Blizzard announced earlier this year that BlizzCon wouldn't happen in 2024, with the live event instead being replaced by a series of franchise-focused streams. Next on the schedule is Warcraft 30th Anniversary Direct, which Blizzard have now announced will stream on Wednesday, November 13th at 6pm GMT/1pm ET/10am PT.
]]>Yet again, some good food. Following the news earlier this week that 241 Bethesda Games Studios staffers had formed what was at the time the biggest wall-to-wall under Microsoft, The Verge reports that over 500 World Of Warcraft developers have voted to form their own union, alongside the Communication Workers of America (CWA).
]]>World of Warcraft is setting a whole new story arc in motion with its next expansion, The War Within. If you can’t quite wait until this summer to see what the first chapter of the new Worldsoul Saga trilogy has to offer, you might not have to wait so long. Blizzard are running a beta for War Within that will give testers the chance to delve into the subterranean addition early - and sign-ups are now open.
]]>World of Warcraft Classic is steadily embarking on its time-travelling trip through WoW of old. The next stop is apocalyptic 2010 expansion Cataclysm, which we now know is due to, uh, re-shatter Azeroth at the end of next month.
]]>No James this week, but I am joined by Nate for this week's Electronic Wireless Show podcast to discuss Ubisoft's new NEO NPC prototype - an NPC you can have a stilted, weird conversation with using the power of AI! It's fair to say we are quite partisan about this and do not want it, but we discuss why anyway. In counterpoint, we think World Of Warcraft's new piratey battle royale game mode sounds pretty cool and good, actually?
Plus: I ask Nate to explain cool things that I've seen in Warhammer 40K: Darktide, and Nate tries to convince me to take a devil's bargain where I have to play WOW for at least 12 hours a day, but I get a sort of increasing MDMA high while doing so.
]]>Just when I thought I was past being surprised by games adding battle royale modes, Blizzard today announced one for World Of Warcraft. Plunderstorm will drop 60 pirates onto the Arathi Highlands to fight monsters, loot chests, level up, acquire abilities, and beat the hell out of each other as a storm closes in. It's initially due to run only for several weeks and will use wholly separate characters, though you can unlock cosmetics for your main wizards.
]]>Last year (wahey), you narrowly decided that giving items to other players is better than throwing grenades back. I feel glad for your family and friends, who doubtless received wonderful gifts for Christmas rather than regifted junk. You're a little sweetie. Well, 55% of you are little sweeties. The rest... best not to dwell. Let's open this new year with a question of beginnings. What's better: a fresh new MMO server, or Viscera Cleanup Detail's Sniffer tool?
]]>Blizzard have revealed their approximate update plans for the next year of arthouse oddity World Of Warcraft, which if I remember correctly is a "massively multiple-player" experience of some antiquity that involves Orcs - a kind of always-online Baldur's Gate, if you will, or a strictly fantasy-themed Fortnite with dungeons instead of forts. Seems far-fetched, but let's roll with it.
As a reminder, WOW now comes in two broad flavours: classic and modern. In modern World Of Warcraft, you can expect three more updates for the existing Dragonflight expansion before the release of World Of Warcraft: The War Within later in the year. This introduces a new subterranean playspace, the Ringing Deeps, and is the first in a trilogy of expansions called The Worldsoul Saga.
]]>It's time for another edition of Ask RPS, where we answer reader questions put forward by RPS supporters. Today's question is a nice, warm, fuzzy one, as it's all about the good times we've had playing games in co-op with friends and family.
It comes courtesy of Aerothorn, who asks: What is your favorite co-op gaming memory? (along with the additional clarification that these memories don't need to be confined to designed-for-co-op games, but could also stem from playing a single-player game with a friend. "I used to play Descent with me piloting and my friend gunning!" they said).
So which games make us think of happy times with pals and good company? Come and find out below.
]]>World of Warcraft's expansion pack The War Within, out next year, comes in several flavours. There's the standard version of the pack, which includes access to previous expansions, currency for cosmetics and a level 70 character boost. The Heroic edition gives you all that plus a mount, a pet and extra in-game cash. And then there's the most expensive Epic edition, which includes a pet, two toys, 30 days of game time... and three days of early beta access to the game, yours for $89.99 in the states.
Naturally, World of Warcrafters are rather concerned about the last bit. It's the first time Blizzard's long-running MMO has taken the paid early access approach, recently adopted by Starfield and Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - there have been early access betas in the past, but they've been doled out by lottery. Blizzard's game director Ion Hazzikostas has now moved to reassure the grousers and gripers, promising that The War Within's Epic edition won't give minted early worms the edge over those poor peasants who scoop up the less pricey versions.
]]>People who play videogames want "new content literally almost every single day", according to Blizzard president Mike Ybarra - indeed, "they want new stuff every day, every hour". I do not want new stuff every day, every hour, Mike. Frankly, the idea makes me want to burn my possessions and go spend the rest of my life under a pine tree.
]]>Many World Of Warcraft expansions add a new continent, but The War Within, announced at Blizzcon this weekend, is a little different. It's set in a new subterranean world beneath Azeroth - and it kicks off a three-expansion story arc Blizzard are caling The Worldsoul Saga.
