Tag: Blizzard games

Diablo IV Fans Won’t Stop Trying To Find The Cow Level That Likely Isn’t There

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Image: Blizzard Entertainment / Clara Bastian / Kotaku

One of the recurring gags in the Diablo series is the secret cow level. This refers to a secret area that is filled with weapon-toting cows who attack the player should they be unfortunate enough to stumble upon it. It first debuted in Diablo II, then made an appearance in Diablo III. This gag is such a prominent fixture in the series that there’s even a Wikipedia page for it. However, it doesn’t sound like Diablo IV is keeping up with this long-held tradition, but that hasn’t stopped players from trying to find it.

The Week In Games: What’s Releasing Beyond Diablo IV

In an interview with Kinda Funny Games (thanks, IGN), producer Rod Fergusson said the cow level was omitted from Diablo IV in an effort to keep the world grounded.

“We wanted to make sure it felt authentic to the kind of gothic, dark themes we have. We’ve been really focused on trying to keep it as grounded as possible,” Fergusson said. “And because of that, there’s no secret level in Diablo IV that people might be looking for as per previous games. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be in the future.”

Ladranas

Fergusson says one thing, but parts of the Diablo community don’t believe him. There’s a lengthy thread on the game’s subreddit of fans coordinating searches throughout the game’s world. One user is convinced a “Mysterious Portal” could be opened to a cow level, and has been trying to figure out if an altar near Hell’s entrance might be key finding where the violent cows might be hiding, as well as checking on a fountain surrounded by four oxen pointing north, south, east, and west. Some of the reasons for doubt come from some pretty deep-reaching references to Diablo’s past. There’s a Bloody Wooden Shard item that has the letter “W” carved on the side that fans believe might be a reference to Wirt’s wooden leg, and a Musty Tome that could be a Tome of Town Portal, both of which were required to reach the original hidden level in Diablo II.

Another user has been testing cows throughout Diablo IV’s world to see if they have any connection to the hypothetical secret level, such as killing them or using certain emotes around them. But as of this writing, no one has found the secret cow level in Diablo IV. Perhaps Fergusson is telling the truth, and there is no cow level in the new game. But he could also be lying. And that uncertainty keeps curious players searching.

While we can’t help you find the army of cows intent on claiming your life, check out Kotaku’s extensive tips on being a better player.

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Kenneth Shepard

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June 16, 2023
Incredible Diablo IV Cosplay Photographs Bring Lilith To Life

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Cinderys is a professional cosplayer from France who has been active in the scene for almost a decade now. Over the years she’s cosplayed as a bunch of Blizzard characters, from World of Warcraft to Hearthstone, but her latest Diablo work is terrifyingly good.

The Week In Games: What’s Releasing Beyond Diablo IV

Before we go any further: yes, I said professional cosplayer. As I’ve written about previously, there’s a certain level of cosplay where artists can engage in paid, sponsored work, and Cinderys has been doing this for a while. The Diablo cosplay here, for example, is the result of a collaboration between her, Blizzard France and peripheral company Steel Series, which technically makes this advertising, but also gives Cinderys the time and resources to make something that looks this incredible.

As you can see in this quick making-of video, putting a costume like this together wasn’t easy. There was sewing, of course, but also loads of 3D model work (being sponsored can help with access to that stuff), 3D printing, prosthetics and make-up. Somehow—with a little help at the end from fellow French cosplayer Xia—Cinderys not only got it all together, but built the whole thing from scratch in just a month:

Finally, here’s some footage from Diablo IV’s launch party in France, which shows that the costume not only looks incredible in photos, but was entirely (RELATIVE FOR COSPLAY) practical to walk around in for the night.

If you want to see more cosplay work like this that’s just as good, Cinderys has a portfolio section on her personal website that has some absolute show-stealers, not just from Blizzard games but stuff like Monster Hunter as well. Her Savathûn from Destiny 2 is a particularly “holy shit” kind of photo gallery.

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Luke Plunkett

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June 14, 2023
Diablo IV Druids, Do This ASAP To Unlock Some Powerful New Abilities

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Eric Schulkin

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June 9, 2023
How To Get Your First Horse In Diablo IV

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Image: Blizzard

The world of Sanctuary is huge and fast-travel alone won’t get you everywhere you need to go. Fortunately, Diablo IV gives players mounts to help them travel between dungeons and side-quests more quickly. Here’s how to get your first one.

The Week In Games: What’s Releasing Beyond Diablo IV

It’s actually really straightforward: Get to Act IV. When you arrive at the capital of the Fractured Peaks, Kyovashad, you’ll automatically get the quest “Mount: Doran’s Favor.” Simply head to the stables, talk to the stablemaster, then find Doran at the Cathedral. Boom, you’ve got a horse now! Sounds easy enough.

Unfortunately, you can’t do any of this until Acts I through III are completed. They can be done in any order, but III in particular can be a slog. If you mainline Diablo IV’s story, you can hit the beginning of Act IV in about 8-10 hours. From there you can indulge in Diablo IV’s horse armor microtransaction economy at length, or wait for sets to randomly drop from world events. What fun.

Read More: Here’s The Fix For How To Get Your First Horse In Diablo IV

Still, it’s kind of a bummer that it takes so long to unlock mounts. The only real advantage is cutting down on backtracking—precious minutes that could be spent bashing skulls and finding more epic drops instead of running to the next quest marker. The good news is that unlocking mounts on one character will unlock them on all future characters, so when restarting with a new class you’ll have access to improved travel from the start, assuming you don’t opt to bypass the main campaign altogether on your alts.

Mounts are a first for Blizzard’s action-RPG series, as it trends toward becoming a live-service MMO. They help players quickly navigate the space in-between fast travel points. They’re finicky creatures though, and one important thing to note on PC is that your horse’s speed is directly proportional to how far away your cursor is from your character on the screen. Of course, if you’re playing as a Rogue like I am, you can effectively become your own mount. Neat!

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Ethan Gach

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June 5, 2023
Wild Diablo IV Bug Spawns Unholy Amount Of Boss Enemies

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Beware, Diablo IV adventurers, for dark whispers speak of a horrific beast of great power that can spawn ungodly numbers of clones and totally fuck you up. It’s not a lie! I’ve seen it happen to many folks, and not all have returned to tell the tale.

A Foe From The Next Team Ninja Game Is Giving Me Sekiro PTSD

Diablo IV’s launch has been pretty damn uneventful and smooth, which in 2023 is actually impressive and newsworthy. But no game, especially not a game as fresh out of the oven and massive as Diablo IV, can launch in a perfect state. So of course there are some bugs and other issues in Blizzard’s latest action-RPG. And perhaps the funniest involves an enemy named Darcel who can—and seems to often—spawn dozens and dozens of himself.

In Diablo IV there’s a fairly simple, not-too-exciting side-quest called “Stolen Artifice” in the region of Scosglen. The short side-quest asks you to hunt down a big baddie, kill him, take his runic charm, and bring it back to someone. This is your bog-standard video game fetch quest, of the sort you’ve likely done variations of more times than you can remember at this point. However, there’s currently a bug with “Stolen Artifice” that leads to clones of the quest’s boss—Darcel—spawning almost endlessly, causing problems.

Schiza / Blizzard

On Reddit and YouTube, players are sharing clips of Darcel spawning 20 or more versions of himself in seconds. These clones are all as powerful and deadly as the original, and can quickly—like a demonic swarm of locusts—overwhelm even the most powerful players.

“I went to kill Darcel and there was like 200 of him standing there, fix?” posted one user on Blizzard’s official Diablo forums. Another player jokingly posted a clip of the glitch on the Diablo subreddit, adding that they “did not expect Diablo IV [to be] this hard” and that it was “one too many Darcels for me.”

Kotaku has contacted Blizzard about the bug.

Some players are reporting that Darcel will just spawn forever, causing crashes or making it impossible to finish the quest. Some have had luck defeating Darcel, the neverending monster, by killing the original Darcel before he can spawn far too many copies of himself.

While this bug is pretty damn funny to watch, I can imagine someone playing a hardcore-mode character (which has only one chance at life, and is gone forever upon death) finding this bugged quest and screaming in terror as they realize, far too late, that they are about to get wrecked by a clone army of Darcels. RIP to those poor souls.

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Zack Zwiezen

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June 2, 2023
Blizzard’s AI Tools Sound Incredibly Depressing

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Image: Blizzard

It hasn’t been the best week at Blizzard, so let’s check in and see how things are going with something other than Overwatch 2 like…ah, the company’s management sending out emails about how AI tools are going to be help design character outfits and “generate concept art”. Lovely.

The Week In Games: Protecting The Precious And Time-Twisting Platformers

Shannon Liao, writing for The New York Times, has published excerpts of an email sent to Blizzard employees last month by the company’s chief design officer Allen Adham. “Prepare to be amazed,” he writes, “We are on the brink of a major evolution in how we build and manage our games.”

He’s talking about ‘Blizzard Diffusion’—a play on Stable Diffusion, one of the more popular AI image generation platforms—and says that presently “it was being used to help generate concept art for game environments as well as characters and their outfits”, though he also adds Blizzard is looking at further AI implementations for everything from “autonomous, intelligent, in-game NPCs” to “procedurally assisted level design” to “voice cloning,” “game coding” and “anti-toxicity.”

Blizzard is one of the most famous and, until very recently, most dependable video game studios in the world. It has survived for decades not just because it creates great games, but because it has filled those games with memorable characters. To hear people at the company enthused about letting robots, trained to serve an algorithmic gruel, take over even some of that work bums me out more than I can put into words.

About the only good news to be found in the whole story—which also includes mentions of similar efforts everywhere from Halo studio 343 to Ubisoft—is the fact that a different AI approach Blizzard had been trying (and had even patented) has already been canned because “the tool was taking up too much artist time to be effective”.

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Luke Plunkett

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May 22, 2023
Sorry Necromancers, Diablo IV Is Nerfing One Of Its Most Popular Classes
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Diablo IV is still a couple of months away, but Blizzard is already stomping down some of the game’s most popular classes ahead of its June 6 release date. The studio posted a new blog on its website reflecting on the game’s recent beta, and shared what’s basically a full set of patch notes it will implement ahead of Diablo IV’s launch. While there aren’t a lot of hard numbers to go off of, you can at least get a sense of where some of the game’s character classes will be by the time fans get to play them again.

8 Minutes Of Diablo IV’s Character Creator

What is Blizzard doing to my precious baby angel Necromancer?

At the end of March, Blizzard said Necromancers and Sorcerers were the most popular classes among beta players. This was especially significant for Necromancer, as the class was only available during one of the game’s two test periods, while the Sorcerer was available for both. Kotaku’s own Levi Winslow used Necromancer most, and said the class was “truly busted” thanks to its ability to revive dead skeletons to fight alongside them. While Blizzard’s new blog says these dead minions will die more often, there are no specific numbers or any mention of a smaller skeletal headcount being forced upon players. The developer notes the dead’s increased vulnerability will make raising them “a more active component” in playing the Necromancer, rather than something you can just set and forget.

The Sorcerer’s debuffs seem less all-encompassing, with Chain Lightning dealing less damage and specifically reduced effectiveness against boss characters. But beyond that, the class is getting some buffs with abilities like Charged Bolt and an increased Lucky Hit chance for Meteor Skill’s Enchantment bonus.

While players will be getting some changes in the final game, some enemies will, as well. The Butcher, an enemy who gave some players a tough time during the beta, may be getting some kind of rework before the game launches. The blog states that the team has “re-evaluated” the enemy for difficulty, and it will “present a greater challenge in World Tiers III and IV.” So it sounds like it might become easier on lower difficulties, but even harder on higher ones.

What’s happening in the Diablo IV pre-release patch notes?

Beyond balance changes, Blizzard is also tweaking Diablo IV’s dungeon layouts to avoid backtracking, which it says was a common complaint during the betas. Here is the full list of patch notes for those curious:

Dungeon Layouts
- One of the most common pieces of feedback Blizzard received is that players felt they were doing a lot of backtracking within certain dungeons. The team has optimized multiple dungeons across all zones to minimize the need for backtracking. Here is a list of dungeons specifically in the Fractured Peaks zone which received layout updates:
- Caldera Gate
- Defiled Catacombs
- Derelict Lodge
- Forbidden City
- Hoarfrost Demise
- Immortal Emanation
- Kor Dragan Barracks
- Maulwood
- Rimescar Caverns
Developer’s Note: Our primary goal with the Layout changes was to reduce certain kinds of backtracking which detract from a player’s experience. An example of this change is that players previously needed to enter side rooms to interact with Structure Objectives, causing them to retread the same path. Now, many of our Structure Objectives have been repositioned along main dungeon pathways, making them easier for players to reach and allowing them to readily explore the dungeon after defeating the Structure.

