In an interview with Inc Gamers, Pardo said, “we don’t have any plans to support LAN.” When asked directly for clarification, he said, “We will not support it.” Furthermore, in a follow up with Blizzard, they were told that the exclusion of LAN play, “is because of the planned technology to be incorporated into Battle.net,” a topic they will reveal more about at a later date.

As you can well imagine, the Starcraft community isn’t happy. Starcraft II has already received its share of attention, once it was revealed that it would be released in three parts. Blizzard has assured gamers that each parts of the release will be a full-fledged game, and the furor has died down. Unfortunately, Blizzard is now in the center of a storm again, and this time it’s LAN gamers stirring things up.

UPDATE: A new statement from Blizzard appears after the break.

Now, you can add your voice to the call for LAN play in Starcraft II. It should be no surprise that a petition has sprung up, asking for Blizzard to reconsider. If you want to chime in on the call for Blizzard to change, you can find the petition here: http://www.petitiononline.com/LANSC2/petition.html

Unfortunately, I don’t think this sort of thing will end with Starcraft II. The way people play games has fundamentally changed as broadband net connections have become more prevalent. Online multiplayer used to be the rare thing in games; now it’s a standard feature. Local multiplayer is just the opposite. As someone who enjoys local co-op, I miss the days when I could sit side-by-side on the couch with my buddies to play through whatever game was on hand.

LAN play was a staple in my younger gaming days. Many weekends were spent gathering together in someone’s basement, stringing hundreds of feet of LAN cable, and cobbling together a server on whatever extra PC was lying around. Many games survived far longer than they would have otherwise precisely because of LAN play.

Now, I’m sure that Blizzard’s reasoning in this is that they want to prevent those who pirate SCII from being able to access multiplayer. But is forcing players to use Battle.net the answer? How many times have we seen this sort of thing tried by game publishers, only to result in inconveniences to paying customers? The pirates simply look at it as a speed bump, meaning that it is completely ineffective at its intended purpose.

What do you think? Is LAN play worthwhile in this day and age, or am I just old, decrepit, and nostalgic?

Update: In a statement to Joystiq, Bob Colayco at Blizzard PR had the following to say:

“We don’t currently plan to support LAN play with StarCraft II, as we are building Battle.net to be the ideal destination for multiplayer gaming with StarCraft II and future Blizzard Entertainment games. While this was a difficult decision for us, we felt that moving away from LAN play and directing players to our upgraded Battle.net service was the best option to ensure a quality multiplayer experience with StarCraft II and safeguard against piracy.

Several Battle.net features like advanced communication options, achievements, stat-tracking, and more, require players to be connected to the service, so we’re encouraging everyone to use Battle.net as much as possible to get the most out of StarCraft II. We’re looking forward to sharing more details about Battle.net and online functionality for StarCraft II in the near future.”

So piracy is the stated reason, which is asinine. Pirates always find a workaround, and legitimate customers always suffer. Haven’t we been down this road before?

Whether you found that news annoying, exciting, or neither, you have to admit that you are stoked about the chance to play Starcraft 2. Well, now you may get a chance to earlier than you think.

Blizzard has opened up beta testing signups for Starcraft 2. If you’re interested in joining in, you’ll need to head over to Battle.net’s beta profile page and get your sign up on. You know you want to.

I would like to remind everyone of the point of a beta test. It’s to find bugs, report them to the developer, and help make the retail release a better product. It’s not simply a chance to demo the game early. So please, don’t look at this as a demo. Look at it as your chance to improve a game that millions of people will be playing.

Regardless, this isn’t an opportunity to pass up. Go sign up today!

If you need a little refresher, you can find a couple of trailers right after the break.

There’s plenty more trailer goodness over on FileFront.

Blizzard has sent us an update for StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood War. Want the patch details? Well, look no further because here they are:

StarCraft Patch 1.16

Feature Changes: In-game chat is now saved in replays. Note: whispers are not saved. Hitting the Escape key while in the chat room will clear your typed text. “/reply” (or just “/r”) will send a whisper to person who most recently whispered you.

Bug Fixes: Fixed localization issues with “from” and “to” in whispers. Starcraft now only uses as much CPU as it needs to run smoothly.

