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Starcraft II: Footage, Strange Decisions

Written by Jim Rossignol on June 29, 2009.

UPDATE: This story on VG247 suggests that they really mean it: no LAN support of any kind. Bananas.

An abundance of Starcraft II stuff has appeared on the grainy info screens of RPS HQ, including project lead Dustin Browder saying that the beta is set to last “four to six months”. Which means they’ll be right up against it if they’re aiming to get the game out before Christmas. In rather more bizarre news, Blizzardian hyperboss Rob Pardo has said that that the game won’t support a LAN option, and that the decision not to include it “is because of the planned technology to be incorporated into Battle.net.” Which presumably means they are going to support play over a local network, but you’ll still need to be online and logged into Battlenet on individual accounts to play. Maybe. I could be quite, quite wrong.

Seven minutes of footage – watch those tiny dudes eviscerate! – courtesy of Joystiq, below.
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Diablo III: Imp’s Good To Be Back

Written by Alec Meer on May 26, 2009.

Taking a good old crack at making an exciting upcoming videogame game as unexciting as possible is this short, strangely detached look at one of the classic baddies returning in Blizzard’s upcoming Diablo sequel. The Fallen Ones are coming back, as proven by a new video that is, to my mind, very much trying to reassure crazy fans that their treasured murky colour palette isn’t entirely replaced by – oh grud don’t make me say the bad words – ‘WoW gayness’.

More casual Diablo fans will remember the Fallen Ones as the little impy guys who resurrect themselves in huge numbers unless you nobble the Shaman lurking at the back. New (I think) to their first 3D iteration is the splendid Lunatic – a toad-chested chap who, at a guess, stabs himself in the fiery belly to wreak high-temperature havoc on anyone close enough. The video beneath the cut shows concept art and some brief in-engine animations of the various Fallenses – it’s frankly a dull piece of footage, but it’s there to excite the fans, not to sell the game to a new crowd. Two more screenshots to pore over too, which also seem deliberately dark.
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Next Blizzard MMO “From Scratch”

Written by Jim Rossignol on May 13, 2009.

One of the Blizzardians has been getting a bit talkative over on the Blizzard boards and has stated that the next MMO is an entire new property. No WoW2, no World Of Starcraft. He seems to think that the Internet already knew that, but I can’t recollect when it was confirmed. Blizzard poster “Zarhym” said: “We have nothing to advertise for the new MMO because it’s a shell of a game thus far. We’ve already stated it’ll be a brand new franchise, which means the lore, art, and game play are being developed entirely from scratch. It’s an overwhelming process, but a process through which we excel. Our track record supports this.”

Oh, and Grunty The Spacemarine Murloc (above) will be the in-game gift for BlizzCon attendees this year. Cute.

StarCraft II Beta “Opt In”

Written by Jim Rossignol on May 6, 2009.

A new post over on the official World Of Warcraft website reveals that an “opt in” for the forthcoming Starcraft II beta has been added to your beta profile settings page on Battle.net. Needless to say, that’s only there if you have a Battle.net account. The US beta will apparently come online before the rest of the world. Thanks to Pat for the tip.

StarCraft II Battle Report Two

Written by Jim Rossignol on April 17, 2009.

Starcraft II has changed substantially since I first played it almost two years ago, and yet it remains fundamentally the same game. That provides some real insight into how Blizzard work: they have a kind of pure idea of what they’re aiming to achieve, and the development process is one of repeated iteration: UI after UI, art style after art style, each wave of changes bringing them closer to the perfect balance of what’s playable and what’s beautiful. Anyway, I expect we’ll be awash with fancy trailers in a couple of months time, but for now I’m enjoying the sort of back-to-basics game footage approach Blizzard are taking. Below the jump is a multiplayer battle report, with the designers commentating on a game being played between Blizzard employees. It’s revealing stuff.
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Blizzard Making Redneck Rampage Game? Er.

Written by John Walker on April 6, 2009.

Here’s a fun, ridiculous, and undoubtedly dubious rumour: murmurings suggest that Blizzard’s secret project might be a new Redneck Rampage game.

The story comes from IncGamers, who report that Blizzard have recently bought the rights to the Redneck trademarks, and extrapolate from this. And as unlikely as it seems, they do go on to point out that an original Redneck Rampage developer now work for Blizzard. Hmmmmm.

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Bigger Items: New Diablo III Details, Screenshots

Written by John Walker on March 31, 2009.

Asking around the RPS Castle chambers if anyone had anything to add to the news that there were some new Diablo III screenshots (click on the pics), Jim Rossignol immediately ran to the projection whiteboard and thoughtwrote, “there are two Diablo games, but now there is three of it.” This is the reason you visit RPS, and not other sites that apparently persist with existing. But look again, gentles, the inventory system has had a bit of an overhaul.

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It’s Fun To Speculate: Another New Blizzard Game?

Written by Alec Meer on March 26, 2009.

While we’re being all mainstreamy this morning, it’s worth nodding over at BlizzPlanet’s canny sniffing around the Blizzard haunches. We already know they’ve a mystery MMO in the works as well as Starcraft II and Diablo III, but if this direct quote is gen-ooo-ayne, it seems the king o’polish has a fifth game up their sleeve…
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Me So Unicorny: Diablo 3 T-shirt Splenditude

Written by Kieron Gillen on February 19, 2009.

Oh, this is just lovely. We saw on Offworld that following on from the Diablo III: The Rainbow Islands furore last year, the Blizzard chaps are snickering behind the hand. With doctored screens and their own internal T-shirts (Grab via MTV). Which is the design at the top. But, most relevantly, you can now order for your very-ownsome via Nerdy-Ts.

As a note to developers, I’d be all over a Rainbow Islands Versus Diablo game. Just for the record.

EDIT: Just in comments thread, there’s a 20% off code – “NerdyFriend2009″ – which works until Monday.

Blizzard’s Next MMO: “New, and different.”

Written by Jim Rossignol on November 13, 2008.

VG247 got a chance to talk to Blizzard COO Paul Sams ahead of last night’s Lich King launch. All standard product-waxing was there, and Sams even made a few mutterings in the direction of their new MMO, which has been in the first stages of production for quite some time now. “We want to create a great game,” he said. “Something that’s cool, and new, and different, and kind of next generation in terms of look and feel and gameplay. That’s a challenging endeavour.”

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