Blizzard has released the need-to-know details about Diablo 4's upcoming Halloween event, which wil??l r?un between October 29 and November 5.

Diablo 4 recently released the Vessel of Hatred expansion, which has reinvigorated interest in the game. The new Spiritborn class is some of the most fun Diablo content in years, so it's a gr?eat period to hop ba??ck into the action.

Diablo 4 Halloween event details

In a Blizzard blog post, Diablo 4's Halloween event was confirmed as starting at 10 AM PT on October 29. The spooky celebrations will run until 10 AM PT on November 5. ??Throughout ??this period, you can log in and claim some limited-time cosmetic goodies for free, as detailed below:

• October 29: The Recluse’s Host Mount
• October 30: Ichorflame Torch Mount Trophy
• October 31: Recluse’s Flask Mount Trophy
• November 1: Reclusive Trappings Mount Armor

If you miss the cosmetics on the above dates, don't worry - ?you can still log ??in before the event finishes on November 5 and claim them from the in-game store.

While the Diablo 4 Halloween event is active,? Dungeon runs will be much more interesting, thanks to Meat or Treat. This "harrowing game of chance" allows Shrines to apply a surprise effect on top of its usual effect when activated. As Blizzard puts it, "Will the Shrine bestow unexpected riches upon you, or will your Dungeon run go up in smoke?"

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Infernal Hordes is the major new feature added in Diablo 4 Season 5, and while it's mostly front and center?, it may not be clear how to unlock it. As a new endgame mode, you'll want to participate in Infernal Hordes for the greatest seasonal return, so here's ?how you can access it.

How to Access Infernal Hordes in Diablo 4 Season 5

To unlock and gain access to the Infernal Hordes endgame activity, you must first reach Level 50 and enter World Tier 3 for the first time. Doing so will give you access to the 'The Eyes of the Enemy' questline, which will allow you to participate in Infernal Hordes upon completion. The Eyes of the Enemy begins within Hawezar, technically the final main region of base Diablo 4. If you're not sure where to find it, look south of Fractured Peaks on your map. From there, head to Zarbinzet and investigat?e the disturbance occurring in the main plaza area.

How to begin an Infernal Horde in Diablo 4 Season 5

Once you have the Infernal Horde feature unlocked following the quest completion of To the Edge of the Abyss, you should have gained access to an Infernal Compass. An Infernal Compass is required to begin an Infernal Horde, and they function similarly t??o Nightmare Sigils. To start an Infernal Horde, simply consume an Infernal Compass in your inventory.

Infernal Compasses are a finite resource, so you'll need to gather more if you want to do more Infernal Horde runs. Thankfully, they are super easy to obtain as a large majority of your standard endgame activities often reward you with these hellish compasses. Infernal Compasses are tiered, again similarly to Nightmare Sigils, and require Abyssal Scrolls to upgrade them.

I've personally found them most commonly through opening Helltide Chests amid an active Helltide. Helltides are such a simple activity that only requires you to farm within the small area it's active, so I've found this to be the easiest way to get them in bulk. You can also obtain Infernal Compasses via the Tree of Whispers or just crafting them at the Occultist in a very identical way you would Nightmare Sigils. Regardless of which method you use, you'll find Infernal Compasses very eas??y to obtain.

How do Infernal Hordes work in Diablo 4 Season 5?

The Infernal Hordes activity itself is similar to Helltides in that you'll be facing large numbers of Hell's denizens constantly. However, unlike Helltides, it is structured around wave-based combat, where you must fend off multiple waves of demons, each wave lasting roughly 60 seconds. To add to the challenge, you can activate Infernal Offers, modifiers that increase both the difficulty and the potential rewards. After successfully surviving all the waves, you must defeat a boss (or bosses) for the final rewards of the activity??.

Infernal Horde Rewards

Participating in Infernal Hordes offers several rewards, most notably Burning Aether. This resource can be used to open Spoils of Hell, which contain a variety of valuable items, including potential Legendary/Unique items and Masterwork crafting materials.

The activity is one of the most lucrative and rewarding events you can do in Diablo 4, and is certainly worth your time if you're looking for a new way to farm high-end loot. The best part about Infernal Hordes is that they are not locked to Seasonal Realms. That's right. Eternal Realm players can also participate in Infernal Hordes as of the Season 5 update. Thanks to this, it's reasonable to expect this mode to be actively updated as Diablo 4 gets new content.

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No doubt many of you are off seeing family, celebrating Thanksgiving before the Christmas mayhem begins. However, if you are looking to do something while the turkey digests, you can get a copy of Diablo 4 on PC for free right now.

If you head over to Steam, you'll see it's cu?rrently available for the princely sum of $0.?? Of course, this is just a temporary discount, but you do have up to November 28, so you still have a few days left.

However, if your internet is anything like mine (the countryside, amirite?) that might be how long it'll take to download the game. For you see, it's a pretty hefty 84 GB in size. That's still less than Modern Warfare 3's ludicrous 150 GB, but still.

Do you spell it 4 or IV?

After over ten years of waiting for a proper follow-up, Blizzard finally dropped Diablo 4 in June (October for PC). We thought it was pretty great in our review, but others evidently don’t feel the same. Currently, it's sho??wing as "Mixed" on Steam, with a few comments taking note of some rather lackluster gameplay.

On the plus side, we get to temporarily try it for free over the next few days, so even if it isn't fantastic, nothing ventured, nothing gained, yeah? We also recently learned there's an expansion coming in late 2024 called Vessel of Hatred. On top of that, Blizzard is pushing out patches to bring improvements and fixes to the game.

Ooh, look. There's less than three hours to go now until Diablo 4 finishes downloading. Happy Tha?nksgiving, every?one!

The post In case you missed it, Diablo 4 is free to play on Steam for ?a bit appeared first on Destructoid.

If you have ever thought, "Wow, I'd love to get my face kicked in by The Butcher in a board game or RPG" while playing any of Blizzard's Diablo games, then you might just be in luck.

During Blizzcon, a press conference that is primarily about games made out of electricity and crying (I assume that is what video games are made from), Blizzard announced that two new forms of Diablo are being unleashed on the world.

Fans of the series can now look forward to a roleplaying game that will be inspired by Diablo IV and will allow them to explore Sanctuary in a whole new way. It is expected to be released at Blizzcon 2024. On top of that, we will also be able to get our hands on Diablo: The Board Game sometime in 2025. According to developer Glass Cannon Unplugged, "The TTRPG and board?? game will fuel one another with interchangeable game components, shared accessories, and complementary expansions with overarching eve?nts in a fully integrated product line.�How that will work, I have no idea, but it's a fun thing to think about.

Glass Cannon Unplugged has a lot of experience turning video games into tabletop fun as they have worked on Apex Legends, Frostpunk, and Dying Light board games in the past. It will come as little surprise that this will be heading to Kickstarter, as video game com??panies are hugely fond of licensing out their titles for boa?rd game versions but seem to be extremely shy about putting up any money actually to make the products happen.

Frankly, there isn't a hu?ge amount of detail available now, with no images of physical assets or even mi??niature mock-ups that I can find. There is definitely the assumption being made here that Blizzcon will carry any Diablo-related news on Angel's (or Demon's) wings. We'll be keeping a close eye on this one, just because the thought of it is so interesting, and a good dungeon crawler with a Diablo skin really wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

There was also a bunch of other stuff announced at Blizzcon if you want to read about it all. Nothing about Heroes of the Storm, though, which ??is all the evidence you need that life is an empty?? and cruel joke.

The post Hell is coming to the table?top?? with a Diablo board game and TTRPG appeared first on Destructoid.

If you want an example of how gothic and devilish gaming can get, look no further than Diablo 4. The recent installment in Blizzard's celebrated action-RPG series is literally collecting blood, with some potential hardware to come fro??m it.

A recent video on the Diablo Y??ouTube channel invites players to donate blood (presumably their own) to their local clinic. In doing so, rewards w?ill be on offer. From donating blood.

To take that a step further, the studio is also looking to put together a custom PC that's liquid coo??led by 666 quarters of real human blood. Anyone interested in taking part will need to show proof of their donation before the end of November 20.

Developers literally asking for a blood sacrifice

A website set up by the Diablo 4 team gives further details about the publicity stunt. According to the FAQ, you don't technically have to donate in order to get the rewards. This is simply about eno??ugh people donating to reach a required amount.

A post on Twitter/X says that the in-game rewards "will be unlocked for all players as we progress ?toward our donation goal." The custom-built PC is the endgame of all this.

As for the specs, it sounds like it's going to be a pretty beefy system. It'll boast an Nvidia RTX 4090 graphics card, an Intel Core i9-13900K CPU, 64GB of RAM, and 3TB of M.2 SSD storage. Also, did ?I mention the human blood that's going to course through it? I'm pretty sure I mentioned the human blood that's going to course through it.

The post Diablo 4 ??intends to release a custom PC??…infused with real human blood appeared first on Destructoid.

Paving the road to Hell

During my time with Diablo 4, I couldn’t stop thinking about how precise a good loot??-based action-RPG is.

When done right, games of the genre put you in a hypnotic trance. The flow of hacking and slashing as you find rare loot and make numbers go up fires off powerful waves of happiness chemicals in your brain. However, such an inherently repetitive gameplay loop will become tedious if the execution isn't just right. Since Diablo set the formula that countless action-RPGs since followed, new games in the series come with high expectations. Will Diablo 4 remind us of why we en?joy this genre to begin with, or will the king need to give up its throne?

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJ6M?39OmYMA&ab_channel=Destructoid

As someone who never grew up with the Diablo series and only really dived deep into Diablo 3, I didn’t necessarily approach Diablo 4 with this level of scrutiny. However, after marathoning the campaign and seeing what this vast new world offers, I can confidently say that the core of Diablo 4 lives up to the standards established by its forbearers. Unfortunately, the state of modern video game???? monetization is also here to remind us why we can’t have nice things.

[caption id="attachment_381855" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Diablo 4 (PC [reviewed], PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One)
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
Release: June 6, 2023
MSRP: $69.99

Right out of the gate, Diablo 4 wants you to know that this is a game for grown-ups. Lots of blood is spilled to summon the game’s big bad Lilith, who will either save or ruin the world depending on who you ask. People die in gruesome ways, and limbs will fly before you reach the game’s ending. This ain’t your dad’s Diablo, assuming your dad only played Diablo 3. Actually, that logistically seems unlikely. This ain’t your slightly older sibling’s Diablo.

Diablo 4 puts a lot of effort into its storytelling, but I can’t say the plot ever connected with me. Its writing and structure don’t take enough time to build up its characters, so the bigger story moments don’t land nearly as well as they should. I didn't care for the main cast, and I didn’t feel any attachment to the fate of Sanctuary. People invested in the Diablo canon might feel shocked or moved by Diablo 4, but it did nothing for me.

It's honestly a bummer because the cutscenes and cinematics in Diablo 4 are executed well. Even with the weak writing, I still felt pumped as I ventured toward the more epic encounters in the adventure. That said, the plot does connect a variety of diverse set pieces for players to battle through. And in an action-RPG that hopes to engage you for hours, that’s the most impor?tant base to cover.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV4zVqb9vWc

Crawl every dungeon

Diablo 4 smartly does little to change its core formula. Either alone or with friends, player??s will fight through overwhelming hoards of foes as they spam skills on cooldowns and chug potions. If you’re lucky, you’ll find loot of varying rarity levels that can potentially transform your entire playstyle with their unique effects. Rinse and repeat until you’ve had your fill.

However, Diablo 4 is the first game in the series to be designed with controller support from the outset. As a result, we have both a dedicated dodge button and encounters designed with lots of movement in mind. You’ll feel this most during the boss battles, which lean heavier on MMORPG-style mechanics and even bullet-hell-style projectiles to dodge at the higher end. This design philosophy serves Diablo 4 well, as it feels like a logical evolution of the series�gameplay. I consis??tently felt excited to see new enemies and overcome any unique challenges the game would throw at me.

My only minor nitpick is that outside of boss battles, most mobs only lean into these mechanics by using strong attacks telegraphed by long wind-up animations. If you’re surrounded by enemies (and this is Diablo, so that will happen), it’s easy to get killed from full health just because five minor foes all decided to use their most powerful hit at the same time. This is fortunately far from game-breaking, as Diablo 4 let??s you fight back with plenty of powerful to?ols.

[caption id="attachment_381859" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Do you want to climb a skill tree?

To begin your adventure, you’ll have to choose from one of five character classes in Diablo 4. Howev??er, once you dive into each class�skill tree, you'll realize that even a single character repr??esents a multitude of playstyles to choose from.

Many games of this genre either feel too limited or too overwhelming in their customization. Diablo 4 rides a fine line between these two extremes. At the start, the skill tree feels easy to understand. You’ll see a small handful of options and follow a subtly guided path to build your character’s kit. Once you progress further and get a feel for your class' capabilities, you'll uncover many synergistic build options just begging to be tried. Fortunately, Diablo 4 makes respeccing easy, though you’ll lose?? all ?your hard-earned gold if you swap character builds too often.

Starting out, I built my Barbarian as a tanky guy swinging a giant mace who could spin to win through hoards of monsters. I eventually realized the potential of his Berserk buff, which boosts power and speed if you can maintain it. I tinkered with my build th??roughout the campaign, eventually transforming completely into an aggressive dual-wielding monster who stayed angry at all times.

This created an incredibly active play style, as I juggled stuns and relentless attacks while timing my Death Blow skill to slay foes at perfect HP thresholds. The class became harder to play, but the exponential DPS gains were well worth the effort. I loved how easily I could customize my gameplay without changing characters. I could focus on spinning? to win if I wanted to turn my brain off. But in the end, my charac?ter fit my ideal playstyle like a perfectly made glove.

Diablo 4 effortlessly achieves this player freedom w??ithout upsetting that delic??ate dance of a well-paced action-RPG. It virtually guarantees you'll find a build that you'll enjoy, assuming Blizzard makes them all viable in the long run.

[caption id="attachment_381886" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

All things imbalanced

If I have one complaint about Diablo 4 �aside from the thing I’ll get to �it’s how it's currently balanced.

I started my adventure on the harder World Tier II difficulty, which felt great. Earning more gold and experience after defeating tougher enemies was deeply satisfying. However, if you exceed the recommended level of a given quest or area, enemies will scale to match your power level. By the time I reached my first m??ajor story boss, the gear I acquired looked painfully under-leveled compared to the challenge in front of me. I f?igured that maybe I had just bitten off a bit more than I could chew and that some wonky loot scaling was my problem.

Except as I progressed further into the game, I often found the difficulty would wildly swing at seemingly random. I’d fight climactic story bosses that could barely dent my Barbarian as I smashed them to bits. Then I’d take on a sidequest at the same level against a miniboss ?that would require me to fight for my life to survive. Admittedly, once I finished messing with my build, I actually welcomed these difficulty spikes. They just happened so often during my campaign that I couldn’t chalk them up to how I built my character or what gear I equipped.

This, fortunately, evened out by the end of the campaign, culminating in an engaging climax. And trust me, if this was my ??biggest issue with the game, I’d be elated with the overall product. However, we need to discuss the money-hungry elephant in the room.

[caption id="attachment_381889" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Blizzard Entertainment[/caption]

Greed and Gluttony

In the review build of Diablo 4, all microtransactions and the promised battle pass system were absent. The official word is that this was due to technical logistics. Instead, I was provided pictures and video??s of these systems in action. These revealed that the cosmetic shop will sit in one of the main in-game menus, which i?s already enough for me to say it's too intrusive.

Diablo 4 is a self-proclaimed live service, forcing a constant internet connection and leaning on multiplayer features. If we’re treating the game like an MMORPG, I can allow some leeway for cosmetic microtransactions. Howeve??r, the avenue to purchase them has no business within the core gameplay loop of a $70-$100 game. Not only is this immersion breaking, but it also subtly inflicts a psychological temptation that builds over hours of playing and seeing that “SHOP�tab stare you in the face.

Were this something you only saw before logging in, then it wouldn't be so bad. But considering Diablo 4 rewards collecting cosmetic gear, the shop's place in the game fe??els e??specially insidious. In a free-to-play game, this is something I can deal with. Not in a title with a premium price tag.

The only silver lining is that the shop wasn't shown in the main character menu, which you’ll interact with most often. And the menu it is in mainly serves as a map screen, so you won’t necessarily need to scroll over the shop often. T?hat is until the battle pass appears, which ??opens a whole other can of worms.

[caption id="attachment_381893" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Blizzard Entertainment[/caption]

Sloth, Envy, Pride

Any game using a live service model inherently adds an intense level of uncertainty. Ideally, it allows the game to grow and reward dedicated players. The reality is that the game you bought could fundamentally change into something you don’t recognize. This alone requires me to add an asterisk to any recommendation of Diablo 4.

For example, the preliminary news of battl?e passes and seasonal content worries me. Limited-time content has messed with my head and caused me to lose sleep grinding in the past. That’s since slipped a bit, especially now that playing games is my job. But three years ago, these systems would seriously damage my health. I know that some people tolerate battle passes, but I’ve never heard a single person say “You know what would make this 80-hour grind better? A deadline.�/p>

Even without speculation, the live service model made my time with Diablo 4 worse. Logging in took longer than necessary as I connected to servers. I had no ability to pause, and my connection would drop while I let the game idle. Even worse, connection issues always made me lose progress, as they reset dungeons and return you to rigid quest checkpoints. My internet woes weren’t necessarily the fault of Diablo 4, but the outcome of them is.

The tradeoff for these hindrances is a handful of multiplayer features that could have worked outside a live service environment. This technically applies to other MMORPGs, but comparing Diablo 4 with previous series entries informs what exactly is gained and lost here. Diablo 3 launched with this issue over a decade ago, and it’s still relevant today.

Live service games require a foundation of trust, as meaningful updates ostensibly justify these inconveniences. Before you buy Diablo 4, ask yourself if you trust Blizzard to deliver an experience that will only get better into the foreseeable future. Otherwise, you'll need to be content knowing that Diablo 4 could change at? any moment, either for better or for worse.

[caption id="attachment_381888" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Deal with the devil

It’s a genuine shame I need to talk about any of this because I otherwise really enjoyed Diablo 4. Even after playing the game nonstop, I still want to explore the quests I missed and power up my character. I often lost track of time, totally engaged in Diablo 4’s rhythm. And th?en I’d lose all my dun?geon progress because my internet provider had an issue, which instantly brought me back down to earth.

There is undeniable passion and talent that went into making this game. From the detailed areas you explore to the variety of enemies you’ll fight, Diablo 4 feels complete in a way that's rare in modern times. I'd love to report back to you in a year and say Diablo 4 is even better than it is now. But in the meantime, these live service elements feel like they exist solely to sell microtransactions. Even if you can igno?re these parts of the game, there’s no denying they make the final product worse overall.

For series fans, Diablo 4 makes a compelling case to become your next main game. For everyone else, the specter of cosmetic microtransactions and live service elements hang heavy over this refined action-RPG formula. Fortunately, the game is strong enough out of the box to entertain anyone willing to dive into its world. Everything I played of Diablo 4 was solid, I just hope it stays that way.

_{[This review is based on a review build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Diablo 4 appeared first on Destructoid.

The second 'server slam beta' starts on May 12

Folks were hoping for an announcement from the Diablo IV April 2023 developer update live stream: and they got it. There's going to be another beta for D4, and it starts on May 12, 2023.

The official Diablo Twitter account confirmed the news with a simple tweet:

"We've heard your feedback, it's time to visit Sanctua?ry once more before June??. Join the Server Slam, May 12-14"

When is the second Diablo IV beta and what can you do in it?

That "once more"  and "server slam" bits tell us a few things. It seems, without further "feedback" in play, this is the final "we promise" beta period. The official launch is just weeks away on June 6, so there wouldn't be much time to prep and monitor another beta anyway. The phrase "server slam" also strongly hints that this is primarily a stress test to help the team calibrate for launch (crossed fingers this isn't D3 again).

Blizzard subsequently tweeted out more info on this second public beta period, noting that you'll be able to reach level 20, beat Ashava, and earn the Cry of Ashava mount trophy. To think all this was teased earlier this week w??hen that same Twitter accou??nt mysteriously alluded to another beta. Hopefully, once June 6 hits we don't all realize we're collectively in another beta: but based on how high folks have been riding on the pre-release of Diablo IV, this could be a much sleeker launch than D3.

//twitter.com/Diablo/status/1649125838095253538

The post Diablo 4 gets another open beta, encourages players to ‘slam the servers’ appeared first on Destructoid.

One console, two players

Pretty recently, a new expansion for Powerwash Simulator came out. I liked Powerwash Simulator well enough when I played it back in 2021, but this was the first time I was tempted to dip back in for more. That's because the latest update features locales from Final Fantasy VII, and the game added co-op a little while back. My girlfriend finished the original Final Fantasy VII not too long ago, so I ?figured th?is would be a fun way to spend a few hours.

Until I took to Google and discovered that Powerwash Simulator's co-op is online only.

Lately, I've watched this play out with a number of AAA games. Games like Gotham Knights and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet were total slogs, not just because of their poor technical optimization and bizarre design choices, but because I knew that I could have had more fun if I shelled out an extra $300-600 to play them with my partner. Both of those games heavily touted their co-op offerings in marketing, but neither of them offered anything for folks in the same room. Halo Infinite, a game I loved, would have been that much better if I could've roped in a friend without telling them to burn m?oney on a new console or PC.

