Diablo III New Monk Class Reveal!

Blizzcon 2009 is going down this weekend but it seems Asia got the jump again. A website revealed (leaked?) the fourth class for Diablo III.

The Monk will follow the Barbarian, Witch Doctor and the Wizard and will feature hand to hand combat. The official announcement came with a trailer like for the Wizard class.

It might be just me but it’s the first time I’m disappointed by a Blizzard trailer… The flow is fine but for some reason the graphics look very old generation. The Wizard trailer was much much much better in my book.

In any case any Diablo III news is good news.

Sam Raimi Will Direct WarCraft Movie

Big news in geek world!!

Blizzard has announced that the Evil Dead and Spider Man director will try to do justice to the lore of the great property. Chris Metzen who created the whole incredible story for WarCraft III will be heavily involved in the project so there is hope friends!

Here’s the press release:

Blizzard Entertainment® and Legendary Pictures Sign Sam Raimi to Direct Upcoming Warcraft® MovieRaimi, acclaimed director of the blockbuster Spider-Man series, will bring the forces of the Horde and the Alliance to life in epic live-action film. Charles Roven’s Atlas Entertainment will produce alongside Raimi’s Stars Road Entertainment.

LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. and Legendary Pictures announced today that Sam Raimi has signed on to direct the eagerly-anticipated major motion picture based on Blizzard Entertainment®’s award-winning Warcraft^® universe. Raimi has, in the course of his career, clearly demonstrated a genius for developing and adapting existing fictional universes for mainstream audiences while staying true to the spirit of the original content.

Raimi directed the Spider-Man trilogy, which has broken box-office records around the world and garnered five Academy Award® nominations. Known for his imaginative filmmaking style, richly drawn characters and offbeat humor, Raimi wrote and directed the cult classic, The Evil Dead and produced 30 Days Of Night. He most recently wrote and directed the supernatural thriller, Drag Me To Hell.

“At its core, Warcraft is a fantastic, action-packed story,” said Raimi. “I am thrilled to work with such a dynamite production team to bring this project to the big screen.”

Charles Roven’s producing talents were recently seen with last summer’s blockbuster The Dark Knight, which grossed in excess of $1 billion, was nominated for eight Academy Awards® and won two. His body of work also includes the widely acclaimed Batman Begins and the sci-fi classic 12 Monkeys. Roven, with Atlas producing partner Alex Gartner, will be producing with Legendary Pictures CEO Thomas Tull, Legendary’s Chief Creative Officer Jon Jashni, Raimi and Raimi’s producing partner Joshua Donen. Raimi’s partner, Robert Tapert, will be an Executive Producer and Blizzard Entertainment’s Senior Vice President of Creative Development, Chris Metzen, a Co-Producer.

“Partnering with Sam Raimi exemplifies Legendary’s mandate of marrying the highest quality intellectual property to world-class filmmakers,” said Legendary’s Tull. “Sam’s passion for ‘Warcraft’ is undeniable and we know that he will create an incredible film worthy of Blizzard’s phenomenal franchise. We look forward to collaborating with our partners at Warner Bros. and continuing our successful relationship with Chuck in bringing this rich new world to the screen.”

“Blizzard Entertainment and Legendary Pictures have a shared vision for this film and we searched at length to find the very best director to bring that vision to life,” said Paul Sams, chief operating officer of Blizzard Entertainment. “From our first conversation with Sam, we could tell he was the perfect choice. Sam knows how to simultaneously satisfy the enthusiasts and the mainstream audience that might be experiencing that content for the first time. We’re looking forward to working with him to achieve that here.”

“Blizzard Entertainment’s Warcraft has become a second home for millions of players and Sam’s experience and talent make him the perfect director for this remarkable and action-packed world,” said Atlas’ Roven. “Alex and I are proud to be working with Sam and re-teaming with our friends at Legendary and Warner Bros.”

The film will fall under Legendary Pictures’ co-production and co-financing deal with Warner Bros. “Warcraft is emblematic of the kind of branded, event films for which our studio is best known. We have enjoyed great success with our partners at Legendary, and this is an incredible opportunity for us to work with Sam on a project that is so eagerly anticipated by so many,” said Jeff Robinov, President, Warner Bros. Pictures Group.

