diablo

Diablo is set to make its arrival in an upcoming patch for Diablo 3 called Darkening of Tristram that'll "send you back into the depths of the Cathedral," said Frank Pearce, Blizzard's chief development officer. Darking of Tristram is going to offer a dungeon with 16 levels where you'll face off against four main bosses from Diablo. 

The game's going to come with visual filters to make it look pixelated and grainy — "we call it 'glorious retrovision,'" said Pearce. In addition, the character movement's going to be restrained to eight directions, just like in the original Diablo.

"It will be a proper old-school Diablo experience," said Pearce, and while it will be available to all current characters, Pearce recommends for players to try it with a fresh character.

Darkening of Tristram is going to be available in Diablo 3's Public Test Realm next week. The original Diablo was released Dec. 31, 1996.

Without Metzen games like Warcraft, Diablo, Starcraft, and Overwatch simply wouldn't be what they are today. The man played an indispensable role in molding the lore, the vision for massively enjoyed video game worlds, and he no doubt inspired so many of both the aspiring, and the established professionals of the video game industry today. Read up on his post he left us with after announcing his retirement, below:

I had just turned twenty years old when I started working at Blizzard. Seems like a lifetime ago. Guess it was. Those first few years were the start of a very grand adventure for me, one that would take me around the world, introduce me to thousands of wonderful geeks just like me—and ultimately shape the course of my adult life.Of course when I started, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I had no idea how to make games or build entertainment products.…But I had an insatiable passion for ideas. For stories. For heroes.My only real training before joining Blizzard was the long-running D&D campaign I had with my closest friends—Sam, Mike P., Daniel, and Mikey C. (you know who you are, boys…HAMRO!). Building ideas—vast worldscapes, characters, and plotlines with my friends was my first great love. I lived for it. It was a safe space amid the tension and change of some rough teenage years. The grand refuge of D&D was a glorious meeting of minds and imaginations where I felt I truly belonged. It was a space where friendship and imagination were inextricably linked. The sharing of ideas on the fly, the crazy, unexpected turns other players would take—it stretched our imaginations in ways we’d never have dreamt of on our own. I loved how roleplaying through adventures taught us so much about each other—and, more often than not, ourselves. Imagining together helped us make sense of the crazy world we were growing up in. It made us stronger together. I wouldn’t really understand the depth of it for many years, but I had learned an important truth from my friends back then: Creativity is relational. Looking back at my years at Blizzard, I see now how profoundly this idea has shaped my career. I see how profoundly my friends and coworkers at Blizzard have shaped me as a person. For nearly twenty-three years I’ve had the very distinct privilege of shaping worlds and building games with the brightest creative minds in entertainment. I’ve walked with giants (and stood on some giants’ shoulders, too). In short, I’ve had the time of my life. I pretty much had the coolest job ever—but the truth is, sometimes it was really hard. Building games with dozens of brilliant, passionate alpha-geeks with their own red-hot instincts and perspectives can be pretty tricky. Coming to consensus about certain design decisions, story motifs, or courses of art direction takes a lot of communication, patience, and “give and take.” It stretches you. Sometimes it wasn’t all that pretty. But engaging with your teammates and collaborating through the potential quagmire of all that creative tension is where the real magic happens. It’s not just the decisions you come to—or even the final shape of the product you craft.… It’s bigger than that—and infinitely more important. True collaboration builds trust—and trust is the basis of all lasting relationships. With trust you build more than just a great product. You build a TRIBE…that can build anything. A family of craftsmen.That’s what Blizzard has been for me. My second family, through all of life’s ups and downs, it’s always been there. The great, geeky backdrop of my life. I don’t just mean “the job” or even the creative mission—but the people. The people who over and over lifted me up, believed in me—and pushed me to find my potential as both an artist and as

Let's call him courageous writer Shivam Bhatt stole some time at the 2016 Game Developer's Conference held in San Francisco to chat with Blizzard Co-Founder David Brevik during a Q&A about Diablo. 

Bhatt carpe'd that diem and confessed to Brevik that he pirated the game almost two decades ago, offering up some cash on the spot for his transgression. Not only did Bhatt pretty much get rewarded with the most surreal reaction possible--Brevik taking a pic with him:



He even got a shoutout on Twitter from Brevik about the incident as well.

Twitch streamer thorlar has been working on this single piece of pixel art in Minecraft since January 5 of this year. Hundreds of hours (and one can presume hundreds of cups of coffee) later, we have this glorious mosaic of Sarah Kerrigan from StarCraft flanked by Deathwing from World of Warcraft on the left and Diablo on the right.

Hey! Hey, Blizzard! Over here! You've got a big fan over here!

Here's the video showcasing the final product: