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Tag: Diablo II

  • You Can Play The OG Diablo In Your Browser For Free Right Now

    You Can Play The OG Diablo In Your Browser For Free Right Now

    Image: Blizzard / Kotaku

    It’s now possible to quickly and easily play the original 1997 Diablo on your PC or phone via a simple website. Just load it up on your browser and you can start killing demons and skeletons like it’s the ‘90s all over again.

    Diablo IV – Bear Bender Build

    The original Diablo was developed by Blizzard North and released in January 1997 for PC. Its single dungeon, evil monsters, creepy town, and loot-filled catacombs forever changed the action RPG genre. Today, the OG Diablo might seem a bit small and simple compared to the wild open-world adventure we find in 2023’s Diablo 4. But Diablo’s vibes are still unmatched by any of its sequels, and now you can experience the classic ARPG for free on your phone or PC browser.

    As spotted by PC Gamer, a new website has popped up that lets you play the shareware version of the original Diablo in your browser. This new web-based port of the game was built using Diablo’s original source code, which was previously reconstructed by GalaXyHaXz and the Devilution team and can be found on GitHub.

    Blizzard / Izie

    Now, keep in mind that unless you own Diablo and upload the “DIABDAT.MPQ” file, you won’t have access to everything found in the retail release. Still, the shareware version of Diablo lets you play as a warrior who can’t talk to NPCs, but can kill demons and loot weapons in the dungeon under the church in Tristram.

    In my testing, this browser-based port of Diablo plays really well. I had no issues exploring the dark corridors and killing zombies and skeletons. Just toss your old Diablo save and DIABDAT.MPQ file onto a service like Google Drive or a USB stick and you can play Blizzard’s seminal ARPG anywhere with an internet connection.

    In fact, you could be playing Diablo right now on the device you are currently using instead of working or reading the last sentence of this blog.

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    Zack Zwiezen

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  • You Can Play Diablo IV For Free All This Week

    You Can Play Diablo IV For Free All This Week

    Image: Blizzard

    Just in time for the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend, Blizzard is letting you play Diablo IV for free for one full week on Steam right now. That’s a pretty sweet deal among a crop of other pretty sweet deals that Valve is offering as part of the PC gaming store’s massive annual Autumn Sale.

    Diablo IV – Bear Bender Build

    Read More: Diablo IV Will Take Over Your Thanksgiving With Some Nice Bonuses

    Blizzard tweeted on November 21 that the action-RPG has a free trial going on until November 28. If you head to Diablo IV’s Steam page right now, you can get the demon-slaying, loot-hunting game for the low until the end of the week.

    “Give thanks and drag your friends to Hell,” Blizzard said. “Play Diablo IV for free on Steam, from now until November 28th at [10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET].”

    This free Steam trial coincides nicely with a gold and XP bonus Blizzard is also running in Diablo IV. Dubbed Mother’s Blessing Week, folks playing the game will earn 35 percent more gold and experience points until November 27. This bonus applies to everyone, including people running amok in the Eternal and Seasonal realms, as well as players across all four World Tiers (Diablo IV’s interpretation of difficulty setting). Blizzard really wants this game to take over your Thanksgiving holiday, it seems.

    Read More: Diablo IV: How To Pick Your New Character

    Diablo IV—out now on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox—is running its second season of content, the Season of Blood. The new update, which brought the game to Steam on October 17, adds gameplay changes (like revamping inventory management) and story content while promising an easier grind so folks can level up faster. It’s the first of many seasonal drops, which will be interspersed between yearly paid expansions. The first DLC, Vessel of Hatred, arrives next year, bringing with it a new class to play and a new region to explore.

     

    Levi Winslow

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  • Diablo IV Suffers Extended DDOS Attack

    Diablo IV Suffers Extended DDOS Attack

    Diablo IV was dealing with a DDoS attack, a message on the game’s main menu screen confirms. As a result, players kept getting disconnected from the alway-online action-RPG during one of the highest traffic periods of the week.

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

    “We are investigating the login issues affecting Diablo IV and working to resolve these as soon as possible,” read a message from the Battle.net customer service account tweeted early on June 25. “Players may experience queues while we work on the issue.” Later in the day, however, the company confirmed it was still investigating the issues, and that the game was in fact dealing with a DDoS attack. DDoS refers to distributed denial of service, meaning it’s a type of cyber attack, and refers to when a system is flooded with interactions so that actual users can’t user the intended service.

    “We are currently experiencing a DDoS attack, which may result in high latency and disconnections for some players,” read an in-game announcement greeting confused players. “We are actively working to mitigate this issue.” Blizzard didn’t immediately provide any additional information or timeline for when the DDoS attack might stop or online play might resume as normal. Some players have reported being unable to play for nearly 12 hours.

    Social media, including the game’s popular subreddit, were predictably filled with players who would normally be logging on to play on a weekend morning posting about how they’re just continually refreshing the game’s main menu and customer service help accounts instead. Of course, depending on how you play Diablo IV, continually clicking the same button over and over might not be that different.

    Forunately, if you’re reading this now, chances are very good that you can actually log into the game. According to Blizzard, after hours of downtime, the DDOS attacks it was monitoring have “ended.” However, in case some people are still having login issues, Blizzard recommends checking this out.

    While that’s good news, the situation overall is an unfortunate but familiar risk for any always-online game, and underlines what a bummer it is that there’s no offline way to play Diablo IV as a completely single-player experience. Diablo III was always-online as well, and in the years between the two games it’s become a much more commonplace requirement as more games pivot to being live services. Diablo IV has really leaned into that shift, including a controversial decision to force players to start a new character from scratch each season if they want to progress their corresponding battle pass.

    Then again, it wouldn’t be a Diablo launch without something for players to argue about.

    Ethan Gach

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

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

    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.

    Kenneth Shepard

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