Friday, January 17, 2025

Resurrected Diablo 2 announced for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch

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Blizzard Entertainment and Vicarious Visions, the former Activision-Blizzard subsidiary recently folded in Blizzard proper, announced Diablo 2 Risen, the long rumor remastered of the 2000 action-RPG classic. It is slated for release in 2021 for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo SwitchResurrected will include all content from the Lord of Destruction Expansion Pack, including the Assassin and Druid player classes. The announcement was the highlight of BlizzCon 2021, aka “Blizzconline,” Blizzard’s virtual celebration of its company’s games and community after the COVID-19 pandemic. cancellation from last year’s event.“This is the perfect time to bring Diablo 2 back,” Diablo franchise executive producer Rod Fergusson told IGN, referring to Diablo 2’s 20th anniversary last year and Blizzard’s 30th anniversary itself. And, it was clear, “This is a remaster, not a remake. We wanted the Game. “Diablo 2 Resurrected has a modern 3D layer on top that features particle-based rendering, dynamic lighting, and where available enhanced visuals and sound. On PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X, the remaster will run at 4K and 60fps. The PC will also support ultra-wide monitors and gamepads. On the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 console families with the Nintendo Switch, it will run at lower resolutions. According to Blizzard, the progression Crossover will be supported on all platforms that choose to enable it, but underneath is the original game, at a resolution of 800×600. And like Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary and LucasArts’ special editions of Monkey Island 1 and 2, you can press a button to switch between the original game and the remastered version. The kinematics, however, can’t just be over-excited. Blizzard and Vicarious Visions “completely remake every minute” of cutscenes in Diablo 2, which equates to roughly 27 minutes of pre-rendered video.

You can press a button to switch between the original game and the remastered version.


“It’s like the archeology of video games, learning how these things work,” said Robert Gallerani, design director of Vicarious Visions. “Because we’re using this old system to get things done, we keep everything the same. Since this is not a remake, we don’t have to rebuild [anything]. It’s basically like we’re changing the oil, making sure it’s working fine, but we’re not rebuilding everything. We literally analyze every piece of code. And, he noted with a smile, “when we fix a bug, we have to be very careful because everything is interconnected.”

What he means by that, Fergusson explained, is that the Diablo 2 Resurrected team “embraces the quirks.” That means some of the now outdated (read: goofy by modern standards) animations are still here. But some additions to the quality of life have been made. Some are just cooked, like new ambient noises like the wind rustling leaves in the trees and a shared stash so you don’t have to make a mule character anymore. Others will be opt-in, like automatic gold pickup and loot for those who don’t want to have to click through every piece of loot on the ground.

Blizzard added a shared stash so you no longer have to create a mule character.


On PS5 and Xbox Series X, the team is “taking advantage of what’s out there” on new consoles, such as the aforementioned higher frame rates and resolution, as well as faster load times that SSDs allow. Blizzard is considering adding things like ray tracing effects, but Fergusson has made it clear that he is not promising anything and has suggested that if any specific next-gen upgrades are added, they will come after the game’s release. later in 2021.

Finally, when it comes to multiplayer, couch co-op wasn’t added – Fergusson called it “a bridge too far” for this faithful remastering effort – but all of Diablo’s original eight-player online features. 2 are still there. And you will now have the option to store characters on Battle.net to play on a dedicated server. “It’s safer” when it comes to bots, item duplication, and other cheat-related issues that plagued Diablo 2 at the time, Gallerani said.

A technical alpha test is planned for the near future on PC only. Registrations will take place on Diablo official website, and testers will be chosen at random – much like it happened with the original beta of Diablo 2 in early 2000.

Ryan McCaffrey is the editor of IGN’s Previews. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan, grab it Unlocked, and send him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.



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