Ori and the Blind Forest

Moon Studios’ acclaimed game had its share of aggravating platforming, accentuated by its checkpoint system. While you had normal save spots, energy could be spent on creating checkpoints anywhere. During difficult sections, you may forget to make a checkpoint or not have enough energy to create one. Thankfully, the sequel forgoes this for a more traditional auto-save and checkpoint system.

We got a lot of Diablo-related news lately. At this year’s BlizzCon, we got some updates on the upcoming Diablo 4, for instance, but probably the most talked about news was the official reveal of Diablo 2: Resurrected, a remake of the classic game. Now we get a look at how it compares to the original.

A new video from YouTube channel Candyland puts some direct comparison shots from the original game and its Lord of Destruction expansion pack that is included in this remake. As you can see, it seems there has been some good work here in trying to keep the look similar even with a new modern fresh coat of paint. You can check it out below yourself to see what you think. If you don’t care much for the new look, no worries, as it’s been confirmed Resurrected would not replace the original, so it’ll still be available.

Diablo 2: Resurrected is planned to come this year for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch and PC.

Last year’s Warcraft 3: Reforged was a bit of a disaster. A remaster of a beloved game – perhaps even the most beloved strategy game of all time – it turned out to be a disappointing upgrade, lacking features and riddled with technical issues. That would have been bad enough as it was, but Blizzard even decided to make the baffling decision to replace the original Warcraft 3’s client with the new release’s meaning the original game’s multiplayer was removed entirely, and in the process, even several crucial multiplayer features were lost.

Blizzard recently announced Diablo 2: Resurrected, an ambitious yet extremely faithful remaster of their classic action RPG, and it’s not surprising that there are many who have trepidations about how it will handle the original game. However, Rod Fergusson – who joined Blizzard from The Coalition last year as the head of the Diablo franchise – has given assurances that even once the remaster is out, the original game will remain untouched, and that Blizzard will be avoiding a repeat of the Warcraft 3 situation (which he points out happened before his time at the company).

“It’s a different team, and that was before my time [at Blizzard],” Fergusson said while speaking with PC Gamer. “One of the things we wanted to make sure was that D2 original stayed D2 original. 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.”

Diablo 2: Resurrected will launch later this year for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. It won’t feature cross-play at launch, but Blizzard will continue to look into possibly adding support for it down the line.

Guardian Ape – Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Immortality in Sekiro is a curse, something you learn firsthand when dealing with the Guardian Ape. It’s torturous enough with its grabs, slams and dung and you’d think things would end upon severing its head. However, the Guardian Ape resurrects and utilizes the sword embedded in its neck along with Terror to make the fight even more annoying. Stabbing its centipede ends the fight but won’t permanently kill the ape. Instead, when traveling to the Ashina Depths, you fight the Headless Ape again, only this time it receives some backup from its mate. Defeating it will result in the centipede taking a rest…until you come back with the Mortal Blade and kill it for good.

It seems the Diablo franchise is going to be a busy one in the coming years. Diablo Immortal is on the way, while Diablo 4 is also in the works, but it seems there’s more projects in the works as well. According to a report by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, Blizzard is also working on a remake of the beloved Diablo 2.

The Diablo 2 remake (allegedly called Diablo 2: Resurrected) was supposedly originally going to be made by Blizzard Team 1, who were responsible for 2020’s Warcraft 3: Reforged. The negative critical reception that, however, ultimately led to Blizzard handing the project over to the team in charge of the upcoming Diablo 4.

Additionally, it also seems like Vicarious Visions (the developers of the recent Crash Bandicoot and Tony Hawk remakes) – who were recently confirmed as having been merged into Blizzard as a support studio – are also assisting with the Diablo 2 remake’s development.

While Blizzard obviously haven’t confirmed the validity of these reports, they did confirm in a statement to Bloomberg that Vicarious Visions “has been working with Blizzard for some time.”

Claw of Jormag – Guild Wars 2

The Claw of Jormag is a World Boss and while you might think it’s a good 15 to 20 minutes to kill, you’d be wrong. Players have 30 minutes to complete the fight and it involves multiple stages where the Claw can’t be hurt. It can be damaged in between but otherwise, you’ll be running around breaking the corrupted ice shield, protecting Pact Bomb Golems, etc etc. An exasperating fight, even when everything is going your way.

