It will be able to rain and snow, having no effect on gameplay. Just for information, the team was taken on the idea of having rainfall slow down the running speed of the player. But this posed problems to the balance of the game, hence rejected. Players run faster according to their experience, magical items, and endurance. The barbarian has the strongest endurance.

The game will be accelerated via the Glide and Open GL APIs. The resolution will be 640x480 with 3D sound integrated. In accelerated mode, Diablo 2 will use a proprietary parallax system for the redimensioning of sprites and to simulate a correct perspective with depth.

In the case of audio. Blizzard North chose DDA, Digital Data Audio. This format produces better quality than Red Book, the format they had used previously.

Transportation is taken care of mostly by portals, but also by a system of way points. Way points allow you to travel to a point where you have already been.

Each object will be visible on the player. Even better, the same armour will not have the same look on each character. There are hundreds of possible variations. The rare items or relics also have a specific look with a red glow, or other effect.

Very rare items, according to Bill Roper, have a one in ten chance of being found in every hundred hours of play. The goal? That this signifies something, et ameliorates the interaction between players.

The equipment will be specific for each class, for example a Necromancer can find a Sword of the Heavens but it is to be used only by the Paladin. Selling the item only gets you a portion of its value in gold. But you can exchange the item in for something of equal value like the Staff of Undead Control. So in this case, the barter system works with a menu, no more theft. Equipment is divided in sets, and when items of sets are combined their power is multiplied. For example, Bone Armour with 22 AC plus a Bone Shield with 22 AC will equal greater than 44 AC.

The management of day and night in Diablo 2 is dealt in 2-3 hour cycles. It influences what kind of monsters you encounter, and in some cases even affects equipment. For example, a Shield of the Moon will be more effective at night. There will be many new types of items. This includes gloves and boots. And also, books to store scrolls. Some items are now "Socketable". You can make magical item out of them with the help of gems. Take for example, a hat with two sockets for gems with a gem of lightning being inserted in one socket. This hat is gaining lightning resistance. At this time all sockets are round but this may change to different shapes for each type of object to facilitate the process. For example, maybe square for armour.

Blizzard has introduced the usage of oils. These allow for a temporary power-up to an item. The creation of potions will be taken care of by the players competence with using the Convert skill with monster remains. There will also be explosive and poison potions to make it more balanced.

In multiplayer, 8 players will be permitted. It will be possible in chat to see the stats of another player if they authorise it. The most interesting thing lies within the ability to buy a house (Guild Hall) from an NPC for establishing a guild and storing items.

A guild master must manage the access list (list of authorised members). A voting system will be in place to decide who the guild master will be. For individuality of each guild, a guild must choose two colours and a coat of arms. Keep in mind that the coat of arms is not something you make yourself and upload to Battle.Net. They are pre-created and you choose which one you want. You will be able to upgrade your guild house, than rather buying a better one.

In the case of helping to eliminate player killers, it will be possible to customise parties. You declare your relations with each player either allied, neutral, or hostile. The more barbaric players may chose to do their killing in the arena, that involves a ladder system.

In the game, the NPCs can help you fight off approaching enemies. One type of NPC are mercenaries that follow you in your adventure. If you are a Necromancer you can have a mercenary and golem at your side.

No more duplication or trainer usage as the information is stored on Battle.Net.

To give you an idea of big this game is. Allen Adham took his high level character for a voyage from the beginning of act three to the act one monastery without using any portals. In total this took him more than 2 hours doing nothing but running! And also knowing that Diablo 2 contains four acts, and the last being 3 times larger than the original Diablo; it gives us a good idea of how massive the game is going to be.

In fact, the team also chose to not to title the final act (or for the moment). Also, Diablo will have an entirely different look than he previously had, as he has a different host now, a mighty hero rather than a young price. He will be more powerful and ferocious than ever.

There are no longer three characters but rather five: the Paladin, the Necromancer, the Amazon, the Sorceress and the Barbarian. And for your information they go by these names in French: Ils seront "le Paladin", "le Nécromant", "l'Amazone", "la Sorcière", et "le Barbare".

Each character is distinguished by many different skills in which they can perform. There are three passive skills in existence:

Dodge, Avoid and Evade. These skills are arranged similar to the tech tree in Starcraft. You need to invest in other skills before moving to the next. Be assure that there will be three trees per character.

For the Amazon for example there is "Javelins and Lances", "Health and Repairs" and "Bows and Crossbows". In addition to this, some abilities for other classes are the Barbarian's ability to fight with two hands and to use "Shout" to raise his party's AP.

You will be fighting the three prime evils.

This game has much replay value as Bill Roper said you will never play the same game twice. However, they are still undecided on the subject of difficulty. However one thing IS for sure, the multiplayer will be harder. bla bla bla...

They ditched durability.

They are almost finished fine-tuning Act 3, and are on to the casting of voice actors. They're accents differing depending on where you are in the game.

We shall expect a Mac and DVD version coming in the future sometime after the original release. And also apparently an expansion pack is expected as well. The release date is unofficial, however much speculation has been circling around sometime around Halloween. The beta test starts in August.