(On the flip side, if Twitch chat sounds awful to you for any reason, our embedded livestream will protect you from it.) We'll embed the video here, but you'll need to click through to Twitch if you want to use its chat functionality. Should we run into technical difficulties for any reason, I have the original D2 client installed, and either way, I'll be here streaming via the Ars Technica Twitch channel for three hours, until 4:30 pm EDT. I'm adding a half hour of buffer time just in case. (Vicarious Visions' last game, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2, proved some serious game-remake chops.) The abbreviated road to hellīlizzard is also letting me stream my gameplay with zero restrictions, so if you don't want to wait for my typed impressions, you can tune in by returning to this very page at 1:30 pm EDT on Thursday, April 8. The company sure seems to think so, having reportedly ripped the project from its original Blizzard Classic team and handed it to Vicarious Visions. Surprise or no, it's a welcome chance at Blizzard semi-redemption. Its refresh was a terribly kept secret up until its formal February 2021 announcement. I love Diablo II, and I love the idea of a refreshed, allegiant Diablo II. Twenty-one years later, Diablo II's gameplay core holds up remarkably well and certainly more so than the original, genius-yet-clunky Diablo. Having said that, there's arguably a larger audience in the world that has moved on from WarCraft III yet still has a soft spot for one of Blizzard's most enduring classic games: Diablo II. After a no-show at BlizzCon 2021, the developer blamed 'the nature of the world today' in March for a lack of updates, even though fans had created their own grassroots WC3R solutions in that same span of time.)

(Representatives for multiple Activision and Blizzard projects have still yet to respond to my ongoing questions about WC3R. That's harsh stuff for anyone who chose to spend $30 (or more) on Reforged, so it still needs fixing before we can pretend the company's shaky reputation is anywhere near restored. Further Reading Activision releases online-only PC game without online content, cracked in one dayAfter successfully spit-shining StarCraft Remastered in 2016, the Blizzard Classic team followed with the unforgivable milkweed that is WarCraft III: Reforged-and I say 'unforgivable' because we're currently eight unfulfilled months beyond that game's last tease of highly demanded features.

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