Welcome back friends!
It's official. Blizzcon will be back in Anaheim this November. It's an exciting time for any Blizzard fan. This past year was as good of an example of that as ever. The announcement of Overwatch was the biggest announcement Blizzard has given us in years. Any given year some IPs are represented more than others. For instance, 2014 had very underwhelming announcements for Warcraft, and especially Diablo. Warcraft got an exclusive movie preview, which is exciting in its own right, but not something that all fans can appreciate since it was only for con-goers. Other than that, we got some patch previews and a couple panels that served primarily as QA. We didn't even get a preview of 6.2 where they finally open up Tanaan Jungle to see what Gul'dan has been up to. Diablo got even less. There was a preview of Season 2 items and tweaks to the rift systems. However, most of what was shown was catered to the full time Diablo 3 player. No new story to explore, no truly new features, and no new incentives for Seasons. Obviously, Blizzard isn't going to have something big to preview for every game every year. They just don't produce content that quickly. Which brings us to the point of the post. Let's try and predict what we will see in November. TOO SOON EXECUTUS! you say? I know, I know. But hell, it's fun and I'm going to do it anyway. I will revisit after Gamescom or something as we get closer.
Starcraft:
Legacy of the Void beta is beginning in the next week or so. Blizzard has said that the beta is going to be longer than usual this time around. For reference, the beta for Heart of the Swarm began on September 4, 2012 and the game released on March 12, 2013. Therefore, if the LotV has a beta longer than 7 months, we may not see a release date announced until Blizzcon. As unfortunate as that would be, it seems possible. Blizzard stated in the LotV beta preview that they are going back to the drawing board with the second Terran unit. The unit will have to be designed, modeled, put into the beta for testing, all of which take time and we all know how Blizzard is with iteration. We shouldn't forget the mess that was the Warhound in Heart of the Swarm's beta period. Even if we do have a release date going into Blizzcon, I don't think we will see much for Starcraft. There will probably be a few new playable missions to give us more of a look in to the story or possibly the campaign only units. That's about it.
Heroes of the Storm:
Heroes feels like it has been out for a year for me. I was lucky enough to get into the tech alpha last year so my view of it is a little skewed. I've unlocked all the heroes and have settled into a rhythm of just buying whatever hero comes out every 6 weeks. Blizzard has said that's the timeframe they want for releasing new heroes, so there is reason to believe we will see 5 or 6 released between now and Blizzcon. Perhaps we will see a new map released by then too. I expect the Heroes panels to preview some characters and maps, which is always fun, but this year I expect the priority to be solidifying the esports side of things. Similar to how Blizzard handled the WCS, I see them setting up a tournament structure for Heroes. Promoting Heroes of the Storm as a competitive esport is essential in bringing people in from other competing MOBAs. I personally hope for some changes in pricing for the game's official release (the game is basically release now with anyone being able to buy in, but calling it a beta lets them change things like this). The price for heroes and mounts is just too high. I have less of a problem with skin prices just because the quality is just that much higher than any other game is offering right now. I'm interested in the process Blizzard will go through with their Heroes announcements. Being a free to play game without semi-regular expansions, it will be important to have a unique way to create hype.
Hearthstone:
We have a years worth of history to work with now for Hearthstone. I expect the schedule to continue as it did for 2014. Adventure mode announced at PAX East and released shortly after, followed by Expansion announced at Blizzcon and released shortly after. There is no shortage of raid and dungeon content in the Warcraft universe to convert to Adventures on a yearly basis. Expansions can be built around nearly any theme, and card games have some benefits that MMOs and RPGs don't. If balancing a card for release ends up more difficult than expected, you can simply put the card on the shelf until the next expansion rolls around and simply rethink the dressing. For example, if the Piloted cycle from Goblins vs. Gnomes wasn't working the way they wanted, they could take 5 months to tweak it and then release it as part of Blackrock Mountain as a Dragon rider cycle. This is a great advantage especially for a card game where regular releases of new cards is so important. We have no idea what to expect for the theme of the expansion announcement at Blizzcon. No one really expected GvG until datamines started popping up. It could be anything, and that's exciting.
Overwatch:
At PAX East we were told that the closed beta would begin "Fall 2015". I'm hoping that we don't have to wait until Blizzcon to find out the exact date, but that is a possibility. If the beta is going on at the time of Blizzcon I would expect a show match event similar to Heroes of the Storm in 2014. With the game entering beta in the fall, we still have a long time until we have a release date or anything along those lines. What I think we will see is more information on Blizzard's story plans and supplemental content outside of the game. It's curious to me that Christie Golden doesn't have any Warcraft novels announced for 2015. Christie has been a huge part of the out-of-game lore for Warcraft, and I find it hard to believe that they don't have her working on something. I'm not predicting any kind of Overwatch novel, but it's something to keep in the back of your mind. Outside of that, we will probably see a hero or two as well as a map. I think we will see some kind of video detailing some story aspects at an Overwatch panel, but who knows exactly what it will be. At this point, any Overwatch news is exciting.
Diablo:
2015 will be the year we get some really Diablo news. I think we will see an expansion announcement in 2015. However, if history holds true we may see it at Gamescom rather than Blizzcon. Reaper of Souls was announced there so they may continue that trend. Either way, we won't have a release date at Gamescom so Blizzcon will be where we get the real meat. The story left off in Reaper of Souls with Tyreal nervous of the power of the Nephalem and the choice they have to fight alongside good or evil however they see fit. I'm sure there will be some kind of confrontation with Imperius since that guy has been being a dick to us for 2 games. We may get some information on where Ithereal went after the worldstone was destroyed. Then there is actual gameplay changes. Act 6 will come in of course. We will probably need to level to 80 if we expect to follow the pattern set in Reaper. A new class is likely, unfortunately there are a couple of issues with that. The most popular predictions are Assassin, Druid, and Necromancer. However, much of the Necromancer kit was rolled into the Witch Doctor, and the same is true of the Assassin to the Demon Hunter. Druid is most likely to me. How they build the kit I'm not exactly sure, but there are some signs in the story mode dialogue of the Horadrim heading to the Skovos Isles and that is the perfect setting to introduce a Druid class. I'm sure the kit will consist of some shapeshifting and party buffs and healing affects similar to the Monk mantras but after that I'm not sure. We also don't know what kind of primary stat a new class would focus on. The Crusader was an easy prediction because we only had one strength class at the time. Now we have two classes for each of Intellect, Dexterity, and Strength. An interesting way to go would be to have a Druid gain added benefit for Vitality. Who doesn't want something to do with the thousands of Amethyst in their stash. On a bit of a side note, I am anxious to see if the Diablo 3 team can come up with some way to get all of the Lesser and Greater Evils into the game some how. Even if all it is is another uber boss set up similar to the Hellfire crafting process. What Diablo player doesn't want to see a shiny new version of Mephisto!?
