With the noise revolving around Diablo III and Starcraft II another huge question jumps into my mind, will we ever see a Diablo or Starcraft MMO?
Right now Blizzard enjoys its time at the top of the food chain with World of Warcraft Online and its huge gamer fan base. We hear almost on a daily basis of all the follow on MMOs that are trying to be the next WoW killer, but they all fall short. The closest thing to a true WoW killer was Age of Conan and that game has all but fallen apart with its lack of quests for certain level characters and lack of end game content, players have already began canceling their accounts. Read More »
Looks like Blizzard is jumping on the achievement bandwagon heavy, we had already heard that the newest expansion Wrath of the Lich King would bring achievements to the World of Warcraft, but looks like things will not stop there. Achievements will be incorporated into Starcraft II and Diablo III according to Jeff Kaplan of Blizzard.
When the new Blizzard Accounts are active, a player’s ‘WoW’ points can be added to an overall score dubbed an account holder’s “Blizzard Level. It’s basically a gamerscore. For now the points are just a ‘WoW’ character score. As we graduate to that Blizzard Account system, which is right on the horizon, it will switch over to a Blizzard Level.
I liked the idea of achievements on the Xbox 360, but now it seems that everyone is jumping onto the bandwagon. Sony is introducing a trophy system, Blizzard a Blizzard level, what next Nintendo points? I could go without achievements in my Blizzard games, but i guess it does give some replay value to these games and will give you the ability to track achievements across accounts so you can see how your friends did in different Blizzard games.
I have to admit that I did not have much faith in Halo Wars or any RTS on a console for that matter, just seems like consoles and RTS games do not mix. After watching some more clips of Halo Wars for the Xbox 360 I think the folks over at Bungie are doing things right and the UI and control look very suited for an RTS on the console. One main problem when you try to play RTS games on a console is that you lose the control that you normally would have with a keyboard and mouse because grouping characters and executing strategies becomes tough. In the LOTOR RTS game the battles just became who had more units and no real strategy was involved, Halo Wars looks to solve a few of these issues with the paintbrush style selection of characters.
One thing I do notice more and more as I watch the clips for Halo Wars is that this is directly inspired if not even a rip off of Starcraft. If this is done well this could steal some serious thunder from Starcraft II especially if it does very well on the 360 since it wont require gamers to upgrade their computers to play. I dont think it will offer the depth of Starcraft II since there are only two races and one type of resource, but we will have to keep an eye on this one and see how it continues to shape up.
With the announcements of StarCraft 2, it got me reminiscing of the good old days of the original StarCraft. The game was developed by our good friends over at Blizzard and is perhaps one of the best real time strategy games ever made and definitely paved the way for many more strategy games like it. StarCraft first came onto the video game scene in March of 1998 for Windows and then a year later for Mac (back then Mac got no love). The story of StarCraft revolves around three main races: the Protoss, the Zerg and the Terrans. Each of the three races was fighting for dominance of the universe and would stop at nothing to achieve this.
The events of StarCraft unfold in the 25th century where certain humans have been exiled, because of overpopulation during the 21st century, into space and encounter the Zerg and the Protoss. The Terrans were the exiled humans with their Earth technology to aid them in battle, such as tanks, jets, floating buildings and the ever popular marines. The Zerg were an alien race that was part insect and part bad ass. They would spawn their armies from cocoons and could even infect the other races to use them against themselves. The Protoss were the alien race with superior intellect that was a cross between the noble samurai and the cut throat ninja, using their psychic powers to destroy their enemies.
So you have probably heard by now about all the Blizzard announcement’s, yes Diablo III is coming and now the waiting game begins. I was curious and decided to look into picking up a couple of the Battle Chests and saw that the Diablo Battle Chest is at #1 on the Amazon list.
Not only is the Diablo Battle Chest on top of the Amazon Bestsellers in Video Games chart, but of the top 15 Amazon titles there are 6 Blizzard titles! The StarCraft Battle Chest, Warcraft III Battle Chest and the WoW Battle Chest are also up there. Looks like the news of the new Diablo III and StarCraft II games are pushing the sales of the predecessors, good news for Blizzard even if it does take them ten years to actually release the new games.
I think I am going to dig up my copy of Diablo and give it a go now.
Many gamers had come across the Diablo III General Discussion Forum and were speculating that this is the beginning of great things to come, well that has been proven now to be true. At first I thought this was just Blizzard getting ready and further teasing us to have gamers chomp at the bit and get excited without even having a product ready.
Many times did I say shame on you Blizzard, shame on you for getting our little hopes up and then stomping on them over and over. Well I am sorry for saying these things, bless you Blizzard, bless you and your bringing of Diablo III and Starcraft II.
Lately I have had Starcraft on the brain and was even thinking about re-buying the old classic to get a few rounds of Big Game Hunters in, you know what I am talking about. With talks of Starcraft 2 in the air and a possible announced street date, which I think is far too aggressive and will be pushed back.
I did came across some pretty awesome Starcraft inspired shirts. My favorite is the Zealot grill, who knew the Protoss liked to grill?
If you haven’t had a chance to go over to the Blizzard site you will see a landing page that is covered in ice, each day the ice cracks a bit more and reveals a bit more of what is behind the sheet of ice. Many are speculating that behind the ice lies the announcement of Diablo 3, others think it is World of Warcraft related and some think it may be the street date for Starcraft 2.
I personally I would like to see it be the announcement of the beginnings of a Starcraft MMO, this has been a long time coming and they should be working on it now!
The ice should completely break and reveal the mystery in a few days, but until then lets all ponder and make wild guesses, ready… set… go!
According to Best Buy, Circuit City, and Gamestop, Starcraft II will finally be seeing the light of day on December 3rd. This is still a rumored release date at this point, but with all three retailers suggesting the same day, we’re going to go ahead and call it as probable.
I know a lot of you are anxiously awaiting this game. Countless hours have been spent in the first Starcraft game, with BattleNet still full of players to this day. We’ll see how quick they adapt the new version later this year.
This is a bit of an older clip but really shows just how big Starcraft was in Korea, this is footage form an actual match where the contestants were going head to head with a live audience watching their every move. The control and strategy that this guy uses is incredible and he wipes out his opponent in 5 minutes via an SCV rush coupled with marines in the background. Makes me want to play some old school Starcraft and definitely some Starcraft 2.
We're like Spaceballs... we're making Loot Ninja everything. Coming soon we'll have hats, shirts, hoodies, possibly banana hammocks if one Editor has his way...
Check out the shirt prototypes here and the hats here
