Space! When we're not jumping from the edge of it, we're setting our games in it. And when we're not setting our games in it, Blizzard are at the very least prototyping Diablo clones in it. So says David Craddock, author of unofficial Blizzard biography Stay Awhile and Listen. Starblo, as it was delightfully codenamed, would feature new and exotic planets instead of acts and dungeons, bizarre alien wildlife instead of skeletal demonlords and lasers instead of swords. It was sadly - much like the Game Boy port of Diablo - consigned to the hack 'n' slash history books.
Game Boys are basically tiny handheld PCs, aren't they? Right, we're agreed. I can write about them here on PCGamesN, and so I can tell you all about how it's been revealed that Blizzard had made plans for a Game Boy version of Diablo called (adorably) Diablo Junior. The shelved handheld version of the hack and slash was to be split across three cartridges, with one class per cartridge. There were also going to be special items only attainable through trading with other Diablo Junior players - like Pokémon, but with world-ending demons instead of Pikachus.
Blizzard All-stars is the developer’s own attempt to usurp Dota 2 and League of Legends; games built upon the success of the original Warcraft 3 Dota mod. Originally named Blizzard DOTA, its name was changed after a legal dispute with Valve over the Dota trademark.
While Valve may now hold the Dota trademark, Blizzard can still lay claim to being the inspiration for the Dota legacy, which stretches back through Warcraft 3 to the original StarCraft and a custom map known as Aeon of Strife. Here’s what we know about their game so far.
There’s something of the underdog about Torchlight 2. When you’re standing in the shadow of the Diablo franchise, you’re always going to look like David against Goliath. So it brings a warm fuzzy feeling to know that Torchlight 2 is well on its way to being a solid success. Last night it reached the top 2 on Steam’s concurrent user list, with over 54 thousand players.
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On first glance, Marvel Heroes seems like Diablo with Iron Man; a Marvel reskin of a tried and tested formula, with the guy that came up with that formula, Diablo’s David Brevik, at the helm. You pick your Marvel hero, right click your way through thugs and henchmen, level up, all the while upgrading and customising your hero. But it’s more than that. This is the Diablo style game that Brevik has been wanting to make for the past decade. The original creator of Diablo now has the resources of a massive corporation like Marvel behind him to build an action RPG. And it’s hewing pretty close to what Brevik originally planned for the Blizzard North’s cancelled version of Diablo III.
So you know how when Blizzard updated Diablo 3 with the new Paragon levels a week or so ago, and then Steve made that lovely graph and just laughed in our collective faces when we asked how long it would take to reach Paragon level 100? And we all nodded and looked at that graph, and then we went about our day to day business. Well some people haven’t gone about their day to day business. They’ve taken that Paragon level 100 and seen it as a challenge, and they’re about to overcome it. One player, Alkaizer, just hit level 97. In a week.
When Jay Wilson posted an apology on the Blizzard forums, explaining why exactly he said a pretty nasty thing about David Brevik, one of the major forces behind both previous Diablo games, I was ready to take it with a pinch of salt. Dismiss it as Blizzard forcing him to do a touch of damage control. Treat him like a businessman, a mouthpiece for a company in the same way these things usually are. Except this apology isn’t just heartfelt in regards to David Brevik, it’s also incredibly honest, and earnest, about Diablo 3 in general, but more specifically its flaws. Which isn’t something you ever really hear a developer be.
Legendary items in Diablo 3 are about to get a whole lot more interesting in patch 1.0.4, as detailed in the latest Blizzard blog. Over 50 of the new legendaries will carry custom effects previously reserved for rare monsters: stuff like shielding, summoning minions, fire chains and enemmy charming, as well as unique, flashy in-game models. Essentially, legendaries are finally going to become special, potentially game-changing items, rather than swords with a bit of posh text at the bottom. This is one of the biggest, most exciting changes to the game since launch.
Battle.net suffered a massive security breach last Saturday, August 4, in which encrypted player passwords, a list of global email addresses, answers to personal security question and Authenticator information were all swiped. Blizzard maintain that only North American passwords were accessed, that they're still cryptographically scambled and that they're confident it would be "extremely difficult" to extract the actual password. Either way, if you're a Battle.net user you should change your password immediately, and the passwords of any other accounts that might've shared that password. Mike Morhaime's issued a statement on the Blizzard website, and Blizzard have posted a security FAQ that Battle.net users should probably take a look at.
Backed up by paypal screenshots,corresponding sales in the Real Money Auction House and a big fat bank account, Reddit user WishboneTheDog is making a very solid case for proving that they’ve made over $10,000 since the auction house went live two months ago. All this without botting, scamming, exploiting or doing anything someone might throw an accusing finger at and call cheating. Impressive.
The official Diablo III blog has opened up its Trenchcoat of +4 Revelations and is currently waving its Patch 1.0.3 Preview of... Metaphors in our shocked faces. That is to say, they've revealed the changes being made in the next Diablo III update, which lands later this month. We've summarised the best bits for you below.
