VideoGame_Discussion

I would definitely check it out. If I can ever get a current spec/gaming laptop.

I'd love a Diablo 2 remastered, as long as it's more of a graphical update with maybe some modern quality of life improvements, but not if it would be a complete overhaul to make the gameplay feel like Diablo 3. I love action-RPGs but I really didn't enjoy D3 at all. It felt way too simplified for my tastes.

Wonder if this is an attempt to save face from all the controversy with their Chinese Overlords.

Guess you don't know, Tencent, a Chinese government owned company owns like 40% of Blizzard, some pro tour person for Hearthstone showed support of the Hong Kong protests. Chinese Overlords make Blizzard ban the guy, guy eventually gets unbanned and winnings back. It's been mayhem since.

Earlier this month, Blitzchung won the Hearthstone Grandmasters Tournament, and after his victory, the casters gave him an opportunity to offer a closing statement and he said "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our time/age." (slight variation depending on the translation)
After that, Blizzard:
a) Revoked Blitzchung's Grandmaster status
b) Stripped him of his $10,000 prize money
c) Banned him from all pro-play for a year
d) Permanently blacklisted the casters from ever participating at a Blizzard event again.

In response to this, the internet went fudging nuts and everyone from reddit to US Congresspeople across the political spectrum were condemning Blizzard for their actions, and the internet being what it is, started memeing. Blizzard was prioritizing the Chinese market over human rights and so people turned Mei from Overwatch into a Pro-Hong Kong symbol in an attempt to get Blizzard banned in China (sadly, didn't work) and after a few days, they issued a statement saying, paraphrased, "we jumped the gun and overreacted, our bad." and gave Blitzchung his money and title back and reduced the sentence on both him and the casters to six months.

After that, a lot of the buzz settled down but since then, they've banned (last I checked) an additional 3 people for supporting Hong Kong so they very obviously haven't changed their views. I've personally uninstalled all Blizzard games, Battle.net, and cancelled all existing subscriptions, but I understand some people don't feel as strongly about it.

That said, Tencent only owns 5% of Activision-Blizzard, so what they did was done out of pure greed in an attempt to satisfy China. While I won't defend it, Riot is 100% owned by Tencent so it's at least a little bit more understandable why they chat-restricted anything relating to Hong Kong during Worlds this year.

About Blitzchung's ban

Blizzard's Statement

Example of Mei memes

The reason for the statement which was recently killed after 7 months of protests in Hong Kong.

Yeah, I think it's Epic that's 40% Tencent owned. Either way, fudge Blizzard.

Kommie wrote:

Ah, I read basics here, didn't understand the Chinese relation. Interesting.

@SpaceVentura - great synopsis, thanks!

No problem! I've got a buddy from Hong Kong who's parents have been basically forced indoors for the past half year due to the protests, so I want to at least raise awareness for what's going on over there. It's been escalating a lot the past month or two with increased police violence and it's really spooky.

Honestly, I don't care enough to uninstall any Blizzard game. I am having to much fun with WoW Classic as it's the only game my sister plays and have been having a blast when she is on... it's really the only time we get to just talk and have fun since she lives so far away... But I totally respect your decision and issues in Hong Kong obviously hit closer to home for you.

These are also not so much a save face announcement as they have been rumored for a number of years now. I know it's something the Diablo community has been asking for for years! (the remaster)....

The one thing I don't get really is all the hate that D3 got. I put in probably 300 hours of game play in on the PC version and what seemed to be forever on the PS4 (it was a grind to get the Plat for sure) and while it's been a number of years I did play the snot out of D2 also, even bought the CE. Out side of a few differences it seemed like more of the same. Maybe I have to really go back and play D2 to get more of a feel... but I just never understood the hate.

The D2 lovers-D3 haters often describe D3 as dumbed down or simplified and dislike the lack of strategy and challenge that results. Now I enjoy both games (I am easy to please lol) but I can kind of see their point.

Remember in D2, you were the one who had to assign stats and skill points when leveling up. Skill points were limited in number too . You basically have to commit to your build or start over. In D3, you eventually get all skills and can mix,match, and change them as you please.

Challenge wise, sets in D2 were far weaker and the really powerful items (cough* runes for runeword items) were really hard to get legit. I remember the higher difficulty levels in D2 being harder. In D3, once you get a complete set you can pretty much blow through higher torment levels.

someone on 4Chan who leaked some Blizzard info on Overwatch 2 and WoW back in June also leaked some Diablo 4 info, it's a first person shooter in the Overwatch engine, that's intended to be a "Destiny killer". Yeah, they totally know how to please Diablo fans.

https://i.imgur.com/I1qsdJk.png

This is a summary of the leaks, this was in June and the stuff involving WoW Races and Overwatch 2 happened.