World of Warcraft:
We're getting an expansion announcement kids. I know, I'm really stepping out on a limb with that one. A lot of Warlords of Draenor has yet to play out, and we still don't know exactly what role the Burning Legion is playing. But we pretty much know that's what's coming next. The real question is how is it coming. It will all depend on how the last couple patches of Warlords pan out. We could remain in Draenor to keep the Legion from getting to our Azeroth. They may get there despite our best efforts before the next expansion. Maybe we go to Argus to enlist the Draenei's help in defending our planet. Or we could get thrown a curveball. Outside of the theme of the expansion is the question of new race or class. Warcraft has generally introduced one or the other in an expansion with the exception of Mists and Warlords. We saw both in Mists and neither in Warlords. I think we will get one or the other in our next expansion. If I had to venture a guess it would be for a new class. 12 classes just feels like a good number. If the expansion is indeed Legion focused, Demon Hunter makes sense as a class. Metzen has hinted in Blizzcons past at a desire to bring Illidan back into the fold somehow and that would be an absolutely awesome way to do it. There are some other options but none of them seem to fit quite as well. It's similar to how the Death Knight was the perfect class to introduce for the expansion where we take on the Lich King. An interesting side note is if we get a release date. Blizzard has been on record for quite a while that they want to roll out expansions quicker and it's getting to the point where they need to put up or shut up. If we get another 9 month last patch of this expansion people are going to get very frustrated and that could be a problem when the Warcraft subscription model is very much the lifeblood of their other games. I would also expect to see an official trailer for the Warcraft movie. We will be about 6 months away from the current release date so the press machine will be in full force.
I will revisit some of this stuff as we get closer to Blizzcon and after we see what some of the other conventions tell us. Thanks again for reading.
Until next time, Chris
Thursday, March 26, 2015
Friday, March 20, 2015
Missed Opportunities in Warcraft
Lok'tar Ogar Commander!
I played way too much World of Warcraft during Wrath of the Lich King. Most WoW players have gone through a phase where the hooks were in a little too deep. Wrath was it for me. I was fully dedicated to end game raiding. My guild for the end of the expansion broke top 200 US which felt like a huge deal. It was during this time that I truly learned to appreciate the raid zones we were entering into. Naxxramas, though just a rehash, felt epic. A huge sprawling necropolis full of undead minions, spiders, and abominations. Then there was Ulduar! Who didn't love Ulduar? Just clearing the trash to Flame Leviathan made it feel epic (despite how much I hated that trash by the end of the tier). Romping through a huge titan complex on our way to stop a returning Old God. Oh, and by the way, you should also talk to the giant star man who is sending a message to blow up the planet. Defeating Algalon was one of the most satisfying gaming experiences I've ever had. Then, we got Trial of the Crusader.....
After defeating an Old God, saving the world from the titans, and while under threat of the Lich King himself, we decided to start a jousting tournament. We are at the feet of Icecrown Citadel, epicness almost on the level of Ulduar, and we start a jousting tournament. The premise was that we held a tournament to determine the strongest Azeroth had to offer against the Lich King. And this tied in to Icecrown Citadel where Arthas tells us that he let this all happen so that when he killed us he had an army of undead stronger than what the armies of Azeroth had left. The problem with all of this was that ToC felt like a silly way to prepare for the Lich King. It felt more like a distraction than preparation. That is what got me to thinking. What could have been a suitable raid replacement? What would have got the player excited to warm up for a fight against gaming's best villain, and cut some of his resources off?
Azjol-Nerub was already the basis of two dungeons in Wrath of the Lich King. The lair of the Nerubians and the invading Faceless Ones had the feel of an epic sprawling zone. The architecture was unique, the mood was dark and ominous, and it had the size befitting a raid zone. What if in our trip to Ulduar, we discovered an alternate entrance to Azjol-Nerub, that Yogg-Saron was sending his minions through to invade. Through this entrance we decide to kill two birds with one stone. We can take out the minions of the Old God to prevent any future trouble, and we can also cut the Lich King off from his Nerubian reinforcements. Get us out of that one circular room for hours on end in Trial of the Crusader. Best of all, we would get to keep the Anub'arak fight. Despite the raid that led up to him, the Anub fight was really well designed and extremely challenging on Heroic. I think the ToC tier is a noticeable blemish on the face of WoW's best expansion and all I can do is imagine how perfect of a path we could have had.
Then, there is the elephant in the room. If you are like me you have tried to put the mess that was Dragon Soul out of your mind. Cataclysm was the period I played the least since I started in 2.1. I was working a ton and couldn't commit to a real raid schedule. Because of that most of the opinions I have on the expansion come from what I have heard from other people who played through it tier to tier. Blackwing Descent and Bastion of Twilight feel awesome. The mood is perfect for the zone, and the end bosses have meaning. Granted, Nefarion really just played on our nostalgia, but defeating the Twilight Council and Sinestra mean something. We do what a trip to Azjol-Nerub could have accomplished in Wrath. We cut Deathwing off of one of his supporting armies. Firelands was a raid that people seemed to enjoy overall. The boss mechanics were interesting, the zone felt epic, and Ragnaros was the right kind of challenge. The main issue was that the entire tier only consisted of seven bosses. That is just too few for an entire tier. Especially when the next tier consists of mostly rehashed models in rehashed zones. With the exception of Spine of Deathwing, and Deathwing himself all of the fights feel like just bigger versions of trash that we have killed before. I think we could have gotten better.
We could keep all the 5 man dungeons leading up to our raid. We still go back in time to retrieve the Dragon Soul. However, this time when we come back to the present, the powers of the Dragon Aspects waned from the Dragon Soul. The first step of our raid is to go to Dragonblight and enter the Sanctums to defend the Aspects while they re-power it. We get four boss encounters as Deathwing sends his biggest baddies to try and stop us in the act. The fights could even include putting the sanctums themselves to use, a time stop mechanic in the Bronze Sanctum, things like that. The great thing about this is it lets us keep the Dragon Aspect story portion of the raid without just putting bosses in holes in the ground to the left and right of the temple. Once the Dragon Soul is fully empowered, we head to Grim Batol to confront Deathwing and his Twilight Dragonflight at their base of operations. We can face Ultraxion as we attempt to enter the mountain fortress since that fight was pretty interesting. Then, once we get inside, we have a fight or two on our way to a battle similar to Nefarian in the original Blackwing Lair. We find an open room on the side of the mountain in Twilight Highlands were we face off first against the human form of Deathwing. Honestly, with such an awesome model how did we not see more of this guy.
Let's face it. Deathwing is arrogant. He's a dragon aspect with the influence of the Old Gods. It's not out of the question that he would think he could take down 10-25 of us without giving 100%. Of course we would get to the point where he's had enough and flies outside and we get an epic battle with a giant dragon on a cliffside. No killing toenails here. Eventually we get the same ending, the Dragon Soul laser beams Deathwing out of the sky, and we reflect over what we've lost. The Aspects still lose some of their power to empower the Dragon Soul, and the age of mortals is still ushered in continuing our story as we know it. Same story with way cooler delivery.
