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
If you found this story interesting, why not subscribe to our RSS feed to get your daily fix of gaming news?
Flagship Studios has released another trailer for its upcoming Mythos MMO. The project from the original Diablo team is a free to download, free to play MMO that is currently is closed Beta testing.
The Diablo-esque game started out as a test for Hellgate: London and has evolved into a separate entity. This video is the fourth in a series of gameplay videos and heralds the imminent start of the open Beta and the New “Overworld.”
I really hope Blizzard starts clearing up the madness soon on what top secret game they have in the works, since these indications of a new Diablo title are either based on fact or an elaborate ruse. Recently, the owner of fan site Diablo3.com revealed that he was contacted by Blizzard a few months ago about purchasing the domain name. As such, the entire site’s community has been moved over to DiabloFans.com, though Blizzard has expressly stated this is not an announcement of an official sequel:
“…While Blizzard is indeed acquiring the diablo3.com domain name, they told me that this shouldn’t be considered an announcement for the Diablo 3 game we’ve been waiting for all these years. They acquire new domains all the time. While this is true, I personally can’t help but think that this is a confirmation of sorts that they’re working on the next Diablo game. Sure, they can claim it’s because they want to protect their intellectual properties ‘n what have you, but I can’t imagine they would all of a sudden be so interested in the diablo3.com domain if they weren’t working on a new Diablo 3 game behind the scenes.”
Riiiiight, just how Blizzard suddenly taking over “Starcraft2.com” last year didn’t indicate that a sequel was in the works. Of course, not too long ago, a bizarre teaser appeared on the former Diablo3.com with a countdown set to end…er, today. Man, I hope the countdown wasn’t just to the new site introduction.
Whenever a game studio closes, it’s rather upsetting. It’s likely you’ll never see sequels to the games they’ve made, but more importantly these are the lives of people being affected. But for some reason, I’ve got mixed feelings about the closing of Castaway Entertainment.
You see, Castaway is the company behind the atrocity on Xbox Live Arcade known as Yaris. Simply referring to it as the worst game on XBLA would be a gross understatement. Despite being free, I will never be able to rid it enough from my hard drive, my gamertag, and my mind. That game was so craptacular that it makes being stuck in traffic a more wholesome activity. It was so awful that I actually thought about typing that I would prefer watching Carlos Mencia’s show, but that would be downright silly. Nothing is that bad.
Yaris was the only game the studio ever released, although they worked on a number of other titles that never saw the light of day. The studio was originally formed by ex-Blizzard employees who had worked on the Diablo series, which is a revelation that simply rocks my mind. (Diablo 2 is perhaps my favorite game of all time, while Yaris is the exact antithesis.)
So, is this simply proof that karma exists, or is the recession putting the hurt on smaller developers? It’s obviously the latter, but it makes you wonder…
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.
The second entry of a Mythos beta journal by an anonymous source is up on TenTonHammer. This free to play MMO is described as a mixture of World of Warcraft, Diablo, and Guild Wars.
The first journal entry focused on installation, character creation, graphics and UI. The second part goes into the multi-player aspects including partying and zone instances.
Flagship Studios’ Mythos MMO is currently in closed beta testing. The latest update, Zone 3 The Umbral Peaks, was released earlier this week. Mythos looks like it’s shaping up to be a good game for Diablo fans to follow closely.
In a recent podcast from Blizzard (a.k.a. a “Blizzcast”), VP of creative development, Chris Metzen stated that the studio’s upcoming Starcraft sequel “feels like the best work we’ve ever done.” Considering this is the guy who created the storylines for the original Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo franchises, those are probably words that shouldn’t be taken lightly. Metzen went on to say:
“It’s been very, very rewarding to see this thing take shape. Just getting back to that Blizzard of yesteryear where it’s not all about WoW - don’t get me wrong, I love WOW! But we’re so much more than that.”
As someone whose never even touched WoW and still thinks Blizzard is one of the best video game studios around, I’d say he’s spot on in thinking they’re “so much more than that.” And I think I speak for just about everyone in the PC gaming community when I say, “You’re making a sequel to arguably the best RTS to date. It had better be your best work ever.”
