There have been some great pranks in gaming, developers always seem to have a sense of humor, which is a great thing for such a high stress working environment. We see a bunch of jokes or pranks every year around from some of our favorite big-name developers who love to play jokes on one another. On the flip side of it all, most of the gaming community sure has a similar sense of humor. Unfortunately, some of these pranks can be incredibly cruel.

With the popularity of online gaming being what it is today, it seems that the cruelty is expanding and keeping pace with all the new technology, hardware and software. The only real limit at this point is someone’s imagination. Even knowing this though, there is certainly some old classics that will go down in history as some of the nastiest burns in gaming history. Lets take a look at a few of the worst we could find for you.

Earthbound:

Plenty of folks have played and love the absolute hell out of Earthbound, most of us though have played it way back on the original SNES, or at the very least an emulator years later. What most of us didn’t have a chance to experience (thankfully,) is the Super Hard Mode version of Earthbound.

The designers built in a little bit of a surprise for folks who managed to get their hands on a non-authentic version of a Super Nintendo. The surprise is that the game becomes incredibly difficult, spawning enemies too fast for the player to handle it. Basically, the game just becomes way too difficult for anyone to actually play. It’s a brilliant idea, really.

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria is finally unleashed and it’s beyond fantastic. Blizzard welcomes you to the new continent called Pandaria, Pandaria is located in the south end of Azeroth and it’s a new land with beautiful zones and awesome questing. The peaceful Pandaren are now a playable race and Monk is a new tri-spec class that you can play as. The Sha are the main enemies of this expansion along with the Mogu and the insect humanoid Mantids.

Once you begin your adventure to go to Pandaria the Horde and Alliance are introduced to the mysterious continent in a in-game cinematic and story driven manner. Both of the factions begin their main story quest in a zone called “The Jade Forest”, it’s a gorgeous zone with a lot of Asian influence, lush green land, islands, temples and new monsters to kill. Questing in Mists of Pandaria is quite linear however, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it’s much more story-driven, fully voiced and a lot more immersive than the previous expansions.

You have your usual fetch quests as always and that’s fine. Few quests actually made me get into control of different characters and play through their story, some quests would ask you to follow a certain lore character and listen to what they have to say. Bombing quests have also returned in the expansion, but they’re much better now because you don’t have to fly multiple times until you have bombed all of the targets. As you continue questing you unlock new quest hubs, access to flight paths, introduction to new zones as the story continues and eventually factions to get reputation with at level 90. After I was done questing The Jade Forest, I was introduced to a new zone called “Valley of the Four Winds”. Valley of the Four Winds is a farmland, with a lot of grass, hills and different kinds of beasts roaming the zone. This zone is a lot different from previous zones in World of Warcraft history, simply because of the fact that this is the zone where you can own you’re very own farm with the Tilers faction and I will get into that a bit later.

After your done questing in Valley of the Four Winds you are a given a choice of either going to Krasarang Wilds or Kun-Lai Summit. This is the only part where questing breaks up a bit, however both of the zones are important for character progression. Kun Lai Summit is one of my favorite zones, fantastic flow of the quests and zone design that consists of mountains, snow, fall and even summer in some areas. 

Krasarang Wilds is more of a dark jungle type zone with a lot of rivers and ponds. Questing in Krasarang Wilds is fun, a lot of interesting lore and a ton of presence of the Sha. They’re a source of negative energy that has been called into existence by the Horde and Alliance because of their conflicts. Whether you choose too quest in Krasarang Wilds or Kun-Lai Summit the player will still have a ton of fun exploring both areas due to the fact that each zone is filled with rich lore, fun quests and just a pleasure to adventure in.

Once your character has finished the main quest line in Kun-Lai Summit you will be introduced to a new high level zone called “Townlong Steppes”. Townlong Steppes was a ton of fun to quest in because this place felt like a war-zone majority of the time.  The Pandaren, Mantid and Yangol are at war with each and a lot of the quests involve you taking them out and trying to win for the Pandaren side. Once your completely finished in this zone you will be introduced to a new faction called the “Shado-Pan” and get a quest to go to Dread Wastes to get to know the Mantid faction that go by the name of “Klaxxi”. Klaxxi are the none-evil Mantid that are having issues with their own Mantid race that has been corrupted by Sha.

