February´s News

  • Account Info. (2/27)

The people from DiabloII.Net have recieved word that an individual Battle.net account can hold up to eight actual characters.  Accounts will be limited per user, however.  Also character names are unique only to a specific realm, which means a "Sir Gorash" could exist on both an American Realm and an Asian Realm. 

  • PvP Strip. (2/27)

For this PvP Strip it is not so much the actual strip but the accompanying piece of Fan Art that is the real prize.  See it here for a good laugh. 

  • Diablo II Cartoon... (2/25)

There is a new cartoon over a Real Life, this one featuring a classic case of the Diablo II release blues.  Funny stuff, see it here. 

                - Landarth (Newstracker)
                 

  • Forums Down. (2/25)

The Blizzard Forums on Battle.net are down for awhile, probably for various fixes and reconvations.  You can learn more from this post by Geoff Frazier. 

                - Landarth (Newstracker)
                 

  • New Preview. (2/24)

PC.IGN.COM has unveiled a new preview for Diablo II, coupled with a sampling of screenshots (none of them new, unfortunately).  The preview doesn´t contain much in the way of important new info, but there are few gems to be had.  You can read it here. 

  • A Sad Departure... (2/24)

We were sorry to hear that Blizzard´s PR guru, Tony Gervase, will be leaving Blizzard Entertainment at the end of this month.  We here at ShadowSpiral Diablo II want to commend Mr. Gervase for the wonderful job he has done keeping the community together and informed.  Thank you, Tony Gervase, and good luck. 

  • Havas Financial News. (2/24)

Havas Interactive, the company that owns Blizzard and Sierra, has released a press release on their financial standing.  Though mostly analytical in nature, there are a few mentions of Diablo II in tandem.  Thanks to LynDQuEst for the lead. 

  • Cinematic on the Beta CD? (2/24)

It was learned yesterday evening that the closed Beta CD´s the Beta Testers recieve will come with the 8 minute Diablo II Opening Sequence, which was incidentally shown in Irvine late last year.  A real treat should you be chosen as a closed Beta Tester.

  • New Rendered Shot. (2/23)

The Blizzard main site was graced today with a completely new Rendered Shot of some kind of demon (perhaps the same on as previously seen) in a fiery background.  See it below:

Gamespot UK released a sampling of artwork and screenshots for WarCraft III and Diablo II, but unfortunately none of the pieces are really new.  You can see the Diablo II shots beginning here, or in our Screenshots section.

  • Blizzard Privacy. (2/23)

Blizzard has added two privacy policies, which illustrate the rights of Blizzard and their customers in the Privacy Agreement.  You can find them one for Blizzard here amd the policy for Battle.net here.

  • Two New Wallpapers. (2/22)

Two new Wallpapers were released today by Blizzard, both of them beautiful renders of the Official Diablo II Logo.  You can find both of them in our Downloads section. 

  • Add to the Official FAQ. (2/22)

Mike Huang posted on the Suggestions Forum that he will be accepting questions to address in the Official FAQ to be released: 

    I'm currently updating the FAQ right now, but in order to do that, I need questions... so, if you have any questions you would like answered in the Diablo II FAQ, please post them as a reply to this message.

Reply to the above post to send your questions for the FAQ.

  • Kick Removed... (2/21)

The innate skill known as Kick has been removed for all characters in Diablo II.  Here are Erich Schaefer´s reasons for the removal: 

    We removed Kick as a skill for all characters. It did not function well as a way to get out of trouble, and no one ever used it. There were, however, a couple exploits with kick, including one player kicking a boss monster against a wall and keeping it in stun lock, while another player kills it. Its gone, but no one misses it so don't worry.

  • We´ve Archived Old News. (2/21)

The first half of February has been moved to our Archive, so if you feel you´ve missed part of this month you can visit our archive to catch up. 

  • Paladin Posts. (2/20)

The DiabloII.Net forums saw some action as Blizzard´s Kelly_Johnson (an avid Paladin player) made more than a few appearances to iron out some of the particulars of playing a Paladin in Diablo II.  You can see all that she had to say from here. 

