The bleed effect is just ridiculous. Awesome in its spectacle, brilliant in its execution. It works like this: Diablo III’s monk class plays as if he’s stepped out of God of War, or any other console brawler. If he chains three punches in quick succession, he can set up a finishing move. One is a flashy flurry of strikes like something from the Pokemon cartoons – zipping through the air and hitting everything in range. You could finish your flurry with one epically violent slap – knocking your target backwards with full force through the scenery.

As one demon dies, another rushes in to take his place – it’s Whack-a-Mole played with two mouse buttons and a warrior of unholy fury. Every creature gets a slap, a tickle and a stomp. Unless you want to be really, really clever, which is where the bleed effect comes in. Use this attack, and as a creature bleeds, it takes damage, its health bar ticking away to nothing. And if they die with the bleed still effective, they explode. The destruction is vicious, hilarious – a tsunami of gore. If you set two, maybe three bleeds running, you can time a chain reaction. Bubble Bobble, played with bile and bones. Diablo III is already gloriously, stupidly violent. It’s already brilliant. But it won’t be out until at least 2011.​