Blizzcon Ahead!

The day many of us have been waiting for is finally here. Blizzard has announced Blizzcon 2014. Taking place in November on the 8th and 9th, ticket prices and selling dates have been announced. Check out the press release page .

BlizzCon® 2014 Conquers Anaheim November 7 and 8

Blizzard Entertainment 4/22/2014 78

Steel thyself, O mortal realm of Anaheim! The eighth BlizzCon is coming to your Convention Center this Friday, November 7 and Saturday, November 8, 2014. Prepare for two relentless days of Blizzard gaming and fellowship, including in-depth discussion panels with Blizzard developers, hands-on opportunities with the latest Blizzard games, and intense eSports tournaments featuring top pro gamers from across the earthly plane.

Tickets for BlizzCon 2014 will go on sale in two batches, one on Wednesday, May 7 at 7 p.m. PT and the other on Saturday, May 10 at 10 a.m. PT, through the online event ticketing service Eventbrite, priced at $199 each (plus applicable taxes and fees). In addition, a limited number of tickets to an exclusive pre-BlizzCon Benefit Dinner will go on sale Wednesday, May 14 at 7 p.m. PT for $750 apiece (plus applicable taxes and fees; BlizzCon admission included), with proceeds benefitting Children’s Hospital of Orange County. Check out the BlizzCon Ticket webpage for more information—we’ve made some changes to how ticket sales work this year, and fortune favors the prepared!

If you can’t make it to the show in person, the BlizzCon Virtual Ticket is the next best thing, offering comprehensive live coverage of the event via a multichannel Internet stream. Further details on the Virtual Ticket, including pricing, availability, and programming information, will be announced at a later date.

See the full press release or check out the BlizzCon Ticket page for more information, and be sure to visit www.blizzcon2014.eventbrite.com at the dates and times above for a chance to purchase a ticket to the show. See you in Anaheim!

To get you all in that lovely Blizzcon mood (for everyone who is not me who, since attending Blizzcon 2011, has always had his heart there even when the convention isn't happening) check out some of the pictures from last years event.

Blizzard News 4-1-14

What a day for us Blizzard fans! There is so much info to go over today so hang on to your hats as we go through each piece of info. It sure has been fun. So much fun that I drudged through work to be able to bring this news to Blizzgeeks.

We start with the World of Warcraft and the early patch notes for 6.0. Personally I think this is shaping up to be one of the greatest patches I have ever seen. Some of the best features I have picked out below but definitely check out the full notes located here.

As part of our efforts to present players with smaller and more easily digestible numbers (the so-called “Stat Squish”), World of Warcraft has been converted to use a base-20 (vigesimal) number system. As a result, all stats have been decreased by 2BA0E%.

New paid service: Character Bust. Pay to de-level any character back to 1, removing all items, mounts, and gold, so you can relive the good ol’ days.

In addition to a Proving Grounds medal of Silver or better being required to queue for Warlords of Draenor Heroic dungeons, a medal of Gold or better is now required to post in the forums.

As a part of the pre-expansion launch event, reaching the end of the Siege of Orgrimmar raid will now display: “Thank you! But our Garrosh is in another castle.

Onyxia has stopped breathing altogether. Emergency services have been contacted and are en route

Next Blizzard released the newest Artcraft revealing the new model for the Female Draenei. Honestly its pretty hot if you love the cross eyed look. Also, she can /twerk. Take a look at the full preview located here

Turning to the World of Diablo, Reaper of Souls is not the only game blizzard has been working on recently. Head on over to the Blizzard site for a chance to play the all new Happy Reaper! This is a fantastically addicting game that I will certainly be playing a lot more then RoS and WoW combined. Take a look at the game here and definitely read through the features of the powerful game engine and other information located on the release page for it here. Doesn’t Mathael look just happy? I cannot wait to play this on my phone tomorrow while at work!

Get it while it's HotS!

HotS Madness! The next chapter in the Starcraft II universe has a new name. Gone is the old Legacy of the Void title and in with… Herald of the Stars! I was not really convinced when I first read through their press release but the more I think about it, the more it makes total sense. Don’t believe me though, I unfortunately am not a game designer but their words just make sense. Take a look below at what one developer said of how they came to this decision.

