Joystiq

For the Horde! BlizzCon 2008 invades Anaheim Oct. 10-11

Alexander Sliwinski — 2008-05-12T12:55:00+00:00

Blizzard Entertainment announced today that BlizzCon will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center (that's California) on October 10-11 and that tickets will go on sale for $100 (same as last year) in the next couple of weeks. Even though the event will take up three convention halls this year (instead of two), we strongly recommend getting tickets as soon as they go on sale -- last year sold out mighty quickly.

Official details will be on the BlizzCon site, but expect WoW Insider to cover all the angles as well. As per usual, Blizzard saves its big announcements for its own events and we're expecting one at its World Wide Invitational this June in Paris. At least we won't be let down with the company's lack of information at E3 this year ... because it won't be attending.

[Via Massively, WoW Insider]

Gallery: BlizzCon 2007

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Today's Fan Fairiest video: EverQuest players tie real and virtual knots

Kevin Kelly — 2007-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, PC, Online, RPGs, Video, MMO, Galleries

Sony Online Entertainment's recent Fan Faire was held in Las Vegas, which is already known for quirky characters and quickie weddings. However, this was probably the only time the city over hosted both a real wedding, and a virtual one, at the same time. Er, and for the same people. We don't want to slight the Vegas virtual wedding scene, if it exists.

Two gamers, who met in EverQuest, tied the knot during the event at the Rio Hotel ... and then promptly went on a six-hour hack and slash raid through an orc-infested dungeon as a honeymoon treat. Okay, we keed, we keed ... but listen to the preacher during the ceremony as he says "we're gathered here today at the beautiful Rio Hotel." Wonder if he's a paid shill.

Anyhow, check out the wedding video above (Darth Vader and some Stormtroopers actually lead the bridal procession in), and some costume contest photos in the gallery below. One of these days BlizzCon and Fan Faire need to meet so the MMORPGer's can battle it out for global online domination.

Gallery: SOE Fan Faire Wedding and Costume Constest

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BlizzCon: closing ceremony audio, including Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain

Kevin Kelly — 2007-08-08T21:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, PC, Action, Adventure, Online, RPGs, Strategy, Competitive Gaming, MMO, Galleries

Well, BlizzCon is officially over, and folks will have to wait another year to experience it again. Hopefully by this time next year, however, both StarCraft 2 and the WoW expansion Wrath of the Lich King will be on store shelves, or in your hands. Until then we'll be waiting for the dribbles to trickle out of Blizzard with more information.

But, all is not lost. They did send us out with a bang that included 30 minutes of fairly decent comedy with Jay Mohr, a performance by Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain (the highlight of the night of which a brief video appears above), and a pretty sweet set from Video Games Live, including the Diablo theme being played on a 12-string guitar. That was the best moment of the night, and makes us wonder even more when there will be some sort of a Diablo sequel.

Check out the gallery below, which contains some new shots from the closing ceremonies. You can always head over after the break to listen to the complete audio of Jay's performance, the L70ETC set, and the Video Games Live goodness. In handy mp3 format for your listening pleasure. Also be sure to check out the exhaustive BlizzCon coverage from WoW Insider, who really brought down the house with their in-depth look at Lich King, and the event as a whole.

Gallery: BlizzCon 2007

Jay Mohr did a fairly decent job as the closing host, and when the crowd got unruly at one point he actually said "Hey, at least they didn't get Jamie Kennedy!" Kudos, and good point. There's a really uncomfortable few moments where people just start shouting out random crap trying to drown him out. Like, "IT'S BARRENS CHAT LIVE!" Hilarious. Please folks, let the guy who gets paid to do the comedy do it. His semicolon joke was worth the admission alone. Click here, or on Jay's picture, to hear the audio.

Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain turned out to be the hit of the night, with their thrash metal anthems rocking the Anaheim Convention Center Arena. The fact that this band is made up of Blizzard employees makes it all the sweeter, and the lead singer definitely has the hair for this gig. Click here for the mp3, or on the flying hair above.

Video Games Live closed out the event with a huge orchestra, choir, and tavern tunes provided by David Arkenstone and company, pictured above. Yes, he looks a bit like David St. Hubbins from Spinal Tap, but they rocked out the Blizzard themes for everything from Diablo (totally amazing on that 12-string guitar) to StarCraft 2, which hasn't been heard anywhere before. Click the pic for audio, or swing your mouse over here.

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BlizzCon: hands-on with Wrath of the Lich King

Kevin Kelly — 2007-08-08T20:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, PC, Reviews, Action, Adventure, Online, RPGs, MMO

Okay, before you start raking me over the coals again like some of you did with my writeup of StarCraft 2, I'll preempt this writeup similarly. However, I've played World of WarCraft a lot longer than I ever did StarCraft, much to the chagrin of my ex-girlfriend. Is there a correlation there? The world may never know.

Anyhow, the preemption part of this post is that I haven't played WoW enough for some of your strict demands. My Human Female Warlock Character is resting on her laurels somewhere around Level 43, and I bought The Burning Crusade, but never installed it. It still sits on the shelf, mocking me, taunting me, and haunting my dreams.

