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Oceanhorn Early Impressions (Switch Version)

Oceanhorn is very much inspired (some reviewers argue to a fault) by the Zelda series. There are a lot of similarities here: swords, bombs, action-adventure game, magic, etc. Personally, I don't mind how much Cornfox & Bros (the developers) have borrowed, or been inspired by, from the Zelda series, this is a fun game.

The story starts out with the hero's father going to fight the monster Oceanhorn. Soon after the beginning cinematic of the father's fight, you take over as the hero to search out three emblems and defeat Oceanhorn.

The world you traverse in, is very much inspired by Wind Waker. As the hero, you travel to various islands (levels) via the sea using a... Read All Oceanhorn is very much inspired (some reviewers argue to a fault) by the Zelda series. There are a lot of similarities here: swords, bombs, action-adventure game, magic, etc. Personally, I don't mind how much Cornfox & Bros (the developers) have borrowed, or been inspired by, from the Zelda series, this is a fun game.

The story starts out with the hero's father going to fight the monster Oceanhorn. Soon after the beginning cinematic of the father's fight, you take over as the hero to search out three emblems and defeat Oceanhorn.

The world you traverse in, is very much inspired by Wind Waker. As the hero, you travel to various islands (levels) via the sea using a boat. While you are traveling on the boat you can shoot down monsters, mines, crates and barrels and collect experience and money.

The game plays out using an isometric camera angle. The visuals are really good. Cornfox & Bros definitely put a lot of time into the art. The controls are very similar to the controls of a Zelda game, so people should have no time picking this up.

I have been enjoying this game so far. That being said, I have run into a few bugs and have a nitpick with the character's voices in the game.

The first bug I ran into was: one cinematic did not run to completion. It started up and then all of a sudden ended and cut to the next interactive part of the game. This is not a huge problem as you can replay the cinematic from the pause menu, but it did take me out of the game for a second.

The second bug I ran into was the game crashing. I have only run into this once, but the game crashed out to the switch menu. This was disappointing, but luckily the last save that happened was pretty close to the crash, so I could continue on with my adventure without too much backtracking.

My nitpick with the character's voices is that they seem disconnected from the characters of the game. They come across more as voice over than characters speaking. To me this doesn't kill the game, but it is something I wish the devs spent more time on.

Overall, despite the few issues I have had with the game, I am quite enjoying it. To me this game reminds me of a indie take on the Zelda series (which it is). The game itself is very laid back and fun to explore. I look forward to finishing the game.

A Day at the Races: Lightfield HYPER Edition Review

Travis gives this a solid "Rad" on the Ghost Scale

This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.

Travis gives this a "Rad" on the Ghost Scale

This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.

There's a bit of a theme for me today eh? Two racing games! A Day at the Races continues with Lightfield HYPER Edition! A big thanks to the folks at Lost in the Garden for providing us with review keys!

Lightfield HYPER Edition isn't exactly a racing game. There are races, yes, and that's the main focus, but sometimes this feels more like the parkour of Mirror's Edge or trick lines in the Tony Hawk games than a racing game.

You control a ship that can defy gravity and fly through the air, or snap to surfaces. You gain speed while snapped, and quickly lose speed when you aren't snapped, so the goal is to get from checkpoint to checkpoint in the most efficient path, while... Read All There's a bit of a theme for me today eh? Two racing games! A Day at the Races continues with Lightfield HYPER Edition! A big thanks to the folks at Lost in the Garden for providing us with review keys!

Lightfield HYPER Edition isn't exactly a racing game. There are races, yes, and that's the main focus, but sometimes this feels more like the parkour of Mirror's Edge or trick lines in the Tony Hawk games than a racing game.

You control a ship that can defy gravity and fly through the air, or snap to surfaces. You gain speed while snapped, and quickly lose speed when you aren't snapped, so the goal is to get from checkpoint to checkpoint in the most efficient path, while staying on surfaces as much as possible. Each track has the standard race challenge, but also others that have you pull off ledge jumps, rotations, find collectibles, etc.