Where did the couch go?

I've always been a local multiplayer kind of person. My earliest exposure to video games was a Wii my parents bought to force family bonding. Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart are good online, but I'll usually only break them out when I have people over. I don't have anything against online gaming (it got me through lockdown, and any friend of mine will tell you how often I pester them about playing Final Fantasy XIV with me), but I love local multiplayer.

[caption id="attachment_361397" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

I especially adore local co-op. If I'm working with someone else towards a goal, I want to be with that person physically. Having the option for online play is always welcome, but if I can conceivably play the same game as my companion, in the same room and on the same screen, I'll always take that option. I recognize that games are constantly getting bigger, and it's getting harder and harder to justify rendering the same things twice at the same time just to satisfy an increasingly small g?ro??up that cares about this kind of thing.

But for me, there's simply no energy quite like the energy shared between two (or more) people in one room sharing an experience. It's ??the difference between calling a friend and going out for dinner—sure, you'll find out what they've been up to either way, but sometimes you want to be in that space, sharing that experience together.

So as franchises like Halo, which was once known for its split-screen co-op, shy away fr??om the couch-sharing experie??nce, I can't help but feel a little sad.

Quiet revival

Blessedly, local multiplayer is down but not out. It's becoming more and more sparse in the AAA space, but indies have kept the dream alive admirably. Spelunky 2 retained the local mayhem found in the 2013 not-quite-original, and the Overcooked series has built its identity around intense, frantic same-screen sessions. It Takes Two recently became the only indie game in the history of the Game Awards to take home the GOTY prize, in? large part because of its local co-op offerings.

[caption id="attachment_365200" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

There are also still a few studios in the AAA space preserving the local multiplayer experience. Nintendo has been ruthlessly committed to keeping local co-op offerings available on the Nintendo Switch, a platform that initially sold itself, at least in part, on its two in-built controllers. Kirby and the Forgotten Land is an absolutely perfect local experience, and the more recent Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe bumps the player count from two to four. Outside of Nintendo, Diablo 4 is slated to follow in its immediate predecessor's footsteps with a couch co-op mode. The most recent crop of Borderlands games offers local play on consoles as well. The scene isn't thriving, necessarily, but i??t is surviving.

All of these games also have online offeri?ngs, and that's a great thing. Not everybody lives near the people they want to spelunk with, and I will always advocate f??or better online options. But all of these games also recognize that there is a good reason for players to want to be near each other physically. Video games can be an isolating hobby, but they also have the capacity, as a medium, to force people together. I wish more games took advantage of that inherent strength of the format, but for now, I'm simply glad that there's still space for that kind of game somewhere.

The post I love you, couch co-op appeared first on Destructoid.

You know what? I'm more interested now

Diablo is such a weird series: and I vibed with that feeling since the very first game. I had zero idea of what to expect, and didn't understand the strange history of the Hellfire "expansion" until many years after its release. By the time Diablo 2 rolled around my little crew of Diablo-playing-fr??iends was around 2??0 strong, and it was a bonafide hit that people still play today.

But Diablo 3 changed things considerably. Blizzard was already changing in terms of its perception as a bulletproof company, and the Auction House debacle was a sign of trouble to come for the publisher. In the end, D3 sold very well, but the team had a lot to prove when they first announced Diablo 4 to th?e world. So far, based on some hands-on ?time with the game, I think they're doing just that.

You can choose between more or less guidance: depending on your experience with the series

My build went up to level 25 with three classes (Barb??arian, Sorcerer, Rogue), and contained still-in-development content from Act 1. As an FYI, my PS5 copy was watermarked: and I couldn't use my own screens or footage. And with that out of the way, onto impressions!

Smartly, Diablo 4 is aiming to pick up players of all playstyles: lapsed fans, hardcore folks, and newcomers. Immediately I was given the option of toggling on/off most tutorials, depending on your experience with the series. If you want, you can dive into the game's new skill tree system immediately, which I did with my "main," the Barbarian (something I never really do in a core Diablo as a first character).

Here ?are the three options, with all the specializations you can choose from:

• Barbarian (berserking, bleed-focused, walking arsenal [tank], or unbridled rage [damage])
• Sorcerer (frost, pyromancy, or shock)
• Rogue (marksman, imbuements, or traps)

Most of my time was spent with the Barbarian, which I had a lot of fun with. You can whirlwind and leap still, and augment each individual skill/ability with a little spice (like ext?ra damage or more utility). On PS5 by default most of your abilities are linked to the face butt?ons and the triggers: with a dedicated dodge button.

Bringing in Blizzard's time with Diablo 3 on consoles, this is now a full-on mechanic in every build (PC included), and charges will increase over time (governed by a cooldown period). I immediately noticed some enemies are designed around this skill, which made a ?lot of the typically rote fights a little more interesting and engaging.

Respeccing (changing your build) is in. Initially it's free and can be done anywhere; with a gold price associated with it. I also got the chance to speak to Joseph Piepiora (Associate Game Director), Adam "AZ" Jackson (Lead Class Designer), and Ash Sweetring (Dungeon Producer) about class spread, and learned how the team went about approaching Diablo 4's class philosophy:

Destructoid: "I feel like you've done a pretty good job of condensing down the D4 classes to a good spread of representation from D1 and D3 - Was there a temptation to add more? How did you decide on the final count and what should be included?"

Joseph Piepiora: "We wanted to make sure as we're looking to advance the world of Sanctuary...reach back into the series' past and pluck out these iconic classes to reinterpret. Anyone who's played recently sees the evolution in the Barbarian...there's a lot of opportunities for us to take skills and reinterpret them into this new system. In terms of overall count we love the number five (laughs)...but for real, the game has many layers of complexity. Five is a good enough number to hit a good amount of core fantasies, while also giving us enough space on the design side to make things complex...the broader we go the less time we get to spend with each class. There's an opportunity to grow this roster in the future."

Adam Jackson: "There's always a temptation to add more...we love adding more. But like Joe mentioned, a big part of Diablo 4 is mixing the old and the new. You also probably have noticed that these classes have a lot of depth...in order for us to really sell these fantasies and get as deep...and introduce new ways to play, we had to stick to this number to nail the fantasies. As an example the Rogue in Diablo 1 is more fleshed out in Diablo 4."

Difficulty settings follow a world tier system

We're moving into world tiers, as Diablo 4 continues to incorporate more open world game design into the series. "Adventurer" is tier 1 (the lowest/easiest), and "Veteran" is tier 2. You can increase your tier at specific statues (usually in hu?bs), or on the title screen: and doing so will add more challenging enemies, better drops, and increased XP and g??old (the usual stuff).

By default (at this current time in the game's development c??ycle), you can swap between the two freely, but the rest are locked. Her??e's the full list available to us at the moment:

• Nightmare (recommended level 50 - sacred item drops appear, and nightmare dungeons, triggered through nightmare sigils, are unlocked)
• Hell (recommended level 60 - greater chance of sacred item drops, and rare nightmare sigils)
• Torment (recommended level 70, ancestral items appear, as well as new unique items)

Each of these tiers from nightmare on requires players to beat a prerequisite dungeon at the previous tier (so in the case of Nightmare, you'd have to play on Veteran). It seems pretty straightforward, and as a Diablo player, I swapped it to Veteran tier right away, and it was manageable. It'll be fun trying to break ?into higher tiers at lower levels.

The mood feels a lot like Diablo 2

Playing through the first Act, I felt tinges of Diablo 2 in more ways than one. The design is a lot darker, and the story in general feels more dire. The intro showcased a more helpless/beaten down protagonist (they were huddled in a cave, freezing, with a dead mount), which I dug right away. I mean within minutes you're kicking some wildlife ass, but among that, you'll come across deserted and broken down cabins and towns. NPCs ask you to prove your worth instead of jumping right into the role of the chosen one straight away, like D3 did. Lilith, the new big bad, also brings ??an air of freshness to the game, as they're actually doing hands-on work in the story?? instead of being relegated to a mysterious force you meet basically at the end.

After seeing this take in action, I dug into it more with Associate Game Director Joseph Piepi?ora:

Destructoid: "Playing through the current build, I would probably describe the theme, more so than anything else, as 'dire.' In D4, my first character started out huddled in a cave and had to get hands-on help from NPCs: definitely a different vibe from D3. Obviously at some point I'll take down Lilith, and/or maybe a surprise Diablo. Will that dire theming maintain throughout the game, even as you level up? Either way, was striking that balance tough?"

Piepiora: "The story of the Fractured Peaks is the prologue, and the story is starting at a low point. We want that to set the tone in how players engage in the world. In terms of whether we keep that tone...the tone will change a little as you go. I don't even want to talk about it. But I will say as the player gets more powerful they get slightly more agency in the story, and develop more relationships. At no point does Diablo 4 cease being a gothic horror game. The character is a hero, and they're using world-shaking power to rise against unstoppable evil. That power fantasy is at the heart of Diablo 4."

There's a decent chunk of things to do

When scouring through the Act 1 map, I came across numerous micro-dungeons and random encounters/activities. The classic "elite jumbled up ability" enemy types are still present, but the map feels so much bigger now that there's more of them. Dungeon Producer Ash Sweetring noted in our interview that it could take players "ar??ound 45-50 hours" just to complete the campaign, with a lot more to do after that.

There's still a lot of "what ifs" with Diablo 4. The team stressed again that premium purchases will be restricted to just cosmetics: but we've heard that before. From a pure gameplay standpoint, Diablo 4 also needs to keep things up, and maintain that tension throughout every act. And the endgame (which was hyped again in ?this media session) needs to deliver. We'll see what happens, but I'll be more inclined to be there day one after m??y time with it.

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The Devil's in the Details

As Blizzard Entertainment continues beavering away at its upcoming sequel Diablo IV, the rumor mills have started churning out potential dates for the eventual return of one of gaming's grimmest and most uniquely compelling dungeon crawlers. We have already been told the ti?tle will be "playable" in 2023, th?ough when and in what form remains a mystery.

Enter frequent spoiler XboxEra podcast, as hosted by Windows Central. In the most recent episode of the show, it was s??uggested that Blizzard could be planning on launching the sequel as soon as April of next year, with pre-orders opening in December, perhaps following a brand new trailer at the upcoming Game Awards show, which is currently scheduled to take place exactly one month from now. Pre-orders are expected to include standard editions alongside Blizzard's typic??al premium collector's set.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RdDpqCmjb4

Of course, this is mostly hearsay (or should that be "heresy"?) for now, but the XboxEra podcast has been pretty much on the money when it comes to the revelation of upcoming projects and release dates. We already know that Diablo IV is in a very playable form, as private betas have been circling among staff and colleagues for some time now (complete with oodles of leaked footage). Sping 2023 still seems a little early, but if Overwatch 2 has taught us anything, Blizzard is not the "ready when it's ready" company it once was, and is seemingly far more int?erested in getting products out in customers' hands ASAP.

