World of Warcraft

Blizzard is in the middle of beta testing for their long awaited second expansion pack for their fantasy MMO World of Warcraft but before the expansion. Wrath of the Lich King, ships to stores (hopefully before the end of the year) Blizzard has plans to give the game's subscribers some more free content.

As reported by our sister site WoWinsider.com, Bllizzard will release this new update "in the coming weeks" and that update will have quite a bit of new features and content, including two new Arenas, a new profession (inscription), new class spells and talents and a host of other additions as well as UI improvements. They will even have barbershops. How cool is that? We need a haircut by a Death Knight.

While the game industry is beginning to understand that they can sell high profile games any time of the year the truth is that the time period between the first of September and the first week of December remains the biggest time of the year for new games to be released. 2008 seems to be no exception to this rule as PC gamers have a ton of new and promising titles to choose from this year.

So which games are we most looking forward to playing this fall? Well it so happens that we have created a feature gallery that has our picks for the PC game titles we most want to play in the next few months. That list include a long awaited MMO, a new expansion pack to the biggest MMO, an alternate history RTS game, a number of great looking first person shooters, a post-apocalyse RPG and a title that some are already declaring "the greatest game ever made." (in fact you can get a clue as to one of the games on our list from this custom case mode we saw at QuakeCon).

Our list of games is ordered by their scheduled release dates. Keep in mind while checking our picks that release dates can and do change at the last minute. Our picks represent the best info on these dates at the time of the posting of this article but if any changes are announced afterward we will report on them on the news site.

Click on the image above to continue reading "Most Anticipated Fall 2008 PC Games"

Arguably the best part of waiting for any Blizzard game is getting to see the cinematic trailer, and Wrath of the Lich King does not disappoint. This opening for video for the upcoming expansion shows off high quality and style we expect from Blizzard. It also shows the extent in which Arthus the Lich King's power has grown. Dedicated World of Warcraft players are already beating at the doors to face this challenge.

Download the Wrath of the Lich King HD Cinematic Trailer (98 MB)

The best selling PC game of 2008 isn't going to be Spore or Left 4 Dead or any number of other highly anticipated titles. That honor will almost certainly go to Blizzard's second expansion pack to their 800 pound gorilla MMO World of Warcraft. This week, Blizzard sent out some new screenshots from the expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, for Games Convention.

Technically the expansion is in beta testing and is scheduled for release before the end of the year but Blizzard has a tendency to make changes at the last minute. The last World of Warcraft expansion, The Burning Crusade, was supposed to come out in the fall of 2006 but at the last minute Blizzard pushed it back to January 2007.Could something like that happen here as well?

Last week Blizzard announced that it would hold a lottery to sell the remaining 3,000 tickets for this October's Blizzcon 2008. Today the official Blizzcon web site revealed the details on how the lottery will take place. People much have had a Blizzard account before 9 pm PT on Tuesday, August 12 (when Blizzard announced that the first batch of tickets have sold out). You must also be an adult, have not already purchased tickets for Blizzcon 2008 and live in a long list of countries.

There will be an op-in period beginning later today and ending August 24 where people can enter an eligible Blizzard account to get a chance to purchase the $100 Blizzcon tickets. More detailed info on how all this will work can be found on the Blizzcon site (and yes, it's a tad confusing).

While the popular assumption was Blizzard would showcase the Wrath cinematic at BlizzCon in October, word around the camp fire says that the developer will showcase the cinematic as early as this week. Multiple sources are reporting that Blizzard will reveal the Wrath of the Lich King opening cinematic at the Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany, on August 21 at 1PM. While we haven't been able to confirm the cinematic will debut at Leipzig, maybe if we all join hands and hope really hard it will happen!

[via WoW Insider]

So the way Blizzcon ticket sales were handled was a bit of a bust for pretty much everyone. The Blizzcon web site got overloaded with traffic when tickets went on sale for the October 10-11 event in Anaheim, CA and as a result many fans who might have had a chance to purchase a ticket got, well, screwed. Thankfully, Blizzard has a partial solution to that issue.

In a new message on the Blizzcon web site by Blizzard president Mike Morhaime, he apolgized for how ticket sales were handled and announced that they have found a way to work with the Anaheim Convention Center to offer up 3,000 more tickets to Blizzcon. Those tickets will be offered up in a lottery with details to be announced later. You must have had a Blizzard account by 9 pm PT on Tuesday, August 12, when it was announced that Blizzcon tickets were all sold out, to be eligable to enter the Blizzcon ticket lottery.

We didn't think it would take long and, well, it didn't. Blizzard's official Blizzcon web site has posted up word that all of the tickets for the October 10-11 event are gone. Sold out. Not available. You get the point. Exact sales numbers of Blizzcon tickets were not revealed but we bet there's a bunch of folks who were not very lucky.