Exploits

• Fixed an exploit which allowed Zerg players to gain minerals through mutations.
• Fixed an exploit which allowed Zerg players to recycle an upgrading building.
• Fixed an exploit which allowed Zerg players to extend their creep with a drone.
• Fixed an exploit which allowed Zerg players to move Drones over impassable terrain.
• Fixed an exploit which allowed Terran players to drop a nuke anywhere on the map.
• Fixed an exploit which allowed players to pause the game while in the pre-game lobby.

StarCraft: Brood War Patch 1.16 notes are exactly the same. Hit whichever badge that you need to update your game.

Gamers were outraged when they heard that StarCraft 2 would be coming in three different parts. Blizzard had claimed it wouldn’t let the merger between Activision and Blizzard parent company Vivendi impact the way it did business. But the move reeked of the type of thingthat would fit right in with Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick’s recent comments that the company want their games to be exploitable. But it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that Blizzard COO Paul Sams vehemently denies that StarCraft 2 is being milked.

Speaking with VideoGamer.com today before a midnight launch of Wrath of the Lich King in London today, he said:

The fact of the matter is, it’s absolutely, positively untrue about us trying to stretch it out and milk it. People think that it was a monetary driven decision. I can absolutely, positively tell you, with 100 per cent certainty, that that was not part of the conversation. I guarantee it. I give my word. There was never, ever a conversation where we said, ‘let’s do this because we’re going to make more money’. I guarantee it. As a matter of fact the sole reason we did it was because we thought it was going to be a better experience. Anybody that says otherwise is not correct. It is absolutely not what we did it for.

Sims’ denial is more passionate than the usual corporate line we get, so maybe it’ll be enough to convince fans that Blizzard truly is doing this to deliver the best game is possible.

But we doubt it.

Considering it was announced long before Diablo III, you’d think Starcraft II would be the next new game releasing from Blizzard, right? Not so, according to the latest rumor. An anonymous source apparently tipped off BattleForums, saying that the development of the Starcraft sequel has been postponed for the most part until Diablo III is ready for launch. They’ve even shifted around the teams as such:

[Starcraft 2] is still being worked on, but only by a minuscule amount of people compared to what [Blizzard] put on the Diablo 3 team.

Personally, I’ll be happy with either game, though I do wonder if this means we’ll have to wait even longer for a new Blizzard title. It’s also kind of strange that Blizzard would do this now, since everything I’ve seen of Starcraft II lately makes it look like it could be finished any day now. We’ll have to see how this all plays out.

Via BattleForums

Blizzard announced a few minutes ago that they are offering up some of their gaming soundtracks via iTunes.

This follows in the footsteps of the Diablo III Overture, which was recently released as a Discovery Download and is free until Tuesday, September 9. At least in the U.S. – visitors to this site have reported that it was not free in other countries, but hopefully Apple has fixed that by now.

Much of this music was originally available only in collector’s editions of the games, or at special events such as the company’s BlizzCon. Each set will cost the usual in your area.

Here is what is currently being offered up in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan:

• StarCraft Original Soundtrack
• Diablo II Original Soundtrack
• Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos Original Soundtrack
• World of Warcraft Original Soundtrack
• World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Original Soundtrack
• World of Warcraft: Taverns of Azeroth Original Soundtrack

The albums have been placed on a new Blizzard Entertainment hub page within the iTunes store. This page also hosts content such as the BlizzCast podcast and trailers and gameplay footage from upcoming games, with more material to be added in the months ahead.

via: Press Release

Over at the Official World of Warcraft website, Blizzard has posted a reminder that the finals for both World of Warcraft and Warcraft III tournaments are scheduled for this weekend September 6-7. Attendees will be given the opportunity to demo WoW: Wrath of the Lich King and Starcraft 2.

If you’re near the the Hard Rock Cafe in Boston, Massachusetts in the US or the Circulo Bellas artes, Salon de columnas in Madrid, Spain admission is free. Check out the latest World of Warcraft news for the fine print on the tournaments.

The WoW PvP tournaments for Taiwan and Korea are over. There was no mention in the news of gamers being invited to demo the Wrath of the Lich King or Starcraft 2. Of course I can imagine the chaos that would have created in Korea. Starcraft is huge there. As it is, I can envision many gamers who don’t care about WoW or Warcraft III showing up this weekend for an opportunity to get their hands on a Starcraft 2 demo.

