Do you like puzzles, of course you do! You can find the clues for this crossword after the break. Answers to this week's puzzle will appear next Sunday.
Gallery: WoW Crosswords
Posts with tag game
Blizzard unveils Diablo 3
Despite an entire week of misleading ice and blue-lit eyes that was supposed to make people think it was the Lich King, Blizzard unveiled earlier today one of the most anticipated game releases in a long time, Diablo 3. It wasn't the best kept secret, as the week leading up to the event had the entire gaming community buzzing with rumors (and hopes) of a sequel to one of Blizzard's big three properties.
Diablo is one of Blizzard's most popular properties, along with Warcraft and Starcraft. The first game in the series, a dark fantasy role-playing game, was released in 1997 to much critical success. Its sequel, Diablo 2, was released in 2000, with equally glowing reviews. Diablo received a 9.6 on GameSpot's review, the highest score on a PC game to date. Diablo 2 holds a spot in the Guiness Book of World Records for being the fastest selling computer game ever sold, with more than 1 million units sold in its first two weeks of release. It still holds the record to date.
At the Worldwide Invitational, lead designer for Diablo 3 Jay Wilson, formerly of Relic Entertainment and designer on Warhammer 40K Dawn of War, spoke about the game. The latest sequel will be a 3D hack and slash with an isometric view, with at least one familiar class -- the Barbarian, an interface with health and mana bubbles. The game world will have destructible environments and quest or story events, "more so than previous games." Alongside the old (yet new) Barbarian class is the new Witch Doctor class, with spells and a pet mechanic. Diablo 3 will also see the return of Deckard Cain, one of Diablo's most popular characters.
Update: The official site is up, with screenshots, artwork, and the cinematic and gameplay videos. And oh, a kickass picture of Tyrael. Stay a while, and listen!
Diablo is one of Blizzard's most popular properties, along with Warcraft and Starcraft. The first game in the series, a dark fantasy role-playing game, was released in 1997 to much critical success. Its sequel, Diablo 2, was released in 2000, with equally glowing reviews. Diablo received a 9.6 on GameSpot's review, the highest score on a PC game to date. Diablo 2 holds a spot in the Guiness Book of World Records for being the fastest selling computer game ever sold, with more than 1 million units sold in its first two weeks of release. It still holds the record to date.
At the Worldwide Invitational, lead designer for Diablo 3 Jay Wilson, formerly of Relic Entertainment and designer on Warhammer 40K Dawn of War, spoke about the game. The latest sequel will be a 3D hack and slash with an isometric view, with at least one familiar class -- the Barbarian, an interface with health and mana bubbles. The game world will have destructible environments and quest or story events, "more so than previous games." Alongside the old (yet new) Barbarian class is the new Witch Doctor class, with spells and a pet mechanic. Diablo 3 will also see the return of Deckard Cain, one of Diablo's most popular characters.
Update: The official site is up, with screenshots, artwork, and the cinematic and gameplay videos. And oh, a kickass picture of Tyrael. Stay a while, and listen!
WoW Insider is on the ground in Paris at the Blizzard Invitational bringing you the big announcements and latest Wrath news as it happens. Check out our latest coverage!Penny Arcade to appear at Upper Deck's Darkmoon Faire in Seattle
Upper Deck is holding a Darkmoon Faire event in Seattle next weekend, June 13-15, and they sent along a note letting us know that the guys from Penny Arcade are going to be there in attendance. Both Gabe and Tycho, you'll know if you're an avid reader of the comic, are fans of the card game, and while Upper Deck isn't clear about what they'll be doing there (all they tell us is that the guys will "partake" of the gaming), it's not hard to expect that at least Tycho will be eventually running a Molten Core raid game.
Should be fun -- if you're around Seattle and get to stop by the Seattle Center next weekend (it's free to visit the event, and various tournaments have different costs associated with them), definitely take pictures and let us know how it went.
Singing the praises of shoulderpads
freelancer_bob (love that name) over on LJ has a good point: Shoulderpads seem to be the height of fashion in Azeroth. Not only do shoulder pieces call for the highest Arena rating in the game, but they're often the flashiest way to add a little flair to your character. While you can get the plainest of the plain before level 20, after level 70, they quickly and often turn into the wackiest thing your character can wear. Whether it's pure energy, lightning wolves, or even eyes (freakin' eyes!), Blizzard's artists seem to go overboard as much as possible, especially on the high end shoulder pieces.Sometimes it just gets out of hand -- how exactly are Hunters wearing Tier 1 supposed to use their peripheral vision? But just as Bob says, oversized and garish shoulders are a big part of what makes WoW Warcraft. If we walked around with realistic shoulder armor, the game would look that much more boring.