Gallery: BlizzCon: Wrath of the Lich King screens

Anyhow, that doesn't mean I'm not looking forward to Wrath of the Lich King, I am. It's just that it's less appealing to me than The Burning Crusade, because I can't re-roll a new character and start from Level 1 in that newly opened Northrend area. It's been so long since I logged into my old character that I just want to crack the seal on that box and just start over from scratch, y'know? However, I can't do that with Wrath of the Lich King, so I'll be forced to grind those characters into a sharp point.

As a bit of an aside, I'm wondering if this trend with expansions will continue, because in my opinion it limits the appeal of a newcomer seeing something in the expansion and wanting to pick it up and jump right in. Blizzard has gone to extreme lengths to make WoW a very immersive experience, and it stands to reason that they can't keep introducing new places for newbies to jump in without cheesing off the old players ... but is there a happy middleground they can find for both? Anyhow, I digress. Onwards to Northrend!

Most of our time was spent playing an Alliance character near Valgarde in Daggercap Bay, which was the site of a massive battle between Dragonflayer Invaders and their Worgs. We picked up a quest (yes, there were new quests in the demo) to try and find a Vice Admiral of some kind, who could be heard shouting orders to the defenders, but we never did find the guy. It didn't help that his quest marker wasn't showing up on the map, and we were getting attacked from every side. This screenshot shows what was a slightly slower moment during the invasion. The attack lasted the entire time we were in there ... about 40 minutes or so.

Thankfully, Blizzard had outfitted the demo with many different characters you could choose from, representing pretty much every race and character class, except of course the still-mysterious Death Knight. The problem was that once you logged in, you had to spend a good deal of time making sure you had the proper gear equipped and spending your talent points ... each and every time you logged in. That got to be a bit of a pain, and was probably not fondly looked upon by the players with the 20 minute time limits. "Wear this plate armor ... check, equip this mace ... got it. Check all my bags to see what they've given me ... okay. Check out my surroundings and talk to the Giant Murloc costume to find out where in Azeroth I am ... done. Spend my points on the talent tree ... click, click, cli -- TIME'S UP?!?"

I repeated this scenario several times, trying to lock into the what seemed like the best character for that area, but eventually just gave up and began swimming around the bay checking out the scenery. I got attacked by some pretty vicious sharks a few times, but there were a lot of cool things to see, like immense harpoon guns, ships on fire hanging in the sky, and plenty of shipwrecks underwater. Not a place for a pleasure cruise.

The other locale you could spawn in, the Howling Fjord, was fairly barren ... although we did encounter a few creatures and baddies that yielded up items like Frostweave Cloth when I dispatched them. That was about the only new item we saw in the demo however. Spells, abilities, mounts, etc. were all the normal stuff. Which isn't that normal for a guy who never played The Burning Crusade, but I was assured by our friends at Wow Insider that it was all pretty humdrum junque. For their view of things, check out their hands-on as well. They're tons more hardcore.

Overall, the demo wasn't that large, and we didn't really see anything new, so it leads me to wonder ... has Blizzard set an unrealistic goal of having one expansion come out every year? With the time needed to develop and program all of this new content, it doesn't feel like Wrath of the Lich King will have the same impact that The Burning Crusade did, especially since that expansion included two new races. With no word on a release date yet, and the demo feeling like they've got miles to go before they sleep ... when will we be seeing this, let alone the next one?

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Leeroy Jenkins: 'Well, you know, I was hungry.'

Ludwig Kietzmann — 2007-08-08T16:45:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, PC, MMO

No infamy is more enduring than that spawned by the internet and its eternal memory. The name "Leeroy Jenkins" (loudly pronounced "Leeeeeeerooooy Jehnnnkinnnss") should be recognizable to World of Warcraft players and certain Jeopardy! viewers as the man who hurled caution to the wind with enough force to destabilize his raiding party and ultimately bring about its complete annihilation. If you're wondering just what sort of man that is and what motivated his behavior (hint: reheated chicken plays an important role), you'd best watch Veronica Belmont's video interview with him at Blizzcon.

It turns out that, well, Leeroy's just zis guy, you know? You may be surprised or disappointed by Ben's pleasant mannerisms, and instead choose to ignore the reality in favor of a more fantastic and entertaining mental image. It's alright, we're still imagining Veronica Belmont to be a high school detective who whips vampires to death over the weekends.

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Today in Joystiq: August 7, 2007

Ross Miller — 2007-08-07T23:59:00+00:00

Hey look, it's Starcraft: Ghost from BlizzCon! (Image Credit) Err, BlizzCon 2005, that is. That was kind of a cruel (if not incredibly stupid) joke we played. While we are mocked 1,000 times over, check out the highlights for today:

Joystiquery
BlizzCon: hands-on schooling with Starcraft 2
Joystiq's Kevin Kelly talks delays on G4
Readers pick best Civ IV webcomic: Ctrl+Alt+Del
Today's multi-directional videos: Everyday Shooter & Mutant Storm Empire
Why you should submit videos for the YouTube Republican debate

