BlizzConline 2021 thread

[FakeSympathy]

Well, time to see what this little controversial company has to offer

Day 1
Blizzard Arcade Collection
TBH, I am kinda tired of seeing these classic games coming to new consoles and pc. IDK, there's something that I can't explain that makes them not really fitting with modern-day machines. Oh well, I know some people will be excited.

WOW: Shadowlands Chains of Domination
Nothing really to see here. I thought Blizz was known for their cinematics. So wtf was that shit? Moving along

WOW: Classic
Burning Crusade. Hey original players, Is this an expansion or a raid. Never played the original, but it looks just like any other MMOs content I've ever played.

Heartstone
Ehh, I was never interested in it the first place. I have to ask, how much MTX does this game have? because it looks like the game was DESIGNED to have so many MTX.

Diablo IV
Alright, finally news other than blog posts on their website. They are adding in the rogue class, and she looks super fun to play. This probably means there will be more classes at the launch, or they are coming in future content.

Also.....

Diablo 2 Resurrected
Yep, it looks like D2 Remaster is official. Now calm down for a minute, and go look at the gameplay. IDK. It's definitely more grim than D3, but there's something weird about this design. Coming in 2021. Also let's not forget how Blizz fucked-up SC Remastered and W3: Reforged. Let's just wait and see how this turns out

CEO's "We are like you" speech
Get your virtue-signaling, china bending ass out of here.

After this, the virtual showcase kinda splintered into different directions, and each major games kinda had its own things happening, and I just stopped following from there.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Diablo 2 Resurrected
Yep, it looks like D2 Remaster is official. Now calm down for a minute, and go look at the gameplay. IDK. It's definitely more grim than D3, but there's something weird about this design. Coming in 2021. Also let's not forget how Blizz fucked-up SC Remastered and W3: Reforged. Let's just wait and see how this turns out

This is legit the only thing I'm excited for. But im excited tentatively, thanks to the fuck up that Warcraft 3 reforged was.

Also i find it funny that Hearthstone is adding a mode that is literally Slay the Spire. Typical Blizzard I guess.

Otherwise I suppose it was fine, though the lack of new game information is lame. Diablo 4 got a new class, but not even a beta on the horizon. They didn't even bring Overwatch up during the opening ceremony which means that not only is Overwatch 1 basically done and abandoned at this point, but also that Overwatch 2 is so far away that there is nothing to even discuss.

 

[SilentPony]

So here's the D2 remastered trailer, and I see what you mean something feels off. I can't put my finger on it, but if I had to express it in words its that this looks like a mobile app game by a 3rd party knock off company. It looks...cheap? I'm not sure that's the right word, but its close. Maybe bare minimum is closer to what I feel? I dunno, it looks off, like its been outsourced to another company because Blizzard couldn't be bothered with doing it themselves because there are no microtransactions and loot boxes.

Also in before they announce gold coin microtransactions, and guaranteed Gold item loot boxes.

Also also with how these asshats fucked up the Warcraft 3 remastered, literally showing footage that was not representative of the final product, I doubt this will turn out well. Remember this?

Spoiler: Blizzcon vs release

Expect more of the same.

 

[Gordon_4]

Well, time to see what this little controversial company has to offer

Day 1
Blizzard Arcade Collection
TBH, I am kinda tired of seeing these classic games coming to new consoles and pc. IDK, there's something that I can't explain that makes them not really fitting with modern-day machines. Oh well, I know some people will be excited.

WOW: Shadowlands Chains of Domination
Nothing really to see here. I thought Blizz was known for their cinematics. So wtf was that shit? Moving along

WOW: Classic
Burning Crusade. Hey originaol players, Is this an expansion or a raid. Never played the original, but it looksjust like any other MMOs I've ever played.

Heartstone
Ehh, I was never interested in it the first place. I have to ask, how much MTX does this game have? because it looks like the game was DESIGNED to have so many MTX.

Diablo IV
Alright, finally news other than blog posts on their website. They are adding in the rogue class, and she looks super fun to play. This probably means there will be more classes at the launch, or they are coming in future content.

Also.....

Diablo 2 Resurrected
Yep, it looks like D2 Remaster is official. Now calm down for a minute, and go look at the gameplay. IDK. It's definitely more grim than D3, but there's something weird about this design. Coming in 2021. Also let's not forget how Blizz fucked-up SC Remastered and W3: Reforged. Let's just wait and see how this turns out

CEO's "We are like you" speech
Get your virtue-signaling, china bending ass out of here.

After this, the virtual showcase kinda splintered into different directions, and each major games kinda had its own things happening, and I just stopped following from there.

