Gaming - Page 501

Diablo II is getting remastered, but Vicarious Visions is doing their best to only enhance the game, not fundamentally change it. Here's what to expect from the remaster and everything we know so far.

Diablo II Resurrected is basically a re-skinning of the classic game with some major QoL improvements. The core game remains the same, and the remaster comes with the beloved Lord of Destruction expansion (although we don't know what version they're running off of, likely the last v1.14 update). Runewords are included, every item remains exactly the same, and no balancing has taken place insofar as stats and unique attributes.

The big changes come in the way of graphical and in-game improvements. D2 can now run at 4K 60FPS on consoles, and supports higher resolutions on PC, complete with a new graphics engine overhaul with hefty visual upgrades. But gamers can instantly switch between the new and old-school graphics at any time by pressing F11. The cinematics have also been 100% remastered, and QoL improvements like a shared stash (YES!), quick gold pick-up (awesome for speed runs), item comparison tooltips by pressing shift, and even a quick-add function that easily adds items to your stash are all included.

In a bid to save money and maximize profits, Konami plans to outsource development of new games in key franchises like Castlevania, Metal Gear Solid, and Silent Hill to third party studios.

Since it fired Hideo Kojima years ago, Konami's pace of game releases has slowed down. Right now Konami earns the lion's share of its earnings from annualized Pro Evolution Soccer and YuGiOh releases, mobile titles, and pachinko. The company is still very profitable without big mainline releases (Q3'20 profits were up 65%, for example), and the restricted slate means Konami has sunk less money into games to maintain certain revenue targets.

Now it looks like Konami is continuing this trend and plans on licensing out franchise rights to other games companies. Sources tell Video Game Chronicle that Konami's first-party studios won't develop new Castlevania, Silent Hill, or even Metal Gear Solid games, and will instead outsource them to unnamed third-party studios.

Hideo Kojima could be involved with a new Silent Hill game, lining up with previous reports of a horror title from the Metal Gear creator.

New reports suggest Konami is licensing out two new Silent Hill games: A reboot and an unconventional title. One could be made from Polish developer Bloober Team, who's responsible for Layers of Fear, Blair Witch, and the new Medium game. The other could be helmed by Kojima Productions despite the bad blood between the studio and Konami.

The speculation comes from new reports from Video Game Chronicle, who sources told that another Silent Hill game was being created by a "prominent Japanese developer." This doesn't confirm Kojima is involved, of course--SEGA or even Capcom could do it, for example, or even Sony Japan Studio--but Hideo Kojima has been teasing a horror game for a long time now.

Blizzard's new Diablo II Resurrected game is a remaster, not a remake, and contains old-school graphics alongside enhanced visuals.

Unlike the disastrous WC3 remaster, Blizzard isn't playing around with new Diablo 2 remaster, Diablo II Resurrected. The re-release is basically a re-skinned Diablo II Lord of Destruction, complete with the 100% same gear, items, armor and weapons as the original game, and the exact same game mechanics, including classes, skills, bugs and other features.

Diablo II Resurrected features some hefty upgrades to 4K 60FPS on consoles and 144Hz on PC, but anyone who wants to jump back into the old-school pixellated experience from 2001 can do so with a click of a button. The remaster will let you swap between the new upgrades and classic visuals at any point during gameplay, similar to Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. The only exception is cutscenes, which will run the remastered versions by default.

The new Diablo 2 remaster will have the exact same weapons, armor, items, and gear as the original D2 Lord of Destruction, but we don't know what patch update the game will mimick.

After months of rumors, Diablo II Resurrected was finally announced at Blizzcon 2021. Thankfully, Vicarious Visions has entirely preserved the legacy of Diablo II with a fully-fledged remaster, not a remake. That includes gear and items, which are 100% the same as they were in Lord of Destruction.

Read Also: Diablo 2 remaster coming to consoles, Blizzard makes dreams come true

It's official: Diablo II is getting remastered, but the core gameplay remains exactly the same.

Diablo II Resurrected is fulfilling something I've always wanted: Diablo II on consoles. The remaster was announced during Blizzcon 2021 and is coming to current- and next-gen consoles, including the Nintendo Switch. Cross-progression is also a thing, but that was always implied if you play online anyway and connect to the Battle.net servers. The great thing is you can transfer your saves to another platform and then play that platform offline.

We don't know much about the console port, however. A recent Diablo II Resurrected deep dive with Blizzard revealed some details on controller interactions. The skills can be mapped to face buttons, similar to Diablo 3, but we don't know how item selection will work on consoles.

Layers of Fear developer Bloober Team could be leading a new Silent Hill reboot, neatly tying up months of rumors and reports.