Kommie wrote:

That sounds awesome!

Can't tell if you're serious, the idea seems cool but don't call it Diablo. But they will for name recognition.

Definitely serious but doubt it'd happen. Also, this:

https://kotaku.com/sources-blizzard-cancels-starcr...

Is Diablo mobile still happening?

Uppercat wrote:

Idk. Couldn’t get into it. Loved d2 back in the day but POE felt so dull. Yeah you could make crazy builds but it just wasn’t fun and felt super dated for me. D3 on the other hand has been a blast whenever I play it. The think I disliked about d2 anyways was being locked into a sucky build and you couldn’t really experiment unless you were okay grinding a new character if it ended up sucking

The problem with Path of Exile is you have to meticulously plan out your build. There's no re-spec from what I remember.

DefaultGen wrote:

Never played POE, but I think I have it in my Steam library. Why are so many of the drops useless?

That's horrible.

Diablo 4 gameplay released, it's not a FPS like was said earlier in this topic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bRWIdOMfro - cinematic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RdDpqCmjb4 - gameplay

AHHHHHH, so excited! Fudge yeah!

Cinematic trailer, as if people play Diablo or any Blizzard game for story.

I don't necessarily play them for the story, but I DO like their cinematics because I've played Blizz games for years. I thought the cinematics in Diablo 3 were great, as an example.

I actually really enjoy how Blizzard tells a story. I really enjoyed WoW for that, though apparently the last two expansions it really went downhill (never played em).

Diablo 4 looks awesome, is it also releasing on consoles? I D3 on both and actually preferred the console versions.

Yep! Diablo 4 is confirmed for PS4 and Xbox One.

Finn wrote:

Awesome!

Can't wait!

https://youtu.be/xSo1tLh4xkY

Did they actually announce Diablo 2 remaster?

Kommie wrote:

Doesn't look like it: https://gamerant.com/diablo-2-remastered-missing-s...

I thought they announced an original diablo remaster awhile back, it looks like there was one (kind of) but it's a partnership with GoG. Apparently the game is released exactly the same way it was in 1996... bot really a remaster but tweaked to work on Windows 10 PC's. I could have sworn they announced an official remaster of the original though.

Diablo Immortal update. Was stoked about it last year when everyone cried. Still excited for it now! Finally a mobile game worth the time!

https://youtu.be/8wmQm0qhZ94

No mobile game is worth playing, IMO.

Diablo 2 remaster cancelled rumored, from fear of Diablo 4 sales being bad from the D2 remaster.

Finn wrote:

Nah, this is it. Really quality port though, scales to high definition very, very well. Did my first two playthroughs on the GoG release, it was amazing. Still haven't beaten it with a mage though.

I'd be fine with a GoG upscale on D2 myself, I don't need a remaster of all these games, just make them playable on newer rigs.

Looks like Immortal is getting some good press. Pretty excited about this.

https://www.androidcentral.com/diablo-immortal-han...

Challenge accepted. 1) I like playing really old RPGs on my phone. I actually beat Final Fantasy IV on mobile this year. It looked great, and it made the grind way more tolerable because I could just play a few fights here and there and there was an auto battle option. 2) There are some awesome slow burn roguelikes on mobile. I’m playing Pirate Outlaws right now (card-based, similar to Slay the Spire), and the touch controls make it easier and more fun to play on mobile. Both of the aforementioned games were also super cheap.

Kommie wrote:

sweet, i'm down for sure.

Have you guys heard about Hearthstone?

image

With Blizzard's recent going ons, replace Hearthstone with Diablo Immortal.

It's gonna be an ATM machine game.

haha @Kommie - well, at least it's not going to be pay to win, like they tried to do with D3 at the start.

So recent news is amazing! So excited for D2 remastered. One of my all time favorite games. Will absolutely play cross platform between PC and Switch (travel).

I haven't yet watched anything for D4, not sure I want to see anything prior to release.

Cross progression is nice, but it be great if Cross play was enabled. I will be getting it regardless. Probably PS5, PC crap the bed and I can't find a damn RTX 3060 to save my life. It's the only thing holding me back on a PC build.

Kinda surprise that no cross play exists, odd. Wonder if that'll happen at a later time.