Blizzard Entertainment’s Warcraft universe is a rich fantasy setting that revolves around the epic conflict between the opposing forces of the Horde and the Alliance. Since its debut in 1994, Warcraft has developed a loyal following across the globe, with several bestselling, award-winning PC games and a range of popular licensed products including novels, action figures, apparel, comic books, board games, and more. World of Warcraft^®, Blizzard Entertainment’s subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game set in the Warcraft universe, is the most popular game of its kind in the world. Its most recent expansion, Wrath of the Lich King^™, is the fastest-selling PC game of all time, with more than 2.8 million copies sold in its first 24 hours of availability and more than 4 million in its first month.

Further details about the upcoming Warcraft movie, including cast and targeted release date, will be revealed as development progresses.

Blizzard Trademarks ‘Cataclysm’

The net has been abuzz  recently because when the Blizzard howls, people listen. But of course no one really knows what the whole thing is about.

The name itself could very well refer to the next World of WarCraft expansion or even the one for the upcoming Diablo III… or really just another game. The most popular explanation though is that it could be the title of their new MMO project.

After several job openings at the Irvine firm people started speculating that a new online game was in the works. The rumor grew ever bigger until Jeff Kaplan, then lead designer on WoW, announced he was moving on to a new project.

So the bottom line is that we don’t know much but we love Blizzard and want to know more.

World of WarCraft Noir – In For a Penny (by Selserene)

A few nights ago I was browsing WoW Movies to see if anything good was on there. Among the mountain of crap ego-driven PvP videos out there you can find a few gems.
Some actually good PvP videos, some fun videos and some…beautiful.

In For a Penny is of the latter. It plays out like a film noir typical of the 50s with an amazing soundtrack (including Bel Canto and Tori Amos among others) that fits the mood to perfection.
The series features this smooth criminal who gets sent to jail after being wrongly accused of murder. A few years later he escapes and tries to figure things out.

The whole thing is obviously in black and white, voiced very well (I’m game for a role) and the whole direction is very impressive.
Selserene created something special here and if you like oldschool noir murder mystery you would do well to check out this series.

If you give this but a few minutes of your time, you will be in for a pound.

You can get the high quality downloads (strongly suggested) through Selserene’s blog or directly on WoW Movies.

Blizzard Working on Redneck Rampage??

O.K. I know exactly what you brain is doing right now. Blizzard = Polished, high quality, serious titles. Redneck Rampage = mayhem, complete lunacy.

Blizzard + Redneck Rampage =….. Does Not Compute.

Well my friends, things are not as they seem.
Redneck Rampage was developed in 1998 by Interplay. Later the rights to the franchise were bought, in 2004, by Vivendi Universal. The game ended up landing at Blizzard.

O.K. so that’s a start but the real kicker is this. Several of Blizzard employees actually worked on Redneck Rampage, including the Senior Producer for The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King and Level Designer for the defunct StarCraft: Ghost.

So is this all completely crazy? maybe but it’ll certainly be fun to watch.

Holy @%#&! Frostmourne Replica!

I recently came up on this gorgeous, amazing replica made by Epic Weapons. The infamous cursed sword (no not Stormbringer) which corrupted the good Arthas and made him “succeed” his father and betray all humans….and more.

The gorgeous piece is officially licensed by Blizzard and comes at a nice 47″ and 16lbs. The blade is made of stainless steel (sadly it doesn’t have a blueish hue around it) and the grip is wrapped in leather.
Of course such quality comes at a price, namely $379.00 through Weapon Masters.

Right on time for Christmas right?

New Chronicles of Riddick Screens, Trailer and Details

When Activision and Blizzard merged for a short period the remake of the highly acclaimed Riddick game, Escape from Butcher Bay, was left hanging but thankfully Atari came to the rescue Assault on Dark Athena and announced they would release the game which was “just about done”.

We now have a few more screens and a shiny new trailer to wet our appetites until March 2009. The Multiplayer mode is also getting details.
Aside from the classics Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Capture the Flag there are going to be two more modes.