Diablo IV ??is currently in development for PlayStation, PC, and Xbox platforms.

Report: Diablo 4 could laun??ch April 2023, preorders goi??ng live December [Windows Central]

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It's a leaky start to the week

One major game has already seen a major leak of info, and now it looks like another is joining the lineup. A leak of early footage of Diablo IV has been ?making the rounds, showing off more of the RPG in action.

Spotted by sites like PC Gamer, a Reddit user linked some footage from a filesharing site which seems to have footage from a private test build of Diablo IV.

We've looked at the footage to verify its existence and yes, it sure does look like Diablo. Alongside the giant watermarks plastered across the vid??eo, it's got shops, towns, and placeholders.

We reached out? to Blizzard for confirmation of the?? footage's validity and comment.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RdDpqCmjb4

Numbers go up

It was a notable weekend for leaks, as a massive pile of Grand Theft Auto VI footage also found its way online. Rockstar confirmed the leak's validity this morning, adding a statement addressing th??e leak.

"We are extremely disappointed to have any details of our next game shared with you all in this way. Our work on the next Grand Theft Auto game will continue as planned, and we remain as committed as ever to delivering an experience to you, our play?ers, that t??ruly exceeds your expectations. We will update everyone again soon, and of course, will properly introduce you to this next game when it is ready."

Unlike GTA, we've seen quite a bit of Diablo IV through various pre??views and trailers. Still, a leak's a leak, and this puts? some footage out without any context.

Blizzard has not commented on the leak as of this writing. The studio has released an update on Diablo IV, however. An endgame closed beta is on the way, w??ith direct invites rolling out using?? gameplay data.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=be2ZlWW0fwM

Diablo IV is still a ways off, at the very least until next year. And a lot has been happening over at Activision Blizzard as well.

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Games like Call of Duty will still launch on PlayStation, too

The acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft is still under scrutiny by regulators. Today we got a glimpse of what the deal might entail if it goes through, as series like Call of Duty could wind up on Game Pass.

Xbox head Phil Spencer writes in a new blog today that Microsoft intends to bring Activision Blizzard's library of games onto Game Pass. This includes, specifically, titles like Overwatch, Diablo, and Call of Duty.

This does not, though, preclude a game like Call of Duty from hitting PlayStation platforms. Spencer has previously stated that Microsoft does not intend to "pull communit??ies away from that platform" if the deal goes through.

"We’ve heard that this deal might take franchises like Call of Duty away from the places where people currently play them," Spencer writes. "That’s why, as we’ve said before, we are committed to making the same version of Call of Duty available on PlayStation on the same day the game launches elsewhere. We ?will continue to enable people to play with each other ?across platforms and across devices."

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=r72GP1PIZa0

Spencer points out Minecraft, which has remained available on multiple platforms since Mojang joined Microsoft in 2014. The Xbox head says the company will continue to engage with regulators as they review the acquisition, and welcome the "hard questions" that are being ??asked.

"We believe that a thorough review will show that the combination of Microsoft and Activision Blizz??ard will benefit the industry and players," said Spe??ncer.

An ongoing deal

Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard is still undergoing scrutiny from regulators. Today, the Competition and Markets Authority issued a ruling on its first phase. The CMA says that the merger reaches the threshold for a phas??e 2 investigation, "giving rise to a realistic prospect of a substantial lessening of competition" in consoles, services, and cloud gaming.

Activision Blizzard and Microsoft have until September 8 to answer concerns, as the CMA considers an in-depth phase 2 investigation. In a letter sent to Activision Blizzard employees today,?? CEO Bobby Kot?ick says he still expects the deal to go through by the end of Microsoft's fiscal year.

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There will be cosmetics, but no bargains for pure power

Blizzard Entertainment has published its latest Diablo IV quarterly update, this time discussing the game's monetization and shop. While there will be cosmetics for purchase, Blizzard is saying up-front that there won't? be any paying for ?power.

In today's update, the studio says it will have a cosmetics shop and seasonal passes, alongside the Seasons system modeled after Diablo III. For each new season, you create a new characte??r and engage with the new seasonal content, allowing players to jump in even if they missed the last season. The first season will be available soon after launch, and the team is aiming for four seasons a year.

This on-ramp mandates that all power needs to come from playing the game itself. So, in Blizzard's own words, "you will not be able to pay for power in Diablo IV."

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RdDpqCmjb4

The Season Pass rewards will have free and premium tiers. The latter won't contain any in-game power or advantage over other players who don't have that tier, th??ough. The Free Tier will provide gameplay boosts, but those will be available for all players. These Season Boosts can help players out for the duration of the season, adding things like accelerated XP gain.

While players can purchase tiers to advance through the pass, Blizzard also says that you can't just unlock all the seasonal boosts through purchases alone. These will also have level milestones associated with them, so whi?le players can jump ahead to grab cosmetic rewards from higher tiers, they can't shortcut the play-time n??ecessary for the boosts.

The post-launch plans also sound extensive, as Blizzard's Kegan Clark writes that Diablo IV will have an "army?? of developers" for years to come after launch. Seasons will ??include new gameplay, quests, challenges, changes to the meta, and quality-of-life improvements.

Headed back to shop

The Cosmetics Shop, meanwhile, will offer some custom visual appearance options for premium currency. The shop is optional, and according to?? Blizzard, the "best-looking cosmetics" aren't exclusive to the shop.

Diablo IV will ship with "hundreds" of transmogs that drop in-ga?me, including Unique and Legendary gear,?? that won't show up in the shop. It seems like the intent behind the Shop is to offer another cosmetic option, rather than the only one. Cosmetics bought in the shop will be usable on all characters of that class too, so no need to buy multiples of a single Necromancer set, for example.

This seems like it could be a comforting note for folks worried about Diablo IV after the monetization seen in Diablo Immortal. Blizzard seems like it really wants to assuage those fears, and that's valid. Immortal had issues, and the launch of Diablo III was marred by the real money auction house. We'll see how the plans work out for this team when Diablo IV goes live sometime in the future.

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It's those damn microtransactions

Activision Blizzard has been a monolith in the gaming industry for nearly fifteen years, best known for titles that have dominated the markets like World of Warcraft, Diablo, and Overwatch. While its PC games have provided some of the greatest successes over the years, both critically and commercially, the company's latest financial report lets on that the tides might be turning in a significant way for the company. During the second quarter of 2022, Activision Blizzard made more than half of its total revenue from mobile games, which is more than PC and consoles combined (thanks, PC Gamer).

While Activision Blizzard brought in $332 million in PC sales, and $376 million in combined cons?ole sales, mobile games raked in more than all the other platforms combined (including an extra $105 million in the "Other" category with? revenue from distribution, esports leagues, etc.) with a staggering $831 million.

This time last year, the numbers were more evenly distributed �PC made $628 million, consoles made $740 million, and mobile games made $795 million. Activision Blizzard's mobile games were still the highest earners, but the shift in revenue streams this year was substantial. In case you were wondering, a driving factor in the year-over-year growth is that developer King's Candy Crush (published by Activision) is still somehow killing it.

This report is following two big news stories for Activision Blizzard over the past few weeks �gamers' contempt for Diablo Immortal despite its huge sales numbers, and the Call of Duty franchise losing 50 million active players in the past year.

It's pretty easy to make the connection on how these circumstances affected the company's profits, especially considering one dude spent over $100,000 on Diablo Immortal microtransactions. Players have also been vocal in their distaste for Call of Duty: Vanguard, from the title's WWII aesthetic (which doesn't mesh well with flashy cosmetics that players like so much) to its gameplay. Of ??course, there are other factors at play here, like the release calendar for example, and I'm sure there are plenty of behind-the-scenes goings-on we just don't know about.

Mind you, all of this is going on in the midst of new rumors that Activision Blizzard is taking part in union-busting tactics yet again, and after months of settling a massive sexual harassment lawsuit. It's been a tumultuous?? time in the company, to say the least, but regardless, it proved that even when its reputation is arguably the worst it's ever been, it'?s still capable of bringing in huge profits.

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The Lord of Live Service

The microtransaction system for Diablo Immortal items is somehow getting even more out of hand. We already k?new of a theoretical number folks had to hi??t, and now that theory has been tested: the results a??re bad for everyone.

As Eurogamer points out, a content creator named jtisallbusiness (embedded below) alleges that they've "spent around $100,000" on the game, and are seeking a refund because they can't actually engage in the content. Breaking it down, they've boosted themselves to such a high state that they can't matchmake anymore in PVP (which is the most popular endgame activity): and as the leader of their clan and the strongest member, that's a problem. To compound the issue, they're even on an endgame questline (which was designed and is current in the game) to become immortal and defend their title; but they can't complete it because they can't queue for a battleground. They also can't ?leave their own clan due to a role issue, and they can't abdicate it to someone else to queue up. These all transcend the economic situation and fall under the realm of design flaws.

They state that they've looked into a refund from Blizzard, but haven't heard anything back beyond that they were "aware of the issue" in over a month. Part of the reasoning is that the creator is essentially investing in their channel, being able to stream exclusive content. But as it turns out, Diablo Immortal wasn't built for this...at least at this time. Crazy to think that apparently, no one at the s??tudio thought what would happen if someone paid up this mu?ch cash.

After reading this, you've essentially come to a crossroads. Do you fork down the "they can spend their money how they want, Diablo Immortal items included" path, or th??e "why are?? they supporting this business model" direction? Or you can veer off the road entirely and ask "why is this even possible?" Or maybe you've taken an afternoon stroll down both (sounds good to me)!

Years back, creators like Matt Stone and Trey Parker poked fun at the?? cynical and calculated nature of in-??app purchases; yet they've managed to top themselves and push the system further. It's about time a lot of these practices were re??ferred to a?s "macrotransactions." For me, I'm utterly confused how this situation was even allowed to happen to a whale. It's just an incompetent business plan!

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Evu5Q-HljhI

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Mixed results for publisher's Q2

Beleaguered publisher Activision Blizzard released its financial results for the second quarter of 2022, ??presenting a mixed bag of successes and losses for some of the biggest blockbuster franchises in gaming.

Overall, the most recent quarter did not turn around the company's recent sliding fortunes, with overall revenue down a huge 28% on the same period last year. Of course, this still equates to total revenue of around $1.64 billion USD for the quarter, so it's hardly doomsday for the industry giant. Perhaps more concerning to the studio are the numbers pertaining to its monthly active users, which? is down 12% on 2021, equating to a loss of around 361 million players across the publisher's various online games.

