Slashdot Mirror
Diablo II 1.10 Patch Finally Released
DudemanX writes "Blizzard have announced: 'Yes, you're reading correctly, the day has finally come for the Diablo II 1.10 patch! This patch is the largest to date in terms of game changes and offers many new things for Diablo II players, including seasonal ladder characters, more-challenging gameplay, enhanced skills, new items, new anti-cheat measures, a new game-world event, and much much more! Simply connect to Battle.net [while playing Diablo II] to download the patch.' The stand-alone patch is also now available on Blizzard's FTP site." This follows Blizzard's 1.10 Beta release all the way back in July.
I heard some speculation about that, but never found out for sure what it was. Does anyone know 100% what it is?
i'm amazed that i survived - an airbag saved my life.
Does it have the most requested feature of adjustable cod pieces?
Will I even download the new patch? No. I've long since removed that 2GB piece of garbage from my machine and refuse to go throught the CD shuffle of re-installing it, only to bore myself with it again. Diablo and Diablo II are great games that broke a lot of new ground, but Blizzard's support and lack of modding have ruined them for me at least.
Not trying to troll, just being honest.
US Democracy:The best person for the job (among These pre-selected choices...)
Blizzard's homepage advertises the patch by saying "HELL HAS FINALLY FROZEN OVER..." Christ, didn't they notice that Apple used the same slogan not two weeks ago? I hope it's a joke/reference to Apple's ad.
Previous versions were very playable...comments?
A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
It's pretty cool that Blizzard is still supporting Diablo II so far after release. "This game is old" jokes aside, this is pretty cool and I'm glad Blizzard is throwing the Diablo II people a bone.
It reads like a press release because I'm too retarded to make up anything original. Sure there are tons of newer and "better" games out there. This patch is special not just because it's a Blizzard game, but because it's a free patch that adds NEW features to a game that is five years old. Rip on Blizzard all you want, but most games are lucky if they're supported after the first year of being released. Blizzard basically /.ed their own game servers today to release new features for a game that not only doesn't bring in $14.95 per player/month, but only sells for about $29.99 retail. Who's really gonna buy Diablo II these days anyway? This release is a "thank you" from Blizzard to all their loyal fans. Sure Blizzard is known to make mistakes, but no company that has to support as many copies as Blizzard sells can put out the kind of quality gaming experience that they do.
A large portion of games.slashdot.org is some form of "advertising." Posting about the latest multiplayer mod for Grand Theft Auto is advertising. Talking about There, Inc. launching is advertising. The Lord of the Rings pinball machine? Adverstising.
The reason it's not truly "advertising" is because we now get to talk about it here. I'm really looking forward to what people have to say about the mod, if anyone discovers the new world-event, etc, etc. If you don't like the patch, you're more than welcome to voice your opinion here. And I'd be more than happy to read it.
But Diablo 2 is a phenominon. For a developer to acknowledge that their TWO YEAR OLD game is still one of the best multiplayer games around, to continue to support it through a FREE online system (ignoring their treatment of attempts to port battle.net to Linux*, which I would agree Blizzard handled poorly), and STILL patching the damn game? How many games don't get a single patch? For Blizzard delevopers to still be updating and fine-tuning a game this long after its release, and for people to STILL enjoy playing it is fucking incredible.
And I call Bullshit. "There are thousands of better and newer games than Diablo II." Part of the reason this IS a news story is that Diablo 2 is so old, but still updated and played. And while there are undoubtedly thousands of newer games, I'd challenge you to list thousands of better ones that are in the same genre. Battlefield 1942, Super Smash Bros, Grand Theft Auto...sure, you can build a long list of amazing games. I wouldn't nescesarily say Diablo 2 is "better" than any or all of them. And a lot of them will be have multiplayer aspects, either online or by playing with multiple people on the same TV. But there hasn't been a game since Diablo 2 that satisfies the unique hunger D2 players develope. Dungeon Siege didn't do it. It was pretty, but there was something lacking. Neverwinter Nights was aimed at creating a slightly different experience, and while I'm told the multiplayer games can be amazingly fun, still isn't the same thing. In the same way that a desire to play Super Smash Bros can only be quenched by playing Super Smash Bros, Diablo 2 is a sweet, sweet, addictive crack to those who partake in it.
The tagline of Slashdot, as I'm sure you know, is "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters." Well, I'd say the release of what is supposed to be the largest and most significant patch to a game that, like it or not, is one of the largest gaming landmarks ever, qualifies (for me) for both of those things.
(A quick note before I'm flamed: I don't mean Diablo 2's gameplay is revolutionary. It's not. But Blizzard somehow got it "just right" in a way that, I would say, no other game has done since. Just like I STILL think StarCraft is THE comparison when judging RTS games, although others have come close, I would say DIablo 2 is STILL the comparison when judging dungeon hackers.)
As I was saying: Posting about D2 is News for Nerds, and I think it Matters. There are posts on the main page all the time that I don't particularly think matter, but I don't bitch and complain because I understand they might be relevant to other people.
So quit yer bitching. There were long and heated discussions about Blizzard after they shut down the unauthorized Battle.net accessing software. (The name escapes me at the moment.) Many people vowed never to support Blizzard again, and they're more than welcome not to. But for the rest of us, I don't think it's unfair to be allowed some posts concerning WE stil believe to be a damn fine game.
-Trillian
*I know this is an oversimplification of what happened.
BrynM said, "Since the game follows a direct story line, there isn't a whole lot of re-playability as well."
I agree with some of the other things you said. I know a lot of people had problems with the 1.09 patch, and I think it would have been awesome if Blizzard allowed an open server or whatnot for people to mod however the hell they wanted.
And there are valid complaints about Diabo 2. If you didn't like Diablo, D2 didn't bring anything new to the table. It's graphics are getting outdated. The player economy is shit. People abuse experience runs and whatnot. Half the items out there are dupes. (In theory, some of these issues are addressed in the v1.1 patch.) But to say Diablo 2 doesn't have a whole lot of re-playabliity is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard said about Diablo 2.
The stoy was always weak and, beyond the first time through, never the reason to play the game. Having a blast with friends on multiplayer, leveling for that next skill level, killing monsters to get that next killer item; these are the reasons people play Diablo 2. Saying that it has a bad storyline so it's not fun to play is like saying Mortal Kombat or (insert fighting game here) is stupid because the story sucks. It's like saying no one wants to replay Mario because the story is predictable. It's like saying Tetris isn't fun because it doesn't end. Diablo 2 was never about the story. It was about everything else, and a lot of people think Blizzard did an amazing job with that "everything else." So there are valid reasons not to like Diablo 2. Even just, "I don't enjoy that type of game," is perfectly valid. But complaining about the STORYLINE? That's just avoiding the issue, and making yourself sound like an idiot.
BrynM said, "Diablo and Diablo II are great games that broke a lot of new ground, but Blizzard's support and lack of modding have ruined them for me at least."
How have they had lack of support? The fact that their servers are still even UP shows support for the damn game. Up and FREE. And, obviously, they're still releasing patches (albiet slower than slow). So I would say that, yes, they're still supporting the game.
Lack of modding is a different issue, and the only valid one I think you bring up. They could have opened a server, or allowed others to run private servers, where people could mod the game however the hell they wanted. They could have made cool (and probably relatively simple) tools for new monster creation, or even item creation. Don't let people on the main "closed" network, but let them play however the hell they want anywhere else. So yeah, I think that would have been great. And if without modding, the game isn't enough to still keep you, then so be it. That's your call, and only you can decide if you still have fun playing a game.
(And, without installing the movie files, the game is well under 1 GB. It still has a large system footprint, around 700 MB, if I remember correctly, but don't exagerate. Makes you look like an inflamatory whiner.)
But don't just make up arguments to complain about nothing.
