News
‘Diablo 3’ Event “The Darkening of Tristram” Returns
Make it three years in a row for Blizzard to bring around The Darkening of Tristram event to Diablo 3. Originally conceived as a cool tribute to the release of the original Diablo back in 1996, the event has morphed into a variation on the Greater Rifts currently found in the game, what with the randomly-generated tilesets, layouts, and monsters. However, if you’ve previously played The Darkening of Tristram, you know what to expect when you jump into the portal.
If you’ve already run through the event in previous years, there might not be much incentive to do it again (although come on, it’s Diablo!), but if you missed one of the achievements/quests, now’s your chance to rectify that. The portal will remain open until January 31 at 4pm PST.
If, by chance, you’ve never gotten the portal, here’s how: You’ll find special cultists in the game. Killing them will spawn a portal that takes you to a 16-level dungeon where you’ll encounter bosses and elements from the first game. On top of that, the game, UI, animation and graphics quality shifts back to 1996. There are a couple of quests and achievements to be had in this dungeon, whereby completing them nets you some cool swag, including a mini Butcher demon pet.
Of course, this won’t make up for the fact that we still don’t have Diablo 4 yet, but it’s (apparently) getting there.
In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war, but it was a cheerful illustrator from England who helped to define the terrifying war-torn imagery that inspired what we now know as Grimdark (a hybrid genre combining horror with sci-fi/fantasy).
Unfortunately for fans of Warhammer 40,000, Trench Crusade and countless other sources of Grimdark thrills, veteran artist John Blanche passed away this week after struggling with health issues for the past few years.
While the artist retired back in 2023, he leaves us with an enormous legacy of iconic artwork that continues to inspire gamers and storytellers around the world to this very day.
The news is especially gloomy as it was only last year that Daniel Lowman and Napoleon Dynamite himself Jon Heder released The Grim & the Dark: The Search for John Blanche, a documentary following Heder’s exploration of the Grimdark genre culminating in a heartwarming encounter with Blanche in his own home.
Below is one of my favorite pieces by Blanche, his highly influential depiction of Warhammer 40k’s God-Emperor of Mankind on his Golden Throne.
We send our deepest condolences to John Blanche’s family, friends, and fans.
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