]]>Greg ‘Ghostcrawler’ Street, the influential developer with credits on both World of Warcraft and League of Legends - including the MOBA’s unreleased MMO - is working on a new MMORPG under his own studio.
]]>Chris Metzen, one of Warcraft’s longest and most influential lore-crafters for more than two decades before he retired back in 2016, has returned to work at Blizzard full-time.
]]>The UK's Competition and Markets Authority have "provisionally" approved Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, removing the last major legal obstacle to the completion of the deal.
The CMA blocked the deal in April this year over concerns that it would "alter the future of the fast-growing cloud gaming market", and might lead "to reduced innovation and less choice for UK gamers over the years to come". Microsoft attempted to woo the regulator by agreeing to sell Activision Blizzard game cloud streaming rights to Ubisoft, and while the CMA have "limited residual concerns", they've largely accepted Microsoft's modifications.
]]>World of Warcraft has launched a new pack of companion pets that will donate all of its proceeds towards helping those in Ukraine. The Pet Pack for Ukraine will benefit BlueCheck, an organisation that works to support a variety of NGOs in the war-struck country offering everything from vital medical supplies and power generators to humanitarian aid.
]]>Things aren't going so smoothly for Microsoft, as the US' Federal Trade Commission has now asked a court to temporarily block the $70 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. As reported by Reuters, the FTC claimed that Microsoft had pointed towards closing the deal as soon as this Friday, leading the organisation to request that a federal judge block any final agreement that might take place before 11:59pm ET, June 15.
]]>Blizzard's 14 year relationship with Chinese publisher NetEase will come to an end on January 23rd, at which time World Of Warcraft will go offline for millions of Chinese players. As the date approaches, NetEase have livestreamed staff dismantling a giant WoW axe statue at their offices with hammers, and called Blizzard's actions "brash, unseemly and commercially illogical."
]]>Staff at another Activision Blizzard studio have formed a union. Proletariat, the developers of Spellbreak, was bought by Blizzard in June and put to work on World Of Warcraft: Dragonflight. Now staff have formed a union with the Communication Workers Of America (CWA) and are asking Activision Blizzard to voluntarily recognise it.
]]>Hello! VidBud Liam here. You may recognise me from those videos that autoplay on every page. Or not. It depends on how quickly you scroll past, I suppose.
I joined team Arpus all the way back in February, and to say the last 11 months have been a whirlwind is a bit of an understatement. In less than a year I’ve made just under 90 videos covering a wide range of topics from major releases to international gaming events and brand-new hardware. My first year at RPS has been busy, basically. So when Katharine asked me to pull together a few of my personal highlights, I was kind of stumped. It's hard to pick favourites! It's even harder to celebrate my own achievements, but that's beside the point.
]]>Not content with chucking a whole bunch of dragons and dragon-adjacent stuff at players, World Of Warcraft: Dragonflight is planning six more updates in 2023. Blizzard have released a roadmap for the next year’s worth of shenanigans for the expansion, with new zones, raids, a megadungeon, and profession changes planned. Two major updates, one each scheduled for the first and second halves of the year, will kick off new seasons for Dragonflight.
]]>If you're tempted to hop on a dragon in World Of Warcraft's latest expansion but don't want to pay £40/$50 for it, you can currently try out Dragonflight with a regular WoW subscription. That means the skies can be yours for just £10/$15, if you pay for a month. The trial's only available until Jan 2nd, though, so best hop on it quick.
]]>Blizzard have revealed that former Warcraft lore maestro Chris Metzen is returning as creative advisor for the series. Metzen had retired back in 2016 after decades of working on Warcraft and Blizzard’s other games. The return was shared by Warcraft general manager Jon Hight in a statement posted to Twitter, which confirmed that Metzen will initially return to the company to work on the long-running World Of Warcraft. It’s expected that Metzen will follow that up by moving onto other connected projects.
]]>Having returned to World Of Warcraft after many, many years away from Azeroth in our new Inventory Space video series, I'm taken aback by how disjointed the new player experience has become. Blizzard have streamlined the early game, sure, but in doing so they've made it almost impossible to pin down my sense of place in the world. As Blizzard carves out new space for new regions and races with each and every expansion, I wonder: has the game become too big? Or put another way: am I unable to grasp just how vast its become?
]]>That thing in the sky is neither bird, plane nor Superman: it's the World Of Warcraft: Dragonflight expansion, due to go live at 11pm GMT, 3pm PST, and 12am CET. WoW's latest expansion brings a new region, a new class, more dungeons, and yes, dragons. Lot's of 'em. Fill your boots. Ride them, even. Show them around town. Take them home. Wake up next to them one day and feel like the magic's gone, you know?
]]>I'm extremely excited to announce Inventory Space! A new video series in which Liam and I spend our precious free time with massive live-service games to see how much they demand from our schedules. Are we able to truly experience everything these games have to offer without sacrificing the bits of our daily routines that keep us from withering away at our monitors? How many hours do you really need to invest in order to fully experience a game? And is it even worth it, in the end?
