Old Games Need Love Too: Diablo 2 Gets New Patch

Robsavillo
Friday, December 11, 2009

Too many developers and publishers abandon support of well-loved games -- Sega plans to close down servers for Chromehounds in a few weeks and Gearbox is yet to fix Borderlands' game-crashing general protection fault error in the PC version. But just yesterday, Blizzard released a new patch for a nearly 10-year-old game -- Diablo 2. Is there any reason to wonder how the company has held such goodwill among players?

Diablo 2


 

From the patch notes:

- Players of Hell Difficulty Realm games are hereby warned once again, that a series of new and challenging tests await you! The answer lies within Diablo's Bosses, which span across the world from the Den of Evil to the Throne of Destruction...

- Fixed an item dupe bug.

- Video improvements for Intel Mac machines with OS 10.5 or greater.

- Uber Mephisto now checks for both Uber Baal and Uber Diablo to be killed before spawning summoned minions (Before he would only check for Uber Baal).

- The game will no longer stop and then restart the game music after the window loses and then regains focus.

- Fixed an issue where the game window would minimize when running in windowed mode when it lost focus.

- Fixed an issue where the game window wouldn't center properly when it was created.

- Respecialization is now possible! Completing the 'Den of Evil' quest will now additionally reward 1 free respec which can be saved. Players who have already completed this quest should receive 1 free respec in Hell difficulty.

- Increased the drop rate of high runes.

- Support for blit scaling in windowed mode. The game can now be maximized to the largest 4:3 resolution supported (hooray widescreen users).


We'd all love to see more developers continue to support their games as Blizzard does. After all, older games are as much a part of our culture as newer ones. Who wasn't hoping the game-breaking bugs in Might and Magic 9 would be fixed, or that Microprose would have corrected the research tree bugs in X-Com: Terror from the Deep, which leave the game unwinnable? What about the horribly broken state in which Sierra On-Line left Outpost?

Hopefully developers have taken notice of what Blizzard has done and will follow suit with their own games. We can dream, can't we?

 
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Comments (7)
Darkeavy
December 10, 2009
I love seeing companies going back and patching older games! As long as its not Counter-strike *Glares at Valve*
Default_picture
December 10, 2009
great find - just goes to show little gestures like this can really reinforces customer loyalty. Blizzard has one my vote of RESPECT! and I don't even play WoW :)
Twitpic
December 10, 2009
That is the coolest news ever! And the great part is I just reinstalled the game when I couldn't get Torchlight.
5211_100857553261324_100000112393199_12455_5449490_n
December 10, 2009
What's hilarious is the amount of people who bitch and complain WHILE subscribing to World of Warcraft... INSIDE World of Warcraft about how Blizzard sucks because they "nerfed" X or "OP'ed" Y. They're a fantastic, amazing, detail-oriented company EVEN AFTER restructuring and they have my deepest respect as a consumer.
Profile_pic4
December 11, 2009
I love Blizzard even though I give them a lot of crap for being painfully slow to release a game (will we see Diablo III before Christmas.. 2010?!?). No other company nurtures a product like Blizzard. Played this game non-stop for almost 5 years, through numerous patches and ladders. Ah the memories. I'd still rate my level 94 Hardcore Sorc as my greatest gaming accomplishment. *sigh* I am seriously considering reinstalling D2 on my new PC.
Default_picture
December 11, 2009
I don't care if they add the Queen of England as the final boss. I can't play Diablo 2 again. Bring on Diablo 3!
Default_picture
January 09, 2010
A respec? Took fucking long enough.

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