So here's to the praises of huge, awesome-looking shoulders. We're looking forward to a lot of stuff in Wrath of the Lich King -- the new class, the dungeons, and the new continent to wander around on. But I'm also looking forward to seeing just how the armor designers will top having blindfolded statues of women on shoulder pieces. It'll be amazing for sure.
Penny Arcade wants you to write 10 words about WoW
Penny Arcade, those funny WoW comic guys, are giving away a metric ton of loot, via a contest, that they've gotten for the WoW Trading Card Game. Things that they're giving away include "four boxes of boosters, tournament playmats, a Winterveil collector's box, deckboxes, sleeves, two binders, three raid decks, three starter decks, and one of these awesome dice chest things." That's a ton of stuff to be handing out. But it gets better.They're also handing out an X-51 Nether-Rocket card to each winner. You can get your very own Rocket Mount!
Three lucky winners will be quite happy. What's the contest they're holding? From the site: "you must write a short story, set in World of Warcraft, and this story must be precisely ten words long." It's so simple and so easy you just have to chuckle. Head on over to their site for more information on how to enter the contest.
Of course, you'll have to go up against a certain WoW Insider writer on this one, since I've already submitted my story: "A casual paladin casually walks up and one shots Illidan."
Good luck!
New York Toy Faire previews the WoW mini game
The WoW Minis Game has a bit to go before it sees release in Fall 2008, but wowminifan.com has some news fresh from the New York Toy Fair to whet your appetite, including a few pictures. The miniatures themselves especially look pretty awesome, and I can see a lot of non-players buying sets just for display purposes, especially if they haven't managed to get their hands on a Figureprint.
Continue reading New York Toy Faire previews the WoW mini game
All the World's a Stage: Ten Commandments of Roleplaying
All the World's a Stage is a source for roleplaying ideas, commentary, and discussions. It is published every Sunday evening.WoW Insider is not Mount Sinai, and I am certainly not the Burning Bush, but there is a need for a clear, concise list of "do's and don'ts" which new and experienced roleplayers can refer to in times of need. I therefore submit the following commandments as a guide and a reference to roleplayers throughout the World of Warcraft.
Obviously the list of essential rules I lay out here will be different from a list you might make, but hopefully the basic ideas remain the same. In addition, being as I am hardly a prophet of the Almighty, I reserve the right to edit these commandments over time as times change and new insights emerge.
1. Thou shalt not play God.
You only have control over the actions of your own character. When roleplaying with others, you must never ever use an emote or action which denies others the right to choose their own actions in response to yours. For example: "Moosis glares with white hot anger at Faro" is acceptable; "Moosis glares so intensely that Faro's face melts" is not. Whether or not two people's characters are fighting with each other, their act of roleplaying itself is essentially cooperative -- even in a battle of emotes, both players must work together to tell the story in an interesting way, neither one presuming what the other will do.
Continue reading All the World's a Stage: Ten Commandments of Roleplaying
Breakout in World of Warcraft
One of the things I really don't like about World of Warcraft, or any other MMORPG, is the waiting that is involved in getting a group together. This can be a real problem in raid environments, where it often times can take half an hour or more just to get the group set. I've been a raid leader before, so I know that they are busy and there isn't much they can do about the time we all just sit there on vent chatting with each other.One of things that I've recently came across to help ease the wait is a little in-game game of bricks, a.k.a. breakout. Breakout is the game that I used to play back in elementary and middle school on the old Macs* where you'd bounce a ball around, breaking (you guessed it) bricks. The ball is bounced off a small platform that you move with your mouse. Pretty simple, and mindlessly entertaining.
Lately I've been enjoying a version of this game called WoWonid, which is an Ace2 addon I found via my addon updating with the WoWAceUpdater. It's a good enough implementation of the game (and quite impressive when you consider that it's done in LUA and built using an interface that's designed for game addons). The controls are simple enough, and just like the old Mac controls: move the mouse left or right to move the platform, bounce the ball, pwn.
Details on the WoW Minis game
WoW Insider has obtained a copy of the "sell sheet" sent to distributors about the upcoming WoW minis game, and it contains information about pricing, pack size, and even some hints at a release date.Basically, the minis will become available in three different ways: there will be the core booster sets, which will contain three minis of the same Horde or Alliance faction, plus three character cards and six ability cards, and will have a suggested retail price (SRP) of $14.99 per booster. Additionally, each booster will have a chance to include an ingame Loot Card, supposedly from the Trading Card Game (there is no word if there will be loot cards specifically for the minis game), and a 1/8 chance to have an "epic" character.
More info on the starter sets, including the full text of the "sell sheet," after the break.
Breakfast Topic: Games within the game
We all know (or at least I hope we all know) that World of Warcraft is a game -- an MMO set in an immense universe with countless quests to do and whole continents to explore. However, sometimes the big game isn't as interesting as the minigames you can find. Steam tonk wars? (Or other pet games.) Guild bank checkers? (If you haven't tried that one, it's a blast!) What do you think of Azeroth's minigames -- do you play them? Do you enjoy them? Do you make up your own to entertain yourself between raids? Tell us about them!