                - Landarth (Newstracker)
                 

  • Forum Action... (2/17)

A few good posts appeared in the forums today.  This first post from Geoff Frazier covers pre-orders for Diablo II direct from Blizzard, which he explains will not be done.  His next post covered the creation of a Diablo II Compendium much like the one they presently have for StarCraft and Brood War.  You can see his post on ideas below as well:

    "The best way you could help is give me ideas for what you want to see in the Diablo II sections -- or -- after the game is out, tell me if there are any wrong items, or statistics on the guide =)"

And finally Mr. Frazier goes over the implications of the last SSOTW and what it means for Diablo II´s development.  See his post:

    No sort of development came about, we just felt it was the right time to stop the Screenshot of the Week. We still will be updating the screenshots on the Diablo II site, just not on a weekly basis as we have been doing for the past year.

All in all a good day for info. 

                - Landarth (Newstracker)
                 

  • The Rendered Shot. (2/16)

The new Blizzard site had a new Rendered Shot that was incorporated as a background image for their front page.  We have liberated this image and stored it our collections for your viewing, see it below: 

The forums have yet again seen activity today, this post from Geoff Frazier covers what effects the Beta will have on the Diablo II forums:

    "We'll probably do it like we've done in the past. Diablo II Suggestions renamed to something like Diablo II Beta Buzz then anyone can post including beta testers. It's a great way to get Beta Tester feedback however it would nice if we had a little logo or something by legit Beta Testers names when they posted. But I don't think we will be able to do something like that."

Another from Mr. Frazier adds that the Beta Testers will most likely not get personal tags on the forum like the MVP´s do, for reasons he details in this post. 

  • The Beta Directory. (2/16)

A small firestorm occured today when someone found the Diablo II beta directory on the Blizzard server, although as normal it contained nothing that could be accessed externally.  Geoff Frazier commented on it in this post: 

    "We have some images in there for our beta signup form. However we made this form back in October and it's been ready to go since then. We're prepared.

    Also please note that the existance of a signup form is in no way any sort of announcment or indication of the status of the beta. When it's ready to go we'll put the signups on our page with plenty of warning.

    I'll delete that folder so it doesn't bother you =)"
  • Blizzard´s Makeover... (2/16)

The main Blizzard website just underwent a complete makeover today, looking like a completely like a new site.  This new look doesn´t have anything to do with the imminent release of the Diablo II Beta, as Geoff Frazier points out in this post.  Also, as our own Forscythe saw, Diablo II is oddly absent from the upcoming projects spot.  

                - Forscythe (Asst. WebMaster)
                - Landarth (Newstracker)
                 

  • Techincal Information... (2/15)

Blizzard answer-man Mike Huang made two posts on the Suggestions Board today.  The first post concerns a question about how EAX will enhance the game:

    EAX adds some features such as echoes in certain areas and positional sounds relative to your character.

The second post is an update of sorts:

    Diablo II will not be utilizing OpenGL. We will be using Direct3D and Glide, and that should cover the spectrum of 3D chipsets.

  • Final Screenshot of the Week. (2/15)

The 50th and final Screenshot of the Week has been released, this one featuring the Paladin facing a Greater Mummy and some skeletons with the help of his Holy Freeze aura:

Also the cinematic shot which usually accompanies it:

- Bart - e-mailed us today to let us know that he has created a new remix of the Tristram theme (the one set to guitars in town) and that this remix is available for download from his site.  Having downloaded "Tristram Trippin´" I can recommend it.  Go get it here. 

  • A Few Official Posts. (2/14)

A couple of Official Blizzard Represenatives made appearances on the forums to respond to certain questions and issues.  The first post is from Mike Huang and addresses patches for Diablo:

    Indeed, this is one of those things that is simple to suggest but difficult to implement. Due to the network structure used in Diablo I, many of these suggestions would be still be prone to hacks even if implemented. I don't know of any current outstanding critical bugs that need to be fixed in Diablo, so I don't forsee a patch at present unless a patch is made necessary by a future Blizzard product.

