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PSA: BlizzCon tickets on sale right about ... now [Update: Gone!]
Just a heads up: Tickets for this year's BlizzCon event in Anaheim, California, are going on sale in just a few minutes at 7pm Pacific. The tickets – which will likely sell out quickly – are priced at $175, and include a swag bag and admittance to the two day event beginning November 8.Tickets are on sale on from the official BlizzCon site.If you don't get tickets today, there's two more chances to do so. This Saturday, April 27, a second round of ticket sales will begin at 10am Pacific, and when that's done, all of the regular admission tickets will be gone. Your last chance, then, will be on May 1 at 7pm Pacific, when Blizzard will sell 200 tickets at $500 a piece for the Blizzcon Benefit Dinner, which includes full admission to the show and a charity event.Update: 29 minutes later, the first round of tickets is sold out. If you didn't get yours, you'll have to try again Saturday.
Warcraft movie to be helmed by Source Code director Duncan Jones
The film adaptation of Blizzard's Warcraft universe, simply titled Warcraft, is moving ahead with director Duncan Jones, The Hollywood Reporter says. Jones, whose previous work includes Moon and Source Code, is an award-winning English director and the son of music icon David Bowie. Joystiq has also obtained separate confirmation that Jones is indeed signed to direct Warcraft.Legendary Pictures tapped scriptwriter Charles Leavitt back in August and has chosen to stick with his adaptation. Previously, Sam Raimi was up to direct but chose to opt out instead for another film, Oz: The Great and Powerful. The plan is to start filming Warcraft this fall, with a theatrical release in 2015.
Mists of Pandaria and the new age of World of Warcraft
Back in March during a press event for the fourth expansion for World of Warcraft, Blizzard's VP of Creative Development Chris Metzen said that the release of Mists of Pandaria would mark a turning point for the grandest of MMOs. "This is definitely different fare from any expansion we've tried so far," he said at the time. Mists of Pandaria, Blizzard believed right in the middle of its development, wasn't just about five more levels or pet battles or big, playable Pandas, though all of those things are in there. It was about designing the next cycle of content for World of Warcraft. "The big global threat that's coming, to define the next couple years of WoW's gameplay, is really war itself," Metzen said.At the end of the last expansion, Cataclysm, Blizzard did need a new plan. Long ago, even before the game's first Burning Crusade expansion, word had leaked out that the development team had ideas for expansions about the world's Northrend continent (which eventually became the Wrath of the Lich King expansion), and the setting's elemental planes (which was reworked into Cataclysm). But Pandaria was never on that list, or any other lists that have reached the public's eyes before it was announced.So Mists of Pandaria, then, does represent a new turn in the already long and still growing story of World of Warcraft. It represents not only a turn in the game's lore (which up until this point has been heavily based on the series' previous titles), but a turn in the game's direction, the first step in answering how (and even why) you keep a PC game this old and this unwieldy still profitable, fresh, and growing.%Gallery-150969%
Of course FIFA 13 is biggest thing since FIFA 12 in UK, PS3 'Super Slim' helps hardware
FIFA 13 debuted in the UK last week and the footie franchise dismissed last year's record-setting premiere. According to Chart-Track, FIFA 13 outsold the previous year's installment in units and revenue by 27 and 31 percent, respectively. The game represented 80 percent of all entertainment software sales on the British isles.Last week saw the biggest sales week in the UK of the year so far, with a 196 percent increase of unit sales in the market and 282 percent in overall revenue.FIFA 13 wasn't the only major player to come on the field last week, World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria got its kung-fu panda on in fourth. Although that may seem like a lowish debut for what's still one of the biggest MMOs in the world, it should be noted that the game was available digitally and therefore wouldn't be tracked.Finally, on the hardware front, the PS3 'Super Slim' 500 GB sent PS3 sales up 138 percent, with the console representing 37 percent of PS3 sales. Storm on past the break for the UK top ten.
Now Playing: September 24-30, 2012
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StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm, WoW: Mists of Pandaria playable at Gamescom
Blizzard will attend Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, and bring its latest wares to the show. From August 15 to 19, Blizzard will showcase new content for Starcraft 2 and World of Warcraft.Attendees will be able to sample the new Terran, Zerg and Protoss units coming to multiplayer in StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm, which is slated to launch sometime this year. Blizzard will also give patrons a chance to check out the starting zone in Mists of Pandaria, the fourth expansion for World of Warcraft.Finally, Blizzard will have Diablo 3 available to play, but you're probably doing that now anyway.
