All news is now reported on The Unofficial Diablo II Site.

Friday 19 December 1997

Diablo: Action game of the year?

As reported on 20 November Diablo was in the running as one of the nominees in the 'Action Game of the Year' category.  Diablo took first place with 24.4% of the votes, whilst Jedi Knight with 20% and Hexen2 with 11.% had to be content with runner up status.  Other nominees beaten off for this title were Archimedean Dynasty, Carmageddon, Interstate '76,   MDK, POD, Virtua Fighter 2 and  X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter.

GamesDomain's annual awards are determined by votes from gamers and not by some board of self-proclaimed 'experts'.

Thursday 18 December 1997

Battlenet to get voice communication

A speech and audio compression/decompression technology called Meta Voice will add voice communication to future Internet games.  This will allow real-time communication during mutliplayer games and will also allow the user to alter the tone or character of their voices.

Blizzard can not confirm if the technology will be implemented in time for the release of Starcraft but it's likely to be used in DiabloII.

Monday 1 December 1997

Hellfire Winners

Three lucky winners were pulled out the hat yesterday winning themselves each a copy of Hellfire.

Bob from Wisconsin, US
Chris from Cambridge, UK
Jay from Minnesota, US

The answers to the questions were:

1.  How many new types of monsters will you face in Hellfire? = 29

2.  "The swords of justice are swift and sharp".  Which shrine gives you this message in Diablo? = Weird Shrine

3.  On one of the Quests in Diablo you will be given the Veil of Steel.  Who gives you this? = Lachdanan

As a side note there will be a competition to win one of five copies of Deeper Dungeons the add-on to Bullfrog's Dungeon Keeper and questions for this will be posted on both those sites within the next day or two.  There will also be a Jedi Knight competition where an Apocalypse 3Dx graphics acclerater will be up for grabs and details of this will be posted on that site.

Friday 21 November 1997

Win Hellfire

Here's your chance to win a copy of the only official expansion pack for Diablo.  Three copies are up for grabs if you can answer the three following questions.

1.  How many new types of monsters will you face in Hellfire?

2.  "The swords of justice are swift and sharp".  Which shrine gives you this message in Diablo?

3.  On one of the Quests in Diablo you will be given the Veil of Steel.  Who gives you this?

Answers to these questions are contained in this Diablo site and the Hellfire site.

Answers must be in by 30 November and the first three correct entries pulled out the hat will have a copy of Hellfire whisked off to them.  Send your entries here.

Thursday 20 November

Diablo - Action game of the year, 1997?

Games Domain are now taking votes for Game of the Year.  Diablo finds itself in the Action category competing against nominees, Archimedean Dynasty, Carmageddon, Hexen 2, Interstate '76, Jedi Knight, MDK, POD, Virtua Fighter and X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter.

Go here to cast your vote and make Diablo Action Game of the Year 1997.

Thanks to Annex for this news item.

Thursday 30 October

Diablo II Interview

The German magazine Gamestar has Interviewed Blizzard North.

"There will be 5 different character classes in Diablo II. One is a genuine fighter, one is some kind of sorcerer. 2 characters will be female. One of them will be an Amazon who is very good in using bows and spears, the other will probably be a female demon.

A new kind of weapons will be the spears which can be thrown at enemies.

Every kind of character will have his own spells. So in order to cast a certain spell you will need to be playing a certain character. This will surely add to Diablo II's replayablity value.

The inventory (number of boxes in inventory screen) will also depend on the character you'll be playing. For example, fighters will be able to carry more than sorcerers.

Every part of worn equipment changes the look of the character in play. You will see a difference in your character's look if you hold a scimitar or a longsword for example.

The cities will be populated by a lot of different characters. They will not only stand in their shop (as in the original Diablo) but walk around and "live their lives". There will be different kinds of shops, but not every shop type will be in every town, so you will have to travel often.

There will be fights in the towns! An example would be a big monster raid, where the character would have to save the town.

There will be more interaction with the NPC's. For example, two different characters would like you to get them the same artifact. You will need to decide to whom to give it and face the consequences.

There will be 4 cities in the game, surrounded by a vast wilderness area.

