Much to the dismay of hardcore LAN partiers everywhere, Diablo 3 will require an active internet connection to play. However, looking on the bright side of things, it seems Blizzard has totally revamped the party/social experience of the “waiting lobby” in Battle.net. You now have a visually appealing friends list, which gives you an at-a-glance overview of your friends online status. It also seems you will be able to form parties outside of games, while you are still in the Battle.net lobby. Your Diablo 3 character selection screen will also have visual indications of your characters status and difficulty completion, these “tokens” can be a pile of bloody skulls (hardcore) to new icons on your class tabard; it’s overwhelming how sexy they make statistics about your character.

It’s finally here, the night we’ve all been waiting for. At midnight, the non-disclosure agreement that bound visitors of Blizzard’s press event (which has been going on the past several days) will be lifted and details surrounding Diablo 3 and the beta will start to flood blogs and message board net-wide. Stay tuned or join the CoverItLive chat and hang out with us while we digest and categorize all the great new Diablo 3 information!

Mike Morhaime, President of Blizzard, suggested recently in an interview that Diablo 3 might make an appearance on console gaming systems. “Every game we have the discussion about which platforms make the most sense. As Diablo 3 takes shape, I think we’ll do an evaluation. I think there is a pretty good argument to be made that that type of game might work very well on consoles. There might be some technical limitations though that we might need to get past.” However, there has been no official confirmation or press release regarding the issue, just exciting speculations that drive hardcore Diablo fans wild.

Several sections have been added to the Diablo 3 Knowledge Base, as you can tell by looking in the navigation bar at the top of the website. First of all is the Confirmed Diablo 3 Features page, which highlights all the features that have been Blizzard-confirmed so far. Second, pages have been created for the Barbarian and Witch Doctor classes, and of course, new pages will be added as new classes are confirmed for Diablo 3 by Blizzard.

• Diablo 3 Confirmed Features
• Diablo 3 Barbarian Class
• Diablo 3 Witch Doctor Class

Cheers, and enjoy!

Of course, this is probably old news to you by now. But, for posterity’s sake, the first article in the Diablo 3 Knowledge Base details the announcement of Diablo 3′s development at Blizzard’s WWI in Paris, France.

Blizzard released an official synposis and features list during the discussions at the event:

Two decades have passed since the demonic denizens, Diablo, Mephisto, and Baal, wandered the world of Sanctuary in a vicious rampage to shackle humanity into unholy slavery. Yet for those who battled the Prime Evils directly, the memory fades slowly and the wounds of the soul still burn.

When Deckard Cain returns to the ruins of Tristram’s Cathedral seeking clues to new stirrings of evil, a comet from the heavens strikes the very ground where Diablo once entered the world. The comet carries a dark omen in its fiery being and it calls the heroes of Sanctuary to defend the mortal world against the rising powers of the Burning Hells–and even the failing luminaries of the High Heavens itself.

* Explore a fully-realized Sanctuary–the living, breathing gothic fantasy world of Diablo III rendered in gorgeous 3D.
* Battle the unholy forces of the Burning Hells with all-new character classes like the otherworldly Witch Doctor, or with re-imagined warriors from Diablo’s past: such as the fierce Barbarian.
* Rain Hell on your enemies wielding the interactive environment as a weapon: lay cunning traps, turn destructible objects against your foes, and use environmental obstacles to your advantage–all powered by the Havoc physics system.
* Experience the intensity of multiplayer Diablo III over an all-new, wickedly-enhanced Battle.net platform with numerous enhancements to make connecting with your friends easier–and cooperative gameplay more fun.

Obviously, there is currently no scheduled release date, but they stated that Diablo 3 has already been in development for several years, which started shortly after the closing of Blizzard North.

Official Diablo 3 Screenshots coming next!