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Blizzard's WWI 2008 tickets are all gone
Were you planning on promising a loved one a "second honeymoon in France" only to abandon her at the airport and beat cheeks to Blizzard's 2008 Worldwide Invitational? Unless you've already reserved your spot you can expect to spend a lot of time sightseeing with your lady: Tickets are all gone, selling out in less than a week.Even if you can get a refund on your plane fare, we'd suggest you still go ahead and take your significant other to the City of Lights. After all those nights coming home from work and finding you asleep in front of the computer, lit only by the dull tan of the Barrens, encased, mummy-like, in a sarcophagus of sweat and Dorito crumbs ... hasn't she earned it?
The Joystiq Weekend: March 22 - 23, 2008
For their World Wide Invitational 2008 in Paris, Blizzard has turned the French city into a stylish World of Warcraft map, perfect for a desktop background. (Via WOW Insider)The WWI isn't until June 28, but tickets are on sale now. Check out the highlights for the weekend:JoystiqueryJapanese hardware sales, March 10 - March 16: The Great Egg Hunt editionWeekly Webcomic Wrapup celebrates EasterNewsValve, Nunchuck release Ninja Reflex over SteamSOCOM Confrontation's Special Forces organizations revealedProfessor Layton DLC already on the cartridgeJapanese Mario Kart Wii video smorgasbordHalo 3's Heroic Map Pack to be free this TuesdayNew Crisis Core trailer shows off summons, butt rockPS3 Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 plagued with online snafusRumors & SpeculationSega confirms Sonic Unleashed after video and screenshot leaksCulture & CommunityMicrosoft apologizes for 360 'cleaning' with Bill Gates-signed replacementHistory Lesson: The Original Video Game Easter Egg
Blizzard's Worldwide Invitational invades Paris this June
Tickets for the 2008 Blizzard Entertainment Worldwide Invitational convention and tournament being held in Paris, France, will go on sale this Thursday The event will be at the Porte de Versailles Exposition Centre on June 28 and 29, with tickets costing €70 / £55 ($110). Attendees will get hands-on time with WoW expansion Wrath of the Lich King and StarCraft II.The tournament will have $100,000 in prizes, but all we really care about is the big announcement. Blizzard has a habit of revealing big things at its special events, as it did at last year's invitational in Korea when it announced StarCraft II. Then again, Blizzard could just make us sad Pandaren by neglecting to reveal anything at all.[Via WoW Insider]
WWI 2008 announced: no Wrath before July?
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/No_Wrath_of_the_Lich_King_until_July_at_least'; Blizzard today announced their fourth annual Worldwide Invitational tournament, featuring competition in all their current major games: Warcraft III, Starcraft, and of course WoW. It'll be held in Paris on June 28th and 29th. This is the first European engagement for the ongoing series. There will also be the usual excitement for a Blizz even, including developer panels, music, and "hands-on play" of both Starcraft II and Wrath of the Lich King. Wait, what? Hands-on of Wrath? I may be reading too much into this, but that really makes it look like the expansion won't be released until after the tournament. Why would they have a hands-on demo of something that had already come out? So it looks like we're going to be waiting until July at least to get our Wrath on. Edit: Yes, I know we didn't really expect it before Q3 or Q4. But I like to hope. Suddenly releasing another raid doesn't seem like such a bad idea. More information on the WWI is available at Blizzard Europe.
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!]
Moviewatch Extra: Starcraft 2 trailer
This is the Starcraft 2 trailer from the WWI announcement less than an hour ago. Do I really need to say more? Starcraft 2! Despite the fact that this is all CGI, with no actual gameplay showcased, it's still got me even more excited for what is sure to be an amazing game.
IGN liveblogging Starcraft 2 announcement
Charles Onyett of IGN is in Korea right now liveblogging the Starcraft 2 announcement. Here's what I've pulled out of his hurried updates so far. Game is playable (pray for a demo at Blizzcon), but nothing is final. Protoss Zealots have their psi blades and shield, along with a new charge ability. There's a new Protoss unit called an Immortal, with a shield that activates when damaged-- looks like they're already implementing Paladins then. A new Protoss unit called a Stalker can blink around-- Blizzard wants Protoss to quickly put an army anywhere on the map. Three more new Protoss units: Colossus has long legs and can move quickly, Warprey is a flying unit that does more damage the more it focuses a ray on a target, and a Pheonix can overcharge weapons, but have a cooldown afterwards. Zerglings can now become suicide bombs in a kind of rolling form. There's a physics system in the game-- destroyed units can roll down ramps. System can handle at least 100 units at a time, and looks "similar to SC1 - both in unit and map designs." It must be 3D, though. Right? Still more to come, including hopefully video of the event. An opening cinematic was shown as well-- shouldn't be too long before we see that online.
Blizzpagewatch: Day 6
As Blizzard's game parade draws to an end, we return to your favorite game and mine, World of Warcraft. I must say this is a pretty boring image for them to have picked, although it does capture what the game world felt like around launch time for me. I didn't know talents from skills, epics from rares, or Ragnaros from my class trainer in Ironforge. But I did know dwarves and night elves, since my first character was a dwarf (hunter) and even back then, night elves were ubiquitous. One more day...
Blizzpagewatch: Day 5
In what is sure to be today's least surprising news, Blizzard.com has been updated again, this time to feature Warcraft III. One more day to go (WoW), and then all this furious pondering can rest for a bit. War3 maintains the dubious distinction of being my least favorite of the major Blizz games. I don't think that's a popular stance, but in my opinion, it took the formula that made War2 so fun and pleasant, and destroyed it through massive overcomplication. I can never manage to get more than halfway into the second campaign before I quit playing, and I've tried several times. This is sad, since I'd really like to finish the game so I'd have more of a lore background, although Know Your Lore is filling in a lot of gaps for me. What do you folks think of Blizzard's most recent RTS?
BlizzCon will get back to the classics
Blizzard fans can expect to get an earful at their visits to the World Wide Invitational and BlizzCon this year. The classical orchestra Video Games Live will be performing at both live events in and Anaheim, at no additional cost to attendees. I guess we can call that more bang for your $100 bucks of BlizzCon admission. As nifty a backdrop as this will be, particularly for the WWI and for what I am betting will be a great new Starcraft announcement, I can't help but feel disappointed. I was hoping to be able to hair metal out with my friends to another rendition of "I am Murloc." Level 60 Elite Tauren Chieftan, I miss you. I guess I will have to watch my TBC behind the scenes DVD and be satisfied with that. [via Joystiq]
