Posts tagged World of Warcraft
The Backlog: It’s Like E3 Again Edition
Aug 21st
Why hello there, future purchase
What a week it’s been. The inaugural Gamescom in Cologne, Germany opened on Wednesday and guess what: Sony kindly unveiled the new PlayStation 3 Slim. Media outlets weren’t exactly surprised by the announcement, but I think we’re all glad the rumor mill has finally ceased its incessant turning about the damn console. Looks like I finally need to go get a PS3.
Oh, and a little event in Anaheim, California called BlizzCon flung its +10 Doors of Nerd Barricading open to the (literally) unwashed masses of Blizzard fanatics today, and so far we’ve already been made privy to the next World of Warcraft expansion, a new Diablo III class and StarCraft II being confirmed for release in 2010.
You know, as a gamer I like it when these big gaming-related events run back-to-back with one another. The ESA might as well wedge E3 2010 between next year’s Gamescom and BlizzCon to mentally and physically destroy every games journalist in existence. That could be Silicon Sasquatch‘s in! Read the rest of this entry »
Daily Recap: May 13, 2009
May 14th
I’d like to apologize to our readers for a late Daily Recap. Our goal is to post these summations of the day’s news in a timely manner, but sometimes that doesn’t always happen. Yesterday a plethora of Windows Update-related problems and a strangely spotty Internet connection got in the way of my non-paying job.
Also, the two-hour season finale of Lost didn’t help much.
Hurley certainly isn't happy with the lateness of this post
Thankfully, it seems, Wednesday was relatively calm as far as news goes: DICE learned from its console prejudices, Blizzard reaffirmed its next MMO is not World of Warcraft: Part Deux and Microsoft bolstered its Platinum Hits collection.
Daily Recap: May 7, 2009
May 8th
More earnings statements, game announcements, and a touch of the whimsical. Time for today’s news roundup!
Gunnin' for that #1 spot: Sales of Call of Duty: World at War helped Activision post earnings of nearly $1 billion this past year, the company announced today. Guitar Hero and World of Warcraft were also named as leading Activision-Blizzard franchises.
Just a couple of days ago, Electronic Arts announced its quarterly and yearly financial statement; today, Activision followed that up with its own release, and the returns are very impressive. Activision-Blizzard posted a $981 million net revenue in the first quarter of this year — no, that’s not a yearly figure. That beats the publishing giant’s own projections for the quarter by more than $100 million, and has caused the company to raise its revenue expectations for the 2009 calendar year to $4.3 billion.
“Our better-than-expected first quarter results were driven by strong global consumer response to the Call of Duty and Guitar Hero franchises and Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft, despite challenging economic times,” Activision CEO Robert Kotick said.
Of course, as happens from time to time, some games that were rumored to exist were confirmed in the financial release. Guitar Hero 5, Band Hero, and DJ Hero were all confirmed in the report, and Guitar Hero: Van Halen was made official later in the day. GH5 is a follow up to 2008′s Guitar Hero: World Tour and 2009′s Guitar Hero: Metallica (our review of which is here.) Band Hero is going to be family friendly, and DJ Hero will feature hip-hop, R&B, electronic, techno, and dance music and a turntable peripheral.
Daily Recap: April 23, 2009
Apr 23rd
Mr. Bubbles would be proud
Considering today’s wealth of BioShock 2 information pouring out from every single videogame-related webpage on the internet, The Silicon Sasquatch is officially renaming April 23 “BioShock Press Day.”
I think we can all expect that future sequels of the franchise will continue to be unveiled on April 23, from now until the end of time — or until BioShock: Big Daddy’s Beach Volleyball Blast 3 comes out and we give up gaming forever.
More news after the break.
Review: World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
Feb 17th
At this point in the game’s lifespan, a betting man would be wise to wager that you the gamer have played, or at least trialed, World of Warcraft. It’s also safe to assume that even if you’ve avoided the cyberscapes of Azeroth, you know at least one person suckling the Warcraft teat. Blizzard’s flagship title with its 11.5 million players is a testament to the staying power of this particular MMO, and the new expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, is an all-out effort on Blizzard’s part to keep it at the top.
“But Aaron,” some may inevitably ask, “why would I play the same game after it’s already been stomping on its competitors for the past four years? It’s not going to change that much.” That’s a reasonable question, for sure. They may also assume World of Warcraft is like any other MMO, with a never-ending series of expansion packs aimed primarily at the hardcore, top-tier players with enough time on their hands to complete the numerous, escalating challenges presented. This was what happened with the previous expansion, The Burning Crusade. Fortunately, Wrath is more new than it is old, and while being true to the golden formula of [1 engaging quest system + rapid combat * (mountains of loot)²] that Blizzard created with vanilla WoW and BC before it, the bottom line is, simply, Wrath is the most fun I’ve had playing an MMO in many, many years.
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