The next post by Geoff Frazier simply restates Blizzard´s release date policy, Mr. Huang also takes some flak for this in this post as well.  In this next important post Mr. Huang discusses wihy Blizzard won´t ship Diablo II lacking multiplayer to speed up the timetable:

    The way that we like to work is that the game as complete as possible when we ship it in the box. We won't ship an incomplete game, or a game lacking crucial features. Multiplayer games on battle.net is one of those features. If any of you have ever programmed a game before, you'd know that multiplayer is not simply something thrown in at the last moment, but something that is planned from the very beginning. Debugging and fixing the problems in multiplayer is also a very time-intensive process. Ripping out all the work we've done on battle.net would take more time than the amount of time required to fix the remaining problems. As Bill noted last week, a lot of the content is finalized and going in, bug lists are getting shorter and shorter and a lot of the work that remains is in the preparations for the battle.net beta. After all, we want to make sure that the servers don't crash as all the testers log on as soon as their Fedex'd CDs arrive.

Last but not least Mike also clues some people in to the Fansite Program in this post.  Thanks to Ellender for the leads. 

  • Diablo II Vote... (2/14)

There is a new vote at Eidos Interactive asking: "What PC game are you most looking forward to in 2000?"  Of the possible choices Diablo II is leading the pack at 32.9% of the total vote.  Go make your choice known. 

                - Landarth (Newstracker)
                 

  • Gamefan Preview. (2/12)

There´s a new preview over at Gamefan, although it features information that is rather dubious or old, or sometimes both.  One bit about the Paladin being able to ressurect fallen party members is either fabricated or somehow gathering in error.  Still, it´s a good preview despite this, so head here to see what it´s about. 

  • Diablo II in the WarCraft III chat... (2/10)

A small piece of Diablo II-related news reared its head in the chat, making it a very upbeat evening for all of us here.  Take a look:

    "We thought that we would also use this chat to give you a quick Diablo II development update. We fully expect that when we ship Diablo II we will shatter the record for the number of games played over Battle.net as well as concurrent users. To ensure that everyone has the best play experience possible, the programming team at Blizzard North has been optimizing the Battle.net servers for smoother game play and maximum "horsepower". The other programming task we need to complete before the Battle.net beta can begin is optimizing data streaming from CD and the hard drive to improve performance on the minimum machine - a PII 200Mhz with 32MB RAM. The voice recording has been completed and the NPC scripts have been installed into all four acts. We are doing some polishing and revision to quests in Acts III and IV and then we expect to be done with the single player content of the game. Past this, we are looking at a marathon of bug-fixing and play-balancing until we get to our Battle.net beta and then shipping the game. Hang in there!"

The Beta Test looms large in the background of this statement. 

  • Bill Roper Interview. (2/9)

A French magazine called GEN4-PC has conducted a small interview with Bill Roper.  The people at DiabloII.com have already made a translation available, so click here to read what was said. 

                - Landarth (Newstracker)
                 

  • Accompanying Render... (2/8)

The corresponding Rendered Shot has been released with the SSOTW, this one featuring a rather disgusting zombie-like creature: 

The two winners of the Diablo II-related prizes have been announced, the first goes to Diablo II Intelligence, and second goes to yours truly, ShadowSpiral Diablo II.  We got two Diablo II T-shirts, and while we´ll keep one we will probably be giving the other away.  Check Contests soon for more details on that. 

  • Screenshot of the Week. (2/8)

The latest Screenshot of the Week has been unveiled, this one demonstrating to power of the Sorceress´s Inferno fire-based spell.  See it below:

In a small milestone Diablo II has made a Top 10 List hosted by Gamespy with the title "The Top 10 Reasons that have Delayed Diablo II."  Wondering what it could be?  Well, head here. 

  • Fansite Interview Posted. (2/7)

The latest Fansite Interview has been posted at The Labyrinth for your perusal, it is accessible by click here as well.  The interview doesn´t cover much, but still it is a great read for a more refined look at the game.  We´ll have more on it soon. 

                - Landarth (Newstracker)
                 

  • A Ton of New Info. (2/7)

While the news was at a lull the people at DiabloII.Net released a veritable salvo of new information gleaned from their recent talks with Blizzard and have made it available in a nicely indexed listing.  Of course, all of this new info can be found in our Compendium. 

  • Leading the Polls... (2/5)

A new poll at Stomped @ E3 is asking: "Which of the following upcoming titles interests you the most?"  What is interesting is that Diablo II leads the pack 1,317 votes, giving it an enormous 48.19% of the votes! 

