Blizzcon 2019

[lupi]

A bit busy to stay current on the feed, but will update with some of the interesting bits as I see them.

Diablo 4 announced with cinematic and gameplay trailers. Alpha type demo at the con.

WoW: Shadowlands expansion in 2020. Announcement cinematic shows Sylvanas breaking apart the Lich King helm to open a rift between Azeroth and the Shadowlands. Limited beta playable at the con.

Hearthstone expansion, Descent of Dragons. Continues the years theme into Dragonblight and rise of Galakrond. Uses invoke keyword to increase power similar to how the cthun cultist worked. Also adding Battlegrounds mode to the game, 8 player pvp. Demo playable at the con and in game coming soon to ticket/virtual ticket, or preorders.

Warcraft 3 reforged: all ticket and virtual ticket holders are getting beta access on Tuesday.

Overwatch 2 announced, two cinematics with first being a combination of the old ones talking about bringing the group together and then a new one where they defend in Paris as just Tracer, Winston, and Mei and then several others show up to save the day and reform Overwatch. Then a gameplay cinematic with some PvP and PVE stuff. And the prospect of finally getting into the story/lore.

Overwatch 1 gets free access in the standard PVP mode to the Overwatch 2 maps and heroes.

No new IP announcements.

World of Warcraft: Shadowlands Cinematic Trailer

The veil between life and death is no more. Discover what lies beyond the world you know in the next chapter of the World of Warcraft saga--Shadowlands: Comi...

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World of Warcraft: Shadowlands Features Overview

The veil between life and death is no more. Discover what lies beyond the world you know in the next chapter of the World of Warcraft saga--Shadowlands: Comi...

www.youtube.com

Descent of Dragons Cinematic Trailer | Hearthstone

In Rise of Shadows the League of E.V.I.L. set a master plan into motion: a daring theft of the floating city of Dalaran. That plot further thickened in swirl...

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Hearthstone Battlegrounds Announce Trailer

Welcome to Hearthstone: Battlegrounds, the brand-new auto-battling game mode that introduces a fresh, strategic, 8-player experience to Hearthstone. In Battl...

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World of Warcraft®: Shadowlands Epic Edition - Eternal Traveler’s Heathstone Effect (EU)

vHearthstone effect included with the World of Warcraft® Shadowlands Epic Editionhttp://WorldofWarcraft.com

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The Story So Far | Overwatch

The world needs heroes now, more than ever. The enemy is out there, getting stronger, so heroes from all over the world are answering the call and joining th...

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Overwatch 2 Announce Cinematic | “Zero Hour”

Stand together.When Null Sector attacks, Winston assembles a small strike team to fend off the invasion. But as hope begins to fade, the team must stand toge...

www.youtube.com

 

[CalebRockeT]

Diablo 4 announced with cinematic and gameplay trailers. Alpha type demo at the con.

This is by far the most intriguing Blizzcon news, for me. Rumor has it they're shifting back to a more gritty, less saturated color palette as well as a more realistic, less cartoon looking concept. Returning to their roots, if you will. Will be interesting to see what direction they go with it.

 

[lupi]

This is by far the most intriguing Blizzcon news, for me. Rumor has it they're shifting back to a more gritty, less saturated color palette as well as a more realistic, less cartoon looking concept. Returning to their roots, if you will. Will be interesting to see what direction they go with it.

Was quite an interesting intro cinematic. Felt a bit like the Witcher stuff at first, quite good.

 

[Muadib]

Downloading Diablo 3 now! Must play it to prepare for 4!!! Wait, did they say when D4 was due?

 

[SinOfLiberty]

D4 looks boring, I would even say, intimidating to watch. Let alone play it. It gonna be a massive flop

 

[Craig234]

So much less interested in anything Blizzard does since they adopted automated ban system letting trolls get players permanently banned in Overwatch, with effectively no appeals.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Never have I so completely lost interest in a developer as I have with Blizzard. While their games appear to be technically well constructed, they feel like soulless husks of their predicessors.

Feels like all their games (admittedly the last games I played were SC2 and D3) are just built for people that want to climb the ladder, and less about actually making a fun game.

It's somehow worse with Blizzard than other major devs for some reason.

 

[DeathReborn]

Never have I so completely lost interest in a developer as I have with Blizzard. While their games appear to be technically well constructed, they feel like soulless husks of their predicessors.

Feels like all their games (admittedly the last games I played were SC2 and D3) are just built for people that want to climb the ladder, and less about actually making a fun game.

It's somehow worse with Blizzard than other major devs for some reason.

Yup, for me it's almost a universal downwards slope for Blizzard titles. I think accountants make some major decisions in game development at Blizzard.