Burning Crusade was the first expansion pack for World of Warcraft. Level cap raised to 70, introduced the Blood Elves and the Draenei which in turn gave the Horde paladins and the Alliance shamans. Also introduced flying mounts. Had some great dungeons, some excellent raids and all that other fun stuff.

 

[Samtemdo8]

its that this looks like a mobile app game by a 3rd party knock off company. It looks...cheap? I'm not sure that's the right word, but its close. Maybe bare minimum is closer to what I feel? I dunno, it looks off, like its been outsourced to another company because Blizzard couldn't be bothered with doing it themselves because there are no microtransactions and loot boxes.

So tell me, how would the remaster graphics would look like properly without looking like a "Mobile App Game from a Third Party Company"

And your on the spot, tell me how it should look like, because at this point you may as well not remaster the graphics if any attempt to update the graphics will just look like a mobile rip off?

 

[Samtemdo8]

This is legit the only thing I'm excited for. But im excited tentatively, thanks to the fuck up that Warcraft 3 reforged was.

Also i find it funny that Hearthstone is adding a mode that is literally Slay the Spire. Typical Blizzard I guess.

Otherwise I suppose it was fine, though the lack of new game information is lame. Diablo 4 got a new class, but not even a beta on the horizon. They didn't even bring Overwatch up during the opening ceremony which means that not only is Overwatch 1 basically done and abandoned at this point, but also that Overwatch 2 is so far away that there is nothing to even discuss.

They did show Overwatch 2 things

 

[CriticalGaming]

They did show Overwatch 2 things

Lol. If it isnt shown during the opening ceramony that means the game isnt getting anything. Much like starcraft is stagnant as well right now.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Why are there framerate drops in their trailer?

I can't put my finger on it, but if I had to express it in words its that this looks like a mobile app game by a 3rd party knock off company. It looks...cheap?

I think it's the animations. They stuck to the source material a little too well.

 

[SilentPony]

So tell me, how would the remaster graphics would look like properly without looking like a "Mobile App Game from a Third Party Company"

And your on the spot, tell me how it should look like, because at this point you may as well not remaster the graphics if any attempt to update the graphics will just look like a mobile rip off?

I wouldn't have updated the graphics. I would have sharped up the 2d sprites because we have high resolution monitors now, but I would have kept it 2d and put the mobile app budget into making a 6th and 7th act. More gameplay, less cheap graphics.

 

[Avnger]

WOW: Classic
Burning Crusade. Hey original players, Is this an expansion or a raid. Never played the original, but it looks just like any other MMOs content I've ever played.

I'm mainly just curious on where this will lead next. Are we going to see WoW Classic WOTLK announced a couple years from now? How long does Blizz wait to launch WoW Original Classic and reset at vanilla again?

 

[Samtemdo8]

I wouldn't have updated the graphics. I would have sharped up the 2d sprites because we have high resolution monitors now, but I would have kept it 2d and put the mobile app budget into making a 6th and 7th act. More gameplay, less cheap graphics.

No thank you. I don't want any acts and stories that were written by anyone that was not Chris Metzen and the original writing team back in 2000.

 

[SilentPony]

No thank you. I don't want any acts and stories that were written by anyone that was not Chris Metzen and the original writing team back in 2000.

And I dont want mobile game graphics and loot boxes and Blizzard lies.

 

[EvilRoy]

So here's the D2 remastered trailer, and I see what you mean something feels off. I can't put my finger on it, but if I had to express it in words its that this looks like a mobile app game by a 3rd party knock off company. It looks...cheap? I'm not sure that's the right word, but its close. Maybe bare minimum is closer to what I feel? I dunno, it looks off, like its been outsourced to another company because Blizzard couldn't be bothered with doing it themselves because there are no microtransactions and loot boxes.

Also in before they announce gold coin microtransactions, and guaranteed Gold item loot boxes.

Also also with how these asshats fucked up the Warcraft 3 remastered, literally showing footage that was not representative of the final product, I doubt this will turn out well. Remember this?

Spoiler: Blizzcon vs release

Expect more of the same.

According to an article by Ars Technica the remaster is based on the actual original code for D2 and LoD, as it was apparently fully preserved. They're even including a button that will let you swap back to original graphics. Since they're taking that approach I'm not super surprised the updates feel a little weird - because its literally the original game with a new coat of paint slapped on.

I didn't see anything about gameplay updates - I assume they'll be raising the FPS, giving us a new suite of options and maybe doing a little balancing? Having replayed D2 recently I can say that there are points in the game (Duriel mostly) where you basically need to be in a party to have half a chance of winning without cheesing. It would be nice if the bosses made a bit more sense balance wise for single player.

I did see gold-autopickup was being added, so I'm thinking we might be going into a loot-share system or a player specific loot system so there's less of a mad dash for that unidentified unique.

