Diablo 4 gets new game director, audio design discussed in quarterly update
A new director steps in on the regular updates.
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What you need to know
Blizzard Entertainmentprovidedanother quarterly update forDiablo 4on Thursday. As the next mainline entry in the action role-playing game series, Blizzard is providing updates on every facet of the game. Per this update, Joe Shely is now game director of Diablo 4, replacing Luis Barraga, one ofseveral staff let go from Blizzard. This comes asActivision Blizzard is facing a lawsuit, with the company accused of allowing a sexist workplace environment to grow.
While theprior quarterly updatefocused on the designs of characters, Blizzard discusses how the team is recording audio for the different spells, effects, monsters and regions of Diablo 4. For example, to record the fire effects for theSorceress' flaming spells, the teamwent outand lit some things on fire.
The audio team at Blizzard also notes that sounds almost never play backexactlythe same way twice, with differences introduced by wind and air pressure, the enviroment and more. As a result, the team is looking to introduce slight randomized variations for the atmospheric sounds players hear when roaming through the game world. You can hear some examples of the rain in Scosglen in the video below:
Blizzard closes this update by noting that the next quarterly update is focused on the endgame and different visual effects.
Diablo 4 doesn’t currently have a release window. In our interview with the team,Blizzard talked about PvP, cross-playand more.
More than a fresh coat of paint
Diablo 2: Resurrected includes the original game and the Lord of Destruction expansion pack, with all-new improvements and better graphical quality. It’s available now on all platforms.
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Samuel Tolbert is a freelance writer covering gaming news, previews, reviews, interviews and different aspects of the gaming industry, specifically focusing on Xbox and PC gaming on Windows Central. You can find him on Twitter@SamuelTolbert.