The controls are simple, well-executed, and mostly intuitive. You're going to crash a lot and make some bad moves, but you never feel that the game is fighting against you. Basically you use the analog stick to steer, the trigger to accelerate, and a face button to snap. Those are all the controls you have, and they're all you need.

The first track is intense but mostly in two dimensions. Once you progress to the second track, you will quickly have no idea which way is up. In fact, it's best to just try to forget the concept of up and down. Just find the nearest surface that gets you to the next checkpoint and HOLD ON. But that difficulty curve ramps up fast, and that may be my biggest complaint with the game. I felt very lost on the second track. But that's the kind of game this is: it doesn't hold your hand at all and throws you in the deep end, for better or worse. Mostly better, I think. It pushes you to practice on the previous levels until you really get the gameplay, and then introduce new concepts on that solid base.

Lightfield is frustrating at times. Not in a bad way, but in an "I really want to get this right" way. Back to Mirror's Edge, if you've played this you know how a parkour run can just crash and burn when you miss a jump or a grab, and that same feeling grabs you in the gut when you miss a snap in Lightfield. But when you pull it off, it's a great feeling, and this frustration/satisfaction loop makes the gameplay really addictive. Time trial mode is a single lap that just keeps repeating, and I think I probably went about 30 rounds without stopping once, trying to get my run just right.

The other challenges interested me less. None of them are bad or boring, but I LOVE the time trials and races. They're a good way to break the intensity but I didn't put as much effort into doing as well as possible on those.

The visuals and soundtrack are very compelling, and fit the game perfectly. This is a very stylized game that perhaps resembles an updated Star Fox low-poly look, but with some intense 80s color schemes. The soundtrack, composed by Zanshin, complements the sci-fi vibe and helps drive the intensity of the gameplay.

If you're looking for a very non-traditional indie racing game, this might just be your jam. It is for me.

Keep an eye out for another review of Lightfield HYPER Edition coming soon, by our friendly neighborhood monster from the Upside Down, Timogorgon!

A Day at the Races: Burnout Paradise Remastered Review

Travis gives this an astounding "Must Play" on the Ghost Scale

This achieves something special, and it would be a shame to miss it.

Travis gives this a "Must Play" on the Ghost Scale

This achieves something special, and it would be a shame to miss it.

I still can't hear the Guns 'n' Roses song, Paradise City, without thinking about Burnout Paradise. I bought it shortly after getting a PS3, and played the hell out of it. I'm not a racing game aficionado, but I've played a few dozen over the years and this one might be my favorite of the arcadey racers. So my interest was piqued when I heard about the remastered version that released a few months back, but I decided to wait for the PC release (even though I ended up buying it on PS4 instead... more on that later). Origin Access has it up now for a 10 hour demo before the launch next week.

Burnout Paradise Remastered is the full game with all the post-launch content... Read All I still can't hear the Guns 'n' Roses song, Paradise City, without thinking about Burnout Paradise. I bought it shortly after getting a PS3, and played the hell out of it. I'm not a racing game aficionado, but I've played a few dozen over the years and this one might be my favorite of the arcadey racers. So my interest was piqued when I heard about the remastered version that released a few months back, but I decided to wait for the PC release (even though I ended up buying it on PS4 instead... more on that later). Origin Access has it up now for a 10 hour demo before the launch next week.

Burnout Paradise Remastered is the full game with all the post-launch content except for the time-savers pack that just unlocked all the cars for you.

