The Blizzard Store was recently relaunched with a complete new layout, with a larger variety of products. The most interesting feature is Digital Downloads. Currently, only Warcraft III and its expansion are available as digital download, but that is just a matter of time. Other games will be available in this format soon. This is probably part of the reason Blizzard released No-CD patches recently for Starcraft and Warcraft 3. A Diablo No-CD patch is currently in development.
Enter the Blizzard Beta Lottery to put your Blizzard Account in the running to participate in the beta tests for future Blizzard games! By registering, your account will have a chance to be added to the list of invites for each Blizzard public beta test as it begins.
A close look to their Store FAQ page reveals the following
What are Digital Downloads?
Certain Blizzard games can be purchased as Digital Downloads. Instead of purchasing a boxed retail copy of the game, the digital version gives you instant access – download and play it on your computer as soon as you pay for the game.
How many times can I download a game?
You can download a game that has been registered to your account an unlimited number of times.
Can I designate an item as a gift?
You can only designate Digital Downloads as gifts. Doing so will send a transferable authentication key to the email address of your choice. For other products that you wish to gift to someone, simply add their address to your Address Book and send the order there.
Why are some games not available to be purchased as a Digital Download?
As this is a new service, not all Blizzard games may be available to download immediately upon the launch of the Blizzard Store. However, more titles will gradually be made available for Digital Download over time.
The e-Sports world has scored big by having ten Warcraft III players among the Olympic torch bearers to bring the flame to Beijing, China during the 2008 Olympics Ceremony. Two Starcraft players are included: Junchun "Pj" Sha and Lei "Leilei" Shen. Among the Warcraft III torch bearers are Jang Jaeho（MYM.Moon）, WE.Sky, xiaobai, BeT.Leilei, BeT.Pj, Jaystar, wNv.Sai -- Source: GlobeandMail, GotFrag, and Gamespot China.
The BOCOG (or the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, if you aren't into the whole brevity thing) has added ten professional gamers—including Jaeho “Moon” Jang (pictured above), a top Warcraft III player sponsored by PC peripheral maker Razer—to the roster of torch bearers carrying the Olympic flame on its journey through China.
The Dev Team will launch the public test servers soon.
Westfall Test Server - When players select the PTR in their server list, they will then be able to log in and update their client to patch 1.22. When players select a different server, their client will automatically patch back to 1.21b.
Unfortunately, there has been last minute issues that will prevent the patch from going live on public test servers today. I understand the overwhelming excitement to get into the PTR server to test the new patch and have no desire to give you news of the patch's delay. Nonetheless, I would like to remind everyone that we are almost there and I will continue to give you updates on the patch's progress.
The first question I am already working on is how long the delay is. The updates on this will be posted here when I find out.
The second question you probably have is why the patch didn't go live today. Here is reason from our Producer, "At the last minute we found a problem with the patch which could break the installs of a small percentage of users." Again, they are only working to make sure the testing and final patch goes smoothly as well as betters your current gameplay experience of Warcraft III.
Please be patient as there will be more updates. Please also keep discussion about the Patch Notes.
Here are the Patch Notes for 1.22:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Patch 1.22
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
FEATURES
- There is now a replay auto-save feature in the options menu. Replays
are automatically saved to the "replay" folder.
- Added an option to always show unit and building health bars.
- You can now enable and disable the display of minimap signals
from players and other observers using chat commands:
/showminimapsignals and /hideminimapsignals.
BALANCE CHANGES
HUMAN
- Scout Tower repair rate changed from 12 to 20.
- Knight damage increased: Attack cooldown changed from 1.50 to
1.40 and base damage increased from 25 to 28 (Average damage is 34).
UNDEAD
- Increased Ziggurat base armor from 1 to 5.
- Reduced the build time of the Necropolis from 120 to 100.
NIGHT ELF
- Reduce the Orb of venom poison duration from 10 seconds to 8 seconds.
- Increase the experience gain from Dryads from Level 2 (40xp) to
Level 3 (60 xp).
FIXES
- The cooldown on unlimited usable items (example: the staff of
preservation) now persists after the item is dropped or traded.
- A cooldown exploit with potions has been fixed.
- When you unburrow a Crypt Fiend, its auto-cast will no longer be toggled
off.
- An exploit bug in which items could lose their cooldowns when transferred
between heroes has been fixed.
