The Year Ahead

Indelible — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 23:35:14 GMT

2007 is officially over and it is sad to see it go. We had some great times over the past 365 days with titles like Hellgate London and The Burning Crusade being released to the masses as well as some exciting announcement such as StarCraft 2 and the merger of Activision and Vivendi Games.

Sadly however, 2007 is gone and we are now challenged with 2008 which is promising to be one of the most fruitful years in gaming. There are so many things to look forward to and to hope for over the coming year.

StarCraft 2 Release

No release date has been confirmed at the moment but most believe that Blizzard will release their new RTS to the masses at some point in the next 365 days. We wait with baited breathe for the successor to (arguably) the single most successful RTS game ever to grace the world of gaming. The odd thing is that no one is expecting a flop. People have seen Blizzards logo and simply accepted that the game will be the best thing since sliced bread. Frankly, it's going to have to be. With StarCraft being a pro-sport in Korea, StarCraft 2 is going to have to live up to some major expectations if it is going to overshadow it's predecessor and that is not going to be an easy feat to pull off.

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

Again, Blizzard have not confirmed an official release date but many suspect that it will be a couple of months after patch 2.4 for the mammoth MMO goes live as Blizzard have not revealed any plans to patch under the 2.X line after that period. 2.4 is confirmed to bring the TBC story arc to an end and it is logical to assume that they next patch after that will begin the WotLK story arc in preparation for a Q2 launch. Wrath of the Lich King is promising more of the same as well as some interesting new additions such as Siege Warfare, non-optional PvP zones, new dances and haircuts and a new profession among other things, not to mention the addition of World of Warcrafts first Hero Class, the Death Knight. Wrath of the Lich King promises to be a content rich addition to the gaming world and what will be more interesting to see is how this expansion fairs in the way of record breaking sales. Can Blizzard smash Halo 3s newly set record or is the glint of WoW finally wearing thin?

The New Blizzard MMO Named?

One of the things on everyone's mind at the moment is the new Blizzard MMO. There are several things going through several parties minds. The first is whether the new MMO and Project Hydra are linked. Another is whether there will be a new single player (with limited multiplayer support) Diablo game. The last is what exactly this new MMO from Blizzard will be and how long the development process is going to last. We already know that the development is already quite far through just by observing the job postings on the Blizzard site. Will the title be Diablo based? An all out battle between the armies of Heaven and Hell is not a foreign concept as the end of D2: LoD left that open. StarCraft is another option for the game and with StarCraft 2 being released at some point in the next 12 months, Blizzard could be using the game to tidy up the single player lore so that it is more MMO friendly, much like they did with Warcraft 3. Then there is the new franchise speculation which, I personally don't see coming true. At least, not in the near future. No matter what it is, everyone is waiting on the edge of their seats to see what the developer of the Number 1 P2P MMO delivers next.

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning

There are some things that aren't Blizzard owned and this happens to be one of them. Next year will see an influx of big money franchises entering themselves in the MMO market in a way never before seen and Warhammer Online happens to be the first I'm going to talk about. Despite rumours and speculation as to the state of the game, WAR is certainly generating the most hype out of all none-Blizzard IPs in the MMO world at the moment. The first attempt to bring the Game Workshop table-top to the world of Internet gaming is set to be a glorious one and with over 500,000 beta sign ups at the moment, we can assume that lots of people are interested in the game. Sadly, Warhammer doesn't get clear sailing and still has one major battle to overcome before it will succeed - the battle against World of Warcraft. This isn't just going to be the same generic battle we've seen time and time again between new MMOs and the Blizzard machine. This promises to be a big one as Warhammer Online and World of Warcraft are very similar in their setting, context and lore. Blizzard admittedly borrowed heavily from Warhammer over the years so it will be interesting to see which of the two prevails. I know where my vote is. To spice things up a little, this will be the first time Activision Blizzard and EA will duke it out in the MMO market - things should get interesting.

Age of Conan

AoC is another title generating massive amounts of hype. With hands on previews popping up all over the place, it isn't hard to see why this game is looking like it could be a promising entry into the market. With an innovative single-player and MMO game engine and PvP being hailed all over the place, AoC should deliver some innovations along the way and whilst many are worried it will go in the direction of CoH/CoV, lots more are hoping it delivers something new instead of something reproduced. I'm personally looking forward to this title more than WAR or even WotLK and I sincerely hope that FunCom can pull it off.

Star Trek Online

The future of Perpetual and more importantly, Star Trek Online is a shaky subject at the moment with fans and observers worried that the début of the Star Trek franchise in the MMO market could be shelved or halted for a lengthy period of time. With a suspected release date around Christmas 2008 which runs neatly in line with the release date of the 11th Star Trek movie, people are worried this one will just keep getting pushed back. One in game screen shot has been released so far and Perpetual have kept very quiet about the development process and progress but they did release the screen shot to let everyone know that the game is well into development and is nearing beta stage. The Star Trek franchise has had a bit of a rough time over the past few years. Enterprise, the 5th series in the franchise, was cancelled due to poor viewing figures, making it the first series since TOS to be cancelled prematurely. The last three movies were slandered by critics who said that they were good Sci-Fi movies but not good Star Trek movies. A lot rides on Star Trek Online and Star Trek 11 as if they fail, we may see the silence of Star Trek for many, many years. Even if you aren't a fan, you will admit that is a bad thing.

Stargate Worlds

Ah now this is a funny one. Stargate is arguably the youngest sci-fi franchise out of the top 5 an dis competing with established titles such as Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica and still managing to hold its own. With the BigWorlds engine being used to bring the universe of Stargate to life and development nearing the beta phase, we should see the title at some point in the next 12 months, even if it is only open beta. There's not really much you can say about the game that hasn't already been said by someone, somewhere and all I want to know is if I can have my own mother ship.

All in all, there are some great games to look out for over the next 365 days. 2008 looks set to be a really hot year for MMO gaming and also looks set to see some

Role on 2008!

My Gaming Space

matticus — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 21:49:13 GMT

Me and a raid leader were comparing desk spaces the other day. He's got a three monitor set up while I only use two: one for gaming, one for everything else while gaming.

Trusty macbook on my left, gaming machine on the right. Allows for quick referencing of certain mobs without tying up precious processing power. Canister of compressed air for the keyboard and the various dust bunnies that take a liking to my computer. Canucks playoff towel on my chair (I plan on getting another one this year). Two bottles of Bawls in a "break in case f emergency" situations next to my Linksys. Desk is super cluttered. I'm thinking about taking that rack of books and CD's behind my chair and just elevating it up slightly so I have more desk space.

I'm beginning to not enjoy these Maulgar-esque fights with multiple tanking targets. Tonight was Fathomlord day. We had the toughest time with four tanks and nine healers simply because the pet and hunter were being tanked by the same player who was getting knocked around all over the place. A tank being knocked all over the place is bad because 9 times out of 10 he will end up out of range. I'm busy slamming my Oh $&*% macro trying to keep the guy alive while moving around the damn pillar AND making sure I'm alive. Starting in SSC, I'm beginning to notice a trend where some of these pulls need to be accomplished with a tank, a healer on the tank, and another healer on THAT healer. Blizzard sure does seem to have endless gimmicky ideas for trash and raids.

The Daily Quest : gaming

The Year Ahead

My Gaming Space