Tag: BlizzCon

BlizzCon 2016: The Overwatch League Looks To Make eSports The Next American Pastime!

by Josh Jackson

The BlizzCon 2016 Opening Ceremonies had so much information on Overwatch that it was hard to believe it only took up 20 minutes of time! As the festivities begun, between the reveal of new maps, modes and characters, Blizzard announced what might be the most game changing reveal of all; the Overwatch League.

Looking to combine traditional sports with eSports, the Overwatch League looks like you would expect something you would expect from the NFL, NBA or MLB. By allowing pros to prove their worth at a nearby combine, their play will be evaluated for the chance to join a legitimate sports team. If a potential owner likes what they see, they can sign you to a contract, complete with a salary for your services. The plan is to give major cities around the world their own teams, making this incredibly ambitious plan looks like it could be one major step forward in legitimizing eSports in a way that will make digital competition surge to levels that can compete with physical sports. I bet your parents feel pretty foolish for telling you to go outside now, don’t they?

There’s no word on if this is going to be a PC exclusive opportunity, but chances are console players are going to be left in the dust. Still, we all have plenty of time to brush up on our payload escorting skills ahead of the league’s launch, which is expected to be in 2017. What are you hoping to see out of the Overwatch League? Think you have what it takes to be the next superstar of gaming? Let us know what you want to see from the league in the comments below!

BlizzCon 2016: Here’s What We Know About Oasis, The Next ‘Overwatch’ Map

by Josh Jackson

A new character wasn’t all that was revealed during the Overwatch- What’s New? panel at BlizzCon 2016. During the presentation, the team behind the game discussed Oasis, the next new map scheduled to released by the end of the year.

As a Control map, the two teams will fight over controlling a specific point on one of three sections of the map. Located in the Middle East, this display of human advancement was built when a group of scientists got together and decided to push the boundaries of what  technology can achieve. Apparently, these brilliant minds were able to put together a kind of desert utopia, complete with one thing the world needs in this time of crises; jump pads!

Yep, jump pads are back! Once a staple of FPS maps, Blizzard said they were inspired both by the old school design choice, as well as giving players a unique way to move around that isn’t possible elsewhere. Did you think Bastion was annoying as is? Wait until he parks his turret mode on a jump pad and keeps bouncing up and down while decimating your team! How about a Roadhog hooking an exploding D.Va mech and placing it on the pad, allowing it to blow up high in the sky? And the McCree’s… I’ve never looked more forward to 12:01 PM in my life.

blizzcon-2016-overwatch-oasis

No matter what unique changes Oasis brings, one thing is for sure… Your entire team will still play Deathmatch rather than get on the point. All the art work shown so far is tentative, so don’t kill us if the final version doesn’t look exactly the same. Needless to say, with a December PTR release scheduled, and an early 2017 release for the main game, let’s hope we all get to play in it sooner than later.

What are your thoughts on Oasis, or any of the other news to come out of BlizzCon so far? Be heard  below!

BlizzCon 2016: Starting Monday, Quick Play Will No Longer Allow Hero Stacking In The ‘Overwatch’ PTR

by Josh Jackson

In one of the more controversial news pieces to come out of BlizzCon for Overwatch in between the Sombra confirmation, the details on The Arcade, and the new Oasis stage, it was revealed that Quick Play will no longer allow multiples of the same hero in the PTR, (the PC test server,) starting on Monday. If previous PTR changes are to go by, this change should come to the main game within a month. Formerly a competitive exclusive feature, Quick Play will now become a way for players to test out their competitive strategies in a similar environment rather than the free for all that it is now.

Hero stacking has been a contentious topic pretty much since the game launched. Blizzard has argued in the past that it brings a legitimate level of strategy to the game shortly before removing it from competitive, while players range from wanting to be able to play as who they want to regardless of team composition, to hating getting stuck in games with five Genji’s screwing around while the enemy walks the payload to the goal. Hero stacking will still exist in the form of the No Limits brawl in arcade, but as of now, brawls are significantly less popular. Blizzard is hoping the new format will spark interest in the bonus modes, but as of now, that remains to be seen.

Personally, as long as we still have the option to stack in the game, I don’t mind. As it stands, we have no way of practicing for competitive outside of playing in competitive itself, meaning that we might get dropped a few ranks before figuring out what works. But what do you think? Let us know in the comments, and check back with Geekscape for all the news coming out of BlizzCon!