ADDITIONAL MAPS
Furthermore, these 4 new contest winner maps will be included in the final patch, but not on the PTR:
- (2)MeltingValley
- (2)RoadToStratholme
- (4)CentaurGrove
- (4)TidewaterGlades
The last couple of months have been busy for different Warcraft and Starcraft Modding Communities such as Star Alliance, Campaign Creations, and Rampaging Polygons.
Warcraft III Modding Tutorials Star Alliance (Samods) has a pretty good collection of modding tutorials and here you may find additional tutorials if you wish to learn how to create a Warcraft 3 mod.
A Tinker's Tale
HandClaw from Rampaging Polygons is still working on his Warcraft III Goblin Mod A Tinker's Tale, but you may get a sneak peek through concept art, and tech tree. (Read More)
Mistria
After a long hiatus, Desler and Joel of The World Crafter-fame have released the first map of Mistria - a Warcraft III Map.
Armageddon Onslaught - RELEASED!
The drums have deepened into a droning thunder, their cries echoing through the mountains. Ten thousand years of decay showers off the walls and ceiling, dulling your vision and filling your lungs with ash. In the moment you try to shield your eyes from the dust, a light emanates from the beyond. It surges forward, splintering into a thousand screaming figures. It is then you know what you have awoken. It is then, in your final moments, you feel regret. Requires Brood War 1.10
The gates of hell have been opened. -- Armageddon Onslaught - Public Alpha 0.1 version AAsub5. (Read More)
Warcraft: Dawn of Chaos
Some weeks ago I reported the demo release of the oh-so-long-awaited Warcraft: Dawn of Chaos total conversion mod. This demo is merely the multiplayer demo which allows you to play and see the nice work put into modeling and texturing the buildings and units. This mod is meant to convert the Warcraft III gameplay into Warcraft: Orcs and Humans. And that's no joke ... you can even build roads and walls using the Town Hall, and like in the first Warcraft game, you can't build a building unless you have built road. I already downloaded it and had some fun. Chapter 1 of the map campaign will be available very soon. Realm Design (Rampaging Polygons) has decided to release each map of Dawn of Chaos in a monthly basis. Download the Multiplayer demo for now and have fun!
Blizzard is preparing to launch the Warcraft III Patch 1.22 Test Servers in upcoming days. It is recommended to install a fresh copy of Warcraft III in a different folder to be used for the test server. Otherwise, you will have to downgrade at the end of the testing.
Karune: The Dev Team is now preparing test servers with the patch that will be available for testing by the public. In order to jump on these servers, you will have to upgrade your version of the game to the test patch. Upon completion of the testing on the public test server, those participating will have to downgrade their version of the game back to the latest retail patch. We will also be using Battle.net forums to gather feedback and bug reports from the community. Exact location of this forum is still to be determined.
Realm Design (Rampaging Polygons) has released a Multiplayer instalment of the long-awaited Warcraft III: Dawn of Chaos total conversion mod. This mod brings old-school Warcraft: Orcs and Humans to life in 3D using the Warcraft III Engine. And I mean it ... you need to create roads in order to create buildings. The single player is in the works, but Realm Design wanted fans to taste the awe of both orc and human races in Multiplayer via Battle.net. This is what Skullpitter told me:
Warcraft: The Dawn of Chaos is now being released in instalments. Each instalment will contain one Act of one of the two campaigns. The next instalment will be Act I of The Lion Roars, the Human campaign. This will contain three prelude cinematics and three missions; The Plains of Azeroth, The Defense of Grand Hamlet, and Enemy at the Gates.
We estimate two weeks before this will be ready. After this we will be releasing the first Orc instalment, Act I of The Scouring of Azeroth. This method of release allows us to fix bugs and implement replacement material with much greater ease.
We have released what amounts to a teaser instalment already, a multiplayer map called Misty Forest which has both the Orc and Human races fully implemented as well as the majority of the necessary art. The download contains a map and an .exe which allows you to play Dawn of Chaos (DoC) over Battle.net with other players who already have the .exe installed.
