GOT COMPLETELY NAKED IN FRONT OF JON HAMM.”

Did he bring his emotional baggage?

Yeah, he brings it everywhere he goes. He’s always bringing his suitcase. It was difficult, though. Our crew was very upset. He stole a motorcycle and almost knocked a bunch of light operators off their ladders.

Was that the craziest on-set guest interaction that you’ve had?

Yeah. It’s up there. Sometimes you do the show, and sometimes the show does you.

Now that you’ve had this experience, can you rank the members of the Hanks family?

I will put Tom at the top and Chet at the bottom. And Colin and Rita somewhere in the middle. I try not to pit the Hanks’ against each other.

Your new co-host this season is Felipe Esparza. What qualities do you look for in a new co-host?

He’s really fucking funny. Felipe has a little bit of something that Hannibal has where they’re completely unpredictable. They never try to be funny. They’re just naturally funny. They exist in their own space. Felipe is completely unpredictable. He reminds me of Benicio del Toro’s character in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. He’s incredibly talented and funny and sweet and easy to work with. I just really enjoy his company. And he’s got crazy stories. He used to, like, speedball heroin and meth and stuff back in the day.

seasons, and now we kind of know what to do a bit better. So I think it’s more pound-for-pound quality per square inch.

Does that mean you’re doing more or leaving less on the cutting room floor?

I just think we’re going into production with a better sense of what’s going to work and what’s not. I think the trial and error of like, the previous ten years and the movie [Bad Trip] made us dialed in in a way that we never had been before. So, just add a bit more quality from top to bottom.

Do you feel pressure to top yourself?

I always feel a massive amount of pressure. There’s always pressure.

We heard you landed your dream interview this season: Chet Hanks.

Yeah, yeah. [Laughs] My dream interview. I don’t know if it was my dream. It was a nightmare. It was a wet nightmare.

Lance Reddick We recently lost brilliant actor Lance Reddick, but we can always enjoy his Eric Andre Show appearance. He was one of the select few interviewees who was let in on the joke, but Reddick still surprised Andre by aggressively punching a hole through his desk. The actor then went on to channel two distinct LeVar Burton characters while wishing he was the famous Reading Rainbow host. It’s deranged but funny stuff.

It seems like the whole group of producers who took the stage at your SXSW Comedy Festival event are really proud of the “Cold Episode” in season six. How did you come up with that?

We were trying to come up with like a holiday episode or a themed episode, and we kind of started giving up. Somebody in the writers’ room said, “Why don’t you do a cold episode?” I was like, “As related to winter or Christmas?” They’re like, “No, just purely like the idea of the temperature.”

The episode introduces a new character, The Fridge Keeper.

An instant hit. An instant classic.

Is the merchandise ready to go?

Tell that to Adult Swim. Get that budget going!

The sixth season of The Eric Andre Show premieres June 4 at midnight ET on Adult Swim.

Lizzo The singer-songwriter showed off her vivacious personality subbing in for Andre for the recurring man-on-thestreet bit, Bird Up! Donning the famous green suit and bird prop, Lizzo gave Andre a run for his money, messing with everyday people to hilarious effect.

By MATTHEW BYRD

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In the early ’90s, game designer David Brevik took the beloved but financially struggling computer role-playing game (CRPG) genre and stripped it for parts. No elaborate character backstories, no morality system, and no dice roll-based decision-making. In Brevik’s words, he wanted to make an RPG that let you “get in and start smashing things.”

It was a sacrilegious idea to those who saw traditional RPGs as the backbone of the computer gaming scene. Appropriately, Brevik called his idea, “Diablo.”

Released in 1997, Diablo was a true game-changer. It boiled the complex CRPG down to its purest form. Pick a class, unleash devastating attacks with the click of a mouse, collect random pieces of tiered loot, and don’t stop until you see the sun. A role-playing experience that used to take hours of setup and a small army of friends now offered instant gratification thrills to anyone at any time. Diablo even randomly generated new content so that no two playthroughs were ever the same.

Years before he became associate game director on Diablo 4, Zaven Haroutunian was one of many gamers who found themselves lost in the infinite dungeons of delights that Diablo offered. “Back then, I would just voraciously consume any game I could get my hands on,” Haroutunian recalls. “It was a mind- blowing moment to realize there could be so many possibilities and so much replayability in a game. I hadn’t played anything like that before.”

While Diablo may have once been seen as a kind of anti-RPG, people soon discovered that the greatest trick Diablo ever pulled was making RPGs more accessible.

“I think a lot of experimentation came out of the fact that everything was so accessible,” Haroutunian says of the game’s role-playing credentials. “The challenge was: ‘Go to the bottom [of the dungeon] and good luck.’ Along the way, you can try different things… It’s very clear which parts of the game are interactive and which are not. You know immediately what something is going to do by simply trying it.”

