Diablo II came out on June 29th, 2000.
We’ve talked about the original Diablo and its sequel a couple of times before, of course, but it’s one of those “formative gaming experiences” for a whole bunch of us. I mean, my household played it to death in our first year of marriage. It helped us deal with Maribou’s senior year of college. It provided relief during the crazy parts of 2001.
It was a wonderful ARPG/slot machine/skinner box but it wasn’t just that. It had a fun community in the channels, it had a lively Ebay culture, and it had several distinct gaming experiences available. You wanna relax and and play solo? That’s an option. You wanna play massive difficulty that is only beatable with a Barbarian giving war cries and a Paladin swapping auras and a sorceress throwing up firewalls? That’s an option. It was a game that had ways to scratch your gaming itch no matter what mood you were in.
I mean, I’ve played games where I’ve spent $20 on them and walked away feeling like I got ripped off. This is one of those rare games where if I had spent $200 on it, I’d have felt like I got my money’s worth. She and I easily put more than 200 hours into that silly game and given that its original price was probably $50 (and another $25 for the expansion), that game delivered an absolutely *HUGE* amount of value.
We went back and played it a couple of years ago and the first thing I noticed was that the graphics “high” setting was 800 x 600. Jeez. A million years ago, that *WAS* the high setting. It didn’t make the game unplayable or anything like that, but it was jarring to play it again on a relatively small 27″ flatscreen monitor instead of a relatively large 15″ CRT.
“I remember these graphics as being better”, I thought.
Well, Diablo II Resurrected is now in beta. (Beta is available to anyone who pre-orders.)
This game has the graphics that I remember back in 2000.
It even has a fun function where if you press the “g” button, it jumps back and forth between old graphics and new ones.
Check this out.
Here’s the graphics as they happened at the time:
And here’s the graphics as I remember them:
One of the awesome things is that the new graphics give surprises.
Remember wraiths? Those blue floaty butterfly things?
THEY’RE SKELETONS
Seriously, lookit:
So lemme say that my memory of the graphics didn’t include wraiths being skeletons. I just thought they were some sort of spectral winged abomination kinda thing. Nope. They have bones.
I’m only in Act 2 but, lemme tell ya, this game is still giving me new things to discover. 21 years later.
The real game itself gets released on September 23rd. If you want to be part of the open beta, you merely have to pre-order. (At this moment in time, you can’t play the necromancer or the assassin, but I imagine they’ll be introduced in the next week or two.)
So… what are you playing?
(Featured image is the barbarian in the character selection screen of Diablo II: Resurrected.)
I am somewhat interested in D2 Remastered, but seeing all the drama going on with their culture makes me a little more reluctant to give them my money.
I’m still mostly playing Monster Hunters Stories 2. My wife has caught up to me so we can do endgame co-op stuff together, which is fun. I have also been plugging away at Final Fantasy XIV using the free trial. It recently expanded to include a lot of content, and I suspect by the time I get through it all I will be ready to move on to something else anyway.
On an unrelated note, I am finishing up Season 5 of Fringe, which I was introduced to by the Book Club here when I first found this place. It feels like it has been a while since there has been a Book Club. Any possibility of starting up another one?Report
Season 5 was when I bowed out.
I got hooked on Massive Dynamic and Walter undoing the stuff that he did.
By the time that Season 5 rolled around, I’m pretty sure that I wouldn’t have been able to explain the plot to a friend over a meal. That’s not necessarily a sign that the show’s going to be bad, but it is a red flag.
And it was an accurate flag here. The first three seasons, though? Perfection.
Another one? I don’t know of any mass culture going on that would demand that we all watch/read at the same time. Do you have any suggestions?
(And, yeah, I wasn’t a huge fan of buying a Blizzard game either, but one of my besties has this game as his own personal Cyberpunk 2077 and so he’s making me get it so we can do runs together. I try to focus on how Vicarious Visions had more to do with its development than Blizzard did.)Report
I’m toughing out Season 5. It’s short. Definitely feels like a different show, though.
Don’t worry. No judgment hear about buying the game (if I came across that way). I still might end up getting it down the road.
I didn’t have anything in particular in mind. I remember Fringe and I remember Sandman. I think I participated in another one, but I do not remember what. The graphic novels Lucifer and Y: The Last Man come to mind. The former is a worthy sequel to The Sandman, and the latter has been made into a TV Series. I am open to other suggestions, though, if there is any interest.Report
Good morning!
If you find yourself asking “why is my internet a little sluggish?”
It’s because Cyberpunk updated last night.
Only 35 gigs, this time.Report