Activision revenue is down 38% on 2021, which translates to a total of $490 million. In addition, the Call of Duty franchise has lost just over a quarter of its entire player base. The lobbies are hardly empty, of course, as the shooter series still retains around 96 million users. While engagement with Call of Duty Mobile remains steady, 2021's Call of Duty Vanguard and battle royale title Call of Duty Warzone have both struggled to grow t??heir respective communities, especially when compared to previous entries in the billion-dollar franchise.

Over at Blizzard Entertainment, revenue is down around 7% year-on-year, struggling to match the success of 2021's World of Warcraft remaster Burning Crusade Classic. More positive news for the accountants comes from controversial free-to-play mobile title Diablo Immortal, which has seen its player base grow by 23% on the previous quarter, for a total of 27 million active users. The growth comes despite much eyebrow-raising over the title's aggressive use of paywalls and microtransactions.

Activision Blizzard was purchased by Microsoft in January of this year for a staggering $68.7 billion. While the past year has been a slump for the publisher, it is very likely that Activision Blizzard will be looking for a turn of fortunes under the umbrella of one of the biggest corporations on the planet. It goes far beyond the bottom line, however, as Activision Blizzard remains under the microscope of its contemporaries, its community, and the State of California following an investigation into the toxic, sexist, and harassing behaviors recorded within its walls.

You can read an abridged timeline of the Activision Blizzard controversy right here.

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This feels like a 2010s argument from EA

I don't really envy anyone who has to defend Diablo Immortal, especially if they had no direct input with its monetization systems. You're caught between a rock and a hard place, right?! Th??e entire endgame is predicated on spending money, and the mixup between what constitutes pay-to-win and what "equipment" is really didn't do the game any favors. Now, Blizzard is saying Diablo Immortal microt?ransactions are OK because most people don't ??partake in them. What year is it?

Speaking to the LA Times, Blizzard boss Mike Ybarra does just that. Ybarra contends that "the monetization comes in at the end game," and that "the philosophy was always to lead with great gameplay and make sure that hundreds of millions of people can go through the whole campaign without any costs...from that standpoint, [he] feels really good about it as an introduction to Diablo." He also cites the "high user reviews on the App Store" as proof that there's nothing wrong with t??he game.

Seeking a follow-up, the LA Times got a response back from a Blizzard rep, who noted that "the vast majority of players aren't spending money" on Diablo Immortal microtransactions, and that "50% of players have never played a Diablo game before."

The idea that predatory monetization schemes are fine because only a small percentage of whales dole out chunks of cash is something straight out of an EA executive's mouth in the 2010s. It's old hat! Executives really need to get a little bit more creative if they're going to keep defending this stuff, especially amid issues like not even being able to release the game in certain countries because of?? the cash model.

Don't you all have bank accounts?

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It focuses on lobby and multiplayer updates

Blizzard is putting out a rather large Diablo II: Resurrected patch today?, and it aims to address backend stuff to make ??the game smoother.

The chief thing it tackles is matchmaking, as well as lobby displays. The Resurrected team admits that these elements weren't working as well as they should have, so you should see more games? populated than before as of today when the patch is live. "Any number of games in your region that have a strong enough connection" are now visible, and the game list has been doubled from 20 to 40, with a real-time ticker/updates. Both consoles and PC players will see the benefits of this change.

Online play has also been siloed into three categories: private, game creator (a more customizable form of public game), and game list (the aforementioned above list). ?PC players can also search through more finely tuned requirements, including keywords for like players. A few abilities have been fixed or altered too, including faster Barbarian movesets, and the Hor??adric Cube can be toggled to a hotkey. Console players can assign stat points in bulk now! You can find all of the quality of life improvements below.

Finally, the team is doing a sort of "double XP weekend" gimmick from June 30 through J??uly 4: providing a 50% buff to Magic Find (read: you can uncover better loot), which stacks with existing Magic Find.

You can find the full patch notes here. Resurrected has practically gotten more support in a few months than Warcraft III: Reforged has in its lifetime!

Diablo II: Resurrected patch quality of life improvements:

Gameplay

• Players can now start a new Whirlwind, Leap, or Leap Attack immediately after a Whirlwind ends.
• Changed the logic for determining how often Whirlwind attacks occur. Whirlwind now incorporates Increased Attack Speed (IAS) from all equipment. The frames between each Whirlwind attack are equal to the attack frame of a basic attack for that character (modified by increased attack speed). While dual wielding, the attack frame for each weapon will be averaged (rounding up). Overall, Whirlwind attacks should be at least as fast as they were before. Slower weapons will attack notably faster.
• Added a new "Loot to Cube" skill for controllers in the general skills menu. Using this skill on an item will pick it up and place it in your Horadric Cube, if there is space.
• Added a bindable hotkey for mouse and keyboard to directly open the Horadric Cube if it is in your inventory.
• Added a new button shortcut to open the Horadric Cube from the inventory menu.
• Players can now bulk assign stat points using a controller.
• A confirmation prompt will now appear when bulk assigning all remaining stat points on both PC and console. This option is unavailable while using legacy graphics.
• Added an Automap Auto Open setting to allow players to set their preferred Automap position.

Online

• You can now double click on a game to join it in the PC lobby.
• Players on Switch can now join a friend's game via the in-game Friends List.
• Game List size has been doubled from 20 to 40.
• Game list details in both the details panel and in the Game List now load faster upon selecting a game.
• Friends playing D2R are now sorted to the top of the Friends List.
• Console players now have an option in the options menu to toggle Game Name visibility.

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Press X to doubt

So all eyes are on Diablo 4, which is due out "in the next 12 months" according to a statement made during the Microsoft Xbox Conference this past weekend. Overwatch 2 hasn't fared so well in the public eye ever since it was revealed, and Diablo Immortal has been earning the ire of players all over the world. When coupled with Warcraft III: Reforged and all the other goings-on at Blizzard, the company has a clear image problem. Diablo 4 cosmetics likely won't fix that.

In any case, it hopes to solve those problems with Diablo 4, which is now seemingly the golden goose that will restore some of the company's reputation: at ??least ??in the eyes of some execs. But they're having a hard time selling it given, well, everything we just talked about above.

Following criticism that flowed via Immortal, Blizzard's GM of the Diablo franchise, Rod Fergusson, took to Twitter to d??efend the upcoming mainline entry. He explains:

"To be clear, D4 is a?? full price game built for PC/PS/Xbox audiences. We are committed to delivering an incredible breadth of ?content after launch, for years to come, anchored around optional cosmetic items & full story driven expansions."

So, reading between the lines, this seems to imply that there could be a lack of paid gameplay-impacting items, but with modern Blizzard, you never know how that might turn out in the end. The big straightforward takeaways here is that it's still a "full price game," with "optional Diablo 4 cosmetics" (tha?t's going to be a yikes from a lot of people given that they just reconfirmed it's a full-price game) ?and "full story-driven expansions" (which could be good, but how is this being monetized, is the question).

Also, what about the inevitably of a season pass? This was likely already talked about behind closed doors, but not confirmed (this listing doesn't bode well on that front). In any case, under duress, we have a bit more info on Diablo 4 now. Optimistically, under Microsoft, the company could improve overall, and "years to come" of content could be a step up from what Diablo 3 ended up? getting. But I know a lot of pe??ople understandably aren't betting on that.

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No, he's actually quite mortal

The last time we checked in with Diablo Immortal, things were going decent enough. Immortal shows pretty well on mobile, but with the pre-release review period ending, I shifted gears a bit into the PC edition to see ho??w that one held up.

I wasn't ready for the dark underbe??lly of microtransactions, which reared up in the live versio??n.

Diablo Immortal (Android, iOS, PC [reviewed])
Developer: Blizzard, NetEase
Publisher: Blizzard
Released: June 2, 2022
MSRP: Free-to-play (with microtransactions)

So we already talked about the core fundamentals in the review in progress: suffice to say everything still holds up. The game runs well on my iPhone 11, and the ability to swap between traditional pads and touch controls is a great compromise. In theory, the gameplay really showcases how far mobile games have come in 2022 from say, 2009's Flight Control (what a magical time for mobile gaming before freemium completely took over). The PC experience is considerably less impressive, but still upholds the core tenets ??of gameplay. We'll get to the monetization elements soon enough.

Digging more into the story, I was vibing with the give and take nature of what is essentially a gaiden taking place between Diablo 2 and 3. A lot of familiar faces come back to help you on your quest, including Deckard Cain, Charsi, and even Xul from Heroes of the Storm. It has a silly "all your friends are here!" feel to it that I actually embraced very quickly, as everyone attempts to rid the world of Diablo's e??ssence and influence once again. Not a lot happens, and there's a lot of expository dialogue that mainly deals with the next immediate task at hand. But the constant go-go nature does work for a game like this.

It's very much a streamlined deal, which can be a boon or a burden in some cases. Some bosses, especially early on, lack tactical nuance. Some player choice is pared down, especially when it comes to skills and player builds (a criticism also levied at Diablo 3 proper). While I hope that Diablo 4 brings a lot of the core principles of Diablo 2 back into the fray, Immortal goes in a different direction that could bring in more newcomers. Putting a more action-centric system into what is essentially a "spinoff" isn't a bad idea, and offers a way f?or people to potentially pivot into quicker dungeon diving.

Progression involves leveling up to 60 to get to the final area (Realm of Damnation). To work to that goal you'll fight through level-suggested zones (much like World of Warcraft) that you can travel to via a world map, or walk to. Most of that progression is story-driven, so you just head from zone to zone blowing stuff up. It's considerably more interesting with the multiplayer wrinkle that Immortal adds.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfm0VHQJZxE

As soon as I finished the "tutorial," things opened up even more and showed off the potential of what Immortal was trying to do. Think Runescape. Immediately, a ton of player characters populated the town, a party finder for groups and small guilds flashed on-screen, and after running out of the tow?n gates, I joined an ad-hoc party and took down monsters on the way to my next instanced map.

It was actually pretty cool! While I'm sure this always-on nature will turn off a lot of long time fans (and many more ??in general), it was neat to just randomly jog from area to area and see people and hang out, even briefly. Matchmaking for major dungeons is also a breeze, and often times it would only take 30 seconds or less to pop in with a full group to take down a boss. "Solo only" story sections are peppered throughout to break th??ings up, and the party finder lets you join up for runs of pretty much anything you want.