Inventory Space will – hopefully – give you a better idea of whether mammoth games will slot into your life neatly, or not at all.
]]>There’ll be no more Overwatch 2 and World Of Warcraft in mainland China from January 23rd, 2023, Blizzard and NetEase have announced. Those are among the games that NetEase have handled publishing for within the country, but the two companies have failed to reach an agreement to extend their deal. To add insult to injury, NetEase’s president Simon Zhu has taken to LinkedIn to blame “a jerk” for the deal’s collapse.
]]>The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) have set a statutory deadline of March 1st for their investigation into Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Microsoft, Activision Blizzard, and any third parties submitting responses to the CMA have until February to do so. As detailed in an update to the CMA’s administrative timetable for their investigation, it might be the case that provisional findings are brought forward in January, a year after the deal was first revealed.
]]>Blizzard have revealed that the next expansion for World Of Warcraft, Dragonflight, will launch on November 28th. Dragonflight hits at 11pm GMT/3pm PST, and 12am CET on November 29th. The expansion opens up the Dragon Isles region, which is populated by dragonkind, as you might expect from the name. Mount your favourite flying lizard and watch the trailer below.
]]>Further investigation of Microsoft’s $68.7 billion takeover of Activision Blizzard is needed by the UK’s competition regulator, a statement on the government’s website confirmed today. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) began the preliminary stage of their investigation at the beginning of July, with a deadline set for September 1st. That initial stage of investigation found that the deal could “substantially lessen competition in gaming consoles, multi-game subscription services, and cloud gaming services”.
]]>World Of Warcraft Classic returns to the Wrath Of The Lich King expansion in September, but there’s a pre-patch coming today that resurrects the game’s first hero class a little early. The Death Knights aren’t the only thing arriving in WOW Classic before the expansion though, as there’s a fresh profession and a zombie infestation to consider too. Have a watch of some of the senior dev team discussing Death Knights in the video below.
]]>It’s not just Stranger Things that gets to star undead wizards this year. World Of Warcraft: Wrath Of The Lich King Classic releases on September 26th, Blizzard have revealed. Take a nostalgic trip back to Northrend to tackle the evil Lich King, Arthas Menethil, and check out what’s changed since the original. Watch the trailer below to refresh your memory from all the way back in 2008.
]]>Dataminers mucking about with the alpha build of World Of Warcraft’s next expansion, Dragonflight, have happened across some indicators that the option to choose your character’s pronouns could feature in the game. It looks as though character body types will lose their gendered terminology too. Watch the cinematic trailer for Dragonflight below.
]]>Blizzard is buying the development studio responsible for magical battle royale Spellbreak, Proletariat, and moving their staff over to work on World Of Warcraft. The purveyors of all things Azeroth confirmed the buyout in a statement to VentureBeat. News of the acquisition comes just a day after Spellbreak’s imminent demise was revealed by Proletariat on the game’s website.
]]>Blizzard launched pre-orders for World Of Warcraft: Dragonflight this week, and in the small print on the Battle.net store page is a note stating that the MMO's next expansion "will be available on or before December 31, 2022." That simultaneously confirms that Dragonflight's release window is this year, and also threatens Blizzard's staff with the potential for a pretty crappy New Year's Eve.
]]>Shareholders in Activision Blizzard approved overwhelmingly to accept Microsoft Corporation’s offer of $68.7 billion (£54.66 billion) to acquire the company at yesterday’s Special Meeting of Stockholders. More than 98% of the shares voted in favour of the buyout offer, Activision Blizzard confirmed in a statement released on their website. The largest payment for a technology company in recorded history, toppling Dell’s acquisition of EMC Data Storage from 2016, it’s now expected the deal will conclude during Microsoft’s fiscal year, which ends on June 30th 2023.
]]>Blizzard Entertainment revealed the latest expansion for their mega-MMORPG World of Warcraft, the high-fantasy Dragonflight, last night. It has an Azeroth-load of dragons in it. That is all.
Well, not all, because Blizzard also showed off that Wrath of the Lich King is coming to World of Warcraft Classic later this year. WoW, it’s not just the economy that feels like 2008.
]]>Activision Blizzard yesterday announced that they're converting temporary QA staff in the US to full-time employees, with a pay raise and benefits to boot. Worker groups are celebrating this as a victory in their ongoing mission to force the company to improve the workplace. But one group are left out: the Raven QA staff who are currently forming a union. Actiblizz say labour law requires they do this; unions say it's an attempt to punish and divide them.
]]>A number of Activision Blizzard employees plan to stage a walkout today, whether in-person or virtually, to protest the company's plans for employees returning to the office amidst an ongoing global pandemic. The company initially announced last week that they would no longer require people be vaccinated in order to return, then seemed to quickly walk this back a bit in response to many employees saying excuse me, what. An employee group had announced a walkout before Actiblizz's change of heart, and apparently are going ahead today to continue conversations about safe workplaces and the option to work from home.
