August 23, 2009
Comments (7)

BlizzCon Aftermath

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What is the new Battle.net?

We are building the new Battle.net to be the premier online gaming destination. The new Battle.net experience is a full-featured online game service designed specifically around Blizzard Entertainment titles, and will include a complete set of around-the-game features including a state-of-the-art matchmaking system, achievement system, social networking features, structured competitive play options, a marketplace, and much more. Our vision is to create an environment where gamers can compete online, develop an online persona, and stay connected to friends and the rest of the community while enjoying our games. In doing this, the new Battle.net will deliver the ultimate social and competitive experience for Blizzard Entertainment gamers everywhere.

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An ancient evil lies dormant within Deephome, the domain of earth in the Elemental Plane. Hidden away in a secluded sanctuary, the corrupted Dragon Aspect Deathwing has waited, recovering from the wounds of his last battle against Azeroth and biding his time until he can reforge the world in molten fire. Soon, Deathwing the Destroyer will return to Azeroth, and his eruption from Deephome will sunder the world, leaving a festering wound across the continents. As the Horde and Alliance race to the epicenter of the cataclysm, the kingdoms of Azeroth will witness seismic shifts in power, the kindling of a war of the elements, and the emergence of unlikely heroes who will rise up to protect their scarred and broken world from utter devastation. Blizzard Entertainment's third expansion to World of Warcraft forever alters the face of Azeroth, as the destruction left in Deathwing's wake reshapes the land and reveals secrets long sealed away. Players will be able to re-experience familiar zones across Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms, areas rewrought by the cataclysm and filled with new opportunities for adventure. In an effort to survive the world-shattering cataclysm, two new playable races--worgen and goblins--will join the struggle between Alliance and Horde. As players journey to the new level cap of 85, they'll explore newly revealed zones, acquire new levels of power, and come face to face with Deathwing in a battle to determine the fate of the world. No matter what the outcome, Azeroth will never be the same.

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•Goblin: The goblin race, available to the Horde, will be able to choose from all classes except paladin and druid. Goblins also have some very interesting racial abilities, including a rocket belt that allows players to activate one of two rocket abilities every two minutes.
•The Worgen: The Worgen, our new Alliance race -- has both a true form and a human form. The true form is purely cosmetic, and provides no combat bonus. A player may remain in either form when out of combat, but are automatically placed in their true form upon entering combat.
•New Class/Race Combo's: We’ve also opened up additional class/race options for existing playable races. New Horde options include troll druid, undead hunter, orc mage, tauren paladin, tauren priest, and blood elf warrior. New Alliance options include human hunter, dwarf mage, night elf mage, gnome priest, and dwarf shaman.
•Items: In World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, there are plans to streamline the statistics found on items. We want to remove all unnecessary stats, make all existing stats understandable, and make all "core" stats more appealing. Here are some examples of such plans. With a new legendary item, two-handed axe, available.
•Archaeology: Archaeology is the new secondary profession that will be joining the ranks of cooking, fishing, and first aid in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Archaeology allows the player to unlock new abilities and rewards by discovering ancient treasures throughout the world.
•Reforging: Reforging affords tailors, blacksmiths, leatherworkers, engineers, and jewelcrafters the opportunity to customize any player's gear, including their own. Specifically, they can reduce a single statistic on applicable items and convert the lost points into another stat not already on the item.

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•The Monk is a fast but fragile melee fighter, providing a contrast to the barbarian’s slower but harder-hitting melee presence in the game
•The combo system that encompasses many of the monk skills is what truly sets this class apart. Monk skills that use the combo system can be chained together in different orders to achieve different results.
•Monsters: The points made were that monsters work best in Diablo when kept simple, that their complexity shows best when it comes from combining different monster types in groups, that being able to identify monsters easily is key, and that the game should keep introducing new monsters to the player.
•More Monsters!: The process began with two new enemies seen for the first time in the BlizzCon demo, the snakeman and sandwasp, then moved on to everyone’s Diablo family favorite, the fallen. Three varieties of fallen were shown -- the rank-and-file fodder imp, the resurrection-happy shaman, and the crazy-cousin lunatic.

Posted by: MonkiX7

August 22, 2009
Comments (18)

Diablo 3

Posted by: speedskater

August 11, 2009
Comments (25)

Warden Update - 09-08-11!!

Posted by: Zhuinden

August 6, 2009
Comments (4)

Warcraft III Patch 1.24A

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Warcraft III v1.24 Patch Notes


PC WORLD EDITOR CHANGES

- Added new JASS hash table functions to replace the lost functionality from
fixing unsafe type casting.
- Hash Table - Save Item Handle
- Hash Table - Save Unit Handle
- ...
- Hash Table - Load Item Handle
- Hash Table - Load Unit Handle
- ...
- Hash Table - Get Handle ID

FIXES

- Fixed an exploit related to unsafe type casting that allowed users to
execute arbitrary code in maps.
- Fixed the JASS unsafe type casting exploit ("return bug").
- Fixed several World Editor crashes.

Posted by: Ruler_of_war

August 6, 2009
Comments (13)

StarCraft II Delayed into 2010

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BioShock 2, Max Payne 3, Splinter Cell: Conviction, Singularity, and now StarCraft II? We’d say all that’s left for 2009 are tumbleweeds, but they’ll probably just delay those too. So, who’s responsible for what will surely go down as one of the darkest days in Korean history? That’d be Blizzard’s own Battle.net service.

"Over the past couple of weeks, it has become clear that it will take longer than expected to prepare the new Battle.net for the launch of the game," said Blizzard in a statement.

"The upgraded Battle.net is an integral part of the StarCraft II experience and will be an essential part of all of our games moving forward. This extra development time will be critical to help us realize our vision for the service."

The game’s now scheduled to launch during the “first half” of 2010, which is basically where mom ‘n’ pop have decided to stash the rest of Christmas as well.

If there is a silver lining to all of this, though, it’s that Diablo III’s still chugging along on schedule. Even better, Blizzard’s Mike Morhaime noted that “it would be correct to conclude that you could expect two releases of Blizzard next year,” which we’re taking to mean StarCraft II and Diablo III. Guys, 2010 is going to be a fantastic year. Expensive, sure, but fantastic nonetheless.

Posted by: MonkiX7