Gamers who were saddened over tickets for BlizzCon 2008 selling out so quickly due to both the overwhelming response and technical difficulties encountered when trying to order them can rejoice. Blizzard is now offering another 3,000 tickets up for fans wanting to attend the event at the Anaheim Convention Center from October 10-11.

In the wake of all the gamers left out in the cold, company boss Mike Morhaime has issued a public apology over on the official BlizzCon site where he states that Blizzard has reevaluated the space within the convention hall and feels confident that another 3,000 rabid fans can be packed into it.

“Due to these circumstances, we’ve reevaluated our convention hall space and come up with some solutions that will allow us to offer 3,000 more tickets for sale. We know this will not be enough to satisfy the very high level of demand for tickets this year, but we want to ensure that BlizzCon remains a great experience for those of you who are able to attend.”

These extra tickets will be sold via a lottery which is only open to those who created a Blizzard account before 9:00 p.m. PDT on August 12, which is when the “Sold Out” notice crushed the hopes and dreams of many.

While it is obvious that and extra 3,000 tickets will not help curb the demand for such a popular event, it is comforting to know that the folks at Blizzard are doing all they can to try make everyone happy. Don’t you wish that all gaming companies were this thoughtful and appreciative of their fans?

For the past few years, achievements have been all the rage on Xbox 360. The recent PS3 v2.4 firmware update added in support for trophies, Sony’s answer to achievements, and PlayStation Home has promised to make trophies a big deal.

So imagine the possibility of achievements in World of Warcraft; a scenario we learned would become reality with the game’s second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. As it turns out, there’s more to Blizzard’s plans for achievements than just tacking on some goals to their insanely popular MMO — Diablo III and Starcraft II will be getting in on the achievement love, too.

“Eventually, our plans are for the Achievement system to become an account-based system,” WoW lead designer Jeff Kaplan told MTV Multiplayer.

With these new Blizzard Accounts, you’ll be able to earn points to add to your “Blizzard Level,” which Kaplan admitted is “basically a gamerscore” when the subject of Xbox Live’s system came up.

“For now the points are just a WoW character score. As we graduate to that Blizzard Account system, which is right on the horizon, it will switch over to a Blizzard Level.”

He added, “Your WoW score would be just one factor that will go into your Blizzard Level. And rather than call it a ’score,’ we just wanted it to be like you’re leveling up on Blizzard games… You’ll have this Blizzard identity, and you’ll be able to see things like ‘Oh, this guy was great at Diablo III, but he never played Starcraft and he was mediocre in WoW.’ That sort of thing.”

Sounds great, but wouldn’t it be better if this were plugged into Live where you could track achievements and points across a larger spectrum than just the latest Blizzard titles?

Gamers can now find Sacred Gold on Valve’s Steam service. As the preparations for the coming of Sacred 2 accelerate, some gamers may want to take a shot at the first game to get to know the setting or revisit an old favorite. The Sacred Gold digital download contains the original award winning game as well as Sacred Plus and Sacred Underworld.

It seems that gamers are waiting breathlessly on several games based on old favorites these days. Between Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, Fallout 3 and Sacred 2, players seem happy to over look the absence of new titles out there. I know that if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it; but that will only please the masses for so long.

via Steam

Apparently Blizzard has another unannounced game in the making according to a recent session during last weekend’s Blizzard Invitational.

According to the video posted above, Rob Pardo not only talks a bit about Diablo III, but also mentions a separate development team working on an as of yet unannounced project and that the recent job listing for a next-gen MMO had nothing to do with WoW.

The speculation that this could be the much rumored StarCraft MMO is sure to get more heated with arcane comments such as these, but then again it could be a completely new franchise which would be interesting as well.

“The idea of a new franchise is very intriguing to employees of the company,” explains Blizzard COO Paul Sams [Actiontrip]. “Are we ever going to release a new one? I would absolutely say we will at some point. I just don’t know when that day will be quite yet.”

The video posted above, has English subtitles for a reason according to the email sent to us from Onlinewleten, it was so loud in the background. Enjoy the trailer.