Rumors of a new Silent Hill game (or games) have been flying around for a while, but now we may have some actual concrete evidence.

It looks like Polish dev Bloober Team, who's responsible for the ultra-creepy Layers of Fear, Blair Witch, and The Medium, might be developing the reboot for Konami. Bloober CEO Piotr Babieno recent teased the news to GamesIndustry.biz:

Blizzard should reveal Diablo II Resurrected during today's Blizzcon 2021 stream, but new info suggests it could be coming to console as well as PC.

Today Blizzard may make one of my dreams come true by bringing Diablo II to consoles for the first time ever. The rumor comes by way of Redditor PracticalBrush12, a reliable source with an established track record with leaks. The report says Diablo II Resurrected is coming to consoles as well as the Switch.

This is speculation, of course, but it fits with Blizzard's business model, which emphasizes multi-platform releases and long-term monetization. I don't expect to see in-game purchases in Diablo II, and admittedly a console port seems iffy. But if Blizzard can pull it off they will achieve strong sales across the entire spectrum.

Bungie is transforming, and has plans to bring its wholly-owned Destiny franchise to "other media," possibly including films, books, and TV shows.

Today Bungie made some big announcements: It's nearly tripling the size of its HQ in Bellevue, Washington to prepare for big new games, and it has also opened a new publishing and marketing division in the Netherlands. Soon Bungie will morph into a developer-publisher and not only create its own games, but publish/distribute them too.

That's not it, though. Bungie also wants to make Destiny into a transmedia franchise, possibly similar to what Microsoft did with the Halo franchise. We could see Destiny books, films, TV shows, animated shorts, and a new fleet of action figures. This massive investment solidifies Destiny as a long-lasting franchise for Bungie, and also sees Bungie following a business model similar to The Embracer Group, who has their own publishing and film publication branches.

Activision is about to unleash a huge update for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, but also for battle royale mode Warzone with Season 2 on the way.

The company goes into great detail about what's coming in an official blog post, with changes coming to Warzone including new points of interest on Verdansk. There could be some more underground changes for the map, with rumblings around certain parts of the map that could lead to more clues.

Activision explains: "Operators within the vicinity are recommended to exercise extreme caution, as the ship is carrying unknown cargo, and its crew are not able to be contacted. Meanwhile, within Verdansk, something major is beginning to rumble deep underground. Although other reports on these new locales are still classified, we'd advise to explore these areas at your own risk".

Diablo II Lord of Destruction was so big that it practically counted as a sequel, but it wasn't the only expansion Blizzard North was working on.

On the eve of Diablo II's expected remaster announcement, original Diablo developer David Brevik shared a bit of recent news on what could've been for the ARPG classic. It turns out Lord of Destruction was actually one of two expansions the team had been planning. Brevik said he was designing a second expansion before LOD's transformative 1.10 update, but the progress never manifested--Brevik had only created a design document. No actual levels, characters, items, or animations had been made.

At the same time Brevik was putting together the expansion's framework, Blizzard North had been designing their own Diablo III, a dark and medieval game that would've been very different from the cartoony version Blizzard launched in 2012. The Blizzard North breakup interrupted progress as key developers like Brevik left the company due to differences with Vivendi, who then owned Blizzard.

Bungie has opened a new business studio in the Netherlands that will exclusively focus on publishing and marketing.

Today sees Bungie one step closer to its ambitious plan. The Halo and Destiny developer is shifting from an indie powerhouse beholden to Activision into its own self-contained force, and soon the company will become both a developer and publisher, not unlike Electronic Arts. The new publishing division is helmed in Amsterdam, and will handle the vital business operations of marketing and distribution. The division will "support multiple project teams, including those outside of the Destiny Universe."

After the Activision split, Bungie hasn't really had to ship its own games outside of physical collector's editions. All of Destiny 2's updates thus far have been digital add-ons. Soon, though, the company will have to secure deals to ship new games--the first of which is a brand new IP set for a tentative 2025 launch. This new IP could be called Matter and it may be an RPG with live services.

Today EA secured one of the most dominant racing forces in the industry and adds even more billion-dollar might to its empire.

EA has officially acquired Codemasters for $1.2 billion, and key franchises like Grid, F1, Project Cars, and Dirt are now owned by the live services titan. EA promises that its Need for Speed IP isn't going anywhere, and that the buyout will lead to a "regular cadence" of racing titles.

"With this critically acclaimed portfolio, Electronic Arts and Codemasters will be positioned to bring fans a regular cadence of new and exciting racing content, in addition to reaching across more platforms and more regions of the world,"EA said in a press release.

According to newly leaked press materials, the Burning Crusade expansion is World of Warcraft Classic.

