Until when? It better be up when I get home, I've got plans to play with a friend after work. >.>
In other Diablo III-related news, has anybody started a hardcore character yet? I have, and I find it immeasurably more enjoyable than regular, or "softcore", mode. My progression of events with hardcore is as follows:
1) Made a monk. Got to level 15, then took three knockbacks in immediate succession which was a bad piece of luck, and it killed me. Learned a lesson; must have more vitality and mitigation, even at a large cost in damage gear. I had decent health for the level, but could have had a lot more. Rest in piece, Deschain. (My monk's name.)
2) Made a new monk, and leveled with a friend who made a wizard. We got to 14, and he died without blowing cooldowns; kind of a dumb death. He learned his lesson, because losing your first hardcore character sucks.
3) Made a witch doctor to level with him from scratch until we reached 14 again, so I could switch back to my monk. We stopped when we hit 14 for the night.
4) Started leveling a wizard so we could both kite like champs with two Blizzard spells at our disposal. Got him to 14 while friend was on vacation for a couple of days.
5) We leveled our wizards quite a bit more, and we're level 23 now. My Witch Doctor is 24, who I'm playing solo. Belial is also a way different fight, knowing you CANNOT let yourself get caught getting whacked and standing in poison pools, because you don't get a do-over.
For those that may not know, when you make a hardcore character, you have no lives. When that character dies, that's it; the character cannot be played anymore. You delete it and start over. It's a true hardcore experience, and I'm loving it, whereas my regular/softcore characters I was merely enjoying playing. It adds a thrilling element to the game that simply does not exist if you're not playing a hardcore character. You're careful, cautious, you use planning, etc. It's a very different feel. Also, your bank and gold are separate for hardcore characters from softcore ones; you can't level up to 60 on a softcore character, and twink out a hardcore one to make leveling easy. Your hardcore characters still share gold and stash space with other hardcore characters, but not with softcore ones. Also, it's a different auction house with a different economy. (Vitality gear is the most expensive, whereas good DPS gear is what's most expensive on the softcore auction house.)
Quite simply, I think everyone should at least give hardcore a shot. You'll almost certainly die at an earlier level than you anticipated, but damn, it's a thrill. The panic of getting overwhelmed and nearly dying, but surviving, on hardcore; it's exciting in a way nothing in softcore is.