diablo-ii posts

Ah, E3. The time of year when game writers go into overdrive. The next week ahead will involve long nights, lots of transcription, and spending quality time with the lovely and talented C₈H₁₀N₄O₂ -- caffeine. We here at Big Download will be no exception to this, and as such, we bring you the E3 roundup for WRUP; the "dude, where's my plane" edition.

Our fearless Managing Editor, Steven Wong suggested a networked game of Diablo II before we all jumped on planes this weekend, but several of us who still had packing to do just looked at him funny. As such, he's been hanging out in Civ4 and City of Heroes. John Callaham figured he'd take the "jump in, frag someone, jump out" route and opted for a little Team Fortress 2 to ease the stress. David Craddock was one of the people who thought Steven had a good idea, though and replied to Steven's request with "Is there any other game besides Diablo II? Yes - there's Diablo III. But that's not out yet. So I play Diablo II. Always. For long time."

On the writer side of the table, both Rafe Brox and Xav de Matos expressed plans to spend some time in WoW. Of course, Rafe said he'd also be playing with power tools, and Xav expressed the intent to play the "omg, get caught up on features" game, which this blogger certainly knows all too well and will be joining him in playing. James Murff is relaxing (not having to jump on a plane) with some zombie love in Survival Crisis Z. When he's not buried in brains, he'll be hopping between Team Fortress 2 and Dwarf Fortress. And of course, most of the crew will be playing the uber-leet Sleep Deprivation game. Luckily, we've all managed to beat that game several times over and we've memorized the content.

So, readers -- What aRe yoU Playing this next week? Will you play Sleep Deprivation with us and stay glued to the tubes for all the news, or will you instead kick back with your favorite game and relax?

This is the first time any one franchise has dominated our Big Downloads list. It's been almost exactly one week since Blizzard announced Diablo 3, and since then everything with the Diablo name attached to it has blown out through the door.

So four out of five of this week's top downloads are Diablo-related. We've thrown in the also-popular S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky trailer for some variety. To the Americans: have a great holiday weekend. To everyone else: have a great normal weekend!

	Diablo 3 Cinematic Teaser Trailer Blizzard has always been known for making lavish cinematics. Check out this gorgeous and forboding introduction to Diablo 3's story.
	Diablo 3 Gameplay Trailer Not much for flair and flash? Want to just get to the point? Download this for gameplay footage from Diablo 3.
	Diablo 2 Demo (Windows) After Diablo 3 was announced, everyone started playing Diablo 2 again. If you can't find your old discs, and aren't sure you want to spend any money yet, grab this demo.
	Diablo 2 Demo (Mac) Ditto for Mac users! Blizzard's a friend to Apple.
	S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky Atmosphere Trailer S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl was praised for its deep atmosphere, inspired by a film of the same name by Russian art-house director Andrei Tarkovsky. Clear Sky aims to follow suit, as this video demonstrates.

Your daily wrap-up of the hottest stories in PC gaming in the last 24 hours.

	Diablo II PC, Mac demos available on Big Download For many PC gamers, this weekend's official Diablo III announcement instigated a resurgence of Diablo purchases and re-installations across the globe. If you're interested in Diablo III but haven't partaken in the previous two installments, Big Download will happily take you back in time eight years with the Diablo II demo, which is available for PC and Mac gamers.
	In-Depth: Alone in the Dark It goes without saying that Alone in the Dark was one of the most intriguing games from Atari (see also Infogrames), in what seems like eons. Initial information released regarding the revival of the original survival horror title had gamers genuinely excited to step back into the shoes of the mysterious hero, Edward Carnby. So how did the franchise reboot turn out?
	Mac Monday: Freeverse's Neon Tango "If Chuck Norris had his action removed and hot-glued onto Jack Bauer, and then Mr. Bauer was blended into a protein shake, it would be called "The Neon Tango" and ... it would be Delicious!!!" It would also be extremely difficult to come up with a greater summary for any game than this one, posted on the homepage of Freeverse Software's Neon Tango.
	Hands-on: Space Siege Space Siege, the latest Gas-Powered Games title designed by Chris Taylor, looks to fill a void for action-RPG fans who prefer guns, grenades and aliens to bows, spells and dragons. But whether you prefer fireballs or flaming gas canisters, snarling aliens or slobbering orcs, Space Siege is a click-fest at its core, and it is that tried-and-true mechanic that should entice all breeds of action-RPG players to Space Siege.
	Guide to TF2 Pyro Achievements, Part 6 We have crafted for you this very guide to ease your attempts to fulfill the strange objectives given to you. You have read the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth parts, so here is the sixth and final installment. Now you are ready to go and purge the world of flora, fauna, and anything else flammable.Firefighter

If you are one of the two people on the planet that hasn't played Blizzard's action-RPG Diablo II, you can now download both the original game and the expansion pack Lord of Destruction from Blizzard's recently launched downloadable store.

Both the original game and the expansion cost $19.99 each to download. If you already own the game you know that Blizzard recently got rid of the game's CD check with a patch. If you ever happen to lose your CD you can still use your CD key to download the game at Blizzard's web store.