]]>Four US senators have voiced concerns about Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard for $69 billion, urging the Federal Trade Commission to consider the impact on workers before approving the proposed merger. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Sheldon Whitehouse, and Cory Booke raised this in a joint letter to the FTC chair yesterday. Considering that Actiblizz are facing many, many, many accusations of discriminatory and abusive working conditions, and that the CEO who reportedly intervened to protect one alleged harasser is still happily with the company, they're worried that the merger might make things worse.
]]>Welcome back to the second edition of The RPS Time Capsule, a monthly feature in which the RPS Treehouse gathers round a small tiny shoebox to stick their favourite, bestest best games into from a specific year to preserve until the end of time. The first time capsule we dropkicked into space was all about the best games from 2010. This time, we're excavating the best games from 2004. Which games will make the cut, and which ones will be consigned to the all-consuming digital super bin? Find out below.
]]>World Of Warcraft is downplaying the "War" bit and planning to let Alliance and Horde players play together. It'll be an opt-in feature for those who want it, but it'll let you form cross-faction parties for running dungeons, raids and rated PvP when it launches.
]]>When I held that monkey's paw and wished for more games to appear on Game Pass, I didn't mean like this! I don't know if anyone has been brave enough to come out and say this, but Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard is... problematic. Even before you consider the serious and unresolved allegations of workplace misconduct at ActiBlizz, there's no easy "this is good, actually" point of view to have here.
]]>In the wake of scandal and lawsuits alleging a culture of discrimination and harrassment at Activision Blizzard, Microsoft today announced they're buying the company. Wait, hang on. What. That's not what I expected when Xbox head Phil Spencer told staff he was "evaluating all aspects of [Xbox's] relationship" with Activision Blizzard. Microsoft plan to pay $68.7 billion (£50 billion) for the company, which will nab them games including Warcraft, Call Of Duty, and Overwatch. Jesus.
]]>The Overwatch development team announced on Thursday that they would rename cowboy McCree later this year. The change is due to the name's association with former Blizzard developer Jesse McCree, who left the company after a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard alleging workplace sexual harassment and discrimination. McCree is not specifically named in the lawsuit.
Now the World Of Warcraft team have announced similar changes, with rerences to former Blizzard employees due to be removed in a future update.
]]>Details of the lawsuit against Activision Blizzard by California's State Department of Fair Employment and Housing were made public on Wednesday night. The lawsuit includes numerous accounts of harassment and discrimination against women within the company. While plenty of players, fans, and former employees reacted to the report online, a guild of World Of Warcraft roleplayers organised a sit-in protest in game while raising now over $9,000 for Black Girls Code.
]]>If you're looking for an entire second life, we're here to judge. We're only here to serve, which is why we've curated a list of the best MMOs and MMORPGs on PC right now. There's many a massively multiplayer experience to find out there these days, running the gamut from fantasy to sci-fi and... well mostly those two things, but you can still build a little you and live in a whole new world, make virtual friends to share your life with, engage in huge battles against massive enemies, and spend your evenings on raids to grind out levels. Some of the games on this list are tried and true classics that have stuck around for the long haul, and some are newer entries, but all offer deep worlds that you can disappear into.
]]>World Of Warcraft Classic has had aughties Azeroth lovers back in the original days of Blizzard's mega MMO for a while now. If the nostalgia of early WoW has worn off, don't you worry. You can now load up the nostalgia of awaiting its first expansion. The Burning Crusade Classic pre-expansion patch is live now, after a bit of extended downtime last night, so you can hop in and start working on your level 1 Blood Elf ahead of next month's crusade if you'd like.
]]>Overwatch game direct Jeff Kaplan has left Blizzard after twenty years with the company. The news was announced in a blog post, which also names his successor as Aaron Keller.
]]>Every year when a new update for World Of Warcraft gets announced, or Final Fantasy XIV reveals some mad collaboration with NieR: Automata, I can't help but be sucked in again. Almost. I hover my mouse over purchase, but I can never bring myself to click.
Deep down, I know I don't like MMORPGs anymore. But for some reason I still believe that maybe, just maybe, I actually do. That this particular expansion where orcs fight in a shadow realm, or I can strut about in a new cross-promotional costume, will be like coming home after many years lost in the wilderness.
]]>Seems like BlizzCon has arrived early for World Of Warcraft fans, thanks to a leak from, err, Blizzard themselves? Turns out that World Of Warcraft Classic is getting an expansion, in the form of Burning Crusade Classic. Plus, we now know World Of Warcraft: Shadowland's upcoming 9.1 patch is called Chains Of Domination, which will bring a new area, mega-dungeon, and raid.
Update: Yep, Burning Crusade Classic and Chains Of Domination are now official.
]]>The slightly delayed and entirely online BlizzCon Online is just over a week away now, so Blizzard have gone and released the full schedule of talks and events that you'll be able to watch. As expected, there are plans to talk Overwatch 2, Diablo, Hearthstone, World Of Warcraft, and more.
]]>There's this reality TV show in the UK called "I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!". The premise is simple: a bunch of 'celebrities' are flown to a camp in the Australian outback (last year it took place in a castle in Wales because covid, innit), they're subjected to trials which involve necking mealworms, and the public votes for their favourites.