You will not be able to get to all 4 towns at the start of the game. There will be a quest in which you have to clear a passage through the monsters in the mountain to gain access to the next town. A lot of the quests will make you wander between the cities to fulfill them.

You will be able to combine certain items together in order to make them more effective. For example, gold bracers will not be very powerful with leather armor, but if you have a gold helmet, gold chain mail and gold bracers, the bracers will be a lot more effective!

The fighters will be able to learn some special attack moves. Like an all-around-sweep, which damages every monster standing around you, but leaves you more vulnerable and taking more time than a normal attack.

Blizzard are now experimenting with 3d graphics as well as 3d levels (as opposed to Diablo's flat levels). If the levels are created in 3d, you will probably be able to climb some of the objects such as rocks, mountains and trees.

The upgraded engine will probably include multi-colored lightsources and animated rivers and lava that will actually flow downstream.

Blizzard are considering making multiplayer games capable of hosting more then 4 characters at a time.

There will probably be something like a trading post where players can meet with other players to exchange items.

Blizzard North has about 20 people working on Diablo II right now, and for those of you looking forward to Warcraft Adventures, it will probably be pushed to the second quarter of 1998.

There will be 3 types of monsters in the games:

Standard monsters - Like the skeletons in the original Diablo, but this time they will come in a lot more variations, they will wear different armor and hold different weapons.

Special monsters - Like the unique monsters with their own name in Diablo. They will almost always leave a unique item when they die. Special spellcasting monsters will use different spells then the rest of their kind.

Boss monsters - They will be really big and dangerous freaks. They will each only be in a game once. As Erich Schaefer said: "You will instantly know when you are facing a boss!!!". This boss monsters will probably always have quests built around them (Kill the certain boss, get a certain weapon from a boss, etc.)"

Thanks to DemonMage for mailing this in.

Tuesday 9 September 1997

Diablo II at ECTS

"To save mankind from eternal damnation, new heroes must be found to take up the battle and rid the world of Diablo and his vile brethren forever."

This is your objective set by Blizzard entertainment who will release Diablo II in late 1998.

Features of the eagerly awaited sequel are:

Expanded gothic world filled with all-new quests, weapons spells, armour, monsters and non-playing characters.

Five new character classes, each with unique attributes and abilities.

Four different, fully populated towns, each with randomly generated dungeons and wilderness areas.

Advanced combat systems which incorporates class-specific fighting techniques and spells.

New Battle.net options including increased multiplayer support, an on-line trading post and worldwide rankings.

As reported earlier in the year on Reality X's Diablo page Battle.net is to be enhanced radically:

Support for unique player IDs. The ability for users to register screen names will allow for a moderated worldwide ranking system, challenge ladders and tournaments. Battle.net will also include the option to create player profiles with information about rank, group affiliation, game statistics and other player data. The profiles will be available to all other players in the Battle.net community.

Additionally, more servers will be set up in Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Japan. An Australian server has already been launched.

I had a chance to see the intro sequence for Diablo II this afternoon and as expected is was very impressive.

Saturday 6 September 1997

ECTS

I am off down to London crack of dawn tomorrow for ECTS at Olympia. I am taking a lap top and modem and will hopefully be updating our ECTS page daily. Of course I've never tried to update my page remotely so this could all go horribly wrong. If it does I guess I'll be up until the wee small hours Tuesday morning doing it all then.

Thursday 4 September 1997

More details on Expansion Pack

Developers: Synergistic Software (Sierra)

Release date: November 1997

Format: Windows 95 CD-ROM and will require the full original of Diablo.

Details: 29 new monsters, 20 new weapons, 5 new spells, 8 new levels, 30 new magic items. Single player only.

The only authorised add-on disk for Blizzard’s Diablo currently being developed by Synergistic Software, a division of Sierra on-line, is due for release in November.

Hellfire, as it’ll be called, will follow a new storyline revolving around the powerful demon Na-krul. Na-krul once a minion of Diablo has rebelled against his former master and following a failed attempt to overthrow him was banished to the Void with his co-horts. His mission is to try and locate a collection of evil artifacts that were hidden by his former master.