On PC, like mobile, you have multiple control options: mouse and keyboard, or an array of controllers. It's nice, but I actually think the mobile version is more stable based on my time with it. The PC edition has its own w??oes, mostly from a visual/UI and stability perspective. I had at least one soft crash, where I could interact with anything in-game with a controller or keyboard: forcing a restart. From a UI point of view, the verbiage on the menus is sloppy on PC and clearly ported directly over?? on mobile in an unfinished state. It also could stand to be zoomed out a lot more (especially text notifications), and provide additional UI customization options: which are standard in a game like this in 2022. Most of this can be chalked up to lack of polish, and isn't a dealbreaker.

But there's a bigger problem afoot??, and it infects the entire gam??e.

The microtransactions are overwhelming, and in some cases, egregious. Currencies involve crests (which add extra loot to Elder Rifts, the randomized dungeon system that returns from D3), and eternal orbs (which are like the premium gems/crystal currency). You can use the latter to buy cosmetics (one outfit is generally $15), as well as in-game materials. It's a lot like Genshin Impact and its ilk, especially when you add in? daily login bonuses, "boons of plenty" (stackable buffs for daily login gifts), and a battle pass. But it's even more exploitative because rewards are?? hidden behind a fog of war. Plus, don't forget carefully constructed amounts of currency, so that you need to buy certain increments to purchase certain combinations of stuff.

The more I interacted with the microtransaction and loot system, the more I was disappointed by the game overall. "Not being able to buy gear" was supposedly a sticking point for the development team, but that thesis fell apart once folks ?really tested the waters of outright buying crests, which provide an insane loot advantage over fully free-to-play players: not to mention the whole legendary gem debacle, which evidently is not considered "gear." Adding a dungeon run stick to the end of a loot box carrot to obfuscate that you're still gambling for loot is an insidious move. With Diablo 4 in active development and Path of Exile and many other ??competitors out there, it's a more bitter pill to swallow.

I had the same sour taste in my mouth that I've had with so many other freemium games when I clicked on a daily bonus and un?locked materials and currency I hadn't even interacted with yet: almost like it was a siren's song telling me "this is what you'll be grinding for in 20 hours, be grateful we're giving you some now." Building on all this (season passes, likely with new content patches) seems to be the path going forward, along with the paragon (extra level-up system) that unlocks at level 60. It's the path of least resistance for many live service games.

I want to make this clear: without microtransactions in play at all, Diablo Immortal is actually a fun little multiplayer-centric take on the formula, especially on its native mobile home. At the end of the day, it's free. Boot it up, f??inish the critical path, get to 60, and see how it grabs you. I don't think it's going to win over anyone who is disenfranchised by the series, but for folks looking for a dungeon crawling diversion, it definitely serves its purpose: and has room to grow. Hopefully that growth involves less microtransactions.

The team has a lot to be proud of from a t?echnical and aesthetic standpoint, but the Lord of Live Service ultimately won the war.

The post Review: Diablo Immortal appeared first on Destructoid.

How to sully hard developer work: part one

So we knew that Diablo Immortal would have microtransactions. The team has been kind of mum on them overall outside of general platitudes that they wouldn't impact the game that much: but several posts and YouTube channels are actually breaking this down the new monetization model scientifically, and things aren't looking good for Diablo Immortal max stat requirements.

That material includes a Reddit post by daymeeuhn that showcases how far the stat and gem rabbit hole goes, a full explanation of pay-to-win from Gregg2G, and a rundown from the Bellular News channel??. Let's break this down. A lot of the onus on the cracks in this system falls on legendary gems.

Legendary gems can drastically increase your stats, to the point where they can outweigh multiple slots of "traditional gear." You can get these, quasi-indirectly, through microtransactions: via buying "legendary or rare crests [boosters]" to go on better Elder Rift runs (randomized dungeon runs from Diablo 3). Legendary gems are so rare that at the current moment, you essentially need to purchase crests to see them drop reliably. While crests are technically given out as free rewards (at a limit of only a few a day for rare, and only a few a month for legendary), the chance of earning a legendary gem is very low (evidently 10%) compared to the drastically increased drop rate from premium legendary crests. It's also important to note that legendary gems have rarity levels, and free players cannot earn legendary gems higher than a "2-star rating." This isn't even taking into account the "Awakening" and "Resonance" mechanics, ??which further upgrade gear via pr?emium dawning echo items.

Gregg2G posits that one player, the "Whale," who is at the top of the PVP charts, potentially paid $20,000 to get to where he is this early (with excessive amounts of legendary gems), and it could take around $110,000 to fully max out in the current environment. Yes, Diablo Immortal has PVP, which is obviously directly impacted by this system, and is unable to skirt the "well pay-to-win doesn't matter because the game is all PVE" excuse that many developers unsuccessfully try to use. It's suggested that true free players could take years to work up to the level of some of the Diablo Immortal max highest ranked paid players right now. Confusing right? Well that's by design.

This has sort of been addressed by a member of the development team on Twitter. Origina??lly, the idea, communicated through a Blizzard post, was that "there is no way to acquire or rank up gear using money." The catch is that "gear" in these strict terms, means the "12?? item slots." You can, however, essentially buy loot boxes (sorry, crest bonuses to do dungeons to get loot boxes) to acquire better gear; and the legendary gem system is not considered "gear" by the developer, even though it's an item that directly is attached to your character that increases your stats.

Expect our Diablo Immortal rev??iew later today. Suffice to say, this factors in!

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jwn-aVc13VY

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'Surprise Mechanics' back in the crosshairs

Gaming's most controversial economy, the Loot Box and its random-related brethren, are once again the target of European councils, who ??are calling for new legislation for the controversial in-game purchase mecha??nic.

This latest venture follows the publishing of a new report titled "Insert Coin," penned by The Norwegian Consumer Council (NCC) which looks into the short-and-long-term impact caused by so-called "Surprise Mechanics" on the health, welfare, and wallets of video game players. The report targets the predatory and compulsive nature exhibited by the loot box concept, noting that the mechanic "exploits cognitive or behavioral biases to incentivize spending." The report calls out certain examples by name, including EA's FIFA franchise and mobile title Raid: Shadow Legends.

Following the report's publication, over 20 consumer groups from 18 European countries have partied together to call for immediate and severe legislation against all forms of loot box/gacha gaming and the publishers who chose to include it in their titles. While the report lists several potential compromises �such as banning misleading in-game currency, further declaring prize odds, and removing loot boxes from all games targeting m??????????????????????????inors �the council also suggests simply banning paid loot boxes altogether.

Loot boxes, gacha, and other "surprise mechanics" have remained both a lucrative and highly controversial part of gaming for many years now. While there have been repeated instances of investigations, lawsuits, and governmental interference into the application of in-game purchases, there is �staggeringly �yet to be definitive law on what a loot box is/isn't, and how they can be globally instigated (or not) in video games the world over. In the meantime, publishers such as Activision Blizzard, EA, and myriad mobile game makers have been making money hand-over-fist and thus will be unlikely to pu??ll th?e plug anytime soon.

The post Europe??an countries form up in new call for Loot Box legislation appeared first on Destructoid.

Don't you have PCs?

Diablo Immortal has indeed been a wild ride. Blizzard could have announced it as one of the first things at BlizzCon 2018 (instead of the closer), and tease an eventual PC port, and read the room and resisted the urge to play up the mobile-only nature of the game in a room full of PC players. Alas, new Blizzard has made quite a few mistakes (some PR-related, some on a game design level, and some on a legal scale), so it's par for the course.

But in the end, the decidedly not mobile exclusive Diablo Immortal didn't end up nearly as bad as some expected.

Diablo Immortal (Android, iOS [tested on an iPhone 11], PC)
Developer: Blizzard, NetEase
Publisher: Blizzard
Released: June 2, 2022
MSRP: Free-to-play

To be clear, we only had early access to the mobile version of the game, but you can preload the PC port as we speak. Here are the character classes available right now, which are heavily skewed toward Diablo 3:

• Barbarian
• Wizard
• Demon Hunter [my first Diablo 3 character, and the first one I chose here]
• Monk
• Crusader
• Necromancer

Once you pick your class and gender, you're off to a very brief menu where you can change how your person looks a smidge. It's a welcome departure from the non-customizable nature of prior Diablo games, as you can kinda-sorta "make t??he character yours" with some limit?ed options (a few hairstyles, color swaps).

Story-wise, things are extremely light, and are cleverly framed as "that side story that could have happened at any time [between Diablo 2 and 3]." Tyrael, series famous Archangel, "sacrifices himself" to shatter the evil Worldstone relic, and as a result, corruption starts to plague the land. It's up to you (yep, you!) to stop it and fight off a bunch of minions that conveniently spawn out of the broken shards. Anything that happens can be dismissed in terms of the bigger picture �especially as it pertains to whatever happens in Diablo 4.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sDxsXYn78w

Honestly, it's fine. Diablo never strictly needed a heavy narrative (which loses its luster after your first run) so long as the mechanics were sound, and Diablo 3 didn't deliver on a lot of its big story beats. So, a minimalist approach might be for the best here. Most of the action-packed moments of the game are on a micro scale: meeting people that are being terrorized by various denizens, swapping stories, and saving them �that sort of thing. To that end, many enemies return from previous games in an "All-Star" fashion (including Leoric and Baal), as well as some fresh faces. It's a decent mix of old and new. While Immortal by and large feels like "Diablo 3 and a half," there weren't many points whe?re I felt like it was a straight retr??ead. The environments, layouts, and enemy designs keep things interesting for the most part.

Interestingly, before the game was even announced for PC, the settings menu felt comprehensive enough to nearly just port there. Alongside of four display options on mobile (classic, warm, vintage, cool), there's also a toggle for controller use, general quality of life features, in-game ??video capture, and a host of graphics options. At the risk of "overheating your phone and shortening its battery life," you can toggle on 60 FPS, and individual graphics options like anti-aliasing, monster effects, bloom, and vegetation detail can be turned on or off; or in some cases, tweaked with "low, medium, or high" granular selections.

The mobile edition of Diablo Immortal even has a "device load" meter that showcases the strain that's put on your machine. It's detailed and welcome, especially given that Blizzard is tryin?g to push this as an AAA game. Then again, you can also just play it on PC, and likely have more options as well as the enhanced freedom that comes with the platform. In any case, it's impressive for a mobile version.

As far as the touch controls go, as I found out in the alpha build a year ago, we're at the point where it's expected that these sorts of things work �and Diablo Immortal clears that bar. A digital analog stick on the left side moves your character around, the right side has a b??ig old "primary attack" button, and there's an array of abilities that are governed by cooldowns around tha?t large icon.

As you level up you'll get new abilities and upgrades (including new primary attacks), and customize your skill layouts (just like Diablo 3). Skills have a helpful telegraphed pathing visualization, just like pretty much every modern MMO. It's easy to trigger an ability, then?? swipe your finger around to aim it wher?e you want it. Again, there's been roughly a decade of mobile development to build upon here, and the teams nailed it.

