So they've finally confirmed a release date for this. I reckon I'll be picking it up. Anyone else?

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/4612389/Test-3_16_2012

Mmmm, tempting. But it is just a fruit machine simulator, really, isn't it?

And what the hell is wrong with that?!

I've been waiting for this for so long I'm not even sure I want it any more.

I was interested when I first heard about it, but I'm past caring now. I might reinstall Diablo II when I get a bit more free time though.

I have it as part of the WoW annual pass, not sure how much i'll play it though. I never even tried Diablo II online.

If Skyrim has taught me anything I enjoy a good grind for skillz. I'll probably end up getting it.

Yeah I'm getting it for 'free' too (and TBH it is free for me since I can't see me stopping playing WoW any time soon), really rather looking forward to it I have to say.

The real cash auction house in particular intrigues me

Blizzard just don't do duffers, they've never done a duffer and I doubt they ever will.

Aye, I have no attachment for virtual stuff and have never had. If I can sell my shit for real cash monies, then I fear my character is going to be forever naked and unarmed...

Considering the lengths some people will go to with WoW porn, perhaps there'll be a viable prostitution market in Diablo 3 if you strip a girl character to her undies and perform virtual favours for high level geeks with loads of cash.

(Just Google 'WoW night elf porn' with safe search off )

Not much love for Diablo III here it seems, the gaming world doesn't begin and end with bloody consoles you know!

Yes, that's clearly what's going on.

Well, no ones played it yet.

Er, I liked Diablo. Better?

PC racists.

I'm sure it will play wonderfully on my 27" iMac.

and i'm sure it will be awesome on my PC, connected up to my 27" iMac screen, using my HD 6970 graphics card.

See, we can talk PCs AE!

I'm expecting it to. Using the Magic Trackpad should be interesting though.

I won't be going for that option on mine.

YOU CRAZY FOOL!

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I don't really understand what it is I'm watching in that video. Is it like a rare elite in WoW or something?

As for 'game things equalling real money', I was a total cash whore in WoW (eased off a lot now), my last sale was 100,000 gold to a guildy for £100, simply because I had loads of gold and nothing to spend it on. I don't see it as a source of income, but in the same way that I was an intergalactic billionaire in Elite back in the day on my Spectrum because I wanted to be, now I can actually sell the fruits of my gaming labours for real money

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So what makes it worth $192? Is that was someone ended up paying for it, so is that how much the game says it's worth?

Diablo 3 could be interesting, considering the number of people who will happily pay £10 for pointless vanity pets in WoW, and as much as £17 for 'special flying mounts' that are functionally identical to the normal flying mounts, who knows what treasures await!

Not that I'll be playing the game as a money making enterprise, but like Trooper has already said, I have absolutely fuck all attachment to virtual gear/treasure/whatever, so would be more than happy to sell any special finds to some stupid American teenager with too much money.

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The beta is open to everyone for the weekend! Anyone fancy a game tonight? I've already downloaded the client, but you can't login and play until (I think) 8PM (12PM PDT).

Download the client here:

https://us.battle.net/account/download/index.xml

You need a Battle.net login of course, so sign up if you haven't got one!

I'm gonna wait for the proper release, I don't see the point of playing a beta.

Just over three weeks to go for the full release

Bah!

I want to try out the classes so I know what to go for when the proper game arrives.

Installing now.

Neato! I'll add you up via Battle.net (assuming we can in the beta?).

My Battle.net email address is jonarobson followed by the usual gmail bit if you want to add me.

15% downloaded so far, it will be a while.

Is it going slow? I found that disabling peer to peer in the menu at the top of the downloader speeds things up a lot. Presumably you just download it directly from their servers if you disable it.

That usually works for a bit, then it'll slow down again.

If P2P is knackered on your ISP, be prepared to wait.

Unsurprisingly, I can't login.

The login screen is nice, though. Servers are probably being hammered.

The internet is full of people who like free things.

They're probably just stress-testing their infrastructure, LOOK ZOMG FREE DIABLO 3 LOLZ.

I'll wait three weeks

Not working here either. Can't even get into the account management screen on Battle.net.

When I manage to "login" my system crashes and requires a hard reset. It's a graphics card overheating kind of crash. But the card is fine. If I recall, StarCraft 2 had an identical crash after logging in because the framerate on the menu screens wasn't capped. This would cause your card to render the menu at such a high frame rate it overheated and powered down. The fix was capping the framerate in a config file somewhere, but I'm buggered if I can find the same file for Diablo III.

Beta game in 'not quite finished shocker'.

I honestly don't understand the mentality behind playing beta versions of games.

Because it's new and I'm desperate to play it!

Perkies - re: your Xbox Live message - I can't be arsed to type out on my little chatpad! Very disappointing but I'll try again tomorrow. Hopefully that crash thing won't be a problem as well!

But it's less than a month off release, seriously man, it's really not that long to wait.....

*foams at gills*

Chill Winston!

I remember that - it came out just after I'd put together the ZOMGrig, and it was one of the two things that wound my graphics cards up to full fan speed.

The other thing? Minecraft

Oh, Java, how do I love thee.

Heh!

So I'm gonna try this out tomorrow night instead. Hopefully have more luck. You still in Perkies? And anyone else is welcome of course - I believe it's four player. Unfortunately I'm obliged to head back to Teesside to watch the Boro get beat by Southampton with my old man, so I might be on a bit late. Like 10 maybe...

It's BF3/DiRT3 night tonight, they're games that are complete, and work properly, and we are guaranteed to be able to play.

My BattleTag (srsly?) is PenLlawen#2192. Apparently.

I might well be around... if it works, we'll try it.

Error connecting to the service : 3003

Fixed that, woohoo!
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Error 37, servers are full