#bliizard

She couldn’t believe what her eyes were telling her. Even in her darkest moments, throughout her thousands of years of life, never had see witnessed such a thing, except once. So long ago, that it seemed as if it had been another life, except it wasn’t. She had been a child during the War of the Ancients, but she remembered it all too well. Thousands of innocent Night elves had been slaughtered, when demons unexpectedly overran their cities and villages and the Burning Legion kicked of their invasion.

Now, once again, small embers of flame and ash flowed around her in the night. Just as they had done back then. The heat was hitting her in the face, even though Teldrassil was miles and miles away from where she was standing. She felt as if she had been transported back in time. She was way too far from the burning Tree to realistically hear anything. Yet, the screams of hundreds upon hundreds of dying night elves echoed deep inside of her, as if she was standing in the middle of everything. Just liked it had happened all those eons ago. Once again, she could only watch, feeling as helpless as she had as an elfling, as death ran havoc among her people.

Sure, she had grown distant from them. She had been cast out of her family after her decision to fight the demons with their own methods. Random elves had spat at her whenever she took it upon herself to visit a night elven settlement. Never once however, had she wished for something like this. No matter her methods, Yôkari yearned for peace on Azeroth. Peace for all who dwelled on their planet, no matter their allegiance. That was, what she had sacrificed everything for. What she had worked so long towards to. She had befriended so many like-minded individuals, from all races and factions. Why, she even had managed to convince her cold, blood elven death knight, to give peace a chance… and fell in love with her in the process.

Why, why would did Sylvanas do this? Why start this war? Why slaughter most of her people? All those innocents dwelling on the top of the new world tree, all those that had fled there, trying to escape the War of the Thorns as it had been dubbed. It was so utterly pointless and cruel, especially as their World was dying below their feet more and more quickly with each passing day.

The demon huntress struggled to understand as she watched on in despair as Teldrassil burned. Tears streamed down her face as she watched the inferno looming in the distance. The voices in her head reached a crescendo and then… they fell silent. Silence was all that was left to her, as she watched the ancient civilization, that she had once called her own, burn to the ground once more. Falling to her knees, she wept as all that she had worked for, the peace on Azeroth, the defeat of the Burning Legion, it all turned to ashes, as the once glorious Teldrassil began to crumble.

They sat side by side in the cold mix of snow and ice, gazing down the cliffs onto the ocean and far beyond. No words were exchanged, and none were needed. After all these months both felt comfortable enough in the presence of the other to just be content with sharing such moments in silence.

Neither the demon huntress nor the death knight were bothered by the cold, slightly leaning against each other. Yôkari had been working towards this for weeks. What once had been a project to prove to her friend that she was not a monster and very much deserved to be loved, had long since turned into the real deal. She didn’t just want to show her high elf friend that she could loved by someone. No, she wanted that someone to be HER.

It hadn’t been easy. She had tried to be subtle at first, taking Namariel to nice places, but that hadn’t yielded any promising results. Then she had been more blatant, showering her knight – even thinking those words felt so right – with gifts. They had been appreciated, but apparently her message hadn’t come across clearly enough. Then she had tried to be more affectionate in her behavior. She had hugged her intended, instigated close contact and did anything short of right out telling her, that she wanted more than friendship from the high elf. But nothing had worked. Sure, they were comfortable to sit closely together like they were now, but that was it. It was frustrating like nothing else had ever been for her and she was bloody over ten-thousand years old!

Brooding slightly Yôkari was surveying the cloudy sky of Icecrown when it happened. As the weather here was prone to do, it changed suddenly, the clouds parting a bit, letting her see the star filled night-sky. In addition, one of Northrends many auroras started to form, though this was one wasn’t as colorful as most. There were no reds or yellows, instead it mainly consisted of blues, greens and purples. Their colors. If that wasn’t a sign that Elune was with her, she didn’t know what else it was. So, she decided to take drastic measures. It was now or never.

Taking a deep breath to settle her suddenly nervous stomach, she turned to Namariel.

