Diablo III is an upcoming dark fantasy/horror-themed action role-playing game in development by Blizzard, making it the third installment in the Diablo franchise. The game, which features elements of the hack and slash and dungeon crawl genres, was first announced on June 28, 2008, at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Paris, France and is slated for release in the second quarter of 2012.

Diablo III is similar in style to its predecessor, Diablo II. The proprietary engine will incorporate Blizzard's custom in-house physics, a change from the original usage of Havok's physics engine, and feature destructible environments with an in-game damage effect. The developers are aiming to make the game run on a wide range of systems, and have stated that DirectX 10 will not be required. Diablo III will use a custom 3D game engine in order to present an overhead view to the player, in a somewhat similar way to the isometric view used in previous games in the series. Enemies will utilize the 3D environment as well, in ways such as crawling up the side of a wall from the depths into the combat area.

Most gamers who got into the Diablo 3 beta said that the game is absolutely ready and that it should have been released by now, but Blizzard said that it wants the third and final Diablo game to be “perfect” because “nobody will remember if it was delayed, but everyone will remember if it’s great.”

As Blizzard felt that Diablo 3 still needs a lot of work, it seems like things are almost done considering the fact that we’re getting closer to Q2 2012. The second quarter begins in April and it ends on June 30th, however, we’re hoping that the publisher will release it in early Q2 rather than in late Q2.

Blizzard games are usually being released on the market two months after the official announcement of an exact release date. This means that there’s no chance that Diablo III will become available sooner than April 10th. Well, the clock is running out, and most of us honestly cannot wait any longer.

~networld