If you’ve read my previous blog post you’ll know I’m a big fan of the original Diablo. If you want an in depth look at the GOG version go there.

The news is in the title but there’s a bit you may not know about Hellfire. There are hidden classes, disabled quests and a disabled multiplayer.

Hellfire is added to the splash screen

Enabling the hidden classes and disabled quests is very simple.

1. Open Notepad
2. Paste just this one line in the file: cowquest;theoquest;bardtest;multitest;barbariantest;
3. Save that file in your Hellfire install folder as command.txt

This is the default Hellfire install folder when using GOG Galaxy:

C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Diablo\hellfire

Start Hellfire and you should now see the Bard and Barbarian available.

I have been unable to get the Hellfire multiplayer to work. GOG uses the 1.01 Hellfire patch which requires a modified hellfrui.dll file. I have that file which works with the original disk version. Unfortunately when I try to use it with the GOG version I get an error at character creation. “Unable to create character”. In any case that multiplayer mode is IPX only anyway.

Enjoy!

If you haven’t heard the classic Diablo has been re-released by GOG.com. It’s $10 as of this writing, I picked it up immediately. I experienced many ‘firsts’ with the original Diablo in 1997. It was my first guild experience, first action RPG and my first experience with cheats and how destructive they were.

The introduction of Battle.net simply connected clients to each other and the clients were trusted to do whatever they wished. ‘Trainer’ programs started to compete for who could break Diablo the most. There was nothing to lose, nobody could be banned. It had no copy protection other than a simple CD check, no CD keys or DRM. Any copy of a Diablo CD, CD-R, ISO, etc could connect to Battle.net. It was the wild west, great and terrible. Blizzard eventually declared they had no plans to sell Diablo again and mired in bots and cheats it faded away as abandonware…only not quite.

A dedicated fan base maintains patches for modern Windows (Diablo Patch, Belzebub and Strange Bytes being the most popular) and archive.org even made the full game ISO download available. Thankfully Blizzard never shut off their Battle.net server(s). So why buy a new GOG version? Well it gets pretty complicated when you compare features but basically GOG provides a classic Diablo experience without dealing with patching, modding or keeping an ISO mounted.

GOG provides you with two versions. Diablo Classic is a fullscreen only original SVGA graphics version with Battle.net access. There’s no scaling for resolution so unless you make changes to your monitor it’s going to stretch that 640 x 480 to your monitor’s aspect ratio resulting in an ugly picture. The other option is enhanced with custom resolutions, windowed and full screen, v-sync and a few other visual enhancements but can’t connect to Battle.net, LAN only. It’s the best running Diablo patch to date and the only real reason to buy the GOG version.

So far I haven’t been able to get any of my favorite mods working with either GOG version since it comes with an updated Diablo.exe named 1.09 V2 and I really wish it had cloud saves through GOG Galaxy. It runs great though on all four Windows 10 systems I’ve tested. No messing with an ISO, patches or mods. I’ll have to try Hamachi to play with friends online in a virtual LAN. I hope GOG encourages more people to play this classic and stay away from the cheats!

EDIT!! – GOG has added Hellfire to their version so the steps below are now obsolete. You can read my new blog post about that here.

P.S. I’ve figured out how to get Hellfire working on the GOG version but it requires a CD or ISO of Diablo.

1. Install  GOG Diablo to a folder outside Program Files (C:\GOGDiablo for example)
2. Install Hellfire to its default location (C:\SIERRA\HELLFIRE
3. Copy the contents of the HELLFIRE folder to your GOG Diablo folder – DO NOT OVERWRITE the GOG Diablo files.
4. Insert or mount your original Diablo CD or ISO
5. Run Hellfire.exe from your GOG Diablo folder

At first glance Project Warlock is just another shooter and that’s why you should play it. It’s a testament to how a simple formula can be special through attention to detail. It’s not going to wow you with innovative gameplay. The enemy AI is from 1996. The skill and level mechanic is good but nothing new. You’ve seen most of its weapons before. When you play it you realize none of those drawbacks matter.

The locations and monsters are diverse and well animated. Each of the five episodes has their own set of monsters, loot, even the health and mana pickups are unique. The flavor of each episode includes unique map designs. In the Ancient Egypt dungeons for instance you’ll run into numerous traps while in Hell you have to navigate narrow pits.  It shows refined experience, iteration and play testing. They took Romero’s rules for DOOM map making and updated them to include modern design principles. The city felt like Duke Nukem, the graveyard felt like Wolf 3D and Hell felt like DOOM 2 but I never got lost like in some of those older map designs.