Dungeon Events
- The chance for an Event to spawn inside of a dungeon has increased from 10% to 60%.
Dungeon Gameplay
- To reduce the need to backtrack, small numbers of straggling monsters will seek out the player to help complete the Kill All Monsters objective.
When Animus is gathered, the player and nearby allies will:
- Gain 10 Resource.
- Reduce all active Cooldowns by 1 second.
- Depositing Animus channel time was reduced from 3 to 0 seconds.
- The time to Rescue was reduced from 3 to 1.5 seconds.
- All Rescue objectives now drop a Health Potion upon completion.
- While carrying the Ancient’s Statue, Bloodstone, Mechanical Box, or Stone Carving, you will receive a Momentum bonus granting a 25% move speed increase to you and nearby allies.
- Pedestals have had their channel time reduced from 2 to 0 seconds.
- Returning a Portable Object to its Pedestal now fully restores Health, Resource, Potions, and resets cooldowns for all nearby players.
- All doors will now generate a minimap ping when they are opened.
- All Structure Objectives in dungeons now have additional combat mechanics players must overcome.
Developer’s Note: While our dungeons offer a variety of Objectives to complete, player feedback stated that the action of completing each Objective felt tedious. We hope that providing bonuses, such as the increase to mobility while carrying certain Objective items, will streamline and vary the experience of completing Objectives. This adjustment is merely a starting point, and we intend to extend this philosophy to keys in a future update.

General
- Effects like Stun and Freeze can be applied to Elite Monsters twice as long before they become Unstoppable.
- Reviewed class skills to confirm that all classes have access to sufficient skills that remove control impairing effects.
- Many Legendary Powers have had updates to their effectiveness.
Barbarian
- A flat 10% passive damage reduction has been added for the Barbarian Class. Some Skill Tree passives had their damage reduction effects reduced to compensate.
- The Whirlwind Skill now deals more damage and consumes more Fury.
- The Double Swing Skill Enhancement refunds its full Fury cost when used on Stunned or Knocked Down enemies.
Druid
- Companion Skills will now deal heavily increased damage.
- All Ultimate Skills have had their cooldowns reduced.
- Usability improvements have been made to Maul and Pulverize.
- Using a non-Shapeshifting Skill will transform a Druid back into their human form.
Necromancer
- Summoned Minions will die more often, requiring players to utilize Corpses more often.
- Many bonuses in the Book of the Dead have had their stats increased.
- The damage dealt by the Corpse Explosion skill has been reduced.
- The brightness of the Skeletal Warriors and Mages has been reduced.
Rogue
- Upgrades for Subterfuge Skills have had their bonuses increased.
- Multiple passive Skills have had their bonuses increased.
- All Imbuement Skills have had their cooldowns increased.
Sorcerer
- Charged Bolt’s damage was increased and the Mana cost to cast has decreased.
- Decreased the damage of Chain Lightning and reduced its effectiveness against Bosses.
- Decreased the cooldown for the Incinerate Skill’s Enchantment bonus.
- Firewalls will now spawn underneath enemies more frequently when using its Enchantment bonus.
- Increased the Lucky Hit chance for the Meteor Skill’s Enchantment bonus.
Developer’s Note: Whenever we introduce changes to our Classes, it is with the goal of making both them and their Skills feel impactful and powerful—your feedback has helped us uphold this ideal. Some players have adeptly noticed that certain Skills were too powerful. One of our goals for Skills is to have them be interesting to wield and interactive in terms of itemization and combat feel. We’ve made some changes to help in this regard, with one example being the Necromancer’s Minions. We’ve made a change that makes them more vulnerable in combat, which will make raising the dead a more active component of the Necromancer’s gameplay. Launch is just the first step of our Class balance journey, and you can expect further updates that iterate on this pillar of Diablo IV.

UI
- Fixed an issue where the built-in Screen Reader was not reading key prompts, game options details, and other UI text.
- Fixed an issue where actions could not be bound to the mouse wheel.
- Fixed an issue where Evade couldn’t be bound to the right Analog Stick on controller.
- Chat will now display on the left side of the screen when using the centered action bar configuration.
- A character’s stats will be displayed by default when players click the Materials & Stats button within their Inventory.
- The Move and Interact inputs can now be mapped to one button while the Primary Attack input is mapped to a secondary button.
- The sans serif font used in-game has been replaced with a new serif font.
Encounters
- Fixed multiple issues that allowed bosses, like the Butcher, to become unresponsive.
- The Butcher has been re-evaluated for difficulty and will present a greater challenge in World Tiers III and IV.
- Bosses such as T’chort, Malnok, Vhenard, and others were reevaluated for melee character difficulty, resulting in changes to attacks and fight mechanics.
- Fixed an issue where Vampire Brutes using the Shadow Enchant affix would chain-cast Impale.
Cellars
- Increased the chance for a dungeon Event to occur in Cellars.
- Cellars will now consistently reward a chest upon completion.
- Fixed an issue where Cellars would prematurely be marked as complete.
- Fixed an issue where the guaranteed elite monster would be absent from a Cellar.
General quality of life
- Fixed an issue where players could increase attack speed by move-cancelling attacks early.
- Fixed an issue where characters weren’t immune and untargetable after loading into an area.
- The Reset Dungeon button has been disabled.
- Fixed an issue that caused Gale Valley and Serac Rapture to have less monsters than intended until the campaign quests in those territories were completed.
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Kenneth Shepard

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April 14, 2023
Diablo Was On The Catwalk At Milan Fashion Week

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Photo: Activision Blizzard

Milan Fashion Week has just wrapped up, and while this is not normally the kind of thing we would be covering on this, a website about anime, reality television and comic books, 2023’s show featured a surprise inclusion: Blizzard’s Diablo series.

(I say normally because I have written about Milan Fashion Week before, back in 2018 when GCDS had some incredible Pokémon sweaters).

Danish label Han Kjøbenhavn had a whole damn line inspired by (and officially licensed by) Diablo, with founder Jannik Wikkelsø Davidsen—who tells NME he played the game “back in the day”—showing off three separate outfits, two of which you can see in this post.

For those about to say in a comic-book-guy voice “nyyahhhh these don’t look like Diablo characters”, or “I will not be wearing these to my local GameStop, thank you”, please know that this is Milan Fashion Week. This is runway shit. This is designers going wild, art in motion, stuff designed for you to look at and feel something, not wonder when you’ll be able to order it on Amazon or get it with the collector’s edition of a game.

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Watch the show, play the game
If you’re intrigued by the new show starring Pedro Pascal as Joel and Bella Ramsey as Ellie, consider picking up the source. The 2013 survival horror game recently got a full-on remake for the PS5 with The Last of Us Part 1 and now it’s coming to PC as well. You can pre-order the Steam version of the game for 10% off from most Green Man Gaming which is set to release on March 28.

“For me, darkness is beauty. How do you balance those two things? That generates an [entirely] new feeling”, Davidsen told NME. “What we’re creating has a lot of volume and language in the garments we’re working with, so in that sense I’m trying to mirror the journey within Diablo as well as my own journey.”

In terms of things you can wear, Davidsen says Han Kjøbenhavn—who sell a ton of everyday gear like sweaters and tshirts, albeit at premium fashion label prices—will be releasing “something which is more everyday wearable” in the near future.

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Luke Plunkett

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February 27, 2023
We Did It, Joe: Overwatch 2 Will Make Ranked Suck Less

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Roadhog approves this message.
Image: Blizzard

Overwatch 2 will make adjustments to both its matchmaking process and its ranked system in the coming weeks, according to the latest developer blog posted today. This is good news for anyone who has spent the months since launch confused or frustrated by the sequel’s ranking system, or those who feel like their matches are almost always lopsided (myself included, as evidenced by my most recent take on Overwatch 2‘s competitive mode).

The lengthy blog post ensures us that Blizzard “has seen [our] feedback on matches with wide skill variation,” and has plans to address our concerns. After explaining away a few of the reasons why I either roll an enemy squad or am rolled by them, the post details what steps Overwatch 2 will take to fix its matchmaking and ranked problems.

Season 3, which will start sometime next month (there’s no set date yet) will “try to place pairs of players with similar MMR [matchmaking ranking] on each role on either team,” which means you’re less likely to get tanks with a wide gap in skill between them on opposing squads. With only one tank in traditional matches, that gap can feel like a chasm, so the goal of the update is to “make the average MMR between each role more evenly matched to each other instead of looking more broadly across the entire team to balance things out.” Yes, Overwatch 2‘s current matchmaking system does not ensure that each role is matched with an evenly ranked opponent.