-Trillian
Slashdot may not post objective, neutral news stories, but at least you're never rude or over-the-top when you reply to people! It's so nice to see a reply that's calm, objective, and doesn't begin, "Read my post, fuckhead," and don't resort to making character judgements like, "You're just some self-righteous jackass."
Oh. Wait...
And wait just a minute. Your origonal post said, "There are thousands of better and newer games than Diablo II, yet one patch for this game makes it onto Slashdot." That sure as hell sounds to me like you were talking about Diablo 2 not being news. How else, exactly, was I supposed to read that sentence?
And, because you're obviously the expert in objectivity, may I ask you to write a neutral post about the release of the 1.1 patch? The post that exists is lifted, verbatum, from the Battle.net site. So it's obviously not as objective as you'd like, but it does for the most part simply list new features. The patch IS the largest to date, has a new lader system, etc, etc, etc.
I'm eagerly awaiting what I'm sure will blow us away as a calm, objective, and most importantly neutral example of how one SHOULD post news storys on Slashdot.
-Trillian
I unfortunately did read your post and am tired of people like you constantly whining about every single thing that is posted. There doesn't have to be a well written article or some witty summary for it be something worthy of talking about. You are the self-righteous one criticizing this even though you admit it is news. Not everyone has your "superior" literary and eiditing skills so just give it a rest. You got me on one point though, I certainly didn't know what you submit. But doing a search through slashdot shows that if you do submit anything, the editors thought it too piss poor to put on the page. So I guess our friend Dude has one up on you there. If you actually wanted to make a point, maybe you should have posted that on a Blizzard post that was non-newsworthy. If you have a problem with style, well then, maybe you should go somehwere that doesn't have user submitted material and has journalists that write up to your level.
Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
this "patch" is virtually an expansion pack. hundreds of new items, new world event, all the skills totally re-balanced, "synergies" introduced, tons of new stuff. you should she the hysteria that is currently engulfing the various Diablo II Forums around the 'net.
yes, this is big news. i fully expect to be up till 2am er, testing this new patch =)
*jumps back in to D2*
i could live a little longer in this prison
Apparently not.
If hell froze over, where the heck is my Duke Nukem Forever? ;-)
What's so bad about being lazy? What if there was a war and nobody showed up?
That's spell checking ;) I must have made my point if that is your best retort.
Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
I really enjoyed the Diablo universe - especially the first time through - but these things and the bnetd open server debacle severly tarnished my opinion of Blizzard. I honestly don't know if I would plop down the cash for any new product of theirs.
I ran an install without the video and got sick of having a second CD handy just to play the videos. Further, I managed to wear out my original play disk (my friends still wanted to play it enough at LAN parties quite a while back). Though it pains me to do so, I ended up doing the full install and no CD crack thing to save both my drive and my backup play disk (which requires another crack just to use). I know that piracy is a problem, but here I am - a paying customer - and I have to resort to cracker methods just to run something I paid for. I sent my original play disk in to be replaced back in April in accordance to the procedures that don't seem to be on Blizzard's site anymore and I still haven't received a replacement. I'm not trying to whine, I'm just a very disappointed former fan.US Democracy:The best person for the job (among These pre-selected choices...)
Maybe I am a bit slow, but what exactly is your point?
I'm not just talking about this one post about a patch. I play Diablo II myself and I'm glad this patch is out and I understand how long it has been anticipated. But everytime Blizzard takes a piss it gets an incredible level of hype
So you don't have a problem with information of the patch making news, but you think all the other blizzard posts that were about other things such as the repainting the office or perhaps the company cat having kittens may not be newsworthy items. Ok, follow you so far. But then tell me if you are cool with this particular article, why do you stand atop the soap box and shake your fist at the admins because you can't stand the other articles that may or may not have been posted recently?
Or maybe you just like picking fights?
On Wall Street they say "buy low, sell high" On the pad we say, "buy high, sell high" Isn't that somehow better?
Unfortunately, with a multiplayer game it's difficult to have a varying, multilayered plot. Diablo 2 has, indeed, always been about the combat, the items, and the experience. Some people don't like that kind of game; I think I'm going to start moving away from that sort of game myself.