Thanks: Onlinewelen

Fans of Blizzard’s popular RTS, Starcraft, have been waiting eagerly to get their hands on the highly-anticipated sequel almost since the first game came out. Well, if the internet rumblings are to be believed, they may not have to wait much longer. Right now, it looks like a handful of retail stores’ websites (specifically, Best Buy, Circuit City, and GameStop) are all showing a release date of December 3rd for Starcraft II. Granted, a retail chain pinning a release date on a game happens all the time, and is frequently proven wrong; but three chains with the same specific date at once? I guess a couple of them could be getting their information from one of them, but this is still a pretty unusual occurrence. This kind of bumps up the possibility of a 2008 release from “maybe, but don’t hold your breath” to “about 50-50,” in my book.

Via Joystiq

Blizzard usually produces games that can run on the majority of machines out there, but when you see footage from the upcoming Starcraft II, you have to wonder just what sort of machine you’ll need to run it. Well it seems the Spanish magazine, Micromania, recently took a trip to Blizzard’s offices and managed to unearth the system requirements for the game. Bear in mind though, that these are not the official specs for the game, as Blizzard has not verified any of them:

Minumum Requirements
GFX: GeForce 7/8 Series or Radeon 1000/2000 with 256 MB RAM
CPU: Pentium 4
RAM: 1 GB
Internet: ADSL 1 Mbit

Recommended Requirements
GFX: GeForce 8000 or Radeon 2000 series with 512 MB RAM
CPU: Core 2 Duo or Athlon X2.
RAM: 2 GB
Internet: ADSL 3 Mbit

Optimal Requirements
GFX: Geforce 9000er or Radeon 3000er Series
CPU: Core 2 Duo 3 GHz or Athlon X2
RAM: 2GB with DualChannel mode

Those are some fairly steep requirements for a Blizzard title, if these do turn out to be the final specs. Of course, by the time the game actually reaches store shelves, maybe they’ll be much closer to the norm.

Via Unofficial Starcraft 2 Forums

Blizzard has announced the next BlizzCon will be held this October in Anaheim, California. This will mark the third such convention, which has now expanded to two convention halls in order to accommodate more attendees. As usual, the whole event will celebrate all things Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo-related:

“Whenever we’ve been able to meet and interact with Blizzard gamers from around the world, it’s been a great experience for us,” stated Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We’re looking forward to seeing even more of our players at this year’s BlizzCon and delivering another entertaining and informative event for them.”

The event will rake place in the Anaheim Convention Center from Oct. 10-11.Tickets are expected to go on sale for $100 each in the next few weeks through www.blizzcon.com. Last year’s BlizzCon sold out quick, so if you’re planning to go, you’ll want to snag your tickets soon. And since Activision pulled out of E3, this will probably be the place where we can finally sit down and play Starcraft II (or possibly Diablo 3, if the signs are to be believed).

Via Press Release

The good folks over at Blizzard have launched their revamped online store complete with digital downloads, a beta lottery and CD key registrations.For the moment, the only games you can download digitally are the StarCraft Anthology, Warcraft III, and the WarCraft III Frozen Throne expansion, this is the first time any Blizzard game has been made available via digitally distributed releases – sans WoW of course. Plus, owners of Blizzard games can register their CD keys on the site which adds titles to their Blizzard account, and download them for free. Diablo II downloads are not currently ready, so you may want to check the site often.

Also, Blizzard is holding a beta lottery which will allow registered users to be entered into a drawing for beta access. This is so that users whose account is drawn will get the first shot at being part of the next beta they launch, which will most likely be their currently unannounced “Next-Gen MMO”.

Here is a list of PC titles that can be registered and downloaded from the Blizzard Store:

• Diablo II (coming soon)
• Diablo II: Lord of Destruction (coming soon)
• Diablo II Battlechest (coming soon)
• StarCraft
• StarCraft Battlechest
• StarCraft Anthology
• Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
• Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne Expansion Pack

For more information on the Blizzard Store and the beta lottery, check out the official site.

Thanks: Shacknews

Cracked has compiled a list of video games that would have been awesome if they could just get off the ground. For the most part, I have to agree with their picks and comments on why they would rock and why they will most likely never see the light of day. I won’t ruin the fun for you by exposing all the titles. Beside some of those pics and videos are really great.

All of these games seemed like a really great idea at the time, but have been plagued with problems. For instance, the author strikes true on the subject of Duke Nukem Forever when he claims that “3D Realms seem to be stuck in some sort of time paradox where the more work they put into the game, the further it gets from being finished.” Some of the titles like Starcraft: Ghost have adapted to other media. Anabelle Terra aka Ghost agent Nova stars in her own manga series, “StarCraft: Ghost Academy”, based on the game concept. However there is at least one on the list that may yet see the light of day. Over on Diablo3.com and Blizzplanet there’s a countdown running; supposedly for a big announcement on Diablo 3 coming May 1st.