So there's a few things I need to do before making a final verdict. Testing out microtransactions �wh?ich were not present in this early build �is a big one. Then there's more multiplayer testing and trying out the late game, to see if it holds up beyond one initial run. My progress on mobile is being wiped for the live ver??sion anyway, so it sounds like a perfect opportunity to see how the PC side of the game plays. With cross-play between the platforms and a big focus on boss fights, I can see mindlessly slamming out a ton of battles, and coming back when big updates hit.

Like so many mobile pro??jects, there's a good foundation here. I hope executives serving the true final boss �The Lord of Live Service �didn't squander it.

_{[This review is based on an early build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review in Progress: Diablo Immortal appeared first on Destructoid.

Never in The Netherlands

This week sees the launch of Activision Blizzard's hellish new MMO, Diablo Immortal. But while the free-to-play mobile title is preparing to unleash its ev??il upon?? most of the planet, two countries will reportedly be blocking the title's launch due to their respective laws on in-game purchases.

Initially reported by Dutch news outlet Tweakers, both Belgium and The Netherlands have refused Diablo Immortal service within the countries' borders due to "the current operating conditions in these countries." It should be noted that both countries in ques??tion have taken staunch stances against the controversial "loot box" mechanic, which continues to skirt around various gambling laws worldwide.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sDxsXYn78w

Over on the Diablo Immortal subreddit, poster Evoratus uploaded a message they received from a Blizzard employee warning players from the affected countrie??s from attempting to log in. This statement openly c??alls out the loot box laws as the reason that the title will not launch in Belgium or The Netherlands, and suggests that any Blizzard account that fans a way to circumvent the block may find itself banned.

"Unfortunately players in the Netherlands and Belgium will not be able to install Diablo Immortal due to the countries' gambling restrictions," reads the unofficial statement. "The lootboxes in the game are against the law in your country, so unless the gambling restrictions change?? the game will not be released [...] It would be illegal for you to download the game in another country like France. If you manage to run the game I cannot guarantee that you will not be banned for it."

In addition, pre-registration for Diablo Immortal has been closed on both PC and mobile platforms. For all other countries, Diablo Immortal is still expected to launch on June 2.

Diablo Immortal reportedly won't launch ??in two ?countries due to loot boxes [GamesIndustry.biz]

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It's fully out on June 2

The secret is already out, as Diablo Immortal is no longer a mobile exclusive. Starting now you can even trigger up a Diablo Immortal PC pre-load, and be ready for the June 2 launch while you peruse a new blog post that showcas??es a ton of details for what happens next week.

The post is fairly compreh??ensive, offering up full launch times, as well as all of the controllers that the game will support (the big ones are the Xbox One controllers and DualShock 3-4, as well as the DualSense �and the Switch Pro Controller in wired form or wirelessly via "Mayflash Magic NS").

Globally, the game will launch at 1PM ET on June 2, but the full global release calendar can be seen above (and again, Diablo Immortal PC pre-load is av?ailable now). The team reiterates that there are ??eight zones, as well as the following classes playable in the launch build: Barbarian, Crusader, Demon Hunter, Monk, Necromancer, or Wizard.

It'l??l feature cross-progression, so long as you log into your Battle.net account, which allows you to carry over progress from PC to mobile devices. Finally, here are the minimum and recommended PC requirements (with a note that "ultra" settings are only available on PC, or select iPad?? devices):

Minimum Requirements For PC

• Operating System: Windows® 7 / Windows® 8 / Windows® 10 / Windows® 11 (64-bit)
• CPU: AMD FX-8100 or Intel Core i3
• GPU: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 460, ATI Radeonâ„?HD 6850 or Intel® HD Graphics 530
• Memory: 4 GB RAM

Recommended Specifications For PC

• Operating System: Windows® 10 / Windows® 11 (64-bit)
• CPU: Intel® Core i5 or AMD Ryzenâ„?5
• GPU: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 770 or AMD Radeonâ„?RX 470
• Memory: 8 GB RAM

*Disk Space Requirement: 24GB

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Do you have a PC?

Blizzard has revealed that Diablo Immortal PC is going to be a thing, with cross-pl?a?y and cross-progression between mobile devices to boot.

After all that, and making a big deal about Diablo Immortal being a mobile-first game, several years after the on-stage fiasco, Blizzard is confirming that the game is coming to PC. The mobile edition is actually arriving on June 2, but in the near future (also on June 2), the PC version will be going into "open beta." Blizzard says that Diablo Immortal PC open beta progress will be "maintained" ??into the full version. So either way, with cross-progression, you're covered no matter wh??en you start. The publisher re-iterates that there are "30 million pre-registered players" worldwide that comprise the player base.

While the jury is out on Diablo Immortal's quality as a whole, and how it properly utilizes microtransactions: this is good news for the game as a whole. The "mobile-only" portion of the announcement clearly went over poorly with fans, and if Blizzard can steward the PC version properly, and mold it into something even remotely resembling Path of Exile, they could have a little cottage industry for years to come. In fact, if done right, this could be the longest-supported Diablo game to date in terms of totally new content.

With Microsoft coming into the picture at some point, it only spells good things for long-term support. But again, the game's quality will need to shine on its own: and we have just a li??ttle over a month to see it for ourselves.

Diablo Immortal PC trailer:

//www.youtube.com/watch???v=_sDxsXYn78w&feature=emb_title

The post You don’t need a phone to play Diablo Immortal anymore, it’s headed to PC appeared first on Destructoid.

Here's info on Patch 2.4

A new Diablo 2: Resurrected balance patch is in town, and is making history as the first major update to the game in?? over 10 year?s.

Since the changes are too massive to detail here, instead we have breakdowns of ?the big picture parts of the p??atch notes.

Class changes

Every class in Diablo 2 ha??s been touched in some way, and this is the first major balance patch since March ??23, 2010. Blizzard says these changes have been made to "expand character build diversity."

Everything from fire b??ow skill buffs to martial art skill charge changes are a go. Having played every class at some point in my life a few of these are fascinating, and some were altered more than others (the Barbarian got off pretty light, with a strong buff to leap attack being the most stark individual change).

Here's a quick summary:

• Amazon - Melee skills have been changed for build diversity, and passives were overall buffed to add incentives to pick them, while bows were scaled better at higher levels
• Assassin - Martial arts skills consume one charge at a time instead of all three at once, shadow disciplines were largely unchanged, and traps were buffed overall
• Barbarian - Tooltips were shored up to be more helpful, throwing weapons were buffed to not consume as much with throwing mastery procs, and Leap Attack was buffed
• Druid - Casting delay changes mixed up how some abilities are used, shapeshifting Druids were "brought forward," and summon Druids can summon more allies at once
• Necromancer - "Lesser-used summons" were improved, including skeletal mages, bone skill synergies were buffed, and weaken now scales based on level
• Paladin - Tooltip info was enhanced, AOE (area-of-effect) auras were buffed or altered (Thorns had the most changes), and "lesser-used combat skills" were brought up
• Sorceress - Cold skills generally were buffed, lightning skills got more synergies, and "lesser-used" fire skills were buffed

A big theme of the balance patch is more about adding more viable options rather than taki??ng them away.

Uber Diablo progress has been altered

Uber Diablo was added as a superboss in 2003's update 1.10, but now in patch 2.4, there's a few quality of life upgrades to ensure that the process runs a bit smoother. As a recap, players need to offer a certain number of Stone of Jordan rings (known as "SOJs") to merchants on Hell difficu?lty. After hitting a certain mark, Uber Diablo will spawn on the map and take over the place of a unique monster.

But now, in 2.4:?? "Uber Diablo progress for each game type will now be kept by the regional database. When the threshold is met by selling enough Stone of Jordan rings, Uber Diablo will spawn for everyone in the same region, not only those on the same server instance." Players can also use t?he /uberdiablo command to coordinate/communicate when he will spawn.

Mercenaries have been buffed

Using mercenaries (NPC helpers) in Diablo 2 is generally useless, but now 2.4 is making them a little more entici??ng.

Instead of gambling on a "randomize??d level difference from your character's level" when hiring them, they'll now match your level directly. Also, mercenaries can generally use more abilities (like the Rogue Archer utilizing freezing/explosion arrow) so they should perform better overall. For newer solo players, it makes the early? game a little more exciting.

New Rune Words and Horadric Cube recipes were added

Rune words have been mixed up a bit, as there will be "exclusive ladder" versions, including insight on bows/crossbows, infinity, obedience, and pride on spears. The main change here is increasing the possibilities for insight, which Bliz??zard says is one of the more popular Rune Words.

Four new Horadric Cube recipes have been added too, which are "ladder exclusive," and mainly deal with exceptional and elite sets of weapon and armor. Blizzard says this "can add more possibilities by us?ing lower-level Set items for more character builds."

Act III skipping has been changed

One of the more inte??resting parts of 2.4 is how Act III has been changed.

Infamously, many Diablo 2 players woul??d skip heaps of Act III, and some find it to be the weakest act in the game. However, Blizzard is addressing "skipping required content," by requiring the Khalim's Will quest to be completed when finishing Act III: so no more "killing the counci??l" and skipping the rest of the act.

Hell level ?requirements were increased a bit as well to encourage players to stop ignoring "certain optional areas" and pushing through a sta?tic critical path.

Quality of life updates and bug fixes

In a??ddition to adding "language support for non-ASCII written language," there's now a legacy graphics emulation option, that lets you swap between "GDI, glide, and res??urrected" filtering modes to change up the aesthetic.

Pets, summons, and mercenaries now tel??eport more often instead of despawning, the Barbarian leap has a smoother animation, and some performance enhancements and b?ug fixes are in tow.

Again, check out the full list if you're a hardcore D2 player and want those granular details!

The post Diablo 2 just ??got its first balance patch in over a decade appeared first on Destructoid.

And I couldn't be more excited

After a brief delay, we are now just a week away from the next update to Path of Exile. The Scourge league is coming to a close, and the Siege of the Atlas and Archnemesis updates are primed and ready. For those unaware of the schedule, every three months Path of Exile updates to a new league, bringing in new mechanics alongside things like new items, gems, and balance changes. Occasionally, like this update, developer Grinding Gear Games (GGG) also includes an expansion-type update that shakes up how the ??game is structured.

Next week, the Siege of the Atlas expansion will change how the "map" system works in Path of Exile, while the Archnemesis league will introduce new mechanics for players to toy around with. The balance patch notes show a lot of buffs alongside expected nerfs to the strongest skills from the previous league. ?Currently, players are rushing around to find out which build they will start at the beginning of the league, and theory-crafting potentially broken combinations given the newest information.