BlizzCon 2016: The Arcade In ‘Overwatch’ Will Bring Back Lucioball and Junkenstein’s Revenge!

by Josh Jackson

During the Overwatch- What’s New? panel, the team went into more detail about The Arcade, a new mode that’s on its way to the team based shooter. It turns out that not only is it right around the corner, but it’ll give us plenty of reason to duck out of competitive and quick matches by bringing back some fan favorite brawls!

Promising to bring back Weekly Brawls from past runs, players will be able to create a type of playlist for them and their friends to fight through. So rather than sticking to one brawl and getting bored after a few matches, each fight will mix up the combat with each fight’s unique set of rules. Most importantly, the event exclusive modes, Lucioball and Junkenstein’s Revenge, will return via The Arcade as well! So if you needed your FPS soccer fix, or want to team up with three friends against the AI instead of having to gun them down, we won’t have to wait a whole year for them to cycle back around! What’s even better is that I’ll have more time to unlock that no door damage Halloween spray!

Aside from the brawls, the team expanded on their reveals of one on one and three on three combat. One on one will have each player pick the same hero, and have them square off in a best of five duel. Three on three matches will consist of elimination rounds, with the team’s characters are locked in until a round is over. By elimination, it means that once a player is killed, they’re done for the round. At that point, they can decide to keep their team as is, or mix it up for different results. Some of these modes will take place in unique maps, such as the recently revealed Antarctica arena, giving us a look at Mei’s backstory through nods throughout the environment.

But who cares about Brawls, right? They don’t give you as much EXP for those sweet loot boxes. Or at least, that was the old Overwatch. When The Arcade is released, your first win during the Weekly Brawl will give you a box outright! After that, every three wins will award you with another, up until you reach the maximum of three for the week. That’s four boxes a week total!

Needless to say, we’ll have plenty of reason to dig into The Arcade when it launches, hopefully by the end of the year. Especially when it’s now the only way we’ll be able to play with stacked heroes going forward. What are your thoughts on the news? Let us know below, and keep checking back for all the BlizzCon 2016 news!

 

BlizzCon 2016: The Necromancer, And Original ‘Diablo’ Are Coming To ‘Diablo 3’!

by The_acz

After 4 years of waiting, Blizzard are finally giving Diablo fans they want!

That’s right! This morning during Blizzcon opening ceremonies, they confirmed that the long awaited Necromancer class will finally be coming to the game sometime in 2017. Not only this, but they also revealed another thing heading into a future patch which is the inclusion of the original Diablo in Diablo 3. Called The Darkening of Tristram, this will be a free update available for testing next week (no concrete release yet.) The add on will  include original bosses, return to 8 directional movement, and much more! Are you excited for these updates? Are you still playing Diablo 3? Tell us in the comments below!

Geekscape 389: Talking All Things Warcraft With Michele Morrow!

by Jonathan

Michele Morrow has been covering all aspects of Blizzard and World of Warcraft for years now on places like Nerdist, Geek And Sundry and Direct TV. So obviously, as WoW noobs, she’s the best person around to help educate us on the subject… especially after making fools of ourselves talking about the ‘Warcraft’ trailer last week! Of course, we also talk about our addictions to Fallout 4, say thank you for almost 9 years of Geekscape and discuss Michele’s Superhero Origin Story! It’s all here for you!

Main Photo Credit: Isaac Sterling

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Warlords of Draenor Gets Release Date and New Trailer

by S.J. Borger

After building anticipation since last year’s BlizzCon,  Blizzard announced the release date for the newest World of Warcraft expansion, Warlords of Draenor, at a special event last Thursday.

warlords-of-draenor-1920x1200

The expansion, which takes place 35 years prior to the current game, will drop of November 13th–just a week after this year’s BlizzCon–and is currently available for pre-order here. Player’s can purchase the digital edition for $49.99 or the deluxe edition for $69.99.

While both editions include the level 90 character boost, the deluxe edition not only includes two pets (dread raven and dread hatching), but also continues Blizzard’s trend of combining multiple products in one shiny package with a Diablo III pennant and Starcraft II portraits.

2627240-collectors

Blizzard also announced the Collectors Edition (there’s been no official price point announced, but Amazon and Gamstop show it at $90). The collectors edition includes everything in the digitial deluxe edition, as well as:

Physical DVD of the expansion
Behind-the-scene DVD and Blu-ray set
Soundtrack on CD
The Art of the Warlords of Draenor, a 160-pages of concept art, finished images, and CG images
A Blackhand mouse pad

Blizzard also released the almost-five-minute long cinematic, which you can watch below.

