Heh... - 4.22.2008

I love the "reason".

So, what is this now? Like account number three, four...?

-Matt Graham

The Second WotLK Leak(?) - 4.22.2008

There isn't a whole lot to say about the following video. It pretty much speaks for itself. However, we could lay down some speculation.

The first thing I thought of was the possibility that, in order to summon Arthas to kill him, a raid must return the Frostmourne to him. There's a bunch of lore stuff involved there though and I'm not going to get into it.

The second thing I thought of was that maybe this video is showing someone becoming the Death Knight class. I could see it. Roll a character, watch a small gameplay cinematic, and then appear at the Frozen Throne ready to touch the Frostmourne and become a Death Knight.

The third thing I thought was that this could just be a bunch of bullcrap that was filmed on a private server.

Whatever the video was about, it was weird. Very, very cool, but weird. The title of this post included a question mark because I can't confirm as to whether this is an actual leak or not. I honestly don't know what it is... >.>

WoW Epee of lich king
Uploaded by yersi

I also wanted to post the following video. I don't think that it's necessarily new, but it shows some cool WotLK content. The video is of a rogue running through Utgarde, the first 5-man dungeon in WotLK. It was taken at GenCon 2007.



-Matt Graham

The First WotLK Leak - 4.20.2008

ALL PICTURES MAY BE VIEWED THROUGH THIS HYPERLINK TO FLICKR!

So, the first real WotLK leak has been released via MMO-Champion forums. The leak contains various screenshots. (Please note: The "leaked" hairstyle and map screenshots in the hyperlinked thread have been deemed fake.)

The screenshot descriptions are for "WotLK Leak 1" through "WotLK Leak 9".

WotLK Leak 1 The first screenshot shows our brave Tauren Leaker fighting an epic... wolf? Okay Blizzard, when is this gunna end? A heroic looking Tauren like that should NOT be fighting wolves so he can bring their intestines back to some Orc trying to make stew. However, the environment does look really nice. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if it'll be enough to distract me when I'm busy gutting wolves for about the fourteenth time.

WotLK Leak 2 The second screenshot, in all it's glaring glory, gives me much more hope towards the environments. The environments in WotLK are somethings that I really want to see well developed. I remember how Northrend was one of my favorite areas in Warcraft III just because of the land itself. The architecture as well is lookin' very nice in this shot.

WotLK Leak 3 I love this third screenshot. It just seems like a really refreshing change in the usually lay-of-the-land and architecture. This is most likely one of the first few cities in one of the two new zones. Imagine it as the Honor Hold, or in this case, the Thrallmar of Wrath of the Lich King.

WotLK Leak 4 A little better quality for the fourth picture in the leak. This shot shows some cool sky effects that it looks like Blizzard learned from in Burning Crusade. However, these effects seem lower to the ground making it feel more alive and interactive. It think that's a very large step in the right direction. I just can't get over how much I love the feel of the zone in this picture. That small thing in the mid-left of the shot looks somewhat like a Moonkin, but I could be wrong and I hope to God I am. Hell, it might not even be a mob!

WotLK Leak 5 More mobs that we've seen time and time again... Lovely. It's a good thing that those trees look so amazing, but this still doesn't look too good. Replace those trees with some snowy trees from the current WoW in there and you'd think this is Dun Morogh or Alterac Valley.

WotLK Leak 6 Screenshot number six is a picture of our Tauren adventurer accepting a quest. Nothing big, really. If only we could read the quest text...

WotLK Leak 7 I like shot number seven. It shows some more interesting mobs than we saw previously. They aren't amazingly awesome and I don't know what the hell they are, but there are better than what we've seen.

WotLK Leak 8 Ingvar the Plunderer. He's a boss in the Vrykul instance, Utgarde Catacombs. He's a level 72 elite, so I don't imagine that he'll be too difficult. I wish we could have seen his loot. :(

WotLK Leak 9 And the last picture just shows a Gnome discovering Utgarde Keep. Nothing monumental.

That's it for now. It's too bad that the "screenshots" were in such poor quality. Whoever took them had to use their camera to do so because apparently Blizzard watches every button you push in Alpha and completely disables the ability to take screenshots.

So, that's the first WotLK leak and it came on 4/20. Could it actually be fake? Maybe we're all just too high to tell...

UPDATE: A Death Knight and Login Screen leak have now been added to the picture library.
UPDATE 2: Two new talents/abilities for Shamans (possibly fake) and Warriors have been added to the picture library.
UPDATE 3: You can now Digg this article!

-Matt Graham

The Race Is On - 4.16.2008

So, this past week has seen an epic battle take place over which PvE Guilds could be the first few to kill the Eredar Twins in Sunwell Plateau - the latest boss fight to be unleashed from behind their protective gate.