The bomb has been dropped! That is to say, the Spore Creature Creator demo came out this week! Users have made over 250,000 creatures already (some of them unsavory), and the final version of Spore won't even arrive until September! This week also saw the launch of the skeptically-anticipated The Princess Bride demo, another Team Fortress 2 "Meet the..." video, and the first patch for Blizzard's Diablo II in quite some time.

That means we'll all have plenty of stuff to keep us busy over the weekend. In fact, while you're playing with the Creature Creator this weekend, don't forget to save your best creatures and submit them to Big Download's Spore Creature Creator Giveaway contest. You could win cool stuff. Have fun!

	Spore Creature Creator Demo (Windows) The Spore Creature Creator lets you create a virtually unlimited number of strange creatures for the upcoming life sim Spore. It comes from the mind that brought you The Sims. Yeah, it probably doesn't need any introduction, but we thought we'd give it one anyway!
	Spore Creature Creator Demo (Mac OS) The Spore Creature Creator lets you create a virtually unlimited number of strange creatures for the upcoming life sim Spore. From the mind who brought you The Sims. Yeah, it probably doesn't need any introduction, but we thought we'd give it one anyway! Also on Mac!
	The Princess Bride Demo This is an adaptation that's been a long time coming. The demo features 30 minutes of casual gameplay. Just watch out for ROUSes.
	Team Fortress 2: Meet the Sniper Trailer Meet the Sniper is the latest in a series of class-based promo trailers for Team Fortress 2. It's hilarious, and you'll learn a bit about the sniper class. If you like Guy Ritchie films, you'll enjoy the humor here.
	Diablo II: Lord of Destruction 1.12a Patch It's been 8 years since Diablo II first came out, but Blizzard is still supporting it! This patch removes the CD check on the game, presumably paving the way for a digital download future.

Your daily wrap-up of the hottest stories in PC gaming in the last 24 hours.

	Big Download Interview: PC Gaming Alliance President Randy Stude Is the PC gaming industry dying? According to a recently revealed new non-profit organization, the answer is a resounding "No!". The PC Gaming Alliance was first announced last February at a press conference at GDC with companies that normally compete with each other. Hardware companies like Intel, Nvidia, AMD, Acer, Dell and Antec are full members and game software developer/publishers like Microsoft, Epic Games and Activision are also members of the group (contributors include Capcom, Razer, Logitech, the Guildhall at SMU, Wildtangent, and the Entertainment Merchants Association).
	First screenshots from Gothic 3: Forsaken Gods released Jowood is busy working with developer Spellbound on the next full game in the Gothic fantasy RPG series (which recently got renamed from Gothic 4 to Arcania: A Gothic Tale) but we won't see that title for quite a while (it's currently due out in late 2009. But fans of the previous game in the series (the one who could get the bug ridden title to work that is) will soon get an expansion pack and Jowood has just released the first screenshots for the title.
	Download The Princess Bride demo here, now! As we mentioned earlier today The Princess Bride Game from Worldwide Biggies is finally available. It really does look like an interesting casual game, and based on the fact that there has never been a Princess Bride game almost assures it some degree of success.
	Diablo II 1.12 patch available for download Blizzard's recently released 1.12 patch for Diablo II, which eliminates the need for CDs, is now available at Big Download. CDs can only be kept safely in their jewel cases if the game's Full Install was used. Players who selected either Single Player or Multiplayer install will need to re-install the game using the Full Install option.

Blizzard's recently released 1.12 patch for Diablo II, which eliminates the need for CDs, is now available at Big Download. CDs can only be kept safely in their jewel cases if the game's Full Install was used. Players who selected either Single Player or Multiplayer install will need to re-install the game using the Full Install option.

The patch can also be automatically applied by logging into Battle.net.

Download Diablo II 1.12 at Big Download.

Your daily wrap-up of the hottest stories in PC gaming in the last 24 hours.

	Spore Creature Creator demo now available on Big Download It's one of the most anticipated PC game launches of 2008 (some might say it's one of the biggest of all time) and now we can finally give you a tiny taste of it. Electronic Arts' Maxis studio has released the Spore Creature Creator, a stand alone editor that players can use now to make creatures that can later be imported into the full Spore game when it is released on September 7.
	Spore Creature Creator Giveaway Big Download wants to see intelligent design in action. So, we're kicking off a two week giveaway contest to see what crazy creatures grow and evolve. Simply download the Spore Creature Creator and let your imagination run wild. Take a screenshot of your best creature and email it to contests@bigdownload.com. Our judges will pick the top ten creatures and let you vote for the winners.
	A brief chat with Maxis' Lucy Bradshaw on Spore Creature Creator In 2005, in what was supposed to be an interesting but un-extraordinary panel at the Game Developers Conference, Will Wright, the near-legendary creator of Sim City and The Sims titles, revealed to a shocked audience his next full blown creation in playable form. That creation was Spore, a kind of evolution sim game where players could help make a complete space-faring civilization out of a single cell organism.