I'm not going to review the game itself here, because that's been done before, very thoroughly. I'm reviewing the changes in the remastered version. But in brief, Burnout Paradise is a different take on racing games. It's an open-world racer, where every street is a challenge. There are hundreds of gates, billboards, and jumps to discover, races or other challenges at every intersection, and full-street time trials to compete with others around the world. Criterion added a ton of post-release content: some paid and some for free: motorcycles, legendary cars that resemble famous cars from movies and TV, toy cars, Big Surf Island (a huge area with new challenges and cars), Cops and Robbers (a new mode in which you play as... well... cops and robbers), and more. In contrast to other open-world racing games, the world feels full. Everywhere you look there's something to do.

And it does all of that amazingly well.

I fired up Burnout Paradise Remastered on PC and initially I couldn't see much of a difference. The original already looked great, and I may have some rose-colored glasses. But I went back to the original and yeah, they've smoothed things out. The first frame of reference is your car, which really doesn't look very different, but when you drive around the city, the remaster becomes more apparent. The lighting and shadows are better, it's more optimized (I was getting a more consistent frame rate on the remastered version), the textures for the world elements are improved. It's a nice new coat of paint.

As it happens I then went through some email and saw that it was on sale for 50% off on PSN, so I grabbed it there and played it on my PS4 Pro and wow. This is where it really shines. In addition to the improvements I saw on PC, this runs in 4K with a steady 60fps (it will run in 4K on your PC as well if you have the monitor for it. I unfortunately do not).

This is also currently the only way to get the Big Surf Island and Cops and Robbers DLC packs on PC.

Overall, this is just great. The visual improvements aren't huge but they're noticeable, especially if you have something that can run it in 4K. I love it and can't wait to burn up the streets more. Overall, it's a Must Play, but I have to give it two ratings:
1. If you don't have the game, this is a Must Play. It's the definitive version of what's already a Must Play game.
2. If you already have it on a console with all the DLC, it's a Rad. Maybe wait for a sale. There's nothing truly groundbreaking about the additions, but they're improvements.

Valve May Soon Launch Steam.tv, a Game Streaming Site to Compete with Twitch. Maybe?

There's been speculation about this for a while, but earlier today Steam.tv launched to the world, appearing to be the long-assumed-to-be-coming Twitch competitor from Valve.

But it left us as quickly as it arrived!

Before it blinked out of existence, presenting merely a white page, it looked like the screenshot on this post. While it was up, all that was available was footage of the International, a Dota 2 competition. You could sign in and chat via voice or text using the new Discord-like chat that Steam recently released. You could invite groups of friends to watch videos with you and chat about it together.

But alas, someone was a bit quick on the trigger. In a... Read All

The History of Bethesda Game Studios

Noclip is a YouTube channel that focused on crowdfunded video game documentaries and they did an excellent video on Bethesda Games Studios that you need to watch. It covers the history of the studio from the first Elder Scrolls game all the way through Fallout 4 and then teases the upcoming doc on Fallout 76.
Buckle up for an hour and a half of Bethesda documentary goodness that includes a discussion with the writer of the now infamous Skyrim "arrow to the knee" meme.

"Embark on a quest through the history of The Elder Scrolls and Fallout. With insight into the development of everything from Arena to Fallout 4, Noclip takes you on a journey through the creative... Read All

Diablo III Coming to the Nintendo Switch in 2018

https://us.diablo3.com/en/switch

Diablo III is the third in the primarily PC-based series, but it has been a mainstay on consoles since 2014, with releases for the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.

Today, Blizzard announced plans for Diablo III: The Eternal Collection for the Nintendo Switch! It’s the game we know and love, with the Reaper is Souls expansion and the Rise of the Necromancer DLC. And in addition, you get some neat Zelda bonuses. Ever wanted to dress up like Ganon, hang out with a cucco companion, or have a triforce portrait frame while playing Diablo? Now you can!