Check out “10 Highly Anticipated Video Games You’ll Never Get To Play” on Cracked.

StarCraft II continues the epic saga of the Protoss, Terran, and Zerg. These three distinct and powerful races will clash once again in the fast-paced real-time strategy sequel to the legendary original, StarCraft. Legions of veteran, upgraded, and brand-new unit types will do battle across the galaxy, as each faction struggles for survival.

Featuring a unique single-player campaign that picks up where StarCraft: Brood War left off, StarCraft II will present a cast of new heroes and familiar faces in an edgy sci-fi story filled with adventure and intrigue. In addition, Blizzard will again offer unparalleled online play through Battle.net, the company’s world-renowned gaming service, with several enhancements and new features to make StarCraft II the ultimate competitive real-time strategy game.

Features:

• Fast-paced, hard-hitting, tightly balanced competitive real-time strategy gameplay that recaptures and improves on the magic of the original game
• Three completely distinct races: Protoss, Terran, and Zerg New units and gameplay mechanics further distinguish each race
• Groundbreaking single-player “story-mode” campaign
• Vibrant new 3D-graphics engine with support for dazzling visual effects and massive unit and army sizes
• Full multiplayer support, with new competitive features and matchmaking utilities available through Battle.net
• Full map-making and scripting tools to give players incredible freedom in customizing and personalizing their gameplay experience

StarCraft II does not have an official release date for Mac or PC as of yet, so check back with us often.You can view more screens for the game here.

Tuesday was the day the internet went cuckoo. April 1st has always had a strange vibe to it. Some believe it is a day to kick back and have a few good laughs, but I see it as a day where you can’t trust anyone or anything. Nothing could have been more true of this past April Fools Day though, as it seemed the entire internet had come up with their own special practical joke. At first, it was pretty fun to come across some fake trailers and news bits poking fun at current events and the like. Unfortunately, it kind of began to wear thin as the day went on, and it seemed like every other website suddenly thought they were the cleverest bunch in the whole world. Still, some of them I have to admit were just classic. Thus, I’ve constructed this list of the Top Ten Online April Fools Jokes that I saw that day. Continue after the break for a glimpse into internet April Fools Day insanity.

10. 3D Realms “Concept Art” for Duke Nukem Forever

Bringing up the rear is the “concept art” that 3D Realms released for their always delayed and rarely seen title, Duke Nukem Forever. I’m putting this at the bottom of the list because it was pretty much the worst April Fools Day joke out of all of them (which breaks the whole “Top Ten” notion, but, hey, it’s my list). Sure it was clever in a “pig dressed as a cop with donuts around it and farting” sort of way, I guess. But that still doesn’t excuse the fact that this is 3D Realms poking fun at the tiny amount of information about the game they’ve doled out over the years by offering up something that’s just plain fake to begin with. It’s like throwing a starving child a piece of food just to watch them pick it up and discover it’s actually a cleverly-painted rock. They also stated that they had the same artist design a new logo for them and then accompanied it with a sketch that looked like it was done by a toddler. Hardy freakin’ har har.

9. Capcom Reveals Sheng Long for Street Fighter IV

Here’s another one that toys with our emotions, while also continuing a legacy of one of the more infamous April Fools Day hoaxes in gaming history. Many people still remember back in 1992 when Electronic Gaming Monthly published a cheat for the arcade version of Street Fighter II claiming that players could unlock Ryu and Ken’s sensei, named (at the time) “Sheng Long,” but only if certain incredibly difficult requirements were met. The hoax was so effective that even Capcom USA thought it was true, several other publications reprinted the same cheat, and Sheng Long was incorporated into some Street Fighter comics before he was revealed as a joke. So Tuesday, Capcom decided to continue with the joke by posting a “secret unlockable character” on their blog named — you guessed it — “Sheng Long,” and even accompanied this announcement with a shadowy image. To unlock him though, you would have to win very round with a “Perfect” as Ryu and then perform a Shoryuken on the last boss fight. I’m sure that someone out there will be able to do that when the game is eventually released, but the only reward they’re likely to get is a nice high score.

