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Annihilus is a special charm that can only be acquired via the infamous Battle.net Realm-only World Event. For its bonuses it is certainly a coveted item. archive / submit
First Part of Sin War Trilogy Released Thursday, October 12, 2006, 14:53 | TheAcolyte
| Simon and Schuster's Pocket Books together with Blizzard Entertainment this week released Diablo: The Sin War, Book One: Birthright, Richard Knaak's latest Diablo series-themed novel.
The Sin War trilogy explores the deep history behind the game universe in the eternal battle between the High Heavens and the Burning Hells. An introduction in the original game's manual by the same name provides a general outline of this backstory, while these new novels dig deeper into Diablo lore.
Book One opens as the battles between angels and demons enters the realm of Sanctuary:
Since the beginning of time, the angelic forces of the High Heavens and the demonic hordes of the Burning Hells have been locked in an eternal conflict for the fate of all Creation. That struggle has now spilled over into Sanctuary -- the world of men. Determined to win mankind over to their respective causes, the forces of good and evil wage a secret war for mortal souls -- a conflict that will forever change the destiny of man.
Birthright is on sale at Blizzard's online store, Amazon.com, and bookstores for $7.99 USD.
The next book will be titled Scales of the Serpent.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Blizzard's Halloween 2006 Contests Wednesday, October 11, 2006, 14:27 | TheAcolyte
| On its web sites Blizzard Entertainment revealed three contest for this year's Halloween holiday.
Back for another year is the most welcome Pumpkin Contest. Fans may carve designs based on the three PC game universes Blizzard is so well known for: Diablo, Starcraft, and Warcraft. Five winners will receive the World of Warcraft board game, role-playing game, and one copy of the PC game.
Second is the Costume Contest, in which costumes may be themed on the three game universes as well. Five winners will receive a copy of World of Warcraft and a one-year subscription to the game service.
Prizes are most extravagant for the Warcraft IIIMapping Contest, featuring two high-end audio cards and one high-end video card. Three winners will receive one of the aforementioned prizes.
Submissions for the Pumpkin and Costume contests are due by October 27, while the Mapping Contest closes as of October 20. Good luck to all!
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Median 2007 1.31, Median 2008 Revealed Tuesday, October 10, 2006, 06:51 | TheAcolyte
| Brother Laz released Median 2007 v1.31 with a few substantial additions.
5 new uberbosses
Skill and item rebalancing
Destruction difficulty reduced
A few additional bug fixes
Second, on his web site the developer announced that he is developing the next generation of the mod, Median 2008:
Big changes upcoming. True class-specific skill trees with 25 skills per class (many from Median 2007, many new), many more passives and a strong class identity. More stat points to distribute, stronger items, more balanced cube recipes. And the game will be a tad easier than the previous patches again, because that's what the crowd wants.
Monday, September 18, 2006
Blizzard Extends Art Contest Deadline Monday, September 18, 2006, 15:08 | TheAcolyte
| Due to a service outage as a result of many incoming submissions, Blizzard Entertainment issued a statement extending the deadline for the Blizzard Art Contest to the end of Wednesday, September 20.
Due to a drastic increase in contest submissions during the last weekend, the contest submission form was temporarily unavailable, preventing some artists from submitting their work for this year�s Blizzard Art Contest. In order to give all artists who put in a great effort and worked until the very last minute a fair chance, we are extending the submission deadline to 11:59PM PDT on Wednesday, September 20, 2006.
If you experienced problems submitting your work, please go back to the submission form and try again. If you continue to encounter problems using the submission form, you can also send your work to contestquestions@blizzard.com. If you do, you must include the following in your email: first and last name, address, city, state/province, zip/postal code, country, email (if other than the one you are contacting us with), phone, school (if you are a student), artwork category, name of your submitted artwork, and of course, the attached artwork itself. If you choose to send your entry to this email address, please only send one piece of artwork per email, and please review the contest rules before sending.
Thanks to everyone for participating. We apologize for the inconvenience these technical issues may have caused, and we hope that this extension of the deadline will allow all of you to contribute to the already amazing number of high-quality submissions we have received.
Friday, September 8, 2006
The PDF Inquirer Issue 25 Friday, September 8, 2006, 00:31 | TheAcolyte
| In a special Friday issue of The PDF Inquirer, the premier news journal from Sanctuary, the preview of Demona's biography continues. Additionally, a special report details two controversial upcoming runeword item recipes, the Necromancer-Paladin conflict is covered, and the scoop is on the two new singles from the hottest artists in Sanctuary.
Congratulations to forum-goer and author Inquisitor95 for his twenty-fifth issue!
