Editor’s Note: A lawsuit has been filed against Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, which alleges the company has engaged in abuse, discrimination, and retaliation against its female employees. Activision Blizzard has denied the allegations. The full details of the Activision Blizzard lawsuit (content warning: rape, suicide, abuse, harassment) are being updated as new information becomes available.
Following the fiery technical beta for Diablo II: Resurrected and its full release with just a few weeks left to go, developer Vicarious Visions and publisher Blizzard Entertainment have given additional insight regarding some features from the remaster, including why players won't be able to utilize the full width of their 21:9 screens when the game launches.
Diablo II: Resurrected was revealed earlier this year at BlizzCon and promised to be a full remaster of the cult-favorite role-playing hack-and-slash that came out nearly 20 years ago. Blizzard Entertainment teased the game in high-res 4K with 3D visuals, new animations, spell effects, and a brand new Dolby 7.1 surround sound mix that promised to change the game's immersion. The title soon went on to receive a private technical alpha test that utilized its features and players who wanted to participate needed to sign up to play. Last month, however, Diablo II: Resurrected received an open beta, with a reduced screen size of 19:9 instead of the full 21:9 ultrawide aspect ratio like the prior alpha test. This left many players wondering why the changes were made and Blizzard has officially responded.
As expected, Blizzard has outlined the reasoning behind Diablo II: Resurrected's limitations on a forum post via their website, explaining to players that 21:9 ultrawide support breaks the game. According to the developers, a 21:9 aspect ratio pushes the possible attack range beyond the maximum, and enemies targeted from the extended range simply fail to recognize they are being attacked and don't react. Blizzard acknowledged that players with expensive ultrawide monitors are annoyed by the black bars they received during the beta. In response to this, Blizzard has said that it would continue to explore possible solutions that don’t change how the game is played, hinting at a possible fix post-launch. Additionally, Blizzard has also clarified that its removing TCP/IP support from multiplayer due to it "enabling significant security-related issues".
In the past, some competitive games like Overwatch have completely removed ultrawide due to its wider aspect ratio giving players an unfair advantage, especially with crossplay being added. Diablo II: Resurrected will not feature crossplay, however, but will feature cross-progression that allows players to take their progress with them on any platform. Blizzard has also outlined that additional changes will be coming to console lobbies in the full version of the game. One of the major changes will give players the option to easily group with others based on different activities, but will not include the ability to create custom lobbies, despite requests.
Coming out later this month, Diablo II: Resurrected will follow the famous series in 4K, twenty years after its release. Players who enjoyed the beta can look forward to their favorite hack and slash adventure, remastered, while Blizzard continues development on the next anticipated title in the role-playing series, Diablo 4.
Diablo II: Resurrected comes to Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S later on September 23, 2021.
Source: Blizzard