D2 Expansion Update
Just received this from Shadow:
The latest “retailer” mailout to stores from JOAG makes no mention of JOAG parting with Blizzard, however… the mailout did have a very heavy Take 2 Interactive theme. For starters, the mailout had the heading of “Take 2 Interactive Presents” (instead of the usual JOAG presents)… they (JOAG) were once again pimping Max Payne like crazy but make no mention whatsoever of the upcoming D2 Expansion, not even deeming it worthy enough to be listed under their “Other Upcoming Hot Titles” … I find this strange.
He says he’ll keep us posted as there is more to come.
Also heard from another BK reader whose name I can’t find at the moment (will post the credit as soon as I find it) who took the pre-emptive step of getting in-touch with Vivendi Universal here in Australia to find out what was going on with the Diablo 2 expansion. The only reply he got was standard PR speak, that they’re working hard on getting it out ASAP and that he would be “pleasantly surprised”.
UPDATE: As copies of the Expansion start showing up in stores all over the US tonight (today for them), I have it on very good authority that those who were concerned about taking their existing characters into the new game have nothing to fear. There were rumours the Expansion stripped items and/or skill values from existing characters, but I’m happy to inform you everything makes it to Harrogath unchanged. Once taken over, characters will no longer be able to be used again in previous versions of (vanilla) D2, but that has been the same for every D2 patch. And anyway, why would you?
The main benefit of taking an existing character over is being closer to going to Harrogath in Hell difficulty. The Expansion carefully regulates the level of items dropped in each difficulty, with Hell difficulty being the only time top shelf (Elite) items become available. Apparently Normal is a bit of a cakewalk and the quality of item drops is generally pretty ordinary so the sooner you get to the final difficulty level the sooner you can start reaping those really potent (new) set pieces. You will still have to complete the Fifth Act in both Normal and Nightmare before you will be able to play in Hell difficulty, however - [monty]
posted by splash · at 9:28 am · filed under Site News