Why Chasm: The Rift wasn't Reopened

Chasm: The Rift Screenshot. Taken from MobyGames.

Status of many games changes with passage of time. While some titles earn their rightful place within the industry as an "all-time classic" with cult following, there're many other examples that were less fortunate. There're many examples where you can argue whenever the game deserved the overall reputation it got or if it needs more or less attention, but that's all a thing of the past for the most part. Luckily for us, time is often acts like a cycle (I'm well aware of that, trust me) and that allows certain "hidden gems" to capture player's attention yet again with different results from their original release and perception.

Each situation is unique in details as there're many factors that play its role in such scenario: from a company acquiring the rights to re-release a specific game commercially or as a freeware to an enthusiast putting it on Internet's spotlight through article or video. Anyway, people discover such title for the first time or go back to that obscure game they couldn't quite remember from their past and Chasm: The Rift is one of the great examples of that. I wanted to talk about it for a while now to show what's the deal with it and why it didn't make a "proper comeback" in a way of an actual re-release on digital platforms or gained an aformentioned freeware status in favor of abandonware.

Catching Up on Diablo 2: Resurrected

"Champions United" Art.

Seeing the announcement of Diablo 2: Resurrected back in BlizzConline 2021 was pretty interesting, to say the least. First impressions are usually overly positive, especially with Vicarious Visions on board of Blizzard's sinking ship... It's not, but you know what I'm saying. I was pretty excited after the event and looked forward to observing the progress on Resurrected for different reason: my interest in Diablo franchise was slowly growing in last few years and I just had to stay on guard and compare it with Warcraft 3: Reforged.

However, I didn't follow the news on Diablo 2's remaster as close as I originally wanted. That was probably due to my messy routine and reclusive nature, I can't say for sure. Either way, I didn't have clear enough perspective on this release to truly determine how well Blizzard and Vicarious Visions did their job. Since Resurrected should be released in a day this post gets published, I wanted to take that opportunity to simply catch up and go over a few aspects of its development and see how well Diablo 2 was actually treated.

Versatile Succession of Warcraft 3

Warcraft 3 Inside Mac Games 2001 Screenshot. Taken from Blizzard Archive.

As Blizzard gradually shifted away from some of their initial ideas and World of Warcraft continued to form, Warcraft 3 moved closer to a Real-Time Strategy with RPG elements we know and love. If you're familiar with Warcraft series, you'll know that this game still ended up being vastly different from its predecessors even after these changes were made. That's actually a pretty interesting topic on itself as many franchises faced similar fate.

Anyway, a lot of elements in released version of Warcraft 3 are familiar to the players of previous two games, but there're also some things that were changed or removed over the course of its development. And I'm not just talking about the gameplay itself. So I think it would be interesting to just take a look at Alpha/Beta versions of the game and see how much of Orcs & Humans and Tides of Darkness carried over into the Reign of Chaos.

Revitalized Concept for Trial of Runes

...and she's not the only one waiting.

It's been around 4 months since my Just an Idea post about Trial of Runes. Since then, I still couldn't get this concept out of my head and I kept returning to it. Wonder if that's something I can actually achieve. Argue with myself about whenever or not I should actually pursue this endeavor. Challenge myself with something truly new, difficult and exciting for myself. And there's this lingering sense that I need to try in spite of all my concerns.

After some encouragement, I've decided to "take the bait". I want to try and make Trial of  Runes make to live. As far as I can, at least. With that, I was working on a proper "design document" for this mod, but progress has been slow, and I ultimately abandoned it for a time being. Recent re-release of Quake reinforced this idea and got me back to it. And now, I would attempt to provide more refined summary of what this project is.

Bold Advancements

Improvised "Hall Update" Thumbnail.

I had a lot to think about over the course of this Summer. These three months were rather "interesting" for me as I went through mental breakdown, temporary loss of electricity and constant string of personal failures. It's been very hard to be active in any way or really figure out how and what should be done. However, with the help and support from my amazing friends, I managed to sort of get through it and things are slightly better for now. I received some encouragement and I don't want to waste it.

Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about my activities and Ilko's Hall specifically. There's been a lot of ideas, hesitance and uncertainty in my planning as I just couldn't understand what and how something should be done. In a way, I still have no idea or confidence in most of my actions, and I'm willing to admit that. So that's what I'm going to talk about here: ongoing changes to the blog and my plans for the foreseeable future.