Blizzard celebrates the Diablo 20th anniversary with special events and rewards in each of its Battle.net games
Though the Diablo franchise might have fallen out of the spotlight in recent years, Blizzard hasn’t forgotten about the powerhouse franchise’s 20th anniversary. To commemorate two decades of dungeon-crawling, loot-hoarding fun, Blizzard has unleashed a little piece of Sanctuary into each of its other games, as well as a special level in Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls that allows players to journey back to the place it all started: the darkest depths of the Tristram Cathedral.
Until Jan. 9 you can pick up cosmetic rewards and play several special game modes in Hearthstone, Overwatch, Starcraft 2 and Heroes of the Storm, as well as confront the legendary Cow King in World of Warcraft for a chance to earn several hard-to-get rewards.
The Diablo 3 event will continue until the end of January and features a re-creation of the original game in the Diablo 3 engine, with some graphical filters and retro animations to give it an old school look.
Diablo 3 and its expansion are also currently on sale as part of the celebration, and both are available for roughly $20.
Watch Blizzard’s Diablo retrospective below:
Steam has announced the winners of its first ever Steam Awards contest
The months leading up to Steam’s winter sale saw gamers picking nominees for Valve’s first ever Steam Awards, where the game publisher gave the spotlight to several of the Steam platform’s most popular games and franchises. The Steam community also had the opportunity to create its own award category: the Better With Friends award.
The winners are as follows:
Villain Most In Need Of A Hug: Portal 2
I Thought This Game Was Cool Before It Won An Award: Euro Truck Simulator 2
Test of Time: Skyrim
Just 5 More Minutes: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Whoooaaaaaaa, dude!: Grand Theft Auto 5
Game Within A Game: Grand Theft Auto 5
I’m Not Crying, There’s Something In My Eye: The Walking Dead
Best Use Of A Farm Animal: Goat Simulator
Boom Boom: Doom (2016)
Love/Hate Relationship: Dark Souls III
Sit Back and Relax: Euro Truck Simulator 2
Better With Friends: Left 4 Dead 2
You can check out the full list of nominees and winners on the official Steam website here.
Mass Effect: Andromeda release date set for March 21, 2017
Mass Effect fans have been waiting for any tidbit of information they can get on the franchise’s newest title, Mass Effect: Andromeda, since it was announced in June of 2015. Since then we’ve seen trailers, sneak peeks and developer insights drip fed to us every few months. And now we also have a release date for the much anticipated Sci-Fi RPG: March 21, 2017.
According to Aaryn Flynn, General Manager of BioWare, through a blog post on the game’s official website, Bioware developers took home what they call a “holiday build” in order to receive feedback. Based on the reception, the developer has decided they’re comfortable pitching an expected release date.
According to Flynn’s post, creating an entirely new story, environment and gameplay system, as well as changing the game’s basic engine, has been the company’s most ambitious endeavor yet and the developers have been pleased with the positive community reception they’ve received so far.
Watch Mass Effect: Andromeda’s cinematic trailer below:
