Tweeted from Blizzard's official Diablo account, this fan-made image of what Diablo would be like re-imagined in a Where's Waldo? style replaces Waldo with Diablo III's director, Jay Wilson. Check out the full image after the break, and make sure you enlarge.

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Diablo III was one of the most anticipated game releases in history, and as such, it had a lot to live up to. Diablo II players were famously devoted to the game and many eventually wound up selling gear on eBay and ultimately destroying the game's native gold economy. To try and get a piece of this hot, hot action, Blizzard implemented the auction house in Diablo III (one that uses real money is still in the works) but has this ability to just go and buy things undermined the very addictive nature that made Diablo II such a hit? Alex Curelea seems to think so, and provides some good evidence to back it up. Still, I'm not sure I agree.

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This hero's name is Jeri Ellsworth, and she debuted her instrument at Maker Faire Bay Area last weekend. (Laughing Squid)

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Let me say this right up front: Diablo III is a pretty great game. It’s a satisfying, decently balanced helping of hack-and-slash, and it will scratch your every dungeon crawling itch. Diablo III is one of those games that just makes you feel cool. My Barbarian hits like a truck, and she is constantly surrounded by the pyrotechnic displays of my friends’ magical abilities. It is not the best game I’ve ever played, nor did it capture me as its predecessor did, but I am looking forward to my continued adventures in Sanctuary throughout the weeks ahead. The whole point of the Diablo franchise is much less about telling a good story than it is about killing monsters and getting loot, but with the sort of time commitment that a game like this requires (especially to justify the $60 price tag), ideally you want the setting to be a place that captures your imagination, a place that you want to hang out in. So while I had a blast cleaving demons in twain over the weekend, I was nonetheless underwhelmed by a narrative full of uninspired tropes, as well as an otherwise impressive world clinging to some of the most tired cliches concerning women in fantasy. For a game that took twelve years to make, it was disappointing to see how little has changed on those fronts. Fair warning: Massive spoilers ahead.

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Undomiele of Deviantart, we are duly impressed. You can see a video of how she did this at When Geeks Wed.

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After twelve years since the Lord of Terror was unleashed, it’s finally official: Diablo III will be raising hell on May 15. All I’ve ever really wanted in life is a co-op hack-and-slash dungeon crawler, so I was excited for this game from the get-go. But after spending a little time poking around on Diablo III’s official website, I’m really excited. Like, super excited. I am downright stoked. And it’s for a very simple reason: All of the female characters look like someone I’d like to play. As I mentioned back in January, Diablo III will be the first game in the series to offer full gender customization for player characters. This on its own is a welcome addition, but the fact that the female character models are so good has earned Blizzard a stamp of approval in my book. To help explain why, I'm going to put these new ladies into the greater context of how Blizzard has portrayed women throughout their games.

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Not only is the above a picture of a gingerbread Lord of Terror skull from Diablo, but it comes complete with a candy soulstone. The maker of the skull probably didn't have to click roughly one billion times to put it together, at least. I kid, Diablo fans, but not really.

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This postcard showed up in today's PostSecret update, and we're putting it here in the hopes it gets back to the person who created it, so they'll check the comments and know they're hardly alone.

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2010 has become a year of a comparatively tame Blizzcon, and it's hard to blame Blizzard for it. After all, last year they had World of Warcraft: Cataclysm to announce. This year, it's coming out in a month. 2008's Blizzcon was a showcase for the then-fairly-recently announced Diablo III, now the game is nearing fruition (for Blizzard, anyway). And StarCraft II is less than a year old, with its second installment not due until 2012. And so, given the quietness on the western front, there was a low current of expectation that we might even see something about Blizzard's fabled Questing Beast of the last three years: their mysterious unannounced new MMO.

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D&D Themed Sports Team Shirts (Geeks are Sexy)

Biggest Diablo News Ever At BlizzCon (That Videogame Blog)

Soon Neptune Will Complete Its First Orbit Since Discovered (Discovery News)

The ABCS of Lame Marvel Villains (Comics Alliance)

A Deleted Scene From Neil Gaiman's Dr. Who Episode (Neil Gaiman)

Korean StarCraft Addicts Treated With Drugs (Kotaku)

Space Food Over the Years (BoingBoing)

(picture via Game Informer: Portland Bike Lanes Power-Up With Mario Symbols.)

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If you were gunning to get tickets to this year's BlizzCon, the odds are pretty good that tonight was not your lucky night: The first batch of tickets for Blizzard Entertainment's eagerly anticipated two-day event were snapped up almost as soon as they were let out of the gates at 10pm EDT / 7pm PDT, with a ticket queue of 10,000 already formed just moments after they went on sale. WoW.com reports that as of 10:23pm EDT, all of the $150 tickets had already sold out.

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Blizzard announced today that its ongoing revamp of the Battle.net service will introduce one pretty scary optional feature: Facebook integration.  Battle.net is the online matchmaking service that has grouped up players of Starcraft, Warcraft, and Diablo games for thirteen years.  It received a major face lift last year, in preparation for taking an even larger role in the lives of Blizzard's players.  The new service will basically be a gaming social network the likes of Xbox Live, or Steam, instead of just a tiered matchmaker. From the official press release:

"We're pleased to be working with Facebook to integrate their platform with Battle.net to enhance the social-entertainment experience for our players," said Paul Sams, chief operating officer of Blizzard Entertainment. "This new functionality will make it easier than ever to connect with friends on Battle.net and play StarCraft II and future Blizzard Entertainment games together."

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Blizzard Entertainment has revealed via their website that their 5th BlizzCon convention will be held on October 22-23 at the Anaheim Convention Center. Feel free to wet yourself. According to Blizzard's announcement release, "BlizzCon is a celebration of the Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo franchises and the communities that surround them." The two day event has been held each year since 2007, with the first being in 2005, attracting fans for social events, meet-and-greets with the developers, hands-on gameplay with unreleased titles and expansions, and live concerts. According to WoW.com, Jay Mohr will be hosting the festivities.

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