Cancel your weekend plans, demon hunters. Blizzard is opening up the Diablo III beta to everyone starting this Friday — but sadly ending on Monday — to give the forthcoming PC and Mac game and Battle.net a big old stress test. Here are the particulars, from Blizzard.

"From Friday, April 20 at 12:01 p.m. PDT (noon), until Monday, April 23 at 10:00 a.m. PDT you'll be able to log in, team up with friends, and play each of the five heroic classes to level 13 as you fight to save the world from the impending demonic invasion," Blizzard says on its Diablo blog. All you'll need to do is make sure you have a Battle.net account in good working order and that you don't live in Korea. (Sorry, Korea.)

You can start downloading the beta client right now via Battle.net so that you're prepared for the Friday afternoon kick off.

Blizzard has the other answers you seek at its official Diablo III site.

http://www.gametrailers.com/side-mission/2012/04/20/the-diablo-iii-beta-is-open-to-all-this-weekend

I'll have to check this out. I might actually get Diablo 3 just because I know it will have good gameplay and loot. I enjoyed the first two, and I only ever soloed them lol. Plus it doesn't have a monthly subscription or some junk like that. I'll ignore the item buying for real money system. Not even sure how much I'd co-op, if at all (just with friends a few times).

Maybe I'll get some time to play this, but I doubt it.

i just got done playing a few hours of it with 2 friends and its pretty good. i played diablo 1 and almost beat it and loved it but i skipped diablo 2 for some reason and it feels almost the same as it did back then

So, played about 30 minutes of this, and it's certainly nostalgic. However, I really hope the final release has some better graphics. The current ones have an incredibly dated feel. Everything also seemed washed out, but it could be my monitor. I think I need a new one.

I only played it for an hour or so but looks like I'm probably going to get this now. Every class I played was more fun than the last. I tried a Demon Hunter which was decent, then the Wizard was a bit more fun with that ice beam attack, and finally I played the Monk which was completely badass. I lightning punched a skeleton out of a zombie's body. Enough said. I'll be able to co-op with you, Dat, or anyone else that gets it. Not sure if I'd get the Collector's Edition or not. It's pricy, but the artbook, making of, and special character wings look cool. Plus it comes with a copy of Diablo 2 and its expansion, which I never personally owned, though I had a chance to play through them.

Where did you hear it comes with Diablo II? I can't find anywhere that says that.

Diablo Skull and 4GB USB Soulstone

Shackle your PC into unholy slavery with this 4GB USB soulstone and Diablo skull base. The USB also includes full versions of Diablo II and Diablo II: Lord of Destruction so you can retrace the sinister path of the Dark Wanderer once more.

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Ugh just bought Diablo II and have the collector's preordered.