Dread Waste is what I’d like to call the “Halloween” zone of Mists of Pandaria. You got your gloominess turned up to 11, a lot of Sha, spiders and the corrupted Mantids themselves. This zone’s main story quest asks you to go and rescue each of the Klaxxi’s Paragons. Every time you free a Klaxxi Paragon you have the right to ask them too buff you with their special abilities. These passive bonuses can only be used in Dread Wastes and they help you out when you’re doing your daily quests for the Klaxxi. Overall my only issues with quests is that some of them were bugged and I wasn’t able to complete them until a week later after the weekly maintenance. I couldn’t attain some of the achievements because of that and was forced to wait.

Reputation Factions and Dailies

One of the biggest additions to World of Warcraft’s new expansion is the vast amount of brand new reputation factions and daily questing. The original 25 daily cap has been completely removed from the game which allows players to finish all of the existent dailies that they can do for that 1 day before the next reset. This lets people choose which factions they want to work on and when in a very flexible manner, you are no longer forced work on one particular faction at a time. If you are a hardcore player and would like too max everything out as soon as possible then you are able to do so as opposed to in the previous expansions. Doing dailies also lets players earn valor points which were previously only exclusive to heroic dungeon runs. Each daily rewards 5 valor points and considering there are over 35+ dailies to do a day  there is a ton of Valor Points to go around for everyone per day if you are a quest addict. 

However, the dailies are not for everyone and I have met a lot of people during my adventures that expressed their negative feelings towards reputation grinding. Dailies are the only possible way to earn reputation with the 8 new factions in the expansion, each faction rewards valor gear, recipes for professions, exclusive mounts and tabards. If you are trying to achieve everything at the same time, it will take you quite a while considering 2 of the factions actually require you to gain revered with one of the other factions to even unlock their progression. This is a big dream come true for the hardcore grinders (such as myself), but a nightmare for casuals. Sometimes, you just cannot make everyone happy.

There are 8 new reputation factions in Mists of Pandaria: Klaxxi, Golden Lotus, Augustus Celestial, Order of the Cloud Serpent, Tilers, The Anglers and Shado-Pan, The Black Prince and the Lorewalkers. Each faction has it’s own lore, rewards and exclusives bonuses. Hitting exalted with the Order of the Cloud Serpent will grant  you access to buy the cloud serpent riding skill which allows you to ride the brand new serpent mounts, it will also reward you with your very own cloud serpent with a color of your choice, the other two you can purchase later if you wish. 

Golden Lotus will be your primary reputation faction because this is the faction that you need to hit revered with in order to gain access to start earning reputation with Shado-Pan and August Celestials. Golden Lotus are located in the Vale of Eternal Blossom which is one of the new zones where the main hub cities take place for both the Horde and the Alliance. Shado-Pan reward you with valor gear that you can buy with your hard-earned Valor Points and multiple Shado-PanTiger mounts that look extremely bad-ass. August Celestials reward you with 2 new cloud serpents, profession recipes for enchanting and tailoring and more valor gear that you can choose and pick from. Here is a screenshot of the Alliance hub city in the Vale of Eternal Blossom.

Tilers are one of the most unique reputation factions implemented in the game. This faction allows you to have your own farm where you can plant different type of seeds to grow crops and harvest them for cooking profession. Doing dailies and harvesting crops are the two possible ways to earn reputation with these guys. You can only grow 4 seeds at a time in the beginning but, later down the road as you hit honored, revered and exalted the Tilers give you a bigger farm space and allow you to grow up to 16 seeds once you hit exalted. In Mists of Pandaria the cooking profession has received great attention. 

Tilers is where you plant and harvest ingredients to level up your cooking to the new 600 skill cap. Cooking now has 6 different specializations, you can specialize in brew, wok, oven, grilled, steamer and pot, you don’t have to pick one over the other, you can do all of them if you wish but it takes a lot of time, materials and patience. Tilers is an awesome faction, leveling up your cooking is now a fun process as opposed to how it was in the past, plus you can get a goat mounts once you hit exalted and a Tilers tabard. 

Overall the new reputations and dailies give you plenty of stuff to do everyday. Some players feel that they’re forced to them everyday while others could care less and just enjoy it. I am totally happy with the current daily system and have no issues with it whatsoever. I enjoyed it everyday and if I wanted to take a break for a day or two I did, there are many different things you can do in World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria other than daily quests. While we’re on the subject of other things I think we should talk about dungeons, heroics, raids, scenarios and pvp.

