Will there be a trial version or test version?

[Druchii]

Hey there! I'm somewhat excited about Diablo 3 coming out very soon, i played D2 and LoD for many years and had terrific amounts of fun... However, right now i'm on a tight budget, so, without begging someone else to buy me a copy, i may not be easily able to afford the game. That said, however, i'd still like to get the feel for it to see if it's worth budgeting for in the near future.

Has there been any news on a Trial version, or test version, you know, like some older games did? Just to be able to play say, half the first act or something to get the feel for the game?
I was signed up for Beta, and have been signed up ever since they introduced the whole Beta settings page on Battle.net... Still,no invite.

[Space Troll]

Most likely a starter edition like Starcraft II, meaning you get to try a few of the classes and maybe do like a quest or two in the game.

[Evil Inside]

Afaik the beta IS a test version, where you only get to play the first act.

[Deleted]

Yup there'll be a starter edition, from the datamined files it looks like it will have limited heroes, limited quests, limited co-op, no hardcore. I'd also assume it'll have a fairly low level cap... but we're still waiting on an exact announcement.

It'll be good for people who want to test if their PC runs it before buying it, as well as those who have absolutely no clue what the diablo series is about and want to see what's what.

[Druchii]

Yup there'll be a starter edition, from the datamined files it looks like it will have limited heroes, limited quests, limited co-op, no hardcore. I'd also assume it'll have a fairly low level cap... but we're still waiting on an exact announcement.

It'll be good for people who want to test if their PC runs it before buying it, as well as those who have absolutely no clue what the diablo series is about and want to see what's what.

That's fantastic to hear, thanks

I'll look forward to it then!

[Howard Moon]

Shamanic, is there anything you DON't know about D3?

[Deleted]

Shamanic, is there anything you DON't know about D3?

:blush: there's a LOT I don't know about D3, but I've spent around 100 hours on the beta and I devour blue posts like cupcakes. Omnomnom.

[Deleted]

Afaik the beta IS a test version, where you only get to play the first act.

That's different. Beta is for blizzard to see if stuff is working like it should. A trial version is for people to see if they like the game before they buy it

[Deleted]

I wouldn't count on a starter edition anytime soon after release. Blizzard is cashing in on the hype, and they don't want you to decide whether or not it is worth it until after you have paid.

[Phurox]

It'll be good for people who want to test if their PC runs it before buying it, as well as those who have absolutely no clue what the diablo series is about and want to see what's what.

If you cant run Diablo III, then you are really outdated.

[Deleted]

If you cant run Diablo III, then you are really outdated.

There are people in this world who don't have rich parents who buy them whatever they want, or whose salary is primarily used to other things, such as rent and other amenities, as well as mortgage and car payments and such, and as such can't really afford a $1000+ setup every two years. Those kinds of people might want to make sure they can run the game before buying it.

Sure, there are lists of minimum and recommended specs, and sites such as http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/intro.aspx which will give you some sense whether you can run a game or not, but it's really up to actual physical testing and tweaking to see if something works properly.

Things like shader versions are easy to figure out; if your GFX supports shader 2.0 and the game requires shader 3.0 or 4.0, then of course you won't be playing it, since shader is hardware, and you can't do anything about it. So much more about the minimum specs of a game can be played around though.

[ZeroEdgeir]

We won't see the Starter Edition go live for at least 2-4 months after launch, even though it IS ready as yesterday's little server SNAFU showed, since it inadvertently went live, before Blizzard caught it, shut down all the servers for "accessibility errors" for several hours, and when they brought em back up, it was gone.

So it is there... but I doubt it will be there until at least July.

As to the "rich parent" comment above... If you piece-meal the upgrades, and work on when sales are on, you can do pretty good. $250-$300 will cover a decent motherboard + processor. $60 for 8GB of RAM ($100 if you wanna goto 16GB), $60-$100 for a Power Supply, and $100-$150 for a sufficient vid card.

Spread that out over a like 4 month period, and it isn't so bad.

[Sunshine]

Open beta weekend announced: http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...a-this-weekend!

[Druchii]

I was just about to post that here Sunshine!

http://www.diablofans.com/news/1165-open-beta-weekend/