It’s time for Blizzard to release Diablo 4

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It’s been more than six years since the release of Diablo 3, the third iteration of the celebrated hack-and-slash RPG from Blizzard Entertainment. And as Blizzcon 2018 nears (this 2nd of the November), fans everywhere are keeping their fingers crossed that a reveal for Diablo 4 will be showcased.


While nothing is yet etched in stone, rumors have been circulating in the past few months that Blizzard may indeed reveal that the gaming company is working on a new Diablo game. It makes perfect sense, too: fans who’ve stuck with D3 have been clamoring for it, especially as the current game has already reached maintenance mode. This means that no new add-ons and expansions are forthcoming, the last being last year’s late release of the Necromancer pack.

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Dedicated players are dwindling, often only coming back to play for a few days when new seasons become available. Most of these gamers only do so to get achievement bonuses in the form of cosmetics like new character pets, pennants, wings, and portrait frames. It doesn’t help that alternative options like League of Legends, and Torchlight 2 are attracting old players to switch.


The timing of a D4 announcement would be perfect, given little moves by Blizzard to hire new game development staff and release the D3 on Nintendo Switch. The once-PC-exclusive game now has the chance to attract more portable console gamers. Veteran Diablo players who’ve been patiently waiting for D4 will return in droves, once again proving that WoW and Overwatch can wait when new heroes of Sanctuary enter the tavern door.


Thanks for dropping by. I’m Daniel Volitich, a pop-culture enthusiast and student based in San Fran. I enjoy animation, films, and comic books. I also take pride in my collection of Marvel action figures and vintage video games. Visit this blog for similar reads.

Virtual reality and the future of design

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New realities abound in today’s world, and they cannot be escaped anytime soon. They include virtual reality (VR), which offers new opportunities as well as challenges for any well-meaning designer. VR design is on the rise, with major players such as Google, Apple, Oculus, and Sony jumping on board and making things happen.


Virtual reality is software designed to be immersive. It uses a massive headset to fill one’s entire field of view with an image, and its responsive nature enables participation in a virtual world. It’s used for virtual offices, events, products, and more, and with the technology people can preview designs scaled to real, life-size environments as well as depth.


VR experiences can be roughly segmented into three: active, semi-active, and passive. Active VR allows the viewer to interact with the environments, whether when killing the bad guys or solving puzzles. Semi-active is seen in a 360-degree video with hotspots where someone can choose to follow a character or unravel the next part of the experience, while passive VR pertains to a 360-degree video where the user can turn his head to watch the action at any compass point – and yet cannot influence what happens in front of him.

Image source: Reuters.com  

The future of VR design is limitless. Facebook sees its future as a “metaverse,” where instead of posting updates to each other, people actually walk along a virtual street and talk to each other. Microsoft is developing Holo Lens, while Magic Leap is showcasing a tiny projector shooting images directly onto one’s eyes.


VR enables designers a more realistic and detailed rendering of objects, allowing close-up encounters with virtual objects and the ability to move back from them. But how VR actually affects design remains to be seen, as the ever-changing technology dictates it’s always a little early to tell.


Daniel Volitich is a student at San Francisco College of the Arts taking up Animation. He is a pop culture geek who enjoys video games, animation, films, and comic books. Learn more about his passions on this page.