You can play couch co-op on a single Switch, locally with up to four Switch consoles, or on... Read All

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/16/2018 at 05:55pm

BTW Doom Eternal is also coming to the Switch. https://www.gamespot.com/articles/doom-eternal-for-nintendo-switch-confirmed/1100-6461091/

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 08/16/2018 at 06:28pm

Yep, I think they mentioned that in the keynote. Not a shock since Doom and Wolf 2 were ported.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/16/2018 at 08:36pm

It is interesting that Nintendo has opened up to such games.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 08/16/2018 at 10:15pm

Yeah they've always geared toward more family friendly titles. Not entirely. Doom/Quake/tons of other FPS games on the N64, the Resident Evil games did really well on Game Cube, Mad World and No More Heroes on the Wii, ... not sure about the Wii U, I didn't follow it much, but they at least had Assassin's Creed.

But thinking about Doom 2016 on a Nintendo console does seem a little weird.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/16/2018 at 10:31pm

Yup yup! Anyway, there's a new Diablo season, are you interested in doing it? This season's theme is "greed" which I noticed means treasure goblins have a higher chance of spawning. I'm tempted to play this season, tempted to go with a Witch Doctor.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 08/16/2018 at 11:38pm

I have only played one season really, and man... I REALLY played it. I'll probably dive back in a few months from now but I like the occasional really deep dive with a solid break. Keeps it fresh.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/18/2018 at 01:26am

Ya know, this makes me think we're probably far away from Diablo IV.

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/18/2018 at 01:28am

Yes. At best if they are heavily in dev is like 3 years. They would have just started it and Blizzard takes a bit so 3 years is a best case unless they’ve been rolling on this for a couple years now.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 08/20/2018 at 07:33pm

Despite already owning Diablo 3 on the PC, I think I will get this for the Switch. I could see me getting more time to play it on the switch.

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/20/2018 at 07:59pm

Yup. I haven't played through the Necromancer content yet and I think this might be a really good way to do that.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/20/2018 at 11:06pm

I think the Necromancer is really good. I enjoyed playing a male and a female one. So, yeah I definitely recommend it!

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 08/21/2018 at 01:09am

The necro is nuts. You can kill a bunch of demons and then EXPLODE THOSE DEMONS to kill other demons!

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Jeff Vogel - Failing To Fail

A friend shared a recent talk Jeff Vogel of Spiderweb Software gave recently at this years GDC and i've been keeping it around for the right time to write about it. It's only available at the GDC Vault and not a YouTube video I can embed above, so sorry about that. Anyways, I recommend you check it out at the link below because not only is Jeff someone I admire but it's a really great talk about how not to fail in the games industry. Jeff admits that the kinds of games Spiderweb makes are not hits and that he makes just enough to have a good middle class life serving his niche audience. Usually the only stories people focus on in gaming are the rags to riches stories... Read All

Cheerful Ghost Week In Review!

This has been a busy week on Cheerful Ghost, so we thought we'd do a round-up to tell you all about what you might have missed!

Cheerful Ghost Games BBS
First and foremost, this week we launched the Cheerful Ghost Games BBS! This brings some classic BBS games and newer browser games to you in a nostalgic BBS-like interface. We have a nice bunch of games to start, and we're adding more!
https://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/3828/play-games-on-the-new-cheerful-ghost-bbs

Plus Game Giveaways to Celebrate!
In celebration of the aforementioned launch, we're giving away a couple of games that evoke the same kind of nostalgia we're going for, VVVVVV and Superbrothers Sword and... Read All

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/12/2018 at 04:05am

And Jon reported that Diablo still has a future! :) Good job guys!

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 08/12/2018 at 04:44am

Yep! And the QuakeCon discussion and the BotW timeline and a couple other things but for the sake of brevity I limited it to the new content we added rather than the content we shared and commented on. But good spot! :)

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/12/2018 at 05:14am

That's cool. I don't know if this is the first time you've done a review of the week, but I think it's a pretty cool idea. I think this is true especially if there's a lot of content posted in one week. I think this may help those who don't visit the site regularly or daily.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 08/12/2018 at 05:49am

Yep, I think this is the first and so-far-only Week In Review, just because of all the big stuff this week, but I'm glad you dig it. I could imagine it being useful for the future as well.