I know that with World of Warcraft or any game really, everything comes down to development time and resources. Putting this much time into either an Azjob-Nerub raid, or a revamped Dragon Soul, would have extended a previous tier, or caused other features to be cut or suboptimal. None of that is lost on me, but dammit its fun to dream about this stuff.
I really appreciate the people who have been checking out the blog. What I hope to get going now is a conversation on this stuff. Don't hesitate to leave a comment with your own ideas. Thanks again for reading.
Chris
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Blackrock Mountain reviews pt 1
I should preface this post with a couple things. I used to play Magic on a semi-competitive level. I never got to the level that I wanted to, but I came close to punching my ticket to the Pro Tour on a couple of occasions. Adult life has taken away some of my ability to travel to tournaments and commit the time necessary to play at the top level. Hearthstone has been an amazing way for me to keep my competitive card game addictions under control. With any card game that I've played, expansion time is the most exciting time surrounding it. Blackrock Mountain ushers in that time for us in Hearthstone.
Axe Flinger is interesting to me. Aggro Warrior is a deck type that has popped up from time to time. Unfortunately, the Warrior hero power leads to a more conservative deck style by default. Similar to how the Hunter ability promotes aggressive decks. However, there is a chance for Axe Flinger to help an aggressive strategy. Cruel Taskmaster and Death's Bite are already staples. Whirlwind sees some play depending on the metagame. All of these cards work well with Axe Flinger and get him closer to a point where he can deal 6-8 damage to warrant a 4 mana investment. One thing he has going against him, is the prevalence of Piloted Shredder in the 4 drop spot. Few cards are going to be able to compete with it.
Grim Patron was one of the cards previewed at PAX East. Unfortunately, I don't see this card being a very relevant one. The ability on it can lead to some interesting board states sure, but a 3/3 for 5 is just too far below budget. Some of the same Warrior cards that work with Axe Flinger also help Grim Patron gain value, but at a steeper price. In a world full of Shadowflames and Blade Flurries, I don't think even a Grim Patron that has triggered a couple times will provide enough of a threat.
Lava Shock is the card that has gotten the most hype so far. 2 damage for 2 mana is a bit below budget, but the ability to remove the drawback of Overload from your other Shaman spells can't be overlooked. One of the problems with the Shaman class as a whole, is they can fall behind in the middle turns of the game because they rely too heavily on cards like Lightning Storm to keep control of the board. Lava Shock lets you get around that draw back, and actually makes your other cards more efficient than other classes alternatives. Compare Druid's Starfall to Lightning Storm. Both cards are essentially 5 mana for 2 damage across your opponents board (with potential upside), only the Shaman spell makes you pay the 5 mana over the course of 2 turns. I expect Lava Shock to help create some variety to Shaman decks. Perhaps a return to the double Doomhammer, double Lava Burst build from a few months back.
Today we were also given a preview of the second wing, Blackrock Spire. Blizzard's preview doesn't tell us the boss encounters yet, but it does show us 3 of the cards contained rewarded for the wing.
Dragon Egg is an exciting card. Nerubian Egg from Curse of Naxxramas made quite a splash in the Zoo Warlock decks following it's release. Dragon Egg is poised to do the same. Abusive Seargent, Power Overwhelming, and Defender of Argus are all highly played ways to activate this card and get some value out of it. Using a 1 drop to trade with an opposing minion while also being rewarded with a 2/1 is nothing to scoff at. Never mind if you can get a second trigger out of it. I think Dragon Egg is the kind of card to see play in a select few decks, but to really pull it's weight in those decks.
My excitement is gone. Dragonkin Sorcerer is slightly under budget for a 4 drop, where 4/5 yeti sized is the standard. I don't see the triggered ability on this guy being useful enough to warrant any play. The only spells people are commonly using to target their own minions right now are Spare Parts, and the decks creating them already have Piloted Shredder, Mechanical Yeti, and Goblin Blastmage competing for deck space. Maybe there is a Paladin deck out there that wants to buff this guy with Blessing of Kings or Blessing of Might, or a Priest for Power Word: Shield and Light go the Naaru, but I don't see it.
Rend Blackhand is a card I like the idea of, but misses the mark for me. His Battlecry is definitely useful in most matches, since almost everything is running at least a Loatheb. Where Blackhand lose it for me is his stats. At 8/4 he is a prime target for Big Game Hunter, and dies to an attack from almost any 4 drop (like Piloted Shredder, noticing a trend here?). If the ladder becomes a mess of control Warriors running Ysera and Alextrasza then I could see Rend Blackhand as a counter to that sort of mirror match. However, we live in a world with BGH, Black Knight, Mind Control Tech, Kezan Mystic, and Harrison Jones. All these cards are vying for deck space based on need. I just don't see Blackhand making his way in over any other niche counter.
All in all, so far I don't see quite the impact that Curse of Naxxramas had, but we are still early in the spoiler season and there is plenty of time. I'm always excited for the changes that new cards bring. Here's hoping for another card as amazing as Sludge Belcher. Honestly, that card it just too good. Let me know what you think, if there's anything I overlooked (I'm sure there is).
Thanks for taking the time to check it out.
Chris
Blizzard has given us a preview of the first 2 wings so far. The first wing is Blackrock Depths. Once a sprawling maze of trash with unmemorable bosses sprinkled in, it is now a 3 boss wing consisting of the Grim Guzzler, The Arena, and the Dark Iron Emperor. I want to focus on the cards we have seen previewed so far.
Today we were also given a preview of the second wing, Blackrock Spire. Blizzard's preview doesn't tell us the boss encounters yet, but it does show us 3 of the cards contained rewarded for the wing.
Dragon Egg is an exciting card. Nerubian Egg from Curse of Naxxramas made quite a splash in the Zoo Warlock decks following it's release. Dragon Egg is poised to do the same. Abusive Seargent, Power Overwhelming, and Defender of Argus are all highly played ways to activate this card and get some value out of it. Using a 1 drop to trade with an opposing minion while also being rewarded with a 2/1 is nothing to scoff at. Never mind if you can get a second trigger out of it. I think Dragon Egg is the kind of card to see play in a select few decks, but to really pull it's weight in those decks.
My excitement is gone. Dragonkin Sorcerer is slightly under budget for a 4 drop, where 4/5 yeti sized is the standard. I don't see the triggered ability on this guy being useful enough to warrant any play. The only spells people are commonly using to target their own minions right now are Spare Parts, and the decks creating them already have Piloted Shredder, Mechanical Yeti, and Goblin Blastmage competing for deck space. Maybe there is a Paladin deck out there that wants to buff this guy with Blessing of Kings or Blessing of Might, or a Priest for Power Word: Shield and Light go the Naaru, but I don't see it.All in all, so far I don't see quite the impact that Curse of Naxxramas had, but we are still early in the spoiler season and there is plenty of time. I'm always excited for the changes that new cards bring. Here's hoping for another card as amazing as Sludge Belcher. Honestly, that card it just too good. Let me know what you think, if there's anything I overlooked (I'm sure there is).
