Activision Blizzard push Diablo 4 discounts and free trials even as Season 2 updates divide players

rockpapershotgun.com:

Activision Blizzard rolled out Diablo 4's Season 2, also known as the Season of Blood, this week, together with an absolute deluge of quality-of-life improvements across console and PC. The publisher have also now launched the hitherto Battle.net-based PC version on Steam, and are trying to attract newcomers with a discount on Valve's platform and a free 10 hour trial this weekend (that's 19th-22nd October) for Xbox players.

Have the Season 2 updates - which you could summarise as "slay vampires to get vampire powers" and "spend less time and have more fun grinding/farming for loot and levels" - salvaged Blizzard's action-RPG from the ashes of Season 1? I've been trawling the reactions this morning, and while the new Diablo appears to be evolving in the right direction, the big picture is still of a game with just as many raters as haters.

It’s a pretty rosy picture on the Diablo 4 subreddit, which has been a hotbed of complaints in the past: as one user comments, “you can tell things are better because this sub has shut the fuck up.” In particular, players seem very happy with Season 2's new time-limited Blood Harvest events (thanks, Dotesports), which manifest unpredictably around the world, increasing the spawn rate for enemies, introducing Seeker Caches of rewards, and allowing players to use Blood Lures to summon special Blood Seeker foes that drop special loot. Plus which, you’ll earn Hunter’s Acclaim for doing Heroic Stuff in a Blood Harvest zone, which can be traded for, you guessed it, more rewards, and Blood Harvest zones are a good place to farm for the Potent Blood which unlocks Season 2’s new vampire powers.

If you don’t play loot-driven ARPGs, all this probably reads like some really excited