A 12-year wait for this? Thousands of video gamers furious as they are unable to play Diablo III after huge demand brings down servers

The long-awaited launch of Diablo III has been marred by server issues - much to the frustration of eager video gamers. Anticipation for the fantasy demon-killing game has bubbled over because the previous entry in the series was released 12 years ago, a lifetime in the gaming world when compared with franchises like World of Warcraft and Call of Duty, which receive regular updates.

But servers struggled under huge volumes of traffic during Tuesday's midnight launch, leading thousands of disgruntled fans to take to the internet to voice their frustrations. Gamers received an 'Error 37' message saying servers were too busy, which prevented them from logging into the game from Blizzard Entertainment.  The server issues even became a trending topic on Twitter, according to CNBC.  @SoulPusha ‏ Tweeted: 'Argh, trying to play Diablo 3...but unfortunately, the servers are down.' While @NitrozK added: 'I got to play 20 minutes of DIablo 3 last night before the EU servers went down for the rest of the night. Sort it, Blizzard.' Gamers still seemed to be experiencing problems in the early hours of Wednesday morning as Blizzard Entertainment Tweeted: 'We're aware players may not be able to connect to the Americas region, or are having difficulty stay in-game. We are investigating.'

More than 1,500 fans gathered together on Monday night around a shopping center located about a mile from the developer’s headquarters to witness the game's launch. 

 Diablo fans huddled around the stage to watch Blizzard artists sketch characters from scratch, view never-before-seen footage, take part in trivia contests and attempt to catch free swag during 'loot storms'.

Ian Noble, 24, wanted his collector's edition autographed by developers. 'There's nowhere I'd rather be tonight,' he said. 'I've been waiting for this moment for a long, long time.' ‘It takes a long time to make a Blizzard game,’ explained lead designer Jay Wilson. ‘We're very focused on quality. If we think something is not good enough, we make it better. We redo things, which is really uncommon in game development. If we build a level and don't like (it), we'll throw it out.' In the third chapter of Diablo, players choose among five classes - barbarian, demon hunter, monk, witch doctor or wizard - and battle hellish minions across the landscape of Sanctuary. 

Wilson hopes new sprawling battlefields, real-money auctions, a deeper combat system and increased online capabilities for Diablo III will appease even the frustrated fans. 'If we could have done anything different, we probably wouldn't have announced the game when we did,' said Wilson.

'We could have waited a little longer. 


We thought we were closer to release. We want people to get excited, but we don't want them to feel like they're strung along. We always try to have a dialogue with the audience and exceed their expectations.'

Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhati said Diablo III, only available to play on PC and Mac computers, not game consoles, has the potential to sell more than 4 million copies. He estimated Blizzard would sell 3.5 million copies this year. Diablo II, released in the summer of 2000, sold 4 million copies in the year after it debuted. The game is already the biggest pre-seller ever, according to CNBC.

Ridge Racer Unbounded: a familiar experience for seasoned gamers

Cynics would have it that the motor racing genre is hamstrung by its own conventions – there's only so much you can do with a car, right? That's a theory Ridge Racer Unbounded looks to put to the test. For the first time, Ridge Racer moves away from traditional racing, instead concentrating on vehicle combat and destruction of urban environments, although some defining elements do remain. Like its predecessors, it is a game still wedded to the classic combo of drift-driving and high-energy dance music.



The result of this brave stab at a new direction, however, is something of a mixed blessing. While this iteration has tossed convention to the wind, it has done so only to follow a well-trodden evolutionary path.

Numerous contemporary driving series have adopted a similarly gritty urban setting, and Ridge Racer's new look merely joins them, rather than bringing fresh rubber to the party. It is prettier and more challenging than most, and certainly very good insofar as exciting racing is concerned. But, for all its effort, Unbounded will be a familiar experience for seasoned gamers.

AGE OF BOOTY™ (PC DIGITAL DOWNLOAD)

Set in the swashbuckling era, Age of Booty is a casual real-time multiplayer strategy game that puts players at the helm of their own pirate ship with the goal of sending your enemies to the briny deep, and looting and capturing towns for your pirate faction.

In Age of Booty, players team up with other online players or AI-controlled pirate ships to raid, pillage, sink, and destroy their way to dominance on the high seas. Spoils of war and booty are used to upgrade and customize pirate ships to make them even more deadly as players take on 21 unique challenges and seven of the most devious Pirate Alliances on the high seas. Gain notoriety and fame by climbing the online leader boards. Create and share custom maps using the intuitive map creation system

Single player and multiplayer real-time action strategy from Certain Affinity, lead by Max Hoberman, designer of Halo 2 and 3′s multiplayer game.
Raid villages, sink merchants, seize towns, steal gold, upgrade your pirate ship and use your guns and your wits to send your foes to the briny deep
Master 29 unique multiplayer maps or create your own and share them with your friends
Up to four players on one console, up to eight players over LAN or the Internet

Download and play Age of Booty! ($9.99)

PRODUCT FEATURES


Single player and multiplayer real-time action strategy from Certain Affinity, lead by Max Hoberman, designer of Halo 2 and 3’s multiplayer game
Raid villages, sink merchants, steal gold, and upgrade your pirate ship to help send your foes to the briny deep
Master twenty-five unique multiplayer maps or create your own and share them with friends
Enlist help from fellow buccaneers with up to eight players over LAN or the Internet
Countless customizable options to make your ship and crew the most feared scallywags to ever fly the Jolly Roger


Minimum System Requirements:

• ATI Radeon 9600 / NVIDIA GeForce FX 5800
• Windows XP sp2 or Vista
• DirectX 9.0c November 2007 release
• Intel Pentium 4 1.7 Ghz, Intel Celeron 1.7 Ghz, or AMD Athlon xp 1800+ or better
• 512 Mb RAM
• 400 Mb hard drive space

Recommended System Requirements:

• ATI Radeon 9800 / NVIDIA GeForce 6800
• Windows XP sp2 or Vista
• DirectX 9.0c November 2007 release
• Intel Pentium 4 2.8 Ghz , AMD Athlon XP 3200+ or higher
• 1024 Mb RAM
• 400 Mb hard drive space

Get it from  Capcom Storefront Click Here