Blizzcon 2021 goes live tomorrow, but Blizzard has sent out press materials early that confirm some exciting updates. The old-school WoW Classic experience is expanding with The Burning Crusade, bringing all the content of the original 2007 launch including Blood Elves, Draenei, and Outland. Burning Crusade will be available free to all existing WoW subscribers.

Activision-Blizzard has noted extremely positive results from WoW Classic insofar as engagement and continued subscriptions. Expect to see many more classic expansions roll out in the coming years.

Today's Nintendo Direct didn't live up to expectations, but Nintendo gives a potential update window for one of the Switch's most anticipated game.

Back in September 2020, Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma said gamers would have to "wait a big longer" for news on the big Breath of the Wild sequel. Fast-forward five months later, and Nintendo still doesn't have news to share. But we did get a promise of an update later this year (hopefully):

"I'm sure a lot of you saw me and thought there might be news on the sequel to The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild. Unfortunately, we don't have anything to share right now. We apologize. Development is proceeding smoothly and we should be able to bring you some new information this year," Aonuma said in the most recent Nintendo Direct show.

Today's Nintendo Direct showcase had a few big announcements, but no details on a Switch Pro were revealed.

Today was the first Nintendo Direct in 533 days and it was a bit of a disappointment for anyone expecting colossal things. Gamers didn't get any huge earth-shattering reveals like a new Switch Pro model, nor did we get big Metroid or Zelda collections to celebrate both franchises' 35th anniversary. No Zelda Breath of the Wild 2 news, either.

So what did we get? The big headlining news was Apex Legends' March 9 release date on Switch, details on Octopath Traveler 2, Fall Guys, a surprise Ninja Gaiden 3-pack remaster collection,, Splatoon 3, a new Mario Golf game, and a fully-fledged Skyward Sword HD remaster on Switch complete with JoyCon-adapted controls.

Kingdom Hearts is finally coming to PC...as an Epic Games Store exclusive.

Square Enix has teamed up with Epic Games to bring its beloved Kingdom Hearts series to PC for the first time. The franchise will skip Steam for an unannounced period of time and will be available on the Epic Games Store on March 30, 2021. Square Enix didn't reveal when or if the series will drop on Steam.

The press materials don't mention exclusivity terms (if there even are any), and the only exclusive is a custom keyblade for Sora to use in Kingdom Hearts III: "Those who purchase KINGDOM HEARTS III + Re Mind (DLC) will receive an exclusive Epic Games Store "Elemental Encoder" Keyblade to use in-game."

Nintendo is finally releasing a new Direct showcase--the first since September 14, 2019.

It's been a long time since the last main Nintendo Direct stream--533 days to be exact--and today's show has a lot of anticipation behind it. Gamers might want to tamper their expectations, though. Nintendo has dropped a few clues on what to expect:

That's it. That's all we get. There's lots of speculation running around about a possible 35th anniversary Zelda event or collection of games, as well as Metroid, who also turns 35 this year. Then we have the usual indie reels that could show off more info on Silksong. As for big mainline AAA Switch games, or a Switch Pro confirmation, that seems iffy at best.

A large new update for Microsoft Flight Simulator is here, with the new World Update III providing digital makeovers for the UK and Ireland.

Asobo Studio had already updated Flight Simulator with US and Japan regions receiving improvements, but now there's new high-res 3D photogrammetry to London, Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge and Oxford. Not only that, but 5 airports have been recreated by hand which include Barra, Liverpool, Land's End, Manchester-Barton and Out Skerries.

The developer has made some "visual and logistical improvements" to 85 more airports in Flight Simulator, with Asobo Studio also enhancing regional architecture including manors, castles, churches and Victorian homes and even drive-thrus. Asobo has also updated Buckingham Palace, Premier League stadiums, Blarney Castle and the Forth bridges.

Metro Exodus fans will be delighted to hear that there is a new version of the game in the oven, with the freshly announced Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition.

Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition will see the 4A Engine "radically overhauled" to introduce full ray tracing into the game for both next-gen NVIDIA GeForce RTX and AMD Radeon RX series graphics cards as well as the next-gen Sony PlayStation 5 and Microsoft Xbox Series X/S consoles.

The developed explains: "When Metro Exodus released two years ago, it was one of the first games to feature Ray Tracing (on high-end PC only) thanks to NVIDIA's new RTX series of graphics cards, although we still utilized many more traditional rendering techniques for console and older PC graphics cards. But with Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 consoles offering Ray Tracing support, we took the decision to radically overhaul our proprietary 4A Engine and realise our ambitions for a fully Ray Traced experience on next gen consoles and high-end PC".