D4 & D2 Resurrected

Yey, they're doing a D2 remake. Looks great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRP62MGOrUo

The rogue in D4 also looks nice. It's gonna be my goto class, I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvrLZ4yETHI

And best news of all, they're remaking the cinematics of Diablo 2. Fantastic.

Oh and you need to be connected online at all times just to play it.

Same crap they pulled with the Starcraft remaster a well.

Couchpotato said:

Oh and you need to be connected online at all times just to play it.

Same crap they pulled with the Starcraft remaster a well.

Click to expand...

I think this is a "must" already, at least, when it comes to Blizzard games

Diablo III also needed an online connection.

I can only hope they can make a really good D2 remaster, at least.

https://images.blz-contentstack.com.../601dc7b0912a490c07af57c6/shared-stash-4k.jpg

https://images.blz-contentstack.com...d214a90a0bfc552e40/cross-platform-save-4k.jpg

https://mp1st.com/news/diablo-2-res...ded-visuals-technical-alpha-sign-ups-now-live

https://blizzard.gamespress.com/Diablo-II-Resurrected

The screenshots look freaking amazing. Looks better than Diablo 3.

About online connectivity, I thought I heard you will be able to play it offline also. But regardless, they will be keeping the old client from what I heard. So you can still play that offline if Resurrected cannot.

Hm, seems the client will be similar to how SC: Remastered worked, with a real-time switch to switch from D2 classic graphics to the new ones.

https://eu.shop.battle.net/en-gb/product/diablo_ii_resurrected

See how far Diablo II has evolved with the legacy toggle, for a before-and-after real-time comparison with the classic game with added support for modern screen resolutions and surround sound.

Click to expand...

This quote is interesting:

Cross-progression requires a linked Battle.net account and separate Diablo II: Resurrected purchase for each supporting platform.

Click to expand...

This seems to imply that you can run the game without linking it to a Battle.net account. Which would imply you can maybe run it in offline mode. Unless they're referring only to console versions of D2 Resurrected.

You'll have to connect to battle.net to play the remastered version or it will revert to the classic version. It's the same method they used with Starcraft and Warcraft remastered.

I lost interest in their new games because of battle.net and the need to be online at all times to play single-player games. Yeah I know I'm online now but it's a preference.

Currently watching the Diablo 2: Resurrected Deep Dive panel. And they sold me. I've pre-ordered it. Looks fantastic.

Not a big fan of Diablo or that sub-genre in general, but I have to admit that remake looks pretty slick.

Unlike the StarCraft remaster, they obviously put some significant effort into this one.

D2 remake does look good but who cares about the graphics, really? I like the old sprites. I would be more interested in going back to D2 if they did a new expansion.

Even with D4, looking at the rogue gameplay, I can't help but think Path of Exile still looks miles ahead. The D4 rogue had a few boring moves we've seen a million times. But the builds in late game POE go absolutely nuts. That rogue looks like a POE character in act1! Before long the POE chars are casting spells on crit and every hit sets off a chain reaction of procs, based on your build.

Path of Exile is what they need to be copying. POE started like Diablo with 4 acts which you'd have to replay on harder difficulty to see all the items drop. But then it changed to one difficulty with TEN acts and a post-game "atlas" of hundreds of maps of content. A new standard has been set. Even Diablo3 couldn't work out something that simple and had a whole screen of difficulties. I forget the number but it was over 10 of them.

I mean, I used to be a huge Blizzard fan but now they just seem stagnant, uncreative, none of the innovation we used to see. Just remakes of their old stuff. It's almost sad. I guess all the original developers have left, anyway. And, you know, when you're published by the big names then you just have to stick with your established IP and pump out your same game again every year. That's how they roll.

It's amazing that From Software dropped the Dark Souls name. Very few developers who build their whole reputation on a brand have the luxury of dropping it.

Couchpotato said:

You'll have to connect to battle.net to play the remastered version or it will revert to the classic version. It's the same method they used with Starcraft and Warcraft remastered.

Click to expand...

During the D2 Deep Dive one of the devs said you can definitely play offline. The only connectivity, they said, is an initial confirmation that you have an authentic copy. Now, I doubt he meant only for the originally skinned D2, but you can never know for sure until it launches. But somehow I have a feeling or hope they won't pull something like that. Regardless, considering how few of the games I play can be played offline, it's not something I would be too angry about.

Also, they confirmed all existing D2 mods can still work with the D2 Resurrected build, but I imagine only the classic D2 skinned one.

EDIT: Found a better video with the best gameplay compiled and a lot less cuts in the video, between scenes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVEcYAODfyo

Couchpotato said:

Oh and you need to be connected online at all times just to play it.

Click to expand...

Same with all steam games.

Apart from the "offline mode" I bet most people don't even know about.

Oh, and like MMOs, which are popular ( WOW ) , too !

Also found some nice complete B-roll for Diablo 4's rogue class. Looks neat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSDIzMid6Lc

Alrik Fassbauer said:

Same with all steam games.

