Blizzard has released another patch for Diablo III, bringing the ill-fated dungeon crawling RPG to 1.0.4, adding Paragon levels to the game - effectively raising the level cap from its base of 60, to 160.
Designed to appeal to those that have hit level 60 and find themselves not wanting to play because there's no further advancement, this new system will add tens of hours of grinding to the game - that is if you want to reach the max level. However there's more to do at the max level of Diablo III than just grinding, with big improvements - aesthetically and stat wise - to legendary weapons, making them look and feel far more legendary. Some of them have new abilities and effects, including the slaving of enemies when hit, lava like ground effects as you move and the release of poisonous gasses.
Blizzard said that the reason for this patch was to allow for the balancing of the game for its two focal audiences: the casual players that plod through the game slowly and methodically and the hardcore players that hit the level cap soon after launch and have been grinding for top level loot since.
Game Director Jay Wilson said of the release, that ultimately Blizzard was trying to make it so "Everybody should be able to have fun."
Is this going to achieve that? A lot of people are tired of Diablo III, but at over 10 million purchases, it's still a popular game. Will this update help it last?