What do you think, readers? Can’t wait? Done with Blizzard? Waiting to see? Let us know in the comments!

‘World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor’ Hits 1 Million Pre-Orders!

by Derek Kraneveldt

Briefly: Activision Blizzard just held their quarterly earnings call, and while they announced the news that World of Warcraft subscriptions again fell slightly (from 7.8 to 7.6 million subscribers… still a huge number), they did reveal that the game’s next expansion, Warlords of Draenor has already received over 1 million pre-orders.

Pre-orders just opened on March 10th, so that’s a lot of people pre-paying for the next chunk of content.

SJ detailed the expansion during BlizzCon. Have you picked up your copy yet? What are you most excited for?

I’m pretty addicted to Hearthstone right now myself.

http://youtu.be/lB0IdIx7DLU

BlizzCon 2013: An Update On The ‘Warcraft’ Movie

by S.J. Borger

While the Warcraft movie panel here at Blizzcon was short on details, director Duncan Jones was able to slip a few key facts: it’s an origin story, and two of the characters are named Lothar and Durotan.

Those of you familiar with Warcraft lore know this take us back at least a generation. Those of who saying ‘who?’; Durotan was an Orc Chieftain during the opening of the Dark Portal, and the First and Second Wars. He is also the father of Thrall.

Lothar was the Supreme Commander of the Allied forces during the Second War.

Both died horrible, martyr’d deaths and influenced the leaders of the current Azeroth and were responsible for much of the way of the World of Warcraft map looked prior to the Cataclysm.

If the movie goes back to the very beginning of the Orc/Human conflict, it will chronicle the same sequence of events players in World of Warcraft will have traveled back and changed. So that’s not confusing at all.

Jones also showed some concept art that was truly phenomenal and confirmed the Christmas, 2015 release date.

Filming begins next year in conjunction with Legendary Pictures.

While we don’t have any art to show you for the movie, here’s the Warlords of Draenor expansion cinematic to whet your appetite.

 

Heroes of the Storm Announces Beta

by S.J. Borger

Blizzard’s announced that their yet-to-be-released MOBA, Heroes of the Storm, will be in closed Beta testing in early 2014, and that sign ups for the Beta are now open on their website.

In case you’re not sure if Heroes of the Storm is something you’d like to play, below is the trailer.

Trust us, you want to play it.

Blizzcon 2013: Heroes of the Storm: The Nexus

by S.J. Borger

Blizzard Entertainment’s newest game, Heroes of the Storm, is a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, where heroes and villains from across Blizzard lore are available to play in a variety of battle grounds.

You may be wondering in what world would Kerrigan and Thrall, Tyrael and Uther, Arthas and Zeratul co-exist? Well, it’s not a world, per se, it’s the Nexus.

The Nexus is a transdimenisional vortex that pulls together the greatest warriors and strategists of the Blizzard mutli-verse–and allows us to see who would win in a fight, Uther or Arthas?

See below for an in-depth interview on the making of the Nexus:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L86h_2qD2k0

BlizzCon 2013: Hearthstone Fireside Chat

by S.J. Borger

Blizzard Entertainment’s newest offering, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is a strategy card game played on a PC or Mac (and eventually an iPad, iPhone and Android) based in the Warcraft universe. The game features fast (10 to 15 minutes) matches of skill and luck and its beta has been the hot ticket to have for the past few months.

Hearthstone Announcement Art

Players can play as a Druid, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, and Warrior (each class is its own deck), and Hearthstone allows players to play against the computer (helpful when learning the rules of the game) and against other players in a three different modes:

Play Mode: duel other players to level up heroes and complete quests. Matches are made through Battle.net and Blizzard swears they will make sure opponents are matched in skill and decks.

The Arena: A skills test mode centered more along deck-building knowledge. Players assemble a new deck from random cards and meet other participants for loot and rewards.

Practice Mode: Learn to play and test out new deck against an AI opponent.

Mage vs Warrior
A mage versus a warrior deck in Blizzard Entertainment’s Hearthstone.

Heathstone has questing for gold rewards, which allows players to buy more card packs or enter the Arena; cards can be disenchanted for materials to build other cards needed to complete a deck. Also, players will be able to contact people on their friend’s list to compare decks or play a friendly duel.

Hearthstone is designed for all levels of experience and developers promise that the game will teach players everything they need to know as they play.

