Diablo 3 Beta Goes Public This Weekend

[Mike Kayatta]

Diablo 3 Beta Goes Public This Weekend

Help stress test Blizzard's servers with a three-day demon kill-a-thon.

Up until now, the lands of Sanctuary have had a decently strict immigration policy, but with a May 15th full release date fast approaching, special beta keys be damned; Blizzard is opening up Diablo 3 to everyone with an internet connection for exactly 69 hours and 59 minutes. Would-be Witch Doctors and Demon Hunters everywhere, rejoice!

If you want to take part in the weekend madness, head over to Battle.net and start downloading the client. [https://us.battle.net/account/download/?show=d3] Then, beginning today at 12:01 P.M. PDT, you can grind a character all the way up to level 13 until Monday, April 23 at 10:00 A.M. PDT. During this window you'll have access to all five classes, and be able to team up with and join friends in an, admittedly, abbreviated quest to save the world from the forces of doom.

Is there a catch? Not really. You're going to need to have a Battle.net account and a "BattleTag", but both can be created for free right here. [http://us.battle.net/en/] Other than that, just try to make sure you aren't in Korea. Sorry Seoulers, due to some regional differences and the stress test client, you'll need to wait a bit longer before diving in with the rest of the world. Everyone else on the planet is a-okay, so if you can't see Changdeokgung Palace from your window, you're probably golden. Get playing!

Source: Battle.net [http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/4963739/Diablo%C2%AE_III_Open_Beta_Weekend-4_19_2012#blog]


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[Eric the Orange]

yeah I tried but unfortunately I'm having problems with the down loader. Oh well as long as it works by launch I don't mind to much.

 

[Loop Stricken]

My downloader absolutely steamed the 15gb. Just waiting for the auth servers to pop online, I guess.

 

[Mahorfeus]

I got all excited until I read 12:00 PM PDT. Ah well, after work I guess.

 

[Lunar Templar]

is at 59% on the downloader. be a good trial run to see if i like the game or not

 

[Loop Stricken]

I got all excited until I read 12:00 PM PDT. Ah well, after work I guess.

As far as I'm aware, that's now?
Yeah, not able to log in at the moment. Don't get too excited.

Edit: Or is it in 40min? I don't know American timezones.
Edit: Ah, it *is* in 40min. Alas.

 

[Eric the Orange]

I got all excited until I read 12:00 PM PDT. Ah well, after work I guess.

As far as I'm aware, that's now?
Yeah, not able to log in at the moment. Don't get too excited.

Edit: Or is it in 40min? I don't know American timezones.
Edit: Ah, it *is* in 40min. Alas.

PDT is GMT -9 I believe.

 

[MrBrightside919]

Got mine already downloaded and installed...i'm ready

 

[maddog015]

The hell. It's telling me I can't connect to the battle.net patch service. No downloading ahead of time? Guess I'll find out in five minutes.

 

[Loop Stricken]

It's been eight whole minutes and I can't connect!

 

[maddog015]

It's been eight whole minutes and I can't connect!

Nope, neither can I. Their help page is of no help either.

"This error message usually occurs when Setup or the Diablo III launcher cannot connect to the internet.
Since you were able to successfully load this page, it appears your basic internet connection is working normally. This indicates that a third-party program or application is interfering with your internet connection. For instructions on disabling these programs, please visit our Closing Background Applications page."

Except there's no such thing as a Closing Background Applications page. I highly doubt I'll be getting help to download it today. Looks like no D3 action.

 

[Loop Stricken]

Few things:

1) When you open D3, go into Options and change region to The Americas, if you're not actually IN The Americas.
2) Keep trying. I've had server busy messages, one telling me I don't have a D3 licence, and am now stuck on Retrieving Hero List.

[Edit: And now Battle.net has suffered a 'temporary outage'...]

 

[Loop Stricken]

Okay, so.

Managed to log in. Character creation timed out several times, but I created a barbarian and a demon hunter.

I seem unable to actually select them in order to start a game, however.

 

[Lucyfer86]

Been playing it about half hour now, and all i can say already is woooooah! This game is so awesome, as to be expected. Can't wait for the 15th.

Tho as a Diablo 2 veteran, it's sad that stat point customization is gone, but that doesn't ruin my enjoyment.

 

[Loop Stricken]

Alas, I got kicked off whilst trying to start a game, because apparently I don't have a D3 licence on my account.

And now I can't log back in because Bnet is down, or the servers are busy. Whoop.

 

[DonTsetsi]

Finished the beta in a little under 3 hours, about the time I was trying to connect...