//youtu.be/hqSk4mef5LU

For newer players, the biggest thing to focus on is the Archnemesis league. This will introduce a way to customize monster mods on rare monsters in each area, making them harder. A play off of an earlier league called Nemesis (which also added mods to rare monsters), now players can pick up items that both increase the difficulty of a rare monster as well as the rewards upon killing it. There are shrines in each zone that hold rare monsters, and players add their mods and release the monster to fight it. The mods and rewards will then stack for future monsters, making ?each additional Archnem??esis encounter exponentially harder.

It looks like an exciting way to customize encounters and allows players to sort of "choose" their difficulty with the mechanic. Leagues like Ritual, Ultimatum, and even Scourge allowed players some agency over how they engaged with the mechanic and when to bow out, which is always much appreciated. Perhaps the best news is that, while only four of these Archnemesis shrines may be used, there will be more than four per zone, so hopefully there is no backtrac?king to find that last monster shrine that you missed. I see you and I appreciate you, GGG.

If you get to the early endgame of maps, all you real?ly need to know is that it is now much simpler to progress, hooray! But you'll also have a brand new passive tree to parse...

//twitter.com/pathofexile/status/14867??78875141001217

For seasoned veterans, the "atlas grind" has been completely revamped, and looks so, so much better. As someone who hated socketing watchstones (by looking up a guide) and repeating so much specific content in a specific ?order, the new atlas system looks so much more freeform. Conquerers are gone, and replaced by two big bads: The Searing Exarch and the Eater of Worlds. Each also has a sub-boss, The Black Sta??r and the Infinite Hunger, respectively. Regions are gone, and both the layout and progressing through the atlas itself are now rather straightforward.

As for the new atlas passive tree, holy cow! I really loved the atlas passives per region before, but di??dn't love that they were exclusive to their region only. This removes that contingency and makes them atlas-wide, so players can finally specialize in certain types of content in the endgame! Finally, I can stop pretending like I know what's happening with Jun and focus more on things like Ritual and Harvest.

//twitter.com/pathofe??xile/status/148462405438?0535808

Some of the new items are absolutely bonkers, as well. Or at least, I think they are? Sometimes it feels like you need a Ph.D. in order to actually understand the implication of some items, or even how they work in the first place. Thankfully, the devs at GGG (specifically, Mark) are very responsive on reddit and clarify many things that the community doesn't quite understand or the nitty-gritty details of concern. You know, making sure we know that "modifiers don'?t cha?nge how much they modify things based on how many things they are modifying." Thanks, M??ark. It all makes sense n?ow (it actually does, which is an achievement in and of itself).

Path of Exile is already a notoriously difficult game to get into, and adding another passive tree isn't quite helping. But this tree is only for those who reach and continue to push the post-st?ory system of maps, and those people are quite excited due to the amount of customization this new tree offers. Ultimately, this league offers a lot of great changes that new and veteran players can look forward to. The week leading up to the new league is always tough to suffer through, but planning out new builds and feeling the community vibe during this time never gets old.

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More time needed for the games to reach their 'full potential'

During a Q3 2021 earnings report, Blizzard announced that Diablo IV and Overwatch 2 have been delayed �not that either of these ??big hopeful games felt close to begin with.

In a slide for investors (viewable on page six), Activision Blizzard shared an "update on our pipeline." After what has been �and will continue to be �a very hectic year full of investigations, lawsuits, and high-profile staff departures, something had to give.

"As we have worked with new leadership in Blizzard and within the franchises themselves, particularly in certain key creative roles, it has become apparent that some of the Blizzard content planned for next year will benefit from more development time to reach its full potential," Blizzard said on the earnings report slide. "While we are still planning to deliver a substantial amount of content from Blizzard next year, we are now planning for a later launch for Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV than originally envisaged."

"These decisions will push out the financial uplift that we had expected to see next year," noted Activision Blizzard. "But we are confident that this is the right course of action for our people, our players??, and the long-term suc??cess of our franchises."

In other words, Diablo IV and Overwatch 2 still feel out of reach �which is arguably a good thin??g depending on who you ask. After the delay, a 2023-or-later release seems likely. To be clear ?though, Blizzard has not announced a release window for either of them.

I'm not saying I'll never be in the mood to play these games in two series I have fond memories of, but I don't see that attitude changing easily or quickly. It's not a sure thing. Of the two delays, Overwatch 2 probably stings the most. What a bumpy road it's been for fans, even just in the context of the sequel itself and not the wider corporate culture.

On top of the delays, Blizzard announced that co-leader Jen Oneal is leaving the company this year, and the other co-leader, Mike Ybarra, is staying put for now. If those names don't ring a bell, they stepped in after Blizzard president J. Allen Brack's departure.

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More than a Reforge

After Warcraft III: Reforged, I kind of gave up hope that Blizzard would do right by their back catalog. They've been so wishy-washy about even remastering Diablo 1, and it ended up becoming a sparing Diablo III event. The good news is, they called in the big boys when it comes to preservation for Diablo II: Resurrected: Vicarious Visions.

And they did right by it.

Diablo II: Resurrected (PC, PS4, PS5 [reviewed], Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S)
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment, Vicarious Visions
Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
Released: September 23, 2021
MSRP: $39.99

Diablo II is one of my most-played games of all time, up there with Pokemon Red/Blue, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, World of Warcraft, and Final Fantasy XIV. I have several thousand hours logged since launch across every class. A launch, mind, that I rushed to Toys"R"Us to buy with my Diablo 1 TCP/IP partner (those were the days). It's one of those games that you could play endlessly with friends. Maybe a new generation will be able to do just that with Resurrected.

It was a shock to see the story of D2 again through new eyes. For years I didn't even see some of the cutscenes because they didn't run well on my PC. In fact, for a while I never even saw Duriel, the Act II boss, because my machine would completely lock up when entering Tal Rasha's tomb. While I did eventually upgrade and get the full Diablo II experience (or played it at many friends' houses, LAN style with better rigs), it was a blast to play through it again ??on a?? console in performance mode with very few hitches.

That initial salvo of Quill Rats and zombies is still magical, as is the opening questline. Diablo II is a grimdark world that rarely pushes over to the realm of "edge," and helped define so many dungeon crawlers and action RPGs after it. The tone is near-perfect, and it feels like there are actual stakes at play. There's a reason some people didn't react as positively to Diablo III, and part of that is because Diablo II is such a tough act to follow.

Pretty much every moment allows for st??rong highs. The thrill of finding an errant experience shrine and going HAM. The joy of speccing your character into a tree for the first time and finding an ability you really like. Or taking two of the same class for a spin in a multiplayer game, only for both players to find completely different ways to play off eac??h other.

The depth of Diablo II is very much alive and well, as is the sense of experimentation of taking a character for a spin. For this review, I tested a few classes, most notably ice sorceress and elemental druid (you can also choose amazon, necromancer, barbarian, paladin, or assassin). It's a large array of playstyles in all, in tandem with the aforementioned triple ability tree system. Unlike some other re-releases, Resurrected is wholly justified, because Diablo II's legacy has lived on for all this time throu?gh hardcore fan?s and the modding community.

Again, it's important to remember that thi??s preserves the original game, as you can swap the style between "retro" and modern with a quick tap (on PS5 it's L2+the TouchPad). It happens instantly, and you can even adjust the re??solution for it slightly on consoles via a menu option. It's perfect for nostalgia and function, as I had a good deal of fun playing one class entirely on retro mode, and another in just modern mode. It should make replays a little more fun, and hardcore players will appreciate the more responsive animations of the modern visual style.

Yep, hardcore mode (where your character is deleted if they die) is still in, which I was told once by someone feels like "dying in real life" when your character dies. You can also opt for a ladder or non-ladder character, as well as "expansion or classic" mode: the latter of which eschews all Lord of Destruction/Act V expansion content from the game (nice to hav?e that option).

Speaking of Act V, we should probably talk a bit about the core Diablo II level design for those of you who haven't already been immersed in it. No surprise, it still holds up in Resurrected. As I hinted at above, Act I is a fantastic intro to t??he game, providing a design that feels simplistic, but also freeing, with several optional zones and quests. It's not overwhelming but it's also not fully linear.

Act II continues that formula, opening things up a little bit more and doing som??e very clever things when it comes to map layouts. The open zones of the desert lend themselves well to fighting off droves of enemies with all the new abilities you've picked up while letting you run around unfettered �of course, this is juxtaposed wi??th tricky sewer and tunnel areas. The story also ramps up in a very exciting way by the end, spinning yarns of lore all the while.

Act III, consisting of lush and sprawling jungles and temples, is still very much polarizing. My main Diablo II group called this "Act Skip" as a career sorceress would often teleport through some of the larger, more aimless areas and send the party a town portal. I will say, it does have that same vibe for several zones, which are not completely redone in Resurrected. That said, everything looks like it has a little more character now, so first-timers are getting Act III with its best f??oot forward.

Acts IV and V tighten things up again and really showcase Diablo II's diverse enemy roster and go a little crazier in terms of level design. They're also really pointed and don't overstay their welcome, and house tons of great loot to grind endlessly for. Diablo II has very few low points.

Running through Diablo II on a console after roughly two decades of PC play was tough to adjust to, but I managed. There are some growing pains, especially managing pots (potions) with a controller, which have a finicky way of getting to the actual bar (though you can still "piano key panic" swipe at your potions when you're about to die by rolling the d-pad). Some inventory busywork takes more time with a controller compared to a mouse, but shortcuts that let you instantly move stuff to your?? stash or sell/buy help. Everything else, controller-wise, is relatively smoo??th.

The hotbars do work, and you can bind pretty much anything to?? them, including basic attacks and scrolls of town portal. Most endgame and leveling builds don't go too hard on diverse abilities across all three trees, so a hotbar with 12 options (six on one, and another six that triggers when L2 is held) is perfectly fine?. Potions are tied to direction pad presses.

As far as performance goes in Diablo II: Resurrected, the retro mode is?? janky by ?design, and the modern mode is extremely smooth, provided you play offline or the online servers are cooperating. So for the most part in my tests the past couple of days, servers waxed and waned, albeit through a pre-launch period. Act I was perfect, but by the time I hit Act II, there was a little lag (which Blizzard noted was a pre-launch issue). When I hit Act III, the servers went offline for a bit, then came back on 20 minutes later.

In a vacuum, it was a mild inconvenience. It could also be an ill portent. These various ups and downs might hit people on the full launch, so be aware of it if you're going in day one. Again, thankfully, this is not an always-online game, and you can opt for offline play (and you would miss out on online components as well as ladder play if you did that). Sadly, TCP/IP mode was removed after it was tested in the game's alpha period.

Diablo II: Resurrected did what it was supposed to as a re-release, and it managed to simultaneously preserve the original game. It's a shame that the talented studios behind it have to deal with the fa?ilure of Activision leadership overshadowing their work.

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