Diablo III Confirmed by Blizzard

Today, Blizzard confirmed the inevitable. At the company’s World Wide Invitational, they broke the news that Diablo 3 was in development, and have since provided tons of promotional material on their website. Fortunately for most fans, they plan on keeping true to the original hack-and-slash Diablo formula, while updating the graphics and a few key gameplay elements.

Shacknews runs down the new feature set:

• Explore a fully-realized Sanctuary–the living, breathing gothic fantasy world of Diablo III rendered in gorgeous 3D.
• Battle the unholy forces of the Burning Hells with all-new character classes like the otherworldly Witch Doctor, or with re-imagined warriors from Diablo’s past: such as the fierce Barbarian.
• Rain Hell on your enemies wielding the interactive environment as a weapon: lay cunning traps, turn destructible objects against your foes, and use environmental obstacles to your advantage–all powered by the Havoc physics system.
• Experience the intensity of multiplayer Diablo III over an all-new, wickedly-enhanced Battle.net platform with numerous enhancements to make connecting with your friends easier–and cooperative gameplay more fun.

Among these features, expect to see new classes, environmental destruction, larger enemies and a new health mechanism that doesn’t require drinking potions.

If you need to gauge my excitement for the game (especially after seeing the trailers), just know that my mouse is going to hate me.