Few days ago, Mike Morhaime, Rob Pardo and Frank Pearce were keynote speakers at the 2008 D.I.C.E. event in Las Vegas. There they revealed their list of Blizzard games cancelled in the past nigh-couple of decades since 1991. Blizzard Entertainment became a 17-year old Gaming Company on Feburary 14th. Gamespot offers a lengthy video of one hour. You can tune up to Blizzard Team at minute 11:25. Mike Morhaime and Frank Pearce introduce the history of Blizzard since 1991 to 1994. Briefly, Rob Pardo goes on his experience the moment he joined an already successful gaming company. By minute 22:00 we get an internal-joke related to Bobby (aka Robert Kotick
Chairman & CEO, Activision) concerning the Activision Blizzard Merger that makes the audience laugh.
Frank Pearce and Mike Morhaime explain how the Blizzard Community grew since the launch of Battle.net and how ten years worth of fanbase translated into a successful World of Warcraft MMORPG interaction today. At minute 31:28, Morhaime explains that Lost Vikings was first concepted to have fifty vikings - idea based and inspired by the game Lemmings, but a last minute approach from Interplay president Brian Fargo resulted in the decision to make it a three-vikings game. Additionally, after listening to Brian Fargo's feedback, Interplay offered their own artist to remake the three vikings into three different-and-unique-looking vikings using a 16-colors-pallete.
"We come up with a lot of great ideas, we talk about them a lot, we really think we know where we are going, we implement a lot of technology, and artwork and gameplay, and then we go ... "shit! This kinda sucks!" And then we have to take a decision: "Do we keep going that direction? -- and we know the answers is no -- Do we kinda do a reboot?, you know re-evaluate the game throughout the engine. (Note: A slideshow shows a 1997 Starcraft Alpha, where the engine was based on clay models) ... well we obviously have to think of something different. Or, we would definitely cancel a game if we don't think there isn't a realistic reboot. We put gameplay first in our decision."
Around minute 46:00, Frank Pearce talks about the Pandaren, designed by Senior Art Director Samwise. It seems there won't be a Pandaren race in World of Warcraft -- this is my personal view (Medievaldragon), based on what he describes. The chinese didn't like how Blizzard made their national animal of peace mixed with Japanese military samurai garments. So unless Blizzard makes Pandaren reboot and making them neutral NPCs, I don't see this race showing up in World of Warcraft future expansions any time soon. Blizzard has learned over the years to take in mind the global community and other cultures.
At minute 51:00, Frank Pearce talks about canceled games very briefly showing a slide on the background listing all those games. By minute 54:00, the public was open to ask questions. An interesting one broke the ice: What was the biggest fight the developers have had? Pearce mentions an anecdote where the team was split between wanting naval units in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. This question opened the pandora's box. Fans now found out there was a big bitter design fights at Blizzard between Rob Pardo(Warcraft III Lead Designer) and Allen Adham( Warcraft III Senior Designer). Allen really was passionate about adding Naval units in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos because it was a great feature fans loved in Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness. Many fans missed and demanded these naval units when Warcraft III came out. However, Rob Pardo says Warcraft III was strongly designed to be a Hero-based game. A Hero can't use any of his magic abilities from within the naval unit, and it wouldn't be nice to build an army and stock up your Hero to suddenly see him go "bloop-bloop-bloop!" sinking down along with your naval boat. It was a common-sense design decision.
Morhaime adds that Allen Adham was a very persuasive person using his "Jedi mindtrick". Bottomline, there was a public showdown between Pardo and Adham in front of the development team who split taking sides. Adham didn't take well losing the Naval unit, but Pardo says they made up. The next question had to do with game release schedules to which Morhaime gave as example Diablo (1996). The Starcraft team put their game on hold for some months, to help with the crunch time behind the Diablo team until it shipped. Starcraft II was put on hold and its team was moved to help with the launch of World of Warcraft (November 2004). Morhaime created the Battle.net chat interface.
The third public question had to do with the process to cancel original IPs such as Shattered Nations and Nomad, and other games that didn't even got announced. Sadly, Joseph Olin (D.I.C.E. President) approached the podium and interrupted Pardo: "Time's up!" So we missed a lot of good info about these games. /rasp @ Joseph.
February 6th, 2008 - Patch 1.21b (No CD Patch)is completed and should be available online today. Patch 1.21b will not break any of 1.21's replays.
This patch will allow owners of Warcraft III/TFT who have their game installed, to play the game without having their Warcraft III/TFT CD in their CD ROM drives.
If things go well, this week Blizzard might release Warcraft 3 Patch 1.21b which will offer e-sports support, balance issues and the juicy part ... No-CD patch. That means, you won't need the Warcraft CD-ROM loaded on your CD-Drive to play the game in single player nor on Battle.net.
