Blizzard’s announcement of Diablo 4 during the opening ceremony of Blizzcon 2019 described an installment of the action-RPG series that sounds very different from its 2012 predecessor. Diablo 4 returns the franchise to its darker roots. While Diablo helped inspire the slate of loot-chasing games that have recently arisen, it looks like Blizzard is borrowing some ideas from those games to make Diablo 4 something more of a shared-world experience.

After the announcement, Blizzard made a short demo available on the show floor, where we played about 10 minutes of Diablo 4. The most striking element is the game’s use of ideas similar to what’s seen in games such as Destiny 2 or Dark Souls. You’re a warrior fighting off hordes of evil creatures throughout the world of Sanctuary, but you’re not alone. Not only do you have your cooperative teammates, but in the demo we saw, the world was also alive with other players fighting just as hard to dispel undead fiends and demonic creatures.

The demo included three different character classes: the Barbarian, the Sorceress, and the Druid. Taking on the role of the shape-shifting druid, we quickly delved into the horrific world of Sanctuary, dropping into the middle of a quest that sent us exploring a crypt in search of a particular lantern. The formula was immediately familiar–Diablo 4’s combat takes on a fast pace, while offering you a number of abilities to bring to bear against your enemies–but Blizzard’s darker approach to the game came through just as quickly, punctuated by a short cinematic in which your character climbs through a pit of bodies, up out of a subterranean cave, and through the dirt of a literal graveyard.

Once out in the world, Diablo 4 presented what felt like a more awful, desperate Sanctuary, but one that was also more alive. Wandering toward the village of Corbach, I started running into other players as they thrashed through monsters and interacted with distraught and forlorn villagers. In a practical way, those extra bodies in the world help create a lot of, well, extra bodies. You’re seemingly as likely to wander across live enemies in the world as dead ones that someone else has already eliminated, which provides a distinct feeling that while the humans of Sanctuary are on the brink of destruction, there are still plenty of warriors around fighting back.

You’re seemingly as likely to wander across live enemies in the world as dead ones that someone else has already eliminated

Those extra players mean there’s opportunity to make Diablo 4 feel more dangerous, as well. Though you might cross a field behind someone else who has mopped up all the mobs just before your arrival, you can also stumble across some hulking creature that you simply couldn’t handle on your own. These encounters take on the feeling of public events in shared-world games, where multiple players band together spontaneously to destroy something that would be otherwise beyond their powers on their own. Stumbling across one of these massive demons in Diablo 4 can be frightening, but with other players around, they also engender a sense of shared purpose.

As the Druid, your abilities mostly concern transforming into powerful creatures to deal massive damage, and knocking enemies around to stun them and control the battlefield. Your basic attack turns you into a werewolf to swipe away with your claws, and the rest of your moves tend to dish out big blasts of damage across certain areas. One lets you transform into a bear and charge through multiple enemies while repositioning yourself; another tosses a pair of boulders at enemies that leaves them stunned; yet another sends a pair of wolves after one enemy while you deal with another. Where the Barbarian is all about big damage and the Sorceress focuses on area-of-effect and stuns, the Druid seems to be a balance of the two.

During the opening ceremony, Blizzard described its intention to lean into the horror of the Diablo franchise, and even in our short demo, there was evidence that this is the case. The cinematic trailer is certainly full of disturbing sights, and the cutscene of your escape from the cave helps telegraph Diablo 4’s underlying dread very early. A mission I took on for the local village leader had a significant horror bent as well. It centered on the woman’s son, a fitful youth who’s been having prophetic visions of a lantern and insists he needs to find and retrieve it. The venture through the early cave culminates in discovering the lantern, but returning it didn’t make the son better, but worse–now he wanted to take it and wander into a cave.

When I went to the cave in his stead, I discovered why he was drawn there: the previous elder had been using the lantern and its dark magic power to sacrifice young people to a witch, ensuring the village’s prosperity. But even destroying the witch wasn’t enough to save the boy. Back at the village, I arrived just in time to watch him choke on blood while his mother watched in horror.

It was a tragic and horrific moment, and it seems that’s exactly what Blizzard intends in Diablo 4’s aesthetic and thematic focus. Paired with its shared-world approach, it seems we can expect Diablo 4 to offer a pretty different take on the franchise from its predecessor.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/blizzcon-2019-diablo-4s-shared-world-feels-like-a-/1100-6471114/

Blizzard began its opening ceremony for BlizzCon 2019 with an additional statement in regards to the recent controversy the studio has been a part of since it banned professional Hearthstone player Blitzchung for expressing support for the Hong Kong protests. Afterward, GameSpot caught up with Blizzard president J. Allen Brack to talk about the opening speech.

