Blizzcon Dungeons and Raids Panel

With all of the upcoming changes in Cataclysm, I was interested to see if we’d hear of any new changes or improvements to the system and I’m glad to say that there were some new things announced that I’m pretty excited for. Blizzard’s goal is to make dungeons in Cataclysm more integral to the storyline of the game. With this they’ve also realized that some of the original dungeons of Azeroth were pretty complicated or just confusing (looking at you Maraudon…) and they want to change that and just make them more fun. With this are coming some changes: Methods for fun: - Create wings in the dungeons (a la Utgarde Keep and Utgarde Pinnacle) - Uldaman will now be in two different chunks - Maraudon will be broken into two chunks - Trimming some dungeons - Sunken Temple will be trimmed down -Wailing Caverns: about half being taken out

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The State of Azeroth: It’s all about the Beta, baby

It’s been awhile since I’ve done one of these, and man have things been popping up like mad with regards to Cataclysm news! We finally have a release date of December 7th (later that I was thinking), Tier 11 armor previews have been coming out, and more! Check it all out below. Cataclysm Beta News Well a few weeks back we finally got the female worgen to play with. I must say I was pretty happy with their overall appearance as they looked feminine but had a wonderful feral face. I felt it fit well, but I’m sure there were many who preferred the original, prettier faces. The male worgen got a face-lift as well also getting a more fearsome look. I must say I’m happy that Blizzard didn’t stick with just “pretty” models for them. Werewolves  are meant to be fierce creatures, and have to look like they’d rip

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Blizzcon 2010 Schedule Released

For those who have been waiting, Blizzard finally released the schedule of events for Blizzcon 2010! You can check out the schedule on the official site, or via the handy screen cap I snagged. It looks to be a pretty standard Blizzcon with a few noteworthy panels. I’m interested to see what is covered in the opening ceremonies and if we’ll have any big announcements (Diablo III release date?). It will also be nice to attend the Cataclysm Cinematics panel as I’m hoping we see the opening cinematic as well as if there are any more in-game cinematics like the ending to the Goblin island of Kezan. I’ll also enjoy checking out the StarCraft II tournament. I’m still wondering if there will be any special closing band or if it will be L80ETC. Hopefully we find out if there are any more surprises soon!

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“World of Warcraft: Cataclysm” arrives December 7

Blizzard announced this morning that World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, the third expansion for the wildly popular MMORPG, will be available December 7, 2010. Both DVD-ROM and digital downloads from the Blizzard Store will be available at that time. An additional collector’s edition will be available, as previously noted. This news comes ahead of BlizzCon, where most people expected the release date announcement to be made. Maybe, then, there’s something else big happening for BlizzCon – who knows? Until then, it’s time to finish your Azeroth bucket lists before the cataclysm hits. The full press release follows for anyone who loves seeing the “official” word, and for more WoW (and Cataclysm) news, check out @stealthyslyth‘s State of Azeroth series. Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced that World of Warcraft®: Cataclysm™, the highly anticipated third expansion for the world’s most popular subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game*, will be released starting on December

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State of Azeroth: Why is Malfurion a boomkin?

Well next month State of Azeroth will be on a bit of a break since I will be out of the country for approximately two weeks. Since I’ll be out of commission for a bit next month’s column will be smaller but should pack some fun bits for you all. In the mean time what have your plans been so far pre-expansion? Gearing up for Blizzcon yet? News General In good news for WoW fans in China, it seems like Wrath of the Lich King has finally been approved by the censors and is set to be released! A lot of the issues had to do with the amount of skulls and decaying undead in the game, so Blizzard has phased out a lot of that as well as turning the blood splashes from red to green for the release in China. Interested to see what it looks like? Well

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World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Collector’s Edition is Oh So Shiny

Nothing says “I <3 WoW” more than getting the Collector’s Edition of the latest and greatest for the Blizzard MMO. Thankfully, Blizzard has you covered with this oh so shiny sneak peek at what’s going to be included in the Collector’s Edition. Art of the Cataclysm art book, featuring 176 pages of never-before-seen images from the archives of the Blizzard Entertainment cinematics department and the World of Warcraft development team, as well as progressive visuals from multiple stages of development. Exclusive in-game pet: he may not be a breaker of worlds just yet, but Lil’ Deathwing will still proudly accompany heroes on their struggle to save Azeroth from his much, much larger counterpart. Behind-the-scenes DVD with  over an hour of developer interviews and commentaries, as well as a special Warcraft® retrospective examining the rich gaming history of the Warcraft universe. Soundtrack featuring 10 epic new tracks from Cataclysm, including exclusive

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State of Azeroth: Deathwing still looks like Ünderbheit

Well the biggest news that happened this past month is easily the whole Battle.net controversy that happened. It started quickly and ended rather quickly as well but I’m sure it’s left many WoW and Starcraft fans wondering what is going to happen in the future. Some lucky players also got Cataclysm beta invites! These news items and more below! News General In the “things I’d never need” category, a “Tap Chat” peripheral was released by Sound Blaster. Yes if you want to you can now set a macro so that when you tap the pedal you can perform it, and have your hands free to chug some Mountain Dew! Honestly only thing I could see this being useful for is vent, or if I got two and could do blast beats during raid. Cryptozoic Entertainment, the new company in charge of the WoW TCG announced a tournament called the Spectral

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Cataclysm Beta Preview: The Goblins

This article will be full of spoilers both lore and gameplay wise. Read ahead at your own risk! Along with playing the Worgen at Blizzcon last year, I also played around with the Goblins. Where the Worgen have a bit more of a serious storyline, the Goblins are  fun. You start off on the island of Kezan which compared to the rest of Azeroth is like finding a major metropolitan city in the middle of the forest. You actually start as a high ranking Goblin who is working to try and get up to the Trade Prince’s level but things begin to go wrong once the volcano on the island begins to erupt (no thanks to you) and the Trade Prince realizes what you’ve been doing and sends Pirates to crash your party. Before leaving Kezan there are some fun quests in order to raise money to get yourself off

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Cataclym Beta Preview: The Worgen

This article will be full of spoilers both lore and gameplay wise. Read ahead at your own risk! So I had the chance last year at Blizzcon to play the new Worgen class and I must say it was a good look at what was to come with the next WoW expansion, it wasn’t a complete one. To keep part of the story a secret, players were only allowed to start at level 6 and play from there. Well my suspicions regarding levels 1-5 proved to be correct in that those first few levels it shows you trying to battle against the worgen attacking Gilneas and in turn becoming one. You fight along side King Greymane and Prince Liam, along with a convicted criminal named Darius Crowley (which made me think of this every time!). The storyline which goes from fighting off the worgen threat changes to the undead as

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Cataclysm beta begins!

Well the Warcraft universe is all a twitter (literally) since the Cataclysm closed beta has begun! If you’ve registered, you may have been lucky to get a beta invite and are happily exploring the new content. But for some who weren’t lucky (or forgot to change your system settings like myself /cough) you’re just reading and refreshing various web pages to see what’s new. Then again not all of the waves of invites have gone out yet, so some may still get lucky! This of course also means that the NDA has been lifted, so I highly recommend checking out MMO Champion as all of their information is now going live again and with some updates. So I’ve been going through images and info I missed the first time around. One thing I like so far is the new druid forms. The Worgen versions remind me of metal head kids

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