The final allotment of tickets to Blizzard's upcoming BlizzCon convention will go on sale tomorrow at 10am PDT, according to the company.

The pricey stubs cost $125 apiece, and can be purchased on the BlizzCon website. Don't forget to read up on the ticket queue system in advance.

As a reminder, the show takes place on August 21 and 22 in Anaheim, California. Attendees and viewers of the Pay Per View DirecTV and webcast streams will all receive Space Marine pets for World of Warcraft.

New Diablo 3 media released today brings about the return of the Fallen, the lowly red devils from previous Diablo titles.

In line with the rest of the Diablo 3 enemies, there are many variants of the spindly creatures. The below are of the Lunatic variety, "enraged, oversized fallen creatures are bloated seemingly to the point of bursting."

In addition to the Lunatics, the standard Imps and summoning Shamans will return, along with a larger Overseer that "drives his smaller impish charges into a frenzy with his ape-like leaping and growling," and Hounds that are "found among groups of the fallen and are utilized as guard animals."

Check out a video of the Fallen below: ... Read more

Blizzard today--April 1--announced the Archivist, Diablo 3's newest "player class."

Hailing from the dark and dingy studies of Westmarch, the bedraggled Archivist fights not only to save Sanctuary's future but to preserve its past.

Observing the Archivist's powerful Lorenado spell--which chokes enemies with a swirling flurry of pages--we cannot help but recall former World of Warcraft director Jeffrey Kaplan's remarks at the Game Developers Conference that "we need to stop writing a fucking book in our game, because nobody wants to read it."

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The Archivist's other powers include the powerful Quest Bolt spell, which... Read more

A few new screenshots of Diablo 3's user interface accompanied Blizzard's latest BlizzCast. Still no word on a release date for D3, but the shots are mighty tempting.

I'm already thinking about customization--with a chipped sapphire here and a hydra rune there, I could very well end up with the prettiest Barbarian that Sanctuary has ever seen.

Thanks to Shacker bighirst for the tip.

Former Blizzard North VP and original Diablo producer Bill Roper has chimed in on the Diablo 3 art style debate in an interview with VideoGamer, stating that he prefers a "grittier" look to the series rather than Blizzard's current, arguably lighter approach.

"You know, I liked the darker, grittier [style]," said Roper, who chalked up the style of the sequel to the contrary philosophies of Blizzard's Irvine studio and the former home of Diablo, the now-defunct Blizzard North.

"It makes complete sense to me where they went because they basically took the Diablo universe and then approached it from the Blizzard Irvine stance for the visuals," he said.

"That's the way they approach things. It wasn't that I looked at it and went, 'Oh my god that looks terrible.' I was like, that looks like Blizzard. The guys in... Read more

Blizzard has released nine fresh screenshots for Diablo 3, including three that introduce a new species of monster: the Unburied.

"Being born out of pits of human misery, these beings feed on human suffering," writes Blizzard of the monsters (pictured below). "Wherever bodies are dumped together unceremoniously, the unburied may rise."

Developer Blizzard has provided the first Diablo 3 update of the new year, issuing a few new screenshots from the anticipated and yes, still undated PC action-RPG sequel.

And please, don't worry about that pink effect. After all, it'll go nicely with the purple ones.

Some new Diablo 3 screenshots emerged from developer Blizzard today, showing off a number of sparkly attacks and ominious environments. There's no word as to when action-RPG sequel will see its long-awaited PC release, but rest assured, it's coming.

Diablo III "will definitely be out after StarCraft II," said Blizzard design VP Rob Pardo.

Pardo, in an extensive interview with Wired, also shed light on the company's plans for DRM and digital distribution. "Battle.net really is our most effective DRM," he said, adding, "That's really kinda been the thing that's always saved us from a lot of the PC piracy that I think hurts a lot of other single-player-only games."

Blizzard plans to similarly rely on its multiplayer match-making service to protect its interests with StarCraft II and Diablo III after their release. "No, there's no particular plans for that," said Pardo in response to a question about the games "phoning home" to check their authenticity with Blizzard servers each time before launching. "If you want to use an analogy--we take an approach that's more similar to Steam than EA, let's say," he explained.

As for Steam itself, Pardo stopped short of shooting down the idea of launching Blizzard products on the service, stating that Blizzard for now plans to stick with its own digital distribution service. "I think we're probably currently in the mindset that we're going to digitally distribute just on Battle.net. I don't know if our strategy will change in the future. I think it's something that we're just trying to get really good at doing ourselves for now," he said.

As expected, we learned a lot of new things about Diablo III at BlizzCon. And as many of these bite-sized details got swept away in all the excitement, I figured it was time to update our massive Diablo III guide.

In addition to tons of new videos and screenshots, we've added plenty of information on the new Wizard class (including her entire current skill tree), details on the newly announced Skill Rune system, and a note on a major change to the attribute system, among many other updates.

Also included is new information on which way Blizzard is leaning on the issue of console ports, subscription fees, and other key development decisions.... Read more

Diablo III director Jay Wilson said today that the company does not have a great desire to charge a subscription fee for the upcoming revision of its multiplayer client Battle.net. However, the developer did note that Blizzard will likely monetize unknown features of the game.

"We are going to monetize features so that we get to make them," said Wilson. "We kind of have to."

Wilson noted that whatever the content would be, it would have an appropriate value to users.

Fans of map hacking and other Diablo II modifications have little to look forward to with the sequel, as Wilson shot down any talk of mod support.

"We don't have a lot of plans to do that. It would make our lives so much harder" he said, adding that despite the fact that he and many other designers got their start in modding, the team takes a strong stance on the hacking of their games.

Wilson also used the panel to reemphasize the trading aspect of Diablo III, saying that no items outside of specific quest rewards will be bound to players.