Thanks for taking the time to check it out.
Chris
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Overwatch Lore
Hello and welcome back friends! It's story time! Do you want to hold hands? Lets hold hands?
Part of what keeps bringing people back to Blizzard games is the story and worlds they create. People rushed out to play World of Warcraft because they had experienced the story or Warcraft 3 and were anxious to jump in and be a part of picking up where it left off. We wanted to march right up to Northrend and rip Arthas off the frozen throne. Deckard Cain hadn't spoken a word to us in over 10 years, but as soon as we heard him in the reveal cinematic, we couldn't wait to return to Sanctuary and wipe out demons in Diablo 3. Blizzard has a history of creating heroes and villains that we genuinely care about. We become invested in Kerrigan's mission of vengeance against Mensk and Zeratul's quest for redemption among the Protoss. So imagine my joy when Chris Metzen announced a new IP at Blizzcon 2014. A new story to watch unfold, and this time I get to be there from the beginning. I was too young to fully grasp the story of early Warcraft and Diablo games. I barely grasped the original Starcraft campaign. Sure, I can look into all those stories now, and replay through them if I want to, but that's much different than being there from the beginning. You get to witness all the twists and turns and see all the mysteries revealed along with the rest of the world. And that is really exiting to me.
What we know so far:
We got a glimpse at the backstory for Blizzards new IP at the Overwatch Unveiled panel at Blizzcon. The game takes place in a "highly fictionalized version of future earth". The exact distance in the future that everything takes place is a little fuzzy at this point, but I'm sure it will be revealed in detail. The game we play takes place 60 or so years in the future. 30 years prior to that there was some kind of robot uprising. Because future = robots. I blame Amazon. Anyway, the Omnics (robots of the future) went haywire and start attacking human civilization. The world's response was to create a counter force to combat and defeat the Omnics. This task force was Overwatch. We don't know the reason for the uprising, but we do know that it was ended by Overwatch and it's agents. Overwatch stood as a global peacekeeping operation until a few years before our game begins, when they were mysteriously shut down. We jump in as Winston, the giant talking Ape, is trying to put Overwatch back together, and former agents and enemies pick sides and fight against one another to fulfill or prevent their objectives. Other than that, we only have character profile pages on Blizzard's official site to provide us with anything else. I urge you to take the time to read through each character's profile. The bit of information they give definitely helps to give some personality to the character's. There are even a few hints about what side of Overwatch each of them may end up on.
How are we getting lore?:
Both Chris Metzen and Jeff Kaplan have said publicly that we won't be seeing a campaign for Overwatch. I believe them, and that would normally concern me. For example, I am awful at Starcraft. But I play through every campaign simply for the chance to see what the story has to offer. But in the past few years, Blizzard has blown me away with what they are able to do outside of games to deliver story. In World of Warcraft they gave us the Burdens of Shaohao during Mists of Pandaria, and prior to the release of Warlords of Draenor, we got Lords of War. Both of these series gave us background and insight into segments of story not easily delivered in a traditional MMO. The art, the narration, everything just knocked right out of the park. I can easily see something similar done for Overwatch. However, thats not how I think we will get most of our story.
A few months ago, Chris Metzen did a podcast interview with Scott Johnson of The Instance. It wasn't a promotion of anything, just two guys chatting about influences, life, fatherhood. Give it a listen. In the interview, Metzen talks about how big of an influence Marvel was for him growing up. Heroes doing battle and saving the world. Overwatch taps into the super hero genre like none of their previous games has before. Like Warcraft draws from Tolkein, Overwatch draws from Marvel. Heroes have special powers and abilities, and they are forced to team up to defeat the big bad. It's my prediction that a majority of our Overwatch story will be told the same way. Comics. The characters are appropriately overdone in terms of personality. Tracer is more stereotypically British than necessary. It may not need to be that way for gameplay, but it definitely helps it to come across being read off a page. If only Blizzard had a relationship established with a comic company....
Part of what keeps bringing people back to Blizzard games is the story and worlds they create. People rushed out to play World of Warcraft because they had experienced the story or Warcraft 3 and were anxious to jump in and be a part of picking up where it left off. We wanted to march right up to Northrend and rip Arthas off the frozen throne. Deckard Cain hadn't spoken a word to us in over 10 years, but as soon as we heard him in the reveal cinematic, we couldn't wait to return to Sanctuary and wipe out demons in Diablo 3. Blizzard has a history of creating heroes and villains that we genuinely care about. We become invested in Kerrigan's mission of vengeance against Mensk and Zeratul's quest for redemption among the Protoss. So imagine my joy when Chris Metzen announced a new IP at Blizzcon 2014. A new story to watch unfold, and this time I get to be there from the beginning. I was too young to fully grasp the story of early Warcraft and Diablo games. I barely grasped the original Starcraft campaign. Sure, I can look into all those stories now, and replay through them if I want to, but that's much different than being there from the beginning. You get to witness all the twists and turns and see all the mysteries revealed along with the rest of the world. And that is really exiting to me.
What we know so far:
We got a glimpse at the backstory for Blizzards new IP at the Overwatch Unveiled panel at Blizzcon. The game takes place in a "highly fictionalized version of future earth". The exact distance in the future that everything takes place is a little fuzzy at this point, but I'm sure it will be revealed in detail. The game we play takes place 60 or so years in the future. 30 years prior to that there was some kind of robot uprising. Because future = robots. I blame Amazon. Anyway, the Omnics (robots of the future) went haywire and start attacking human civilization. The world's response was to create a counter force to combat and defeat the Omnics. This task force was Overwatch. We don't know the reason for the uprising, but we do know that it was ended by Overwatch and it's agents. Overwatch stood as a global peacekeeping operation until a few years before our game begins, when they were mysteriously shut down. We jump in as Winston, the giant talking Ape, is trying to put Overwatch back together, and former agents and enemies pick sides and fight against one another to fulfill or prevent their objectives. Other than that, we only have character profile pages on Blizzard's official site to provide us with anything else. I urge you to take the time to read through each character's profile. The bit of information they give definitely helps to give some personality to the character's. There are even a few hints about what side of Overwatch each of them may end up on.
How are we getting lore?:
Both Chris Metzen and Jeff Kaplan have said publicly that we won't be seeing a campaign for Overwatch. I believe them, and that would normally concern me. For example, I am awful at Starcraft. But I play through every campaign simply for the chance to see what the story has to offer. But in the past few years, Blizzard has blown me away with what they are able to do outside of games to deliver story. In World of Warcraft they gave us the Burdens of Shaohao during Mists of Pandaria, and prior to the release of Warlords of Draenor, we got Lords of War. Both of these series gave us background and insight into segments of story not easily delivered in a traditional MMO. The art, the narration, everything just knocked right out of the park. I can easily see something similar done for Overwatch. However, thats not how I think we will get most of our story.