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/12/2018 at 06:14pm

We’re launching a site blog soon. I think these kinds of wrap up will live there too and be nice to check out as historical markers in time.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/12/2018 at 07:09pm

A site blog? Oh! You mean a blog about the site? That makes sense. Well I already consider this site a blog lol it's my gaming blog.

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/12/2018 at 07:42pm

Good question. It's a place you can go to read all the posts that relate to the site itself. So things like when we drop a new feature like the BBS or maybe these kinds of wrap up posts. For instance, if one wanted to see all the GoTY awards OR all the times we launched a feature that's not easy to do. This should make it easier to do that.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/12/2018 at 07:58pm

Cool, that makes sense. Perhaps it could also be a place to show what may be coming or what's in the works. Maybe it could be a place where we kick around some ideas and suggestions.

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/12/2018 at 08:07pm

Yeah, totally. I sort of view it like I view where our Cheerful Ghost Radio episodes go. We tag certain content that way and it lives on that page.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 08/25/2018 at 06:26am

I really do love this wrap-up! Keep up the great work.

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Quakecon 2018 Keynote featuring Quake Champions, Rage 2, Doom Eternal & More

The Quakecon 2018 keynote streamed earlier today and Bethesda and iD had some really interesting stuff to reveal. Firstly Bethesda bought out Escalation Studios that have worked with them on Skyrim VR, Fallout VR and Skyrim Switch. Escalation is currently working on Elder Scrolls Blades and Fallout 76 and will be renamed Bethesda Texas. This is a pretty cool development as Elder Scroll Blades is a game I'm really interested in playing and more Bethesda stuff is always a fun prospect.

Quake Champions

The other big news out of Quakecon is that Quake Champions is now entirely free to play forever. They also dropped all new bot AI and a new class making the game seem like... Read All The Quakecon 2018 keynote streamed earlier today and Bethesda and iD had some really interesting stuff to reveal. Firstly Bethesda bought out Escalation Studios that have worked with them on Skyrim VR, Fallout VR and Skyrim Switch. Escalation is currently working on Elder Scrolls Blades and Fallout 76 and will be renamed Bethesda Texas. This is a pretty cool development as Elder Scroll Blades is a game I'm really interested in playing and more Bethesda stuff is always a fun prospect.

Quake Champions

The other big news out of Quakecon is that Quake Champions is now entirely free to play forever. They also dropped all new bot AI and a new class making the game seem like it's hit a proper release. Since it's free to play and an online only game it's hard to say it's hit 1.0 but now that it's free to play forever and such it feels like it's "officially launched." If you login to Quake Champions during Quakecon right now you will get a special Quakecon 2018 machine gun.

Rage 2

The gameplay and game shown at Quakecon of Rage 2 has bumped it up to an instabuy when it launches next year, which is a pretty rare thing for me. I'm going to figure out which pre-order I should get and then jump in. I like owning a physical copy and I prefer PC so I'll most likely pre-order it from a store I can pick it up on launch day. I know i'll just be buying a case and a Steam code but I like having that kind of thing even if it just lives on my shelf.

The new driving and gameplay footage of Rage 2 makes it look like Mad Max Fury Road meets the best parts of Doom and the original Rage but the stages seem a bit more open than the original linear corridor missions of Rage. I'm sure there will be some kind of DLC for it later and a season pass but so far nothing has been discussed about it.

Doom Eternal

When I originally saw the new Doom Eternal reveal I only watched half of it. Needless to say I wasn't too impressed, it really didn't look like a big upgrade from Doom 2016. After coming back and watching the whole reveal i'm not sure i'm too much further from my original thought but the game looks a bit better than I thought at first. If you loved Doom 2016 this looks like doubling down on all that but somehow Doom 2016 didn't hook me. Might have had something to do with my son being born around that time, or maybe I'm just a very old man that is getting tired of ripping and tearing.