Honestly, it's a banger. And on one of my daily walks, I came to the realisation that one particular moment from last year's show lined up nicely with my thoughts on Elwynn Forest in World Of Warcraft. Let me explain…
]]>Like all of last year's physical gaming events, BlizzCon didn't actually happen as usual in November. Blizzard chose to move the convention to an online format and bumped BlizzCon 2020 to BlizzConline this month. Would you look at that? It's nearly upon us, so Blizzard have pushed out a trailer and some starter details on what to expect on February 19th and 20th.
]]>World Of Warcraft's best story doesn't concern old gods, banshee queens or gruff orc heroes. Rather, it involves one panda's stubborn determination to drop the "War" from "Warcraft". Having not once picked up a sword, left the starting zone or even pledged allegiance to the Alliance or Horde, WoW player DoubleAgent has now hit the Shadowlands level cap doing nought but pick flowers for eighteen days straight.
]]>As the latest expansion for Blizzard's unstoppable MMORPG, World Of Warcraft: Shadowlands seems to have gone down quite well. So well, in fact, that the publishers have declared it the fastest-selling PC game ever released with 3.7 million first day sales, beating out the company's own previous record-holder, Diablo 3, beating out its 3.5 million day one sales high set all the way back in 2012.
]]>It wouldn't take too much to push World Of Warcraft in a cyberpunk direction. After all, Blizzard's increasingly comic-book plot has already taken us far beyond the simple scuffle of orcs and humans with time-travelling, alternate universes and honest-to-god spaceships. Now, a fan-made trailer reimagines the game set in the grim, neon-splattered streets of Cyberpunk 2077's Night City - albeit, a version of the dystopian metropolis cobbled together by goblins and gnomes.
]]>So, you've just bought World Of Warcraft: Shadowlands, a fresh new expansion filled with fantastical, wondrous new worlds to explore. Obviously, your first thought is to sod it all and burn through the levelling experience as quickly as possible. So it was for one plucky Warcraft player who sprinted through Shadowlands at a record pace, becoming the first person to hit level 60 by cleaning out the same dungeon over and over for three hours straight.
]]>Grab your best gear, folks. It's expansion day. World Of Warcraft: Shadowlands is out now so it's time to take a peek behind the veil. The global launch of the newest campaign has kicked off so you can get your grind on now if you've already committed to a trip to the afterlife.
]]>One of the smaller frustrations that come with writing for a living is that you really can't listen to music with lyrics while working. So, for the past few years, I've listened to every "24/7 lo-fi jazz-hop beats to study and relax to" mix the that exists, a thousand variations of some Sisyphean student cursed to forever turn pages to the sound of chill, non-distinct tunes. Ahead of World Of Warcraft: Shadowlands' release next week, Blizzard have released their own spin on the form - commissioning four composers to create vibe-soaked remixes of the MMO's underworld soundscapes.
]]>No need to check your calendar or your launcher. World Of Warcraft: Shadowlands still launches a week from today on November 23rd. As ya do though, Blizzard have published a new launch cinematic trailer to take a gander at until then. All of the expansion's new zones get some screen time in the flashy view of the afterlife.
]]>Just when you think you're out, World Of Warcraft finds a way to drag you back in. Briefly, at least. Ahead of the release of World Of Warcraft: Shadowlands later this month, Blizzard are re-activating all your lapsed accounts for the weekend, in the hopes that a brief return to boar-slaying will tempt you back to the behemoth MMORPG.
]]>Ah yes, a tale as old as time—or at least as old as old-school MMO players. You've got multiple World Of Warcraft accounts, for one reason or another, and are "multiboxing" to sign in to both accounts simultaneously. Blizzard have updated their policy on multiboxing to clarify that multiple instances of the game are fine, but they'll be issuing warnings and bans to players using third-party software to automate playing them.
]]>In a new virtual 'fireside chat', Blizzard head honcho J. Allen Brack has given an update on the success of their anti-toxicity systems. They've been using machine learning to help combat abusive chat and bad behaviour in Overwatch and Heroes Of The Storm for a while, and recently brought the system to World Of Warcraft's public channels. It sounds like a success there too. Brack also announced that the next BlizzCon, which is online-only, will be free for everyone to watch.
]]>We're back on track for a trip to hell, adventurers. After last month's delay failed to give us a new release date, Blizzard are now confident in their ability to deliver World Of Warcraft: Shadowlands by the end of November. It's not the Halloween launch I imagine they were hoping for, but hey - what better way to close out this year than by yeeting ourselves into the fantasy underworld?
]]>While World Of Warcraft: Shadowlands is delayed, the pre-expansion patch introducing many of its big changes has arrived. Here's one to start: WoW's level cap is now 50. It's come all the way the down from 120 as Blizzard rescale everything. The new starter zone is in too, easing newbies in on a new island. Plus each class gets access to some of the thematically-defining skills usually confined to subclasses, such as a few poisons for Rogues. And new cosmetic character options are in. Who even wants to go to the afterlife when you can play dress-up?