A Press Release might be released in following weeks either on February or March concerning this move to release NO-CD Patches to all Blizzard games. Emphasis on "All".
January 29th, 2008 - Today, the eSports Team is meeting with Rob Pardo, (Senior Vice President of Game Design), and Chris Sigaty, (Lead Producer of StarCraft II), Dustin Browder (Lead Designer of StarCraft II),and David Kim (Balance Designer of StarCraft II) for the second round of discussions on the balance changes that will happen for Patch 1.22. Many of the balance changes mentioned by both professional eSports players and the community alike, such as 'nerfs' to Human Guard Tower repair rates are on the top of the balance list for these rounds of discussion.
When balance changes are more solidified, I will give you an update on what these may be, and a better approximate release time. Furthermore, there is the possibility of additional Battle.net features to be added in Patch 1.22 that would further add to the longevity of the game online.
Patch 1.21b, the 'no CD' patch for Warcraft III is being signed off as we speak, and is aiming at a release for next week. -- (Read More
Project Revolution demo was released during the Christmas holidays. A few days ago, SCLegacy met with the Project Revolution mod team, Snowflake Entertainment. I was present during the Q&A on IRC chat. Find out more about this mod which brings the original Starcraft units to the Warcraft III engine, and what plans they have.
The next Warcraft III Patch is coming quietly soon as reported by Karune. It is currently in development, pending Internal Quality Assurance (QA) approval.
--------------------------
A new year has begun and with that a promise was made to get the next Warcraft III patch out to our fans. During this process, I also hope I can shed some light on how the patching process works. On this thread, I will leave updates and announcements which will hopefully give you more insight into the status of this Warcraft III patch.
Warcraft III Patch Status
Gathering Community Feedback: Done
Gathering E-Sports Players Feedback: Done
Internal QA Testing: Done
Development Feedback: Done
Patch Development: In Progress
Final Internal QA: N/A
January 7th, 2008 - Met with the producer and was assured that the Warcraft III patch completion is to be brought up this week during their priority tasking meeting. The outcome of the meeting will be brought to my attention and then added on this thread. All estimated release times will also be added on this thread.
Karune
RTS Community Manager
Blizzard Entertainment
Realm Design hosted at the Rampaging Polygons Modding Community has announced the impending release of the long-awaited Warcraft III mod that recreates some of the events of Warcraft: Orcs and Humans in the Warcraft III Engine with some custom Map Campaigns. Those familiar with the modding community will remember Xaran Alamas, former-member of Star Alliance (Samods). Xaran Alamas is involved in the development of Warcraft: Dawn of Chaos and founded Rampaging Polygons some time ago. Other members behind Warcraft: Dawn of Chaos are: John Drake, Skullpitter, Challis, Samurai Panda, STURMGuy, Albiino-I, and Whitehorn - among others.
It's been a great New Year for the whole modding community.
From all of us at Realm Design I'd like to wish you a Happy New Year!
Now that that is over with - let's get to business! The Dawn of Chaos is a large project and as such is a bit hard to focus on for us - so to fix that problem we've chopped it up. Starting this February, we will be releasing Dawn of Chaos in chapters, each chapter consisting of 3 Orc and 3 Human levels, as well as an accompanying story cinematic for each race.
That's right, Dawn of Chaos is coming out this February!
Now to tide you over, here's some shots of the two new races. Some of this was released at some point and has been updated, some of it is new, and some of it is content from the DoC vault finally seeing the light of day.
I was invited by Cooler, from Snowflake Entertainment, to an interview on IRC chat. SCLegacy had invited them for an interview to discuss details of Project Revolution (the Warcraft III mod that recreates Starcraft in 3D). It was in this interview that the team revealed that as far as the demo (recently released), the mod development is done. Due to engine constraints and limits it is nigh impossible to finish the Zerg and Protoss races. The mod demo, nevertheless, contains the Zerg and Protoss unit models for viewing pleasure. The Terran race is finished, but needs some bug fixes.
There might be further development if the team gets more talented people. Their demo will get future patches, to fix bugs, balance issues and tweak certain "models / animations" as needed.