5 things you need to know about the Temple of the Jade Serpent
So, last time on 5 Things You Need to Know, we took you on a rollicking, barrel-rolling, beer-spewing adventure through the Stormstout Brewery. Many laughs were had at the adorable kitty-esque bosses, many a hammer was clicked, fruit and vegetables were hurled, and much drunken japery was had by all. If the Stormstout Brewery was the chirpy cheerleader, then the Temple of the Jade Serpent is the emo sister, the one with the funky hair and the slightly offbeat jewelery. This is the Daria to Stormstout's Quinn. (Am I showing my age by referencing retro MTV cartoons? You bet I am!) So just like last time, this is definitely not a full, step-by-step guide (but of course, we already did one of those for you). This is a set of simple facts that will arm you with just enough knowledge to tackle this second dungeon with the panache we expect of our dashing, well-read audience. Let's get on with it! 1. You can go either right or left at the start. You start in a room with some quest givers, and in beta, the eminent Flaskataur, Esq. fulfills all your needs for glyphs and Tomes of the Clear Mind-- and frankly, your needs for tauren in adorable hats. From there, you have two corridors leading to the first two bosses through some trash. You can go either way. After killing whichever boss you kill second, you will be guided via a ramp to the next stage of the dungeon. I reckon right is easier than left. You may disagree. After you've killed whichever side you start with, you'll need to go back from whence you came and do the other one.
Mists of Pandaria part to reveal ... so many trailers
The pandas are coming, the pandas are coming! More precisely, it's the Pandaren, and whether or not you feel this is Blizzard nuking the fridge on its stalwart cash-Tauren, there's no denying it's the cutest expansion to be bestowed upon the warriors of Azeroth.Blizzard took us to the land of kung fu pandas to check out more details about the game, but here are several trailers of the terrain we'll explore when the expansion arrives. %Gallery-150969%
Mists of Pandaria tries to breathe new life into an old World of Warcraft
Video games these days have a shorter shelf life than ever before. Titles fall out of the top ten within days or weeks (if they ever get there at all), there are awesome new releases arriving every month or so, and even the biggest games are on a yearly (if that) sequel schedule at this point. And yet World of Warcraft has remained a constant. Blizzard's MMO has held millions of players in sway for over half a decade, and those players have killed countless boars, cleared out endless quests, dungeons, and raids, and have vanquished not one but three world-threatening expansion bosses, in the forms of Illidan Stormrage, Arthas the Lich King, and Deathwing and his Cataclysm.So Blizzard is perhaps taking on its hardest task ever with the upcoming Mists of Pandaria expansion. There's no question in the halls of the (recently quieter) Blizzard campus in Irvine, California that the game is at a crossroads of sorts. Blizzard's formula for WoW expansions (define a baddie, and lead a player to gear and level up to the final fight) has worked so far, but it's almost as if the company realizes that the old tricks are getting old.Blizzard needs, then, to take World of Warcraft, one of history's most-played, most-traversed, and most-conquered games, and make it feel new. "This is definitely different fare from any expansion we've tried so far," VP of Creative Development Chris Metzen said in a presentation to assembled press. He then talked about the game on a much longer scale than a few weeks, a few months, or even a Call of Duty-length year. "The big global threat that's coming, to define the next couple years of WoW's gameplay, is really war itself."%Gallery-150969%
World of Warcraft offers new in-game item, new TV spot for seventh anniversary
World of Warcraft is about to celebrate its seventh anniversary on November 23 next week (which means that some of its players have been alive for less time than the game's servers have been up), and to celebrate, Blizzard is giving everyone who logs in between this Sunday and December 3 a Feat of Strength achievement (which means it's only available during this time) and a "celebration package" item. The item will fire off a virtual fireworks display, and gives players a spiffy new tabard, as well as a 7% experience point and reputation bonus when used. The company will also introduce a brand new "What's your game?" celebrity TV commercial this weekend during the Bears/Chargers game on CBS. The star of the new commercial is set to be a surprise, so you can start guessing right now in the comments below. We have no idea who it might be, but considering all of the stars so far (William Shatner, Mr. T, Ozzy Osbourne, Jean Claude Van Damme, and Verne Troyer), a girl might be nice?
