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CultureBlizzard Doesn’t Want Diablo Confused With A Cartoon Dog
Seeking to protect its long-held trademark, Blizzard has filed a Notice of Opposition with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to block Fox from trademarking Diablo, one of the canine characters from the upcoming animated series Housebroken. Blizzard’s Diablo is a series of action role-playing video games in which players battle against the forces of…
By Mike Fahey Published May 4, 2021 -
CultureSplitscreenWhy Video Game Loot Is So Addictive, According To The Creators Of Diablo
Colors mean different things to different people, but very specific colors mean the exact same thing to everybody who plays video games. You know the ones: gray, green, blue, purple, and gold. You covet the latter and revile the former. Loot is a universal language at this point, but it wasn’t always. On this week’s…
By Nathan Grayson Published April 16, 2021 -
CultureWhat Are You Playing This Weekend?
The weekend is for playing a 20-year-old action RPG classic with a substantial glow-up. Unless you’re not in the Diablo II: Resurrected alpha test. Then you should probably play something else. I’ve been fiddling with Diablo II: Resurrected’s alpha since yesterday and shall continue to do so over the weekend. So far I’m quite pleased.…
By Mike Fahey Published April 9, 2021 -
CultureYou Might Be Able To Play Diablo II: Resurrected This Weekend
If you haven’t signed up for a chance to play Diablo II: Resurrected early, you should get on that: Blizzard just announced plans to hold a private alpha test on PC over the weekend. The lucky few who are chosen to take part in this initial testing phase will be able to play through Diablo…
By Ian Walker Published April 6, 2021 -
CultureDiablo II: Resurrected Will Work With Your Decades-Old Saves
Have a special Necromancer you’ve been farming Diablo II with for years? There’s good news: Diablo II Resurrected will let you import them to continue commanding armies of the dead over 20 years later. Out later this year on consoles and PC, the new remaster will still work with players’ original save files, Blizzard confirmed…
By Ethan Gach Published March 5, 2021 -
CultureWhy Diablo IV Is So Obsessed With Ears
Ears. If you watched the debut trailer for Diablo IV’s rogue class, that was your main takeaway—at least, if you’re anything like me. The rogue showed up to “confession” with a big ol’ bag of ears. The priest had a whole darn trophy case of ears. This might have struck you as strange—most regular people…
By Nathan Grayson Published February 22, 2021 -
OpinionIt Would’ve Been OK To Skip This One, Blizzard
Tonight’s keynote for BlizzConline, Blizzard’s virtual showcase, was a tepid hour of previously leaked reveals for World of Warcraft and Diablo, some Hearthstone news, a passing mention of Diablo Immortal, and no Overwatch 2. As we’re fond of saying these days, it could have been an email. To be clear: I get it. 2020 was an…
By Riley MacLeod Published February 19, 2021 -
CultureEverything Blizzard Announced During BlizzConline’s Opening Ceremony
It sure as heck isn’t BlizzCon, but until we can safely gather together again in the stew of scents and juices that is a convention hall (so maybe never?), BlizzConline will have to do. Blizzard kicked off the online version of its annual convention today with a handful of announcements that were…less exciting than typical…
By Nathan Grayson Published February 19, 2021 -
CultureDiablo II Remaster Coming To All Major Platforms In 2021
Blizzard kicked off BlizzConline (a portmanteau I whole-heartedly protest) with the announcement everyone has been waiting for: remasters of Diablo II and its Lord of Destruction expansion are coming to PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC this year, all of which will support cross-progression with the others. In…
By Ian Walker Published February 19, 2021 -
CultureThe Rogue Returns As Diablo IV‘s Latest Class
Having peaced-out at the end of the 1996 original, the bow-wielding rogue hasn’t shown their face around Sanctuary for nearly a quarter of a century. Consider their stealth-imposed exile over—the rogue returns in Diablo IV Announced today during the BlizzCon 2021 keynote, Diablo IV’s rogue is a highly-customizable class that can fight with a bow…
By Mike Fahey Published February 19, 2021 -
CultureThe Blizzard Arcade Collection Bundles Three Classics For $20