One of my questions in the interview was why there was no German, Italian or other languages support for the demo installer. Their answer was they do not own those CDs. I had to agree it was a good reason, as they would have to know the directory paths of each file in order to make an installer. Nevertheless, if someone skilled in the ways of modding has the Italian, French, German or other language versions of Starcraft and/or Warcraft III -- Snowflake Entertainment said -- are invited to join the team, and gladly will work on a demo installer/loader. Mac OS X programmers are also welcome. Just contact someone from their team via forum: http://www.wc3campaigns.net/revolution/forum/
Keep your eyes on SCLegacy's News Headlines to read the interview transcript.
The dialogue text transcript of the whole Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos Human Campaign is now available. It's been a busy holidays for me, to counter the boredom with more lore content.
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King will introduce a new Caverns of Time dungeon: The Culling. It is precisely in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos where Arthas's downfall into insanity starts as he purged Stratholme's citizens.
The Scourge plague had been brought to Stratholme within the dispatched grain crates which came from Andorhal. Previous to the Culling, Arthas accussed Uther the Lightbringer of treason for refusing to take part in the killing of an entire city. Arthas disbanded the Order of the Silver Hand, and proceeded to kill the citizens so that Mal'Ganis couldn't claim them into the Scourge.
Mal'Ganis taunted Arthas, luring him to seek him in Northrend. The consequences of The Culling, changed Arthas forever. His thirst for vengeance led him down to the path of the new Death Knight. And ultimately to become the living vessel of Ner'Zhul the Lich King.
Finally! After more than 3 years in development, Snowflake Entertainment (a modding community) has announced that Project Revolution demo is now downloadable. This demo allows you to play Starcraft Terran race in 3D using the Warcraft III Engine. You must have the Starcraft: Brood War and Warcraft III: Frozen Throne CDs installed and updated with the latest patches (All English-version) and load the CDs on your CD-Drive when asked by the installer in order to play this demo. Installation won't work on non-English versions of the Game CDs. No Mac installer at this time. Windows Vista is not supported.
Project Revolution mod is meant only as a preview of what Snowflake Entertainment has done thus far. It's not a complete or debugged demo. There are many bugs, and adjustments that will be fixed in the final version of the demo. In this demo, Terran race is arond 90% done (lot of bug fixes not implemented). Zerg is very incomplete (60%). The demo offers you a taste of what has been done in the past 3 years, and to show the potential the full mod will have when it is released in the future.
Make sure both games are already installed on these paths:
C:\Program Files\Starcraft
C:\Program Files\Warcraft III
Insert your Starcraft original CD in your CD-ROM drive (Not Brood War CD)
Run Project Revolution installer
Type: YES (in CAPS) to accept the EULA.
Type the following path when asked:
C:\projectrevolution
You will see text scrolling down. It is copying .wav files, images and data from the Starcraft CD.
When you read this message: "Step 3 Install Complete" -- do not close the Revolution-install-EULA.exe window. Simply remove Starcraft CD from your CD-ROM Drive. Now insert the Warcraft III: Frozen Throne CD into your CD-ROM Drive.
Go to your computer folder by pressing START button --> My Computer --> Click Local Disk --> Open projectrevolution folder
Click the Project Revolution icon
You will see the Revolution-install-EULA.exe window start browsing down. It is installing files from your Warcraft 3 CD. The Project Revolution Launcher will load.
Press Single Player
Press Custom Game
Choose a Map and choose Terran Race
Have fun
FAQ!
1. It won't install?
First make Sure Install.exe and Revolution .mpq are in the same directory. Secondly SC CD must be in the CD Drive with Scand BW already installed on the computer.
2. It wont run.
First off Wc3 and TFT must be installed for it to run.
Turn off your Virus scanners. Best bet if this still does not work is a fresh install of XP. Vista has been reported to work with PR however the developers of the Loader Andy, Mike, and I Never intended it for Vista. The base code was created over three years ago and many changes in standard included libraries may have occurred. Hence no vista support will be provided.
3. I type "yes" and it just exits.
You have to type yes exactly how you see it on the screen. Same capitalization and everything.
4. What path should I use?
This is up to you. A common one would be
C:\Projectrevolution
As reported a few days ago, you can vote for Project Revolution which is nominated as Best Mod of 2007 at Moddb.com.
TowerPowerNerf got some spotlight time when he posted his YouTube message to Karune, Blizzard RTS Community Manager, for his recent Holiday announcement: There is no Warcraft III patch before 2008.