Travis Admin wrote on 08/11/2018 at 03:21am

BUT RIPPING AND TEARING IS LIFE

Travis Admin wrote on 08/11/2018 at 03:23am

It's interesting, the general reception I seem to be reading is that the Doom Eternal gameplay is bonkers incredible and the Rage 2 gameplay show's a mediocre, repetitive game. I... don't know what Rage 2 video people have been watching. I think they're both bonkers incredible.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/11/2018 at 03:27am

Looking through my YouTube subscriptions, I noticed some long reveal trailers for Doom Eternal. I didn't watch them. I actually did like Doom 2016, so I think Eternal is something I could get into. The game really made me feel like I was a badass demon slayer and I liked that. I hope and assume Eternal would do the same and also hope and assume the music kicks ass as well (I thought Doom 2016 had a great soundtrack).

Travis Admin wrote on 08/11/2018 at 03:29am

In that case Greg, you'll love this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoG_5cY_Ph0

:D

And yeah I felt like the Doom Eternal reveal was basically showing that sure, you felt like a badass in Doom 2016 but that was an 8/10 at best on the badass scale, and this one turns it up to 11. BUT. I'm sure that was played by someone way more skilled than I am.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/11/2018 at 04:20am

@Travis LOL.

Maybe I should watch those reveal trailers, they were like 10 or 20 minutes long, which is why I didn't watch them.

Have they announced a release date yet?

Also, that video Travis shared reminds me of how I pretty much played most of the game just using the shotgun. I don't know why it's my favorite weapon, maybe because it's so powerful up close.

Travis Admin wrote on 08/11/2018 at 04:33am

Shotty is my go-to in every id shooter, they just feel so satisfying.

And the one I watched was like 7 minutes but the ones you saw may have had the keynote speaking in between gameplay.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/11/2018 at 05:02am

Yeah, Super Shotgun was my favorite and most used weapon. I did finally watch one of the videos. They're both about 20 minutes long and it is when the two guys were presenting the gameplay, which does look awesome. I like the additions they've made. They also said this one is visually superior, "fidelity" they said, and at 60fps. No release date announced, but they did mention the 2014 Quakecon where they revealed Doom 2016. This makes me think we're still a year, maybe two, away from release.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/12/2018 at 04:04am

Did anyone catch the Fallout 76 video? I didn't look at any of them. At least one of them was pretty long. They apparently had a Q&A session. I was wondering if someone watched those videos and could give a summary. Here's an article I found about how nukes work: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/heres-how-fallout-76s-nukes-work-and-what-they-do/1100-6461104/

Travis Admin wrote on 08/12/2018 at 04:42am

I did not, they didn't even mention that much in the Keynote did they? That gamespot article echoes (and elaborates a bit on) what they've been saying about nukes and anti-griefing measures. I just hope they're done well. Trolls gonna troll, you know?

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/12/2018 at 05:16am

If you look at their YouTube channel, you'll see the Fallout 76 Q&A. It's almost an hour long. There are also a few other shorter Fallout 76 videos, much like others we've seen before.

https://www.youtube.com/user/BethesdaSoftworks/videos

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/12/2018 at 05:41am

Oh, the video I mentioned is actually a GameSpot video. I decided to watch it. I noticed it doesn't actually start until 13 minutes in, so I'll provide a link below that begins when the stuff begins.

https://youtu.be/4IDLGUO7zXk?t=13m23s

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/12/2018 at 06:56am

After watching the video I shared in my last comment, I have a better perspective on Fallout 76. It doesn't seem like PVP is going to be a major problem, there are some really good anti-griefing things going on. You can even block someone and they won't be able to see you on the map. I think it'd be awesome if somehow we could get a Cheerful Ghost server for Fallout 76, I'd feel more comfortable playing with friends instead of strangers. Voice chat is included in the game, which is cool because I already have a good headset. Anyway, I suggest watching the video I shared.