News
It's official: Xbox 360 price drop coming this Wednesday
Halo-themed Xbox 360 coming in Sept. for $399, wireless headset for $59.99
South Park 10th season DVDs coming with World of Warcraft trial
Nintendo Wii system update 3 is now live
New update prepares Xbox 360s for wireless guitars
iPhone + NES emulator = zOMG, hello Mario
Red and black DS ships with Brain Age 2 Aug. 21
Eternal Sonata demo goes Live in U.S.
Nintendo has patent on motion sensing portable
Europe gets no Xbox 360 price cut at this time
Governator says California game law will be back
PAL starter pack in question
New air safety rules require console inspection
New iMacs feature DirectX 10-compatible ATI Radeon GPUs
Puzzle Fighter HD gets balancing changes
Will Wright's Spore to be playable at Leipzig
GameStop starts WoW: Wrath of Lich King pre-orders
PaRappa's papa Matsuura produces iPod product, musika
Ample details on slimmer PSP
Rock Band bundles have wireless guitar on PS3 and wired on Xbox
Playing Xbox 360 with your Wii remote
OJ gotta give All-Pro Football 2K8 money to Goldmans

Rumors & Speculation
Rumor: XBLA could get Penny Arcade game
Rumor: Target done with Xbox 360 Core model
Pachter: PS2 price drop this year and another for PS3 by GTA IV

Culture & Community
Even at $199, Rock Band: SE for 360 lands on Amazon's bestseller list
Meet Keiji Inafune, Mega Man creator, in NYC today
Persuasive Games' Ian Bogost on Colbert Report tonight
Geometry Wars Galaxies might be giant
Vote on F.E.A.R. sequel finalists (no acronyms this time)
Ben Kingsley explains why he did Bloodrayne

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BlizzCon: hands-on schooling with Starcraft 2

Kevin Kelly — 2007-08-07T20:24:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, PC, Online, RPGs, Strategy, Competitive Gaming, Galleries

During the recent BlizzCon, we sat down and got a ton of time with StarCraft 2, to the tune of roughly three hours or so. The upshot of it all? We were very impressed, and we had our asses handed to us, both in single and multiplayer modes.

Okay, first of all, before I get much further into this I have to say that by "we" I mean "me." I don't want to categorize the rest of the Joystiq staff as sucking at StarCraft 2, but I can pretty much definitely say that as far as this writer is concerned, I'm a complete noob.

Gallery: Starcraft II (PC/Mac)

I played the original StarCraft a handful of times, but not enough to actually get good at it. And by good at it I mean "learn how how to play." So, I would wildly drag the mouse around and click everything on screen, hoping that it would make something happen. Usually the thing that would happen would be me getting pwned to the nth degree, and I'd throw the game across the room before picking up Riven and trying to work my way through that, even though the game had already been out for two years.

So, when they announced StarCraft 2 recently, I decided I was going to be excited about this game or die trying. When they opened up the BlizzCon floors for gaming, I headed over, sat down, and told them they would have to pry the keyboard and mouse from my cold, dead fingers. Or simply ask me to move. The latter strategy was employed a lot, proving to be pretty effective and rousting gaming bloggers from their seats.

My impression of the game is that it looks freaking amazing. I played it on both the Mac (which were hidden under tablecloths) and the PC (proudly displayed glowing blue neon Dell machines) and they both look incredible. My old StarCraft would run a bit herky-jerky on my iMac (the original iMac ... which seems like it was out back in the dark ages), but it was rock-solid and shiny-glass smooth during the demo. There's a ton of attention to detail in the units, the backgrounds, the maps, the wreckage, and just about any element that comes on screen. When your Command Center is on fire, and SCVs are scurrying all over the place while enemy troops blast your remaining infantry units to smithereens ... it looks really cool.

As far as the units are concerned, I know that the Terran units were all new to show off to us, but I honestly can't remember what's new and what's different from the original games. I know the Reapers are new, and they were the coolest guys to deal with on the battlefield. When you build a Merc Haven ... which is basically a bar, complete with a holographic dancer on top of it, you can create Reaper units. They're rough, tough, throw bombs, scale cliffs, and when you click on them they say things like, "The life of a Reaper is ... exciting."

What really impressed me was how intuitive everything was. I literally played the entire game with just the arrow keys and a mouse ... although maybe that's why I kept getting decimated every time. The units are extremely easy to build, customize (you can add things like Tech Labs to buildings, which upgrade the types of units they can produce), and control. In fact, if you set rally points for units while they are created, they'll pick up contextual actions. For instance, if you rally your SCVs near a vespene gas refinery, they'll start hauling the gas to base. You can also chain your SCVs construction commands, such as 'build a Supply Depot here, and when you're done with that stick a Bunker over here'. It makes taking care of a million things at once just a tad easier.

I played as the Terrans umpteen times before I switched over the to Protoss side, and it seems like they have a lot more going on for them. Blizzard told us they weren't done balancing out the Terran side yet, and those Protoss Colossi can pretty much slice through infantry and buildings like butter. Giant, striding, spider-like units, ftw! Anyhow, it was a tad easier to survive in single-player with the Protoss although I'm sure once the game actually ships that won't be the case.

