Outtake II

Liner Notes - October 31, 2001

The original Diablo II mp3s are complete! And you thought we would never get around to it. For those of you of who wondered what we actually do here at Blizzard in our marathon development cycles, this outtake provides a pretty good example of the difference another year or two can make. This track is the original tune recorded around January 1998, which became the fifth minute of what was eventually the wilderness combat music in Act 1 when I was able to take a look at her again in January 2000. The first half made it into the game with many snips, additional pedal steel and orchestral sample textures, and some mastering magic from Scott Petersen. The second half of the piece in all of its rocker glory was chucked entirely, unheard by the public until now. Much like a fine piece of california cheese sitting in the backyard sun for weeks, we will release no track before the appropriate time. This particular tune tries pretty hard to rock out, but seemed pretty silly as a background to the opening few scenes of the game.