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| BlizzConline 2021 Cover Art. |
BlizzConline went by and that was something. Opening Ceremony was quite cringe and it definitely could've been shorter. The absense of Chris Metzen was always noticable and this year its obvious more than ever. They really should find someone to replace him for these events in order to have this vague ghost of old Blizzard.
I want to focus on a couple of things specifically, so I'll just go through everything else right now. World of Warcraft was an expected combination of disappointment and emptiness. Classic format and Mercenaries in Hearthstone could be so interesting that I might start playing it again. Diablo 4 seems alright and I think Diablo Immortal was there as well. I didn't looked at Overwatch 2 and I'm not into Starcraft, so I can't be sad about the lack of news about this series.
We knew there would be no Heroes of the Storm this time around due to developers not having specific to talk about at the moment. If last two years are anything to go by, we'll get new nero somewhere in June. It's kind of sad and could be a sign that things will turn for the worse from now on, but I always looked at game's current position with optimism.
Sadly, I can't say the same for Warcraft 3. It's no surprise that Blizzard ignored its existence, but one of the quotes from J. Allen Brack clearly addressed this game as well and that one got me pissed:
"So... From Diablo 2: Resurrected to Burning Crusade Classic, to Blizzard Arcade Collection... A whole lot of looking back. And while we have teams dedicated to bringing these timeless experiences into your hands, it's actually a very small percentage of our developers working on these projects. Far more people are working on future of Blizzard..."
To put it simply, they just don't care. On that note, let's talk about something more positive...
Blizzard Arcade Collection.
That was a sweet and funny surprise, given that I kind of foresaw this all the way back in November. I expected it to be just a simple releases for GOG, but it ended up being one of those old school game collections with three versions of each game, new features (like translation on many languages) and a "museum" with behind the scenes stuff:
- The Lost Vikings: Super Nintendo, Sega Mega Drive and Definitive Edition.
- Rock n' Roll Racing: Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis and Definitive Edition.
- Blackthorne: Super Nintendo, Sega 32X and Definitive Edition.
It doesn't include all versions of The Lost Vikings and Blackthorne, but it's still pretty cool. I will say that $20 feels like a lot to me, but it's total of 9 versions of three games + much more on top of that... Maybe it's not so bad. I mean, these games are worth it, but that's console prices.
At least when I'm writing this, you can't buy Arcade Collection on Battle.net separately from The Celebration Collection and that's probably not a mistake since game's page in store leads you there. Not to mention that this Vurtual Ticket replacement is available until September 15, 2021. It makes me a bit paranoid that they wouldn't sell Blizzard Arcade Collection separetely, but it's very unlikely. Some might say that paying same $20 or, in my case, 1000₽ (~$13,5) for a game and other bonuses is more valuable, but not everyone wants them. Just let people pay half the prize for Arcade Collection instead of overpaying for things in other games they don't play. That's just greedy.
As you might've guessed, I don't have this Collection... yet, I hope. However, if you wonder... Again, at this point, links from "Blast from Blizzard's Past" are still working. And since I mentioned my previous... Post? Article? Anyway, it feels like Rock n' Roll Racing specifically recieved probably the most love there and that's just wholesome.
I'm still waiting for The Lost Vikings 2, Blizzard. This game should be part of Blizzard Arcade Collection and would like to hope that there would be... You know, surprise free update or something like that. It even fits "three game versions" formula. Come on.
I recommend you to watch "Where It All Started" panel. This is the best part of BlizzConline 2021. Period. It's so sweet.
Diablo 2: Resurrected
At the end of "True Tragedy of Warcraft 3: Reforged" I expressed optimism towards Vicarious Visions working on Diablo 2's remaster and so far it pays off. It is a remaster and it's gonna be a good one.
To be fair, I can't say for if they're getting everything 100% faithfully, but they're at least at 90% currently. I've seen at least one moment where there was different decoration between original Diablo 2 and Resurrected during Deep Dive, but I'm confident that they'll fix it and people will point similar moments during Technical Alpha. In fact, they're already listening to feedback regarding player character models as that's what one of the community manager said in comments:
PezRadar: "Hi all! The team has most definitely been seeing the feedback over the last day regarding some of the looks on the character models. There may be some changes in the future so we appreciate all the feedback on this. In the end, the game is a lot of ways your game and not just ours so we want to make sure we do get it right :)"
Hearing them talking a lot about authentic experience is both awesome and tragic because of Warcraft 3: Reforged. The most interesting part is that it seems to be a full on "Blizzard Visions" remaster: a separate game from classic Diablo 2 and The Lord of Destruction, even though its based on latest Patch 1.14. There will be an option to choose original visual in Resurrected, but old game and expansion will stay as they're now. They were very clear about this on Q&A panel and PC Gamer interview:
Rod Fergusson: "...but the most important question of all: Will D2:R overwrite an original D2 instalation?"
Rob Gallerani: "No! Absolutely not. Everything you have about D2 currently will stay D2! This is a separate product, sacret game. You can play them both at the same time, if you want."
<...>
Rod Fergusson: "...and next is: Well, then, what can I load a D2 original character into Resurrected?"
Rob Gallerani: "So right now we're keeping them separate. Uh, the modern Battle.net characters are all more secure, so... No."
"It's a different team, and that was before my time [at Blizzard]," said Rod Fergusson, who joined Blizzard last year to oversee the Diablo series. I talked to Fergusson about Diablo 2: Resurrected ahead of its announcement at BlizzCon and asked if the reaction to Warcraft 3: Reforged influenced Blizzard's work on Diablo 2 over the last year. While Diablo 2: Resurrected is built on top of the original game's code, it'll exist as a completely separate entity.
"One of the things we wanted to make sure was that D2 original stayed D2 original," Fergusson said. "We were going to make sure that that game stayed there. For example, if you had a horrible code hacking mod that invalidated the security of the game but that's your favorite way to play, you can still go do that, because we're not going to support that kind of mod on D2R. Keeping the two games separate was a big part of that."
It's funny how PC Gamer got it wrong with Reforged and only proves my point about media and masses not giving a damn about Warcraft 3 and its legacy by saying that "Fans were upset about Blizzard making more conservative enhancements than it originally showed". Good job!
Anyway, I wasn't really against the crossplay between original game and remaster, but I guess it's for the best in the case of Diablo 2 and that might be a reason why they don't give old game to those who bought Resurrected. So far "Blizzard Visions" are making a good impression, which is very nice. Will see how Resurrected's development will go, but I'm confident that there's nothing to worry about and I'll take that as an opportunity to be optimistic about the future of Diablo 2.
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