Fallout 76 comes on November 11th, but I'll be busy playing the new Ark Expansion that arrives on November 6th. I'm still kind of hesitant about Fallout 76. I'm thinking of waiting until it's been out at least for a little while to see what it's like and what others say about it before jumping in. It does sound cool though. I was afraid it'd be a Fallout version of GTA Online, but that doesn't quite seem to be the case.

Travis Admin wrote on 08/12/2018 at 01:24pm

It looks like the idea of playing on a Cheerful Ghost instance in Fallout 76 may be possible eventually but not at launch. From what they’ve said previously, private games will come later. Which is unfortunate but I guess understandable.

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Something Is Happening With Diablo III This Year

According to this recent Diablo III video "The forges here at Blizzard are burning hot and we have multiple Diablo projects in the works. Some of them may take longer than others but we might have some things to show you later this year." Usually this kind of news is pretty cool to hear but with the ups and downs of Diablo III and it not getting a follow up after Reaper of Souls i'm not sure what to make of it. Blizzard has hinted at a Diablo III Switch version and I well imagine that's gonna do well and it will be a great game to play on the Switch, it's just... at this point I think it's better if Blizzard just doesn't hint anything and drops whatever news when it's... Read All

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/11/2018 at 01:39am

I saw a similar video recently with that girl. She said exactly the thing you quoted. She also said seasons are now going to be themed and the first theme is greed. I don't really know what to expect or hope to expect with Diablo's future. From what I've read, which is probably mostly from our site, is that it seems people are expecting another expansion. Proof is in what you've posted here. To me, I don't see a reason to "wrap up the Leia storyline," because as far as I can tell, it's over and done with. Maybe I'm missing something you're seeing. I'd also like to see a new Diablo game, Diablo 4. Maybe they'll give D2 the remastered treatment. Only time will tell, but it's a bit exciting to know that Diablo still has a future.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/11/2018 at 01:45am

> I saw a similar video recently with that girl. She said exactly the thing you quoted.

Yep, that's the one I linked above.

> To me, I don't see a reason to "wrap up the Leia storyline," because as far as I can tell, it's over and done with. Maybe I'm missing something you're seeing.

At the end of Diablo III Leia is used to make Diablo come back and essentially is lost in hell or something. It's a really sad development and I was HOPING that she could be broken out of hell or detached from bringing Diablo back. Since she was Diablo's daughter she wasn't bad, she just had bad parents and they used her to bring Diablo back. She didn't choose that she was just used to do it. I felt that was a sad way to go and something that needed to be corrected by going into wherever to bust her out.

> Maybe they'll give D2 the remastered treatment.

Oh right, that's totally going to happen. I'm curious it that will be after WarCraft III or before?

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/11/2018 at 02:20am

>At the end of Diablo III Leia is used to make Diablo come back and essentially is lost in hell or something. It's a really sad development and I was HOPING that she could be broken out of hell or detached from bringing Diablo back. Since she was Diablo's daughter she wasn't bad, she just had bad parents and they used her to bring Diablo back. She didn't choose that she was just used to do it. I felt that was a sad way to go and something that needed to be corrected by going into wherever to bust her out.

I see. It would be cool if they created an expansion to rescue her. I guess I assumed that once Diablo was reborn, she was no more. Perhaps, she (as in her soul) became trapped in Diablo's new body or Hell. I see what you're saying and I agree it would be cool.

I feel like I'd really like to see Diablo 4, but feel like D3 is still very active, so I doubt they'll let it go any time soon. Perhaps Diablo III's future is a DLC. It does kind of suck when dev's tease such things. We don't know what it could be and all we can do is take wild guesses, especially based on our hopes. The unfortunate side is that we may get our hopes up for something that doesn't happen, then we're disappointed.

