London, England - Blizzard Entertainment displayed a whole new side of Diablo II at ECTS. The as-yet unseen Act II was on display, along with two new character classes, a new environment, and, the biggest surprise of all, 3Dfx Glide 3.0 support. Blizzard is the first PC developer to announce support for 3Dfx Interactive's latest flavor of its Glide API.

　　The latter is probably the biggest new feature of Diablo II. According to Bill Roper, Blizzard's director of third-party development, the decision to add 3Dfx support was a creative one: "We wanted to see how we could use the features of 3D acceleration in a 2D engine." The addition of 3D support adds some subtle touches to the game. In addition to an improved frame rate, the ability to smoothly zoom in and out, and environmental effects such as fog and translucent water, Blizzard is using the coloured lighting capabilities of the 3Dfx chipset to good effect such as in fire spells that cast an orange glow on dungeon walls, ice spells that light darkened hallways with an ominous blue shade, and day and night that are defined by slight orange and blue glows shading the ground. A 3Dfx-compatible card will not be required to run the game.In addition to the visual enhancements, Blizzard showed many of the new gameplay features as well. Act II of the game (which will be divided into four acts) takes place in a desert landscape, featuring appropriate creatures, such as hulking humanoids and huge insects. Two of the region's dungeons, a tomb and a sewer, matched the theme of the locale.

　　Two new character classes, the sorceress and the paladin, were also on display. Each character will feature three skill classes comprising ten skills apiece. The sorceress' skill types are made up of different types of magic (fire, cold, electric), while the paladins' skills are broken up into magic and attack skills. The paladin also features an intriguing skill that lets him protect himself with auras, magical shields with varying effects such as increased resistance, increased health, or the mighty "thorns" that cause damage to monsters who come in contact with it.

　　According to Roper, Acts I and II are close to completion, while work on Acts III and IV is still in the preliminary stages. There's no set date for release, but the game will be released sometime in 1999.