UPDATE: It's here! Check out our Diablo III review to get our final verdict on the long-awaited game.

It almost doesn’t feel real – in less than a week, we’ll be playing the finished version of Diablo III after years of fervent excitement and lofty expectations. If you’re a diehard Diablo II fan like us, you’ll be experiencing sleepless nights until the 15th – at which point, it’ll feel like Christmas morning in May, and any further sleepless nights will be thanks to a constant hunger for loot.

If, by some miracle, you aren’t already excited for Diablo III, we’d like to change that. The best part is, once we’ve gotten you onboard, you won’t even have to wait that long! Here are all the reasons we could think of to be thrilled for Diablo III’s release next Tuesday…

Traveling companions in Diablo II didn’t really amount to much – more often than not, they ended up as some guy or girl that was there to provide buffs, do mediocre damage, and keep quiet. Diablo III looks to change all that – each of the game’s three companions will have their own plotline and motivations for joining you, and they’ll constantly chime in with how awesome (or terrible) they think you are. Instead of a mute item mule, the fully-voiced companions will actually live up to their name in Diablo III.

They’ll also be of better service tactically – you can tell them which spells you want them to focus on, crafting an aggressive sidekick or defensive support buddy. If you’re without a questing buddy, or you’re just too hardcore for your carebear pals, it’s nice to know that you’ll never be killing monsters on your lonesome.

Many games have tried to merge the virtual and actual economies, and it’s usually devolved into item exploits or unhappy customers. But if any company can successfully pull it off, it’s the ingenuity of Blizzard coupled with the greed-is-good mindset of Activision. To the crafty entrepreneurs that can corner the item market on the Auction House, they stand to make the kinds of profit that are colored green instead of gold. If you’re not willing to wager your real-world budget on item sales, there’s still the alternative of buying and selling with in-game gold.

Depending on how things shake out, the Auction House could be a source of great profit and competitive fun for risk-taking players – undercutting someone on their entire stash of desirable items will that much sweeter when you’re actually stealing revenue from other players.

If you didn’t already know it by now, Blizzard does cutscenes right. Even in the first Diablo, we were freaked out by a poorly-rendered raven eating from the eye-socket of a corpse, and watching Diablo burst out of his fleshy human disguise in D2 gave us nightmares back in the day. Given Blizzard's talented team and gargantuan budget, D3’s cutscenes look like they’ll be taking things to a new level – in terms of both scope and sheer visual fidelity. Watch one D3 trailer, and you’ll know what we mean.

We’re also thrilled to see Jennifer Hale lend her pipes to the role of Leah, Deckard Cain’s adopted daughter who’ll play a central role in the main storyline. The esteemed voice actress, best known for playing female Shepard in Mass Effect, will be taking a break from space-age warfare to get in touch with her medieval side, and we couldn’t be happier.

One of the smaller, yet more significant changes to the online portion of Diablo III comes with the removal of the different Battle.net area-specific servers. Before, it was split into a few separate sections, forcing players on the east coast to jump into US-East, while their west coast brethren fought the devil on US-West (and so on). With everything merged together, you won’t need to worry about picking a “server” to play and stay on.

This seemingly minor change is actually a pretty big deal: now there’ll be nothing stopping you from playing with your friends. Diablo II came out a long time ago; there’s a chance that when you played it, you lived in a different place, knew different people, and had a completely different life. Not needing to choose a server means you’ll be able to play Diablo III with your current and past acquaintances, letting you maintain digital relationships without being tied to one region-locked server or another.

We’re going to have to wait a little while longer on this one, but Blizzard plans to release a full blown PvP system for Diablo III. Multiplayer like this is often thought of as a tacked-on sideshow, but given the level of depth to D3’s character customization, this may just be the main attraction for many players.

PvP will be built around carefully-constructed arenas, where we’ll have access to all our hard-earned gear and skills we accumulated through single player and co-op. Even though it’s been pushed back a bit, Diablo III's PvP was playable at Blizzcon 2011 – and from what we tried, it was a blast. The 4v4 deathmatches were intense to the last second, and Blizzard’s also talked about integrating one-on-one duels. We say bring it on!

As veterans of the series might know, Blizzard is exceptionally skilled at making games that consume your every thought and spare moment. They’ve time and again crafted the perfect feedback loop – every victory in StarCraft II makes us feel like champs, and finally earning our epic mount in World of Warcraft was akin to a minor life milestone. Diablo III will be no different - once you’ve been bitten by the loot bug, or slain your first boss, it will have you.

What makes Diablo so addictive is how generous it is with progression: you’ll be finding new and shinier gear constantly, and you’ll be inundated with new spells as your character levels up. It won’t stop at one character, either – each of the five classes begs to be played, with their varied abilities and distinct personalities. Get your clicking finger ready, because you’ll be in it for the long haul.

At its core, Diablo III is a very different game than Diablo II – and that starts with not having to chug mana and rejuvenation potions after every fight (or even during them). Thanks to some brand new mechanics, your HP will be restored by touch-and-heal red orbs, and you won’t have to worry about lugging around a belt full of blue pots. Only the Witch Doctor uses the series’ traditional power source of mana. The Wizard fuels her magical attacks with Arcane Power, a quickly regenerating magical energy.

