The formal release of Diablo IV is still far away, but progress in development continues to move forwards. Game Director Luis Barriga released a quarterly update on what the team has been doing, and there is quite a bit to disc

Baldur's Gate 3 is one of the best video games ever made. It's a shining example of what good quality RPGs with amazing writing, branching narratives, and a ton of love can achieve over the many soulless AAA offerings that have soured the landscape of gam

This is a tricky topic to navigate because while Diablo 3 has had its fair share of criticisms levied against it, the way the endgame progression is treated being one of them. This is to say that the current endgame of acquiring gear to complete exponentially increasing levels of difficulty through Greater Rifts is alien to a game like Diablo 2 , but it is a core part of the game we have

One way that invasive microtransactions snuck their way into the modern gaming scene was starting with cosmetics. However, as people spent more and more on them, MTX started to become almost essential to some extent to play through the entirety of certain games. Redditor Modal1 expressed their grievances with the practice, saying "The whole idea of loot for me is cosmetics. Grinding and trying to unlock high-end, cool-looking gear is gone if the coolest armor is just going to be bought for $10 in a store. What’s even the point of playing

The desire to have meaningful PVP goes back to the days of Diablo 2 , and its formal inclusion in Diablo 3 during the 2010 BlizzCon was met with much praise. It wasn't a total success, however: over time the feature became problematic for Blizzard, and in 2012 it was cancelled entir

Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader is a huge what-if in the realm of video games, and it's a shame that more people haven't heard of this amazing game. Players were transported to a version of the past with magic steeped in the game world, interacting with real-life personalities like Leonardo da Vinci and William Shakespe

This can even be seen in other games that try to emulate the Diablo 4 Quests formula. Shadows: Awakening mixes things up a little with the ability to shift between characters and realms with a touch of a button, and although this isn't something that Diablo 4 should directly have, it shows that with a little ingenuity the repetitive clicking can have new life breathed into

Given the emphasis on the "shared world" aspect of Diablo IV , it's inevitable that the game will have online multiplayer components designed to keep fans playing as consistently as possible. That's another facet of gaming that saw MTX creep in, and players are worried things will get more aggressive in

Now, Blizzard has promised that there will be PVP included in Diablo 4 , though few details have been released. What has changed between then and now that will allow for an engaging, fleshed-out, and balanced battleground for players? It will be fascinating to see what constitutes PVP in Diablo 4 - though, for now, players are wary of a simple repeat of Diablo 3 with a watered down or cancelled version of the game m

There are plenty of excellent open-world video games , but games shouldn't adopt the format just for the sake of it. Whenever open-world games are scrutinized, it's often due to the world feeling barren or bloated. Likewise, the demand for this approach can detract from a game's more important eleme

At its core, Diablo games are enjoyable because of the never-ending search for upgrades to a character’s gear and weapons. Even the most marginal increase to power level is often well worth the time needed to acquire it. With that said, a major criticism of Diablo 3 lay in how the class sets took up too many gear slots, leaving little for other legendary items to provide diversity in builds and play. Of the twelve gear and weapon slots available to a player, six would often go towards completing a class set, or five if using the Ring of Royal Grandeur. While gear sets are a fundamental aspect of Diablo games, it would be great to see the required numbers reduced to provide greater diversification and personalization of builds with other legendary it

Whether working on the main story or some side content, the incorporation of multiplayer design remains a challenge for the team. Barriga states that, "Fine tuning the right approach to multiplayer in Diablo IV has been challenging…without the game ever feeling like it’s veering into massively multiplayer territory." This means that main story moments and specific dungeons will always remain private affairs, but most of the open world, including established camps, hubs, and along the roads between locations it will be easy to see other players frequen

For the most part, little new information has been made available with regards to gear drops and progression throughout the game. The items featured during the brief demo at BlizzCon in 2019 remain all that we have for information, and that begs the question that most players are still eagerly awaiting for Blizzard to answer: what will the endgame of Diablo IV look l