diablo
Latest
Flagship's other MMO - Mythos nearing release
With all the buzz about Flagship Studios' upcoming game, Hellgate: London, it hasn't been difficult to forget their subsidiary studio Flagship Seattle, who are currently beta-testing their own new MMO, Mythos. Mythos, due to ship later this year, is a free-to-download, free-to-play, casual MMO which will be distributed by another Flagship subsidiary Ping0 LLC (in North America and Europe) and HanbitSoft (in Asia).
Hellgate: London demo impressions
I spent a little time today to download and look at the Hellgate: London demo. Now, bearing in mind that I don't have what anyone might reasonably describe as 'reflexes' and my hardware can only aspire to being as good as lousy compared to the rigs around these days (that Radeon 9200SE has got to go). If you don't want to flip below the fold, and just want the short form, it rocked. Download the demo, run through it, get your credit-card out and preorder. Longer impressions after the jump. %Gallery-9112%
Hellgate: London demo available now
There's a Hellgate London demo out, for those of you who've been waiting for this maybe-MMO from the makers of the original Diablo (and lots of team members from the old Blizzard North). I say maybe-MMO because it'll be a lot like Guild Wars, in that it'll be free to play out of the box, and there will be a lot of single player fun available. But it's also got that MMO bent to it, in that you'll be able to pay for more exclusive content, and there will also be guilds and player housing. Oh, and did I mention it's an FPS with heavy RPG elements?So yeah, it's a game of many contradictions. But worry not-- you can try the game out yourself right now by downloading the hefty 1.4gb demo over at Worthplaying, GameDaily (disclaimer: AOL owns GameDaily, and they also own Weblogs, Inc, which owns Massively) or FileShack (shudder-- FileShack and I do not have a good history). KillTenRats says the demo lets you play as a Blademaster or Marksman, and that it'll take you through part of Act 1. He also hears that the demo is singleplayer only, so any big MMO elements will probably have to wait until the game is released.And the good news is that that's not too long a wait-- we should see Hellgate: London in North America on October 31st. Let us know what you think of the demo.
The pros and cons of set loot tables
Hardcore Casual has a short but interesting piece up comparing EVE's loot system to that of WoW and EQ. WoW uses what's called a fixed loot table system, which means that everything you kill in game has a set list of loot that drops from it, in varying degrees. If you kill Illidan, you know exactly what he might drop, even if you don't know exactly which piece on that list will drop. But EVE Online apparently uses a much more random loot system-- when you loot, you might get anything.A better comparison (especially for Blizzard fans) might be Diablo, where almost anything can drop almost anywhere. The problem with a random loot system like this, however, is exactly what I ran into in Titan Quest (a pretty darn good Diablo clone): halfway through the game, a great item will randomly drop, and you'll get a thrill from getting a sweet weapon. However, because you randomly hit it big, you'll have the problem of nothing better ever dropping again, and the game is pretty much over. Diablo fixed this by having separate areas to go through (and I believe TQ got patched in the expansion to fix this a little bit). But in WoW, you don't have that problem-- every new instance you go into will have better gear than the one before it, guaranteed. You can look it up on WoW Wiki, or look at the loot lists, and know exactly what's there.In fact, some say WoW's loot tables are too random-- I always see Paladin loot drop whenever there's no Paladin in the group. But it does take a little bit of fun out of the game world when everyone is huddled around the Curator saying "cmon staff, cmon staff, cmon staff!" Giving us a boss or two where the loot is totally and completely random (out of almost any item in the game) could actually be fun.
Will Diablo 3 be announced at GC 2007?
GC is a kind of European E3/PAX that is located in Leipzig, Germany. It is a trade fair for the Video Game Industry as well as a hands-on exhibition for the game playing public. All of the major players will be there including Microsoft, EA, Nintendo, etc.Today (August 22) at 10:30am Leipzig time, the day before the Games Conference opens to the general public, Blizzard is holding a press conference. The topic? "Presentation / Demo new games". Are they going to be giving new info about StarCraft II and Wrath of the Lich King? Probably. Are they going to finally announce the project that their third development team is working on? There is a lot of speculation that yes they are and it is Diablo III.Right now, Diablo.com redirects to the Blizzard.com home page. Diablo3.eu was getting a forbidden error but is now directing to the UK Diablo II expansion site. Worldofwarcraft.com/wrath also was showing a forbidden error up to being announced at BlizzCon.I'm pretty excited at the prospect as that was my biggest disappointment at BlizzCon. Do you think they will announce a new game at GC? If so, what do you think it will be? Or am I just being unrealistically optimistic yet again? I guess we'll find out soon.Update: So far, nothing new has been announced at GC.[via BlizzPlanet]
BlizzCon 2007 sets foot outside Azeroth, and Joystiq is there
We trekked across the Burning Steppes, hacked our way through Stranglethorn Vale, and even slinked through the Scarlet Monastery to get to BlizzCon 2007, and so far the trip has left us exhausted, bereft of gold, and low on HP. We've retired to The Lost Bar at Disneyland to catch up with the WoW Insider folks, who are plying us with alcohol and chicken tenders, trying to get Joystiq secrets from our primal mooncloth bags.We'll be doling out more info over the next few days than you can shake Onyxia's tail at, so look for it here, or over on Joystiq's sibling (and Horde loving site) WoW Insider. In the meantime, check out the gallery below, and some totally awesome swag bag Murloc suit goodness after the break. If you couldn't make it to BlizzCon, you can buy a Murloc Suit on eBay for an indeterminate amount of dough, or go for the whole goody bag for even more.%Gallery-5475%
WoW Insider's Blizzcon Bingo
Because if you're going to a convention about a game, you might as well turn it into a game, right? Just for fun, we've put together a BlizzCon Bingo card-- save the image, print it out, bring it to BlizzCon, and then make a mark whenever you see something at the convention on the card. There's all kinds of things on there, everything from a Northrend expansion, to someone saying "kek" in RL, to Blizzard CMs and developers.All you have to do is observe five occurences in a row throughout the weekend, and you win! What, you ask, do you win? The satisfaction of a full and fulfilling BlizzCon weekend. I don't know about you, but if I leave Anaheim having seen a new Diablo, new midlevel content, or just a really quality Murloc costume, my weekend will be made.And while lots of these are easy to recreate yourself (anyone can complain about their class), remember: no cheating! You must observe what happens, not cause it in any way. Good luck!
Who made Warcraft's soundtrack?
Perhaps because of the upcoming VGL concert at Blizzcon, Erin over on WoW LJ asks about who wrote the WoW soundtrack and what else they've done. If you've got questions, we've got answers.Most of WoW's original soundtrack was written by Jason Hayes, who's worked with Blizzard since Starcraft. His most famous piece for Blizzard is probably "A Call to Arms," which probably still gets your heart pumping. He also wrote a lot of the original game's ambient music, including the Ironforge theme that we hear all... the... time. Here's a nice Q&A with Hayes, and while Hayes now works with other videogame companies (including NCSoft), he's also working on his own album, called Mosaic.But of course he's not the only composer working for Blizzard. Glen Stafford (director of the Audio Department) and Tracy Bush also have written a lot of the music for WoW, as have Russel Brower, Derek Duke, and Matt Uelmen (the last three composers put together music for the Burning Crusade expansion, and Uelmen has won awards for his work on Diablo and Diablo II). Here's an interview with just Uelmen, and here's an interview with Stafford, Uelmen, and Hayes all together.Unfortunately, I couldn't see that anyone but Hayes is working on other projects, unless L70ETC gets picked up by a record label-- while the members of that band are shrouded in mystery (besides lead singer Samwise Didier and Blizz Prez Mike Morhaime), I'd be very surprised if the Blizzard music team didn't have a representative on there.
Rumor: Northrend could be next World of Warcraft expansion
Before we proceed, please take this with a brick of salt -- ready? Let's go. WoW Insider received information from an anonymous tipster that the Video Games Live orchestra will be performing three pieces called "Northrend 1, 2,and 3" at next week's BlizzCon. WoW Insider dug deeper and found the track names do not appear on Warcraft II, Warcraft III, World of Warcraft or the Burning Crusade soundtracks. This could mean the continent of Northrend will finally come into play in the next expansion and gamers will be able to take on Warcraft III's anti-hero/villain (depending on your perspective), the fallen Prince Arthas, who now sits on The Frozen Throne.World of Warcraft has left two major sections of Warcraft III's story open, one of which, if the information is solid, will hopefully be tied up in a battle with Arthas. The other being the glowing pink sparkly bubble protecting the city of Dalaran, which has taunted WoW players for over two years. Then again, Blizzard can take its sweet time, it's not like they're hurting for players, and introduce The Emerald Dream or take on the expansive ocean in the next expansion. BlizzCon starts next weekend and Joystiq, along with WoW Insider, will be there covering it to let you know about the latest from Blizzard's franchises.