The single-player mode they made available to us wasn't the immersive Story Mode that they were showing off during the StarCraft panel, but rather just a Terran vs. Protoss map, with the opposite side being controlled by A.I. When we hopped onto the multiplayer machines, that's where the real ass-whipping came into play. Thankfully Blizzard had enacted a 20 minute time limit to all the games, which is just enough time to really amass a force to be reckoned with, but not enough time to move out and steamroll your enemy. Although that didn't stop people from marching over with a few units while all I had was a team of SCVs gathering crystals. Just for the record, SCVs are very poor fighters. Excellent miners, poor fighters. Once, during a 2 on 2 match, my teammate asked me, "What's wrong, dude?! Build a barracks!!!" Oops. People no likey when you don't know the game.

Speaking of multiplayer, that was the real draw of the event. They had roughly 1,000 stations set up (a Blizzard employee's number ... my guess would have been lower, but he was the one walking the lines of computers, so I'm taking his word for it), of which about 3/4s were devoted to multiplayer. This also makes me think the mystery beta key there were giving out at the event will be a downloadable public beta for StarCraft 2, since it felt the most polished out of everything we saw and played. You could select red or blue, Terran or Protoss, and then team up to try and wipe your enemies off the map ... within 20 minutes. Within the first day people were abandoning the massive army buildup strategy and just sending everything as quickly as they could in search of their foes. 20 minutes was just not enough time to make it work properly, at least for my non-tourney playing slow self.

Anyhow, all of this hubbub over SC2 has made me dig my old copy of the first one out of the gaming basement, and blow off the dust, cobwebs, and POG wrappers. Hopefully I'll fare better and be up to speed by the time the sequel comes out, because I really enjoyed playing it. Even during the vicious beatings.

Check out the Terran walkthough videos below for an overview of the new Terran stuff, and be sure to check out our StarCraft 2 gallery, which is full of new screenshots.

Part One Part Two

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BlizzCon: The Dances of Warcraft

Kevin Kelly — 2007-08-06T21:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, PC, Online, RPGs, MMO

BlizzCon's dance contest brought out some interesting entries on Friday night, especially in the female Blood Elf category, which just about everyone seemed to end up doing. There were also a couple of Murlocs in there, even a baby version, but the icing on the cake has to go to the first guy in the video above.

He shows off "The Origins of the Ogre Dance", and we have to say it takes guts to get up on stage and do this. Literally. Unfortunately, he didn't even win or place, which is a complete travesty. The guy was robbed. The winning entry, which we didn't capture on video, was a guy in a Napoleon Dynamite-esque costume who wasn't half bad (he did the Blood Elf male dance, which is based on Napoleon Dynamite's famous move) ... but imitating Chris Farley's classic SNL skit while at a fan convention for a video game is pure gold.

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BlizzCon: interview with Cory Doctorow

Kevin Kelly — 2007-08-06T16:55:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, PC, Adventure, Online, RPGs, Simulations, Interviews, MMO, Politics, Casual

Cory Doctorow is a science fiction writer, a blogger, and arguably, a futurist. In fact, we'll let Wikipedia do a much more thorough job of informing you who Cory is. After you've digested that, be sure and visit his website, where you can download many of his books for free, and check out Boing Boing, which he co-edits.

I first discovered Cory Doctorow by reading his excellent novel "Down and Out In The Magic Kingdom" a few years ago. I had worked at Disney World for most of 1992, and as a result I've always had a bizarre fascination with all things Disney. So it was somewhat fitting that I caught up with Cory at Disneyland during the recent BlizzCon and asked him about MMOs, WoWers, and other acronyms.

So, what did you think about BlizzCon?

Well, it was awfully commercial. I'd envisioned a lot more of the social stuff -- guild stuff, "friends" who'd never met f2f getting together. But that was pretty thin on the ground -- it was so damned dark, you could hardly spot your friends even if they were there.

Meanwhile, the merch on hand was pretty lame. Just licensed partners -- no riotous bazaar of hand-turned, artisanal WoW junque. I'd been hoping for an explosion of fanac, like you get at Comic-Con, but this was more like a cattle chute for draining the money from gamers' wallets.

What did you expect it to be like?

What was the strangest and / or coolest thing you saw?

Definitely the coolest thing was the cosplayers -- so many of them, and so superbly kitted out. This is where having a single, well-defined mythos with a lot of visual reference really works, lending a formal structure to cosplay. They're not making arbitrary costumes -- they're recreating something from gamespace.

The most disturbing?

The PayPal booth where they were happily offering to broker deals for gold-farmers.

Do you play, or have you played, any MMORPGs?

Yes, but not much. I live with a serious gamer -- my fiancee -- and I outsource my time-sink MMOGing to her.

Do you play other games in general? Video games, board games, head games, etc?

Yes indeed -- all my life. I was a huge tabletop RPGer for years and years.

Would you ever or have you ever set a novel / story in the world of MMORPGs?

Just a short story, Anda's Game, which was nominated for a ton of awards and got reprinted a LOT. I'm thinking of expanding it into a manga thing.

What fascinates you and / or bothers you about the MMORPG genre and fandom?

Fascinates: the amazing social stuff. Guilds, group raids, etc.

Bothers: the absence of the rule of law. Azeroth and Norarth might have two of the world's largest economies, but they're not nations. They're corporate fun-parks, governed by insane, abusive EULAs. Blizzard installs freakin' *spyware* on your PC -- they even sued fans who made their own game-server.

Where do you think the MMORPG genre is headed?

