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Azeroth Choppers: Series recap, voting closes tonight
In case you somehow missed the series run of Azeroth Choppers, Blizzard has put together a brief recap of the show in its entirety. I have to admit, I wasn't sure what to expect with this particular foray into web entertainment, but the prospect of getting a new mount is always good news -- and we've never had a mount introduced in quite this fashion before, nor have we seen Azeroth's various pieces of engineering construction built in real life. Although personally, I think the show missed the mark on highlighting all the details of the construction process, it was still a pretty fun, lighthearted series. However, voting for the winning chopper ends tonight at 12pm PDT -- and episode 8, coming later this week, will supposedly announce the winning vehicle. We know we're getting a free mount either way, so why not have a hand in the decision making process? Cast your vote for the chopper you'd like to see added to your mount collection on the official site -- and stay tuned for the announcement of the winning team. Ed. correction: Voting for the chopper has closed.
Azeroth Choppers: Horde behind the scenes footage
As expected, Blizzard has released more behind the scenes footage from Azeroth Choppers -- this time, it's the Horde's turn. While I really liked the Alliance footage we were shown yesterday, I have to confess I'm not nearly as impressed with what the Horde team has to show -- I was hoping for a look at how they created material we hadn't already seen. But it's still cool seeing how they took one image of an orc with some massive plate shoulders and re-created that in bike form. It's big, bulky, and has just the right touch of unbridled menace. I do wish we'd seen footage of all that emblem-cutting, though -- I can't imagine carving the Horde symbol into metal is a particularly easy task. There's still time left to cast your vote for either Team Alliance or Team Horde at the official site. But you better hurry -- voting ends at 12pm PDT tomorrow night. Make sure you get your vote counted, and may the best chopper win!
Azeroth Choppers: Alliance behind the scenes footage
Now this is my kind of footage. Azeroth Choppers has released a behind the scenes look at the construction of the Alliance chopper, including construction and positioning of the "swords" that make up the handlebars of the bike. I was hoping we'd see more of this in the actual show, but I'll settle for behind the scenes, too! While I like the above footage, I have to admit that after seeing the final chopper and that gorgeous leather saddle, I was hoping we'd see the designs for that, and maybe a mention of who did all that leatherworking -- there were plenty of tiny details on both choppers that were complete surprises. Hopefully we'll see some more behind the scenes glimpses over the next couple of days -- I'd like to see more on the Horde chopper construction as well. Voting is still open to pick your favorite bike to be re-created in game, so make sure you cast your vote for Team Alliance or Team Horde while you still can.
Azeroth Choppers revs up to episode three
You've met the teams. You've understood the concept. Now it's time to get to the exciting work of watching people build fantasy motorcycles for World of Warcraft characters to ride in the newest installment of Azeroth Choppers. This is the first stage of assembly, leading to the usual ramping drama that you see in any sort of reality show wherein someone runs out of something and everyone panics before more is obtained in a minute of screen time. If you've enjoyed the previous installments, you'll find more to like here, as both of the factional teams are feeling the pinch in time and one team loses a crucial member. This episode also gives the barest hints of what the bikes will look like in preparation for the first look for Blizzard at the end of the episode. Take a look past the break to watch the full show, and stay tuned for future installments.
World of Warcraft kicks off Azeroth Choppers
Are you ready to ride through Azeroth and Draenor in style? Because that's the goal of the new web series fusing American Chopper and World of Warcraft. The first episode is out now, and you can guess the heart of it just from the premise. Two bikes will be designed -- one for the Horde, one for the Alliance -- and fans will vote on which bike winds up in the game as a mount. The first episode, of course, is very much the proof of concept; it features a very early glance at the starting point for both bikes as well as a discussion of Horde and Alliance aesthetics. You can watch the whole episode just past the cut. It's going to be running at least through the end of May, so you'll get a front-row seat to see both choppers brought from concept into execution.
Azeroth Choppers premieres first episode of new webseries
Episode 1 of Azeroth Choppers, the new webseries featuring Paul Jr. of American Chopper is now officially available. As the premiere epiosde in the series, it's a pretty good introduction to what we're going to see -- two unique bikes being built, one Alliance themed, one Horde themed. At some point, players will get to vote on which design they'd like to see officially placed in World of Warcraft. While the initial reaction from myself was a resounding "What," I have to say I'm pretty excited to see where the series is going to go. I like shows that highlight building things, or even restoring old antiques back to their original beauty. That said, I wasn't expecting much from the premiere episode, and I got pretty much what I expected. First episodes are usually just an introduction to what we're going to see down the line -- and that's exactly what this is, an introduction. However, the episode did manage to surprise me with some shots of frames that had already been built. Honestly, I'm just wanting to see the actual production and construction itself -- which isn't something you can really just jump into point-blank in one short web episode. But hey, at least I'm looking forward to next week, right? Take a look at the full episode above, and hit the official website if you're wondering exactly what we're going to see out of Azeroth Choppers in the future.
