Blizzard announces free Diablo III Starter Edition

There's a couple of ways you can take the statement that "The demonically-besieged world of Sanctuary needs heroes". On the one hand, it's a great rallying cry to a game that can be an awesome amount of fun.

On the other... it sounds a little desperate.

But what it also means is that Blizzard is offering a new, Free Starter Edition of the game, letting players reach level 13, and advance all the way up to the Skeleton King in Act 1. There are three ways to get the free version:

• Log in to your existing Battle.net account at http://www.battle.net, and sign up for the Diablo III Starter Edition through the "Your Game Accounts" section.

• Create a new Battle.net account here, and the Diablo III Starter Edition license will be added to your account automatically.

• Grab the Diablo III game disc from a friend, install the game, and then log in with your Battle.net account. The Diablo III Starter Edition will be added to your account automatically.

You can find more info in the FAQ here.