Blizzard just patched Diablo II… after nearly 5 years

Blizzard has patched one of its most popular games of all time. Diablo III? No. World of Warcraft? No. Starcraft II? You have to think older, my friend. Stay awhile and listen.

Blizzard just patched Diablo II. The last time they did this was in October of 2011, and now they have version 1.14a out in the wild.

Why? System glitches “introduced by modern operating systems.” Thanks a lot, OSX and Windows 10. Blizzard announced the news on their forums. Here’s exactly what’s going on with Diablo II‘s latest patch.

It’s been a long time coming, but today we’re releasing 1.14a for Diablo II.

This update focuses on system glitches introduced by modern operating systems. In related news, you can finally retire those old Mac PowerPCs. Included with the update is a shiny new installer for OSX.

We’ve also begun working to improve our cheat-detection and hack-prevention capabilities. There’s still work to be done, but we’re making improvements every day.

There is still a large Diablo II community around the world, and we thank you for continuing to play and slay with us. This journey starts by making Diablo II run on modern platforms, but it does not end there. See you in Sanctuary, adventurers.

Awesome. That OSX installer will be handy for Diablo II on the go. Time for another Baal Run? I think so.

SOURCE BLIZZARD

AMD’s incredible XConnect tech brings desktop graphics to notebooks

This has been a problem since I was reviewing laptops at LAPTOP Magazine almost a decade ago: laptop computers are awesome for gaming if you’re willing to throw down the cost for a beefy gaming system. But, for most of us, our laptops just can’t game as well as a desktop. AMD is going to try to fix that with new XConnect technology, which is being worked on in collaboration with Intel and Razer.

AMD XConnect uses a Thunderbolt 3 connection to connect to an external GPU enclosure that’s outfitted with a Radeon R9 300 series graphics card. That card is then able to power games on the laptop computer, and it’s what powers the Razer Core system that we first saw at CES. The Razer Core is an accessory that enables the Razer Blade Stealth, and otherwise thin and light notebook, to run the latest games. That’s just one laptop that will work with the XConnect tech, but we should expect many more, in addition to other enclosures and graphics cards.

Sadly, the pricing wasn’t announced yet, but we shouldn’t expect it to cost much more than a Radeon R9 300-series graphics card since the rest of the tech is under the surface. Cool stuff.

SOURCE AMD

New King of Fighters 14 Trailer Shows Small But Deadly Characters

SNK Playmore has released a new trailer and screenshots for King of Fighters XIV, its upcoming PS4-exclusive fighting game. The new gameplay video and images focus on three returning characters.

The first is Tung Fu Rue, who made his debut in SNK's Fatal Fury and is a master of the Hakkyokuseiken style. Although he may look like a frail old man, Tung has trained some of the series' strongest fighters, and looks to be in sprightly shape for the newest entry in the series.

The next character is Choi Bounge, the South Korean menace that fights with Freddie Krueger like claws on both hands. As always, Choi looks like he's going to have a very quick fighting style and be an absolute pain to deal with.

Finally, is Chin Gentsai, the Drunken Fist Master. As drunk and as deadly looking as always. Take a look at the video above to see them all in action. Alternatively, check out the screenshot gallery below for more images.

As announced previously, although the new KOF is still presented from a side-on perspective, the game is being built with 3D assets. Traditionally, the series has used detailed, 2D animated sprites, with a few exceptions over the years.

KOF 14 was announced during the PlayStation press conference at Tokyo Game Show: "This brand new KOF numbered series title features high-quality 3D visuals, however staying true to the gameplay roots of the series," SNK Playmore said at the time.

As of yet, the game has only been announced for PS4, it is unclear whether the title will be exclusive to Sony's console. The last game in the series, King of Fighters 13, was released on Xbox 360 and PC.

The game is scheduled to launch in 2016, but no specific date beyond this has been provided.

source: gamespot