By Alec Meer on December 23rd, 2008.
What has tinsel got to do with Christmas anyway? I’m pretty sure Bethlehem wasn’t big on coloured foil. No matter – what does matter is what game lurks beneath its festive glint.
For the ninth game of Christmas, my true blog gave to me…
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By Alec Meer on November 17th, 2008.
Do forgive me yet another World of Warcraft post, but, as tends to be the case with that all-consuming MMO, I haven’t really had the chance to play much else this last week. My thoughts on Lich King so far are appearing as a series of review diaries on IGN UK ahead of the review proper, and they lobbed the first one up today. Here, though, I want to talk about a very specific aspect of WoW. Over the weekend, you see, I attended my first ever in-game wedding. Aw.
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By Alec Meer on November 14th, 2008.
What? How? Why? The fricking thing only went on sale yesterday, and already one player’s managed to ding level 80. I’ve been playing most of today, having arduously just hit level 71 a moment ago, and even that’s enough to make my eyes scream and my brain weep. 80?
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By Alec Meer on November 13th, 2008.
Today, as most of the internet is all-too aware, is Wrath of the Lich King release day. I’ve been playing it for far too many hours now, despite having sworn at least eight times over the last few years that I would never, ever, ever, ever, ever play World of Warcraft again.
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By Jim Rossignol on November 13th, 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.”
By Alec Meer on November 12th, 2008.
The games, they will not end. Just as we thought we’d finally reached the end of Big Release Silly Season, tomorrow brings the second World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. One or two people are probably slightly excited.
To celebrate (I love saying that, as it’s a completely inaccurate way of describing a competition, conjuring images of us all sat around wearing Warcraft party hats and waving ARTHAS ’08 flags. But still, it’s the done thing for compos), we’ve arranged to give away Bradygame’s official Wrath of the Lich King strategy guide and a special edition boxed copy of WOTLK itself to one lovely reader.
I’ve been thumbing through the strategy guide today, and my Lord but it’s got a lot of useful stuff in its 352 pages. Maps’n'stats’n'quest guides, and of course a vast amount of finely-detailed loot locators. So I’m expecting to not need to refer to Thottbot when I venture back onto the WoW servers for the first time in a year tomorrow. Also, pictures. Pretty, pretty pictures. Entry details below the cut.
By Alec Meer on September 15th, 2008.
Edit: Blizzard confirm 13th November, full press release and collector’s edition details after the cut.
It’s been in beta for what feels like forever, but finally it seems we might have a release date for the next World of Warhammercraft expansion. 13th of November, apparently.
Which is rather interesting specifically because it’s relatively hot on the heels of WAR. Which means the world will very much have decided if Mythic’s rival is for them by that point. Will WoTLK have its thunder roundly stolen, or will dispossessed WAR early-adopters flee back to Blizzard’s familiar arms en masse? With WAR’s global headstart kicking off today, we’ll know very soon.
By Alec Meer on May 21st, 2008.
Want to know what’s going to be in WoW: Wratch of the Lich King? As in, exactly what’s in it? Well, you can. Even though you shouldn’t.
The closed WOTLK Friends & Family Alpha/Beta/Oh Let’s Be Honest Blizzard Probably Finished It Ages Ago And This Is Just Clever PR is very much a private affair. Traditionally, details of Non-Disclosure Agreement-bound MMOs have stayed impressively under wraps, but it’s fairly inevitable some info-crumbs will fall off the privileged table for us norms to scavenge. In the case of WoW, clearly the world’s gigantic Want for it makes that all the more probable. But the sheer amount of leakage that’s just turned up is nevertheless startling – especially given how tight Blizzard has been with WOTLK screenshots and hard’n'fast details until now. This useless guff is all the official site has in terms of screenies, for instance.
Look away now if you don’t want to know the scores.
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By John Walker on May 16th, 2008.
Blizzard appear to take a very approachable attitude toward rival MMOs. But then, I suppose if I were a 5000 foot mountain, I’d probably not make too big of a fuss about the surrounding hillocks spoiling my view. However, it’s nice that they don’t take the attitude of “DESTROY THEM! DESTROY THEM ALL!” In fact, they’re humble enough to concede that their reign will one day come to an end. Speaking to Eurogamer, producer J. Allen Brack explained that he doesn’t see Age of Conan or Warhammer Online as enemies.
“We don’t make games in a vacuum, we don’t just play World of Warcraft, I love online games, I play a lot of online games, and I’m really excited about those games coming out because I want to play them… I think there’s room for all three of those games to be successful.”