“Hey… Namariel… I wanted to ask you something….”

In response the high elf moved from her position leaning on the demon huntress to look at her.

“Yes, what is it?”

Deciding that action spoke louder than words could, the night elf quickly cupped her intended’s cheeks before leaning in and starting to give her a soft kiss, filled with all the held-back feelings she had been harboring for the other elf. She had expected the death knight’s lips to be cold as ice and at first that seemed to be true. But it soon become obvious that it was the cold climate that had caused this, as the warmed up very quickly. The tasted both sweet and sour at the same time, likely due to Namariel’s undead state. Idly Yôkari wondered what she tasted like, but that thought drifted away as quickly as it came, as she had far more important things to do – like finally kissing her beloved high elf.  

At first no response was given, except for Namariel clamming up totally, but the hunter had no intention of letting her prey get away that easily and continued her kiss. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity she was rewarded by a soft, tentative pressure against her lips as the high elf began to kiss back slowly, as if afraid of doing so. Doing her best to convey her feelings, the night elf moved her hands from the other’s face and instead used them to pull her closer, almost into her lap and intensified her efforts on the other’s lips while closing her eyes.

They continued their kiss, neither needing much air due to their physics. Eventually Yôkari noticed that she was tasting something salty. Taking a peak at the other’s face, she saw large tears rolling down Namariel’s cheeks. Suspecting the cause of them, she finally broke away her lips from the high elfs’ and gave her a soft smile. “Yes, this is real. Yes, this is happening. Deal with it – someone does love you if you want to believe it or not. Fortunately, I have eternity to hammer that fact into your stubborn head.”

Diablo II’nin remaster sürümü olan Diablo II: Resurrected, oyunculara güzel bir sürpriz sunuyor. Orijinal versiyonuna sadık kalacağı bildirilen oyun 20 yıllık kayıt dosyalarını çalıştıracak. Böylelikle oyuncular 20 yıl önce kaldıkları yerden devam edecek.

Diablo II: Resurrected 20 yıl önceki kayıt dosyalarını açacak

2000 yılında piyasaya sürülen Diablo II, oyuncular tarafından oldukça sevilip benimsendi. Oyuna olan ilgilinin farkında olan Blizzard da bir remaster sürümü üzerinde çalıştıklarını ve orijinaline sadık kalacaklarını duyurdu. IGN Middile East tarafından oyunu geliştiren ekiple yapılan röportaj, orijinal oyuna ne kadar sağlık olunacağını ortaya koydu.

Buna göre oyuncular, 2000 yılında piyasaya sürülen Diablo II’nin kayıt dosyalarını remaster sürümünün içine atıp oynayabilecek. Konuyla ilgili konuşan yapımcı Matthew Cederquist, IGN’e verdiği demeçte “Evet, onları saklayın. Geliştirici ekip bunun şimdiye kadar oyunda bulunan en iyi özellik olduğunu söylüyor” ifadelerini kullandı

Kayıt dosyalarını remastered oyunda kullanmak hiç kuşkusuz orijinal oyunun hayran kitlesi için inanılmaz bir deneyim olacak. Tüm ilerlemelerin aktarılması sıfırdan başlamak zorunda kalmayı önlemenin yanında oyunun PC ve konsolda çapraz kaydetme yeteneklerini ortaya koyacak. Öyle ki bu gelişme kayıt dosyalarını Nintendo’ya bile yükleyebileceksiniz anlamına geliyor.

Blizzard, Polygon’a verdiği demeçte de oyunun yeniden bir yapım olmadığını söylemişti. Rod Fergusson, konuyla ilgili “Tersine mühendislik yapmıyoruz. Onu yeniden inşa etmiyoruz ve Diablo II gibi görünmesine ve ses çıkarmasını sağlamaya çalışmıyoruz. Amacımız remastered sürümü 20 yıl önce oynadığınız Diablo II gibi oynamanızı sağlamak” dedi.

Oyunun YouTube’da yayınlanan tanıtım videosunu aşağıdan izleyebilirsiniz.