I have had similar problems with Blizzard tech support, dating back all the way to *Warcraft II*. They're slow to respond, and when they do it's with an FAQ that has nothing to do with your problem. I, too, had a problematic play disc (actually, it got scratched badly after I got the game), and wasn't able to play for a year and a half because Blizzard wouldn't get me a replacement disc. I had a *hell* of a blast once I managed to get around that, but it was a PITA in the meantime.
I wrote an article on diabloii.net about my personal issues with Blizzard, specifically their lack of support, the bnetd issue, and Blizzard's relationship with Vivendi. Unfortunately, the diabloii.net site owners kept my article in the queue for months, and it was outdated. I, too, am unsure about whether I will purchase another Blizzard game- I certainly haven't bought Warcraft III.
You have a point - the click-click-click - but I stlll enjoy it and so do many others. We should concentrate on the good points; Blizzard are still supporting, even for Mac OS X, and, most importantly, my Sorceress can still cast a bloody good Frost Nova even when expose is doing its thing...
I'm still having a right old problem with Duriel. Battle my way through that bastard tomb, get through the gateway and whoomph... dead. Since I figured every Mac Diablo fan in the universe is reading this, what am I doing wrong? Help! diablo@xwiz.co.uk
I do applaud Mac support. If I hadn't played through the game on PC before, I would get it for my new PowerBook.
Not just Mac OS X.
Blizzard is still supporting old MacOS.
I play Diablo 2 on OS 9.2 on an ancient beige G3 box. Because it's fun.
A Good Intro to NetBS
Can you explain that to the koreans?
I've always though that Blizzard should open Diablo up to modding to avoid it getting stale, but they seem to be paranoid of letting anyone else use/see code or assets - to their own downfall, IMO.
I disagree with the paranoia comment - people have made mods for Diablo II, and Blizzard knows about them and has done nothing, AFAIK. I made some myself years ago, before 1.03 IIRC.
However, I stopped because they don't support it, and plenty of other companies do. It would be easy for them - all they need is a way to load a MPQ file that overrides the originals.
Trillian from Sluggy?
Hoist Number One and Number Six.
Blizzard knowingly pays their employees way below average (roughly half) what another company would pay the same programmer. Blizzard thrives on profiting from the blood sweat and tears of those willing to take half-pay to have a job programming games. I'm not saying Blizzard is a bad place to work, and I'm not saying I wouldn't love to be on the development team for WoW myself.
File that away..
Now, it's been pretty public knowledge that this patch has been worked on by only one or two individuals within blizzard. So, Blizzard sinks two years of pay (Blizzard pay) into two people to come up with this patch. Estimated cost: $200,000, to be on the high side. I'd have to say that this 200k investment will be worth itself in PR alone. They're going to be opening up their MMORPG World of Warcraft (WoW) for beta sometime in the next few months - think of the PR effect this has on their stance in that genre; not to mention the fact that it is a possible testbed for skill ideas for WoW (synergies, and other improvements to diablo).
So, in short, I see this as simply another Blizzard 'success' - released way after it should have been, gobbled up by fanboys and the gaming-media industry, ultimately profitable for the people managing Blizzard.
Unfortunatly, no. I was quite surprised to see what is my standard online persona inhabited by someone else at Sluggy.net, I can tell you...
But being the huge sluggy fan that I am, I couldn't imagine having a problem with it.
I've gotten a number of people ask "Trillian like the IM software?" but you're the first to ask if I was the Trillian from Sluggy. =)
The truth is much less exciting. Lifted straight from the Holy Writ, Trillian from Adams' "Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy."
Sorry to disapoint!
-Trillian
How many games don't get a single patch?
If you limit that to computer games made in the last five years or so, virtually none. There are probably a few, but I haven't heard of them.
What people like in Blizzard games are the choices they made. Blizzard never intended to make its game do anything more than what they were designed to do primarly. No modding, linearity, yeah yeah yeah, this is all true.