Ever wanted to check the status of the Diablo 3 servers while you’re on a hike, or maybe attempting to sail single-handedly around the world? Or just thinking whether it's worth leaving the office on-time or just heading to the pub? Well, with Diablo 3’s Server Checker for Android, you can!
In the beginning, the most high created a PC mouse. And, to give the mouse something to do for all eternity, he took one of its buttons and made from it a finger to click the mouse forever and ever. Then he made Diablo, so it had a damn good reason to click it. And, ‘lo, across the land, the new humans he’d attached to the fingers got RSI from clicking so damn much, so wanted something Diablo-related to read while they waited for their hands to recover. So we made this history of the Diablo games and we saw it was good.
Some say it's so graphically efficient it can run on an overclocked pocket calculator, and that what the camera can't zoom in on the eye can't really see. But Diablo III is a deceptively complex game, with its fair share of technical troubles that can trouble even the most powerful systems. And that's before you get to the always online thing.
We can't do much to help improve server stability or disconnects, but there are a few pieces of advice we can give you to get Diablo III running smoothly.
If Blizzard wasn’t having enough problems already, with Diablo 3’s overloaded servers and ridiculous anti-piracy measures, news is filtering through of mass account hacks. Remember; this is a single (or at most four-player) game that had no reason to be online-only beyond Blizzard’s increasingly ludicrous concerns about piracy.
Blizzard has announced that the Auction house will be delayed until an unspecified date. Note, this doesn’t mean it’s been cancelled, just that they’re still ironing out some bugs. They also announced an already-live patch (to both the launcher and the game - perhaps to prevent the many examples of hacking that have been reported.) Nethaera, one of the community management team, put out a short announcement:
Space! When we're not jumping from the edge of it, we're setting our games in it. And when we're not setting our games in it, Blizzard are at the very least prototyping Diablo clones in it. So says David Craddock, author of unofficial Blizzard biography Stay Awhile and Listen. Starblo, as it was delightfully codenamed, would feature new and exotic planets instead of acts and dungeons, bizarre alien wildlife instead of skeletal demonlords and lasers instead of swords. It was sadly - much like the Game Boy port of Diablo - consigned to the hack 'n' slash history books.
Blizzard All-stars is the developer’s own attempt to usurp Dota 2 and League of Legends; games built upon the success of the original Warcraft 3 Dota mod. Originally named Blizzard DOTA, its name was changed after a legal dispute with Valve over the Dota trademark.
While Valve may now hold the Dota trademark, Blizzard can still lay claim to being the inspiration for the Dota legacy, which stretches back through Warcraft 3 to the original StarCraft and a custom map known as Aeon of Strife. Here’s what we know about their game so far.
So you know how when Blizzard updated Diablo 3 with the new Paragon levels a week or so ago, and then 
Legendary items in Diablo 3 are about to get a whole lot more interesting in patch 1.0.4, as detailed in the 
Battle.net suffered a massive security breach last Saturday, August 4, in which encrypted player passwords, a list of global email addresses, answers to personal security question and Authenticator information were all swiped. Blizzard maintain that only North American passwords were accessed, that they're still cryptographically scambled and that they're confident it would be "extremely difficult" to extract the actual password. Either way, if you're a Battle.net user you should change your password immediately, and the passwords of any other accounts that might've shared that password. 
Backed up by 
The official Diablo III blog has opened up its Trenchcoat of +4 Revelations and is currently waving its Patch 1.0.3 Preview of... Metaphors in our shocked faces. That is to say, they've revealed the changes being made in 
Ever wanted to check the status of the Diablo 3 servers while you’re on a hike, or maybe attempting to sail single-handedly around the world? Or just thinking whether it's worth leaving the office on-time or just heading to the pub? Well, with Diablo 3’s Server Checker for Android, you can!
In the beginning, the most high created a PC mouse. And, to give the mouse something to do for all eternity, he took one of its buttons and made from it a finger to click the mouse forever and ever. Then he made Diablo, so it had a damn good reason to click it. And, ‘lo, across the land, the new humans he’d attached to the fingers got RSI from clicking so damn much, so wanted something Diablo-related to read while they waited for their hands to recover. So we made this history of the Diablo games and we saw it was good. 
Some say it's so graphically efficient it can run on an overclocked pocket calculator, and that what the camera can't zoom in on the eye can't really see. But Diablo III is a deceptively complex game, with its fair share of technical troubles that can trouble even the most powerful systems. And that's before you get to the always online thing.
We can't do much to help improve server stability or disconnects, but there are a few pieces of advice we can give you to get Diablo III running smoothly.
If Blizzard wasn’t having enough problems already, with Diablo 3’s overloaded servers and ridiculous anti-piracy measures, news is filtering through of mass account hacks. Remember; this is a single (or at most four-player) game that had no reason to be online-only beyond Blizzard’s increasingly ludicrous concerns about piracy. 
Blizzard has announced that the Auction house will be delayed until an unspecified date. Note, this doesn’t mean it’s been cancelled, just that they’re still ironing out some bugs. They also announced an already-live patch (to both the launcher and the game - perhaps to prevent the many examples of hacking that have been reported.) Nethaera, one of the community management team, put out a short announcement:
