DIABLO III BETA TEST OBSERVATIONS

Look at electrician's post. You can get a 2600K quad core barebone for less than $600.00 or buy the parts yourself as you can afford them.

Good news for the WOW folks.

"World of Warcraft fans will be pleased to know that those who have a WoW season pass will be rewarded with a free copy of the upcoming Diablo 3. As users eagerly await details on an official release date, we have some information on how to take advantage of this offer.

In an article on Examiner, there is news for those who registered a full version of WoW on or before October 18th, 2011 will be able to benefit with this great offer from Blizzard. Users will firstly have to create a free Battle.net account and merge it with their World of Warcraft account/UserName. The next step is to sign up for the WoW annual pass and receive Diablo 3 free.

The annual pass is a one-year World of Warcraft subscription payable in monthly installments. Requirements include a valid credit card and registered a full version of World of Warcraft within the date stated. Participants must be 18 or older and as soon as it is available, users will be able to download and play Diablo 3."

Flak Monkey wrote:

Wonder if it would run on my Dino...
Wife and I need new rigs real bad...but we agreed that she would be first since she has the oldest...but as things sits, that wont happen for quite some time.

Here's the latest on system requirements:

Diablo 3 System Requirements

Blizzard still doesn’t announce any system requirements or configurations required for Diablo 3, according to the most reliable source and on the Diablo 3 website itself. They don’t know before the day the game is completed because at the final stage, they will have to optimize everything to make it playable on many platforms; to keep the graphics excellent without sacrificing much perfornances.

Diablo 3 System Requirement?

Currently, we can only guess what will be the system requirement for Diablo 3. The game will be made in 3D, Blizzard’s physics and graphics engine (which we have known through a lot of games like StarCraft and WoW). Here’s the quote on system specs:

Jay Wilson: Currently we have no plans for specific DirectX 10 support. Right now are running a DirectX 9, and we run on a pretty broad range of systems, really fast. Overall, across-the-board Blizzard’s goal is that all of our games support a broad range of systems. We don’t jump up the system specs in any grand way. We have no intentions of being a high-end game, and certainly no intentions of being an exclusive DirectX 10 game at this time.

We don’t exactly know what the system specs are yet, but we’ll try to keep them pretty low. We make a lot of decisions about what we do and do not put into our graphics, in order to keep the game running fast. One of the reasons why we talk a lot about art style, and how we focus a lot on art style, stylization of art over… when we do that it allows us to have a good looking game about falling back on technology, our technology does not have to carry us when we have such great art in the game.

And here’s our complete guess for the Diablo 3 system requirements

PC Minimum System Requirements
?Windows XP/Vista/7 with DirectX 9.0 c
?3.2 Pentium IV Intel Process or AMD Athlon
?128 MB PCIe GeForce 6600 GT or ATI Raden 9800 PRO.
?12 GB Disk space
?1 GB RAM
?DVD drive
?Broadband Internet connection
?1024 x 720 minimum display resolution

Recommend System
?Windows Vista/Windows 7
?Dual-core Processor, prefer 2.8 Ghz
?4GB RAM
?512 MB and up graphic card (Preferably ATI Radeon 3870 or better, for NVIDIA should be GeForce 8800 GTX)

MAC Minimum System Requirements
? Mac® OS X 10.5.8, 10.6.2 or newer
? Intel® Processor
? NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT or ATI Radeon® X1600 or better
? 12 GB available HD space
? 2 GB Ram
? DVD-ROM drive
? Broadband Internet connection
? 1024X720 minimum display resolution

Mac Recommended Specifications:
? Intel® Core 2 Duo processor
? 4 GB system RAM
? NVIDIA® GeForce® 9600M GT or ATI Radeon® HD 4670 or better

And according to some leaks from the beta testers:

With the recent leaks of Diablo 3 Beta gameplay and screenshots it was only a matter of time before system requirement details would emerge. Here’s the minimum and recommended requirements for PC and Mac systems, many will be happy to see that Diablo 3 does not require a pimped out machine or a super computer like another game we all want to play….*Cough* Battlefield 3 *Cough*