With the announcement of Diablo 4, people are hyped for more hellish raids, tons of loot and endless fun with friends. But it’s going to be a long, long time before we get Diablo 4. Therefore, people are naturally nostalgic for the past, and with Blizzard there is a recent willingness to revisit their past with the likes of World of Warcraft Classic and a remaster of Warcraft 3. What about the beloved Diablo 2 then? Well, unfortunately, it seems unlikely.

In an interview with Gamespot, the original Creators of the Diablo series talked about the series and its storied past. There’s interesting information there, but some of the disheartening kind for fans is they reveal that the game was almost completely lost when they had to rebuild the game based on a home version, and in the process most of the game’s original assets were destroyed. Therefore, if Blizzard ever did want to pursue a remaster or enhanced remake they would have to basically rebuild those from scratch.

“I had a big chunk of it. Went home, pulled out the hard drive or whatever we did back then. Spent a few days reconstructing it, which ended up working fine, except that we lost all the history. We lost a lot of the assets, art assets. It would make it very difficult for Blizzard to do a Diablo 2 Remaster because all the assets we used are pretty much gone. They’d have to make them from scratch.”

While it isn’t impossible, the effort Blizzard would have to put into a Diablo 2 remaster would be quite a bit more than the typical enhanced re-release. With enough time and resources, it could still happen, but I wouldn’t hold my breath on it.

The leaks for BlizzCon 2019 continue. After Overwatch 2 was leaked by a training document, a new leak has emerged for Diablo 4 of Reddit. According to user PracticalBrush12, who’s leaked details about Ghost Recon Breakpoint and Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers in the past, Diablo 4 will look “dark, gritty and gross.”

Along with corpses strewn about, there will flesh caves, marshes, plagued cities and much more to traverse. Environments are apparently much bigger with mounts available for characters to ride and some interaction with the environment (like climbing a wall). Three classes that will be included are the Mage, Barbarian and Druid (who can transform into bear or werewolf). Four player co-op is also confirmed with some possibility for PvP from the start.

Overall, the game seems to be channeling Diablo 2 with Lilith resuming Diablo’s role (artwork for her was recently leaked). Skills like the Sorceress’ Charged Bolt are also included. You would think that there’s not much legitimacy to the report, despite the user’s history. However, Niko Partners senior analyst Daniel “ZhugeEX” Ahmad noted on Twitter that, “This lines up with everything I’ve heard about Diablo 4. The game is shaping up well and is definitely what fans would want out of the game. Takes what people loved about D2 style, improves on D3 combat.”

We won’t know for sure until its supposed reveal tomorrow at the BlizzCon Opening Ceremony so stay tuned. The ceremony starts at 11 AM PDT with BlizzCon 2019 taking place from November 1st to 3rd.

This lines up with everything I've heard about Diablo IV.

The game is shaping up well and is definitely what fans would want out of the game. Takes what people loved about D2 style, improves on D3 combat. https://t.co/5aXaQk528M

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) October 31, 2019

METAL GEAR SOLID 2

Metal Gear Solid 2 came out in Europe a few months after it did elsewhere, but players got a pretty sweet reward for their patience in the form of European Extreme difficulty. Even harder than regular Extreme, European Extreme gave players zero rations throughout the games, buffed up enemies so they could essentially deliver one hit kills (especially the bosses), and made it so that if you ever broke stealth and alerted an enemy, it was game over for you.

]]> https://gamingbolt.com/15-games-that-had-an-unlockable-harder-difficulty-only-to-drive-you-crazy/feed 0 415923 https://gamingbolt.com/15-games-so-addictive-you-saw-them-in-your-dreams https://gamingbolt.com/15-games-so-addictive-you-saw-them-in-your-dreams#respond Fri, 16 Aug 2019 10:49:13 +0000 https://gamingbolt.com/?p=405309 It’s not enough to play a game until you’re good at it. Mastering it optional – it’s making you outright obsessed with the mechanics and gameplay that fuels most games. Let’s take a look 15 games you played so much that you saw them in your dreams (ideally the good kind).

Destiny

For many of us who never really got into MMOs but enjoyed first person shooters, there was Destiny. Launched in a disappointing state but possessing solid gun play and excellent mission design at the highest level (read: raids), the very nature of Destiny pushed us to obsess about it. When is Xur coming, what Exotics will he have, doing the Nightfalls and raids at reset time, a secret quest that’s been discovered – Destiny just scratched that itch to an insane degree.