Kry Reviews: Blizzcon '09

So Blizzcon came and went this weekend to much fanfare. And what a show it was! I certainly wish I could have been in attendance. I’m a huge fan of all products by Blizzard, so naturally this entry shall focus on me gushing over all the news from Blizzcon.

Let’s start out with World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, which was definitely the headliner of Blizzcon ‘09. Despite the huge information leak the week before, I think everyone was still blown away by the gravity of this expansion. The main selling point of Cataclysm is that it nukes and completely redoes levels 1-60. This was easily the most tired part of the game, with the content from newer expansions really underlining how antiquated Classic WoW’s zones are. Along with this come new races (Goblins and Worgen), additional class/race combinations, and a push of the level cap to 85, among other things. After getting bored of Wrath quite quickly into the expansion, I was almost sure that I had put the WoWcrack behind me for good. Now after seeing the Cataclysm, my will has wavered quite a bit.

There wasn’t much left to reveal in Starcraft 2, with it being the Blizzard game most imminent to release. But, we did get to see an excellent preview of Battle.net 2.0, which looks quite satisfactory. It’s about everything I expected. There are all across the board improvements to battle.net, including achievements, better friends integration, and easier searching for games (especially custom games). I’m not too keen on Blizz keeping in a form of macromanagement drudgery with the release of SC2, but this concern is a minor one compared to how far everything else is coming with this game.

Last, and certainly least, is Diablo 3. Though this game is definitely the most anticipated release for me and many of my friends, it is still very much in development, likely not seeing the light of day until late 2011 at the earliest. As such, news is scarce. Regardless, the game looks beautiful, and the monk class debuted at Blizzcon is an interesting and welcome addition to the cast.

Three games and probably three purchases at midnight release day for me. There is no developer as influential in my video gaming career as Blizzard, and I eagerly await each morsel of information on these upcoming titles until I can play them myself.