Shooting and melee feel satisfying from the beginning and have some unique qualities. I had to get used to throwing my knife to conserve ammo and charging up my magical staff before getting to the more commonly understood weapons like a chain gun that has to spin up before firing. The weapon upgrade kept all of my weapons relevant too. I stopped using the normal shotgun for a while after getting the super shotgun but after upgrading it to a long range slug I switched to it regularly again. I used every weapon on the final boss and three of my spells.

Of course there’s a few things to complain about – the AI is terrible and I wish the game was longer but I paid $10 for it on GOG.com and it’s worth more than that. It’s a joy to play and worth your time.

Homeworld is a real-time strategy classic that reminds me of a time when PC gaming was miles ahead of console titles in complexity, mechanics, and graphics. Without worrying if PC Gamers could handle controlling fleets of ships in three dimensions Relic Entertainment just went for it. The UI, AI and pacing were developed to compensate this immense task. Real-time strategy was peaking and mouse/keyboard controls were the holy grail of control.

Homeworld: Remastered doesn’t seek to change Relic’s vision. Their balancing act was near perfect even by today’s standards. It updates the graphics of course but it also improved the UI in exactly the right ways. We’re no longer playing on square CRT’s and the old bar across the bottom isn’t going to work. The new UI gives us separate blocks of information and smartly presents it as we click for it. The new vertical bar used when selecting your mothership for example gives you everything you could want to know immediately.

The original balance of mechanics is what made Homeworld special in 1999 and it’s why the game is still great to play today. Gearbox was smart not to change it. The story is also well done and worth discovering for new players. Maybe you used to like the genre more than you do now. If that’s the case I challenge you to rekindle that fire in Homeworld: Remastered.

I think if more RTS games with this complexity and faith in the player’s ability to handle that complexity existed, the RTS space wouldn’t be as desolate as it is today.

Subnautica captures the wonder of exploring an alien world better than any game I’ve played in the past 30 years. I avoided it for too long thinking it was just another survival game but in water. A friend convinced me to pick it up and I played through it obsessively. I’ve heard the game can be completed in 20-30 hours but it took me over 40 and that was just the first time I completed it.

Discovering places like the Jellyshroom Caves or Silt Striders was so moving I can remember the wonder, the emotion and the terror of every biome. Unlike almost everything I’ve played in the past I had no weapons, no feeling of control or dominance. Every moment outside the Safe Shallows I am prey. Exploring suffocating tunnels and open, dark ocean generate primal fears without even showing predators. Today is my older daughter’s 4th birthday. Without knowing objectives or game mechanics she enjoys sitting on my lap, watching and fearing the dark ocean, that basic fear is in all of us.

Then the story kicks in. I won’t spoil anything but the first time I saw the Sunbeam ship I audibly declared “oh, shit” and my friend responded “Welcome to Subnautica”. The story helps push progression forward further separating it from other survival games. As you gain new capabilities your ability to explore further and deeper reveals a past and present you can learn from. It’s then your turn to shape the future of Planet 4546B.

Subnautica is not without faults so I’m going to list them to temper expectations.

• Graphic pop-in is the biggest negative. No matter how beefy your PC the game code is going to pop textures on you. I’ve tried various “fixes” online but it’s futile, the game code is what it is.
• Movement on land is weird. It’s almost like your character is drunk or refuses to stand up straight. Since you’re not on land for long it’s not a big deal.
• The inventory system could be better especially inside bases. I wish I could fabricate stuff from storage within a base
• Late game forces you to back-track too much to complete the final pieces

With that said it’s my Game of the Year for 2018. I’ve pre-ordered the Early Access expansion ‘Below Zero’ and I’m filled with wonder all over again. My daughter is asking me to get eaten by a Leviathan so I have to go.

If you’ve played Advance Wars, Fire Emblem or Tactics Ogre you know exactly what to expect from Wargroove. If you haven’t played any classic turn-based tactics games the easiest explanation is to see it in action. I’ve played through the first few chapters this week and it’s an instant buy in my book.

I’ve never been into the cute art style of Japanese RPGs from which Wargroove gets its inspiration but I’ve always loved tactical gameplay. The mechanics most resemble Advance Wars while the art reminds me more of Tactics Ogre or Final Fantasy Tactics.

Wargroove does a few things to stand out from previous titles.

• Each unit type has a specific way to produce a critical hit. For example the pikemen will always crit if standing next to another pikeman.
• Commanders are important, constantly used units and each has a unique ability. You have to be careful to keep them alive but they’re also stronger than other units and won’t die to a single bad choice.
• 2-4 player multiplayer looks promising though I haven’t had a chance to try it
• There’s a co-op mode I haven’t tried yet either but it looks promising. I’ll be posting another article after getting to try the multiplayer modes
• It also has a few other modes I’m excited to try – an editor to make your own missions and cut-scenes, arcade mode (I just unlocked the cute dog for this) and a puzzle mode
• The developer Chucklefish has a strong history of supporting their games post-release (Starbound, Stardew Valley)

So far the Campaign mode has taken all of my gameplay time and is worth the $20 price tag alone. The story is generic so I’d recommend this to anyone who enjoys strategy but don’t buy it expecting an epic tale. If you’ve never played a tactics game you should watch some of the gameplay first. Tactics games of this nature are repetitive since you’re moving individual units around a board and sometimes there’s a lot of them. It’s not for everyone but it’s exactly the type of game I love and can lose many hours playing.

