As you read these words, it’s likely that I’m sitting on a United Airlines plane on my way to LAX, with my final destination being Anaheim, Calif., and BlizzCon ’09. And as I sit on this plane, my thoughts drifting randomly from one Blizzard topic to the next, I can’t help but wonder what this year’s convention has in store for me, for all of us.
Last year’s convention was certainly unforgettable. The announcement that StarCraft II would be a trilogy of games, combined with being one of the first outsiders to play Diablo III, made for a very memorable first BlizzCon.
Follow me as I look into my crystal ball (more like bag of airline peanuts), and speculate on what we can expect from this year’s Blizzard extravaganza. Oh, and there’s a list of other juicy StarCraft II facts at the end of this post as well.
What to expect from BlizzCon ’09:
- New screen shots and videos from StarCraft II, Diablo III and WoW (duh)
- Playable singleplayer demo of StarCraft II
- Additional classes revealed for Diablo III
- An all new demo for D3 complete with new artwork
- A new WoW expansion
- The all new MMO is officially revealed as a new franchise (remember SC2 learned earlier this year it was indeed going to be a new IP)
- Dare I say, the new MMO is playable?
Interesting StarCraft II facts you’ve yet to hear:
- There will be never-before-seen artwork in the BlizzCon build of StarCraft II
- Blizzard has confirmed that the map editor will have the ability for map makers to create a third-person, over the shoulder-style shooter map. In fact, Blizzard said they have a few developers who have been tinkering with third-person maps after hours.
- SC2 will have improved digital security which will require fans to log into battle.net to finish installing the game.
- Blizzard has officially confirmed that there will be downloaded content (known as patches in the PC world) offered in between the expansions. We’re not sure yet if this will have to do with the micro-transaction model Blizzard is rumored to be working on or not.
As I said in yesterday’s post, if you’ve got a question for the StarCraft II or Diablo III developers, feel free to send it to omgstarcraft@gmail.com and I’ll try and get it answered for you.
The next time you hear from me should be from the floor of the convention. Keep checking back for updates! Oh, and FYI...if you haven't played this blizzcon game yet, you should. I figured out you can hax and just shoot infinitely if you walk all the way to the left of the screen lol.
