Click to enlarge

Blizzard Entertianment has announced that a Diablo III open beta will be available through the weekend, starting today at 12:01 p.m. PDT and continuing until 10:00 a.m. PDT April 23. Blizzard also announced it will be resetting the Diablo II ladders on May 2.

From the Diablo III Open Beta FAQ:

What steps do I need to take?

• Log in or create a Battle.net account at http://www.battle.net
  
• Create your BattleTag™, which is required to play Diablo III
  
• Download the game client, install, and play between 12:01 p.m. PDT April 20 and 10:00 a.m. PDT April 23

Can all regions/countries participate?
Due to regional differences and features of the stress test client, Korean players will not be able to partake in the stress test weekend. However, beginning the week of April 23, we will be conducting a separate, invitation-only closed beta test that will give players in Korea a chance to try out the game, along with players in the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.

What platforms and languages do you support?
For the stress test we're offering the client in English, French, and German for both Windows and Mac. At release the game will be fully localized into English, Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, European Spanish, Italian, Polish, Korean, and Traditional Chinese for Windows, and English, French, and German for Mac.

As we all anxiously await the release of Diablo III on May 15, we invite you to come enjoy one last hurrah in Diablo II as we reset the ladder the morning of Wednesday, May 2. We anticipate the realms could be down for up to six hours during the reset, and during that time all existing ladder characters will be converted to non-ladder. All characters and items being converted to non-ladder will remain intact, but once converted these characters will no longer have access to ladder content such as creating ladder-only rune words.

This ladder reset, like all those before it, creates a clean slate where all ladder characters begin at level 1 with no previous items to help them. To participate, simply wait until the Diablo II realms return to service on May 2, log in to Battle.net, and tick the “Ladder Character” checkbox when creating a new character. You can track ladder character leveling progress by clicking on the Ladder button from the main Diablo II in-game Battle.net interface.

Diablo III Open Beta

Diablo II Ladder Characters

Blizzard Entertainment (add to watch list)

Diablo III (add to watch list)

Diablo II (add to watch list)

Buy Diablo III

Buy Diablo II

Search for other Mac games news stories or browse our Mac Games News Archive.