Hellfire will present a new character class, The Monk. He’ll have new abilities not seen in the previous character classes.

The 29 new monsters you will face include: The Lich (an undead Skeletal Sorcerer), the Psychorb (a floating, be-tentacled eyeball that that spits our spells), the Hork Demon who spawns wee replicas of himself called Hork Spawn Demons, A Grave Digger (a shovel-toting zombie).

New spells for you to master will include Immolation (fireballs in all directions), Lightning Wall (a wall of lightning) Warp (transports player to nearest dungeon exit).

Any characters created in single player Diablo will be compatible with the new add on but with the conversion programmes available you should be able to use your multiplayer characters too.

It is unfortunate that Diablo’s strongest attraction, multiplayer is not catered for in Hellfire. With the phenomenal success of Battle.net I would have thought multiplayer would have been at the forefront of their plans but it seems not.

Monday 1 September 1997

Expansion Pack

Last week saw Diablo knock Dungeon Keeper off it's number one spot of the World PC Games Charts. An expansion pack will help keep this already classic title at the top of the charts. The pack will not be produced by Blizzard. Instead, a separate company has been authorized to do the disc. Further details will be available within the next couple of weeks. These are likely to be announced at the forthcoming ECTS in London next weekend. Reality X will be attending and will report any details.

Blizzard remains the largest online gaming service in the world, with over 925,000 users and more than 15 million games played.

Saturday 2 August 1997

Diablo loses its grip

This week has seen Diablo slip to 4th place in the World PC Charts. Having reigned supreme for 26 weeks in the number one slot Bullfrog's Dungeon Keeper has claimed the poll position with Heroes of Might and Magic at number two and Civilization taking 3rd place. You can go and check the Top 100 list here and place your vote whilst there.

Monday 14 July 1997

Diablo still number one

Diablo has remained top of the World PC Games Charts for 26 consecutive weeks. If you think it deserves to remain number one why not take a couple of minutes and go cast your vote here.

Wednesday 25 June 1997

Battlenet's success

Blizzard Entertainment has announced that 700,000 registered users have played over 13 million games of Diablo over Battle.net since its release early this year. Diablo has also sold 750,000 copies throughout the world. Source: Online Gaming Review.  Below is the full Press Release.

Blizzard Entertainment announced today that 13 million games of Diablo have been played over Battle.net since the game’s release in January. More than 700,000 registered users have played Diablo on Battle.net, making it the largest on-line gaming service in the world.

Additionally, according to PC Data’s latest figures, Diablo remains the number-one selling game for the fourth consecutive month and is the best selling game year-to-date. Worldwide, the game has sold-through more than 750,000 copies.

"We are thrilled with Diablo’s tremendous success, and the popularity of Battle.net has surpassed all our expectations," said Allen Adham, president and founder of Blizzard Entertainment. "By creating an online community for Diablo, we have really struck a chord with gamers. Diablo fans log on to Battle.net not only to play the game, but also to meet and share gaming experiences with others players online."

Tuesday 24 June 1997

Blizzard announcement set for ECTS

Susan Wooley confirmed that Blizzard are planning to make a big announcement at the ECTS (European Computer Trade Show) in September. This is more than likely to be regarding Starcraft but hopefully we'll hear some news on Diablo 2.

Monday 18 June 1997

Major enhancements for Battlenet

Blizzard has announced plans to expand Battle.net by including additional on-line capabilities and building a global network of Internet Service Providers.

Major enhancements to Battle.net expected later this year will include support for unique player IDs, a moderated worldwide ranking system, challenge ladders, tournaments, and an option to create player profiles with information about rank, group affiliation, game statistics and other player data.  Below is the full Press Release.

Following the hugely successful launch of Battle.net earlier this year, Blizzard Entertainment today announced plans to expand the online gaming service by including additional on-line capabilities and by building a global network of Internet service providers.

Major enhancements to Battle.net expected later this year will include support for unique player IDs. The ability for users to register screen names will allow for a moderated worldwide ranking system, challenge ladders and tournaments. Battle.net will also include the option to create player profiles with information about rank, group affiliation, game statistics and other player data. The profiles will be available to all other players in the Battle.net community.