]]>Sorry, death. With the news that World Of Warcraft: Shadowlands has been delayed out of its October launch, it looks like we'll be avoiding the grave a little while longer. Blizzard today announced they've pushed their behemoth MMO's next expansion back to "later this year" to give the underworld a bit more polish as developers continue to deal with the weirdness of remote working.
]]>As with most other physical conventions this year, BlizzCon 2020 is cancelled due to the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic. Blizzard said that they wanted to take the con online but didn't think they'd be able to squeeze it into this calendar year. They were right on that front, but you won't be waiting until next November for the con to return. Honorary BlizzCon 2020 will now officially take place in February 2021, they've announced.
]]>After yesterday's kerfuffle over World Of Warcraft: Shadowlands' PC requirements listing an SSD as the minimum type of storage supported, Blizzard have now updated the game's minimum requirements to include good old-fashioned HDDs as well. In their updated support article on the subject, the storage entry for WOW's Shadowlands expansion now includes both SSDs and HDDs, with the extra clarification that "player experience may be impacted on HDD" depending on the drive's performance.
]]>World Of Warcraft's Shadowlands expansion is getting a formal release on October 27th, but Blizzard's recently updated PC requirements for the game have been causing quite a stink among its player base. While the minimum CPU and GPU requirements haven't changed all that much, the minimum storage requirement now seems to imply that you need an SSD to play WOW's Shadowlands expansion rather than a traditional HDD.
]]>You've killed every god, demon and monstrosity in the world of the living - so I s'pose it's time to quest through the afterlife instead. The next chapter in Blizzard's seemingly-unstoppable MMO, World Of Warcraft: Shadowlands tonight announced that it'll open the gates to the collective afterlives in October with two new trailers.
]]>Blizzard have confirmed that they’ll be hosting BlizzCon as an online event due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The annual celebration of their games and communities was cancelled this year, with a suggestion that they’ll be holding it virtually in 2021. During a recent earnings call, Blizzard’s president J. Allen Brack confirmed that it will be happening “early 2021”.
]]>Brought your bug repellant, adventurers? World Of Warcraft Classic is going back to Silithus to revisit the game's most notorious bug hunt. Today's update for the throwback MMO is preparing to re-open the lost Silithid empire of Ahn'Qiraj - which is to say that the long and arduous task of funding an army, piecing together an ancient staff worthy of a Scarab Lord, and knocking down that stubborn door at the bottom of the world has once again begun in earnest.
]]>Onyxia, Broodmother of the Black Dragonflight. If you're a veteran World Of Warcraft player, that name will immediately conjure long-buried feelings of dread - from the precision play needed to take her down, to the hours spent grinding quests to even enter her lair. But Azeroth's scariest dragon seems to have lost her touch, as a band of 40 World Of Warcraft: Classic adventurers worked out how to fell Onyxia in nought but their undies earlier this week.
]]>By all accounts, changing gender in World Of Warcraf has always been simpler than doing it for real. No appointments, no faff, no convincing Bobby Kotick through two years "lived experience" - just pay Blizzard a small fee and they'd let you rebuild your digital persona from the ground up. With this year's World Of Warcraft: Shadowlands expansion, even that hurdle is getting the boot, as it becomes yet another option under Azeroth's increasingly-talented barbers.
]]>The content battlecruiser that is World Of Warcraft has been sailing for the best part of two decades. I’m almost thirty-two. I started playing this game when I was seventeen. It’s surreal to type that out - and it’s also one of the reasons why the people I try to introduce to this behemoth of an experience often tap out.
Thankfully, this may change. With the advent of the Shadowlands expansion, Blizzard has introduced a series of huge changes to how the game functions not only for existing players, but for people who have never touched the game, or even any MMORPG, ever before. Firstly, there’s the “level squish” - 120 becomes 60, and the original 1-60 becomes an accelerated 1-10 - with a brand new levelling region intended for players new to the series and even the genre. “Trying to get to level 120 is a bit much,” comments Production Director Patrick Dawson. He’s not wrong.
]]>The Covid-19 pandemic has taken its toll on a few games now, causing all sorts of delays on new info and release dates. Not World Of Warcraft: Shadowlands, though, as Blizzard confirmed in last night's live stream that the expansion will be arriving sometime this autumn, "even if they end up shipping from their homes." WoW fans will get to explore that sinister land of the dead to see what old Sylvanas has been up to even sooner however, because they also announced Shadowlands is getting a beta next week.
]]>World Of Warcraft Classic has a bot problem. Harking back to the days when MMOs required a hell of a lotta grind, Blizzard's throwback MMO is filled with folk looking for an easy out. Following a particularly nasty few months of scripted heroes, game-breaking exploits and a parade of Orcs marching against cheaters, this month saw the developers wipe the realms clean of over 74,000 accounts suspected of using bots to give them an edge over their human counterparts.
]]>The game event cancellations are pushing even deeper into the year now, as Blizzard have announced BlizzCon 2020 is a no-go. The event usually takes right at the beginning of November, but due to ongoing concerns about the Covid-19 pandemic they've made the decision to cancel it.
