.  But that was a far from final, unoptimized version of the game.  So what will the minimum requirements be?  Well, that's yet to be determined, but keep in mind that a machine that will run the game very smoothly is a lot faster than one that will run it at all.  Elrohir, posting in our forum in distress that his machine was not going to cut it, had his prayers answered by none other than Erich Schaefer, Blzzard North VP and head of half of the Diablo II design team.   Erich pronounced elrohir's machine up to snuff, so check out the posts in the forum on this topic ifyou are wondering about it yourself.

Diablo II on TV - Flux [12:05pm pst]

This weekend, Gamespot TV will be airing interviews they conducted with Bill Roper and David Brevik at E3, and probably showing some footage of Diablo II as well as the whole Diablo II stand at E3.   Unfortunately it's only on Gamespot TV, which can be see only with the aid of a Satellite Dish.  You can see the full page of channels and the times the program will air here.  They include:

DirecTV: ch. 273
DISH Network: ch. 191

So if anyone out there has these, try to catch the show and send us a report on it, if you can't record it and actually upload it.  Very unlikely there will be any info from E3 that we haven't already unearthed, but you never know, and you might spot Gaile or I in the background staring up at the pretty colors.

Thanks to Righdon [HKW] for hunting up this info.

Necromancer Page Finished - Flux [5:51am pst]

The moment you've all been waiting for!  Well, some of you anyway. The extensive and info-intensive Necromancer page in my E3 Uber Report is up and ready to be salivated over.  Lots of info on all the new spells, additional info on the old spells, reckless speculation on the unknown spells!  Truly something for everyone.   Plus the first screenie ever of Bone Armor, prepare to be underwhelmed!  You can find all of that here.

A new still from the E3 Cinematic has appeared over on Blizzard's front page.  It features another old unshaven guy who is a prisoner of Diablo in the hero's body.  We are not sure of the exact location of the scene but at this point it cuts to an overhead shot. The man in doorway then walks into cell and the old chap crawls backwards across the floor, knocking over a metal bowl.  Blizzard have said that the movie is due for public release soon so sit tight.

New SsotW - Flux [2:11pm pst]

And a nice one it is.   The first time for two new monsters to ever be seen in a screenshot, though we saw a lot of both of these types at E3.  Imps and Corrupted Cultists, and no, those aren't the official names, but that's what they are.  More info in the caption, including a lot of info on the plot of Act Three, and you can see the caption and new shot right here. Thanks to Righdon for the heads up on this one.

Hosting Requests? - Flux [7:04am pst]

As you have probably noticed from looking at that nav bar over to the left there, we host a number of Diablo II related sites here.  Some specialty sites, some guild sites.  We are always on the look out for more high quality sites though.  I had about twenty-five applications for hosting from the past couple of weeks that I was meaning to get to very soon, with the pre-E3 and post-E3 frantica pace of site work slowing down a bit.  However through a bit of technical difficulty involving the delete key this morning, they are all gone.   So if you are a guildmaster or webmaster of a Diablo II related site that is not a news or general information site, and you sent in a hosting request recently that I did not reply to, go to the Get Hosted page and read the rules there, and resubmit.  Just so you know, we are not looking to add any more guild sites now.  We are happy with the ones we have now.  I won't say there's 0% chance of us adding another guild site, but your site will need to be exceptional (looks great, lots of active members, lots of updates on the site, etc.) for us to seriously consider adding it.   Thanks.

Weekly Network News Update - Flux [6:43am pst]

Yes, you've been sitting around the past week, wondering what all of our fine stable of hosted sites have been up you, haven't you?  Admit it!  Well even if you haven't, you are about to find out.  Read on.

Clan Greysoul - Exile tells us, "The conclave and myself are working on finalizing our priorities for the summer. We are also getting ready to launch our next "top secret" project where members will eventually be able to design the layout of the Gs tower. And of course, it will hopefully be in flash..."  Also, go take a look at their site now, there is a new Flash intro to the site, very nicely done.
Diablomods - Further testing continues on the new Diablo mod, and a new (5/18) version is up, with all the already very hard hell/hell monsters getting a +20-% to hit bonus.  Warriors below 300 AC beware.  There are also a few new very high level unique rings added in, which of course can only be found from the top bosses on hell/hell.  Careful down there, those quad immune True Balrogs will curl your toenails.
The Dark Library - TDL hopes to have a couple of new stories up later this week, (One from me, Flux, if I can get my ass in gear and get it edited.) and they are still looking for another staff member.   Writing/editing skills and html knowledge are required.
Diablo II Tomb of Knowledge - James tells us, "The Sycthe section is up for your viewing pleasure.  This is rather a interesting weapon to review and look upon since it is the newest addtion to the Diablo series and it looks great with the Necromancer."  You can see it in action and read more about at the D2 Tomb.
The Guild Times - Glide, the news staff member of GT, tells us, " I am nearly complete with two articles that I have been working on. One of them deals with the current survey and the other pertains to "Uni-class clans vs. 5 class clans". They should be done within the week. Also, I put up a small rant on people complaining about imbalances in D2...ALREADY, go have a look."
Holy Knights of Westmarch - HWK are battling the time-sucking finals demon, but have a couple of new members and some other things.   There is also a pretty funny review of Star Wars on their NP, if you've not read enough of those already.
Hydra's Claw - Flannel-Man tells us, "We've started adding people's pics to their profiles. We are working on the Diplomacy thing. Our ally, 4HA, switched servers. We gave SG an image to add to their site and they used it. Check out the forum too."
Knights of Bnet - KoB is still accepting new members, and will have a few new features up soon, but finals are taking up a lot of Blade's free time.  I think we all know or at least remember that feeling.   World domination is trying indeed.
The Lost Scrolls - Behind the scenes work continues as Smoke is revamping major portions of the site, intent as he is on World Domination.
Riders of Apocalypse - Apocalypso tells us that RoA is now official affiliated with The Obsidian Brotherhood, and also new members are welcome.
Warpath - Erebus tells us, " One of our members, W~Wulfsyarn has completed his About section, a very impressive work of his I'd say. I am very proud to announce that our clan is currently 100% active. Hopefully this holds out until Blizzard does their surprise release of D2 this month =)"  Damn, well there goes that surprise.