At this year’s DICE summit, Blizzard execs, Mike Morhaime (CEO and Co-Founder), Rob Pardo (Senior VP of Game Design), and Frank Pearce (Executive VP of Product Development) spent some time talking about the company’s history in a segment called “From Developer to Worldwide Publisher.” While they naturally covered Blizzard’s history and their commitment to quality, the part that apparently had everyone buzzing was when they listed a number of games that had been outright canceled. The list was meant to illustrate that Blizzard is willing to halt development of a title if it doesn’t seem to be living up to their standards, and included some known titles like Warcraft Adventures (pictured), but also a few others:
Games People Play
Crixa
Shattered Nations
Pax Imperia
Denizen
Warcraft Adventures
Nomad
Raiko
Strangely enough, the once highly-anticipated title, Starcraft: Ghost, was missing from the list. No doubt, this is going to cause rumors of a coming revival to circulate throughout the internet for awhile.
Apparently, so many people have been playing the Mythos BETA that the folks over at Flagship Studios have added some hardware to the server cluster and if you log on tonight, this update should alleviate the lag spikes felt by some gamers. It is no wonder that so many people have been pushing the Mythos servers to the breaking point as cool as it is. I personally played a bit of the BETA some months back, and considering the fact that this game was created by the same people who helped create none other than Diablo, its no wonder it is so popular.
Watching the trailer, you get a great idea of the RPG gameplay mechanics that occur during the game, and if you are into the whole RPG scene, you should enjoy Mythoswhen it is finally released to the public; plus, for a free action RPG, Mythos looks fantastic compared to others in the “free-to-play” market.
Set in the land of Uld - a fantasy world arising from the ashes of an epoch-long war of darkness - players assume the roles of fantasy heroes as they explore, adventure, and quest through entirely randomized dungeons and environments. Being a standard point and click dungeon crawler, it is a great way for gamers who have shied away from MMOs in the past to be able to get on board with because you do not have time constraints as far as gameplay - if you want to play for 15 minutes or 15 hours, you can accomplish just as many feats either way .
For more information on Mythos, check out our previous posts.
World of Warcraft and Stratics has announced the winners of WoW Stratics Winter Veil Giveaway. Five forum posters have won entrance to future beta keys for a yet to be announced Blizzard MMO as well as the Blizzcon cards for Murloc suits.
Congrats go to:
Kellogg
Muhammed Abdul
Sharten
Niamb
Bellymonster
There’s a lot of speculation as to just what MMO Blizzard is working on. It’s currently believed to be either a Diablo or Starcraft based MMORPG. Personally I don’t care either way, but do any of you have any opinions, guesses or preferences?
Flagship Studios has released new update for Mythos has been released that adds tons of new features, improvements, and bug fixes. With this new patch, there is no need to to reinstall the game or download anything, because as soon as you log in you will be automatically patched and ready to go. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Mythos, it is an online, action RPG that is free to download and free to play. Set in the land of Uld - a fantasy world arising from the ashes of an epic-long war of darkness - players assume the roles of fantasy heroes as they explore, adventure, and quest through entirely randomized dungeons and environments.
FEATURES
Guilds have been added! Speak to the Guildmaster in Tulin’s Hope to start one at a cost of 5 Gold.
Hardcore Mode has been added, for extra challenge! In Hardcore, when you die - your character is gone forever, so be careful!
Elite Mode has been added. In Elite mode, monsters are faster, more aggressive, and tougher. Champions appear more often. You can only sell items for half of regular price. - Note that Elite and Hardcore players cannot party or trade with players who do not match their setup, to preserve the economies of these different play styles.
Re-specs are now allowed (although not in Hardcore or Elite mode) - speak to a Skillmaster in Stonehill or Tulin’s hope. Re-specs are free from level 1 through 5, and above that, cost starts at 1 Gold and increases from there. There is a maximum of 3 re-specs beyond level 5
Quests are now Trackable - check them in your log to view them onscreen at all times
Maximum Questlog size increased to 8 quests.
Hardware Mouse Cursors! This should make mouse response lightning fast.
Achievements system has been added - complete goals to earn equippable achievements that give you extra bonuses! Unlock a new achievement slot every 10 levels
Emotes - there is an emote button above the chat pane that will show you the options
Zivia’s Puzzle Box
Party Finder – post your party and description and meet some new friends! You can also post yourself as looking for group to the list.
Ignore List is now account-based and actually saves.
The prestigious Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame has announced that it will be inducting Blizzard co-founder and CEO Mike Morhaime during the D.I.C.E. Summit. He joins the likes of Shigeru Miyamoto, Peter Molyneux and Will Wright as the 11th inductee.
Morhaime is being honored for his work on the MMO space via some game you might have heard of, World of Warcraft, in addition to the Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo games.