I think that Second Life is going to spin out some interesting hybrids that attain the same cognitive effect that you get out of one of the insanely managed experiences from Blizzard, et al, but without the same authoritarian structure. Something that is broadly compelling (beautiful, fun, exciting, social, creative) without being 0wned by some Fortune 100 dinosaur.

With our obsession with the internet and online world of both work and pleasure, are we almost already living in an MMORPG?

You should look at Justin Hall's PMOG -- Passively Multiplayer Online Game, at bud.com. It's totally based on this premise.

I like to "play" Disneyland like a side-scroller, trying to speed-run the rides through canny acquisition and deployment of FastPasses, shrewd queue-guessing, and rigid bladder- and appetite control.

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BlizzCon: interview with Alice Taylor of Wonderland

Kevin Kelly — 2007-08-06T14:59:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, PC, Online, RPGs, Interviews, Competitive Gaming, MMO

It's pretty impressive when you meet someone who writes extensively about video games, handles digital content and video game R&D for the BBC, and finds time to maintain an extremely popular blog, only to find out that they also rock some high level characters inside of World of Warcraft. Seriously, where do they find the time? By the end of the day, if I've managed to finish at least a third of the items on my to-do list, I feel like I've accomplished a lot. Alice Taylor does all of the above and manages to make me feel damn lazy.

Anyhow, I caught up with her during BlizzCon, and asked her a few questions about her experiences. She asked what my highest level character was, and when I told her a Level 42 Human Warlock, I think her look of scorn was burned into my brain. Forever.

Check out the interview after the break, and be sure to venture over to Wonderland, which is filled with video gaming goodness. Blizzard, take special note: her suggestions for improvements are spot-on. It would be nice to see BlizzCon 2.0 next year with some of these things implemented. Plus, free passes to Disneyland. Although that's just my little addendum.

So, what did you think of BlizzCon? What were the hits and misses? Was it anything like what you expected? Favorite part(s)?

It was okay. It was expensive, and sparse on content, really. Lots of showy stuff from Blizzard, and some from sponsors, and very little from the players, considering, and they're a very important part of the whole thing!

Also, too many low-volume rides, e.g. gameplay areas, and Blizz shop (queues were Disneylandesque).

Favourite part, by far: dance and costume contests.

What could have made it better?

Fan areas:

by-server gathering spots
by-server tabled banquet (like SOE)
fan art gallery
player panels: be fun to hear the hardcore talking
developer pods: devs can man a pod and show off their work, answer questions, etc
social games (e.g. tabletop areas, werewolf tables, etc)
special area for cosplayers to show off (podiums!), like Tokyo Game Show
historical galleries, e.g. the history of WoW music (which is brilliant), who composed it, how it was made, how much it cost, the story behind the making, etc. More STORIES...
better lighting

How often do you play WoW? What others games do you play?

4-5 times a week. Also playing: Overlord, Tomb Raider: Anniversary, Brain Training.

What do you think of the "Con" experience as a whole? Re: Comic-Con, E3, BlizzCon, etc.

Usually, love it! Comic-Con was fun. WorldCon has a ton of fan participation. E3 used to be awesome. Tokyo Game Show is almost a con, considering the price to get in. BlizzCon is the most expensive of the lot, btw.

If you had oodles of free time and dough to make a WoW costume, what would you be?

A'dal, that giant floaty twinkly thing in the middle of Shattrath.

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BlizzCon 2007 World of Warcraft info dump

Alexander Sliwinski — 2007-08-06T14:25:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, Mac, PC, RPGs, MMO

WoW Insider covered BlizzCon 2007 for the World of Warcraft junkies like Nutella covers our toast: rich, thick and with a constant need for more. They've now put up their info dump of everything new they've learned about WoW at the convention. All hard facts, no speculation. They even put it in alphabetical order for quick reference enjoyment so WoW players can go back to getting that eighth alt to lvl 70.

If there is anything WoW Insider missed on their list, just let them know in their comments thread. Unlike The Burning Crusade, Northrend and the Wrath of the Lich King represents a continuation of the plot line from Warcraft III, something that many fans of the RTS series, who also play WoW, have been begging for. With any luck we'll get a release date soon, as things stand right now the time line could be very similar to The Burning Crusade and Blizzard may actually keep its every year expansion word -- give or take a few months.

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World of Warcraft players + BlizzCon = costumes

Kevin Kelly — 2007-08-04T16:27:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, PC, Action, Adventure, Online, RPGs, MMO, Fashion, Galleries

[UPDATE - now with video, after the break]

BlizzCon brings out the strangest, coolest, and most insanely detailed costumes this side of Outland, and we were front and center at last night's costume contest, hosted by comedian Jay Mohr. He appeared to have taken notes from Jamie Kennedy's appearance at E3, and was actually funny instead of stupid.

Check out the gallery down below for the highlights, and be sure to take a look at the winning Warlock costume. The girl who designed it was patient enough to pose for a billion photos afterwards with her heavy (and lighted!) helmet, and as far as we know she wore it all night. We even saw her waiting in line for the bus with those wings still on. Most entries were from WoW, but there were a couple of nods to other Blizzard games, including a Terran Ghost from Starcraft.