Dungeons, Raids and Scenarios

Mists of Pandaria is no short of any PvE content, there are plenty of dungeons,  three raids with a total of 16 bosses, challenge modes and scenarios. Mists of Pandaria has  6 new dungeons and32 revamped dungeons from vanilla. The 6 new dungeons are Stormstout Brewery, Gate of the Setting Sun, Shado-Pan Monastery, Mogu’shan Palace, Siege of Nuzao Temple, Temple of the Jade Serpent and the three revamped dungeons are Scarlet Halls, Scarlet Monastery and Scholomance. The revamped dungeons are fantastic, great design refreshing and it’s nice to come back to the old world sometimes. However, majority of the new dungeons kind of lack in my opinion because some of the boss fights take too long and some are just plain boring. Mogu’shan Palace, Temple of the Jade Serpent and Siege of Nuzao Temple and Stormstout Brewery are the enjoyable and fun to do, while the others are not as much.

Majority of the fights are your typical tank and spank, there are mechanics involved but the dungeons are so easy that you can ignore them half the time and still get through. Despite how easy the dungeons Blizzard has implemented a new system called Challenge Modes where the dungeons are actually harder than heroic difficulty and you cannot out-gear the content either, because all of your armor and weapons get normalized to a specific item level. This is where the true challenge comes in because you must race against time through the dungeon as fast as possible for bronze, silver and gold medals. If you achieve gold medals you will be awarded with awesome looking transmog sets, achievements and mounts. Thanks to Challenge Modes I can easily forgive Blizzard for their super easy difficulty on normal and heroic dungeons. If you are a true hardcore then Challenge Modes are for you, come and get your reward and prove how good you and your friends are. 

Mists of Pandaria launched with 3 different raids and not all of them are open yet. The very first raid Mogu’shan Vaults was open 2 weeks after Mists of Pandaria was released which let players get ready for raiding. Mogu’shan Vaults is a perfectly balanced raid with 6 bosses, well-tuned difficulty level and a excellent progression pace. The bosses are challenging enough, fun and really make you think what’s the best way to handle a certain mechanic with your raid composition and how to go about the fights. There are other two raids in Mists of Pandaria but they have not be open yet because people are still progressing through the first raid, however, I am very impressed with the raiding content so far and expect more great boss fights in the near future. The next raid Heart of Fear opens up on October 30th and the final raid Terrace of the Spring will be unlocked once you have beaten Heart of Fear on normal mode. 

Blizzard has added something new to this expansion called Scenarios. Scenarios are instanced mini-dungeons with their own story and this is the first time where your group does not need a tank or a healer as opposed to regular dungeons. Scenarios are designed for no more than three people in a group, you can queue up solo of course to get matched up, queue with your friends or guildies. Scenarios are fun, they’re quick and can be rewarding sometimes. One of my favorite scenarios is called Ungo Ingoo. This scenario puts the adventurers on the shore of Krasarang Wilds where they have to fight of the monkeys and collect brew for the Pandaren.

At the start of this scenario the group talks to to the Pandaren to listen to the story and recieve objectives for the first stage. Scenarios are divided into multiple stages and each stage has a different objective for you to complete. The first stage asked the group to escort the Brewmaster Bo to a certain location fighting alongside him and killing any monkeys that come in the way. It’s very simple to follow objectives in the scenarios because they’re always to the point and simple and there is no confusion going on what you have to do next. 

Once we hit the second stage we were asked to collect the stolen brew from the mini-bosses and return them to the Pandaren so he can fill up the cauldron to go to the next stage. The bosses were displayed with a skull marking on the map so it was very easy to find them. One of the group members needed to stay with the Pandaren and protect him from oncoming attacks from the monkeys, while the other two party members go around killing mini-bosses and collect brew. Once the required amount of brew was returned the final stage begun. The final stage you fight against the end boss of this scenario with all of your party members and after that you win.

At the end of a scenario you always get valor points, a bag that may or may not contain gear but always has gold. Scenarios are something completely brand new to World of Warcraft and I really like the simple concept of them. I am really hoping that Blizzard can take them to the next level, because the scenarios have a lot of potential to be something great later down the road.

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria returns with two world bosses that. Sha of Anger that roams in the Kun-Lai Summit and Salyi’s Warband that spawns every 1-3 days in Valley of the Four Winds. These bosses cause some world PvP due to factions trying to fight for the kill and loot. The mechanics of the fights are really basic, there is nothing special about these encounters at all. However, they’re a lot of fun to do because they drop fantastic loot and world bosses have been missing from World of Warcraft since Burning Crusade. These bosses really bring back the nostalgic feeling of classic World of Warcraft and make the world feel more alive and involved. 

