The most important members of the gaming press have been recently invited by Blizzard to test the coming beta version of the highly expected action RPG, Diablo III.
At this occasion, the Blizzard officials also made an amazing announcement: the Diablo III players will be able to trade the items they found in the game for real money, using the in-game Auction House.
The Diablo II players were already trading items they found during various game sessions, and this was a major factor that helped Blizzard decide to integrate a way of trading items in Diablo III, making it official.
The auction system will look very much alike those offered by specialized websites like e-Bay, and Blizzard will take their share after each transaction.
Still, Blizzard will not force the players to spend their money in a restricted circle, like Battle.net. Of course, you will be able to spend some of the money in the Blizzard virtual store, but you will not be forced to do so.
As well, just like it happens with the StarCraft II matchmaking, the access to the Diablo III Auction House will be restricted to certain geographic regions, depending on currency .
Besides the unveiling of the in-game auction system, Blizzard also let the journalists try the beta version of Diablo III for the first time.
The story of the game continues the events in Diablo II, and after the Evil threats were eliminated, everybody in Sanctuary returns to his normal life.
Tristram, a city that was decimated after the events in first Diablo, was rebuilt, and now became an important commercial center, mostly because the adventurers that keep returning there, in search of the artefacts lost between the ruins of the old monastery.
But a meteorite hits the monastery and starts a new invasion of the living-dead, and you will be able to play about half of the first act in the Diablo III beta version.
The end of the beta version will find you in a battle against an old friend of the Diablo fans: Leoric, The Skeleton King.
The most important changes in Diablo III gameplay have been made to the character’s leveling. Thus the points you were assigning to various stats in Diablo II (like strength, dexterity, mana, etc.) are gone, and your character will develop such stats on his own, depending on the type of hero you choose.
The skills system was also changed in Diablo III, and now each hero has six slots for active skills and three for the passive skills.
Two of the skill slots (active skills) will be unlocked once you start the game. Then once your hero levels up, the other slots will be unlocked, too, on level 6, 12, 18 and 24 for the active skills, and on levels 10, 20 and 30 for the passive skills.
The effects of each of these skills can be changed using the runestones. Thus, the players will be able to experiment more and more awesome skill versions, as they hero levels up.
The producers of Diablo III said that the levels 1 to 30 are dedicated to developing your hero, while the levels 31-60 should be reserved for finding the best equipment for your character.
When it comes to multiplayer, you will be able to play Diablo III via Battle.net, just like you do to StarCraft II. Still, in Diablo III each player will be able to create more heroes (like in Diablo II), and they will share the same stashes.
The objects sweep between the heroes of the same player so becomes much easier. The Battle.net integration (friends list, Real ID, Facebook imports) will have its price: Diablo III will require permanent Internet connection, even when you are playing a single player campaign.
The release date of Diablo III have not been set yet, but the Blizzard team wants to launch the beta version in the third quarter of 2011 (Q3 2011.
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