Diablo shot to the top of many game of the year lists en route to eventually selling over 2.5 million copies. The industry was put on notice, but few responded to this emerging trend. For years, Diablo and its “Hellfire” expansion remained largely unrivaled.

That is until Diablo 2 was released in 2000. Considered to be one of the greatest games ever, Diablo 2 offered more than just “more.” It fully realized the potential of what was already a modern classic.

“When we make games, we are sometimes unintentionally making promises to people playing them,” Haroutunian says. “Diablo 2 fulfilled those promises made by the first game.”

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still plays,” Haroutunian says. “You play it, and the bones of the game are still fun. If the bones are fun, then you can look past the older graphics.”

Diablo 2 quickly spawned massive fan communities and a small army of copycats. And yet, despite the increased competition, Diablo 2 remained the king of its genre. In fact, many fans said that the only thing that would pull them away from Diablo 2 was Diablo 3.

That’s where things took a turn. Even though Diablo 3 reportedly began development in 2001, developer Blizzard Entertainment didn’t release it until 2012. Expectations only grew during that time. Some still saw Diablo 2 as a perfect game. They could only imagine what 11 years would add to perfection.

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However, Diablo 3’s release wasn’t perfect. Initial sales set a historic pace, but fans argued over the game’s many changes, divisive new features, and controversial “always online” requirements that led to numerous technical issues. The franchise that could do no wrong suddenly felt like a memory. Haroutunian, who joined Blizzard’s QA team in 2008 and worked on Diablo 3 as a designer, recalls that the team’s reactions to the game’s divided reception ran the gamut. Ultimately, though, they were united by an idea.

“Across the team, there was a drive,” Haroutunian recalls. “It’s like, ‘Okay, it’s out now.’ So now we can begin the work of making it better, right? It

Diablo 3 corner. With over 30 million copies sold, Diablo 3 is considered a success in every conventional way.

Yet, there was a splintering. Some longtime franchise fans felt that Diablo 3 had lost its identity through its attempts to reach an even wider audience. In the years following Diablo 3’s release, a new wave of competitors emerged. Some, like the wildly successful Path of Exile, were practically sold as the Diablo threequel hardcore fans had originally wanted.

It wasn’t just the direct competitors. Aspects of Diablo’s once-iconic formula became much more popular. Blockbuster franchises such as Destiny and Borderlands borrowed the game’s addictive loot system, while countless major releases incorporated the idea of adding roleplaying elements to action games. There was a time when Diablo and best game of its kind. But the mystique gradually started to fade.

Through all of that, Diablo remained somewhat dormant. Diablo 3 continued to receive updates but was

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beginning to show its age. The release of microtransactionDiablo Immortal in 2022 only riled fans who felt the franchise had lost its way. was announced in 2019, it wasn’t quite the celebration some expected it to be. The world was different. Some of the magic was gone. How did Diablo fit into an industry that had learned and borrowed so much from it?

“The reality is that everyone has always done that,” Haroutunian explains, reflecting on the game’s imitators and influences. “I think there will always be a place for [Diablo] because the other games you’re referencing borrow Diablo systems, but they’re always taking a piece and adding it to some other thing. So if you’re looking for the missing pieces, you’re not going to find it over there… you’re gonna find it in games like Diablo.”

As for Diablo’s closest competitors… well, it turns out that the Diablo 4 team has been learning a few things from them as well.

“We love action RPGs, and we’re playing them right when they come out like anybody else,” Haroutunian says. “As Diablo evolves and action RPGs evolve, developers are looking for advancements and ideas elsewhere. It’s up to them to incorporate them in the right way into the game they’re making and decide if it’s the right fit.”

Gaming, especially role-playing, has always been better with Diablo in it. A recent beta version of Diablo 4 offered more than a chance to try the game; it offered a chance to meet up with that old friend you haven’t spoken to in years to relive the glory days of multiplayer dungeon crawling. Its dark tones, weighty combat, and punishing difficulty recall the early days of the franchise, yet Diablo 4 is no mere nostalgia trip. It incorporates modern game concepts such as world bosses, community events, and expanded character customization in very Diabloappropriate ways. The goal isn’t to give you the Diablo that was but rather a modern version of how Diablo games should make you feel.

“People who only played Diablo 3, or only played Diablo 2, or never played Diablo got to feel like I felt in the ’90s when I opened that door and was immediately killed by a boss called the Butcher.” Haroutunian beams. “We were able to capture that, and they were able to experience it in Diablo 4.”

Over 25 years ago, Diablo shocked the gaming world with a bold take on roleplaying that nobody saw coming. A new generation of gamers who have never played a proper new Diablo title may soon be able to experience that same feeling. According to Haroutunian, even lifelong fans are in for a surprise.

“You have no idea what’s coming,” Haroutunian teases. “I don’t think they really know how deep the rabbit hole goes.”

Diablo 4 releases on June 6 on