Pet Battles and Monks

Pet battle is another new system that is being introduced in World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria and it’s a fun one too. When I first heard about pet battles I wasn’t too keen on the idea or how it would really work out, but once I tried it, I started having a blast. Pet battles is simple but at the same time quite in-depth, there are up to 500 companions to collect in the entire game and majority of the come from taming pets in the wild. Then you have the exclsuive pets that can only be earned during holiday events and by completing certain achievements. You can identify world pets by a green paw over their head, this means you can engage the pet in combat or capture it.

Once the battle begins the interface changes to your pet’s abilities. Every pet in the world has their own unique skills, pets can also level up to gain new abilities, the level cap is 25. For example in the screenshot above I have the Hopling pet that I earned from an achievement in one of the new dungeons in Mists of Pandaria. I managed to level up my Hopling to level 5 and I am going against a level 6 Water Snake. If I manage to beat the enemy pet that’s higher level than me then my pet gain extra difficulty experience bonus. Once you start getting a hang of the system and keep on leveling up, you will eventually unlock three pet tabs. Every player is allowed to have a team of up to three pets, this means that you can swap out to a different pet in a middle of a battle if one of your pets is hurting. This adds a strategic element to pet battles and the experience is very rewarding of you’re a smart combatant and know when to attack, or change pets.

When the enemy pet gets below 25% of their health you can risk the chance of trapping the pet and capturing it. If the trap goes of successful then the enemy pet is added to your collection and this will be your main way being able to collect everything in the game as fast as possible. If the trap is unsuccessful you can try again but you must take in considering that your pet’s health points are getting low. Some pet’s may resurrect themselves and regain a certain of mount of health, other pets may have abilities that heal them overtime as the battle goes on. 

Monk Class

The Monk is a new playable class that’s being introduced for the very first time in Mists of Pandaria. The monks have great combat animations, easy to play and fun to master once you get to higher levels. Monks can specialize in Brewmasters, Mistweavers or Windwalkers. Brewmasters are the tanks, Mistweavers are healers and Windwalkers are the damage dealers. One big thing that Blizzard got right this time with a brand new class is that the Monks are very well balanced. Unfortunately I didn’t get to play with a level 90 Monk because it would take quite a while to level one up, however I did manage to level up a Mistweaver to level 17.

Monks mechanics are kind of similar to Rogues but a bit different, everything is based of the Jab skill and the energy consumtion. When you hit an enemy with a Jab you generate a source of energy called chi, but you consume regular energy to use Jab. A single jab generates 2 chi, you can only earn to a total of 4 chi, you consume chi when you use your other abilities such as Tiger Palm that requires 1 chi or Blackout Kick that requires 2. Its a very simple mechanic that’s easy to understand, but the hard part is mastering it for maximum damage output. Generating your regular energy to use Jab and managing your chi properly to use specific abilities at the right time is what going to make a difference between an amazing player, or a bad player. Monks feel very unique, beautiful animated and they can be one of the most 2 important roles in a raid. 

Mistweaver Monks gain a new stance called Stance of the Wise Serpent. When you go into Stance of the Wise Serpent your energy bar switches to mana so you can start healing and consume mana, it also gives your healing a huge boost. Stance of the Fierce Tiger brings your Monk back to the usage of Chi and energy that is mostly used for easy questing and leveling. A Brewmaster gains Stance of the Ox that allows him to generate more threat and have damage reduction. Everything about the Monk class is really simple, they’re great to play and I welcome them to World of Warcraft.

 Battlegrounds and Conclusion

Mists of Pandaria adds two new battleground to World of Warcraft. Kot’Mogu and Silvershard mines, both are completely unique in their own way. Kot’Mogu is a new style battleground where your team must control four different balls during combat. In each of the four corners are 4 different colored balls, blue, green, orange and purple.

When a player clicks on the ball and captures it he or she does 50% more damage but also takes 50% more damage. If the player holds the ball closer to the middle of the map the more points the team gains. Once a player has been killed with the ball, the balls respawns back at it’s originally location waiting to be picked by another person. Kot’Mogu is an awesome battleground because its fast paced and combat heavy, especially if you go into the fray in the middle of the map. This is one of my favorite battlegrounds now, it looks gorgeous, plays great and is completely unique. 

Silvershard Mines is a new battleground that focuses on capturing mine carts and defending them until they get to their final location. Once the carts have reached their destination they respawn and the whole re-capturing and defending cycle begins again. Silvershard Mines is what I would like to call Arathi Basin or Battle for Gilneas on the go. You capture and defend as you go along with the carts, it’s definitely a new twist on capture and defend gameplay. This new addition to capture and defend mechanic requires more team management and communication. 

