Ah, the annual Blizzcon. So many gamers flock to this convention, and rightly so. Blizzard is definitely one of the foremost leaders in the gaming industry. So, how did they fair this year?
Best Moment: The entire show. Because of the localized style and the closeness of the fans, the entire show is just one big ginormous awesome moment. The opening press conference brings announcements gallore, and from then on its do what you want to do. Blizzcon is different than E3 or TGS. It is just for the fans. Yes, the press are involved, but the fans are the main aim here. I cannot make one moment stand out the best because the fans react greatly to all of them. Good job Blizzard for making your entire show a great moment. From the WoW expansion to the ass-kicking Diablo monk and even to the evil voice of Kerrigan, the show deserves this.
Best Graphics: StarCraft II. Just looks amazing. Especially the Protoss defense barriers. It really is a gigantic upgrade from SC1 (obviously, since they are roughly 10 years apart). This game looks much prettier and detailed than WoW and Diablo. The characters and environments look sharp and colorful, and most importantly, I can tell who is who. If there is one flaw among most RTS's, it is that the different factions look too similar. Blizzard did a great job of differentiating all of the factions not just by gameplay but by graphics in SC1. It appears they are continuing this strategy into StarCraft II.
Best Announcement: Wow: Cataclysm. What can I say? Blizzard continues to manage the best MMO ever created (so far). This shows the true dedication Blizzard has to its fans. WoW would not be as successful as it is today without the continued updates, patches, and new content that Blizzard provides. Cataclysm seems to be keeping excitement for WoW alive. Blizzard has almost reached the peak of perfection for multiplayer. WoW: Cataclysm shows their undying love for fans. Which can only make you say "wow". Pun intended.
Best Little Detail: The swag given to Blizzcon-goers. This was one of the best swag bags I have ever seen, and one of the few times I am jealous that I didn't get some useless crap. T-shirts and the works came in the bag, but a nice little present also came: an bloated action figure Terran. Which was customizable. You can't buy it from anywhere either. Darn, that makes me jealous...
Best Trailer: Starcraft II's "Old Rivals" trailer. I won't pretend. I haven't played the first StarCraft. I plan to soon, and I am sure I will enjoy it, having experienced only bits and pieces and loving it. That being said, I love this trailer. It is just bleeding epicness. All good games have story involved. And the ability to make a trailer that does all the things this trailer did, and make it interesting to a StarCraft noob...that is amazing. This was also a good way of showing off the new voice for Kerrigan. I know many StarCraft fans were sad when the original voice actress left. But the new actress sounds great, and the trailer makes her voice fit into the universe.
Best Gameplay Footage: Diablo III's Monk in action. When I get this game, I want to be this guy. He is kicking some major ass here. Button clicks never looked so awesome. The monk seems to be the perfect mixture of speed and strength, and I think many will flock to this new and interesting member of Diablo III. Diablo III keeps on looking better and better as more characters and places are revealed. Better yet, this game looks interesting to the masses, and not just Blizzard fans.
Unexpected News: The news that Blizzard will be releasing 2 titles next year. This is odd for Blizzard. Because of they only have 3 titles, release dates tend to be spread out quite a bit. The news that they will be releasing 2 full retail games next year is surprising. This may have come from the push of StarCraft II to 2010 (which everyone was expecting anyway), but I would have figured that would have pushed Diablo III to 2011. Apparently Blizzard has enought people working to make both games at the same time, while still supporting WoW, which is what pushed StarCraft II to 2010 in the first place. If they can pull it off, great. If not, then I would still be happy with one...
The Missing Element: Blizzard's new IP. They have been teasing for a while that they have something new up their sleeves. This would have been a perfect time to show off what they have been working on. This leads me to a couple conclusions. A). Blizzard is going at a pretty slow pace due to the amount of workers needed to either support WoW or make new games. B). Blizzard just didn't have enough time to talk about a new IP with big news like WoW: Cataclysm and Battle.net stuff. C). Blizzard is waiting till a more console-centric convention because their new IP is for consoles. 0_o ?
Most Hilarious Moment: Jay Mohr at the cosplay contest. He wants to have sexy times with a night elf.
Something You Probably Didn't Know: The Monk reveal in Diablo III looked awesome, right? Well, behind closed doors interviews revealed some more details about this guy. Namely how he actually is going to be controlled. The Monk will have more of a fighter control than anything. The monk will have a system for combos. For example, one can click to hit the enemy, then click again to debuf, then click again to heal. This three hit combo system has several combinations and is quite different than a usual point-and-click fighter like Diablo. The Monk will also be deal huge amounts of damage, but will be extremely vulnerable to attack. That is one way to balance it, I guess.
GAME OF SHOW: WoW: Cataclysm. Well, you know, if I would have picked what I like, it would have been StarCraft II. But the fact that Blizzard keeps on going with WoW just deserves a reward. WoW has changed their way of business, and Cataclysm just keeps the ball rolling. Getting to the actual game merit though, Cataclysm is bringing quite a bit to the table. 2 new races, level cap raising, and new dungeons are always welcome. Interestingly enough, the revamp of lots of areas in the original Azeroth is really awesome. And not many people know this, but this revamp is free. In order to revamp these areas, everyone must be affected. You can't have vanilla WoW players play with other WoW players without revamping Azeroth for everyone. Blizzard is making this aspect free, either when you buy Cataclym or through a patch at release. This way, everyone has the new revamped areas. Cataclysm will just add the quests and all the other good stuff. This is a great way to not force people to buy the expansion, but make it enticing enough for people to buy it anyway. Good job Blizzard.
That's it for Blizzcon. Just a small preview for the rest of the week, I should have a Batman: Arkham Asylum review up soon and another post which I will keep secret. The latter should be up by today, and the review in the next week.
Just a quick note: Probably a lot of people know that the terrain aspect of WoW is free. The same rule applied to Burning Crusade. However, those without Cataclysm won't be able to explore the new areas that are specific to Cataclysm's lore (i.e., the starting areas of the new races, the new dungeons, etc.).
ReplyDeleteYou've made good choices. However, having played both World of Warcraft and being a Starcraft player for the past 8 years (about), I think I would consider the Game of the Show SCII. I think if I talk about why I would never stop though... However, Cataclysm comes SO close to SCII.
ReplyDeleteI gave you SC, play it. Play it ALL.