Monday 24 May 1999

Upgrading for Diablo II? - Elly [10:06pm pst]

Tired of that old PC, looking something new in readiness for Diablo II? Gateway have announced today that their new range of performance PCs will be shipping with the Voodoo 3 3000 graphics accelerator as standard.

There's been plenty of talk from folk wanting to upgrade or replace their PCs in anticipation of DII and this may be worth checking out here.

Notable RPG - Elly [9:02pm pst]

Another Best of E3 feature has appeared, this time over on Gamespot.   Dubbed "Ones to Watch" ten titles were selected, on first impressions, as worth keeping an eye on.  Diablo II didn't make this list not because it wasn't up to much but rather it was shown at last year's E3 and only games shown for the first time at this year's E3 were eligible for inclusion.  Saying that they have also included a subsection categorised by genre of Notable Games and we're pleased to see Diablo II recognised along with Planescape: Torment and System Shock 2.  You can find the full feature here and the RPG Notable Games here.

Thanks to Righdon and Jonric of The Vault Network for the heads up on this.

Official Updates - Elly [7:40pm pst]

Further encouraging news over at Blizzard's forums today.  In response to a desperate plea from Lord Cyphers for some more goodies Shlonglor offers this tid bit:

You might remember last week [18th] we reported on another offical post stating:

Those of us who never made E3 this year will no doubt be gagging to get our mitts on this lot but in the mean time you can always download the last cinematic movie [29mb] released back in October.  An oldie but goodie.

Best of E3 Awards  - Elly [6:27pm pst]

Ever vigilant Sniffer Righdon has discovered that the Game Critics Award Committee have announced this year's nominees for the best games of E3.  Diablo II features in one category, 'Best RPG' and will be battling it out with Anachronox, Dues Ex, Final Fantasy 8, Ultima: Ascension and Vampire: The Masquerade, Redemption.  Disappointingly DII didn't make the Best PC title category.  The panel of judges comprises 32 game critics who will be announcing the winners in early June and we'll be sure to update you on Diablo II's success:)

For a list of all the categories and the nominees head here.

Fake it and Win! - Elly [4:35pm pst]

With our mighty haul of loot from E3, we magnanimous, giving individuals at The Unofficial Diablo II Site have decided to throw a contest and give it all away, rather than lock it in our closets and only look at it late at night with flashlights and dying batteries.  What sort of contest?  Well a Fake Screenshot Contest of course. But why should you care?  Well we have some damn nice prizes, that's why.  Not to mention that it's fun. 

What are the prizes, you ask?  Well bundles of goodies from E3.  We have three prize packages, each one anchored by a brand spanking new copy of Diablo.  Yes, the game that got us all here in the first place.  You know it, you love it, you've owned it since about January 1997.  But not one like this.  Each of the three winners will get a brand new copy of Diablo, with the Official Prima Strategy Guide, and the kicker, they are all three signed by the lead designers of Diablo. A collectable that'll have Christies beating down your door in 20 years.

And before you think "but I'm not a graduate of the Institute of Exceptionally Talented Artists" fear not it matters not a jot.  There are three categories you can submit your efforts under.  So whether you are artistically talented, challenged or twisted there is a place for everyone.  The three all encompassing categories are:

Most convincing - Fool us, fool Blizzard, fool them all.

Most amusing - Make us laugh.  Not difficult I assure you.  This doesn't have to be art fit to claim a spot at the Louvre.

Most horrifying/sinister - Send us screaming behind the sofa like the big Jessies we are.

All the entry information and rules can be found at the Competition Page.

CGO Preview - Elly [4:30pm pst]

Possibly the last preview for a while, possibly not, who knows.  Computer Games Online have added a preview of good length and depth of information with a smattering of Blizzard history thrown in for good measure. A rather road-weary Bill Roper leads Tom Chick through the latest build and there's room for one more here.

