PixlBit

Or: How Diablo 3 helped me fight some of my personal demons.

Recently, I came out of “review retirement” to give a glowing report of the PlayStation 4 version of Diablo 3. In that review I talked about how the game really pulled me in this second time around and wouldn’t let go. It’s a fantastic console port and I have no qualms about double dipping on it. If anything, I got more enjoyment out of Diablo 3 on PS4 than I did on the PC, but a lot of that had to do with it being the right game at the right time. While the review platform wasn’t the appropriate place for it, I need to explain just why the act of obliterating hordes of demonic foes for a hundred hours was so cathartic for me. In light of the recent gaming culture landscape I think it’s important to remember how great video games can be, and in rare circumstances even healing.

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What the cancellation of Project Titan means to Blizzard and us.

After seven years of development, Blizzard decided to officially pull the plug on their mysterious Project Titan; what many assumed was to be the successor to the king of all MMORPGs, World of Warcraft.  Since Titan was never officially announced, it’s doubtful that the game ever made it past the conceptual state, though we will likely never know how many resources had been dedicated to the project, or if it was ever even close to becoming anything more than vaporware.

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You'll have to keep waiting for that PvP...

With all the huge and surprising titles to come out in 2012, it’s almost shocking that a game as hotly anticipated as Diablo III seems to have come and gone, with little discussion only 6 months after its release. Blizzard hasn’t forgotten about the game though; in addition to constant game updates and an expansion in the works the company has been tinkering around with a possible console version. Oh, and that PvP mode is still in the works, but you’ll need to be a little more patient on that front.

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Wait...Blizzard made games besides WoW, Diablo, and StarCraft?

When talking about Blizzard Entertainment, it’s almost impossible to imagine the company before the creation of their core pillars of Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo. It’s even more difficult to think of the company making games for home consoles, but in the early 90s both of these unimaginable things were true. Under the original company name of Silicon & Synapse, the house that would be Blizzard produced The Lost Vikings—a beloved side-scrolling puzzle game that fell by the wayside for juggernauts like Warcraft.  We have some love for those quirky Vikings around here, so it was high time for them to get their very own MIA.

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Warcraft developer issues a notice of opposition to Valve's mod based game.

The acronym DOTA may not mean a whole lot to some people, but it apparently means a lot to Blizzard.  Short for Defense of the Ancients, DOTA began its life as a popular mod for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and the expansion The Frozen Throne.  Valve, a company that is decidedly not Blizzard, took notice of the mod’s popularity and began development of a sequel, aptly titled DOTA 2. 

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