The not-so-magical classes have different means of casting their spells: the Barbarian relies on Fury, a use-it-or-lose-it resource that builds up by with each attack. The Monk, D3’s holy warrior, runs on Spirit. It gives him a defensive boost, and does not degrade over time. The most unique energy mechanic in D3 belongs to the Demon Hunter, who subsists on Discipline and Hatred. Hatred comes quickly to the Demon Hunter, allowing her to tear quickly into foes. Discipline, however, is harder to come by, and it powers her defensive abilities.

Love them or hate them, achievements have a power over gamers, compelling us to play for extended periods or put ourselves through torturous difficulties to receive a little blip on our screen. And you know what? We wouldn’t have it any other way. Like they did with WoW, Blizzard will notify of your monumental (or minor) achievements via…achievements, giving us good reason to play on modes or down bosses quicker than we might have otherwise.

You won’t be constrained to boasting about your achievement tallies through sheer word of mouth – some achievements will unlock special banner designs, so everyone will KNOW you killed Diablo in 66.6 seconds when they see you coming (note: we made this achievement up). Plus, it’s fun to push yourself to beat the tougher achievements – sometimes that little notification will be all the satisfaction you need.

Once you’ve cowered under the titanic shadow of Diablo himself, or stared in awe at Tyrael’s awesome beam-of-light wings, it’s impossible to forget these characters. If Deckard Cain didn’t always ask us to “stay awhile and listen” to his historical ramblings, we’d be offended. If Barbarians didn’t always shout and scream (in a manly way) directly in our faces as we dueled them, it just wouldn’t be Diablo. Good news, everyone – they’re all here, in glorious 3D, and they’re looking better than ever.

In fact, it’ll be Deckard’s first time in the spotlight (unless you count his appearance on the “You Win!” screen at the end of Diablo II’s difficulty levels) – he and his adopted daughter Leah will be an integral part of the plot.

One of our favorite features in Diablo II was the ladder system, which essentially gave all participants a clean slate to see who could reach the end-game the fastest. Ladders won’t be returning for D3, but playing on launch day will essentially be the same thing: exploring an unknown expanse in search of loot and levels. Imagine: fighting bosses for the first time, not knowing their every attack or loot drop. For Diablo II players, this’ll be a near-foreign concept.

D3 also kicks up the randomization aspects that Diablo is well known for. Not only will some of the landscapes be randomly laid out (a mainstay of the series) – now, certain events like sidequests or unique monsters will only trigger some of the time, making each playthrough a chance to see something totally new.

It’s not button mashing, it’s spamming with style! We can’t wait to start casting our favorite spells, over and over and over again. The Witch Doctor has plenty of flashy, crowd-pleasing spells, mostly revolving around his revolting animal friends. He can summon a poisonous Plague of Toads to pour out of the sky, or incinerate monster faces with a blast of his Firebats (need a light, anyone?). Locust Swarm and Acid Cloud are great for melting hordes of multiple foes, especially if you slow their movement with Grasp of the Dead.

You’ll also see new twists on familiar spells – take the Wizard for instance, Diablo III’s version of the D2’s spam-crazy Sorceress. From the Wizard class video, we were happy to see the return of her fiery Hydra spell – only now, it’s available in poison, ice, and fire flavors. We’ve got our fingers crossed for new-and-improved versions of Corpse Explosion and Whirlwind.

There will be millions of Barbarians, Demon Hunters, Monks, Witch Doctors, and Wizards running around online - so how can we differentiate ourselves from the pack? Easy: banners and armor dyes. Banners will be like a personal flag or battle standard that displays the achievements we earn. All shall know of our glory when they see a fancy symbol, rare color, or demon’s head skewered on our noble standard.

Armor dyes are more obvious: purchasable items used to change the color of various pieces of protective wear. They’ll highlight an item in the hue of your choosing, or even make them “clear,” so they don’t show up on your character. Given the raging success of WoW’s Transmogrification system, it’s clear the players still want to craft their own appearance while wearing the best loot – dyes are one step towards making your character feel like it’s truly yours.

Few sequels have kept us waiting this long – and even fewer have actually made the wait worthwhile. But if anyone can deliver on their promises, it’s Blizzard, with their wealth of resources and an intimate understanding of what players really want. Ever since we ventured into Hell and killed Diablo on Diablo II’s normal difficulty, we’ve wondered what this great series’ future would hold. No doubt that Lord of Destruction was a great expansion, but it didn’t add anything to the mythos of our favorite bright red demon.

Our time in the beta was a mere taste of the banquet-sized game that awaits us, and knowing that the dinner bell will be ringing soon is making us all the hungrier. Whether it rocks our worlds or leaves us lukewarm, the release of Diablo III will mark the end of an era filled with rumors, speculation, and wonderment at what might await us.

That is, until Diablo IV.

Are you stoked for Diablo III? Or are you one of those people who could care less about the Prime Evils? Whatever your stance, we want to know if Blizzard’s got you going mad with anticipation, or if you’re more of a Torchlight kind of gamer – or both!

Be sure to check out our Diablo III review to see if all the hype was worth it. Want to join in our excitement for other games? Check out What we want from The Elder Scrolls Online, or bid one last tearful goodbye to Diablo II with the 13 Diablo II features we’ll nostalgically miss in Diablo III.