"We've talked about different paths we could take, and how each one could be complicated by fluctuations in national and local health guidelines in the months ahead," they said. "Ultimately, after considering our options, we've come to the very difficult decision to not have BlizzCon this year."
]]>When videogames try to return to their ancestral routes, it doesn't always go well. There are exceptions (hello, XCOM), but you often wind up with overwrought slogfests (hello, Dark Souls). I'm confident that the upcoming Small World Of Warcraft will buck that trend, because it's basically Small World wearing a World Of Warcraft coat with new ideas stuffed in its pockets.
Small World is pretty good! It's about stitching complementary abilities together, then choosing the right moment to plunge your chosen people into extinction.
]]>Last weekend, World Of Warcraft private server Elysium planted a single, awful seed. Server organisers coated one in-game item with a highly infectious virus. Within 24 hours of first infection, it had spread to over 7,000 players. This was Pandemic in Azeroth, an attempt from one fan project to deliver actionable real-world advice on surviving the Covid-19 pandemic to World Of Warcraft's fantasy denizens.
]]>Did this whole "being stuck inside" thing get you reinstalling World Of Warcraft again? No? Well, I'm proud of you. If you did fall back into the MMO (or never left), however, the next few months should be smooth sailing indeed. Blizzard this week announced that the Winds of Wisdom double-XP buff has been extended, and will now run until the pre-release update for WoW's next expansion, Shadowlands.
]]>What happens after World Of Warcraft: Classic? It's something the MMO throwback was always going to have to deal with, eventually. There's only so much content to revisit after all. As Classic's expiration date slowly draws closer, Blizzard have begun asking players what they'd like to see next - specifically, whether they're ready to head back through the Dark Portal in a Classic-style return to World Of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade.
]]>We all get those urges from time to time. You're stuck at home, the PC's right there. Surely it's time to start up another World of Warcraft character, right? Unfortunately, that temptation might be harder to resist this month. As an incentive for staying indoors and infection-free, Blizzard have let loose the Winds of Wison, an 100% experience boost for every Azerothian adventurer 'til April 20th.
]]>Originally released in World Of Warcraft back in July 2005, Assault on Blackwing Lair has made a comeback in WoW Classic. In the raid you'll be challenged to defeat Deathwing's son, Nefarian, who's been doing some nasty sounding experiments on the poor dragonflights. The 40 player raid dungeon arrived in a nice big update yesterday, along with some brand new reputation rewards and class quests, too.
]]>The next content update for World Of Warcraft is live and things are looking pretty dark. The Old God N’Zoth has escaped his former prison and is setting about attacking the minds of warriors instead of their bodies. The Visions Of N'Zoth update adds new races and combat challenges for both factions.
]]>Last week, Blizzard once again returned to Anaheim for Blizzcon 2019. But rather than welcoming Blizzard to his city for their annual convention, Rep. Lou Correa - a Democrat congressman for Anaheim, California - accused them of fostering online radicalisation in World of Warcraft. Less than a month after finding themselves in the US Government's crosshairs for their mishandling of a Hearthstone championship protest, Blizzard's handling of fraught politics may once again have landed the studio in hot water.
]]>After a world's been trashed enough, how can you further raise the stakes (and the ruckus)? Mate, stuff it, tear open a route into the afterlife and give the already-dead a kicking. Blizzard today announced Shadowlands, the eighth World Of Warcraft expansion, where Sylvanas Windrunner will do just that. Off we'll go into heck, exploring, murdering, and meeting new people.
]]>World Of Warcraft Classic is here to stay. Good job, everyone. We've successfully avoided dealing with 2019 by hiding inside a 15-year-old MMORPG. But Warcraft didn't get those terrible Mr T commercials by staying put, and even its retro throwback must evolve or perish. With that in mind, Blizzard are ready to roll out the next phase of Classic's rebirth. Phase 2 of Classic is ready to roll out, bringing honour-bound PVP points, a new (old) dungeon and two frightful world bosses into the fray. But only once Classic's realms put their dimensional splinters back together.
]]>World Of Warcraft Classic has been running for 30 minutes and there are Minotaurs everywhere. I’m standing in the Tauren starting region of Mulgore, and the area around me contains more beef than a guild forum. Bull-shaped adventurers, as far as the eye can see, are racing each other to the one ostrich-like enemy in reach, as the bird’s respawn rate fails entirely to keep up with the flood of people spawning in. But the chat is excitable, happy, even constructive.
In this first half-hour a group of us wish a player happy birthday, we share mid-2000s pop culture references, and we say “aww” at a player who ran her character from an entirely different starting area to this one (a huge undertaking) so she could play with her spouse. A player whispers thanks to me as I share a macro that will help them target a creature without needing to see it. The atmosphere is one of adults being set loose in their childhood playground, responsibilities a remote concern.
]]>In a thousand years, when all the oceans have boiled away, when the continents have re-merged to form a single Pangea, this is how I imagine World Of Warcraft will look.