If you tried and failed to get Blizzcon tickets there's still a way you can check out the events from the Anaheim Convention Center right from the confort of your beanbag chair. As previously announced, the DirecTV satellite TV service plans 16 hours of live HD coverage from Blizzcon at a pay-per-view price of $39.95. DirecTV plans to give new customers a way to get their Blizzcon coverage for free if they sign up.

On Monday Blizzard tried to start selling tickets for their sort-of annual Blizzcon event on October 10-11 but the site got slammed with so much traffic it caused the server to basically say, "Screw this. I'm going home." While a few people were apparently able to purchase tickets most of us didn't get through.

Today Blizzard posted up a new update on their forums that finally gave the good word that ticket sales are once again back online. So now you should be able to get your $100 entry into the event, at least until the tickets all sell out. We doubt E For All Expo has these sort of issues.

Update: The Blizzcon web site has been updated yet again, announcing that the bulk of tickets for the show have now sold out. However Blizzard has a small reserve left and will put those tickets on sale tonight at 11 pm EST.

If you tried to buy tickets for Blizzard's Blizzcon 2008 event but were unable to do so you are not alone. It looks like the web site got overwhelmed by requests to purchase tickets for the Oct 10-11 event. As a result no one has actually purchased tickets for the gathering.

Our sister site WoWInsider has a very funny and informative post as they "live blog" their various attempts to purchase Blizzcon tickets. At the time of this post it looks like the Blizzard online store still isn't working. We are guessing that Blizzcon will be a huge event this October . . . if people get a chance to get their tickets.

Update: The Blizzcon web site has posted up word that ticket sales are now working.

Update 2: And now the site has posted up word that the ticket sales are once again not working.

If you have a spare $100 and plan to be in Anaheim, California on October 10 and 11, you better get to stepping now. The official Blizzcon web site has just announced that tickets for the sort-of annual gathering of Blizzard fans are now on sale and even with the high price for the two day event they are expected to sell out fast.

Just a reminder; this event will have tournaments, panels, hands-on play of upcoming games, a costume contest and lots more activities. You can expect more info on all of Blizzard's current and upcoming games (World of WarCraft, StarCraft II and Diablo III ) to be revealed at Blizzcon.

Forget hot coffee, violence and piracy -- lists are perhaps the most controversial topic in the video game industry, especially among readers. Someone's favorite choice always seems to be excluded, and less-than-deserving names often manage to edge out more venerable entries.

That being said, GamePro has assembled what is arguably a competent list of the eight most powerful game studios in the world. Love them or hate them, it's hard to argue the studios that made the list, and thankfully the list is not compiled in any order designating best and worst.

Among the most notable is Epic Games, developers of Unreal Tournament and Gears of War. The growing popularity of Epic, mostly due to console gamers' embrace of the Gears franchise, certainly qualifies their inclusion. Equally important, especially to the PC gaming world, is Blizzard Entertainment. Always a favorite among mouse owners, Blizzard's World of WarCraft launched the company into mainstream culture, a move that is good or bad depending upon whom you ask.

You can check out the full list on GamePro's official website.

Prospective attendees of Blizzard Entertainment's annual BlizzCon show should make haste to the BlizzCon official website, which offers numerous details pertaining to this year's event. Taking place over October 10 and 11 in Anaheim, California, BlizzCon will feature extensive World of WarCraft, StarCraft II and Diablo III information. Tickets for the event go on sale August 11.

Thus far, the website offers instructions for fans looking to buy tickets, as well as information on a few of the developer panels, tournaments and contests that will be held at the show. The newest post provides details regarding what attendees might find in their goodie bags upon their arrival to the Blizzard Entertainment extravaganza.

Though hardware conflicts, OS crashes and expensive hardware sometimes make PC gaming more work than fun, true computer nerds (sorry, "geeks") understand that troubleshooting and in-depth tweaking comes with the territory. If you want an awesome gaming rig, you have to be prepared to do a lot of work and spend a lot of cash.

Sometimes, though, PC gaming can get a bit excessive. Case-in-point, the mammoth monitor assemblage pictured above, which is comprised of twenty-seven 67-inch monitors. According to Kotaku, one of their readers installed the setup for a government office and rewarded himself with a bit of WoW and BioShock game time.

Jealous? You should be.

As if they didn't have enough subscribers, Blizzard Entertainment is eager to attract even more people to the growing World of WarCraft -- and they want you to help them. Blizzard has launched the Recruit-a-Friend program, which offers rewards such as mounts and triple experience points.

According to sister site WoW Insider, reaping certain prizes, such as an in-game are available for those who can entice their buddies to register for two months of game time. Triple experience is gained by partying with your recruited friend, and friends can summon each other once per hour, making long-distance treks unnecessary.

To learn every detail of the Recruit-a-Friend promotion, visit the official website found on WorldOfWarCraft.com.