Conclusion

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria is my favorite expansion in this great franchise of all times. No other expansion had this much content and fun packed into it. There are so many different things to do in Pandaria and even gives you a reason to go back to Azeroth to tame new non-combat pets. Pandaria is an awesome continent, its rich of beautiful waterfalls, mountains, grassland and everything else you can imagine in a fantasy setting. Blizzard is really kicking up the lore in this expansion, a lot of cliffhangers and excitement is bound to be happening as more patches come out and lead to the final raid.

Raid progression feels challenging and well paced, pet battles give you something to do while you wait for a queue to pop for a dungeon. Pet battles can also become an addiction of it’s own that can take days of your life to find every and conquer every single pet possible in the game. Monks are balanced and they can do pretty much every important job in the game. I think Monks are a fantastic addiction to the classes of World of Warcraft. Overall, amazing expansion, keep it up Blizzard!

The game was reviewed on the PC.

Blizzard has recently stated that the next upcoming patch for World of Warcraft will allow people to play as the new Pandaren race whether they have bought the expansion or not.

This patch also applies it to older expansions meaning that you can play as the Drenai, Blood Elves, Worgen, and Goblins for free without the need to buy the Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, and Cataclysm. This is a great change in my opinion, because now people can enjoy the game without the feeling of being forced into buying something just so they can be a particular race throughout their adventures.

Here is a personal statement from Blizzard regarding this change “We want the entire World of Warcraft community to be able to embrace their inner goblin, blood elf, worgen, draenei, or pandaren from the moment they step foot into the world of Azeroth”.

Check back for impressions on World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria this September as the game is nearing it’s release.

Source: IGN

Ever since the release of World Of Warcraft back in 2004 the MMO Genre has been starting to bloom. The MMO market has been getting quite saturated for the past few years with titles like Star Wars: The Old Republic, Warhammer: Age of Reckoning, Rift,  Lord of the Rings Online, and Dungeon of Dragons Online., and Aion. However, most of the titles listed above are going the free-to-play route with micro-transactions due to a huge loss of subscribers.

2012 is shaping up to be an amazing year for MMO players out there, World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria is releasing on September 25th 2012, and ArenaNet’s Guild Wars 2 is right around the corner later this month. Rift is also getting it’s very first expansion later this fall. Rift is also one of the survivors among other MMOs, and it had one of the most smoothest launches in history of MMOs.  Tera came out in May with astounding graphics, and state-of-the-art real time combat system that works very well, and is a lot of fun.

So what do each of these MMOs have to offer, and how are they different? Let’s take at each one, and see how they differ.

World of Warcraft is a huge game right now, it’s packing 3 expansions, and a forth one coming up in September. The game has changed in so many ways that I won’t be able to talk about it in this article. World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria adds a new race, class, continent, and  lot of new PvP content with new style battlegrounds, and 3 new raids for the raiding junkies straight on launch day. Blizzard is finally bringing back world bosses into the game, that many players have been asking for. For people who played at launch, this feature will be nostalgic due to the fact that world bosses have been missing for the last 2 expansions.

A new race is also joining along with the Horde, and Alliance, the Pandaren. Pandaren is the very first neutral race that let’s you pick which faction you want to join after you finish the main story quests for the Pandaren. This is the first time where the same race is going to be in both Horde, and Alliance. The Monk class is a brand new melee class that gives you many different ways to play, whether it be tanking, healing, or damaging.

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria is also adding Pet Battles. Pet Battles let your pet companions duke it out against other pets, aka Pokemon style. This feature just adds something new to the game, it’s not meant to benefit your character anyway, but rather just a fun activity to do.

One of other new features in this expansion are the account-wide-achievements, and account-wide-mounts. People who are achievement hunters can finally not worry about doing the same achievements again on their alternate characters, and the same goes for the mounts. This is a really nice feature for those who put in a lot of time, and effort into earning different achievements, and acquiring rare mounts. Look for the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria review sometime next month, for the in-depth verdict.

Rift is a fantastic game in my opinion, it’s beautiful, has a lot of exploration, it has a ton of content to do since launch, and raiding is a ton of fun. Rift launched last year in March 2011, and had one of the most smoothest, and successful MMO launches in history. Rift has 2 different factions, the Guardians, and the Defiant. Each faction has 3 different races which is is a total of 6, the Guardians have the Dwarves, High Elves, and Mathosians, while the Defiant have Eth, Bahmi, and Kelari.