A few months ago, Chris Metzen did a podcast interview with Scott Johnson of The Instance. It wasn't a promotion of anything, just two guys chatting about influences, life, fatherhood. Give it a listen. In the interview, Metzen talks about how big of an influence Marvel was for him growing up. Heroes doing battle and saving the world. Overwatch taps into the super hero genre like none of their previous games has before. Like Warcraft draws from Tolkein, Overwatch draws from Marvel. Heroes have special powers and abilities, and they are forced to team up to defeat the big bad. It's my prediction that a majority of our Overwatch story will be told the same way. Comics. The characters are appropriately overdone in terms of personality. Tracer is more stereotypically British than necessary. It may not need to be that way for gameplay, but it definitely helps it to come across being read off a page. If only Blizzard had a relationship established with a comic company....
Chris Metzen has been writing on the Transformers comics by IDW since 2012. This is independent of Blizzard, but if anyone can sell IDW on a new comic series, Metzen can. Hell, he sold most of us on a time-travel story for Warlord of Draenor right? I think we will see some information regarding a comic series for Overwatch by the end of the year, and for it to release in 2016 leading up to the games official release. I could be wrong. We could see a full blown TV show or just a batch of cinematics released independently by Blizzard. But, comics are where I'm placing my bet.
Either way, however we get our lore delivered, I'm ready. I can't wait to get wrapped up in another world that I can jump into and enjoy on my own. It can't come soon enough. Feel free to comment if you think I'm crazy, think I'm right on the money, or if you think there's a better way. I am always down for a conversation on this stuff.
Until next time, thanks for reading
Chris
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
PAX Recap
Greetings Travelers!
Our PAX announcements from Blizzard Entertainment have come and gone and there were some things we saw coming, some things we didn't, and some things we didn't see at all. Before I dive in, I just want to clear up a little bit about how this blog is going to run. I am going to work under the assumption that if you managed so search hard enough to stumble across my lowly writings that you have learned all you can from sites like Blizzardwatch, Curse, and ZAM and their family of sites. They do an awesome job of breaking everything down and give you all the information you could ask for. It would be silly for me to come here and do a sloppy job of recapping things they have already written. Instead, my focus will be to give my opinions and expectations in my own way and hopefully that will be interesting enough for people to check in once in a while.
Ok, now that that's done, we can get into the goodies Blizzard gave us with PAX. Let's see if I managed to get anything right that wasn't spoon fed to me.
Heroes of the Storm:
Well I was right in saying that Heroes was going to bring us the least new information. I suppose that depends on your level of play in that game but we can get into that a little more later. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, Heroes wasn't playable on the show floor so there hasn't been a hands on with the previewed hero or battleground. We saw more detail on Sylvanas' abilities and a full idea of what her kit looks like. She seems like she will play as more of high damage Specialist. Dustin Browder said as much, noting that the team had gone back and forth on whether to make her an Assassin or Specialist. She has some escapability and dome burst and, most importantly to me she has the capability to stun towers and NPCs with her attacks. I am drawn to heroes who can stand on their own in a lane and push while the enemy team's focus is elsewhere. Sgt. Hammer, Zagara, Azmodan are all some of my favorites. I will say, I am not a very competitive Heroes player. I haven't ventured into Hero League yet as I like to stick to low risk gameplay at least right now until I get a team of 5 friends together.
The other "new" feature showed was the Tomb of the Spider Queen battleground. As I predicted they had a bit more detail, since the version shown at Blizzcon was basically just early art. Browder went into some detail on the map objectives of killing spiders in lane to collect gems, and turn those gems in to hire the spider queen to help you push (Or something along those lines). It was described as a knife fight in a closet based on map size and player proximity to each other. Charming! That does bring up a reason I really enjoy Heroes over League of Legends and other traditional MOBAs (Other than my obvious Blizzard bias and LoLs cancer community. Though sometimes Heroes shows signs of the same). The varied maps really bring something new and can really change gameplay from game to game, even with the same heroes. And being able to ignore a lane to go and collect coins on Blackhearts bay, or grab skulls in Haunted Mines, really helps to kill the monotony when playing for extended sessions.
Dustin Browder also announced some changes to the progression system. Characters can now level to 20 to stop players from feeling unrewarded for playing a character after earning they're master skin. He also quickly went through addition rewards earned for leveling your personal account level to 40. At this point you stop earning rewards after level 15 I believe so the grind from 15-40 was there only really to unlock Hero League for those inclined and to unlock Team League in the future. There were some other things like the option to mute your team, clan support, and things like that, but theres no point in speculating on any of that until its implemented.
Then there are the things they didn't talk about. We didn't get any word on a hero on deck for after Sylvanas is released. As best I can recall this is the first time we haven't at least had in game footage of a hero in progress. We saw Jaina casting blizzard in the Anub'arak video if I remember right. At this point we don't know who to expect next and frankly I am a little annoyed! Heroes has been getting some justified criticism for selling beta access. The best way for them to silence those criticisms is to steadily release and test heroes to get us to a point where we are ready for a true launch. At this point server stability shouldn't be a concern since anyone who wants in can get in. Especially when they have such a wealth of characters at the ready, most of which have abilities already from whatever game they are associated with. End rant. NEXT!
PS: Possibly most importantly of all, Dustin Browder broke out into dance at on point when the presentation computer crashed. It was amazing.
Hearthstone:
As every Blizzard news site predicted, Blackrock Mountain was announced for Hearthstone. The presentation was cut short due to the computer crash during the Heroes segment, so we probably missed out on a little bit of information that we would have gotten given a full session. 17 bosses, 5 wings. and the first wing is Blackrock Depths. The bosses in the first wing are the Grim Guzzler, the Arena, and Dark Iron Emperor. Blizzard is obviously going to select the most memorable boss encounters, and the ones that best translate to hearthstone game mechanics rather than use all 61 bosses I joked about last time. I know I have probably killed 5 or 6 bosses in Blackrock Depths in WoW that I didn't even know were bosses. They went into a little detail about the plan to incorporate both the dragon theme of Blackwing Lair and Descent, and the Dark Iron Dwarf residents of Blackrock Depths and Molten Core. The expansion launches next month with 31 new cards (5 of which were previewed already).
The preorder price is $5 more than it was for Curse of Naxxramas. The reasoning was that this time around, players have seen how an Adventure works so they don't require a free wing to decide if its something they want to do. I can buy the reasoning but that doesn't change the fact that its a higher price point for the same amount of content. Unfortunately, anyone who aims to play competitively is going to need all the cards this expansion is going to bring into the metagame. I will happily pay for it. Naxxramas was a lot of fun to progress through, especially the heroic versions of the fights, and I enjoy having something new to look forward to every Tuesday when a new wing releases. I can understand the frustration with the pricing this time around but unfortunately thats the new free-to-play world that we live in.