Hearthstone is free-to-play, though upgrades to card decks cost in-game gold which can be purchased via Battle.net. Blizzard is hoping to release it this year (Christmas, anyone?) for PC and Macs, with a iPad, iPhone and Android app available in the future (with cross-platform compatibility).

BlizzCon 2013: Reaper of Souls Preview

by S.J. Borger

Buzz has been flying around about the new Diablo III expansion, “Reaper of Souls.” RoS will feature a new player class–the Crusader, a new level cap of 70, additional spells and abilities for each of the original classes, and a ‘fewer but better’ loot system and the introduction of Legendaries.

Players will also be able to update their toon’s appearance with the help of the new artisan, the Mystic, take on Bounties for objective-based challenges, and explore all the zone in Adventure Mode, where all the waypoints unlock.

Ten to twenty minute dungeons called Loot Runs will test player’s skills and an innovative social system, Clans and Groups, will allow players to connect in new and exciting ways.

Find more information on Diablo III here, and check back here (and follow us on twitter–@sjbwrite) for all the latest updates and breaking news.

But for now, check out the trailer below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aZEgGIgnnM&feature=youtu.be

BlizzCon 2013: ‘Warriors of Draenor’ In-Depth Details From The Floor!

by S.J. Borger

Blizzard Entertainment announced today their newest expansion for their MMO phenom, World of Warcraft. The expansion, title Warlords of Draenor, takes adventures back to the Outlands. Literally…players will follow Garrosh Hellscream, escaping from his war crime trial being held after the Siege of Orgrimmar, as Garrosh goes back in time to the Outlands of Grommash Hellscream, Blackhand, and Ner’zhul.

A sketch of the Nagrand from the Warlords of Draenor expansion. Courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment
A sketch of the Nagrand from the Warlords of Draenor expansion.
Courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment

New Level Cap, Insta-Level…and oh, A House

Warlords of Draenor will feature a new level cap–100–and will also allow a player to instantly level one toon to 90 (either a currently played toon or a brand new one rolled at 12:01 a.m. the day the expansion comes out), complete with level appropriate gear. In addition, Blizzard has also retooled current classes, updating their basic look while maintaining their essential, uh, Orcness. Or Night Elf-ness. Goblin-ness?  Anyway, slightly new looks so that everybody’s basically better looking.

Blizzard is finally giving its players a real home: Warlords of Draenor introduces Garrisons–strongholds built by the player (with some customizing available) in the zone of their choice. Once your stronghold is finished, players can begin to collect NPC followers who can perform various tasks–including gathering and questing for the player. It’s like the Sims, only nobody showers.

In addition to new dungeons and raids, including a retooling of the Flex raid and a new Mythic raid at a fixed 20-player raid size, there are also some changes coming to bags and inventory (heirloom and toy collections! sortable bags! crafting straight from the bank) and PvP, including a new world PvP zone with bonus random rewards, items and honor points, including BoE reward gear and a weekly quest to allow players to upgrade an item.

More details on everything that’s new later, as well as our opinion of the actual gameplay. For now, here’s a video of the new (but chronological older…)/old (i.e. Burning Crusade) Outlands to whet your appetite.

http://youtu.be/lB0IdIx7DLU

 

 

Newest ‘World Of Warcraft’ Expansion Announced! Check Out The ‘Warlords Of Draenor’ Trailer!

by Shane O'Hare

Straight out of BlizzCon we got our first big announcement of the convention. World of Warcraft is getting ANOTHER expansion pack. This time we go back to Draenor the home of the Orcs, with a bunch of nice new features to boot! Take a look at the trailer below!

This new edition if rife with new features. The most noticeable one is that all the original races will be getting updated and upgraded character models. New animations and high def textures are just the beginning. The level cap has been pushed up to 100, with the ability to start new characters at 90 so you can fast track to the top.

The biggest gameplay mechanic that has been added is the Garrisons. Players will be able to build and upgrade a home base of sorts. Setting up trade routes, building up the economy and defenses are some of the things you get to do with your own private fort. Think Warcraft III kind of stuff.

No release date yet, but if you’re an intrepid WoW fan you will be on top of this release!

Countdown to BlizzCon

by S.J. Borger

BlizzCon, the annual celebration of all things Blizzard Entertainment (namely the behemoth Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo franchises, if you just stumbled onto this article out of the blue, ‘cuz hey, the internet can be crazy like that) starts up tomorrow, November 8th, at the Anaheim Convention Center.