Diablo movie in the works? [Updated]
No, this isn't the latest World of Warcraft news, but since I think many of you are as much Blizzard fanboys/girls as I am, this tidbit may be of interest. Rumors are starting to circulate about an upcoming Diablo film in partnership with Legendary Pictures (yep, the same folks we know are working on the World of Warcraft film -- though, no, we don't have any recent updates on that project). How did this rumor get started, you ask? Well, if you check Legendary's home page, you'll see a project called "Diablo" listed under their in development section (in the "Films" section on the lower left, you have to scroll down a bit to see it). And how do we know this is Blizzard's Diablo and not something else? Blizzard holds the trademark to the name "Diablo" for films and games, and they've taken steps to protect the trademark in the past -- the Vin Diesel movie A Man Apart was originally to be called El Diablo. However, Blizzard sued, claiming they trademarked the title and intended to make a movie based on their game, and the title was changed. And since Blizzard has already partnered with Legendary to bring World of Warcraft to the big screen, this seems plausible, though I imagine Blizzard is going to be saving any big announcements like this for BlizzCon.[Via BlizzPlanet]Update: Legendary has removed "Diablo" from their in development section. A mistake, perhaps?
Legendary Pictures producing Diablo film [update]
The official website of film production company Legendary Pictures has recently been updated to reflect a Diablo movie entering development alongside the previously announced World of Warcraft film. As far as game-to-film adaptations go, Blizzard's demonic role-player probably represents one of the better properties to mine, certainly ranking above The Sims and Dead or Alive. Examining the group's lineup of completed films, which includes Batman Begins and 300, vaguely instills some confidence in this adaptation, but we think you'll find the hands of movie executives usually have a way of wringing that out of you.No other information about the Diablo film has been disclosed, though it seems a fair guess that it'll have the eponymous villain attempting to wreck the world, only to be foiled by a floating arrow constantly jabbing at his head. Blizzard was unavailable for comment at the time of writing -- presumably off shoving large jewels into their skulls.[Via ComingSoon.net][Update: The Diablo listing has since been removed from the Legendary Pictures website.]
BlizzCon sold out, let the scalping begin
Have your tickets yet for BlizzCon? No? Well, get ready to check eBay if you want them because the $100-a-piece tickets are sold out. The event will have discussion panels, developer signings, tournaments, cosplay and all forms of other things Blizzard. Also, don't be shocked to hear the Diablo III or next World of Warcraft expansion announcement during the event.The event will take place at the Anaheim Convention Center in California on Aug. 3 - 4 and is sure to be a nice heaping dose of geek-stravaganza. Also, it'll be nice for the hardcore WoW players to get outside for a bit. It helps to air out once a year.[Via WoWInsider]
A peek at what almost was: Diablo on the Game Boy
Although it seems like this is a joke from deep within the bowels of hell, yes ... there really was a version of Diablo being developed by Blizzard (apparently) for the Nintendo Game Boy. It's hard to imagine this hellfire-filled hack and slash RPG on the family-friendly Game Boy (just imagine playing this in church), but Past to Present Online has some screenshots including a picture of the development cartridge, and even a video (which can also be seen after the jump). It's not terribly impressive, and is no doubt years old, but just imagine what could have been.
The concept art of Starcraft II with musical accompaniment
Sure we made a handy-dandy gallery (seen below) of some of the Starcraft II goodness revealed over the weekend, but for those of you more audio/visual inclined here's a video. For all of you out there upset that the big announcement this weekend wasn't the Starcraft MMO, the inevitable Diablo 3 reveal or the Lost Viking first-person shooter -- buck up. There's still Min-E3 announcements and Blizzcon. Blizzard doesn't just have one thing in the pipeline currently. World of Warcraft money buys a lot of development ... a whole lot. Maybe Starcraft: Ghost might finally get taken off the purgatory list. Not a chance, but it's fun to dream what Blizzard can do with the ridiculous amounts of cash coming their way over the next few years.%Gallery-3311%
Blizzard announces Starcraft II, Korea implodes with joy
It all lead up to this: StarCraft II. After months of speculation Blizzard announced today at their World Wide Invitational in Korea that their next big project is StarCraft II for PC.Blizzard president Mike Morhaime says, "With StarCraft II, we'll be able to do everything we wanted to do with the original StarCraft and more ... We recognize that expectations are high following the long-running popularity of the original game, but we plan to meet those expectations and deliver an engaging, action-packed, competitive experience that StarCraft players and strategy gamers worldwide will enjoy." Meanwhile, IGN's man in Korea, Charles Onyett says, "SC2 looks, at least visually, strikingly similar to SC1 - both in unit and map designs." This has been Blizzard's longest gap between releases. Blizzard had a consistent two-year release schedule (not including expansion packs) since 1994 with the original WarCraft. That streak was broken in 2006 when StarCraft: Ghost was killed indefinitely postponed. Although no release date has been given for StarCraft II, hopefully gamers won't have to worry about another installment of the series being "postponed."%Gallery-3311%[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
Upcoming Blizzard announcement to be a new Starcraft?
