Mike B. aka Fony got into the Diablo III beta that launched this week, so you know it's the focus of his latest BFF Report. Fony played some co-op with TankSpot's Josh "Lore" Allen and gives an overview of his beta experience. He also discovers what he considers to be some rather curious design flaws involving the new stat/skill system and, in true BFF Report format, demonstrates them accordingly.

Click here to watch BFF Report Episode 82: Diablo III Beta!

UPDATE: Blizzard just announced that the Diablo III launch has been pushed back to early 2012, which means the beta will be extended.

Blizzard just announced that the Diablo III beta test is officially under way! The team will be selecting players who have opted in via their Battle.net accounts, and they'll also be providing keys through promotions and giveaways. The testing process will occur in phases, so there's still time to sign up!

If you get into the beta, you're free to openly discuss your gameplay experiences and share in-game footage since there isn't a non-disclosure agreement. If it's in the beta, it's fair game!

Of course, Blizzard reminds all players to be wary of phishing attempts related the the beta. If you think you'd received an invite, log into your Battle.net account and check your status instead of clicking any suspicious links. if you were sent a key, attempt to add it manually by going to the Add or Upgrade a Game section of the Battle.net account management page.

The recently launched Diablo III community site was just updated with all sorts of new content! The Game section of the site now includes an overview of Diablo III, class rundowns and a skill calculator. Here's a list of the new features you'll find:

• The “What’s New in Diablo III?” section: Are you new to the Diablo series? Did you play Diablo or Diablo II? Are you curious about what's different in Diablo III, and what's stayed the same? Then be sure to read this section.
• The Game Guide: This now includes everything you need to know about Diablo III's hero classes such as active skills, passive skills and key class features. It also has a wealth of screenshots, gameplay videos, artwork, lore, unique equipment breakdowns, armor progression previews, and resource overviews.
• Skill Calculator: Explore unique builds for your favored class by selecting active skills, Runestones, and passive skills. Once you've created your build, you can share it with your friends.

Blizzard also just announced that "in most regions, PayPal will be our payment-service partner for the Diablo III auction house, allowing players who trade with real-world currency the ability to cash out the spoils of their battle-torn adventures via a PayPal account. PayPal will also soon be added in several regions as a payment option on Battle.net, providing another convenient and secure payment method for digital purchases of Blizzard products and services."

We still have more than a month to wait for BlizzCon 2011 to open its doors, but players attending in person or from the comfort of their own home will soon get the chance to purchase their swag. Blizzard will be hosting BlizzCon Store pre-sales on the following dates:

• September 16 – 20: Pre-sale for BlizzCon 2011 ticket holders who are attending the convention in person.
• September 23 – 27: Pre-sale for BlizzCon 2011 Virtual Ticket buyers.
• September 27 through October 22: Pre-sale for those who purchase the Virtual Ticket after September 27 or DIRECTV customers who order the BlizzCon 2011 Pay Per View event. It will be a smaller selection of merchandise.
• November 4: Post-BlizzCon sale for attendees, Virtual Ticket holders and DIRECTV customers.

Every time you pick up an item in Diablo III, you'll have all sorts of options at your disposal. Do you keep it? Sell it? Salvage it? Auction it off? Give it away? Blizzard's latest dev blog entry on the new community site outlines all of your choices. Here's the rundown:

• You can turn unwanted items to gold using the Cauldron of Jordan.
• You can salvage crafting materials from unwated items using the Nephalem Cube.
• You can craft items by interacting with the Blacksmith, Jeweler and Mystic.
• You can sell items on the Auction House, trade them with friends or give them to one of your other characters via the shared stash.

The friends and family beta test is under way, with the public closed beta scheduled to start very soon. There isn't a non-disclosure agreement associated with the beta, so feel free to share your thoughts if you actually get your hands on Diablo III!

If you're a fan of the music from Blizzard's games, you may want to check out the new Music Section on the official Blizzard site. You can browse through a variety of albums from the Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo universes and listen to samples from all of the songs. If you'd like permanent copies, you can purchase the albums and individual tracks through iTunes. Every album costs $9.99, while songs cost $0.99 each.

So which album is your favorite? Do you enjoy listening to music from a game when you're not playing it, or do you hear it enough while in-game?

Blizzard just launched the new Diablo III community site, which features the same format as the World of Warcraft and StarCraft II sites. "We've got a lot in store leading up to the release of Diablo III, including the launch of the Game Guide section featuring lore, characters, classes, maps, and more," Blizzard said.

If you're wondering when that mystical launch date will be, Blizzard hasn't announced it yet. In fact, they're asking fans to take the Diableard challenge by not shaving until the game is live and sending in a picture of your Viking look. If you can't grow a beard, they'll accept photos of beard-like constructs.

While you grow/make your beard, be sure to check out the new Diablo III forums and click around the new community site.

Cody Bye, ZAM's director of content, is a guest host on the latest episode of This Week In MMO on GameBreaker.TV! In TWIMMO episode 56, Cody joins Gary Gannon and Hillary "Pokket" Nicole to discuss Diablo III's real money auction house, the new Firefall trailer, Dragon Nest's open beta launch and TERA being pushed back to spring 2012. Find out what they had to say by watching the video below!

Auction houses for both gold and real money. A requirement to connect to the internet at all times. The upcoming beta test. Blizzard released a lot of Diablo III details yesterday that divided the community, so Darnell decided to go straight to the source and ask some hard-hitting questions in his latest episode of Blizz Blues.

In the midst of Blizzard's announcement that Diablo III's auction house will let players sell and purchase items with either real money or gold, the company released a new 7-minute gameplay preview video that's worth a look for any Diablo fan. The trailer features all five classes, including never before seen skills, rune effects and locations. Check it out below!