There are three games that are the corner stones of my gaming history: Total Annihilation, Civilization series and Diablo II. These are games that I seem to return to from time to time. In fact, I’ve just bought a new copy of Diablo II to play it with my 11-year-old brother, fantastic way for us to spend time together, which – living 2037 km apart – isn’t something we get to do in person as often as I’d like to. With Skype delivering audio between us, it’s as if we were in the same room.

Diablo II is now eight years old, and for a game to remain fresh all this time is somewhat of an achievement (installing it on Leopard was a struggle but doable in the end). For years there’s been rumors of Diablo III and those rumors are finally answered: Blizzard announced this weekend that it is in the making and will be released when it’s ready! I’m very excited, especially after watching the gameplay demo on their website. Well worth watching, it shows how they’ve remained loyal to the feel of Diablo yet made they gameplay feel more natural and faster. Destroyable environments, anyone?

Christmas 2008? Probably not, but at least, like always with Blizzard, it’ll be PC and Mac from day one.

–kristian