Players have been waiting since 2000 for a follow up to Blizzard's Diablo II, and last night finally got their hands on the long awaited Diablo III. Set in the dark fantasy world of Sanctuary 20 years after the events of Diablo II, a new generation of heroes has risen to fight against the hellish hordes of Diablo, the Lord of Terror.
Hype and expectations ran high for this game, with more than 2 million preorders, and 8000 launch parties globally, including a major event at London's Oxford Street HMV. In Ireland, Gamestop Henry Street in Dublin and Patrick Street in Cork opened at midnight for the hardcore fans.
Nothing was ever going to be easy, and within a few hours of going live, a pretty sticky glitch hit the servers. Equiping the Templar with a shield on one of the first missions gets you ejected from the game, and in some cases, players are locked out of their Battle.Net (Blizzard's online multiplayer service) account. There is a workaround, for now, and a fix is pending.
Despite this hiccup, the launch of Diablo III has gone very well for for Blizzard. So much so, Blizzard is offering credit to the value of purchase price for anyone who pre-ordered with embattled gaming store Game's Australian chain.