Speculation has swirled around this BlizzCon, what with Blizzard announcing that the Warcraft movie (produced along with Legendary pictures); repackaging their upcoming MOBA, Blizzard All-Stars, as Heroes of the Storm (and releasing some pretty nifty artwork); the Hearthstone game moving into the final stages of its beta, Diablo III heading towards consoles (along with the much anticipated new expansion, “Reaper of Souls,” coming out in 2014); the fact that they just trademarked the name “Warlords of Draenor” (maybe the new MMO they’ve been teasing us with for years?); and the publication just yesterday of a third quarter loss (though not as severe as expected), including the news that the MMO giant, World of Warcraft, lost 100,000 users,  resulting in Activision lowering its fourth quarter outlook.

Heroes of the Storm artwork.
Heroes of the Storm artwork.

So what does all this mean for the fans who are trekking out to sunny Anaheim for the next two days? Well, hopefully at lot of answers, some awesome unveiling of new content and properties, and maybe a Warcraft trailer?

BlizzCon starts of at 11 a.m. on Friday with the Opening Ceremony on all four stages after which the four areas split into two stages of panels, WCS Global Finals and the WoW Arena Global Invitational. If past BlizzCons are any indication, the main floor will be packed with gaming stations, vendors and, of course, cosplay; there is also an artists’ stage, a voice actor stage and a faction feud area.

Saturday continues with WCS and WoW Arena semis and finals, more panels, and of course the closing ceremony concert (with Blink 182!).

 

Just Blizzard peeps.
Just Blizzard peeps.

Friday Highlights:

11 a.m.: Opening Ceremony

12:30 p.m.: World of Warcraft: What’s Next

1:15 p.m.: Starcraft II Update

2:15 p.m.: Hearthstone: Fireside Chat

3:30 p.m.: Diablo III: Reaper of Souls

4:45 p.m.: Heroes of the Storm Overview

6:00 p.m.: Contests on all stage of various kinds

 

Diablo III, Reaper of Souls
Diablo III, Reaper of Souls

Saturday Highlights:

11:15 a.m.: Diablo III: Gameplay Systems + Crusader

12:30 p.m.: Heroes of the Storm Deep Dive

1:00 p.m.: Warcraft Movie Presentation

2:30 p.m.: World of Warcraft Q+A About Almost Everything

3:15 p.m.: Diablo III Open Q+A

4:30 p.m.: Epic Cosplay and You

6:30 p.m.: Closing Ceremony

 

Blizzard will be live streaming the entire event to those who purchased virtual tickets (still available here); the opening ceremony and tournaments are free to anyone at www.blizzcon.com; there is also an app that you can download to ‘experience the second screen.’

We’ll be live-tweeting all weekend, so follow @geekscapedotnet and @sjbwrite for all the breaking news over the weekend!

Tell us what you’re most excited about in the comments!

SONGHAMMER’s Epic New Video: “Death is On the Way”

by S.J. Borger

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8VFyBS0sNk&feature=youtu.be

Fantasy metal rock band SONGHAMMER, best known for their award-winning song, “We Are the Horde,” which won the International Songwriting Competition at the 2011 BlizzCon, has partnered with Epic Level TV to produce their newest video, “Death is On the Way.”

The video will launch their new album, World of SONGHAMMER, which includes both “Death is On the Way” and “We are the Horde.” The album spans multiple music genres–from classic metal to bubble-gum pop–but each song remains true to the band’s cosplay/fantasy/video game style for the gaming/Comic-Con/epic-geek communities around the world.

“Sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride. SONGHAMMER will take care of the dragons, orcs, murlocs, and any other villains that may arise!!!” chanted ShredHammer & CroonHammer, leaders of the band.

“Death is On the Way” was shot in the Los Angeles foothills and stars Michele Boyd (The Guild) as the Mage. The video was produced by Epic Level Entertainment for Epic Level TV, a growing YouTube channel for all things geek and home to shows like “Dungeon Bastard” and “XOMBIE: Dead on Arrival.”

Croon Hammer and Hammer fight Death in their newest music video, "Death is On the Way."
CroonHammer and ShredHammer fight Death in their newest music video, “Death is On the Way.”

SONGHAMMER will be a feature performer at Blizzard Entertainment’s BlizzCon next month (Nov. 8th and 9th).

World of SONGHAMMER is available for purchase at the following sites:

Physical CD via Songhammer.com
Download on CDBaby
Download on iTunes