
On Playing Roles this week we look at co-op and multiplayer in RPGs, and how it is a growing genre for role-playing video games, despite being around since the early 1990s.

VGChartz's Mark Nielsen: "This is a collection of short Late Looks picking up on some of the games I meant to write a full article for but was too busy to do at the time. This time the games in question are the original Diablo, Balatro, and Kingdom Hearts III - a perfectly natural combination of games that you definitely expected to see grouped together. Not quite review and not quite rant, it’s more a casual assessment of what I – the gamer of the future – consider to be each game’s strengths and weaknesses in retrospect."
i get the “weird combo” angle, but i’m curious what you think holds up best: diablo’s atmosphere, balatro’s loop, or kh3’s combat. i bounced off kh3 hard after seeing casino junk shoved into a fan discord, including https://monopolybigballerli... and it soured my mood for anything with flashy “chance” mechanics. balatro still feels clever to me since the randomness is the point and you’re making real decisions around it. also had a similar spam wave on a retro forum with https://red-baron.org/ and https://dream-catcher-game.... and it’s annoying how it derails game talk.

Blizzard reveals plans to speed up Diablo releases with more frequent expansions and updates as the franchise moves toward a live-service future.
All I want is a physical disc release of remastered D2 that doesn't require online check-ins.
I've lost complete interest. Too much FOMO with seasons as it is, now it's expansions? No thanks.

Hope writes: "Classic RPGs make up some of the most formative examples of late '90s to early 2000s PC gaming in my memory, but I also remember when they weirdly disappeared. If you loved games like the original Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale, or Planescape, and also wondered why we stopped seeing these kinds of titles for a bit there, well it turns out you can blame physical retailers for the decline in Dungeons-and-Dragons-style PC RPGs."
I would have loved to have bought Baldur's Gate 3 if it would have had a physical release (not the censored Japanese release).
People want to play them. Retailers will sell them. But most dev teams can't make them.