At Blizzard, we constantly strive for optimization. Over the last few years, through deep market analysis, ethnographic study, and highly advanced acoustic research, we have come to scientifically prove that the player community prefers games with titles that form the following acronym: HotS. We were amazed. It’s quite unexpected. For some reason, people just synergize with the acronym HotS. In one study, 87% of respondents choose the HotS acronym over another random video game acronym. People seem to like how easy it is to say, how attractive they feel when saying it, and the sudden rise in body temperature associated with such an impactful acronym. Other than that, it’s baffling, but it’s awesome at the same time!

There is a lot more that can be found on their press release page so definitely take a look at it. You will be convinced! The official posting can be found here.

Isn't he the cutest little thing you have ever seen? Welcome to Heroes of the Storm.

This one I almost missed in between Happy Reaper and reading through the 6.0 patch notes and wiping the drool from my mouth but I am glad I saw it. Who would not want Void Nap and Tantrum of Terror on the most fearsome character in the Blizzard universe? I know I want that! Today a new hero was unveiled to be the baby form of our favorite DNA spinner Abathur from Starcraft. Just watch the videos here.I can’t put it into words about how much I look forward to this hero.

Lastly blizzard has thrown down the gauntlet. While we have Heroes of the Storm featuring the best that the blizzard universe has to offer, we have those that aren’t quite up there with being the best. We have the outcasts. Enter Blizzard Outcasts: Vengeance of the Vanquished.

Cain vs Mengsk! Baneling vs treasure Goblin! Mankrik’s wife vs Gamon!

All star match ups brought to you even with a special limited edition controller sure to make carpal tunnel syndrome look like child's play. Definitely check out their release page and get ready to rumble!!

Blizz News 1/23/14

The last two weeks have brought a lot of info and fun things to the wonderful worlds Blizzard has made for us.

We start out with Starcraft II. Patch 2.1 launched this week bringing a lot of changes and some pretty awesome features. Full patch notes can be found here, but there are some very nice changes to be aware if you aren't one of those patch note readers. First Blizzard has changed the StarCraft II arcade system to be completely free. All that is required is an account for the free Starcraft II Starter Edition.

New extension mod capabilities have been added for those developer types to add some interesting features to standard melee maps. The best way to see exactly what fun things you can do with this would be to take a look at the preview.

Any Carbot fans out there? Want to show of your StarCraft II profile with one of those awesome characters? Well get to leveling because now we have new rewards and new levels to achieve in Heart of the Swarm. Helped along by a quadrupling of the amount of XP gained with the First Win of the Day XP bonus.

My personal favorite out of the 2.1 patch is an addition of the classic Starcraft soundtrack in Starcraft II. To get that awesome music from the original, check out the sound tab in the options menu and choose between Starcraft II, Starcraft/Brood War music or both.

In the World of Warcraft we have our first look at Artcraft by Chris Robinson, senior art director for WoW. In his first article posted we have the reveal of our new human female character model. The model honestly looks great even for it being Alliance. Check out the full post here. However we did catch a small little detail which if followed through on would make a lot of people happy –

“We’re looking at these model revamps as a sort of “spiritual update” to the art content that currently exists in-game—except we’re completely redoing them from scratch. That includes the base model, skin tone variations, customization options (e.g. wrinkles, scars, moles, earrings, etc.), hairstyles, and any skin variations for NPCs you see out in the world, like Iron Dwarves or Leper”

Mag’har and Grimtotem skins anyone?

The Lunar Festival started in WoW this week on Monday and lasts until February the 3rd. Get out into the world and help honor your elders in Azeroth. Complete all the in game achievements and get rewarded with your own title of Elder.

For all the mount collectors out there the Iron Skyreaver has been released and is available in the blizzard store. Want to feel like a member of the Iron Horde already invading Azeroth? This may be right up your alley. Take a look at the preview below.

In the World of Diablo Blizzard has already enabled the background downloader for Reaper of Souls. Models and other data that is already confirmed and ready to go for the expansion will be put on the downloader which has been estimated to be about 6GB in size. Coming along with this, those that have not yet upgraded to the desktop app for Battle.net will get the update automatically when patch 2.0.1 launches at some point before March 25th. The app can be downloaded anytime if you want to try it out now.  Check it out.