Gallery: BlizzCon Costumes

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BlizzCon breaking news: Wrath of the Lich King may require Burning Crusade

Kevin Kelly — 2007-08-04T14:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, PC, Online, RPGs, MMO

We attended a press conference at BlizzCon this morning that was held far too early for people who had been out all night ogling people in World of Warcraft contests. In attendance were J. Allen Brack, senior producer for WoW, Rob Pardo, the Senior VP of Game Design for Blizzard, and Frank Pearce, Executive VP of Product Development at Blizzard.

One big tidbit that they dropped was the fact that The Wrath of the Lich King expansion pack may require you to have the Burning Crusade as well. Blizzard isn't sure if this will require an additional purchase, or if they will bundle it in at no extra cost. When asked how retailers might react to this, no one had any idea. If you're Joe Retailer and selling copies of Burning Crusade pretty well, will you want to put something on the shelf that will cannibalize those sales, or will you just stop carrying the older title altogether?

Another interesting fact is that if you pick up say, the latest expansion pack a couple of years from now, when there are three are four out, will you have to go back and buy the others? That could get potentially very expensive for players who have already shelled out for the base game and are paying $14.95 a month. What are we, made out of gold? We'll follow this as it develops.

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New Starcraft II screens make us go, 'What's that?'

Alexander Sliwinski — 2007-08-03T19:15:00+00:00

Filed under: Mac, PC, Strategy

Hey, BlizzCon isn't just about the wrath of a Lich King and the World of Warcraft -- let's get some StarCraft pron in here too. Blizzard has released new Starcraft II screens and there's plenty of stuff we're wondering and asking, "What's that?"

Hopefully some of our people at BlizzCon can get more details. Check out the new screens in the gallery below. We're definitely digging the new Terran Viking ... Starcraft meets Robotech.

Gallery: Starcraft II (PC/Mac)

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BlizzCon: What we know about the new Death Knight class

Kevin Kelly — 2007-08-03T17:15:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, PC, Action, Adventure, Online, RPGs, MMO

With the now announced and confirmed World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King expansion comes a new Hero Class character, the Death Knight. But what do we know about it? The short answer is "not very much." The longer answer is, "a few things, but still not very much."

The most asked question seems to be, "Can he summon minions to fight with him?" because in the video, they show him reviving corpses or something to that effect. The answer is yes, you'll be able to summon minions, a la Overlord, to help you fight. However, according to Tom Chilton, one of the lead designers for World of Warcraft, "We don't want the Death Knight to be a sort of minion-based fighter. He's focused towards bladed weapons and smashing your head in."

They did at least let us know that they plan on bringing the Death Knight to all character classes, which caused someone to shout out "GNOME DEATH KNIGHTS FOR THE WIN!" Check out the official Death Knight FAQ from Blizzard by follwing that Read link. There's no release date yet, so you'll have plenty of time to dissect, complain, and drool in the intervening months.

Gallery: World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

Q: What are the features of the new expansion?

A: Wrath of the Lich King builds on the rich foundation established in World of Warcraft and The Burning Crusade, providing a wealth of new content for players to explore. The harsh, forbidding continent of Northrend, home of the Lich King and his undead minions, will be uncovered on the world map, and to contend with the new challenges found there, players will be able to advance to level 80, acquiring potent new abilities and talents along the way.

In addition, Wrath of the Lich King will introduce the death knight hero class to World of Warcraft. Once certain criteria are met, players will be able to create a new death knight character, which will start at a high level. Furthermore, player-vs.-player battles will reach a new level of intensity with the addition of siege weapons and destructible buildings, not to mention a new battleground. There will also be an abundance of new quests, dungeons, monsters, items, and recipes -- as well as a new profession, inscription -- for players to try out. The expansion will include some additional character-customization options for players as well. We'll be going into more detail on all of these features in the months ahead.

Q: How will the death knight class fit into the game?

A: The death knight combines martial prowess with dark, necromantic energies. Players might be familiar with the death knight from previously released Warcraft games -- most recently, in the campaigns for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and the Frozen Throne expansion, the former paladin Arthas became a death knight and wreaked havoc across Azeroth and Northrend before fusing with the spirit of Ner'zhul to become the Lich King. The death knight is the first hero class in World of Warcraft; once certain criteria are met, players will unlock the ability to create a new death knight character, which will begin play at a high experience level. We're currently exploring various options for how the death knight will play and the types of abilities at its disposal, and we'll be revealing more information about this new class as we get further along in development.

Q: Will the death knight have any abilities from previously released Warcraft games?

A: The way we portrayed death knights in past Warcraft games is certainly a source of inspiration, but we are still determining how best to capture that feel within the mechanics of World of Warcraft, and haven't made any final determinations on specific abilities.

Q: What role will the death knight play in groups and raids?

A: In general terms, the death knight can be considered a type of class that combines damage dealing and tanking, but naturally it will have an array of unique abilities as well.

Q: What races will be allowed to play death knights?

A: We haven't yet made a final determination about which races can be death knights. However, the class will be available to both the Alliance and the Horde.

Q: Will there be additional hero classes in the future?

A: Yes, we do intend to add more hero classes in the future, but right now our focus is on the current expansion.

