Blizzard have given us a glimpse into the early development stages of Overwatch, and they feature a Tracer who can shoot lasers out of her eyes and a cat with a jetpack. While watching the game evolve is interesting in it’s own right, the video that came out of BlizzCon is also an interesting peek into the Overwatch that could have been. I’ve popped the 13 minutes of game footage below, along with a few panels of neat looking concept art.
As if the hordes of Hanzo players swanning around Overwatch ignoring objectives like they’re god’s gift to murder were insufficient, the archer is coming to Heroes of the Storm too. Blizzard announced last night during BlizzCon that they’re adding Hanzo to their free-to-play crossover MOBA along with World of Warcraft’s dragonqueen Alexstrasza. He plings arrows, she heals people and blasts fire. A big ol’ update reworking some of HotS’s gameguts is in the works too, with changes including zooming the camera out a little further and improving matchmaking. Read the rest of this entry »
Blizzard, this isn’t right. Fighting dinosaurs, liches, crime syndicates, and old gods is fine, but now you’re going too far. Blizzard today announced Kobolds & Catacombs, a new Hearthstone expansion that send merciless card-collectors down to beat up on those lovely little creatures who only want a stub candle and maybe a little gold. Appalling. Coming in December, the expansion will bring 135 new cards and a new singleplayer dungeon crawl mode. But look at these sweethearts and tell me you’d kick ’em for a few measly gems: Read the rest of this entry »
A huge chunk of StarCraft II is going free later this month as a sort of big ‘ol demo for the wider trilogy. From November 14th, everyone will be able to play the full Terran story campaign from the original Wings of Liberty, the competitive multiplayer including units from all three chapters, and — with some limitations — the cooperative mode too. If you dig it, you’ll be able to buy the other bits of SC2 separately or in one big lump.
Oh, and people who own Wings of Liberty but skipped Heart of the Swarm will be able to get that Zergy instalment free – if they claim it in time. Read the rest of this entry »
The next character coming to Overwatch is a witchy pixie named Moira, Blizzard revealed during BlizzCon today. All right, Blizzard say she’s a “geneticist” from Dublin but I know a pix-o-witch when I see one. Moira will wield powers of life and death, zapping beams and blasting balls that can heal allies but harm enemies.
Also coming is a new map set in a theme park based on Blizzard games. Named Blizzard World, it has zones and rides inspired by bits from World of Warcraft, Diablo, StarCraft, and others. That is delightful. Here, come look at all this new stuff. Read the rest of this entry »
World of Warcraft is getting a new expansion, Blizzard announced today, but also an anti-expansion. For people who want World of Warcraft as it was way back when, before expansions came along with all their bells and whistles, Blizzard will finally launch official ‘Classic’ servers. WoW fans have run bootleg vanilla servers for years, and Blizzard’s lawyers shutting these down without offering an alternative has riled many. This came to a head around the vanilla server Nostalrius in 2016, when upset over its shutdown led to Blizzard meeting with the people behind it. We’ve still a while to wait for official vanilla WoW but it is coming. Read the rest of this entry »
Oh sure, World of Warcraft has seen plenty of fights, scraps, rumbles, scuffles, tussles, and barneys over the years, but proper war will return for really real with the MMORPG’s next expansion. Blizzard today announced Battle for Azeroth, which will see the Alliance and Horde gearing up to give each other a right drubbing. This time they really mean it uh huh. Players will adventure to new lands (Zandalar and Kul Tiras) to recruit new allies and play as those races (the Highmountain tauren, Void elves, Dark Iron dwarves, among others), power up to a higher level cap of 120, nab super-fancy new gear, and generally fight a lot. Watch the cinematic announcement trailer: Read the rest of this entry »
As Westlife once sang in their famous song about esports and their associated cash drives:
Tell me what makes an girl want to give you her credit card
Smile when you’re around and cry when you’re apart
If you know what makes a girl want to love you the way I do
Esports, you gotta let me know so I can get over you.
While I wait for top scientists to develop an answer to our shared problem, Starcraft II is smooshing its esports carrot against fans’ mouths/wallets in the form of a War Chest. Read the rest of this entry »