The next season will also change how often your rank is adjusted in Competitive mode, as the team has heard us loud and clear that playing up to 26 matches just for your role to stay the same is infuriating. “Starting with Season 3, you’ll now get a competitive update with every 5 wins and 15 losses. In the mid-season patch for Season 3, we’re also updating the UI, so information about your progress toward a competitive update will always be viewable.” Praise be.

Oh, and seasonal rank decay and rank resets are getting thrown out the window starting with Season 4—but don’t expect a full rank reset ever, you absolute animal. “A full rating reset wouldn’t create a great experience since it would mean throwing out all the knowledge we have about players. This would cause new players to be matched against OWL pros, which is fun for about 30 seconds (we’ve experienced this ourselves in internal playtests).”

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While I can understand why players may want a full rank reset to get the nasty taste of this current ranking system out of our mouths, it’s clear that it would cause even more chaos. Let’s just be happy that we’ll get more frequent rank adjustments, a clearer picture of where the fuck our rank is going, and better matches going forward. Maybe I’ll enjoy playing again.

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Alyssa Mercante

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January 30, 2023
New $100 Diablo IV ‘Collector’s Box’ Doesn’t Include Game
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Image: Blizzard / Kotaku

Blizzard is now taking pre-orders on a large, nearly $100 special Diablo IV collector’s box which includes many things. But it doesn’t include the game. And while Blizzard isn’t trying to trick people into accidentally buying this game-free box, it still seems very odd that there’s not even an option to get the game with this pricey package of demonic goodies.

Expensive collector’s editions of video games and movies have become more and more popular over the last decade. Personally, I never felt the need for all the random gubbins and statues usually included in these pricey bundles, but I get it. Some folks just really love to collect everything involving their favorite franchise or series. Whatever floats your boat! Just don’t get confused and think this $100 Diablo IV Collector’s Box actually includes the game it’s named after!

This week, Blizzard started taking pre-orders on something it’s calling the Diablo IV Limited Collector’s Box over on its merch store. This large, spiffy-looking box will cost you a cool $96.66 (I see what you did there…) and includes all of these items:
- Occult Mousepad
- Cloth Map of Sanctuary
- Pin of the Horadrim
- Diablo IV Collector’s Edition Art Book
- Matted Fine Art Prints (x2) – 18.54″ x 10.79″
That’s very nice and all, but you’ll notice that the game isn’t part of this pricey bundle. Now, Blizzard isn’t trying to deceive anyone. It’s clear in the store description that this box doesn’t contain the game. It also isn’t selling the box on Battle.net but instead on its merch site, further separating it from its video game store. So I’m not trying to imply that Blizzard is trying to pull a fast one and trick diehard Diablo players into forking over $100 for something that doesn’t include the upcoming ARPG. I’m just saying it’s a bit odd, is all!

I guess for folks who prefer buying a digital copy of the game via a third-party site or who might want to provide a physical gift to someone who might already have the game pre-ordered, this is a nice idea. But why not have a different version that is $60-70 more and includes a code for the game? Or even a discount on it! Though that kind of stuff might make things more confusing.

Anyway, Diabo IV comes out June 6, 2023 on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, and PC. If you want it, don’t buy this box. Or do, but then also buy the game separately.
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Zack Zwiezen

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December 16, 2022
Overwatch 2’s New Support Hero Can Block Headshots By…Looking Up

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This left arm of mine? Yeah, it’s indestructible.
Screenshot: Blizzard

Overwatch 2 continues to incur issue after issue, with the latest problem leaving the icy damage dealer Mei totally unplayable due to a “critical issue” with her Ice Wall ability. Well, Blizzard may also want to investigate the hero shooter’s newest support character, Kiriko, as it appears she can block headshot damage by simply [checks notes] staring up at the sky.

Kiriko is a kunai-wielding ninja healer who leaked at the beginning of September. Previously locked behind Overwatch 2‘s battle pass, Blizzard has since opted to give the kunoichi away for free following some rather uproarious criticism of the developer’s initial decision. Though she’s a pretty squishy hero, with only 200 health points, she can deal some solid damage and has a kit perfectly suited to buffing her teammates. In other words, she isn’t as passive a healer as, say, Baptiste or Mercy, but you probably don’t want her charging the enemy frontline like Brigitte or Zenyatta either. However, that might change considering an exploit discovered by Twitch streamer Flats.