For Your Viewing Pleasure - Elly [8:35am pst]

As a break from reading through the deluge of E3 Reports why not take a few minutes to download a couple of DII inspired pieces of art? Saying that the first piece is a Diablo inspired screensaver by Azmodan at 460kb.  Elyssah on the other hand has assembled a nice desktop wallpaper with this montage of screenies and artwork flanked at the bottom by the newly unveiled angel/demon orb carriers.

New Shockwave Page at GS - Flux [11:33am pst]

You like pretty colors and moving pictures, right?  Of course you do, we all do.  Well lucky day then, as one of our fine hosted guilds, Grey Soul, has a new intro page up, and it's Shockwave enabled.  Animated, scary, and full of moving parts.  You'll want to check it out this very instant, I suspect.  Clan Greysoul.

More E3 Uber Report - Flux [11:26am pst]

We've just finished the Pages on the Amazon and the Barbarian, with full disscussion and additional information on every spell and skill.  Lots of first hand info from seeing and playing with them at E3, and exclusive (small) shots of two skill trees, (Amazon Javelin Tab and Barbarian Mastery Tab) never before seen anywhere on the internet.   The Paladin and Necromancer will be up soon, and the Sorceress as well.  The first four pages have been up for a couple of days, and they have just about every bit of info on the current state of Diablo II that you could possibly want to know.   Literally.  The first page can be found here.

Saturday 22 May 1999

RPG's Article - Flux [8:46am pst]

Gamecenter has a new article up that talks extensively about RPG, past , present, and future.  Diablo and Diablo II are mentioned only in passing, but the rest of it is interesting enough that you'll probably want to take a look.  You can go to the first page here.  Thanks to Crowe for the tip.

More E3 Articles - Flux [8:14am pst]

The post-E3 articles continue to appear all over the place, and as befits its massive stature, Diablo II is getting mentioned in quite a few of them.  Righdon sends us word of one on Next-Generation Online, entitled "Twenty Games That Will Save the World." A lofty title indeed, and more pressure on a game than usual, but with Diablo II anchoring the list, I'm sure it's possible, if the world actually does turn out to need saving.  At any rate, the article is here, and Diablo II is the last game mentioned, (saving the best for last?) so you may scroll right down the page.  It is a rapturous appraisal of D2, albeit just eight sentences in length.

Elsewhere, there is a new article about Diablo II up on PC-IGN.  It's unremarkable (full of good points, but nothing very new) for the first half, but then suddenly it sprouts into a full listing of every single skill in the game as of E3, even all the ones that were not enabled for us to test out.  Very interesting information here, you will want to read it.  Click here.  Thanks to Righdon, Mordeth, and Alvine for the news of this one.

Lastly, there was a new article up on Game Revolution yesterday that we didn't post about since 99% of the info in it is just pasted in from a Blizzard Press Release, the cropped screenshots aren't linked to the full size images, and it's rather short and no new news. However I've gotten a couple of emails about it, and had a post in our forum about it also, asking about one of their statements that Diablo II Single-player will have about thirty (30) hours of game play.  I have no idea where they got this "fact".   Perhaps it was misheard, or plucked from thin air, but to the people asking "How can this can be?" I can simply say, "It can't."

Judging by the size and complexity of the game world as it was in even the small version of the game at E3, I would say you could possibly run through all the levels of the three Acts and the Finale in about twenty hours with one character.  That's assuming you knew where you were going, were already good at the game, didn't stop to site see, etc. More likely it would take longer than that, probably longer than thirty hours, just to get through it once.   And at that point you would not have tried out every skill, much less mastered their use, or seen all of the monsters or levels, since everything doesn't spawn in every game, of course.  I'd think that you would need at least to do two characters of each type to see all the skills with a decent amount of points on them (Assuming that SP mode awards 1 skill point per Clvl.) and there are five character types, as we all know.   So at least 20 hours x 2, x 5 chars.  And that's hurrying to finish, and is a very conservative estimate of the time it would take.  But clearly by any measurement it's far far longer than the "thirty hours" they claim in the Game Revolution article.

I do agree with their statement that there will be "practically endless online multiplayer." though of course you need not play online to play MP mode.

Both of the forums have been very busy lately, so we thought a quick forum spotlight was in order.  In the Community Forum, Jarulf has posted up a long and very interesting article, really.  It addresses a lot of issues with most game manuals, strategy guides, the Prima Diablo Strategy Guide, suggestions for the Diablo II manual, and much more.   You really should read it, especially if you work for Blizzard or BradyGames *nudge nudge*.

In the Player Suggestions Forum, a hot bed of debate and ideas as always, and longer chains than a hardware store.  ]'[E has a nice idea about more interactive landscapes in Diablo II, and as it involves fire, I'm all for it.  You can read it here.  Also, Purple posted a couple of ideas about elixirs for Diablo II, and it touched off a pretty juicy chain.  You can see the colorful post here.

New D2 at E3 Article - Flux [12:54pm pst]

There is a new article up about Diablo II at E3 on the Vault Network.  The author was apparently at the show in LA, and has come up with some pretty good observations.  It's a bit shorter than the articles we usually do here, not going into great detail about everything, but for a one pager I think you'll find it accurate and informative.  You can read it here, on the Vault Network NP.  Thanks to Jonric of The Vault Network for the tip off.