Blizzard have announced that Diablo II is around 70 per cent complete, with all five character classes firmly in place - you'll get to choose from Amazon, Paladin, Necromancer, Sorceress and Barbarian. The game will consist of three main acts and a finale. Act I will take place in and around 'The Monastery of the Sisters of the Sightless Eye', Act II is set in the town of Lut Gholein and Act III will unfold in and around the city of Kurast. The setting for the final is yet to be announced, although all will become clear at E3.

This summer sees the release of Planet Laika, the new PlayStation RPG by Enix. The planet Mars is under the control of a dark force called Evil Mind, and any humans who get close will be influenced by the negative power and instantly turned evil. Laika, the game's protagonist has been overwhelmed by Evil Mind and his fragile human psyche has split four ways - he is now Laika, Spacer, Ernest and Yolanda. Each of his personalities has different strengths and weaknesses. Ernest is probably a mild-mannered janitor. As for Spacer, who knows? Maybe he eats 'disco biscuits' and goes to 'rave dance gatherings'.

Star Wars. We all have fond memories of the trilogy and are no doubt looking forward to the next instalment, but some people... If you happen to be strolling along Hollywood Boulevard try not to trip over the gathering of 'Phantom-philes'. Really. Staff from the Count Down website are camped outside Mann's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles and will remain there until Star Wars: Episode I opens on May 19. But what about work? No problems there as Dell have supplied them with laptops. Another local business has supplied the crazy campers with DVD movies to alleviate the boredom; a nearby restaurant feeds them free of charge. Nice work if you can get it.

The Chat Forum was hot to trot again this week. The [FGC] clan members have sorted themselves out with ICQ, so they can make contact quickly if a deathmatch looks imminent. If this means they'll no longer hog forum space sorting their (virtual) lives out then that's good news for you regulars. With all this networked mania has come talk of problems with connections, lag and ping speeds. Some players desperate to join in were after advice on how to speed up their connections and improve their ping times. Forum readers once more came up trumps, providing some valuable information and help on the matter. The Forum Quiz has fired your imaginations, with budding Magnus Magnussons everywhere testing out the readers on a diverse range of gaming subjects. Final Fantasy VII got a lot of attention this week. Can YOU name all of the AVALANCHE team? What is the name of Tifa's bar? And just what are the Shinra Soldiers used for? If you rate yourself as an expert on this or any other game, then get into the FORUM and show us what you're made of. Finally this week 'Kev' waxed lyrical on why the Tomb Raider series of games was more successful than the superior Banjo Kazooie or Mario 64. Suffice to say he spoke a lot of sense!