8. Kia Announces the Kee Wii

Kia thought it would have a little fun with its media contacts on Tuesday by sending out a press release announcing the new “Kia Kee Wii” concept. The proposed car would feature a “revolutionary wireless driving system” in the form of a Wii-mote and Nunchuk. Why? So little kids could drive of course, according to one made-up executive:

“It seems obvious to us that if children as young as eight can drift, rally and race their way to multiple world championships on a games console, then this new driving system will be simple enough for anyone to use. Even from the backseat.”

The press release included a picture of the vehicle and a child in the driver’s seat, clutching the “driving system.” Frankly, if the car can pull of Excite Truck type stunts, I’m sold.

7. Stick Figures Invade Guild Wars

On All Fools Day, those who logged on to play some Guild Wars might have been left scratching their heads for awhile. For one day only, the developers replaced the avatars of everyone at Level 20 with stick figures. Nothing changed with the characters attributes or abilities; they were just walking stick people carrying weapons. No one seemed to mind too much though, and many even got together for mass stick figure dances in certain areas. Honestly, if someone ever made a stick figure-based MMO, I’d probably join it.

6. Xbox.com Reveals the New Spring Hardware

Xbox.com decided to surprise everyone on April 1st by revealing four brand new pieces of hardware that would be available this spring. They included a couple of new SKU’s, including the wood-paneled “Vintage” Xbox, complete with old-school knob controller, and the “Recon” Xbox 360, which looked more like a piece of military hardware than a gaming console. There was also the new Xbox Live Board Game, which provided you questions and unlocked achievements through a USB connection to your console. What caught most people’s eye the most though was the Xbox 360 Wireless Helmet, which essentially attached a flexible plasma screen to your face for the most immersive FPS experience ever (complete with retnal burning). Clicking the “Learn More” option for any of these products brought a pre-order page with two steps: 1) Check Tuesday’s date 2) Slap yourself. Give it a decade or so though, and I’ll bet a similar gaming flight helmet will probably show up on the market.

5. ThinkGeek’s “Super Pii Pii Brothers” and More

ThinkGeek is known for rolling out ridiculous made-up products on April Fools and yesterday was no exception. Along with such “genius” products as the USB Pregnancy Test and the BetaMax to HD-DVD Converter, they unveiled a new Wii-exclusive called “Super Pii Pii Brothers.” This “game” had you controlling a constant stream of on-screen urine to try and hit the toilets as well as any cats that popped out of them. It even came packaged with a special codpiece peripheral to attach your Wii-mote, as shown off by a female gamer with a suspiciously good aim. It was all very ridiculous, though I could really use that caffeinated cereal; could go well with my morning pot of coffee.

4. Blizzard Spoofs…Well, Everything

Blizzard went all out this April Fools Day with not one, but four cleverly crafted stories. Where to begin? There was the new “Bard” class for World of Warcraft, who fights enemies with face-melting guitar solos through a Guitar Hero-like interface. There was the “Diablo Pinata,” which comes filled with deadly weapons instead of the usual candy. Then there was the new “Tauren Marine” for Starcraft II, which was essentially a man-cow in a suit of space armor. And finally there was “World of Warcraft: Molten Core”: a console version of their popular MMORPG developed for the Atari 2600. Besides being jsut plain funny, each of these stories was accompanied by very convincing and well-made screenshots, concept art, and/or trailers. For the “Tauren Marine” prank, it looks like someone actually made a Tauren Marine unit in the game just for the purposes of this joke. Strange how they managed to come up with four witty pranks for April Fools Day while still routinely updating their games and feeding us trailers and screenshots actually worth getting excited over, eh, 3D Realms?

3. The Legend of Zelda: The Movie

Sometimes the best pranks play to our dreams and just leave us feeling a little better afterwards. At least, that’s how I felt after seeing a new trailer from IGN for The Legend of Zelda movie. Someone obviously put a lot of time into this, since it features good cinematography, a great soundtrack, and some amazing special effects. It’s obvious that it’s not a real Hollywood film (mostly because of a lack of polish and some dodgy makeup for Ganondorf), but this is still the best fan-made Zelda trailer ever; miles ahead of some of the others clogging the web. Who knows? Maybe someone will see this and actually start trying to get a real Legend of Zelda movie off the ground.