Expectations were high, dedication was higher, but not to any particular amount of surprise from the community, Nihilum went in and claimed their World 1st on the day after the gate opened, with SK-Gaming a few hours behind with the World 2nd.

Again, European Guilds swoop in and steal kills from underneath US noses, a topic much discussed and argued about on the Nihilum forum.

Leaving the drama aside and just looking at the fight statistics, only 33 Guilds worldwide managed to down the Eredar Twins this reset - quite a low number. I can say from personal experience that a big congratulations must go out to all of them - this fight is very tough.

What annoyed me in some ways were the amount of videos popping up incredibly quickly of the fight, especially SK-Gaming who released theirs not 3 days after the gate was open. Is it really necessary to release kill movies that soon and generally spoil the encounter for the masses? I suppose it could be argued that if people don't want to spoil it for themselves they shouldn't watch the movie, but there's always a level of competition that will persuade many into getting as much information as possible.

It will be another interesting race for M'uru, who we expect to be released next reset. Will the kill order be the same? Certainly Nihilum and SK-Gaming are looking strong for World 1st and 2nd positions.

In other news, most realms now are enjoying the fruits of their daily grinds with the Badge of Justice Vendor that has opened up business on the Isle of Quel'Danas. In many cases the items that can be obtained from this vendor easily outmatch Tier 5 equivalents - so get grinding for those badges, people! I myself purchased a rather nifty ring which I am pleased with, and my alts are now looking quite ready to raid some Tier 6 instances - rawr!

-Joe Zara [Phoee]

New Posts Coming! - 4.13.2008

Hey guys! Sorry about not posting anything for a while, but both Joe and I have been really busy! I'll be posting more very soon! :)

P.S. - Just a few minutes ago, I noticed that Blogcraft received a pretty good spike of hits. I don't really know where these are coming from, but if anyone knows, please comment this post because I'd like to thank whoever may have linked Blogcraft!

-Matt Graham

BlizzCon 2008 - 4.1.2008

Ah, BlizzCon... Two days of pure fun and joy for gamers - especially for WoW fans/players. So far, every BlizzCon has come with a lot of new information regarding WoW expansions.

In October of 2005, we were told of the first WoW expansion, the Burning Crusade. Blizzard had already made so much progress on the game, that at the convention, people were able to demo the Blood Elf starting area. However, it somehow took them another year and then some to release the damn game.

In 2007, Blizzard announced Wrath of the Lich King, the upcoming second expansion to Azeroth. Convention attendees were able to demo Blizzard's upcoming RTS, Starcraft II. For us at home, we were graced by the frustrating streaming of the convention. I mean, seriously, why would you stream video of an empty room instead of going to the panel discussions?! Also, why would you cut to the lame arena fights during the few times that we were able to actually view the damn panels?! *Takes a deep breath.* Anyways...

BlizzCon 2008. It's been a question as to if it will be happening or not ever since the doors to BlizzCon 2007 closed and I will leave you with information making you question it no longer.

BlizzCon 2008 will take place on October 10th and 11th, 2008.

What can we expect there? Well, the WWI in Paris, France is coming up soon. I assume that at that event Blizzard will announce information regarding their "Team 3 Project". So, what does this have to do with BlizzCon 2008? Well, if my above assumption is true, I'd then guess that BlizzCon 2008 will be almost solely focused on that game and WotLK. I believe that Starcraft II will be out before October comes and WotLK will almost be ready to go after we find out the last bit of new information that Blizzard will announce to us about the expansion at BlizzCon 2008.

Hopefully I'll be going this year. It's almost not even that I want to go just because I've always wanted to and that I love Blizzard games, but I wanna go because if I ever watch streaming video like I did for the last BlizzCon again, I can't be responsible for how I'll physically interact with other people (including myself).

-Matt Graham

The Best and Worst April Fools Joke. Ever. - 4.1.2008

If I may, I'd like to break away from all the WoW-ness for a second.

Until today, I would never have known that both the best and the worst April Fools joke ever would be, well, the same joke.

Today, IGN posted a fake movie trailer for "The Legend of Zelda" movie. Zelda fans like myself know that it has been stated that there will never be a Zelda movie because Nintendo simply doesn't want it to happen, so it's obviously a joke. Now, how is it the best and worst joke at the same time? Well, it's the best because I've never seen anything quite like it, production-wise, to end up simply as a joke that will be forgotten and never brought up unless it happens to be around April 1st. It's the worst because IGN is a bunch of pricks who have officially made me hate them for making me a sad panda, knowing that I'll never be able to see this movie.

Damn you, IGN!

-Matt Graham