Though Diablo 3 is currently only confirmed for the PC, Blizzard president Mike Morhaime has once again suggested that the long-awaited action-RPG may end up on consoles as well.

"Every game we have the discussion about which platforms make the most sense," Morhaime stated in an interview at BlizzCon. "As Diablo 3 takes shape, I think we'll do an evaluation."

"I think there is a pretty good argument to be made that that type of game might work very well on consoles," he added. "There might be some technical limitations though that we might need to get past."

Diablo 3 director Jay Wilson also chimed in on the oft-speculated topic, noting that the game's control scheme would work rather well on consoles.

"If we did it, we would want to do a really high quality version--we... Read more

Continuing our ongoing coverage of BlizzCon, we have compiled a complete list of the Wizard class talent trees found in the playable demo of Diablo 3.

As with World of Warcraft, each talent category has multiple tiers, requiring a certain amount of skill points to be spent in the previous tier before the next one is unlocked. For example, 5 skill points must be used in the first tier to access the second.

Along with the below skills, Diablo 3 features a new Skill Rune system, allowing more modification of the talents. For example, adding a Multistrike Rune to the Witch Doctor's Skull of Flame skill splits the lone fireball into multiple splashing attacks.

Be aware that the list below is a work-in-progress, and that some of the details will change before Blizzard's long-awaited PC RPG eventually arrives.

Storm Talents

Level 1
• Charged Bolt
  • Rank 0/1
  • Launch a volley of 3 electric bolts that deal 1-8 lightning damage each. Critical hits from lightning damage stun targets for 2 seconds.
  • Mana Cost: 8
• Thunderstruck
  • Rank 0/15
  • Increases the critical hit chance of all... Read more

Diablo III lead designer Jay Wilson revealed the Skill Rune system of skill modification during his talk at BlizzCon.

Skill Runes are skill-modifying items that are randomly dropped by monsters and used across all classes. They can be attached to each skill like an item, often completely changing the gameplay of each skill.

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The lead designer showed off the Teleport skill with a Striking rune, turning the spell into an offensive skill that can destroy enemies. The Skull of Flame skill was... Read more

Blizzard has opened up a page on the Diablo III website for the Wizard, the new player class announced this morning. Five videos show the class' new effects in action, which we've combined into one trailer below.

Seen in the trailer are the Disintegrate, Electrocute, Teleport, Magic Missile, and Slow Time powers.

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Straight from BlizzCon, we now present you with the new Diablo 3 trailer that was shown moments ago during the BlizzCon opening ceremony.

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Shackvideo users can use the HD Stream. You can also download the original video from FileShack.

Accompanying Blizzard's announcement of the Wizard class and our hands-on impressions of Diablo 3 is about five minutes of gameplay footage, which shows off a Wizard and Barbarian working side-by-side to rid the world of evil.

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The second half of the video follows below ... Read more

Diablo III does look very different from Diablo II. It does. You notice when you're playing. Stylistically, graphically, much has changed.

But after a few seconds of playing, I was back in the same feverish loot-hording mode, locked into a clickfest of nostalgic proportions. Diablo III may look different, but it has the same tactile feel of the original games, the same satisfying feedback of swords and spells.

Starting out in the Tristram Woods, my demonstration began by taking a quest titled the "Return of the Skeleton King." It was my job to make my way through the ghostly woods, enter the old Tristram Church, and destroy the renewed Skeleton King, a throwback to the original Diablo. Playing as a Wizard first, and then a Barbarian, I got... Read more

Update: For more on the Wizard, check out our hands-on impressions of Diablo 3 and the complete Wizard talent tree, direct from the BlizzCon 2008 show floor.

Original Story: The Wizard is the latest addition to the character classes of Diablo 3, Shacknews has learned from the playable Diablo 3 demo at this year's BlizzCon. Joining the previously unveiled Witch Doctor and Barbarian classes, the Wizard is said to "the manipulate primal forces of the universe to vanquish foes."

In the playable BlizzCon demo, which begins in the overgrown and mostly abandoned Tristram Woods before progressing into the Tristram Church Dungeon, the Wizard starts off with the Charged Bolt and fire-ball esque Magic Missile spells.

Frost Nova, Tornado and Blizzard attacks return from past Diablo games, and can be found alongside the new Electrocute attack in the Storm skill tree. The Arcane skill tree sports Teleport, Slow Time, Mana Recovery and the Disintegrate damage spell. The Conjure tree boasts Meteor and Hyrda.

As Tornado was a Druid class skill in Diablo 2, its inclusion in the... Read more

BlizzCon has a Christmastime quality to it. 15,000 children--and child-like adults--have journeyed to Anaheim this year, passing through streets lined with lighted trees on their way in. When they arrive, the first thing they receive is a bag of gifts. And after finding out that Diablo III will be playable, excitement will undoubtedly rob many of their sleep.

Packed into this year's swag bag is a number of free Blizzard-related products. Two that caught my eye instantly are shown below: the official Diablo III stress ball--which turns red upon squeeze--and a simple film canister labeled, "Zerg Creep--DO NOT EAT."

This Creep is horrifying. I anticipated the consistency of Ghostbusters slime, but this is far worse--a chilling, wet ooze that slowly crept from jar to table. Hidden inside the muck was a small figure of a Hydralisk--no doubt a ploy to force timid fans into touching the gross stuff. It worked, but now that I have the prize, I'm nuking this junk from orbit at the next opportunity.

But what of the show? The doors open in the morning around 9:30am PST (12:30pm EST). On hand will be game demo stations, tournaments, art displays, cosplayers--and, of course, Blizzard employees themselves. For the most part, I can only guess at what's in store for each of the company's three known properties.

StarCraft II: It would be unlike Blizzard to announce a hard date... Read more