Overwatch:
Finally, Overwatch basically stole the show. The hype surrounding this game is huge. People are itching for any news they can get and PAX did not disappoint. We saw a the new battleground that was hinted on @PlayOverwatch, Watchpoint: Gibraltar. This is a full blown payload map, unlike Kings Row, which is a combination point capture, payload. Jeff Kaplan (my hero), Game Director of Overwatch gave us a bit of the backstory to the location of that map. It is basically a secret base of operations for Winston the moon monkey's attempts to get Overwatch back together. I like what they are doing with the story of this world, and how they are delivering it to us in drips over time. I have some ideas about how we are going to get our Overwatch story, but I'll save that for another post.
Well also got information on two more heroes. Jesse McCree, the outlaw gunslinger, and Aleksandra Zaryanova, the Russian weightlifter. McCree is an offensive hero who was described as a blend of a long range sniper and a close range burst hero due to his ability to unload his sixshooter's entire clip using his alternate fire. Zarya is a female tank who seems to blur the line between tank and support. Her particle cannon has a short and long range attack, she has a shield she can place on herself or an ally which also buffs her attack damage based on how much damage it absorbs, and she has a gravity bomb which can set up awesome plays with some coordination from her team.
Jeff Kaplan mentioned, as part of his Zarya introduction, that Blizzard is listening to the community in regards to heroes in Overwatch having varied body types and ethnicities. I think this is a really important thing for them to focus on, especially since the world they are creating is a future earth. Ignoring the robot uprising, it would do some damage to the stories credibility if all the heroes also happened to be tiny waisted women, and tall sculpted men. It has become a hot topic on all kinds of forums, and some people still aren't happy because Zarya has pink hair and nail polish. Come on people, it's a step in the right direction. Think about it, less than a year ago Ubisoft was getting crushed in the media because they "didn't have time" to include ANY playable female characters. We went from that to having a bulky strong female character previewed for a game that is 6 months from seeing a beta. Wow, I just got sad thinking that we are still at least 6 months away from being able to play this game. Blizz soon TM. I will be doing some Overwatch posts about how I see Blizzard building up the lore and some other things. If you are looking for some well done Overwatch content, I urge you to check out OneAmongstMany on Youtube. He has a character breakdown for all the playable characters announced so far, as well as some gameplay commentary. His videos are really well done and he goes into some detail on strategies and character combinations.
Well, that's all for now. Until next time,
Chris
Our PAX announcements from Blizzard Entertainment have come and gone and there were some things we saw coming, some things we didn't, and some things we didn't see at all. Before I dive in, I just want to clear up a little bit about how this blog is going to run. I am going to work under the assumption that if you managed so search hard enough to stumble across my lowly writings that you have learned all you can from sites like Blizzardwatch, Curse, and ZAM and their family of sites. They do an awesome job of breaking everything down and give you all the information you could ask for. It would be silly for me to come here and do a sloppy job of recapping things they have already written. Instead, my focus will be to give my opinions and expectations in my own way and hopefully that will be interesting enough for people to check in once in a while.
Ok, now that that's done, we can get into the goodies Blizzard gave us with PAX. Let's see if I managed to get anything right that wasn't spoon fed to me.
Heroes of the Storm:
Well I was right in saying that Heroes was going to bring us the least new information. I suppose that depends on your level of play in that game but we can get into that a little more later. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, Heroes wasn't playable on the show floor so there hasn't been a hands on with the previewed hero or battleground. We saw more detail on Sylvanas' abilities and a full idea of what her kit looks like. She seems like she will play as more of high damage Specialist. Dustin Browder said as much, noting that the team had gone back and forth on whether to make her an Assassin or Specialist. She has some escapability and dome burst and, most importantly to me she has the capability to stun towers and NPCs with her attacks. I am drawn to heroes who can stand on their own in a lane and push while the enemy team's focus is elsewhere. Sgt. Hammer, Zagara, Azmodan are all some of my favorites. I will say, I am not a very competitive Heroes player. I haven't ventured into Hero League yet as I like to stick to low risk gameplay at least right now until I get a team of 5 friends together.
The other "new" feature showed was the Tomb of the Spider Queen battleground. As I predicted they had a bit more detail, since the version shown at Blizzcon was basically just early art. Browder went into some detail on the map objectives of killing spiders in lane to collect gems, and turn those gems in to hire the spider queen to help you push (Or something along those lines). It was described as a knife fight in a closet based on map size and player proximity to each other. Charming! That does bring up a reason I really enjoy Heroes over League of Legends and other traditional MOBAs (Other than my obvious Blizzard bias and LoLs cancer community. Though sometimes Heroes shows signs of the same). The varied maps really bring something new and can really change gameplay from game to game, even with the same heroes. And being able to ignore a lane to go and collect coins on Blackhearts bay, or grab skulls in Haunted Mines, really helps to kill the monotony when playing for extended sessions.
Dustin Browder also announced some changes to the progression system. Characters can now level to 20 to stop players from feeling unrewarded for playing a character after earning they're master skin. He also quickly went through addition rewards earned for leveling your personal account level to 40. At this point you stop earning rewards after level 15 I believe so the grind from 15-40 was there only really to unlock Hero League for those inclined and to unlock Team League in the future. There were some other things like the option to mute your team, clan support, and things like that, but theres no point in speculating on any of that until its implemented.
Then there are the things they didn't talk about. We didn't get any word on a hero on deck for after Sylvanas is released. As best I can recall this is the first time we haven't at least had in game footage of a hero in progress. We saw Jaina casting blizzard in the Anub'arak video if I remember right. At this point we don't know who to expect next and frankly I am a little annoyed! Heroes has been getting some justified criticism for selling beta access. The best way for them to silence those criticisms is to steadily release and test heroes to get us to a point where we are ready for a true launch. At this point server stability shouldn't be a concern since anyone who wants in can get in. Especially when they have such a wealth of characters at the ready, most of which have abilities already from whatever game they are associated with. End rant. NEXT!
PS: Possibly most importantly of all, Dustin Browder broke out into dance at on point when the presentation computer crashed. It was amazing.
Hearthstone:
As every Blizzard news site predicted, Blackrock Mountain was announced for Hearthstone. The presentation was cut short due to the computer crash during the Heroes segment, so we probably missed out on a little bit of information that we would have gotten given a full session. 17 bosses, 5 wings. and the first wing is Blackrock Depths. The bosses in the first wing are the Grim Guzzler, the Arena, and Dark Iron Emperor. Blizzard is obviously going to select the most memorable boss encounters, and the ones that best translate to hearthstone game mechanics rather than use all 61 bosses I joked about last time. I know I have probably killed 5 or 6 bosses in Blackrock Depths in WoW that I didn't even know were bosses. They went into a little detail about the plan to incorporate both the dragon theme of Blackwing Lair and Descent, and the Dark Iron Dwarf residents of Blackrock Depths and Molten Core. The expansion launches next month with 31 new cards (5 of which were previewed already).
Overwatch:
Finally, Overwatch basically stole the show. The hype surrounding this game is huge. People are itching for any news they can get and PAX did not disappoint. We saw a the new battleground that was hinted on @PlayOverwatch, Watchpoint: Gibraltar. This is a full blown payload map, unlike Kings Row, which is a combination point capture, payload. Jeff Kaplan (my hero), Game Director of Overwatch gave us a bit of the backstory to the location of that map. It is basically a secret base of operations for Winston the moon monkey's attempts to get Overwatch back together. I like what they are doing with the story of this world, and how they are delivering it to us in drips over time. I have some ideas about how we are going to get our Overwatch story, but I'll save that for another post.