Additionally, to provide optimal connection for Blizzard’s international customers, the company is partnering with local Internet service providers in major markets around the world such as Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Japan. This month, MultiPlay launched the first local Battle.net server in Australia, and Blizzard expects to collocate with other international ISPs durng the next few months.

Said Allen Adham, Blizzard president and founder, "Blizzard’s goal is to create a gaming service that encompasses the globe. To do so, we must provide a high quality, fast-paced gaming experience for all Battle.net users. By partnering with local Internet service providers worldwide, we will not only achieve unsurpassed performance, but also be able to customize service based on each country’s needs."

Blizzard will also localize the Battle.net interface for the native languages in major international markets. The move represents Blizzard’s commitment to making Battle.net a global community for Internet gaming.

Monday 16 June 1997

Diablo II

Rumours have surfaced on the net that Diablo II is to be unveiled at E3 this week. Blizzard deny that this is the case but do not deny the development of Diablo II.  It is more likely a promo movie will be shown together with an offiicial announcement of their plans to develop a sequel.

Sunday 15 June 1997

Hackers on Battlenet

Increased lag and shutdowns plagued Battle.net last week. According to Blizzard this was the result of "malicious attacks by hackers".

Saturday 14 June 1997

Solutions to patching problems

If you have problems upgrading to version 1.04 (which should happen automatically when you connect to battle.net) try the following steps:

1. Uninstall Diablo (IMPORTANT: uncheck the "delete character" checkbox so that your characters won't be deleted also)

2. Delete bncache.dat in the Diablo directory.

3. Install Diablo and connect to battle.net to download the patch.

Tuesday 10 June 1997

Permanent loss of attributes

This from Blizzard in response to reports of the supposed 'bug' with the Black Death Zombies.

It is true that the Black Death Zombie do permanently drain your hit points, though, with some care, you should be able to avoid this. These zombies move very slowly and be taken out with either a bow or spells. This is a good reason for warriors to carry a backup missile weapon (and you'll probably find that other strategic possibilities will present themselves to a warrior and his bow).

Drinking from the cauldrons found in Hell can be chancy, true, and many players choose to ignore these shrines for this reason." (Support, Blizzard)

Proceed with caution.

Wednesday 4 June 1997

Crashes on Battlenet

It has come to our attention that certain users are taking advantage of a recently discovered security flaw in Windows 95 and NT to crash other users in the Battle.net chat rooms and games.

The attack is known as an out-of-band attack. It exploits a flaw in Microsoft's TCP/IP networking code, which causes the networking portion of Windows to generate a fatal exception. On Windows NT, this crashes the operating system. On Windows 95, it prevents the computer from sending or receiving any further data on the network until it is rebooted.

Microsoft has made patches available for both operating systems. We recommend that all users download and apply these patches immediately.

The patch for Windows 95 is at:

http://www.microsoft.com/kb/articles/q168/7/47.htm

The patch for Windows NT can be download from:

http://www.microsoft.com/ntserver/info/denial.htm

Friday 23 May 1997

Server-hopping on Battlenet

There is no way to force the server you are connected to (you are always connected to the fastest one), but this will not negatively affect your latency with your friend. If your latency with your friend is high, then try connecting at a time when your ISP and/or your friend's ISP is not too heavily loaded.

You can log onto to battle.net as coming from a different country, however. Battle.net looks at your Win95 Regional Settings to decide in which channel you should be placed when you connect. This is to help people find others with which they share a common language, and to help users who live near each other to find low latency games."

To change your Regional Settings:

click on Start--Settings--Control Panel
Open Regional Settings
Make the desired changes here
click Apply

Monday 5th May 1997

Unauthorised expansion pack

Unearthed Arsenal expansion pack by Microstar is now on sale in stores.

It consists of new characters for use in single player mode as well as an editor so you can modify traits of characters for multiplayer gaming.

A license has been built into the character editor so you must agree not to use the modified characters whilst playing on Battle.net.

Blizzard do not endorse, or authorise Unearthed Arsenal in any way.