Apart from the "offline mode" I bet most people don't even know about.

Oh, and like MMOs, which are popular ( WOW ) , too !

Click to expand...

I don't even think Steam offline mode is designed to be fully utilized. From what I've seen it's more of a respite in case you have a downed connection to the internet, to not be fully locked out of your games. It's not designed to be offline forever like GOG is. I wonder if anybody has tried to seriously play games fully offline on steam for a long time. I even believe steam will require you at one point to re-connect.

Also, the games themselves sometimes have built-in dependencies upon a server connection with the a stats server of the publisher/developer. It would be nice if games were actually implemented to be able to run offline, but unfortunately in this day and age it's become a second class concern. Thank god for GOG who are taking this seriously. I always purchase any game I like on GOG, even if I have duplicates, since they usually arrive on GOG later in the game's lifetime. Their business practice should absolutely be supported and encouraged.

I love Diablo II and I think its revolutionary in terms of gameplay mechanics, classes, balances, monsters, atmosphere ..etc., and the remaster looks great. But I will stick with my classic version (from Blizzard that I can run offline) that runs on my 11 year-old laptop.

Unnecessary online connections are a big downside, for me. I'm a tinkerer, I like to do things my own way, and online connections for single-player games are really about control, so they can monetise more effectively. I like to be able to mod things, cheat with god-mode to plow through a section if I've accidentally lost some progress, and so on. I'm glad it's still a factor that people will grumble about.

And full B-roll for Diablo 2: Resurrected

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0A6xrmXFa4

Ripper said:

Unnecessary online connections are a big downside, for me. I'm a tinkerer, I like to do things my own way, and online connections for single-player games are really about control, so they can monetise more effectively. I like to be able to mod things, cheat with god-mode to plow through a section if I've accidentally lost some progress, and so on. I'm glad it's still a factor that people will grumble about.

Click to expand...

100% agree but hey the masses seem to have no problem with forced online server connections to play single-player games. Those like us are the minority nowadays.

Alrik Fassbauer said:

Same with all steam games.

Apart from the "offline mode" I bet most people don't even know about.

Oh, and like MMOs, which are popular ( WOW ) , too !

Click to expand...

Wrong connecting to Steam and requiring a server connection to blizzard to play Single -player games is a whole different ballpark. I'm sorry you can't see the difference.

Take for example Path of Exile it's F2P Online and I have no problem with that. It's not selling itself as a full priced SP game that needs a 24 hr sever connection to play.

Offline mode is the only reason I'm even able to tolerate steam. That is a major reason why great old games gets most of my business, so if we must be connected to play this new game and remaster, I'll likely be taking a huge pass on both.

Compared to Path of Exile, that D4 gameplay looks downright slow. As for the remastered D2, time has moved on; I tried playing D2 again last year and it was woefully clunky and limited. The remaster seems like it'll be a nice distraction for a couple weeks before most people (those not still playing the 20 year old version) get bored with it - though perhaps they'll implement an account-wide stash this time around.

Anyway, I hate to be a pessimist, but you really got to revolutionize the arpg genre with something new if you expect to unseat PoE from its throne of boundless content and character builds.

Drithius said:

Compared to Path of Exile, that D4 gameplay looks downright slow. As for the remastered D2, time has moved on; I tried playing D2 again last year and it was woefully clunky and limited. The remaster seems like it'll be a nice distraction for a couple weeks before most people get bored with it - though perhaps they'll implement an account-wide stash this time around.

Anyway, I hate to be a pessimist, but you really got to revolutionize the arpg genre with something new if you expect to unseat PoE from its throne of boundless content and character builds.

Click to expand...

I'll try not to turn this into Diablo vs POE, but imo they're games for different audiences. POE is way too hardcore for me in terms of mechanics. And I hate to be a graphics and animation elitist, but in terms of how it looks, plays and how combat feels there's no comparison between the two. Diablo wins outright. And for the little time I can dedicate to this sort of game, I'd rather do it with Diablo. I also have history with it, so I'm obviously biased in that.

But in terms of who unseats who, there's really no contest. Diablo is mainstream, PoE is just not. Diablo 3, the worst of them, sold over 30 million copies. Not sure how many people play PoE, since it's free, but even like that I would imagine it's nowhere close to 30 million.

EDIT: And now I realize, why the hell am I defending a million dollar franchise like it's my own. So, nevermind what I said. I just enjoy Diablo more than PoE, for both nostalgia reasons and more concrete reasons. That's it.

danutz_plusplus said:

But in terms of who unseats who, there's really no contest. Diablo is mainstream, PoE is just not. Diablo 3, the worst of them, sold over 30 million copies. Not sure how many people play PoE, since it's free, but even like that I would imagine it's nowhere close to 30 million.

Click to expand...

A month back, PoE broke its concurrent player record with ~267k. D3 is lucky to break 25k these days.

There are twitch channels with more people viewing a single PoE streamer than there are total D3 players

I was a rabid Diablo player in 1996. But Blizzard North is dead and so is their originality.