                - Landarth (Newstracker)
                 

  • Community Addition. (2/5)

A new site called The Diablo II Links Page has appeared on the Internet, run by SkyFire, this site has taken it upon itself to become the new center of links in the Diablo II Community.  We are sure this site will see big numbers soon, and want to wish SkyFire the best of luck. 

                - Landarth (Newstracker)
                 

  • Diablo II Delayed? (2/4)

Don´t go off of the handle quite yet.  We received an e-mail from the Chips & Bits Affiliate program today that stated that Diablo II had been pushed back to May of this year, but I wouldn´t read too much into it.  Blizzard has made no official statement concerning the Beta or the release date, and until that time take all projections from anyone with a grain of salt. 

  • News on the Interview... (2/4)

If you were wondering why there was no Fansite Interview for January then we have your answer.  A recent e-mail from PR´s Tony Gervase tells us that no one at Blizzard has had the time for such an engagement, but it will be back with a vengeance for this month.  To compensate for the lost interview, two Diablo II Fansites will be chosen for this month´s random drawing. 

  • Impending Chat. (2/3)

The latest Official Fansite Chat is on the way, but unfortunately this one is for WarCraft III only.  Despite that, though, we do plan on being in attendence just to catch any Diablo II news that might present itself in the process.  The chat will be on Thurday, February 10. 

  • New Images... (2/3)

Blizzard has made full-color pictures of the magazine advertisements for Diablo II available to their Fansites, so we have diligently put them up for display here at ShadowSpiral Diablo II.  You xan see these beautiful images below (because of their size they are without HTML): 

A post by Sam Lantinga of Loki Entertainment Software made a comment over on Linuxgames.Com that if his company could impress Blizzard with their numbers that a possible of port of Diablo II to the Linux may be in the works.  A petition has already started at Tux Games getting e-signatures of those interested in such an affair.  In you are interested click here to voice your say. 

  • Announcement Changes and Info. (2/2)

Blizzard´s Geoff Frazier appeared in the War Room to explain a change to the basic structure of the Battle.net website.  Now the Announcements Forum is gone and all announcements will be posted on the main page, to paraphrase his words.  Elsewhere, resident answer-man Mike Huang had this post to talk about item highlighting: 

    "Yes, there will be item highlighting. In the original Diablo, the only way to highlight an item was to hold your mouse over it. A new feature in Diablo II will be to hold down the Alt-key and that will pop up the name of any item on the ground. By selecting the name of the item, your character will walk over and pick up the item. It makes finding those hard-to-find rings and amulets off the ground so much easier. After half an hour of using this new feature, you'll wonder how you ever got by without it."
  • Blizzard Official Posts... (2/1)

Official Blizzard represenatives have made several appearances on the forums today.  We lead off with Geoff Frazier and his post announcing additions to the Blizzard Legal FAQ.  The nest post is by Mike Huang and deals TCP/IP support with Diablo II.  Geoff Frazier then took over the reigns with this answer to a question about the release date:

    "Stores make their own guesses when they think Diablo II will be out just like people in the forums. A 3rd party store changing their release date guess is no way a DELAY on our side."

Mr. Frazier´s final answer is a rather enlightening, giving us keen insight into what Blizzard thinks of Diablo II and how it will compare to other recent offerings: 

    "Well people said the same thing before Starcraft came out and it did fine. Diablo II will do fine as well. Just take a look at how well Diablo I is still doing and how Popular Diablo I still is and Diablo II has so much more to offer."
  • Cinematic Shot Released. (2/1)

A new Rendered Shot has been released with the SSOTW as per usual, this one featuring the shrimpy waiter from the cinematic trailer.  See it below: 

There is a new translation for the Korean Preview at Gamestrat.  It gives a little of a different view of the material in the preview with perhaps more detailed thought.  Still, the same questions are raised.  See the new translation here. 

                - Landarth (Newstracker)
                 

  • Screenshot of the Week. (2/1)

The newest Screenshot of the Week has been released, this one demonstrating the Teeth skill of the Necromancer against a huge creature called a Water Watcher Head.  See below: 

    Screenshot of the Week #48: A mouthfull of Teeth for this beast...

                - Landarth (Newstracker)
                 

 

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Skill of the Week

Heal (old skill)
Once a part of the Amazon skill trees, any character´s skill-based healing has been completely removed now, replaced by other skills that bestow limited regeneration or indirect healing.

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