• Pitch Black: one player plays Riddick in a ‘pitch black’ room. He obviously has his night vision and the other players are armed to the teeth with a simple flashlight in order to kill him. The lucky one to kill the Furyan will in turn become Riddick and so on.
• Butcher Bay Riot: involves three groups of four people. The inmates, guards and mercenaries who will all have to reach a generator. The mode will have a Counter Strike system which will allow you to buy weapons, ammo and more.

Be sure to check out the HD trailer here.

World of Warcraft Breaks Another Record

Blizzard has always been an amazing company delivering quality title after quality title. Not even mentioning the great series like Diablo, WarCraft and StarCraft, games like The Lost Vikings and Blackthorne were great games in their own rights as well.

But then four years ago things changed, World of WarCraft came out and took the world by storm, I know, I barely slept for two weeks. The game now claims more than 11 million players! When The Burning Crusade came out it sold 2.4M copies on day one! And it’s happened again, The Wrath of the Lich King, which came out last week, sold 2.8M copies on its first day making it the top-selling PC title of 2008….in 24 hours.

Moral of the story? What is happening? “Succeeding you…father”!

Friday October 17, 2008

LittleBigPlanet Recalled

What is probably the most anticipated PS3 game of the holiday season has been pushed back to a somewhat undetermined date due to lines from the Qur’an holy book being featured in one of the game’s level’s music.
SCEA confirmed the speculations on their blog and said that they “will begin shipping LittleBigPlanet to retail in North America the week of October 27th.”
Somewhere Sackboy is frowning.

Tom Clancy Games to Merge?

It seems UbiSoft is looking to combine five of its series into one big sprawling saga. In the future Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell, EndWar and HAWK could see their plotlines intermingle.
They already plan to mix EndWar 2 with another title, possibly Ghost Recon, and are hoping that EndWar will become the main universe which will tie all the others.

Vader and Yoda Will Battle…for V.I.Ps

Microsoft has announced that on October 23 Japanese players will be able to download Yoda (for the PS3) and Darth Vader (for the 360) in Soul Calibur IV.
Here is where the cookie crumbles: each player will have to fork about $6 (¥600 and 400MS Points) for them.
So if you feel like being treated like a stupid kid with holes in his pocket, go ahead and download… provided you live in Japan.

Blizzard’s New MMO Will Be Different

Mike Morhaime, CEO of Blizzard, said in an interview with Wired that there new unknown MMO project will not be a World of Warcraft sequel. He added: “It will be different. We’re not trying to replace World of Warcraft with this new MMO. We’re trying to create a different massively multiplayer experience, and hopefully, World of Warcraft will still be going strong when that one is released.”
Considering they have said that it may also be released on consoles let us hope that it doesn’t bring the quality of the title down.

Wednesday October 15, 2008

RetroBeats Session 13 Out!

Well I’m back so with me comes a new RetroBeats on RetroWare TV.
This time I’m putting some of Mega Man‘s best tunes across various series in honor of the release of Mega Man 9.
Thank you Capcom!

TGS 2008 Tops Attendance

This year 194,288 people showed up at the show up from 193,040 last year. Maybe it’s time the people who organize E3 stopped their BS and paid a little attention.

Gone Gold

Far Cry 2 and Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 have both gone gold.
The UbiSoft title will be released on PC, PS3 and 360 October 21 while the EA title is a bit more messy. It will be released on PC October 28, on 360 November 11 and on the PS3….whenever, the game is on indefinite hiatus on the Sony console.

BlizzCon 08 Media Blowout!

You all really need to check out the footage from the convention featuring the two upcoming blockbusters from Blizzard. If you just woke up from a 25 year slumber I’m talking about StarCraft II and Diablo III.
I’m not an RTS fan but I have to say I wish I were because the sequel to the 1998 game simply looks stunning. The in-game off-map footage looks just like a cinematic it’s scary, the ambiance and lore look amazing and make me hope for a StarCraft MMO someday.
On the other hand I’m a huge, HUGE Diablo fan and the Wizard trailer made me cry just a little. The game is going to kill.
Anyway go here to check the footage, courtesy of GameTrailers.