I'm interested in seeing what our other fellow Cheerful Ghosts think *cough Travis *cough* LOL.

Oh and yeah this was the video I watched, I just didn't recognize the still image. I didn't watch the video, before replying, because I assumed it was a slightly different video and contained the same info. But, I just played it real quick and realized it's the same!

Travis Admin wrote on 08/11/2018 at 03:06am

First off y’all I know we talk about Star Wars a lot but Leia ain’t in Diablo III :D

But I interpreted the scene way differently than you did when Leah was taken over, as her body being entirely consumed by Diablo. And when we destroy Diablo we destroy her body.

So she’s dead just like anyone else who dies. It’s Diablo so if they don’t want Leah to stay dead she can come back but I never felt like they left anything unsaid with her story. In fact the loss of Leah is what drives the emotion of the story and if she came back it would just feel like... well, there’s no real risk or anything because anyone can just come back at any time.

Not that Diablo III’s storytelling was at the forefront. It serves its purpose to push the story along.

For some reason I never expected more than one expansion. Perhaps because of Lord of Destruction, Frozen Throne, and Brood War I’m just used to single-expansion games from Blizz. Starcraft II is really the outlier. I was surprised when we got the Necromancer DLC (not really a full expansion) and impressed with it and pretty content.

That said... these kinds of teases aren’t great. I really wish developers would wait a while until there’s something to talk about. I’ve recently read rumors about a Diablo II remaster, which I think we’ve been expecting anyway, so I’m betting one I’d those projects in the works is that remake. And maybe we’ll get another small DLC like the Necro pack but I doubt we get a full expansion.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/11/2018 at 03:24am

Jon started calling her Leia, I just repeated it out of ignorance. LOL Anyway, yeah I guess I see her story like you did, she died when Diablo was resurrected. I guess that's why I never felt like there was anything missing there.

I can't imagine what kind of DLC or expansion we'd get for D3.

I'd like to point out the title of this post, Something Is Happening With Diablo III This Year, but the quote says, "we might have some things to show you later this year." I don't think that means something will happen with D3 this year. They said, "we have multiple Diablo projects in the works." They didn't specify if those were D3 projects or whatever. But, they said they might have some things to show us, it could be that they'll at least have an announcement or trailer for something by the end of the year. We'll see, but at least we know Diablo still has a future.

Travis Admin wrote on 08/11/2018 at 03:26am

They may have come out with a non-announcement tease because of the rumor mill, actually. Just to kinda say "yes, the rumors are true, but we aren't ready to talk about it." Because without that people may have been disappointed when an announcement didn't come.

But that's a tough balance because if they stay silent on it now for a long time people will be clamoring for it.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/11/2018 at 03:55am

> So she’s dead just like anyone else who dies. It’s Diablo so if they don’t want Leah to stay dead she can come back but I never felt like they left anything unsaid with her story.

She'll be back like the Terminator, mark my words. That said I disagree. If Diablo can come back infinitely then she can too I mean maybe she has the "never really dies" thing from her Dad. Hopefully it doesn't skip a generation.

Travis Admin wrote on 08/11/2018 at 04:32am

Haha, I hope she has the cybernetic thing going on like Arnie!

I just think that when a secondary character dies in a way that serves the plot really well (which she did) and when that death has an emotional impact (which this did), it cheapens it when they come back. I hope she doesn't unless they have a very good reason for it.

One way I could see it working, the human side of her is kinda gone and it's all the demon side left and she's an act boss, and somehow with some Tyrael magic she can be restored. But still............. I dunno, I kinda hope she stays dead for the story.

It's like the Final Fantasy VII where the mechanics and rules of the world would suggest that Aerith should have been easy to resurrect but she stayed out because of the story.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/11/2018 at 05:03am

*sniff* Aerith. I always put her in my party even knowing what was going to happen to her. She did come back in Advent Children, as a ghost/soul/angel/whatever.

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