“In particular, World of Warcraft has cemented Morhaime’s influence and impact on the multi-billion dollar interactive entertainment industry; it is the world’s largest online game, with more than 9.3 million subscribers.
“Morhaime and Blizzard Entertainment are recognized for creating an MMOG that expanded the traditionally hardcore audience of the genre to also include the broader casual-gaming audience,” the Academy said in a statement.
“This is a great honour, and I’m proud to receive it,” said Morhaime.
“The success that Blizzard Entertainment has had over the years would not have been possible without the enthusiasm and support of players around the world, and the passion and dedication of our employees, so I thank all of them for contributing to this achievement.”
The award will be presented on February 7, 2008 in Las Vegas.
It probably shouldn’t surprise you too much to find out that Blizzard is working on another MMO. But if you think it’s another World of Warcraft game of any sort, you’re wrong. In response to a thread on the official World of Warcraft forums regarding a fairly old job posting on Blizzard’s website, “Drysc” stated that the posting is separate from the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion, and that it doesn’t have anything to do with WoW.
Of course, this isn’t the most official ways to confirm that something is in the works, but it’s not particularly far-fetched to guess that a Starcraft or Diablo MMO might be in the works. Either way, it’s a megaton waiting to happen.
And if it does turn out to be Diablo, I expect to turn into Cartman, leaving my desk only to find Ben-gay.
Mythos is an online, action RPG that is free to download and free to play. Set in the land of Uld - a fantasy world arising from the ashes of an epoch-long war of darkness - players assume the roles of fantasy heroes as they explore, adventure, and quest through entirely randomized dungeons and environments. Flagship Studios has released a trailer showing some in-game footage of Mythos which they feel will entice players fond of Diablo. While you do see some footage from the game, the video is mostly Producer Brock Jones talking about what they are trying to accomplish with the game, and how he feels that even with a more instance style of MMO gameplay, gamers should find Mythos something fun and less daunting than the majority of MMORPGs on the market.
Jones describes Mythos as “A game people are instantly familiar with, but is also new to them. I think we are coming close to getting that, as it has the familiarity to anyone who has played Diablo or Diablo 2 - they know how to play it and they come straight into it. The feeling of it is updated and it is a little less dark, but it still has enough interest to hold people, and I think it is something people can get really excited about in a short time span; ten minutes here, fifteen minutes there rather than epic long games that require hours and hours at a time.”
So basically what he is saying, is that Mythos is a MMO Diablo clone where if you want to run into a dungeon and kick some ass, it will not take you hours and hours to do so. Being a standard point and click dungeon crawler, it sounds like it might be something that gamers who have shied away from MMOs in the past may be able to get on board with. This being said though, it is no wonder that Brock kind of got a dig in at WoW when he mentioned “epic long games” and stated that his game is nothing more than a Diablo clone masked as an MMO, when Flagship Studios is comprised of Blizzard defectors.
They are still accepting emails from people who want in on the Mythos beta, so get on over to the website and sign up if you are interested.
I like RPGs. I’m not a die-hard fan, but I enjoy playing them. I think it’s fun to continually level up my character, explore new lands, solve quests, and finding new spells and equipment. It scares me sometimes to think how much of my time has been spent doing just that in countless games over the years. So when an RPG makes me not care about leveling up, acquiring new weapons, or even exploring the next area, I know something is terribly wrong. With that in mind, here is my review of The Chosen: Well of Souls. Read the full article
Flagship a studio formed by former Blizzard employees who worked on Diablo together, is gearing up for the release of its action-RPG Hellgate: London. Although it’s understood that the game will inevitably be compared to Diablo, CEO Bill Roper believes Flagship has produced a game Diablo fans will embrace as well as one that evolves the genre.
It’s (Hellgate) a new perspective on action RPGs. It sounds cheesy, but I guess that’s really it… In Hellgate there are all the elements like randomisation which made Diablo such a strong title, but we wanted to do it in a 3D setting in order to play with things like first-person. We’ve done a lot of fun gameplay things we were never able to do with Diablo.
Hellgate brings some key innovations to the genre. Taking characters completely into first person and using scale and scope brings a previously unrealized level of immersion to the game. Everything has more depth. In Hellgate, characters will be able to mod their weapons as they could with the socket set in Diablo. The modding is not only seen by the character but everyone in the game so that it becomes part of your story.