 

[bobfish92]

Its 2 hours long, disappointingly streamlined but fun enough. I wasn't sure about the player character having a voice but after a few interactions with the paladin follower after a big fight that actually seem to be relatively suitable to what just happened, it seems quite good.

However, I've not seen one gem, the lack of stat customization and customization in general is very annoying, the gambling system has been replaced by a crafting system that takes up inventory space for the components and means you have to pick up useless items just to harvest them and its waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too easy. I only used one health potion, and it was in the final boss battle.

Combat is good, art style is nice, i've seen no graphical errors and character interaction is amusing and appropriate to the situation. I guess I'll just split my Diablo fix between 3 and Torchlight 2.

E: Also, the beta is 2 hours long including all side-dungeons, I scraped every map clean.

 

[EvilMaggot]

got in around 10 minutes after the flood gates opened and didnt log out until now - 6 hours after im really really happy that i put money on a Collectors Edition for this game, because man i had a blast with it together with my mates

also those saying they ruined the game... lol... D2 is 10 years old and there has been alot of changes in modern gaming since. There has to be some changes to keep it fresh and entertaining, i for one LOVE that Stamina is gone, the add stats is gone - you get that from items mostly now i can live with it. And alot of new features has been added - shared account money / bank(chest) across all characters and soo much more.. as a old D2 veteran aswell, and i think its great so far for the 1% ive tried

 

[EvilMaggot]

Its 2 hours long, disappointingly streamlined but fun enough. I wasn't sure about the player character having a voice but after a few interactions with the paladin follower after a big fight that actually seem to be relatively suitable to what just happened, it seems quite good.

However, I've not seen one gem, the lack of stat customization and customization in general is very annoying, the gambling system has been replaced by a crafting system that takes up inventory space for the components and means you have to pick up useless items just to harvest them and its waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too easy. I only used one health potion, and it was in the final boss battle.

Combat is good, art style is nice, i've seen no graphical errors and character interaction is amusing and appropriate to the situation. I guess I'll just split my Diablo fix between 3 and Torchlight 2.

E: Also, the beta is 2 hours long including all side-dungeons, I scraped every map clean.

Okay... you are one of those... "its too easy" ... you have played 1% of the game - the torturial part of the game - the "this is how you do this" remember not everyone who is going to buy D3 is a hardcore fan and knows the controls down to its very core - you have played like.. 5% of act 1, on normal... 1 out of 4 difficulties... chill dude or else watch -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0F2wPZWdYk&feature=my_favorites&list=FLWyOKrVeEIv5cTVHioZASkg the developers talking about the whiners that mentioned it was to easy some months ago. hope it clears up a bit.. just hate people who havent reasercheed on a game before playing a beta and expect a whole game out of it <_<

 

[bobfish92]

Okay... you are one of those... "its too easy" ... you have played 1% of the game - the torturial part of the game - the "this is how you do this" remember not everyone who is going to buy D3 is a hardcore fan and knows the controls down to its very core - you have played like.. 5% of act 1, on normal... 1 out of 4 difficulties... chill dude or else watch -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0F2wPZWdYk&feature=my_favorites&list=FLWyOKrVeEIv5cTVHioZASkg the developers talking about the whiners that mentioned it was to easy some months ago. hope it clears up a bit.. just hate people who havent reasercheed on a game before playing a beta and expect a whole game out of it <_<

I'm not ranting at the game - I enjoyed it (You can be disappointed but still enjoy something). The level of ease is silly. Also the tutorial lasts around 10ish minutes and teaches you everything you need to know. I think you need to consider how silly and annoying a 2 hour tutorial is. My issue is that I was stacking up the health potions by the handful and not having to use them. A lot of what Diablo is is taken away when you're just strolling through the corridors without any element of danger whatsoever. I'm not asking everyone to die every five seconds, I'm asking for a geniune threat to the player. I played a ranged class in light armour and I could just sit there and let a horde of skellies beat my face in without worrying too much.

As for controls, well. You left click and you right click. Every now and again you might need to press one or two. Diablo has always had simple controls. As for saying I've not researched the game, I've been paying attention to Diablo 3 and knew to expect this - Doesn't mean I'm happy about it. And about expecting a full game from a beta; I expect them to show enough of the game to give a good indication of what its like to get people interested. I doubt that any of the factors I've mentioned will be different - Excluding gems, they are in - I just found it odd I didn't find one in two hours when the whole point of having gem ranking systems is so you can have them early on too.