MINIMUM SYSTEM SPECIFICATIONS

PC

OS: Windows® XP/Windows Vista®/Windows® 7 (Latest Service Packs) with DirectX® 9.0c
Processor: Intel Pentium® D 2.8 GHz or AMD AthlonTM 64 X2 4400+
Video: NVIDIA® GeForce® 7800 GT or ATI Radeon™ X1950 Pro or better

Mac

OS: Mac® OS X 10.6.8 or newer | Processor: Intel® Core 2 Duo
Video: NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT or ATI Radeon™ HD 2600 or better

All Platforms

HD Space: 12 GB available HD space | Memory: 1 GB RAM (1.5 GB required for Windows Vista®/
Windows® 7 users, 2 GB for Mac® users) | Drive: DVD-ROM drive | Internet: Broadband Internet
connection | Display: 1024×768 minimum display resolution

(Note: Be advised that some wireless connections do not meet the minimums required to be a true Broadband Internet connecton. Wireless results may vary.)

RECOMMENDED SYSTEM SPECIFICATIONS

PC

OS: Windows Vista®/Windows® 7 (Latest Service Packs) | Processor: Intel® Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz
or AMD AthlonTM 64 X2 5600+ 2.8 GHz | Memory: 2 GB RAM | Video: NVIDIA® GeForce® 260 or
ATI Radeon™ HD 4870 or better

Mac

OS: Mac® OS X 10.7 or newer | Processor: Intel® Core 2 Duo | Memory: 2 GB RAM
Video: NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 330M or ATI Radeon™ HD 4670 or better

NOTE:

Since the two sources agree on similiar specifications, I would say that the requirements are pretty much gonna stay within the parameters listed above--might be a few minor changes. Remember, I have always maintained that Blizzard has wanted to ensure that the most of the players have access to the game with their current pc setups, unlike UT3, Farcry, Crysis, etc.

Now, if you are still have an old Intel P2 or equivalent running Win 98SE, no. If you have a pc running Win XP or later, you are ok.

Another thought on the gameplay.

Some players may find the game easy to play. I don't know as yet but during the beta testing, I tried dying once just to test the recovery of the player and where the restart happened. Otherwise, I did not die during actual play. Remember that the difficulty levels were not able to be set.

You gotta love this:

A book that is used in D3. As you play, you will receive pages from the book that you keep.

However, you can buy the entire book outside the game (yes, I did).

Item specifics

Condition: Brand New: A new, unread, unused book in perfect condition with no missing or damaged pages. See the seller’s listing for full details. See all condition definitions- opens in a new window or tab

Subject: Comics & Graphic Novels

Publication Year: 2012

Format: Hardcover

Language: English

Special Attributes: 1st Edition, Illustrated

ISBN: 1608870634

In Blizzard Entertainment’s Diablo® and Diablo II, the recurring character of Deckard Cain delivered quests, accompanied the brave adventurer, and, as the last of the Horadrim, provided a link to the greater history of the world of Sanctuary. Ever mysterious during these appearances, Cain hinted at a larger story, providing snippets of it in his notebook. Diablo III: Book of Cain is Cain’s formal record of this greater tale—a dissertation on the lore of the Diablo universe, told by one who has witnessed and participated in some of the epic events that make up the eternal conflict between the High Heavens and the Burning Hells.

Designed as an “in-world” artifact from the Diablo universe, Diablo III: Book of Cain includes Cain’s revealing meditations, as well as dozens of sketches and color artworks depicting the angelic and demonic beings who wage constant war with one another.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Diablo-III-Book-Cain-Hardcover-/250969281492?pt=US_Fiction_Books&hash=item3a6eef53d4

From the pictures of the pages, it looks fantastic. The cover art is very awesome.

That's just cool (geeky but cool)

Third iteration of beta testing:

After the last few patches and updates to the beta version of D3, it's looking so much better (not the the first version was bad). Gameplay has not changed but Blizzard added more item pickups to the mix.

The beta version now has a more polished look to the map, art and textures are lush, and the game moves right along with no hitches of any sort.