Available now for PlayStations, Xboxes, Switch, and PC, the Blizzard Arcade Collection bundles together The Lost Vikings, Rock n’ Roll Racing, and Blackthorne, those early games Blizzard made before the days of Diablo, StarCraft, and World of Warcraft Were it a normal BlizzCon weekend, these three games would be featured in the Blizzard Arcade booth…
By Mike Fahey Published February 19, 2021 -
CultureWatch The BlizzCon 2021 Keynote Here
BlizzCon 2021 begins today at 5:00 p.m. ET and according to Blizzard will be about an hour long. This is just the first event of many that Blizzard has planned for BlizzCon 2021. Or as the company calls it, “BlizzConline,” which is a very clunky, silly name. Due to covid-19, Blizzard announced back in September…
By Zack Zwiezen Published February 19, 2021 -
OpinionImpressionsTorchlight III Is Fine
As I guide my Railmaster, my dragon pet, and my ridiculously cool personal murder train set through what feels like the umpteenth goblin-infested dungeon in the first act of Torchlight III, one nagging thought keeps popping into my head. “Why am I doing this?” It’s certainly not the story. The third installment of the Torchlight…
By Mike Fahey Published October 13, 2020 -
CultureDiablo IV‘s Skill Trees Are Literally Trees
Diablo IV director Luis Barriga and lead system designer David Kim returned today to share their progress on Blizzard’s upcoming dungeon-crawling sequel by way of a new quarterly check-in. This included a look at the updated Diablo IV skill tree, which is literally a tree. Where before the game’s skills were arranged in a basic…
By Ian Walker Published September 29, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsMinecraft Dungeons Is A Fun But Stripped-Down Dungeon Brawler
I’ve spent a few hours clicking through Minecraft Dungeons’ isometric world and, despite how shallow it feels, I’d be content to click through it for several more. Mojang’s attempt to spin its massively popular crafting game into a small Diablo-like is successful, limited only by the narrow ambitions underlying it. Minecraft Dungeons, out May 26…
By Ethan Gach Published May 22, 2020 -
CultureThese Early Diablo III Screens Are Much Darker Than What We Got
A former Blizzard North artist recently shared a “new” collection of screenshots from an early, unreleased version of Diablo III. Much like previous asset dumps, they show a continuation of the dark, gothic aesthetics of the game’s predecessors, details that many felt were missing from the Diablo III that launched in 2012. Diablo III was…
By Ian Walker Published May 14, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsMinecraft Dungeons Is Like Family-Friendly Diablo
Minecraft’s transformation from an open-world crafting game into a linear dungeon crawler is an odd one, but Minecraft Dungeons is still shaping up to be a serenely welcoming loot-based hack n’ slash. Mojang demoed the game for me remotely last week due to the new work-from-home constraints imposed by the ongoing covid-19 crisis. These constraints…
By Ethan Gach Published April 9, 2020 -
CultureDiablo IV Will Let Players Use Controllers On PC And Rebind Practically Everything
Diablo IV will feature an array of expanded control options for PC users, Blizzard revealed today in the first of its new developer blogs. These will include the ability to use controllers on PC, as well as rebinding the primary skill from left mouse click to the keyboard. Blizzard first announced Diablo IV at BlizzCon…
By Ian Walker Published February 26, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsDeath Is Like A Hurricane Here In Darksburg
There’s a sinking feeling I get every time my team in Darksburg gets surrounded by purple-tinted goth zombies. Waves of them break against us, driven back by our attacks, only to reform and come at us again. Surely this is the last one, I think, only to find our party of four overwhelmed once again…
By Ethan Gach Published February 20, 2020 -
CultureWolcen Is A Diablo Clone With Big Potential And Bigger Bugs
Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem, an action role-playing game for PC in the style of Diablo that’s been making waves on Steam recently, has a lot going for it. There’s the gargantuan skill tree whose rings you can physically rotate to create near-limitless build possibilities. Eye-catching graphics that put it in league with upcoming genre megaliths…
By Nathan Grayson Published February 19, 2020