Azeroth Choppers is a real thing that's happening
What? That one word encompasses the length and breadth of the WoW Insider team's reaction to the newly announced Azeroth Choppers. World of Warcraft and American Choppers is not the kind of marketing cross-over we expected anytime soon, but when you really think about it, it isn't all that much of a shock considering Blizzard's Chris Metzen and Samwise Didier. And it isn't quite as weird as Mr. T and his obsession with mohawks. Azeroth Chopper is a webseries/competition wherein custom chopper designs will be created for both the Horde and the Alliance by bike experts hand-chosen by the famous-to-some Paul Jr. Players will vote on which chopper becomes an in-game mount, which is an odd approach considering whichever faction loses the battle is likely to miss out completely. Perusing the Azeroth Chopper website, it appears the webseries will run for eight episodes, the first of which is debuting next week. Personally, I'd have preferred an American Pickers crossover. I have a whole lot of World of Warcraft junk (or treasure, depending on the day) piled up in my office closet and I'm not very good at bartering. Prime target, I say.
MMObility: Just how mobile was E3?
E3 is a massive, loud conglomeration of lights, people, and stress. I spent most of my time there walking from one end to another, trying to find a certain booth or meeting room. Luckily for me, I am in pretty good shape and felt just fine the entire time, despite the fact that I had little to eat, and worse yet, little water. At home I drink water non-stop... no soda, no coffee. Still, it was a blast. Working like that really makes a tiny reporter like yours truly feel wonderful. Conversations with developers can be very, very interesting if games are what you love. And there were games. A ton of games. A bunch. A lot. Even then, I knew the feeling that was coming over me, the familiar feeling of stumbling into a toy store or comic shop to look for goodies. I was in hog heaven but needed to find my particular fix. I needed indie, tiny or strange games. Games that ran on a toaster but worked well, browser games that would impress me, or phone games that would continue to destroy the idea that immersive, fun gameplay cannot be done on a portable device. Did I find what I was looking for? Oh, hell yes I did. Click past the cut and I will tell you all about it.
Orange County Choppers builds Intel a Xeon-powered bike
Frankly we're a little surprised that anyone at Intel even watches a show about motorcycle building (don't they spend all their time in clean rooms trying to one up AMD?), but apparently the world's largest chipmaker has so much love for Discovery Channel's (and now TLC's) American Chopper that it commissioned Team OCC to assemble perhaps the highest tech bike in the world. This 250-horsepower workstation on wheels -- unveiled simultaneously in meatspace and Second Life in honor of the Xeon 5300 series release -- probably sports more digital kit than Sturgis or Laconia have ever seen, including either a quad or octo core chipset (sources don't make it clear), removable UMPC that doubles as a virtual dashboard, rear-facing cameras to replace the mirrors, full audio and video capabilities, GPS of course, and what sounds like a 3G data connection. The two-part build will air on July 12th and 19th, when you can probably expect to see Pauls Jr. and Sr. get into a shouting match over which OS to install on the chopper, as well as Mikey trying to play The Sims while barreling down the Taconic at 90 MPH.[Via The Raw Feed and CIOL]
American Choppers splice consoles for Christmas
Take a close look at this commercial for the American Choppers Christmas special, embedded after the break. Notice anything odd (and game-related, of course).Yep, that's a GameCube controller coupled with a slimline PlayStation 2. Did they even consider that the input plug for the GCN controller is almost the same width as the console? Wouldn't it be more of a hassle to, when searching for props, to instigate such a mash-up?In the fictional family's defense, they weren't expecting the cast to walk through their door. Life Lesson #64: always have a console, with coordinated controller, handy for when bikers show up unannounced.At least they're not holding the controller upside-down.
American Chopper leaving Discovery Channel
American Chopper has been in HDTV for...well...it seems like forever and now it might not be. Discovery Communication is moving the show from The Discovery Channel to TLC with the goal of returning their flagship station to its roots science and nature. There hasn't been any announcements if this will affect Discovery HD Theater but we aren't worried. Many of the mainstay shows on HD Theater, like Trading Spaces and Rides, comes right from TLC's lineup. But we are hoping that Discovery's soul seeking will bring the birth of TLC HD. That's not saying that we don't like Discovery HD Theater but rather the opposite as we love it. We just want to see more "science and nature" programs on it. Move the lifestyle shows to a station that is about life and bring back the nature stuff Discovery![via TV Squad]