Well also got information on two more heroes. Jesse McCree, the outlaw gunslinger, and Aleksandra Zaryanova, the Russian weightlifter. McCree is an offensive hero who was described as a blend of a long range sniper and a close range burst hero due to his ability to unload his sixshooter's entire clip using his alternate fire. Zarya is a female tank who seems to blur the line between tank and support. Her particle cannon has a short and long range attack, she has a shield she can place on herself or an ally which also buffs her attack damage based on how much damage it absorbs, and she has a gravity bomb which can set up awesome plays with some coordination from her team.
Jeff Kaplan mentioned, as part of his Zarya introduction, that Blizzard is listening to the community in regards to heroes in Overwatch having varied body types and ethnicities. I think this is a really important thing for them to focus on, especially since the world they are creating is a future earth. Ignoring the robot uprising, it would do some damage to the stories credibility if all the heroes also happened to be tiny waisted women, and tall sculpted men. It has become a hot topic on all kinds of forums, and some people still aren't happy because Zarya has pink hair and nail polish. Come on people, it's a step in the right direction. Think about it, less than a year ago Ubisoft was getting crushed in the media because they "didn't have time" to include ANY playable female characters. We went from that to having a bulky strong female character previewed for a game that is 6 months from seeing a beta. Wow, I just got sad thinking that we are still at least 6 months away from being able to play this game. Blizz soon TM. I will be doing some Overwatch posts about how I see Blizzard building up the lore and some other things. If you are looking for some well done Overwatch content, I urge you to check out OneAmongstMany on Youtube. He has a character breakdown for all the playable characters announced so far, as well as some gameplay commentary. His videos are really well done and he goes into some detail on strategies and character combinations.
Well, that's all for now. Until next time,
Chris
Thursday, March 5, 2015
PAX East Predictions
In my best Annoy-O-Tron voice; HELLO! HELLO! HELLO!
One of my favorite things about games, TV shows, movie sequels, and anything else like that, is trying to predict the future. The things you can come up with about future of the games you play and the shows you watch can sometimes even outdo the actual result. I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought, as soon as they completed the Curse of Naxxramas adventure, "I can't wait to see what the next one is!". Or perhaps as you finished the Reaper of Souls Act V story mode, "Am I going to get to put Imperius in his place? I've saved the world twice now why does he still have to act like such a jerk?". I know for me that can often times be the most exciting part of completing a play through or quest chain. Sometimes even, the things I come up with in my head will be better than what actually comes about.
This will be something I frequently bring up as I create posts here. What I want to see, what I think we might actually see, and sometimes even the things we didn't get to see. PAX East begins tomorrow, and at 10:30 EST Blizzard will reveal some new information regarding Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone, and Overwatch. So let's dive in and speculated
Heroes of the Storm:
I think Heroes is the game we're going to see the least new information on. We were already shown early footage of a battleground called Tomb of the Spider Queen at Blizzcon.
I expect to see an updated version of that map and for that map to possibly be playable at PAX East. As far as playable heroes are concerned, Sylvanas should be up next for release since we also saw an early version of her at Blizzcon. Past that we don't have very much to go on. There have been model previews of a ton of characters. Kael'thas, Cho'gall, D3 Crusader, Skeleton King, The Butcher, Rexxar, and a ton more. Any of those characters and more could be up next after Sylvanas, and it will all depend on who Blizzard is the most confident with rolling out.
However, the hero pool at the moment is in need of a few things. The two most glaring holes, in my opinion, are a Diablo Support, and a Starcraft Warrior. Monk is the first thing that pops to mind as a Diablo Support for me. Mantras as group buffs, some movement speed abilities, and who knows what else. To my knowledge, we haven't seen a model for a Monk yet, but that shouldn't affect the likelihood much. For a Starcraft Warrior there are a ton of options. The two most popular suggestions seem to be Dehaka and Fenix. Dehaka is the Primal Zerg from the Heart of the Swarm campaign who joins Kerrigan's party. His kit could contain a "devour essence" type ability where minion and hero kills buff Dehaka similar to how Diablo collects Souls to increase his health and mana regeneration. Fenix seems to be by far the most requested Starcraft hero. He is a Protoss Zealot who has some serious badass moments in the SC1 and Brood War campaigns. He appears in game as both a Zealot unit and a Dragoon and I've seen great kit suggestions on the official forums for both forms.
Heroes has a unique ability to hype me up with every new hero they release, and I don't doubt whatever comes at PAX tomorrow will do the same.
Hearthstone:
Everyone's favorite digital card game has been doing a fair bit of teasing about whats coming down the line. @PlayHearthstone posted a picture to Twitter simply saying "Adventure awaits!". Since they announced Curse of Naxxramas at PAX East last year, it's not much of a stretch to assume that the next adventure gets announced this year. Some strings for card backs were recently datamined that pertain to Molten Core and Ragnaros, and some which contained a BRM acronym. The main Hearthstone page has also changed the cards in their rotating gallery to Twilight Drake, Dark Iron Dwarf, Magma Rager, and Leeroy Jenkins. All of these mobs and NPCs are found somewhere in Blackrock Mountain. I don't think its much of a stretch to conclude our card collections are heading to Searing Gorge. I'm curious which bosses we will be seeing since between Blackrock Depths, Blackrock Spire, Blackrock Caverns, Molten Core, Blackwing Descent, and Blackwing Lair we've got 61 bosses. Expect between 10-15 of the more recognizable and non-optional bosses to be the ones used in game.
Curse of Naxxramas used Deathrattle as the theme for most of its cards or at least interacted with dying minions in some way. The theme for Blackrock Mountain is less defined. I originally predicted Karazhan as our next adventure with Spell Power and "Faerie Dragon spell immunity" as the main themes. Blackrock Mountain could go with Taunt, or even Battle Cry and have the card flavor feel right.
Overwatch:
Overwatch is topping most peoples list of things they want to see out of tomorrows announcement and for good reason. After Blizzcon the hype for the future Earth shooter was off the charts. Since then, news on the game has really died down and left people starved for something, anything to light that fire again. Perhaps we could see a Beta start date? Maybe? Please?
@PlayOverwatch also took to Twitter to tease some potential announcements. The first was a news channel-esque clip of a mountainside outpost with the look of a 4th battleground. Second was a mock-up magazine cover referencing a retired weight lifter. Obviously, this points to Blizzard showcasing a previously unannounced hero. There is an image from the Blizzcon announcement trailer that has a character who could pass for a body builder and could fit the silhouette from the Twitter post, but I can't track it down at the moment. However, they later posted a newspaper column style article using words like "Gunsmoke" and "vigilante" that some have used to point to the teased Cowboy hero also from the Blizzcon trailer.