A partner of the Overwatch League’s Florida Mayhem, Flats tweeted a video on November 15 of Kiriko blocking headshot damage with her arm by looking up at the sun. Flats shot at an opposing Kiriko a few times with Widowmaker, only for the bullets to merely graze the ninja’s seemingly indestructible arm, allowing her to immediately heal back up. Flats eventually murked Kiriko with a single headshot, but only after positioning himself at just the right angle, saying you “have to get behind” Kiriko to “shoot the back of her head.” Who knew that staring up at the sky could save you from death?

What’s appears to be happening here is that, when she looks up, Kiriko’s arm gets in the way of her dome’s hitbox, impacting the damage she takes from headshots. In response to Flat’s tweet, one Twitter user noted that Mercy was able to do the same thing, but only when casting her Resurrect ultimate ability, which sees her raise her arm in the air to revive a dead teammate.

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Kotaku has reached out to Blizzard and Flats for comment.

Blizzard, which has a storied history of abuse and harassment, has been working to get Overwatch 2 into a more stable and balanced state since the game launched on October 4. This includes patches to nerf heroes such as Genji and benching characters to remove exploits and fix other issues (as we’ve seen with Mei, who should return to the hero shooter on November 17). During the Overwatch League grand finals, which were held earlier this month, the studio revealed the new tank hero Ramattra, who will be locked behind the game’s battle pass. It sucks, but I guess we’d better get used to it.

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Levi Winslow

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November 16, 2022
Overwatch 2 Players Are Getting Hit With Server Errors Following Latest Update

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I’m sorry, player, I’m afraid I can’t let you play this game.
Image: Blizzard / Kotaku

Right now there’s a Halloween event running for Overwatch 2, but a fair amount of players are facing a different kind of terror: A previously known server error with the code “LC-208” appears to be disproportiantely hitting players after the most recent update.

While server and connection errors often happen for online games, “Overwatch 2 Console Error LC-208” is currently plaguing a large number of players on console, preventing them from connecting to servers and playing the game. Blizzard has its own steps for working around this issue, as it’s been around since the launch of the game, though not in such numbers. Until Blizzard issues a broader statement or additional fix, players have been discovering quirky, unexplainable ways to fix it, involving signing in on PC first or loading into the game’s firing range and quitting before hitting matchmaking, though these aren’t necessarily bullet-proof prescriptions.

Kotaku has reached out to Blizzard for comment but didn’t hear back prior to publication.

Since yesterday’s Halloween update, search results on Twitter, Reddit, and even Overwatch 2’s own forums have started turning up countless reports of players not being able to enter the game. The problem, given the error code’s info, seems to hit console players only. Anecdotally it seems to be hitting PS4 and PS5 players the most, though many Xbox players are reportedly facing the error as well.

A main thread for the LC-208 issue in Blizzard’s official forums, with nearly 300 replies and over 2,500 views, starts with “LC-208’d after the Halloween event update. Never had an issue with this before. Can’t get into the game.” “I tried everything to fix the Login Error LC-208” Twitter user Phish (no, not the band) says. “I have signed out of my battle net account, restarted my [router], restarted my game, used a different wireless connection, tried using ethernet, and redownloaded the game and I am still getting LC-208.”

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They’re not alone, as countless tweets and Reddit threads read similarly. Some have found non-optimal workarounds. Twitter user hatsune niiku reports bypassing the LC-208 error on console by entering the game’s firing range on PC, closing the game, and then logging in on console. “Worked for me just now,” they say.

Sadly, not everyone has a gaming PC at the ready to try this out, nor is it an actual fix for the problem. Blizzard recommends the following steps for solving LC-208 error. Hopefully it will work out for you:

If your console account is linked with your Battle.net account, you need to have a BattleTag. If you have a BattleTag but your accounts are not linked, follow the connection steps linked below to resolve the error.

Note: If your Battle.net account is connected to your console account, disconnecting it and reconnecting can resolve the error.

