Paul and Yolanda Miller hauled themselves and two friends out of bed at 3 a.m., the four patiently waiting at 3:30 to be the first in line to buy tickets. Having flown in from Georgetown, Ohio, the day before, this was their vacation, the four eagerly shouting, “For the Horde!!!” to other line attendees while waiting for the BlizzCon convention to open.
Photographs by Rachel Hoyer
It didn’t begin subtly.
At approximately 10 a.m. on Friday, October 22, the Millers and more than 35,000 die-hard Blizzard fans walked, jogged, or outright charged through the doors of the Anaheim Convention Center for the keynote, security personnel yelling for them to slow down. Blizzard’s annual show was underway.
But could anything match the massive announcements at last year’s BlizzCon--namely, the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm expansion pack, two new races for the game and the complete destruction/overhaul of a game world the millions-strong player base had intimately known for the past several years?
Still, Blizzard came out swinging, the lights dropping to begin a cinematic of an armored female character stalking through a woodland setting, dual crossbows in hand. This is the Demon Hunter, the fifth and final playable class of Blizzard’s upcoming Diablo III character--and quite possibly the single greatest badass female character since Sigourney Weaver in the Aliens movies.
Blizzard also announced a new player-versus-player mode for the upcoming Diablo III, asking, “Who will stand victorious? And who will lose their ear?”
“You’ll be able to show up, pick a class and beat the brains out of each other,” quipped Blizzard VP of Creative Development, Chris Metzen.
Other announcements came in the form of additional content for Blizzard’s real-time strategy StarCraft II. Although a final release date hasn’t been revealed for the much-anticipated Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void expansion packs, Blizzard announced the forthcoming release of four new custom multiplayer games to be released over the coming months:
» Starjeweled: (akin to the classic Bejeweled, players match sets of three jewels on a grid to release additional forces against each other in classic a StarCraft multiplayer match)
» Aiur Chef: Players go head to head and must gather ingredients as well as kill specific enemies to complete recipes in order to defeat each other in multiplayer gameplay.
» Left 2 Die: Players must cooperatively fend off a new strain of Zerg as well as purge the infestation from the planet’s surface.
» Blizzard DOTA: Player must use an all-star team of heroic characters (such as the Dark Templar, the Abomination, etc.) to defeat wave after wave of approaching enemies. Units can be leveled up and given upgrades throughout the game.
Beyond the hype of the keynote, the interesting things tend to surface in the midst of panels and interview sessions. Follow the jump to find out what else we learned about Diablo III, StarCraft II, and WOW: Cataclysm, and see some of our favorite awesome costumes.
Continue reading on the next page »
Print