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World of Warcraft: The Wrath of the Lich King trailer & first screens

Ross Miller — 2007-08-03T15:49:00+00:00

Filed under: Mac, PC, Online, RPGs, Video, MMO

Unveiled at the BlizzCon opening ceremony (though leaked earlier this morning via a conference pamphlet), Blizzard's upcoming World of Warcraft expansion The Wrath of the Lich King is poised to feed your MMO addiction further. Check out the trailer yourself and enjoy this teaser.

Gallery: World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

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BlizzCon: Liveblogging the Opening Ceremony

Kevin Kelly — 2007-08-03T13:59:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, PC, Online, RPGs, MMO

1:53pm - Blizzard sure knows how to keep things dark. We're stting here in front of the massive main stage, where thankfully our press pass got us a seat (because the place is packed to the (murloc) gills). We've just been given the ten minute warning, which sends batteries, cameras, pens, and notebooks scattering to the floor as we scramble to plant ourselves in a good view of the screens.

What's the big news going to be? Diablo 3? The already-leaked expansion? Murloc SingStar? Something totally unrelated? We'll find out soon.

Gallery: BlizzCon 2007

11:01am - So they're not starting exactly on time. "Ladies and gentlemen, we regret to inform you that there is no sitting in the aisles." And we're off! "Good Morning BlizzCon!" Mike Morhaime, president of Blizzard, takes the stage. "Welcome to our second BlizzCon!" The crowd, predictably, goes nuts. "Thanks to your support, WoW has grown to become the most popular game in the world. Since we last met at BlizzCon, the global population of Warcraft has doubled. There are more than nine million people living in Azeroth. That's bigger than most of the world's countries. The South Park episode featuring World of Warcraft was recently nominated for an Emmy, and we wish them a lot of luck. The Burning Crusade was released back in January, and it became one of the fastest selling PC games in history. It sold 2.4 million copies in 24 hours, which is more than most games sell in a month. Our BlizzCon tickets sold out completely in three days." Pretty impressive stats but, then again, we already knew WoW was huge.

11:06am - "We have people here from all over the world, including Europe, New Zealand, Asia.... and we appreciate your enthusiasm. This is our chance to say thank you in person. We'll be showing you some previews of some things we have in store, and just plain having a good time. Top amateur and professional gamers will be completing for thousands of dollars in prizes. We'll be featuring Starcraft competitions, CGS gaming chamionships, and more. We'll also be featuring several WoW trading card game contests (one guy cheers loudly. literally). Tonight, we'll be having cocktails and costume contests. Jay Mohr will be here tonight as our emcee. He'll also be performing tomorrow during our closing ceremonies. Video Games Live will be playing live music from our games, and it will be very cool. Also, taking a break from their tour with the Darkmoon Faire, we're very happy to have a repeat performenace from our Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain."

11:10am - "You may have heard the news that we are working with Legendary Pictures to bring WoW to the big screen, and you'll be able to learn more about that in the movie panel tomorrow. Several of our partners are here to show products that they've created from our universes. You'll also be able to get a sneak preview of something we're working on with Dell: the Ultimate WoW Gaming System (UWGS?). As you know, we've been having invitationals throughout Korea for Starcraft, and over 60,000 people showed up to cheer everyone on, and we also announced Starcraft II. For those of you who couldn't make it to Korea, here's a short video to show you what the experience was like."

Shots of the Starcraft 2 announcement, people are going nuts (in the video, not actually in the auditorium). We think we could have coded Diablo III ourselves in the amount of time it's taking to watch this video. Literally, onstage (in the video) Korean girls grabbing themselves more than Britney Spears. One blogger snarks, "Wow. Those South Koreans man, they know how to party down."

11:15am - And we're back! "While Korean gamers were the first to see Starcraft 2, you'll be the first to play it." Crowd goes a little kooky. "You can play single-player, or against each other in multiplayer. For those of you who haven't seen it, here's the Starcraft II cinematic trailer." Yay! More video (but this one's been on the tubes for weeks) ... Okay, admittedly, it does look pretty darn cool on the big screen. And the sound is fairly awesome. Fine, fine, we're sold. The bass is literally our upper vertebrae. They didn't skimp on the sound system in here.

... still watching video.

11:20am - "While we're excited to have everyone see Starcraft on the game floor, there's one other small detail I'd like to attend to. - The video's over, the crowd goes wild, and Robert Redford rounds the bases ... oh sorry. Lost there for a second. "While south Korea got to see the Protoss race, here at BlizzCOn you'll see what we have in store for the Terran race. The gameplay panel will offer a full detail of the Terran races, as well as detail of the campaign. Ladies and gentlemen, [Blizzard Vice President] Frank Pierce."

11:22am - "Holy crap, that's a lot of people. Wow. You know, none of this would be possible without you people, so thank you. Well, we finished Burning Crusade earlier this year, and the Blizzard team has been hard at work. One of the things we've been working hard on, is integrated voice chat. Now, some of you might be disappointed by this ... because you'll find out that the hot Night Elf chick you've been playing with is actually a dude on the other end. We've also been working on guild banks. Guildmasters can over see the banks, and will know who has made withdrawals, and who has made deposits. We've been working hard on Zul'Amans. The trolls in that region are ready to come forth and kick some blood elf ass. How many of you play Orcs? (Smattering of applause). We have some exciting developments for you guys. We're going to triple the size of your shoulder pads. (And there was much laughter).

