Diablo 3: 70% of items appear beyond normal difficulty
A team of Diablo 3 devs hit the main stage at Blizzcon to talk about Diablo 3′s difficulty modes. The differences between Normal, Nightmare, Hell and Inferno difficulties are important for anyone looking to get near the level 60 cap, but it’s surprising just how different enemies and loot will be on higher difficulties. In fact, Blizzard revealed that 70% of the game’s loot won’t even appear in Normal mode.
Diablo 3 has “something like 2.8 trillion builds”
Jay Wilson has been talking to the crowds at Blizzcon about character building in Diablo 3. Taking into accout each class’ skill trees, passive abilites and item combinations, we certainly won’t be short of ways to experiment. Talking about build numbers, Wilson said “we threw a crazy number up a couple of years ago, but we’re more in the area of something like 2.8 trillion.”
The focus on the design team is on viable builds, not optimal ones. Wilson admits that some players will always seek out the most powerful combinations, but points out that, unlike World of Warcraft, there’s no guild to represent or raid roles to optimise for. In Diablo 3, the aim is that “you can play the character you want to play at max level, and not be beholden to anyone.”
StarCraft 2 tournaments will move over to Heart of the Swarm “when the community decides”.
Just when you think you’ve finally got your head around defending a 1/1/1 push and locked down your warp prism/immortal micro, Blizzard are adding a set of new units to StarCraft II’s multiplayer armies. But what happens to SC2 tournaments like MLG and the GSL who’ve built their empires around Wings of Liberty’s multiplayer? Will they be forced to move over to Heart of the Swarm half way through their season?
Challenge Dungeons and PVE Scenarios: How Blizzard is revamping WoW’s instanced content
Described by Tom Chilton as “PVE Battlegrounds”, Scenarios are a brand-new type of content coming to WoW in the Mists of Pandaria expansion designed for super-short instanced group content. Challenge dungeons are new, top-tier challenging group content designed to test group coordination and speed. Find out all the details after the jump.
Blizzard: “Months, certainly not years” until Heart of the Swarm beta
Diablo III’s coming “soon,” and WoW: Mists of Pandaria’s, er, probably not, but what about StarCraft II: HoS? Well, Blizzard’s icy, secret-keeping heart hasn’t suddenly melted, but the developer dropped a big hint during a group interview session at BlizzCon.
“As far as beta goes, we’re coming up to it pretty quickly. I don’t have a specific date, but certainly months – not years or anything like that,” said lead producer Chris Sigaty.
So yes – red shirt kid, pro-level StarCraft player, or, er, Pokemon trainer – 2012 looks to be quite the year for Blizzard fans.
World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria’s Pandarens are playable. Also, they’re pandas.
Don’t know about you, but spending my time sat on a hillside in central China, eating bamboo and getting hugged by volunteers sounds like a nice life. Unfortunately, we can’t all be pandas. But wait! Thanks to World of Warcraft’s next expansion Mists of Pandaria, we can all be Pandarans.
Valve announces second Portal 2 DLC, officially confirms level editor
So it was sort-of-rumored, so shall it be. Valve’s officially announced the second dollop of Portal 2 DLC (via Joystiq), and it includes “an easy-to-use in-game map editor that will let users design, build and share their own single-player and co-op test chambers with the community.” It’s coming out early next year.
Beyond that, the only tidbit Valve’s allowing to seep out – in much the same way one would utilize a deadly neurotoxin – is a vague mention of voting for your favorite levels. Community features, then, are probably a no-brainer – which is roughly the state one would find themselves in after being exposed to a deadly neurotoxin.
What about a GLaDOS-powered “spellcheck,” though? Valve’s said nothing, but fingers crossed, obviously. As a rule, Valve’s notoriously tight-lipped, but I’ve asked for more details just in case.
Blizzard demonstrates HoS campaign evolution system, says story choices carry over
Given that Diablo III’s (allegedly) right around the corner and WoW’s just a race of English-language-butchering kittens away from having the market cornered on cuddly things in MMOs, StarCraft’s sort of gotten shoved into the background during this year’s BlizzCon.
And that’s really a shame, because it’s doing some pretty damn awesome stuff.
Prepare for PvP in WoW’s upcoming battlegrounds
To many WoW players, PvP is the heart and soul of the game. The sweet satisfaction of slaying your target is just so pure, and killing in a new setting makes it even better. With that in mind, Blizzard’s announced four new battlegrounds in the Mists of Pandaria expansion, each with their own inspiration and objective. See what we’ll be playing nonstop once the gates to these stomping grounds open up.
Pokémon coming to WoW with companion pet battles
I think Evan said it best when he tweeted, “Wowkemon?” this morning when Blizzard announced that “pet battles” would be coming to World of Warcraft. But Blizzard’s new system is even more similar to the classic pet-collecting game than most people thought at the announcement. Read on to see how pet-lovers will be spending all of their WoW time in the future.
Diablo 3 trailer unveils new demonic villain
Here’s the Diablo 3 trailer from the Blizzcon opening ceremony. It’s another extraordinary bit of CGI work from Blizzard. Plot-wise, it sets up the hunt for the black soulstone, the true significance of which is as yet unknown. The giant evil toad chap is called Azmodan, he’s one of the Lesser Evils. He rules half of hell. The other half is ruled by the tricksy Belial, who’s also likely to make an appearance, as he and Azmodan have been at war for control of the underworld for centuries. Either way, it’s nice that Azmodan decided to appear in a prophetic dream and tell us all his evil plans. We’ll get to violently thwart them when Diablo 3 is finally released next year.
First screenshots of The Mists of Pandaria, WoW’s next expansion revealed
Pandas, pandas, everywhere! The next expansion was described at BlizzCon this morning as “the calm before the storm”, and saying that the enemy of the expansion is not an enemy but instead “war itself”. Look inside for all the screenshots released at Blizzcon less than an hour ago!
Kung fu fighting (fast as lightning) with the new Monk class in WoW: Mists of Pandaria
With the reveal of the new Monk class in the next World of Warcraft expansion, Mists of Pandaria, Blizzard’s taking a whole new approach to combat. As the bruiser Monk class, available to every race except Worgen and Goblins, you’ll be flinging punches and thwacking enemies with impunity through the new content. They’ve even got an entirely new approach to killing mobs in WoW: absolutely no auto-attacking. Here’s everything you need to know about the class that let you live out your Pandaren Brewmaster fantasies.
First glimpse at Blizzard DOTA; may be entirely free-to-play via SC2 Starter Edition [Updated]
With a wink and a nod, Chris Metzen revealed a new trailer for the official Blizzard DOTA map for StarCraft II at this morning’s BlizzCon Opening Ceremony. This map may not have the same hype level as StarCraft II’s new multiplayer units, but Blizzard has wisely chosen to focus on another asset in their expertise: finding the humor in fights to the death. Alongside offering a new creep, lane, and jungling experience, Blizzard has hinted at “a way to play Blizzard DOTA for free, possibly by including it as part of the StarCraft II: Starter Edition.” Check out the four hero roles and the nitty-gritty of the raucous hero-versus-hero romp.
New details revealed for Mists of Pandaria and Blizzard’s plans for the future
After the opening ceremony, Blizzard held a WoW-only panel to reveal additional details about the Mists of Pandaria WoW expansion coming out. This post was updated as the information was revealed, and holds most of the big news we learned about the expansion.