One of the most unique features in Rift are the “Rift Events”, occasionally you will see different swirling circles on the map of the zone. Those swirling circles indicate rift events. When rifts open up they release creatures from different elemental planes, there are life rifts, death rifts, water rifts, air rifts, earth rifts, and fire rifts. In order to close a rift, you need to follow the objectives in the rift event, once all of the stages of the rift event are completed, you are rewarded with different currency loot that you can spend on gear, and of course you gain a good amount of experience.

Trion has been very good at keeping their customers busy with the game, there is just an enormous amount of stuff to do. I think one of my favorite features about Rift is after you hit level 50, you can still progress in Planar Attunement levels, and beef up your character past 50. This motivates the player to keep on questing, do dungeons, raids, dailies, and pvp to keep themselves up to date. The best part about leveling Planar Attunements is that it does not feel grindy, because everything you do lets you gain experience.

Rift: Storm Legion is the first expansion that is coming out sometime this Fall. Rift: Storm Legion add new souls to each of the 4 classes, level 60 player cap, some sort of player/guild housing, 3 new raids, bunch of new dungeons, and epic interactive world bosses. According to Trion, the expansion will be more than 3 times bigger than the current world, adding a whopping of 2 whole new continents, with a new hub city.

The expansion has been recently announced, therefore we don’t have that much information to give you, other than what’s know.  It sounds like Trion is really passionate about this expansion, and have a lot of ambition going for it. All we can do now is wait, and see, Trion promised to everyone that new information will be released during Gamescom later this month.

Tera is one of the newest MMOs that launched in May 2012. This is mostly well known for it’s amazing real-time combat where precision, and aiming actually comes into play. Whether your playing a melee class, or ranged, the combat is very fun. One of the first things attracted me about Tera was the astounding graphics, it just looks beyond beautiful, this is defiantly the best looking MMO on the market right now hands-down. Graphics is smooth, no frame-rate issues, monster designs are fantastic, the dungeons, and outdoor scenery is just flat out gorgeous.

The questing in Tera is your typical run of the mill, kill this, get that, and so on. However, other games seem to break-down the questing a bit better, in Tera it feels like every quest is almost exactly the same, and that creates the feeling of a monotonous grind. However, the very first content patch is coming out sometime this month, adding the very first raid tier to the game, new skills for Warrior, and Lancers are being added, and the patch also adds in battlegrounds.

Overall, these games all have something unique to offer, but I don’t think every game is for everybody. They all have their qualities, and faults, no MMO is perfect. Pick, and choose, and have fun wherever you decided to take on your virtual adventures with yourself, and your friends.

The multi-platinum rock band the Foo Fighters will be playing in front of the sold-out crowd during closing ceremony of Blizzard Entertainment’s epic gaming festival, BlizzCon 2011.  Since the event is sold out as always you can purchase a BlizzCon Virtual Ticket, that will include live coverage of event as well as the Foo Fighters performance, via Internet worldwide and DIRECTV in the US.

Your Virtual Ticket will also get you an exclusive pet for World of Warcraft and his name is Murkablo. Dave Grohl, Foo Fighters founder/frontman said “We’re pretty sure that in the future, music historians will look back at BlizzCon 2011 as the unquestionable pinnacle of Foo Fighters’ long and illustrious career,”. He continued on saying “We look forward to living up to that prediction by bringing the Horde and Alliance together to rock the hell out of Anaheim next month.”

Now you might think they are just getting paid for the event but I think we all know that Dave Grohl and the rest of the Foo Fighters are just as much as the gaming geeks that will be in attendance at BlizzCon 2011, taking place October 21st-22nd at the Anaheim Convention Center. Full press release below.

IRVINE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced that Foo Fighters will headline the closing concert of this year’s sold-out BlizzCon^®, taking place October 21-22 at the Anaheim Convention Center. While tickets to the convention are currently sold out, viewers can watch at home by ordering a BlizzCon Virtual Ticket, offering comprehensive live coverage of the event (including Foo Fighters’ performance) globally over the Internet and also on DIRECTV^® in the United States.

Over the course of their 16-year career, the Foo Fighters have sold tens of millions of records, won half a dozen Grammy awards, and raised countless voices in singalongs of iconic anthems like “Everlong,” “My Hero,” “Learn to Fly”, “All My Life,” “Best of You,” and “The Pretender.” Foo Fighters’ BlizzCon debut marks founder Dave Grohl’s triumphant return to the convention after playing drums for Tenacious D in last year’s show, and comes during an international arena, stadium, and festival tour promoting their seventh album, the international #1 record Wasting Light.