But this comes at a price ; you have the best, and totally free, internet gaming service EVER made ; you have the chance to experience a unique (a recurrent word in Blizzard vocabulary, indeed) gameplay, which ties all the players together, creating a deep-rooted community ; you have the certainty that internet gaming, which is the ultimate ressources of every Blizzard's games, is safe, beyond all expectations (maphackers and cheaters are systematically eradicated).
Let's sum up : it caters to people who enjoy, of course, Blizzard designing, but also who wants reliability over internet gaming, and coherence inside gameplay.
Nonetheless, I must admit that your technical issues are a shame. As a lucky Blizzard customer, I didn't encounter any problem with my CDs. Technical support is slow, ok ; on this point, they suck. But on the other hand, one must admit that the antipiracy policy form Blizzard is not the most restrictive. Once you have your CD-key, it's quite easy to bypass the CD security check. Check on www.megagames.com if you want.
Furthermore, if Diablo and Diablo II were not meant to be modded, it was an explicit will from Blizzard. And they prooved with Warcraft III that modding features were within their scope (check the map editor and the custom games on Battle.net).
These choices from Blizzard don't prevent them to sell at leat 1 million copies of each of their games. There must be a reason for that...
Actually I'm sad that you just sticked to your first impressions. There are some things to criticize, especially ties with Vivendi which influence more and more the overall policy, but not the games, at least in my opinion.
I have been, since my youngest pre-pubere relationship with my computer, a huge fan of this company.
They deserve it, as they deserve criticisms when they are justified by experience. But one should be honest with a company which has always followed this guideline with its customers.
Let's overcome our weakness.
I would argue strongly against any such "deep-rooted community"- the community on the Realms is one of "pwning," "n00b5," and "ITAM PLZ!"
:-( Suffice it to say, Blizzard has had the (nontechnological) solution to the hack problems on the realms for two years now, but has chosen not to employ it for reasons that defy explication. And that's really more than I can say.
I didn't stick with my first impressions- I played the game for several months until my CDs got damaged again in a move recently; I managed to get my girlfriend hooked on it and we would often play together. My impressions were built over months of gameplay and a years-long relationship with Blizzard products.
Blizzard makes good games- Warcraft, Warcraft II, Starcraft, Diablo I, and Diablo II (along with various expansions- except Hellfire; that was Sierra) have been obsessions of mine at various points. Personally, I can't wait to see what Roper et al. do- but they're not with Blizzard anymore, apparently for reasons similar to my own reasons for dissatisfaction.
Returning to an earlier point, Battle.net is now incredibly player-unfriendly; cheats, hacks, and exploits abound, spambots rule the trading channels, and player-killers ruin even strong-password-protected games. I'm actually old enough to remember original Battle.net, with Diablo and Starcraft. Despite the problems with hacks in the original Diablo, Battle.net as a whole was a much more vibrant community. Blizzard's managers have allowed it to decay, diverting key staff and refusing to take measures to protect the realms. You make references to account bannings- but those have barely scratched the surface of the problem.
I wish I could share with you the biggest problem I have with Blizzard... unfortunately, I gave my word I wouldn't share that information. Sorry
I do admit that Battlenet is their greatest achievement. It has come a long way from the simple meet and greet gaming that it started as. I even thought that Blizzard had a good shot at doing the first massively multiplayer game with immersive graphics, but that didn't happen and we are still waiting.
I also agree that Warcraft 3 has a great editor, but I feel that it was only included because the Warcraft series always had a map editor. It's part of the game's lineage. Without it would be like an id game without moddability. Some of the spark would be gone and a lot of people wouldn't even bother.
By the way, the cracks at megagames are barely legal if at all. Blizzard would love to see them disappear as much as the rest of the publishers that end up cracked. I'm not saying that a no-CD crack is not useful, but you have definitely voided your support.
US Democracy:The best person for the job (among These pre-selected choices...)
Actually this is exactly the same problem as with Slashdot ; the more open you allow a network to be, the more lamers you let come in. Sure thing Bnet is plenty of damn fuckers that experience the very same techniques during all their life.