World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria sets a new direction for Blizzard's first MMO
Blizzard has made the next expansion in the World of Warcraft official as Mists of Pandaria, and after conquering other planets, the Lich King, and a big bad dragon, the Horde and Alliance are headed to ... China. Well, not China per se, but Pandaria, a long-rumored, Eastern mysticism-influenced realm, where panda-based humanoids roam, brew and drink beer, and offer players the next five levels in their continuing progression. As is often the case with this game, many players have revolted. The Pandaren have long been used as a joke in the world of Warcraft, either referred to on April Fool's Day, or showing up in the company's parodic Christmas cards. But lead quest designer Dave Kosak says players who scoff at Pandaria should think twice. "Maybe people, because they've only been portrayed as cameos or only April Fool's jokes, people think that there's nothing to this race, and that's not it at all," Kozak says to us during BlizzCon last week. "I think the Pandaren are kind of fascinating -- they work hard, they play hard, they eat hard, they drink hard, and they don't do anything half way." The Pandaren, in addition to some of the other announced features of the new expansion, point to the next long arc of the World of Warcraft game. In the first few expansions of the title, Blizzard has cashed in on the earlier origins of the series. But with Mists of Pandaria, Blizzard seems to be setting up the world's most popular MMO for years of content to come. %Gallery-137261%
World of Warcraft's Samwise Didier talks about finally bringing his Pandaren to life
The newly announced Mists of Pandaria expansion for Blizzard's World of Warcraft finally brings the long-awaited Pandaren race to the fantasy world of Azeroth, and while many players have been waiting to see pandas officially implemented into the game, no one, perhaps, has been waiting longer than Samwise Didier. Blizzard's longtime art director originally created the race in his own art, and up until this release, they existed only in bits and pieces of legends inside the games, as little in-jokes or secrets. "It's very personal to me," Didier tells us at BlizzCon this week. "It all started with a picture done for Christmas after the birth of my daughter." Since that first piece of concept art, the Pandaren have always been a fan favorite race (combining a heady mix of panda humanoids, Eastern-style religions and mythology, and even beer brewing monks), and while Didier is quick to point out that lots of people are working on Mists of Pandaria, he's thrilled to see his personal creation come to virtual life. "I'm not trying to take away" credit for the expansion, he says, quickly acknowledging all of the creative folks at Blizzard, "however many it takes to make a game. But it's nice to know that some goofy thought in my head, done for that reason, for my kid, turned into this." Does the portrayal live up to what Didier envisioned? "Yeah, and then some," he says. "There was only a few Pandaren pictures, and most of them were of Chen [Stormstout], a big fat sweaty heavy, beer-drinking Pandaren. Well that's not the entire society. He's sort of the anomaly. He likes to go to the outside world. So what do the normal Pandarens do, what is their normal culture like? A lot of sweat went into designing that." But Didier does say that whenever the expansion finally arrives, and the race long hidden in Warcraft's shadows finally gets their time in the spotlight, he'll be proud they're there. "It was one of the last things that I really wanted to see in World of Warcraft, which is Warcraft in general," he says, after having worked on some of the most iconic designs in Blizzard's legendary game franchises. "Now I can almost say, well, I think I've done good with Warcraft -- they're finally in."
WoW: Mists of Pandaria will introduce Pokemon-like Pet Battle System
The Blizzard Entertainment developers are walking through the biggest features of the newly announced Mists of Pandaria expansion, and while you can head on over to our sister site at WoW Insider for all of the details, there was one big new feature that we couldn't ignore. Players have been able to collect pets in the World of Warcraft for quite a while now, but a new Pet Battle System will come with the next expansion that allows players to both customize their pets with new names and other items, and even battle each other. And if you think that sounds a little bit like Pokemon, you're not wrong at all. The battle system, which Blizzard's lead designer Cory Stockton walked through, will have players choosing three pets to fight with at a time, turn-based battles using three abilities per battle (out of six), and even "Master Trainers" which can be beaten around the world of Azeroth to unlock new abilities. Pets can be obtained in all kinds of different ways, and there will be new "wild pets" that can only be found out in the world (in Goldshire, the devs suggested, while it's raining, during the Spring, only at night). Blizzard has given away special pets during holidays, at events like BlizzCon, and even sold pets for real money on the store. As if World of Warcraft needed to be any more addictive, Blizzard has somehow figured out a way to include their own version of Pokemon inside of it.
World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria announced [Update: Now with trailer!]
World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria will be the fourth expansion to the game. It was announced today at the opening ceremonies at BlizzCon 2011 in front 26,000 cheering fans. The expansion promises to deliver the next phase in WoW's development, ushering in a new era of quests, raids, PvP, professions, and instances. The major details: New talent system Pandaren race Pannaria region Monk class 90 level cap raised to 90 Dungeon challenge mode PVE Scenarios Pet Battle System Follow us all day for the next few days as we cover BlizzCon from top to bottom!%Gallery-137261%
