Diablo 5's narrative lead is a BioWare vet who says the new caravan s…

The newly announced Diablo 5 is a significant departure from series convention in a number of ways. Chiefly, the game won't feature any towns or safe zones and will instead offer adventurers the lesser but still cozy comforts of a team of followers that form a caravan around the player, acting as something of a moving barrier between the myriad monsters creeping and crawling around Sanctuary. This idea comes directly from the influence of Diablo 5's narrative director, Jennifer Hepler, a BioWare veteran and key writer on Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, and Dragon Age: Inquisition.

Hepler joined game director Joe Shely and executive producer Matt Zitterman at a panel during BlizzCon 2026, attended by GamesRadar+, and she explained how her eight years of writing experience with BioWare helped bring traditional RPG roots to Diablo's well-worn ARPG formula. Specifically, she says it's that caravan system that adds just a little bit of Baldur's Gate and Dragon Age DNA to Diablo 5.

"The caravan brings some of the best elements of traditional RPGs into Diablo's ARPG format by giving you that sort of Baldur's Gate or Dragon Age campsite where you can interact with your followers," says Hepler. "They're not going to be Dragon Age followers where you level up their skills and give them clothing and stuff, but they will be followers with personalities... so I think that my experience with traditional RPGs has definitely been a strength in building that out." tbzikra.com

The Diablo and Path of Exile-style ARPG is a distinctly different, even diametrically opposed, experience compared to conventional RPGs like Dragon Age and Baldur's Gate, so it's interesting to hear how Hepler's lead role on the narrative team is influencing more fundamental design decisions like the caravan system. I'm curious to see which other elements of Diablo 5 are changing due to her involvement.

Diablo 5's first confirmed classes are the Demon Hunter, Monk, and the all-new Plague Knight: Blizzard says the sequel has "more classes than ever before"

Diablo 5 may be set in a lonely world ravaged by a demon lord, but you'll still be able to team up with your friends like in previous Diablo games.

Senior game director Joe Shely confirmed that Diablo 5 will fully support multiplayer in a group interview with PC Gamer: "Like Diablo 4, it is a game that you can play solo or multiplayer, however you please, and you should be able to play all of the content with your friends."

Specific details about multiplayer, like if you can run into other players in the open world like you can in Diablo 4's endgame, weren't mentioned. Blizzard said that information will have to wait until we're closer to its 2029 release.

One of the biggest changes that differentiates Diablo 5 from Diablo 4 is its return to having a procedurally-generated overworld and dungeons. This is supposed to convey the shifting nature of the world as you travel across the continent with your caravan cleansing it of Diablo's corruption. It's possible that this might dramatically change how you'll interact with other players once you're finished with the campaign, especially if everyone experiences their own version of Sanctuary.

Running into a bunch of other players might ruin the illusion that you're a lone hero fighting back against the forces of Hell. Blizzard says Diablo 5 will incorporate a lot of things it learned from Diablo 4, but it's unclear if that will include things like world events and bosses. Diablo 4 is also overflowing with skins and cosmetics that, if carried forward, would suggest there must be some way of showing off your fit to the other heroes of Sanctuary.

It doesn't seem like we're going to get any concrete answers about this for a while, though. Next year, Blizzard will start to post regular updates about the game's development to see how fans feel about it. Maybe one of them will shed some light on the scope of multiplayer in Diablo 5 and whether or not it'll continue what Diablo 4 started.

Warcraft 3: Reforged got a hefty 3.0 patch alongside its new Forsaken Kingdom expansion, but not all of the changes are for the better. Amid bugfixes and new features, Reforged now requires an internet connection to play, even in singleplayer, and it also removed the game's local area network (LAN) functionality. Blizzard did not provide a reason for these changes in the patch notes.

Blizzard does mention that LAN support and offline play are still offered by the legacy Warcraft 3 client included with purchase of Reforged. The company has a Battle.net support page with instructions on how to install this legacy client.

But it's still a frustrating, confounding change: Reforged was an embattled remaster that had to claw back support from the fanbase. The Forsaken Kingdom expansion and 3.0 patch were the perfect opportunity to complete a redemption arc and lock in Reforged as the definitive version of the 2002 RTS. But as much as things have improved, it's taken a stumble in its victory lap.

Always-online requirements have been a sore spot in gaming since they first started cropping up in the 2010s, and depending on where you live, reliable high-speed internet isn't always a guarantee. Even in the big city, outages aren't unheard of, and always-online requirements for singleplayer games remain an odious imposition on players.

The LAN removal makes even less sense to me: LAN party and tournament play have always struck me as an essential part of Warcraft 3's legacy. Why concede this ground to the original game when the remaster's reputation has been so contested since its release? You can check out the full Warcraft 3: Reforged patch notes over on the Blizzard forums. More positive changes include a new graphics mode and a doubling of the unit selection cap from 12 to 24.