Karune: Warcraft III Patch Update
In my opinion, the Warcraft III community has been extremely patient in waiting for the new patch, and of course this patience is much appreciated. Although, the patch does not seem like it will be out by the end of the year, I will be making sure this Warcraft III patch will be my first priority for 2008, above all other projects including StarCraft II. I too, am very disappointed that the patch will not be out this year.
As another update, the melee map contest winners will be announced in late January. Expect another update for the patch in the first week of January. The Dev Team is currently compiling and testing both the recommendations made here on Battle.net as well as suggestions from many of the professional E-Sports Warcraft III players. Will let you know when more information arises.
To both the YouTube Video posted by TowerPowerNerf, Karune kicked off with his very own ... YouTube Rap Video. No ... I'm not kidding you. This is a very entertaining community interaction to pass the holiday boredom. Watch Karune's Video below:
Karune: This was really a community inspired project, where I was just responding to the community's efforts in their passion for their game.
I'm sure there may be more opportunities to put out some personal fun stuff in the future, though remember, I always expect everyone in the community to be on the cutting edge of innovation here :)
Besides, I'm just some old guy who works at a video game company...what do I know? - Source: Battle.net Forums.
Ok, so you didn't like the rapping, not interested in a bored CM during a holiday break, and more interested in the asian babe. She is Lina So, and you may visit her website for some videos and wallpapers. Yah, she's hot.
This newspost was dimmed worthy by Joystiq and Kotaku.
Added the lore dialogue transcript from Chapter 1-4, of the Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos Human Campaign. I will keep updating further chapters in upcoming days. Keep checking.
With the holidays still going on, News go down a bit. So, I'm focusing the spare time going through the Warcraft III Demo. Those who are participating in the Murloc/Beta Keycode Contest were asked to download the Warcraft III Demo in order to answer a few questions to join the contest drawing.
I have gathered some of the transcript of in-game conversations, as I did some time ago with Warcraft III: Frozen Throne. And a video to accompany the dialogue texts. This, of course, in benefit to those who joined World of Warcraft and haven't played previous Warcraft games, or those who wish to read the dialogues as a source of lore.
After I am done with the demo, I will attempt to transcript Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (Retail). Check them out.
Moddb (Mod Database) is kicking off with its 2007 Mod of the Year Awards. Project Revolution is nominated under the Warcraft III Mod category. You can now Vote for this popular and long-expected mod here. The video demo of 6:35 minutes is now available.
Project Revolution is a WarCraft3 : Frozen Throne Mod, that will turn StarCraft:BroodWar into 3D. The Mod will stay true to the original StarCraft:Broodwar. No Races will be added, no heroes, no Units or skills. Just plain old SC. In 3D. Check out our screenshots to see what we've been working on. Check out our site and drop a few lines on the forum or visit our IRC channel for a chat with the team if you like. We're always scouting for talented artists and coders. If you think you can contribute to this project visit our site.
Blizzard announced a new contest for Warcraft III Map Makers. Are you talented with the WorldEditor?
To prepare for our New Season of Tournaments, the Blizzard Community Team is happy to announce this Map Creation Contest, adding winning maps into the Tournament Pool of Maps for our Tournaments. Each map will be judged by the Blizzard Development Team in terms of polish and balance. We look forward to reviewing the creative eSports style maps we'll be receiving!
For more information on how to submit your map, as well as prizes and rules, please check our contest page.
Prizes for 1v1
First Place
one (1) 2GB Apple iPod nano with the Blizzard Logo
one (1) Warcraft Battle Chest signed by the Warcraft Development Team
Runner Up
one (1) Warcraft Battle Chest signed by the Warcraft Development Team
Prizes for 2v2
First Place
one (1) 2GB Apple iPod nano with the Blizzard Logo
one (1) Warcraft Battle Chest signed by the Warcraft Development Team
Runner Up
one (1) Warcraft Battle Chest signed by the Warcraft Development Team
After five years, Warcraft III has received a lot of support from Blizzard, with patches. Karune reveals a new patch is in the works by year's end ... Read more.
Karune: "A patch for Warcraft III is still planned to go online by the end of the year, addressing various AMM and hacking issues. The balance suggestions created on the Warcraft III thread has also been summarized and sent to the team working on this patch as well."