Diablo 1 (awesome) D2 (Great with mass market appeal) Diablo 3 (console game), Diablo Immortal (OMG MY EYES!) Diablo 4 (meh, another "live service" game)
Starcraft (awesome) Starcraft 2 (hold on, full price for 1/3 of the story...)
Warcraft (good) Warcraft 2 (awesome) Warcraft 3 (good, slippery slope begins) WoW (ugh)

 

[Muadib]

Yup, for me it's almost a universal downwards slope for Blizzard titles. I think accountants make some major decisions in game development at Blizzard.

Diablo 1 (awesome) D2 (Great with mass market appeal) Diablo 3 (console game), Diablo Immortal (OMG MY EYES!) Diablo 4 (meh, another "live service" game)
Starcraft (awesome) Starcraft 2 (hold on, full price for 1/3 of the story...)
Warcraft (good) Warcraft 2 (awesome) Warcraft 3 (good, slippery slope begins) WoW (ugh)

After watching the play through video of Diablo 4, I've lost some of my enthusiasm. I didn't play any of the Warcraft series, but I agree with your assessment of the others.
I'm hoping you turn out to be wrong about Diablo 4 though.

 

[Aikouka]

So, I'd say that this felt like a bit of a weak BlizzCon for me. At least as a viewer at home, the one "sign" that I use to tell me how big it is... is how conflicted am I with their schedule? In prior years, I'd have to swap between streams to catch the different panels that were airing at the same time, but this year... I only had that happen once. I think a lot of that has to do with how while Diablo IV and Overwatch 2 were big in regards to being full-fledged releases, they were weak in that we aren't likely to see them until 2021 or 2022 at the earliest.

The only game with a relatively recent release date was World of WarCraft: Shadowlands, and my goodness... I just grow so weary of Sylvanas. People liked Arthas so much because you actually got to play as him before and after his fall. You got to see him as a brash human that took up an approach of ends justify the means, and how that damned him for all eternity as an agent of the Scourge. I think it always helps a bit when a character's motivation -- even if for evil -- can actually make sense to the player. That was pretty much what Marvel did with Thanos in Infinity War. So... does Sylvanas have any of that? Nope. We watch her defeat the Lich King and have to have Blizzard tell us that she was empowered by her "new associate".

After watching the play through video of Diablo 4, I've lost some of my enthusiasm. I didn't play any of the Warcraft series, but I agree with your assessment of the others.
I'm hoping you turn out to be wrong about Diablo 4 though.

I don't really have any qualms with the approach with Diablo IV. Sure, it's quite a bit different, but let's just say... I'll approach it with trepidation! It sort of reminds me of what happened with Assassin's Creed when they went to Origins as it became more of an RPG... but at least Diablo was already an RPG, but just without an open world. What will really define how well this works is whether or not there feels like there's enough content in the world -- and it sounds like they're trying to push that with world bosses -- or will we still use teleporter pads to get everywhere?

One question that I'd like to have answered... since consoles are planned from the beginning, will there be cross-play now that Sony isn't being so obstinate about it? I also found it interesting how they mentioned the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One (note, that'll likely become PlayStation 5 and Xbox Scarlet)... but nary a mention of the Switch! Do they think the Switch won't be able to handle the new engine, or did the game not do terribly well on it?

As for WarCraft, my only complaint about WarCraft 3 is that I didn't care for the upkeep mechanic. I was just too darned used to the mega-battles that you had on StarCraft, and that's kind of what I wanted.

 

[Stg-Flame]

D4 looks boring, I would even say, intimidating to watch. Let alone play it. It gonna be a massive flop

If you think D4 is going to flop, then you must be new to the world. Diablo fans weren't happy with D3 and it looks like they are trying to go back and make the Diablo game we've been asking for since day 1. D4 is going to be a massive success just because everyone is hoping it's going to be the proper D2 sequel that D3 should have been.

 

[SinOfLiberty]

If you think D4 is going to flop, then you must be new to the world. Diablo fans weren't happy with D3 and it looks like they are trying to go back and make the Diablo game we've been asking for since day 1. D4 is going to be a massive success just because everyone is hoping it's going to be the proper D2 sequel that D3 should have been.

There is something off about D4. TONS of people hated it when they `ve seen the trailer. It just looks and feels like a cheap 2010 indie game. Given the release date of 2022-23 it is out of question whether it will make it or not.

For reference: lots of OG blizz devs have left the studio, guess who`s left now...

 

[Stg-Flame]

People complain about trailers all the time. People boycott games all the time. People will rant and rave about how bad a game looks until it's available to play and then everyone will be playing it. Besides, considering the game is three, maybe four years out from even being released, anyone getting riled up about what they see now is pretty stupid. We have fully-released games out now that look and play differently just from patches after the game was released.

Also, if you want a game made by the original Blizzard North team, then you should be playing Grim Dawn. A few of the original developers formed Crate Entertainment and made Grim Dawn which is basically Titan Quest, but instead of bright sunshine and mythology, you have incredibly dark dreary demons to deal with.

 

[SinOfLiberty]

D3 hasnt changed much...