“It’s probably not a secret that it’s been a hard month for Blizzard,” Brack said. “It’s been hard for the community. It’s been a hard month for the employees. And I think there’s just been a lot of confusion and a lot of misinformation and a lot of challenges that everyone has had as a result. Frankly, there was never really a conversation where we weren’t going to do that because to not at least have a really straightforward conversation with our community about that would have appeared extremely tone-deaf in my mind. So it’s the right thing to do. We felt very strongly that we had to do it, otherwise it just would be looming, kind of hanging over us for the rest of the show.”

He continued, “I haven’t actually read any of the feedback of what was said this morning yet. Very early on–one of the very first conversations when we made our statement and walked back the penalty and restored [Blitzchung] winnings–we actually had a personal conversation with Blitzchung and we apologized to him for how the situation had gone and … [how] no one was happy with how we ended up here. And so [today’s statement] was less [about] that specific [incident] and more about the overall of what everyone [has thought] and what everyone has read and what everyone has heard and sort of have a reset–like what are the values that we have that somehow have been lost; that narrative [has] been lost in the last month.”

All things considered, the opening speech this morning was a fairly weak one, as Brack made no mention of the specifics surrounding the controversy and also didn’t follow-up with any announcements of how Blizzard plans on changing its position or amending its actions to address how the company can do better going forward.

Blizzard followed Brack’s opening speech with several announcements. The most significant of which were the reveal of Diablo IV, Overwatch 2, and World of Warcraft: Shadowlands. Our coverage of the event is in the pinbox below.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/blizzard-president-talks-about-his-opening-stateme/1100-6471113/

As other retailers begin offering sneak peeks at their upcoming Black Friday deals, the PlayStation Store is kicking off a nice sale of its own. The digital store just launched a PS Plus Double Discounts sale in which PlayStation Plus members receive greater deals on everything that’s on sale. The sale is live now until November 22 at 8 PM PT / 11 PM ET.

There aren’t a lot of new games in the PS Plus Double Discounts sale, but we still get a few good deals on some great recent releases. Control is $42 for PS Plus subscribers ($51 for non-subscribers) and Ni No Kuni Remastered is down to $30 ($40 for non-subscribers).

While most of these added discounts aren’t too much cheaper than the regular sale price, some of these PS Plus deals are pretty impressive. For example, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is $17.10 for non-subscribers and $4.50 for subscribers. Similarly, Rise of the Tomb Raider‘s $34.20 discount price goes down to $9 for those with a subscription. One of my personal favourite games also has a steep discount for PS Plus players–Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition is $4.50 for PS Plus members, down from the regular sale price of $17.10.

The sale isn’t only for the PS4, however, as quite a few games on both PS3 and Vita are also discounted. Persona 5 and much more are discounted for the PS3, while the Vita sees sales for games like Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight and Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight.

If you’re looking to sign up for PS Plus or renew your membership, there’s currently a great deal on a 12-month membership at Newegg. By using promo code EMCUUTU22 at checkout, you can save $15 on the year-long membership, knocking your price down to $45. This deal is only available for the next few days.

Quick look:

• PS4 game deals
• PS3 game deals
• PS Vita game deals

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/big-ps4-sale-offers-double-discounts-for-ps-plus-m/1100-6471109/

At BlizzCon 2019, Blizzard announced Overwatch 2, confirming the rumors that Overwatch is getting a sequel that includes both PvP and PvE modes. In an interview with GameSpot, Blizzard revealed that the original Overwatch almost had an Apex Legends-like ping system and its sequel might get one for its new PvE modes.

“[Overwatch] actually had a ping system at one point,” Overwatch and Overwatch 2 lead hero designer Geoff Goodman said. “It ended up being a situation where it wasn’t super useful. Maybe there’s a chance to revisit it, but we ended up taking it away and putting in our current communication wheel instead. So it’s possible, especially with our Hero missions and Story missions, that it will come back [in Overwatch 2].”

The Hero and Story missions are Overwatch 2’s PvE modes, which pit you and your team against an army of computer-controlled enemies. In Hero mode, you and your team can pick from any of Overwatch’s heroes–including new character Sojourn–and then play in repeatable, objective-focused missions. As you play through this mode, you’ll level up and unlock new versions of each hero’s special abilities. You can also unlock new abilities in Story mode, where you and your team select characters from a predetermined roster and play through scripted, narrative-focused missions that further flesh out Overwatch’s lore. Abilities unlocked in Hero and Story missions cannot be used in PvP.

All 31 heroes will have new looks in Overwatch 2 as well. “Overwatch 2 evolves the look and feel of the world, with more dynamic environments, larger-scale battles, additional in-game storytelling events, and improved atmospheric effects and shadows,” Blizzard says. Originally only announced for Xbox One, PS4, and PC, Overwatch 2 lead designer Jeff Kaplan confirmed the game is also releasing on Switch.

Back in June 2019, a report stated that Blizzard canceled a first-person shooter set in the Starcraft universe in order to focus on developing Diablo IV (which was also announced at BlizzCon 2019) and Overwatch 2. However, Blizzard has not confirmed whether that is true.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/overwatch-2-could-have-a-ping-system/1100-6471110/