2. Assassin’s Metal Creed Solid

In a similar vein as the Zelda film trailer, this prank isn’t exactly funny, so much as it is mind-blowingly awesome. A strange video titled “Assassin’s Solid” appeared on the internet, basically showing Solid Snake dressed as Altair from Assassin’s Creed running around the war-torn world of the upcoming Metal Gear Solid 4. As yet, no one is completely sure where this video of Altair running around in Snake’s world came from: either through collaboration between Ubisoft and Konami or through a modder’s painstaking work. Regardless, gamers can still agree this was probably the coolest video to hit the web all day on the first of April; hell, it’ll probably be the coolest video all month. Oddly enough, this joke video almost serves as the best commercial for Metal Gear Solid 4 to date. I messaged the video to a friend of mine and the resulting conversation probably explains it best:

“Holy crap, I want to play that game!”
“Dude, it’s not real. It’s an April Fools Joke.”
“Oh…but is that what Metal Gear Solid 4 will play like?”
“Well, yeah.”
“Holy crap, I want to play that game!”

I think the real joke here is on our brains as we try feebly to process that much awesome in one five-minute video.

1. YouTube Rickrolls Millions

Despite this being non-gaming related, YouTube deserves the number one spot for possibly pulling off the biggest “Rickroll” in the history of the term. All throughout April Fools Day, anyone who clicked on a Featured Video from the site’s home page was instantly taken to the classic music video for Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.” At the end of April 1st, that video had almost six million views, meaning they Rickrolled millions of people in a single day. That also means that same number of people had the catchy tune stuck in their head for the rest of the day (myself included). Well played, YouTube, well played.

The folks over at Blizzard are very amusing and today they released a batch of funnies in honor of April Fool’s Day – so don’t be fooled by the following additions to your favorite games.

First off, we have the new hero class: The Bard who after “ages spent singing of the heroic exploits of others, the bards of Azeroth are finally stepping into the spotlight on their own terms, proving once and for all that while just about anyone can pick up a sword or cast a spell, only a true hero can vanquish evil with the power of ROCK! ”

Next up we have the Diablo Pinata. Instead of being stuffed with candy it is stuffed with “fully functional replicas of iconic Diablo items and artifacts. Parents will be delighted to know that instead of the empty calories and sugar rushes yielded by typical piñatas, their kids will be getting additional exercise while they re-enact their favorite Diablo moments, such as the burning of Tristram or the slaughter of the Zakarum priesthood, all while using authentic weaponry from the game”.

Then of course we have the new “playable” class for StarCraft II, the Tauren Marine from the obscure planet of Azeroth which was “Found to harbor a dizzying selection of humans, mutants, and aliens in a state of perpetual superstition and conflict. The most physically imposing of these warrior races were the so-called ‘tauren,’ an anthropomorphic bovine genotype with super-human stamina, overpowered racial combat abilities, and bizarrely well-developed horticultural skills.”

Finally, last but certainly not least Blizzard has given us the gem that is World of Warcraft: Molten Core – coming to a console near you. According to the press release for this “must have” game of the future:

World of Warcraft: The Molten Core will include both single-player and multiplayer versions, fully loaded with nine different shapes (and possibly colors) representing the current World of Warcraft character classes. A future expansion will introduce a tenth shape, representing the death knight hero class. Blizzard also plans to include a full-featured voice-chat system, as well as a fully customizable user interface that allows players to personalize their joystick button with several different functions. A free attunement cartridge rounds out the offering, providing instant access to the complete World of Warcraft: The Molten Core entertainment experience.

Blizzard’s World of Warcraft: The Molten Core Collector’s Edition, also announced today, will include tinted cellophane TV overlays, further increasing the array of colors available to players. Additional Collector’s Edition features, as well as details on the upcoming World of Warcraft: The Molten Core beta test, will be revealed closer to release. World of Warcraft: The Molten Core will initially be available for the Atari 2600 platform, with plans for additional console systems to be announced in the near future.

Complete with concept art to the “actual” 2-bit graphics this one is the funniest of them all – complete with trailer.

Be sure and look around the internet folks, because somewhere within its bowels, some poor sap of a gaming site is going to take at least one of these seriously.

To get the full nonsensical effect of the hilarity, click here. Be sure and watch all the trailers – they are totally worth it.