Wargroove is available now for PC, Switch, XOne and coming soon to PS4.

Respawn Entertainment released their new free-to-play game Apex Legends on Monday (2/4). Speculation surrounded leaks about a Titanfall Battle Royale game and we now know it doesn’t involve Titans, parkour movement or the Titanfall name. At first I was disappointed but after playing, it’s a solid game. Here’s my initial thoughts after a couple hours of play.

• I like the three-man squad mechanics. Reviving and healing, sharing equipment and communication all come naturally as the game steers you.
• The Ping system is excellent, reminds me of Battlefield but streamlined for a 3 man game.
• The ‘battle royale’ mechanics are very PUBG which is both good and bad. I’ve lost several rounds before getting a gun or simply being outgunned which isn’t really fun though it does get the adrenaline pumping.
• Gun play is solid, straight from Titanfall but minus the blistering speed of Titanfall it feels easier but that also means your opponents have an easier time too.
• All weapons shoot actual projectiles with tracers which really helps find enemy positions and increases the difficulty of sniper shots, no hit scan here.
• Jumping into a new game is nearly instantaneous. This is important for any single-life online game since that makes death such a burden but quickly forgotten.
• It’s too early to pass judgment on the weapons and abilities but my initial feeling of the ‘Legends’ special abilities is they’re too slow to recharge. This is because fire fights are so short and frantic. If they want to keep abilities to one-per-encounter maybe a recharge system that increases in speed when the player isn’t shooting.
• The map is diverse but has some iconic locations I’ve already learned to navigate.

My first day thoughts are mostly positive here, I’m excited to play more and really learn the meta of the map. Unfortunately Respawn has confirmed there’s no Titanfall 3 in the works which makes me sad.

If you missed it, EA showed off their new shooter Anthem over the weekend with a free demo on PC and consoles. I found time to play a couple co-op missions and here’s why I’m waiting to see more before ordering.

The game opens into a city filled with people. I couldn’t talk to any random NPCs I walked into but hey, it’s a demo! So I followed my quest marker and was told I needed to retrieve a really important thing for my first mission. The tutorial was my favorite kind, here’s a blurb, now go do it. Then gives you things and short blurbs on how to use/equip them. Getting to the action is quick and tutorials help keep things intuitive. I had no problem finding the mission and crawling into the Javelin suit was well done.

After a long loading screen (s’ok it’s not a finished product!) I was placed with three other identical looking players who appeared to be as new as I was. We fumbled with our jet packs as we chased a quest marker. One of the first things I noticed was how sparse and barren the world looked. In many places just flat textures on the ground and the occasional wildlife would fly by or crawl past and I couldn’t see wildlife until I was nearly on top of them. They would literally pop in front of me while chasing the quest marker.

Once one of my teammates reached the destination first I received a notification I was too far away and was presented with a loading screen, yuck. A teammate and I finished loading and found the other two way ahead of us, I guess while we were loading in a spot, they were still moving. Before we could catch up, it happened again but we figured out our jet packs and managed to keep up the rest of our mission.

After fighting waves of enemies in a few places we completed the first mission which ended in a large room with a “puzzle”. I use quotes because it was simply three switches that each had to be set to a specific color completing the objective. Since we couldn’t communicate there was no way to discuss what worked and what didn’t. We didn’t find any hints in the mission and so spent several minutes blindly alternating these three buttons colors until we received a mission complete message.

This brings me to my list of complaints –

• The distance between teammates is way too small to prompt a load screen. If we were transitioning to a new area or a scripted event occurred I could understand but that wasn’t happening.
• The world looks generic, flat and boring. It lacks the detail of Destiny or the diversity of Borderlands.
• The rifle and shotgun felt weak, like I was shooting pellets but the grenades and rockets were satisfying.
• Jet pack controls are obviously made for a controller and feel awkward on mouse/keyboard. The hover control into shooting is especially strange but pick up a controller and it makes sense.
• The city felt lifeless despite being filled with NPCs. Every time I load into town they’re in the same place making the same gestures.

These are all things that could be fixed in the future but are enough to convince me not to preorder. I’d be interested in trying another demo on PS4 to see how different it feels. Art, sound and balancing could fix the issues I have with the guns but if this is the demo intended to sell me the product I don’t see that happening. Here’s to hoping the finished product improves, I love a good co-op, Cheers.