Despite all those silly rumours about Diablo 4, Blizzard has made it clear that they see Diablo III as a live game that they want to keep updating and expanding for quite some time to come. Over the weekend, they made that even more clear.
In addition to the big announcements – the Diablo 1 remake and the Necromancer character pack – Blizzard revealed a few smaller tweaks that should make Diablo III players happy (or at least less angry). A quick list of new things they will be adding to the game:
1) The Armory, which will let you store five character load-outs so you don’t have to keep manually swapping out all your skills and gear.
2) Seasons on console – goddamn finally. As of 2017, PlayStation and Xbox players will be able to participate in the seasonal contests that PC players have been digging for a year now. In short, every season you can start a new “seasonal” character and compete to be the first to hit max level, among other challenges.
3) A new tab for crafting materials that will prevent them from taking up inventory slots.
4) Challenge Rifts – a new feature that will “snapshot an actual player’s build from the game each week and let everyone take it for a spin in a static dungeon”.
5) New zones. Says Blizzard: “The desolate, fog-enshrouded Moors have been occupied by armies and empires over time. Beneath them lies the Temple of the Firstborn – a place of evil unlike anything you’ve seen before.”
Outside of the Necromancer pack, all this stuff is going to be free, so it’s hard to complain. I mean, we could complain. But would anyone listen?
Comments
6 responses to “Some Diablo III Announcements You May Have Missed”
I’ll probably reinstall for the Diablo 1 remake, might even sling them a few bucks to play as a Necromancer too.
They really have improved this game. Im nearly playing it as much as Diablo 2 now. Even if it took a few years to get it to this state.
You complete one rift, you’ve completed them all. Found the game very repetitive, very fast.
considering rifts are randomized tile sets mashed together, i’m mildly surprised you’ve seen it all although I get what you mean in general
that said, the entire point of the diablo franchise is to farm for loot, to get better so you can farm better loot etc. You didn’t find D2 repetitive?
The thing about Rifts is that they’re all completely different, and yet they’re all completely the same. The highlights of playing Rift really come from those super random levels, like occasionally going into Whimsydale or finding yourself in a Cow Rift.
D2 was definitely repetitive, but it has something that D3 largely does not: targeted runs. If you want runes (up to a certain range anyway) you do Countess runs. You want a specific item that falls within a specific range, you do various boss runs or you run certain areas (The Pit in Act I for example).
D3 could implement something like that IMO but it probably won’t.
That’s the ARPG in a nutshell. The genre is built around repetition. Strip away the randomised tileset and any of Grim Dawn, Path of Exile, Diablo 3 etc. all ultimately come down to repeatedly killing variations of the same set of enemies hoping to get upgrades as loot.
A lot of people like it, but it’s not for everyone. 100-hour story-focused RPGs these games are not.
I go back to it every couple of seasons, but each time the grind bores me faster. There’s only so much grift push you can handle before you burn out. Keeping that sweet spot on the ladder just aint worth the hassle.