Opening up the concert will be The Artist Formerly Known as Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftain, who are returning to BlizzCon following a two-year interstellar tour through the Koprulu sector. Blizzard’s in-house metal band will amp up the crowd with an earth-shaking set of both familiar and brand-new songs drawn from the Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo universes before turning the stage over to Foo Fighters for the main event.

“There’s no better way to cap off two days of gaming entertainment than by blowing the roof off the convention center with an awesome rock concert,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “Everyone attending BlizzCon and watching from home can look forward to ending the show with a bang when Foo Fighters bring the house down.”

“We’re pretty sure that in the future, music historians will look back at BlizzCon 2011 as the unquestionable pinnacle of Foo Fighters’ long and illustrious career,” said Dave Grohl, Foo Fighters founder and frontman. “We look forward to living up to that prediction by bringing the Horde and Alliance together to rock the hell out of Anaheim next month.”

BlizzCon is a celebration of the global player communities surrounding Blizzard Entertainment’s Warcraft^®, Diablo^®, and StarCraft^® game universes. In addition to serving as a gathering place for the Blizzard Entertainment gaming communities, BlizzCon will have an array of activities, including discussion panels, competitive and casual tournaments, contests, hands-on playtime with current and upcoming Blizzard Entertainment games, and more. Viewers at home can order a BlizzCon Virtual Ticket for $39.99 USD, available around the world as a multi-channel Internet stream with over 50 hours of coverage (pricing and availability may vary by region), and also via DIRECTV in the United States. Visit www.blizzcon.com/live-stream/ for more details and ordering information.

To keep pace with the continued growth of World of Warcraft^® as well as development on other Blizzard Entertainment games, the company is currently hiring for numerous open positions. More information on available career opportunities can be found at www.blizzard.com/jobs. As BlizzCon draws closer, further details about the show will be announced at www.blizzcon.com.

About Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.
Best known for blockbuster hits including World of Warcraft^® and the Warcraft^®, StarCraft^®, and Diablo^® franchises, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (www.blizzard.com), a division of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI), is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment software renowned for creating some of the industry’s most critically acclaimed games. Blizzard Entertainment’s track record includes thirteen #1-selling games and multiple Game of the Year awards. The company’s online-gaming service, Battle.net^®, is one of the largest in the world, with millions of active players.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements: Information in this press release that involves Blizzard Entertainment’s expectations, plans, intentions or strategies regarding the future are forward-looking statements that are not facts and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Blizzard Entertainment generally uses words such as “outlook,” “will,” “could,” “would,” “might,” “remains,” “to be,” “plans,” “believes,” “may,” “expects,” “intends,” “anticipates,” “estimate,” “future,” “plan,” “positioned,” “potential,” “project,” “remain,” “scheduled,” “set to,” “subject to,” “upcoming” and similar expressions to identify forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause Blizzard Entertainment’s actual future results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements set forth in this release include, but are not limited to, sales levels of Blizzard Entertainment’s titles, shifts in consumer spending trends, the impact of the current macroeconomic environment, the seasonal and cyclical nature of the interactive game market, declines in software pricing, product returns and price protection, product delays, retail acceptance of Blizzard Entertainment’s products, competition from the used game market, industry competition and competition from other forms of entertainment, rapid changes in technology, industry standards and consumer preferences, including interest in specific genres such as real-time strategy, action—role-playing and massively multiplayer online games, protection of proprietary rights, litigation against Blizzard Entertainment, maintenance of relationships with key personnel, customers, licensees, licensors, vendors and third-party developers, including the ability to attract, retain and develop key personnel and developers who can create high quality “hit” titles, counterparty risks relating to customers, licensees, licensors and manufacturers, domestic and international economic, financial and political conditions and policies, foreign exchange rates and tax rates, and the identification of suitable future acquisition opportunities, and the other factors identified in the risk factors section of Activision Blizzard’s most recent annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. The forward-looking statements in this release are based upon information available to Blizzard Entertainment and Activision Blizzard as of the date of this release, and neither Blizzard Entertainment nor Activision Blizzard assumes any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements believed to be true when made may ultimately prove to be incorrect. These statements are not guarantees of the future performance of Blizzard Entertainment or Activision Blizzard and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond its control and may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations.

BlizzCon is still going strong because the first wave of tickets went on sale today and sold out in no time at all.  Being held at the Anaheim Convention Center on October 21 and 22, around 4,000 people bought tickets with no way of knowing how many each person bought, because apparently those tickets are looking like a pretty high value off the official market.  There will be 200 tickets available for the Benefit Dinner and BlizzCon admission for a nice price of $500 but if you like to not go broke you can watch the whole thing at home this year through DIRECTV for only $9.99, more info on that here.