YouTube user Daniel L. has released a mighty fly-over video of the streets of Alliance metropolis Stormwind, fully remade in Unreal Engine 4. It's just over five minutes long, opening over the Valley of Heroes before hitting all the Stormwind hot spots - Weller's Arsenal in the Trade District, the Magic Quarters which overlook the city below, a passage in Old Town leading down toward The Five Deady Venoms. The result looks like a World Of Warcraft of the year 3000, where Blizzard have patched out its cartoon aesthetic and replaced it with its closest Unreal approximation of medieval Edinburgh.
]]>It's with great shame that I admit I've fallen down a bit of a World Of Warcraft Classic hole. It's a massive pain in the arse, though - even at the best of times, it's rubbish to be fighting fellow adventurers for the last handful of XP in each clearing, sharing murderous glares as we race to get the first stab in on a gnoll. It was probably bad enough when 2-hour-long login queues turned into actual in-game queues to take down boss monsters in a timely, British manner.
Enough's enough, say Blizzard. It's time to give these crammed adventurers a one-way trip to quieter worlds.
]]>Who really has the time to do this? It took me so long to get to World Of Warcraft's mythical 60 level cap that three expansions had passed and I was 20 levels behind the new bar. Didn't even touch a raid until 2 years back, and by then all the folks I started with had quit the game and started real, adult lives. Typical.
Now there are all these new kids, putting me to shame in a videogame I've plonked an embarrassing number of hours into. The absolute state of it.
]]>The launch of World Of Warcraft Classic this week was faithful enough to the vintage WoW experience that players have again found themselves waiting in digiqueues to join certain servers, some waiting for hours. Some players have even started queueing in-game for their chance to kill the monsters everyone now needs to whack for low-level quests. So how come Blizzard haven't brought more servers online to meet demand? They say they're thinking of long-term server populations. If they opened too many servers too rashly now, they say, the players who stick around might be spread too thin and leave many servers half-empty in time. But for now, players may be queuing to join more queues.
]]>The problem with revisiting somewhere familiar after a long absence, is that your memory has become crystalised. To you, this place will always look like it did in the final moments you spent there, sealed off from the passage of time. The fading paint, the creaky chair, the doors unlocked, the garden landscaped. This was a valid concern for those returning to the vanilla World of Warcraft presented in WoW: Classic. Azeroth has been through cataclysm and upheaval since its inception. To revisit it in its earliest days risks making the colourful ever-changing world feel like an interactive museum exhibit. But Blizzard are taking care to replicate the patch-by-patch experience of what it was like to live through the highs and lows of the genre’s monolith.
]]>An old nemesis has risen in World Of Warcraft to claim his former throne as the scourge of Elwynn Forest. You mission, if you dare accept, is simple: kill Hogger. Blizzard's MMORPG jumped back 13 years last night with the launch of World Of Warcraft Classic, an official vintage version undoing over years of changes, overhauls, and expansions. If you miss the days when WoW was more rugged and less friendly, this is for you. And unlike unsanctioned pirate servers which kept interest in vintage WoW alive over the years, Blizzard's lawyers won't try to shut this down.
]]>Next week we're gonna party up like it's 2006 with the launch of World Of Warcraft Classic. The official vintage version of Blizzard's MMORPG (as opposed to the unofficial pirate servers which for years have sustained interest in vintage WoW) will roll the game back to shortly before the launch of its first expansion, inviting old people to jack in and briefly pretend they haven't gained too many responsibilities over the past 13 years. In a new video, a number of Blizzard's own old people sit down to play WoW Classic and reminisce about making the dang game in the first place. It's quite nice.
]]>Hello! Gera here. I have been given the keys to RPS HQ while Alice takes her usual evening sabbatical into the Rock Paper Sensory Deprivation tank where she goes to ruminate on the day's news. In the meantime I am using my newfound power like anybody would, which is by making many tiny yet still perceptible changes to the RPS homepage. Hey, nice vertical border. Be a shame if it was MOVED 3MM TO THE LEFT.
All of this HTML hacking is making me yearn for the simpler days of yore. It was a time when websites were still built with HTML. A time before monetization. A time when our MMOs were vanilla - and that's how we liked it. The year was 2004. And thus, I bridge the introductory paragraph to the subsequent news item:
World of Warcraft Classic, a server option that recreates the game in its purest and uncut form as it was before the first Burning Crusade expansion, is launching August 27. And with sweet nostalgia just over the horizon, Blizzard is letting players reserve names for their characters ahead of time. Dibs on FearonGillen.
]]>Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce has done what I could only dream of, putting World Of Warcraft behind him for good.
The studio announced last Friday that Pearce has called time on his 28-year career at the studio. His departure comes only months after fellow co-founder and orc warchief Mike Morhaime jumped ship in April.
]]>World Of Warcraft Classic will be throwing players back to the halcyon days of 2004 come August, reverting the MMO back to its original state. But it seems that some have been looking back through rose-coloured glasses, or at least gotten so used to the 15 years of quality of life improvements that they’re confused by some of the game’s original details. As such, Blizzard have released a very lovely list of things to please stop telling them are bugs.
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