I have been a huge fan of Blizzard games since Rock and Roll Racing, Lost Vikings, and Warcraft 1. You may or may not know I created the site “Diablo 2 Hack List!” back in the day and it was the number 1 Diablo site on the net for a few years. I am writing this post to give you a quick rundown of what I thought of Blizzcon this year, and my experiences.

Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony merely announced a new expansion for WOW that we all knew was coming called Cataclysm. Not being a huge fan of WoW,  and it definately not being a game for the mid-core gamer, there isn’t much to say here. Although watching the trailer showing all of Azeroth converted to lava land seemed pretty darn cool. As far as I could tell, the changes that are coming to WOW with this new expansion pack are going to make people extremely happy.

Diablo 3

This is my favorite of the show. I remember playing the first Diablo in my kitchen, in the dark with my parents watching (I was 12) and feeling like I was playing one of the most amazing games ever in the history of PC gaming. Diablo to me has always been about the insane story, crazy monsters, and awesome team-play. They announced the new Monk class which has a lot of similarities to the Assassin in Diablo 2.  Still no release date of course, I don’t think Blizzard has release dates of Games, they just do what they want over there. My hands on time of course was as the Monk and it’s a blast. The graphics in the game are just superb and definitely are going to put Titan Quest and Sacred to shame. The game feels very fluid and smooth, no hiccups, click and running around like a mad Monk posed no threat to lag. The difficulty definitely seems harder at-least in the Desert setting we were playing in. You have to focus as a team on defeating enemies and combining powers to move forward. Going solo in someone elses game is going to pose very difficult it seems as it was somewhat easy in Diablo 2. The core hack and slash feels untouched with a few added bonuses. After playing the game for a bit I can tell you, Diablo 3 will be the most fun in PC gaming that you will have in a long time.

Starcraft

Although they didn’t really announce anything new about Starcraft other then the new Battle.net which allows you to keep track of friends no matter which game they are in, ala Xbox Live. They did however make playable for the first time the single player mode. The single player mode is different then any other RTS you have played. After each level you have the ability to purchase upgrades and more making for a much more varied experience. The production values on the characters and voice actors is phenomenal. I played the first mission where I had to transport some guys to safety. At first they kept dying because I didn’t build enough men to protect them, but after I ramped up production on Firebats and Marines it becomes a really fun and simple endeavor. I definitely had a blast playing single player and I can’t wait till I can finish playing more. The real gem however is the new Editor. The new editor is built with mod’s and custom map building in mind. It’s so advanced you could conceivable create a third person shooter (ala SC Ghost). I can’t wait to get our hands on the editor and make some awesome Tower Defense style games. The most important announcement however is the Beta coming before the end of the year. My guesstimate is the game will come out sometime spring of 2010 with the Beta coming out sometime December.

The Guild

The guild being there was definately one of the highlights of the show. Watching the guild and Felica Day answers some fun questions as well as laugh and giggle about it just shows how well they all connect and the characters relate. It’s really hard to describe it, but it was funny!