NOW IF YOU ARE STILL HELL BENT ON GOING READ CLOSELY AS THIS IS WHEN THE NEXT WAVE OF TICKETS GOES ON SALE: Wednesday, May 25 at 7.00pm PST(10.00pm EST) for $175 each.  Get them right at the BlizzCon website right here. If you don’t ticket’s then you we will keep you posted on whether another wave of tickets will be sold.

Source

Blizzard’s new MMO is currently being called ‘Titan’ and although far from it’s release, here are the latest details on it. Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime stated that the new MMO will be “completely new and fresh” at DICE in Las Vegas this week.

“We have some of our most experienced MMO developers, people who spent years working on the World of Warcraft team, working on this project,” Mike said. “We’re really trying to leverage all the lessons we learned through the years. Some of which we were able to address in World of Warcraft and others that maybe because of the design decisions we’ve made, you just can’t address” he also mentioned as well as making it clear that “We’re not trying to make a WoW sequel.” Which mean this will be an entirely different kind of MMO. No other info in known about ‘Titan’ as of now, no release date or anything at all.

The third expansion pack of the highly popular MMO World of Warcraft by Blizzard, Cataclysm, is now out in stores throughout North America, Europe, Argentina, Chile, Russia, Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, and will be available beginning December 9 in Korea and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.

The expansion pack can be bought at retail stores on DVD-ROM for Windows XP/Vista/7 and Macintosh. A special Collector’s Edition packed with bonus items is also available exclusively from retailers. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is also offered as a digital download through Battle.netaccount management.

Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment, says: “Cataclysm adds an incredible amount of new content for players to explore, revitalizing the game world and building on everything we’ve learned since World of Warcraft launched over six years ago. We thank all of our beta testers for helping make this our best expansion yet, and we’re looking forward to seeing everyone in the new Azeroth.”

Some info on World of Warcraft: Cataclysm:

“In World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, the corrupted Dragon Aspect Deathwing has returned, and the world has been reshaped by the devastation left in his wake. In an effort to survive the planet-shattering cataclysm, two new playable races — worgen and goblins — join the struggle between the Alliance and the Horde. Players can now begin their journey to the new level cap of 85, discover newly revealed locations, acquire new levels of power, and come face to face with Deathwing in a battle to determine the fate of the world.”

Blizzard Entertainment have detailed the UK launch of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Check out all the info below:

Next Monday 6^th December, GAME is hosting the official UK launch of the new Blizzard Entertainment title, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm at a special opening at Sound nightclub, Leicester Square in central London.

The whole evening will be compered by TV presenter and World of Warcraft fan, Jason Bradbury. He will be joined by Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street (Lead Systems Designer) and Dave Kosak (Game Designer), who will take part in a Q&A session with Jason as well as sign copies of the game for customers.

The evening will also have a WoW costume competition – the first time this has happened in the UK. Entrants for the costume competition should arrive at the venue by 9pm to register their participation.

Neil Ashurst from GAME said: “The excitement around this title has been building for months and we’re confident that this special event and store in Leicester Square will reward WoW fans with an experience they’ll never forget.”

The much sought-after Cataclysm collector’s edition will be available to buy on the night whilst stocks last and there will be lots of prizes given away during the night thanks to Blizzard Entertainment and the WoW licensees. This will include:

• 1 Apple iPad
• 1 Asus G53JW-IX115V Notebook
• 2 GeForce GTX 450 graphic cards
• Rare Cryptozoic trading cards
• Lots of WoW products

In addition, Glen Young will be showing off his Lich King customised motor bike with customers able to have their photos taken with it. Mountain Dew Energy are also providing refreshments for those in the queue.

PLEASE NOTE:

–          Customers will not be able to trade-in on the night so we strongly recommend that people do this in advance

–          In the current weather conditions, we recommend that customers who want to queue make sure they bring enough warm and waterproof clothes, etc.

–          Customers will be required to walk several flights of stairs with lift access available for those that require it.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will launch in the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Russia, Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK, and the region of Taiwan. The game will surely be available at midnight on December 6th or December 7th if you want to get technical, at many retailers for this big release. Check here for all Worldwide Events.  Probably the biggest UK launch even will take place in Leicester Square at Sound, with proceedings kicking off a 10pm on December 6. The biggest event in the U.S. would have to be in California at:

Fry’s Electronics
10800 Kalama River Avenue
Fountain Valley, CA 92708