1. Check your network configuration to find any issues with your firewall, router, or port settings.

2. Reset your network devices to make sure your router hasn’t become flooded with data.

3. If you’re using a wireless connection, optimize your internet connection to rule out a connection issue.

4. Run your console’s built-in connection test (Playstation 4) (Xbox One) (Nintendo Switch).

5. Use your console’s internet browser to run a Looking Glass test. This will help determine if the problem is between your console and our servers.

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Claire Jackson

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October 26, 2022
Overwatch 2 Halloween Twitch Drops: How To Grab A Winston Werewolf Skin (And More)

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Image: Blizzard / Kotaku

It’s time for more Overwatch 2 Twitch drops! This time it’s in celebration of the spooky season. Twitch viewers will have a chance at earning two cosmetics starting October 25, plus a couple others later in November. As with all Twitch drops, you’ll need to link your Battle.net account to your Twitch account, plus a few other important details. So let’s go over it.

When are the Overwatch 2 Halloween Twitch Drops?

According to Blizzard’s blog covering the details, the Halloween-themed Overwatch 2 Twitch drops start on October 25 at 2 p.m. ET through to November 6 at 2 p.m.

After the candy corn season is behind us, another Twitch drop with cosmetics for Reinhardt and Brigitte will start on November 15 at 2 p.m. ET through to November 30 at 2 p.m.

How to get Werewolf Winston Legendary Skin

As is customary with Twitch drops, you’ll need to log some hours watching Overwatch 2. But it doesn’t need to be all at once or the same channel. You’re free to check out different channels at different times to earn progress toward your drops.

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To start, you’ll need to watch two hours of Overwatch 2 on Twitch for the Werewolf spray. Then, watch an additional four hours (six total) for the Werewolf Winston Legendary skin. You can watch any channel in the Overwatch 2 category on Twitch.

Past experience has told us it pays to be sure a streamer is offering drops. Any channel in the game’s category should qualify, but double-check the title of the stream as many streamers include “Twitch drops” or “drops enabled” (or similar language) to indicate their channel is participating. There may also be a bot in the streamer’s chat indicating that drops are enabled. Or, you could always ask in the chat.

You must link your Battle.net and Twitch accounts. Even if you’ve done it before and have participated in previous Twitch drops, you don’t want to log half-a-dozen hours of Overwatch viewing for nothing. Visit the connections page on your Battle.net account and follow the link to connect your Twitch account. Follow all the instructions on Twitch’s side and you’ll be set.

If you’ve done it right, it should look something like this (with your Twitch avatar and username):

Screenshot: Blizzard / Kotaku

Watching Twitch on game consoles and smart TV apps DO NOT count. You must watch Twitch on a computer’s web browser or the Android/iOS Twitch app to get your drops!

I watched everything. Where’s my stuff?

In-game rewards from Twitch drops don’t appear in your game automatically. Once you’ve cleared the necessary watch-time, head on over to the Drops Inventory menu on Twitch to claim your reward(s). Claimed drops will expire after 14 days if your Battle.net account isn’t linked. Claimed items can also take up to 24 hours to appear in your game, so practice a little bit of patience.

How do I enable drops on my stream?

If you stream and want to make sure viewers can participate, a couple of clicks will enable drops on your channel. To make sure your stream will deal out Overwatch 2 Twitch drops, head on over to your “Creator Dashboard.” Under “Viewer Rewards” you’ll see “Drops.” On that page, you’ll click the slider next to “Enable Drops” so it has a purple check mark and you’re good to go!

Screenshot: Twitch / Kotaku

How to claim Reinhardt and Brigitte Twitch Drops

After November 6, you’ll have another opportunity to earn some Twitch Drop-exclusive cosmetics. This time, you can grab the Reinhardt Mug Souvenir after watching two-hours worth of Overwatch 2 on Twitch. Following that, you can earn the Brigitte Kitten Weapon Charm after three additional (five total) hours.

Image: Blizzard

As mentioned above, these drops will be available from November 15 at 12 p.m. ET through to November 30 at 2 p.m.

How do I get my teammates to play support?

I hear you loud and clear. Sadly, I’ve no screenshots or time slots to share for that problem. But if you’re new to Overwatch 2 and are looking for some basic tips to get started, check out our beginner’s guide. And if you’re looking to knock out your timed season challenges, we’ve broken those down so you can get to grinding.

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Claire Jackson

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October 25, 2022