I was maybe 9 or 10, sitting next to my cousin's beige PC tower, and he pranks me by letting me play for a bit, and letting me walk into the Butcher's room. That "Ah, fresh meat!" has been etched firmly into my brain ever since lol. Eventually I got my own PC and one of the first games I played on it was Diablo. It literally felt like a horror game for me as a kid, probably because I was still a bit traumatized from the butcher scaring me.

It was the first “serious” video game I saw and I remember my cousin and I talking about how awesome it was and how we can't wait to see what games will be like when we grow up. Little did we know we would still be playing Diablo three decades later.

I was totally obsessed with Diablo 2 when it came out, after that I was playing every ARPG I could get my hands on. A lot of Dungeon Siege with my cousin, then I remember Titans Quest, and the hype for Hellgate London (probably my first big gaming disappointment). You would think the genre would go through many transformations and evolutions throughout the years but essentially it has just been honed and polished, the core that Diablo established is still intact.

These days I’m still following the ARPG scene closely, mostly playing every non live service game I can find, since I don’t have a lot of free time for gaming and I hate the fomo of not being able to play when a new season drops. Currently still playing the most recent Grim Dawn expansion and some D2 Resurrected from time to time. I also have a few games I’m hyped for, waiting for 1.0 No Rest For the Wicked (I don’t play early access games) and The Dark West looks awesome, I’m a sucker for weird settings so this occult western theme seems really fun, and guns are so satisfying in ARPGs that have them. None of these games would even exist if Diablo never came out.

That kind of staying power is really rare. If I think about what else from those years I still play in some form, the only other game that comes to mind is Counter Strike. It still feels like CS despite the modern graphics and changes, I'm not that good but I enjoy playing with friends from time to time.

To me that's proof that when people make something with genuine passion, it can end up bigger than the sum of its parts. On paper Diablo was a pretty simple game but you could see the passion behind it. I really hope the franchise stays strong for a long time, Diablo is timeless.

https://insider-gaming.com/diablo-5-director-reveals-shooting-has-begun/

Their new company is called Gas Giant Games (GGG) and from what I can see, the gameplay and the HUD looks very similar to Diablo III.

Click the IG link to see the video.

No AI was used to create this music. It was created in Logic Pro with the following virtual instrument libraries: Spitfire Originals Cimbalom; Strix Instruments Kangling; East West Hollywood Choirs, Hollywood Strings, & Hollywood Brass; Aaron Venture Infinite Brass & Infinite Woodwinds; 8Dio Agitato Legato Arpeggio; UJAM Drums.

The cimbalom is a Hungarian hammered dulcimer; it was the instrument used for Gollum’s theme in The Lord of the Rings, and its reverberant sweetness has an edge of menace that I think works well for the Tristram theme! You can’t strum a cimbalom — it’s hammered — so I opened the chords to fit the instrument's arpeggiated playing style.

The horn at the beginning and end is a down-pitched kangling, which is a Tibetan horn traditionally made from human bone. I thought this would be appropriate for a town that has miles of crypts and catacombs beneath it! (I played the opening for my wife and she immediately went “Ugh, that gives me the creeps” before she even knew what was playing it. She was even more creeped out after I told her what she was hearing!)

Grabbed diablo 1 on battle net and well... just felt really clunky and rigid so I refunded it. The mouse cursor felt like it was moving at 10 fps.

I see that you can get the game on GOG and it includes the unofficial Hellfire mod/expansion. Would this be a better version of the game to try? I heard that the GOG version can also be modded with mods to modernize it a bit.

Can anyone help me out?