All the World's a Stage: Turning stumbling blocks into stepping stones
All the World's a Stage is brought to you by David Bowers every Sunday evening, investigating the mysterious art of roleplaying in the World of Warcraft.It is an art to turn any negative situation to your advantage, and no less so when roleplaying in WoW. In the fine tradition of "turning stumbling blocks into stepping stones," it pays for a roleplayer to reconsider a number of in-game situations which seem to get in the way of roleplaying, yet which actually offer a special opportunity to showcase your creativity.
The biggest stumbling block WoW roleplayers trip over is often some aspect of the game mechanics themselves. Your roleplaying may lead your character into a deadly conflict with another player, for instance, and yet even if you kill the other in a free-for-all PvP arena, he or she can just resurrect and be back to normal in a few minutes. Alternately, you may find an epic BoE drop off a Skettis Kaliri and be hard pressed to explain how a rainbow-colored owl was flying around with a huge sword inside its body. You may even ponder why every single ogre you've ever seen is male.
Naturally, of course, there are ways around all these problems -- it's just a matter of finding plausible reasons for things. You may say to your bitter rival, in the event of a deadly conflict: "I do not kill fellow members of the Horde! We shall duel for honor and be done with this!" Likewise, when recounting your discovery of your BoE epic sword, you might explain: "As I killed the strange owl, I suddenly noticed something gleaming in the grass just next to its corpse! This [Blinkstrike] was lying there, sticking out of a stone in the ground!" Your character might even make an effort to explain away in-game oddities: "I have deduced that the entire race of ogres must be hermaphrodites -- both male and female at the same time! They are so ashamed of this that they all hide the fact, pretending that ogre females are hidden away somewhere!"
Continue reading All the World's a Stage: Turning stumbling blocks into stepping stones
Blizzard's third project: Hydra
We already know Blizzard has three games in development right now. One of them is Wrath of the Lich King, the next WoW expansion. The second is Starcraft II. And the third is an as-of-yet-unannounced title... called Hydra.That's what the Inquirer overheard at the Austin GDC. One Blizzard employee asked another what they were working on, and the overheard reply was "I'm working on Hydra."
So now we have an internal name for Blizzard's third project. Let the speculation begin. I'll start: the Hydra is a creature from Greek mythology, so maybe we're looking at a Diabloesque game set in Greece? Like Titan Quest (which is really Diablo anyway) or God of War, but made by Blizzard? And Hydras also appear in World of Warcraft (notably in BFD, where a Hydra is the final boss), so could it be possible that this is actually another WoW expansion, maybe the Maelstrom expansion we've been waiting for?
Thanks, James!
Breakfast Topic: Do some things just make you say "Wha...?"
We all know this is just a game. We know this, and it allows us to overlook several things that would really shock us if they happened in real life. And I don't mean strange blue aliens with tentacles coming out of their chins, or meteors of fire raining down on top of us -- these are standard fare fantasy and we look forward to seeing them.No, the things I'm talking about are more like this:
- The big blue alien walks right through you on his way to the bank.
- Meteors rain down on some people standing by the mailbox -- but they don't seem to notice.
- Flying mounts go the same speed up and down, unaffected by gravity.
- A polearm takes up as much space in your bags as 20 bottles of water.
- Creatures you kill just respawn a few minutes later.
- Big spaulders and weapons just pass through your character's head as they move and yet there is no brain damage!
What other odd aspects of this gaming experience would you add to this list?
WoW: The Journey to 60 and Beyond
I'm not really sure whether to call this a review or not, but Macologist has posted an extremely in-depth overview of WoW entitled The Journey to 60 and Beyond. It's a look back at the game from a level 60 player designed as a sort of primer for the new or prospective player (so yeah, I guess it is kind of a review, if a belated one). It covers just about everything, from installation, to selecting a server & creating a character, to information about guilds, instances, quests, mounts, the endgame, and everything in between.Not a ton of new info here for anyone who's been playing WoW for a while, but it's a very well-written look at the game for anyone who might be interested in learning more about the game, doing research, or looking to start playing themselves. Also, the article is from a Mac site, so all the tech-talk is Mac-centric, and there may be some tidbits of info that Mac users will find useful. You can read the full article here.
WoW Collectible Card Game on the Way
For all you lovers of trading card games, Upper Deck Entertainment, makers of Yuh-Gi-Oh & many other card games, has teamed up with Blizzard to create the official WoW Collectible Card Game.The website for the game was just recently launched, and it gives no hint of a release date...or much of anything else about the game. There is, however, an option to register for a newsletter & get more info, so if you're interested, check it out at Upper Deck's official page here.
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