The level of customization Hellgate achieves is astounding. One of the challenges in an RPG or MMORPG is that all of the characters tend eventually to look alike. Hellgate implements a system to let characters project their own unique style.
So if you’re a level-45 warrior with the best warrior outfit, all the other level-45 warriors will look the same. Or worse yet, they’ve been building their outfit piecemeal, so they have a bronze breastplate and blue shoes and an orange helmet and they look like a clown threw up all over them.
In Hellgate, every piece of armour you pick up has a colour-scheme associated with it. You can use a menu to apply the colour of that item across all your armour, so you have a uniform look. We started running numbers on it and by level 10 and 11, it’s almost impossible for any two characters to look exactly the same.
Roper is certain that Hellgate: London will appeal to Diablo fans as well as classic MMO and Oblivion players because of the randomization and collectability in the game. Even FPS fans should enjoy this game as a Marksman or an Engineer. Watch for Hellgate: London to launch in November.
If you’re itching to get your hands on Hellgate: London, you’ll be happy to hear that EA and Flagship Studios have finally locked down a release date for the upcoming action RPG. Hellgate: London will hit the shelves in North America on October 31, 2007 and in Europe on November 2, 2007.
If you’re not familiar with Hellgate: London, it’s being created by former members of Blizzard North, including Diablo series creators Erich Schaefer and former President David Brevik. The game will drop players into a fictional, post-apocalyptic London that has been overrun by a demon army. Hellgate will also incorporate some first-person shooter elements into its action RPG style.
The one big question mark for Hellgate is the fact that they have decided to implement a paid tier of online play. Basically, players can play for free, but players who pay a subscription fee will get access to ongoing content updates, more monsters, more weapons, and more high-level dungeons and quests. Paid accounts will also receive 9 additional character slots, access to a Hardcore mode, special PvP arenas, and the ability to bypass server queues. In addition, only paid accounts can create guilds or become guild officers.
Now, I have no qualms with a pay-to-play model. Heck, I’ve singlehandedly helped finance the Blizzard explosion. My question is this: Does allowing free players and paid players to play together relegate the free players to the status of second-class citizens? To my mind, I think it does. Is it game-breaking? I don’t know. Will it prevent the game becoming wildly popular? I believe it will. I’d like to know what you think, so tell us in comments!
The new Hellgate: London trailer just came up and it looks pretty good. Hellgate: London is an RPG with some FPS features also. If you are a fan of the Diablo series, this game will probably seem very familiar to you. The Windows and Mac OSX version are expected to be released in late October.
There are some video games that should just stay video games. With Diablo, it’s a tough call.
Today, Kotaku.com is talking about Diablo the movie, and it looks like the film is in pre-production stages.
Now, pre-production doesn’t mean a whole lot in terms of the industry. Another way of saying that is, it could go away overnight. But I think the material Diablo has to work with may end up something worth at least the nine dollars you pay to get in the movie theater.
But just going on statistics of bad video-game movies, I’d say this is just a bad idea.
Looking for a way to get your Starcraft on? How about Diablo, or Warcraft III? If you don’t feel like rooting through the bottom of your closet to find your old games, head over to Best Buy.com.
Until closing time Saturday, June 16, you can pick up the Diablo Battle Chest (Diablo, Diablo II, Diablo II LoD) or the Warcraft III Battle Chest (Warcraft III, The Frozen Throne) for just $29.99. You can grab the Starcraft Battle Chest (Starcraft, Starcraft: Brood War) for $9.99! That’s right, for less than the cost of last night’s pizza, you can crank up the Zerg invasion again.
I’m not normally a huge Best Buy advocate, but Starcraft for ten bucks is good enough for anyone. Enjoy!
At this year’s DICE summit, Blizzard execs, Mike Morhaime (CEO and Co-Founder), Rob Pardo (Senior VP of Game Design), and Frank Pearce (Executive VP of Product Development) spent some time talking about the company’s history in a segment called “From Developer to Worldwide Publisher.” While they naturally covered Blizzard’s history and their commitment to quality, the part that apparently had everyone buzzing was when they listed a number of games that had been outright canceled. The list was meant to illustrate that Blizzard is willing to halt development of a title if it doesn’t seem to be living up to their standards, and included some known titles like Warcraft Adventures (pictured), but also a few others:
The prestigious Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame has announced that it will be inducting Blizzard co-founder and CEO Mike Morhaime during the D.I.C.E. Summit. He joins the likes of Shigeru Miyamoto, Peter Molyneux and Will Wright as the 11th inductee.