Monday, August 14, 2006
Blizzard's President Interviewed Monday, August 14, 2006, 10:03 | TheAcolyte
| 1 Comments The Mercury News interviewed Mike Morhaime, co-founder and president of Blizzard Entertainment. The article mostly discusses the success of World of Warcraft, but Morhaime does mention that the company has "a number of other projects" in the works and provides insight on the fate of Starcraft: Ghost.
It became pretty clear to us that we were late in the platform transition. We were on the wrong platform and were quickly running out of time to iterate and polish the game. We decided to pull the plug on working on old generation and we shifted all of our resources to working on next-generation platforms. There were a lot of things that we learned working on it. We�ll hopefully be able to leverage a lot of that with our next-generation games.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Battle.net Music Player Updated Thursday, August 10, 2006, 20:04 | TheAcolyte
| Blizzard Entertainment set up a music player web application on its Battle.net gaming network's web site, featuring music from Starcraft, Brood War, Diablo, Diablo 2, and Lord of Destruction. The player is Flash-based and the interface comes in a style reminiscent of WinAmp.
A separate Warcraft-themed online music player features tracks from the series plus World of Warcraft. As a bonus, it also has a nonstop-dancing ogre.
We warn that hearing the vibrations from the Caves yet again may send chills down listener's spines.
Monday, August 7, 2006
Fan Site Reviews the Mysteries of Diablo Monday, August 7, 2006, 07:01 | TheAcolyte
| Comment! Diablo Evolution is a new fan site that reviews in-depth the development stages of the original Diablo game, from Alpha One through Beta and beyond.
Each development stage reveals a number of hidden features that didn't make it to the final version of Diablo. These include eleven quests and eight levels, quite a few items and monsters, 12 spells, and even a whole non-player character. More content was left out in Hellfire, too.
Among the many contributors, The Phrozen Keep's Onyx helped create this resource over a two-year period.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Interface Artist Position Open Thursday, July 13, 2006, 09:59 | TheAcolyte
| Blizzard North is looking for an User Interface Artist. This is the latest job posting on the company's employment opportunities web site, and it indicates that the division that created the Diablo series is alive and well despite the many departures of former team members.
The team behind Diablo I and II is looking for an artist specializing in the creation of user interface art. This artist will create such things as in-game background screens, UI containers/borders, item icons, character portraits, etc. The ideal candidate has strong painting skills, the ability to adapt their style, and feels comfortable working in a team environment.
Blizzard May Return to Consoles Thursday, July 13, 2006, 09:39 | TheAcolyte
| Australian gaming site PALGN suggests that last month's Senior Producer job posting at Blizzard Entertainment points to the company's plans to develop future console system games.
This comes at a surprise after the cancellation or postponement of Starcraft: Ghost. Blizzard might be simply exploring the opportunity to return to console development after re-releasing its classic titles, and it might still have a release schedule for Ghost.
Blizzard Entertainment has an opening for an experienced Senior Producer with a proven track record of producing high quality console games.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Blizzard Art Contest Launched Wednesday, July 12, 2006, 17:58 | TheAcolyte
| Blizzard Entertainment is launching a large-scale Fan Artwork Contest with some impressive prizes. The categories include Best Art in Diablo, Starcraft, Warcraft, and Cinematics. Only 2D concept art and 3D model stills are to be accepted, rather than animations.
Open submissions begin at midnight Pacific Time on Monday, July 31. Legal adult residents of the United States, Canada (except Quebec), Australia, New Zealand, France, the United Kingdom, and Singapore are eligible.
Four grand prize winners will receive a Grand Prize Package valued at $10,000 USD and fourteen runners-up will receive a prize package valued at $1,400 USD.
The Grand Prize Package consists of either cash or all of the following: A trip to Los Angeles plus a lunch or dinner with Blizzard employees, a Wacom Cintiq tablet, an Alienware Area-51 7500 desktop, an autographed and framed Blizzard art print, and a $220 USD gift certificate to the company's online store.
The Secondary Package does not carry the option of cash only but includes $1,000 USD, an autographed and framed Blizzard art print, and a $220 USD gift certificate to the company's online store.
Median 2007 Mod Premiers Wednesday, July 12, 2006, 17:20 | TheAcolyte
| Comment! Brother Laz has released the next generation of his Median mod series for Lord of Destruction.
Median 2007 is the latest mod in the Median line, and its number one feature is the all new, class-specific skill trees, thirty new skills per class. From a wall of archers to a fireball nova, Median 2007 has it all.
This mod replaces Median 2006, which will continue to be supported, but the website has been updated to reflect the new Median 2007 content. So if you are one of those poor fools who is still playing Median 2006, don't trust the runeword list...
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