With the countdown continuing on Blizzard's homepage, there's plenty of speculation on what Blizzard is cooking up. Warcraft 4? Starcraft 2? Diablo 3? I'm staying out of the speculation game, myself -- as much as we might guess and hope for a specific product, Blizzard is good at throwing us surprises. However, the Starcraft 2 rumors are growing in volume, fueled by the recent discovery of a Starcraft2.com page owned by Blizzard Entertainment which redirects viewers to Blizzard's main site. Gamespot went live with the story on Tuesday, and since then I've heard it just about everywhere. Reports of it are crowding my inbox. Barrens chat can't stop talking about it. And Blizzard rumors even seem to dominate OOC chat in Lord of the Rings Online. But is this really a sign that we're going to be hearing all about Starcraft 2 this weekend?My magic 8-ball has informed me signs point to no. Or even if Starcraft 2 is what we're going to hear -- this isn't really a sign of it. The domain record from Network Solutions tells us that Blizzard has owned Starcraft2.com since 1999 and the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine shows the page redirecting to Blizzard's main home page since at least 2002. Starcraft2.com is neither new nor has it recently changed. No, Blizzard doesn't own Diablo3.com (it's a Diablo 3 news site), Warcraft4.com (an advertisement site), WorldofStarcraft.com (a German WoW site), or WorldofDiablo.com (a German Diablo site). But does the fact that they've owned Starcraft2.com for eight years now mean anything relevant to the coming announcement? I think not.[Thanks to numerous tipsters]
Blizzard's site updated to Diablo
Well when Blizzard first changed their Blizzard.com splash page, I, like many players, wondered if the game they're planning to announce on May 19th had something to do with the first two Warcraft games. But here's practically proof that that isn't the case-- they've updated their page now to Diablo (released in 1996), with a nice quote from Deckard Cain.So it looks like we're going to get a countdown of Blizzard over the years. The announcement is coming this Saturday, and I count four days in between now and then (and four games left in the countdown), so it seems that by the time we hit WoW, Saturday will be upon us and we'll know what Blizzard is planning to do next. I'm just wondering what cool quote they'll use for WoW-- there's no way they'd do it, but "Mgurrurggugrle" would make me laugh a lot.At any rate, speculation can shift away again from another Warcraft RTS, and back to Starcraft II or Worlds of Starcraft!
A classical approach to Blizzard with Video Games Live
Where there's gamers, classical music will follow. Video Games Live announced today that they'll have two special Blizzard-themed concerts at Blizzard Entertainment's two major gaming conventions. The first will be at Blizzard's World Wide Invitational this Saturday in Seoul, South Korea, and the other will be at BlizzCon, held in Anaheim, Calif., in August. We're willing to put good money down right now that the orchestra will play (or at least have video of) something from the new possible Starcraft game after the big announcement this Saturday -- those of you attending in Korea get your camera phone's video option ready!The best part is admission to the concerts is included in the price of both events. No additional purchase will be required. BlizzCon prices are $100 USD per person. For those who haven't seen a Video Games Live concert it is definitely a non-meh experience -- you may very well get chills when the theme to a game you really like starts. Considering these concerts will be held with Blizzard fans present, we expect the chills to be of frost nova proportions in the audience.[Via Press Release]
Rumor: Blizzard announces Starcraft 2 in May
Multiple sources, including our buddies at Joystiq, are reporting that Blizzard is bringing a big surprise to their World Wide Invitational event, held in South Korea on May 19. And the rumors say that the surprise is none other than Starcraft 2. As in a new race, lots of changes to existing units, and a glorious return to Blizzard's RTS brilliance.It may not be, of course. Blizzard hasn't confirmed anything yet (of course they haven't), except to say that they will be making a big announcement then. They have talked about Starcraft 2 before, and if they're going to release a new Starcraft anywhere, it might as well be in South Korea. But of course the next WoW expansion has to be announced sometime, and Diablo 3 has been going through the rumor mills for a long time, too.No matter what Blizzard announces, you can bet it'll be seen in some form (hopefully playable... drool) at Blizzcon in August. And then whatever it is, considering Blizzard is making it, we'll probably see it on store shelves in early 2015.
Weekly Webcomic Wrapup: beware the Easter Cow edition
After an insightful episode of South Park that explained the relationship between bunnies, eggs, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we decided to do some of our own research into the history of the seemingly bizarre Easter rituals. After becoming bored with that, we thought about easter eggs in the virtual sense -- i.e. those hidden treats found on CDs, DVDs and video games.Celebrate Easter by telling us your favorite virtual easter eggs; while you're thinking, check out our picks for the week's best game-related webcomics. Be sure to vote for your favorite! Where's the dice? Brunch-out! Illustrative diagram Popular trends The real winner It's a-fatal! Truth stretching We wouldn't be surprised Partied out
