Everyone wants Diablo III. Blizzard's announcement of Starcraft II was great and all, but a huge contingent of gamers out there, despite overwhelming evidence of a Starcraft announcement, were holding out hope for some news on the rumored Diablo III project. The action RPG is a sub-genre that was terribly abused following the success of Diablo II, but has only recently (with the release of Titan Quest) seen some badly-needed new blood. There are rumors, once again, of a Diablo III announcement coming at Blizzcon in August, but even if the game is announced it could be several years before it comes out. Rather than drumming your fingers waiting, Bill Roper and Flagship Studios would have you slaying demons and waging war in order to save the world from a marauding demonic horde. It may not be called Diablo III but you can bet that the founding principles and spirit of Diablo are there. Flagship Studios was created by a group of executives from Blizzard North, who were the original developers of Diablo, after a disagreement with the parent company Vivendi. Hellgate: London is their first release, but already the buzz is strong and things look to be shaping up in time for an October 2007 release.

View Hellgate: London Slide Show (52 images)

Hellgate: London mixes swords and sorcery with guns and technology, but it isn't the cyberpunk Shadowrun-esque game you'd think it is. It takes some elements from action role-playing (classes, leveling, skill-trees, loot) and blends them up with third-person and first-person shooters to make a game experience that promises to be somewhat unique. One of the more controversial aspects of Hellgate: London is their tiered game service plan where monthly subscribers will be able to enjoy some added benefits. The announcement of this subscription service was met with some confusion and anger from the Hellgate" London fan community, but Bill Roper has since tried to soothe the worries of the fanbase.

Here are some snippets from Bill's letter to the fans.

"Our intent from the beginning was to provide gamers an online experience not just comparable to, but even better than, what they got from Diablo II. It has always been Flagship's goal to offer a robust multi-player experience that can satisfy players for months and even years, free from any subscription."

"Hellgate: London is completely free to play online, out of the box. Anyone who buys the game can not only play through the fully randomized, storyline-driven gameplay offline, but they can also go online and share that experience with millions of players from around the world. We're excited to be able to bring gamers an amazing, free online experience that is included with their single player game."

"The Hellgate: London secure online experience is structured around shared, multi-player towns linking together randomly generated, "instanced" adventure areas, unique for a single-player or group of players. Both free players and subscribers will be playing together in groups and guilds on huge realms supporting tens of thousands of players simultaneously."

"In short, what subscribers are getting is new content - not simply "better" things. Another way of thinking of this would be that we're delivering smaller expansions over time rather than having players wait a year or more before they finally get something new."

The screens in the gallery will give you an idea what you can expect in October. Is that guy dual-wielding mini-guns? Yes. Yes he is.

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