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The Digital Continuum: Cinematic combat
I've played a lot of MMOs in my life, but to be honest I've grown very tired of the tried-and-true combat most games offer. For a long time I've thought that maybe adding extra layers of mechanics on top of the combat -- like WAR seems to be doing -- would help, but now I'm not so sure that's quite the right answersDo I think that real-time combat is the only answer? No. While I love that type of gameplay, there is definitely something to be said for the combat styles of Everquest, Everquest II, World of Warcraft and the upcoming Warhammer Online. However, to maintain overall player interest, traditional combat in MMOs seriously needs to evolve.
Dungeon cinematics in Sunwell
Here's something very new in Patch 2.4: what appears to be a cinematic cut-scene for the 5-man dungeon in Sunwell Plateau. I couldn't quite tell what was going on in it, but it's certainly an interesting idea with some potential. Will we only see it the first time we visit the dungeon? Can we skip it? How is it synchronized? What do we see while someone is watching the cinematic -- does it look like they just take forever to zone in? Will we see cinematics in Wrath, or maybe even retrofitted ones for BC and old-world dungeons? As you can see, I have more questions than facts here. At the moment, as you can see, this is a rather crude cutscene; something more cinematic, with dialog and such, might be nice. But this is cool as a sort of level overview, as seen in many other games (Mario Galaxy, why do you haunt me so?).[via Blizzplanet]
Blizzard cinematic artists nominated for VES awards
Blizzard's cinematic team deserves as many awards as they can get, in this writer's humble opinion. Even back in the Starcraft days, when graphics were 2D and it was all sprites and jumpy animation, the cinematics were exquisite. And now they've been nominated for yet another award-- Blizzard says their team has been nominated to receive honors from the Visual Effects Society's 6th Annual Awards for the Burning Crusade's cinematic seen above. And I don't disagree-- even more than a year (and a few runs through ten levels of Outland) after it's come out, Illidan's growl still rocks.And man oh man I can't wait for the Wrath cinematic. As fun as it was to see Blood Elves, Draenei, and Illidan and the Skull of Gul'dan, seeing Arthas in cinematic form again is going to be even more awesome.
Cinematic for Wrath still to come, in case you were worried
Just in case you were worried, even for just a second, that the paltry ingame Death Knight video we got at BlizzCon was supposed to be the official trailer for the next expansion, worry not-- Nethaera has confirmed, just to be sure, that the best is yet to come. You may think it's silly, but I have to admit, after that ingame vid at Blizzcon, the Lament of the Highborn video, and the recent Zul'Aman video, I was just a little bit worried, way in the back of my mind, that Blizzard might be done making CGI for WoW.I'm glad I was wrong-- I can't wait to see Arthas back in classic cinematic form. We probably won't see it until a lot later than sooner (there is still the Sunwell to release to the PTR and then the live realms), but it's good to know that we still get to see a badass CGI. Truck commercials are all fine and good, but we still haven't heard a "you are not prepared" for Wrath yet.
WoW Moviewatch: Going retro with WC2
I enjoyed checking out this old intro from Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, and I hope you will too. Isn't it amazing how much this world has grown up? This is from over 10 years ago! Those orcs look a little different (and I have no idea where that armor drops, not to mention that gigantic shoulders have apparently grown a lot more fashionable since then), but those are our Zepplins for sure. And the Horde flag!
WoW Moviewatch: The Gnomish Crusade
YOU ARE NOT PREPARED... for the wrath of gnomes, left out of the cinematic yet again. Hilarious! Next time we get new races, I don't want the Horde to get a "pretty" race-- but I do want them to get a stubby, short, and cute one.
WoW Moviewatch: The Burning Crusade opening cinematic
After premiering in spectacular cam-o-vision on YouTube, and then officially premiering on Spike's VGA Awards last night, Blizzard has released The Burning Crusade opening cinematic to the masses. Head on over to the World of Warcraft site to view the cinematic in either Flash or DivX. The short preview starts with a voice over that lore-fiends will quickly come to understand as Illidan's. To say that he's a little upset to have been imprisoned for 10,000 years, then exiled, and then have us show up on his doorstep expecting cookies and eggnog is a gross understatement. We're taken across the Blasted Lands to the Dark Portal before fading out and coming up on a Draenei Paladin, preparing for what lies ahead. That scene then cuts to a Blood Elf lovingly playing with a Mana Wyrm, before she consumes its arcane energies. What follows is a quick succession of battle scenes featuring the Draenei paladin, what appears to be the Orc from the original WoW cinematic, the Blood Elf, a human mage (who wonderfully sheeps his opponent), and an undead warlock who apparently has no love for the gurgly little Murlocs. Finally, we come to Illidan, who leaps up from his Hamlet-like pondering of a skull and shows us his full glorious self before admonishing us with a loud and gravelly, "You are not prepared!" This is a fantastic cinematic, and only makes me long for a full animated World of Warcraft movie, and makes the month-and-two-days we have left to wait for the expansion to hit stores seem like an eternity.
The flood of BC info begins...
Now that the Burning Crusade beta is underway, will we be able to keep up with the flood of info coming out about it? My guess is no-- but we're sure gonna try! Arena teams can be named, just like guilds. I call dibs on "Two Men Enter One Man Leaves". Yes, I know 1v1 isn't possible but it's Mad Max, man! Also, no requirements on classes, but I didn't think there were, anyway. Tree of Life. And apparently the droods love it. Even the whiny ones. Dual wielding shamans will get to put one buff on each weapon, and that is awesome. BC will have a brand-new cinematic. Woohah! If you were worried about flying mounts costing 5000g, don't worry too much. There'll be lots of gold to go around, and the price may even change. Holy moly, this Burning Crusade release is going to be a thing to see. Expect more info as we get it-- lots and lots more.