Edit:

Here's the article:

Diablo II: Resurrected tops BlizzCon announcement flurry

Expected announcements for Diablo IV, Diablo Immortal, Hearthstone, more.

arstechnica.com

(Not using an escapist link as they don't discuss the original code item).

 

[Samtemdo8]

And I dont want mobile game graphics and loot boxes and Blizzard lies.

Does it look like Mobile Game Graphics? Or has Mobile Gaming reached this level of graphical quality? And because a lot of mobile games are clones of Blizzard games so they ripped off the Blizzard art style?"

And they have no mentioned loot boxes at all. Your cynicism is showing.

 

[SilentPony]

Does it look like Mobile Game Graphics? Or has Mobile Gaming reached this level of graphical quality? And because a lot of mobile games are clones of Blizzard games so they ripped off the Blizzard art style?"

And they have no mentioned loot boxes at all. Your cynicism is showing.

I would argue that when it comes to Activison Blizzard there is no level of cynicism that is too much. I posted earlier Warcraft 3 remastered lies, the Blizzcon vs actual graphics. This is the exact same company. Why should this time be any different?

 

[Samtemdo8]

I would argue that when it comes to Activison Blizzard there is no level of cynicism that is too much. I posted earlier Warcraft 3 remastered lies, the Blizzcon vs actual graphics. This is the exact same company. Why should this time be any different?

Because history tells me that this has not been a consistent thing.

Starcraft Remastered happened did it not? And it wasn't breaking any promises.

And Diablo 2 Remastered was not promising the Moon here with claims of remastering every single cutscene, I mean Diablo 2 only had 7 cinematics, unlike Warcraft 3 which they said would re do all the cutscenes that are like this


Into what we saw in Blizzcon and along side promise of changing up the lore and story to make it more in line with current lore. And re-do the voice acting and all that.

And lastly Diablo 2 is being handled by Vicarious Visions who did the Crash Bandicoot remakes.

 

[SilentPony]

SNIP

You have more faith in a company that openly spits in the faces of this fans than I.

Also the Starcraft remastered wasn't well received, and neither was the Crash Bandicoot remake.

 

[Samtemdo8]

Also the Starcraft remastered wasn't well received, and neither was the Crash Bandicoot remake.

Bullshit.

 

[laggyteabag]

Got to say, I was thoroughly disappointed by this.

The starting speech was quite cute, but the actual content of the show was super unexciting.

Blizzard arcade collection is just 3 old games that I really don't care for.

The WoW news was a small content update for Live, and a "new" expac for Classic.

The Hearthstone news was a new card set (which sounds big, but 3 are released every year) , and re-covering an announcement from a few days ago - which is that they are bringing back Hearthstone as it was in 2014, with no expansions or balance updates.

The Diablo news was a new class for D4, and a D2 remaster.

And SC2 and Heroes of the Storm were ignored, and Overwatch was curiously absent.

I get that people often complain that Blizzard were better, years ago, but I think they definitely took that too far, and focused too much on the past, and very little on the future. All of the big announcements were that their old stuff is coming back.

I mean, this wasn't just any Blizzcon, either - this was the Blizzard 30th Anniversary Blizzcon, and they had nothing exciting to show off.

They didn't even have one of those cool Blizzard cinematics (the D4 one was in-engine).

It was just a really disappointing showing, when Blizzcons are usually pretty fun.

 

[Samtemdo8]

Got to say, I was thoroughly disappointed by this.

The starting speech was quite cute, but the actual content of the show was super unexciting.

Blizzard arcade collection is just 3 old games that I really don't care for.

The WoW news was a small content update for Live, and a "new" expac for Classic.

The Hearthstone news was a new card set (which sounds big, but 3 are released every year) , and re-covering an announcement from a few days ago - which is that they are bringing back Hearthstone as it was in 2014, with no expansions or balance updates.

The Diablo news was a new class for D4, and a D2 remaster.

And SC2 and Heroes of the Storm were ignored, and Overwatch was curiously absent.

I get that people often complain that Blizzard were better, years ago, but I think they definitely took that too far, and focused too much on the past, and very little on the future. All of the big announcements were that their old stuff is coming back.

I mean, this wasn't just any Blizzcon, either - this was the Blizzard 30th Anniversary Blizzcon, and they had nothing exciting to show off.

They didn't even have one of those cool Blizzard cinematics (the D4 one was in-engine).

It was just a really disappointing showing, when Blizzcons are usually pretty fun.

I'm shocked there wasn't a mobile game announcement besides Diablo Immortal existing.

And for you it was thoroughly dissapointing, but I'm looking forward to with Burning Crusade, and Diablo 4, and if the D4 Cinematic was in-engine then I'm impressed.