Project Revolution team has been at hard work throughout the summer, and recently entered an internal closed beta stage (Contributors beta) on July 31. There is no official date for a public beta at this point and it is pending.
Recent updates to the Project Revolution official site have provided a few screenshots. When you see the screenshots you will think this is a Starcraft: Brood War screenshot until you notice the UI at the top is from Warcraft III. Even the UI at the bottom seems accurate with the original game's. The Project Revolution team, dubbed Snowflake Entertainment, also released the image of the loading screen with the team credits - the first image beta testers see when launching the mod.
You require to register and/or be a forum member at the Project Revolution website to view the images.
Rob Pardo hinted a Warcraft RTS is next after Starcraft II ships to stores. You can read the full interview at GameDaily.biz. This is a strong indication that the franchise doesn't end in the MMORPG, as many fans thought. There is still lore to be told. A Warcraft IV game wouldn't ship before 2010 probably. I can imagine two things could happen in Warcraft IV. A stage to introduce lore of what happened in World of Warcraft, Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King; and new lore pointing to the seven new worlds planned through the lifespan of World of Warcraft, as hinted by Metzen at Blizzcon 2005, accessible via portals created by Ner'zhul 20 years ago.
Another possibility could be Warcraft some years in the future. After all, there is a few years between Orcs and Humans and Warcraft II. And many years from Warcraft II to Warcraft III. Four years from Warcraft III to World of Warcraft. From the lore we know there are new possible young heroes: Rhonin and Vereesa gave birth to twins (Warcraft: War of the Ancients Trilogy). Anduin Wrynn (the child), acting King of Stormwind. Metzen speculated of an offspring of Thrall and Garona at Blizzcon 2007, something not written on stone. There is an interesting relationship going on between Tyri (blue dragon) and Jorad Mace. In the Manga, Jorad Mace seems attracted to her. When I asked Knaak about plans for a blue dragon/human offspring, he offered no comment, however.
World of Warcraft: Cycle of Hatred mentions a family member of Sir Anduin Lothar living at Theramore, and that Aegwynn lives in Theramore disguised as a councilor to Jaina Proudmoore. There is also the new lore to be introduced in the World of Warcraft DC Comic Book with the mysterious new human character. The upcoming World of Warcraft Burning Crusade Manga with Tyri and Jorad. And the World of Warcraft: Night of the Dragon novel (2008).
Rob Pardo: "Why are you doing another Warcraft RTS, shouldn't you be doing StarCraft?" Well Warcraft was what the team wanted to make, they were burned out on the StarCraft universe, that was the game they wanted to make and as far as Warcraft goes, we love the universe – it's an amazingly successful universe. If we want to go back and do it, maybe we will, maybe we won't."
Blizzard issued a press release announcing the 5th Anniversary of Warcraft III.
In July 2002, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos launched in multiple regions around the world and quickly became Blizzard's seventh #1 seller. Once the bulk of the reviews had been written, it was clear that Warcraft III had earned a spot as one of the highest rated PC games of all time, following in the footsteps of its seven-year-old predecessor in the series, 1995's Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness.
Combined with the Frozen Throne expansion set, Warcraft III remains a popular component of international competitive play, and thanks in large part to the efforts of an active mod community, there's a wide variety of new Warcraft III experiences to be had that go well beyond what comes in the box. We hope you'll take a few moments to check out our brief retrospective on Warcraft III and read through some of the reviews that were written about it back in 2002.
OrcmastergroM, creator of Starcraft Map Campaign Revengers and Warcraft II's Helm's Deep, has submited a new Warcraft II PUD map titled Gilneas. If you are a nostalgic Warcraft II player, this is a reason to dust it off. I'm currently replaying the Diablo II single player and will give a try to Warcraft II by playing this PUD.
OrcmasterGroM: Gilneas closed itself off from the rest of the world using the Greymane Wall, although it was not a part from the Alliance nor Horde it was ready to fight them both, blade to blade.
Due to Alterac's betrayal the Horde was able to grab a succesful foothold in Lordareon's shores, especially where Zul'Dare and Gilneas lay. The Orcs have laid siege to the Greymane Wall but had no luck. Though its heavily fortified, the coast is not, and nor is Zul'Dare. You must lead a force to attack Zul'Dare. Once the island is yours, raise a new army: both naval and ground, and attack Gilneas head on.
Gilneas would now wish it was part of the war with the Alliance of Lordareon...
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