They are saying it could come later... But it's wierd that Cross progression is there at the start but cross play is not there. Wonder if it's balancing issues between console and PC?

I mean you can cross play between PC and console for FPS and PC is clearly more dominant (typically). Not as big of a gap with Diablo.

Immortal is potentially coming out June 30th.

https://gamerant.com/rumor-app-store-leaked-diablo...

DIV is sounding promising

https://gamerant.com/diablo-4-dungeon-improvements...

Immortal coming out June 30th

Looks like June 2nd is the new date. I've yet to get totally into a mobile game but this... I will play.

https://youtu.be/C26XZCsuVJs

MrBean wrote:

They also announced the pc version which will launch as a beta at the same time with cross save and play. Seems cool

I just came to post about PC, hell yeah!!!

https://www.engadget.com/diablo-immortal-pc-mobile...

Guess Blizzard thought it was too risky to keep Diablo Immortal a mobile-only "spin-off" title, that it was better to officially bring it into-the-fold with a PC release?

RainMoN wrote:

Microsoft may have had an influence here.

Don't they have phones? Jesus

So Immortals came out ... yet, still not playable on PC? It was supposed to be ready to play today.

might not be up until "patch time", 10, but that's now. Or it may just not be up until evening

So it's basically Hearthstone?

Nice, it's up, checking it out now!

So far ... better than expected. It's actually a game that plays very well on mobile. I've play on both now and while it's clearly built for mobile, plays solid on PC (could be much better obviously).

Problem is though, my mobile character isn't sync'ing to PC and PC character isn't sync'ing to mobile.

It is, just really confusing and obnoxious. It automatically throws you onto a new data server when you log in with a new platform, you have to select the server you made the original character on to see them. Got me too.

DarkFact wrote:

Yah, figured this out yesterday, not the best UI for this. So now I need to restart my characters, not a big deal, only put a couple hours into it. No way I'll remember what server and the server selector that says "character" does not show that I have characters there. This is not WoW, how did D2/D3 get by without needing various server selections? Silly.

Outsourced. This is what you get! :)

Got my first Legendary drop
image

image

Can't wait until level 58 to get 2% on that skill, if I'm still using it! I must say, I'm pretty appalled at the time gating for in-game currency purchases with hilts and such. One legendary crest a month, you're gonna have to live to 385 before you get all decked out at that rate. I don't think I'll be playing much once I max level, if at all.

As somebody who's in the afterglow of Diablo II Resurrected, I'm curious to try this out, but all the talk about requiring currency to get decent "Magic Find" rates when obtaining loot already bums me out.

All the magic find in the world won't save you from starving for legendary gems

One of my friends has a good theory on Diablo Immortal's release woes, I mentioned that after looking at the trailer from three years ago and the game as it is now, it's basically almost identical, other than some shader changes, like, beat for beat, I've killed three bosses in that trailer and the mechanics looked the same, character actions look VERY much the same. He said he wouldn't be surprised if after Microsoft came in and bought them out, they looked at the devs sitting on their hands, looked at this unfinished mobile game sitting in limbo since 2018 and said "Release a game or you're all fired" and we got Diablo Immortal to little fanfare or hype because it was as ready as it was going to be. Even though the monetization issues are SO fudging bad.

Beta sign up for D4

https://diablo4.blizzard.com/en-us/

Diablo Immortal is fun. I spent .99 and I won't spend another penny. After 6 epic drops, it nerfs your drop chance.

Article on loot nerfs

https://www.pcgamesn.com/diablo-immortal/loot-caps...

lol. I got two legendaries grinding two hours of rifts, I felt like I got awful lucky (other than the fact that they were both irrelevant weapon drops). Can't imagine playing long enough to get six.

Ending was lame To Be Continued crap (no it won't), endgame is really stupid with a LOT of waiting unless you PVP which is REALLY REALLY stupid unless you're paying to win. Not a great game!

I still haven't gone back to Immortals but I keep hearing bad... I question if I should even bother at this point.

nah. D3's a better game, D2's a way better game, D1 is the brainy best game, Torchlight 1 and 2 are better, PoE is the superior free choice. Can't play it on the crapter but Immortal feels worse than any of those. So.

Man that's so disappointing to hear. I tapped out on D2R after a big binge. Haven't touched D3 in years. May revisit.

I miss Torchlight. Have they announced if a new one will happen?

After TL3, not sure I care either way. They retooled some other games to be a Torchlight title, and it's not great