11:25am - "But the dev team has been working on something much more special than that. Who has been reading rumors on the internet and knows what I'm about to talk about? Keep your hands up ... your accounts are all banned. Well, they've been hard at work on our second expansion ... The Wrath of the Lich King! It's official. You might be familiar with an inhabitant of Northrend.... Arthis. (Cheers!).

As soon as you set foot in Northrend, you're going to be exposed to the storyline, and you'll be interacting with Arthis in some form or another right away. Now, you can't beat Arthis at level 70, so we're raising the level cap to 80. We also have new arenas, new battlegrounds, siege weapons (!), and buildings that can be destroyed with those weapons, a new profession called "inscriptions."

We have new character customization with hairstyles and things like that. 5 man dungeons, 10 man raids, 25 man raids. 100s of new quests, monsters, and items. But even more exciting, for the first time in the history of WoW, we're announcing the Death Knight Hero Class. Words can't do justice."

So we're watching a video! Cinematics, narration, describing the things you'll see. A single Paladin gets surrounded by Horde baddies. He's ganked ... and then outfitted in some pretty rad looking black armor with green glowing skulls on it. And he looks pretty pissed off. Arthis is looking over everything. "In the end, everything must serve the one true king." It's a Wrath of the Lich King teaser trailer.

11:31am - "Pretty awesome, eh? Be sure to check out all of the developer panels. The panels are cool ... but even cooler are the banks of computers set up in the other room. You guys will be some of the first people ever to play Wrath of the Lich King. We have a special zone set up for you guys called the Howling Fjord. So thanks for sharing your weekend with us, go out there, and have fun!"

11:33am - And we're done! The crowd is making serious tracks for the demo areas. Seriously, we blinked and there are puffs of smoke where people used to be sitting, just like in cartoons.

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Picture proof: 'Wrath of the Lich King' is new WoW expansion

James Ransom-Wiley — 2007-08-03T12:28:00+00:00

Filed under: Mac, PC, Online, MMO

[Update: WoW Insider's crack team of bloggers has further picture proof, a snap of a Wrath of the Lich King shirt on the back of a Blizzard employee ... that certainly sounds definitive to us (take that IGN!). We'll be liveblogging the Opening Ceremony, scheduled to start at 2pm EDT, so check back.]

World of Raids has snagged a convincing slice of evidence that details the assumed World of Warcraft expansion: Wrath of the Lich King. The pamphlet, allegedly on display at BlizzCon, includes this tell-all features list:

The dark, necromatic Death Knight, the first new character class added to World of Warcraft since its launch
Northrend, the harsh, icy continent where the Lich King holds rule, complete with new zones, quests, items and monsters
New level cap of 80 providing access to mighty new powers and talents
New battlegrounds featuring siege engine warfare and destructible buildings
Expanding character customization options including new hairstyles & dances, the ability to change the hairstyles of existing characters, and new skin color variants

Watch this space for further developments at BlizzCon.

[Via Evil Avatar]

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BlizzCon 2007 sets foot outside Azeroth, and Joystiq is there

Kevin Kelly — 2007-08-03T00:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, PC, Adventure, Online, RPGs, MMO

We trekked across the Burning Steppes, hacked our way through Stranglethorn Vale, and even slinked through the Scarlet Monastery to get to BlizzCon 2007, and so far the trip has left us exhausted, bereft of gold, and low on HP. We've retired to The Lost Bar at Disneyland to catch up with the WoW Insider folks, who are plying us with alcohol and chicken tenders, trying to get Joystiq secrets from our primal mooncloth bags.

We'll be doling out more info over the next few days than you can shake Onyxia's tail at, so look for it here, or over on Joystiq's sibling (and Horde loving site) WoW Insider. In the meantime, check out the gallery below, and some totally awesome swag bag Murloc suit goodness after the break. If you couldn't make it to BlizzCon, you can buy a Murloc Suit on eBay for an indeterminate amount of dough, or go for the whole goody bag for even more.

Gallery: BlizzCon 2007

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Germans rate 'WoW: Wrath of the Lich King'

Alexander Sliwinski — 2007-07-31T20:00:00+00:00

Filed under: PC, Online, RPGs, MMO

The German (we truly do love using this word) Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (USK) ratings board, their equivalent of the ESRB, has rated a game called "World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (GC-Demo)" for ages 12 and up. The rating was given on July 30, 2007 and the title of the game pretty much gives away that it's the name of the next WoW expansion. The demo was probably given to the German ratings board in preparation for Leipzig's Games Convention in three weeks -- so those who couldn't get their tickets for BlizzCon, there's always Leipzig.

This bit of information alluding that the next WoW expansion will have players going to Northrend goes with mounting evidence gathered by WoW Insider and the rumor that the Video Games Live orchestra will be playing pieces titled "Northrend" at a BlizzCon concert. Considering the fallen Prince Arthas from Warcraft III is the Lich King who sits on the Frozen Throne in Northrend, we're going to take a leap and say that WoW players will be exploring the lands to the north once this expansion hits ... you know, whenever that is, 'cause it's Blizzard and any guesstimate of a date would be pointless.

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