But it's worth exploring the "+2 ranked comment" that can be found in some special areas. And I really would like to hear evidence about exploits, hacking and cheating over close Bnet Realms in Diablo II or in Warcraft III. I've been playing since a very recent time, and I never experienced such things.
Apparently, you have some elements that I wasn't aware of - especially the technique that could have banned cheating practices and the departure of the core team -, please do develop your point, I'm interested in it.
However, there is a strong community, inside Bnet that mustn't be denied. Plenty of players still play according to some very precise rules that nobody even dares infringe on. Really this is my feeling, and i still have rememberings of gaming experience like i never had before...
It's just a matter of feeling i guess. But I appreciate that yours seems as sincere as mines.
Jdif
Let's overcome our weakness.
Theres actually a comment in the patch (about some back end changes to the way skills work) that "we did this for our own purposes but modders should like it too"
Odd enough. Thanks.
Hoist Number One and Number Six.
ByrnM,
I didn't think you were asking for one, but I wanted to appologize. Rereading your origonal post and my reply, I was disproportionately rude. I honestly hadn't thought about 'suport' as response time from Blizzard, and you're right. At an individual level, their support is supposed to be shit. Luckily, I haven't had to deal with it.
I still disagree about lack of re-playability, but I think you should have been more specific with your origonal post because comparisons to Baulders Gate or Neverwinter Nights are valid.
I had also forgotten that the game _required_ you to watch the videos. You're right, that's f*ing stupid.
So I still disagree with you, and think that what I said is valid, but I just wanted to let you know I thought my response to your origonal post was overly rude.
-Trillian
I don't know how the 1.10 patch has changed things on the realm- I can't play right now due to my CD situation. However, the closed realms are rife with Maphack users (they see the whole map and the positions and equipment of everyone on it), triggerhack (I don't even want to know what that does), Pindlebot (a program that creates random games and kills Pindleskin, looking for specific unique or set items), password hacks, and item duplication program users. Most unique and set items that one would find traded on the Realms have been duplicated; all ITH items and most Zephyr items have been hacked into the game and duplicated. Most Stones of Jordan have been duplicated.
I can't develop my point about what Blizzard could have done (and still can do) to stop almost all item duplication- I gave my word I wouldn't reveal that information. As for the core team leaving, however, Bill Roper and most of the original Blizzard developers have left and have formed a new company. Details are available when scanning the front page at diabloii.net ; there are interviews with Roper, links, and various other good stuff. In the meantime, Blizzard's creative team has been gutted- the intellectual and creative powerhouses behind the Warcrafts, Starcraft, and the two Diablo games are now part of a separate company. According to Roper, they left because of disagreements with management about creative control and various other administrative things. The problems with Blizzard have been overwhelmingly a problem with management and administration.
I have really good memories of Realm play- rushing my girlfriend to Nightmare, beating Hell Diablo into the ground (Eat THIS, you red lizardly slug!), getting my first Windforce, etc. However, I found that the Realms simply ceased to be acceptable, and while I know about the various clans, guilds, etc., I found their rules too restrictive and the attitudes cliquish.
My opposition to buying Blizzard games is mostly based on morality and disgust. Morally, I don't think I can buy a product from a company that has sued its own fans for the crime of trying to overcome the company's own failings (bnetd was written to create independent, low-lag servers for people who couldn't or wouldn't use Battle.net). I also can't justify (personally) buying from a company that could eliminate most of the problems on the Realms in roughly thirty minutes, but chooses not to.
This is the game I keep giving up ... and the game I keep going back to when I'm bored with whatever else I'm playing. As a dyed-in-the-wool necromancer, sitting at 1.09 for a year plus was pretty frustrating. I'm looking forward to trying out the new synergies and seeing the new items.
Props to Blizzard for doing the right thing and retooling D2 to balance things out. The extra goodies are just icing on the cake!
"Can't you see that everyone is buying station wagons?"