To help celebrate our theme of togetherness, I’ll be featuring top news from a crucial event for millions of fans and players: BlizzCon. Each year Blizzard Entertainment showcases news and upcoming products for thousands of fans, instilling a deep sense of community with in-depth content and providing a place for friends to congregate from every part of the globe. This year I am hoping to see quite a bit of news centered around Overwatch, Hearthstone, World of Warcraft, and the upcoming Warcraft film.
Featuring among the opening celebrations on Friday is the first trailer for Duncan Jones’s Warcraft. Early reactions from San Diego Comic Con footage and the 15 second teaser have been hailed the visual effects to be extraordinary.
Please enter the url to a YouTube video.
After the opening celebrations the convention breaks off into 4 halls, each containing events tailored to showcase competitions, news cinematics, and developer panels.
Alongside those events the Main Stage and convention floor will feature demos for upcoming releases, various vendors for prized BlizzCon swag, and the famed BlizzCon Costume Contest.
“Cosplay Py (Grand Empress Shek’zeer)” photo provided by Blizzard Entertainment
My wishlist for this BlizzCon is to hear some specifics regarding the currently in closed beata Overwatch game, currently estimated to be a game changer among the first person shooter genre. Also I wouldn’t mind hearing some details on the upcoming expansion of World of Warcraft, Legion; revealed earlier this year at GamesCon.
If you can’t attend this awesome event in person, Blizzard also sells a virtual ticket which grants access to a live stream for all panels and events held at BlizzCon. It’s not the same as actually being there, but that doesn’t stop the energy from the crowds hit you as sensational events unfold on the center stage.
Watch this space as news comes in, I’ll be updating it with highlights from the convention along the various trailers. What are you looking forward to from BlizzCon this year? Sound off in the comments!
Day 1:
Day one featured a ton of cool news, at the center being a pair of fabulous trailers. Here is the first trailer for Warcraft:
Please enter the url to a YouTube video.This is just about everything I would have wanted out of the first trailer: part awesome scoop of Warcraft lore and part excellent visual effects. Now beings the hard wait till June 2016.
The next big trailer is the cinematic for the next World of Warcraft expansion: Legion.
Please enter the url to a YouTube video.This trailer was loaded with information about how the next expansion will shake down. An alliance between the Horde and the Alliance? The Burning Legion making a serious offensive against Azeroth? This story has been developing since Cataclysm, and the pay off seems huge. The graphics for the trailer are incredibly beautiful, but to see a main character such as Slyvannis fighting alongside former hated nemesis King Wrynn is breathtaking. Not to mention a new classic, finally. It’s going to be a heck of an expansion.
Alongside all this, pre-purchasing options have launced for WoW: Legion and Overwatch. The important take away is that they actually gave Overwatch a tentative release period: Spring 2016. Not to mention also giving a release period of Legion: on or before September 21, 2016.
On the Overwatch front, we got some interesting news on the closed beta. They dub the game, “perfectly balanced,” and note the average game length to be roughly 7 minutes and thirty seconds. The surprise news was that the game is also releasing on the PS4 and Xbox One simultaneously with the PC.
Please enter the url to a YouTube video.
Coming sooner is the latest Hearthstone edition, League of Explorers slated for November 12th. This release is similar to the Gnomes vs Goblins and The Grand Tournament expansions, adding new heroes, mechanics and campaign modes. Visit the Hearthstone Facebook page to check out all the new cards that’ll be added.
Please enter the url to a YouTube video.Day 2:
BlizzCon day 2 kicked things into high gear with semifinals and finals competitions for Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone, and Starcraft II. The first ever Heroes of the Storm world championship was won by team Cloud9, and lead into the announcement of the 2016 circut. Hearthstone and Starcraft II both crowned their world champions; Ostkaka and second time champion sOs, respectively.
The judges have their verdicts with the Contest winners, and just watching the footage from day 1 it was an intense showdown of creativity and dedication. I think it’s a safe bet to say, that the BlizzCon cosplayers can give the SDCC’ers a good run for their money.
Closing out BlizzCon 2015 was a tremendous performance by Linkin Park. The closing acts for BlizzCon are always bittersweet but never lacking in quality and often rivaling the opening acts.
Till next year, BlizzCon!
Daku Con 2018 Photo Gallery
Daku Con 2018 Convention Recap!
PAX South 2019: Splitgate Arena Warfare, World of Horror, JackQuest, and Disjunction
PAX South 2019: Jump Force, Skellboy, A Fold Apart
PAX South 2019: Devil May Cry 5, Young Souls, Magequit
Nan Desu Kan 2018 Photo Gallery
Happy Birthday Diablo III!
Blizzard’s latest installment in the demon-slaying action RPG series turned 3 this past weekend, and they decided to do something a little special for D3 players by addressing all things bovine and the secret cow level.
The cow level was mostly a running gag by Blizzard that began back in the first game in the Diablo series. If you clicked one of the cows in Tristram enough times, instead of the requisite “moo” the player’s character would break the fourth wall and talk to the player – telling us either “Yup that’s a cow alright!” and reminding us that “Hey, I am no milkmaid!” As we clicked more, the game cycled through more of these quips from our character. This little easter egg was what prompted the rumor of a secret cow level, which as legend has it, stated a portal to it could be opened if a player clicked a cow enough times. It’s alright, I clicked the hell out of those cows too – it was such a ridiculous thing that I had to see for myself.
Of course while taking the official stance that there is no cow level, they fed the rumor machine by making “thereisnocowlevel” a cheat code in Starcraft.
Diablo II took that rumor and ran with it, creating a cow level that could be accessed combining a tome of town portal and Wirt’s leg in your Horadric cube. It eventually became a popular place for players to grind experience and culminated in a battle with the Cow King.
Diablo III, I suppose sort of in that vein, replaced some treasure goblins with treasure bovines instead. And much like the rainbow goblins open up a portal to Whimsyshire, these treasure cows open up a red portal described as the following:
Leads to a place that does not exist. The Burning Hells are not responsible for events that transpire there. If you claim to have been to this place, you will be called a liar. Void where prohibited.
The cow level
There are gags harkening back to Diablo II, like a quest from the ghost of the then-slain Cow King, who wryly quips that these cows must have some sort of beef with you on a quest called “Tipping Point.” And if you take a look at the pictures, that’s right, some health globes are actually steaks.
I will close by saying this – this place is difficult. On Master difficulty rare spawns showed up with multiple packs of elites (seriously always with fire chains) and my first time through while dealing with them I stumbled upon the map boss, the Cow Queen. She throws so much lightning that I would rank her as more difficult than many of the bosses in the game just based on the sheer damage output she hurls at you, and in my case my gear wasn’t exactly dripping with resistances. This is one of the rare times I died playing with this character so far – she takes very little damage, and there were times when both potions and breath of heaven were on cooldown, leaving my to my doom. But when you’re done with her you do get 4 radiant chests. With a twangy banjo track in the background no less.
Unfortunately no, there were no bovine-themed legendaries, at least none that dropped for me.
The cow level was over on May 21st, but who knows? From the minds of those that came up with both the cow level and Whimsyshire, you never know what’s next in the realms of Sanctuary. Check out some more images in the gallery below:
Tushar Nene
Staff Writer
@tusharnene
REVIEW | Salt and Sanctuary
PAX South 2019: Splitgate Arena Warfare, World of Horror, JackQuest, and Disjunction
PAX South 2019: Jump Force, Skellboy, A Fold Apart
REVIEW | Spider-Man PS4
Review | Re-Exploring No Man’s Sky Next