Either way anything announced at PAX about Overwatch will likely receive Superbowl level hype from people like me. I will be throwing up another post next week to see what I got right, what I got wrong, and maybe even to just toss out a few "wouldn't it be awesome if"s.
Till next time.
Chris
One of my favorite things about games, TV shows, movie sequels, and anything else like that, is trying to predict the future. The things you can come up with about future of the games you play and the shows you watch can sometimes even outdo the actual result. I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought, as soon as they completed the Curse of Naxxramas adventure, "I can't wait to see what the next one is!". Or perhaps as you finished the Reaper of Souls Act V story mode, "Am I going to get to put Imperius in his place? I've saved the world twice now why does he still have to act like such a jerk?". I know for me that can often times be the most exciting part of completing a play through or quest chain. Sometimes even, the things I come up with in my head will be better than what actually comes about.
This will be something I frequently bring up as I create posts here. What I want to see, what I think we might actually see, and sometimes even the things we didn't get to see. PAX East begins tomorrow, and at 10:30 EST Blizzard will reveal some new information regarding Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone, and Overwatch. So let's dive in and speculated
Heroes of the Storm:
I think Heroes is the game we're going to see the least new information on. We were already shown early footage of a battleground called Tomb of the Spider Queen at Blizzcon.
However, the hero pool at the moment is in need of a few things. The two most glaring holes, in my opinion, are a Diablo Support, and a Starcraft Warrior. Monk is the first thing that pops to mind as a Diablo Support for me. Mantras as group buffs, some movement speed abilities, and who knows what else. To my knowledge, we haven't seen a model for a Monk yet, but that shouldn't affect the likelihood much. For a Starcraft Warrior there are a ton of options. The two most popular suggestions seem to be Dehaka and Fenix. Dehaka is the Primal Zerg from the Heart of the Swarm campaign who joins Kerrigan's party. His kit could contain a "devour essence" type ability where minion and hero kills buff Dehaka similar to how Diablo collects Souls to increase his health and mana regeneration. Fenix seems to be by far the most requested Starcraft hero. He is a Protoss Zealot who has some serious badass moments in the SC1 and Brood War campaigns. He appears in game as both a Zealot unit and a Dragoon and I've seen great kit suggestions on the official forums for both forms.
Heroes has a unique ability to hype me up with every new hero they release, and I don't doubt whatever comes at PAX tomorrow will do the same.
Hearthstone:
Everyone's favorite digital card game has been doing a fair bit of teasing about whats coming down the line. @PlayHearthstone posted a picture to Twitter simply saying "Adventure awaits!". Since they announced Curse of Naxxramas at PAX East last year, it's not much of a stretch to assume that the next adventure gets announced this year. Some strings for card backs were recently datamined that pertain to Molten Core and Ragnaros, and some which contained a BRM acronym. The main Hearthstone page has also changed the cards in their rotating gallery to Twilight Drake, Dark Iron Dwarf, Magma Rager, and Leeroy Jenkins. All of these mobs and NPCs are found somewhere in Blackrock Mountain. I don't think its much of a stretch to conclude our card collections are heading to Searing Gorge. I'm curious which bosses we will be seeing since between Blackrock Depths, Blackrock Spire, Blackrock Caverns, Molten Core, Blackwing Descent, and Blackwing Lair we've got 61 bosses. Expect between 10-15 of the more recognizable and non-optional bosses to be the ones used in game.
Overwatch:
Overwatch is topping most peoples list of things they want to see out of tomorrows announcement and for good reason. After Blizzcon the hype for the future Earth shooter was off the charts. Since then, news on the game has really died down and left people starved for something, anything to light that fire again. Perhaps we could see a Beta start date? Maybe? Please?
@PlayOverwatch also took to Twitter to tease some potential announcements. The first was a news channel-esque clip of a mountainside outpost with the look of a 4th battleground. Second was a mock-up magazine cover referencing a retired weight lifter. Obviously, this points to Blizzard showcasing a previously unannounced hero. There is an image from the Blizzcon announcement trailer that has a character who could pass for a body builder and could fit the silhouette from the Twitter post, but I can't track it down at the moment. However, they later posted a newspaper column style article using words like "Gunsmoke" and "vigilante" that some have used to point to the teased Cowboy hero also from the Blizzcon trailer.
Till next time.
Chris
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
The Beginning
Greetings internet, and welcome to what will hopefully become a semi regular outlet for me to talk about the games I love. But first, a little about me.
My name is Chris Atkinson, and I've been playing Blizzard games since 1997 and Warcraft 2. A friend of mine brought a copy of the game to my house and I was immediately hooked. And by hooked, I mean putting in every cheat and playing through the campaign in the easiest way possible. I was young, hated challenge, and just wanted to enjoy the story and world of the game as much as I could. Since then I have at least dabbled in every game Blizzard has released. I've been playing World of Warcraft since 2.1, Starcraft and Starcraft 2 here and there (I am AWFUL at RTS games), Diablo 3 since launch, Hearthstone since beta (Legend once), and Heroes of the Storm since tech alpha.
Now, the purpose of this blog is not to wave my Blizzard flag and tell you how much of a fan boy I am. Don't get me wrong, I am, and I wear that on my sleeve. But I have found that I have a lot to say about these games, positive and negative. I love the worlds that Blizzard has created and the characters in them, and I just want to talk about them. This site will be my outlet. A place where people can come to read, agree, disagree, or ignore if they want to. If nothing else, this will be a place where I can put some words down and vent about a Hearthstone losing streak or another gold drop on my coin roll in WoW.
With that, I will just say welcome. Hopefully people will at the very least find entertainment in my opinion. I will make some time in the next couple days to put together my first real post.
Chris "Ojomon" Atkinson
My name is Chris Atkinson, and I've been playing Blizzard games since 1997 and Warcraft 2. A friend of mine brought a copy of the game to my house and I was immediately hooked. And by hooked, I mean putting in every cheat and playing through the campaign in the easiest way possible. I was young, hated challenge, and just wanted to enjoy the story and world of the game as much as I could. Since then I have at least dabbled in every game Blizzard has released. I've been playing World of Warcraft since 2.1, Starcraft and Starcraft 2 here and there (I am AWFUL at RTS games), Diablo 3 since launch, Hearthstone since beta (Legend once), and Heroes of the Storm since tech alpha.
Now, the purpose of this blog is not to wave my Blizzard flag and tell you how much of a fan boy I am. Don't get me wrong, I am, and I wear that on my sleeve. But I have found that I have a lot to say about these games, positive and negative. I love the worlds that Blizzard has created and the characters in them, and I just want to talk about them. This site will be my outlet. A place where people can come to read, agree, disagree, or ignore if they want to. If nothing else, this will be a place where I can put some words down and vent about a Hearthstone losing streak or another gold drop on my coin roll in WoW.
With that, I will just say welcome. Hopefully people will at the very least find entertainment in my opinion. I will make some time in the next couple days to put together my first real post.
Chris "Ojomon" Atkinson
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