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BlizzCon Report – Best of the Rest

We’ve been hard at work reporting from BlizzCon on the first Hearthstone expansion, Goblins vs Gnomes. While that’s the only iOS centric news at Blizzard’s convention this weekend, there are still plenty of other announcements that’ve been made and are certainly worthy of news. If you’re an iOS purist and don’t want to read up on some of the other things I’ve checked out at BlizzCon, by all means stop reading now and move on to the next article. For everyone else, stick around as we report on the rest of BlizzCon.

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Heroes of the Storm

It feels like Heroes has been in development forever. In fact, I checked it out at last year’s BlizzCon and I thought it played pretty well. Alas, a year of development has gone by with little announced beyond the standard updates. Fortunately, Blizzard announced a few cool things yesterday at BlizzCon in regards to Heroes of the Storm. First, we got wind of a few new characters joining the roster including Thrall, Jaina, and my favorite, The Lost Vikings. A few new battlegrounds were also announced.

I had the opportunity to play a few rounds of this current version of Heroes and it still feels as fun as it felt last year. As a MOBA, I find Heroes to be far more accessible than the likes of DOTA or LoL, but that might also have to do with the the fact that most players are on a level playing field as far as skill understanding. I also think the interactive battlegrounds and Blizzard lore also contribute a lot to my enjoyment. In addition, gameplay, abilities, and the visual engine have also been refined even further to the point of I’m not sure why it hasn’t advanced further in terms of Beta classifications. Thankfully, that last point has been addressed as a Closed Beta was announced for January 2015.

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Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void

BlizzCon attendees got a first look at one of the cinematics for the game, which match Blizzard’s high expectations in terms of cinematic quality. There were a few cool new things announced for this third expansion to Starcraft 2. First, Legacy of the Void will be released as a standalone game, meaning players new to the series will not have to purchase the first two games in order to play it (truthfully, I’d still recommend that just for the cool tales in each). Second, Void will include a new 2-player co-op mode called Archon Mode. Archon mode allows two players to share control over a singular base to battle against others in multiplayer. This is one of those cool “features I never knew I wanted” as it allows friends to work together in a way that’s distantly different than simply playing ga 2v2 or 2v1 match. New multiplayer units, as well as the tale to be told in the single player campaign were announced, although a release date has sadly not been announced as of yet.

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Overwatch

By far the biggest announcement Blizzard made was the debut of Overwatch, a multiplayer, team-based first person shooter that has drawn a lot of comparison to Team Fortress 2. Indeed, the visual style, objective-based gameplay, and character classes are reminiscent of Steam’s huge free-to-play shooter, but there are a few key differences that Blizzard hopes will make Overwatch stand on its own. For starters, Blizzard places a large emphasis on swapping characters out constantly during combat. If the opposing team is going all in on a certain tactic, your team is expected to adjust on the fly almost immediately in order to put into play the right combination of heroes to overpower the enemy. In addition, there’s a lot more in terms of hero abilities and vertical combat than seen in similar games. As I encountered in my first playthrough, simply running into a battle guns blazing is a sure-fire way to die. Instead, paying close attention to each hero’s special moves and using them are the key to victory. Each hero has a few powers, with one typically being movement based while the others are offense/defensive oriented depending on the hero. Finally, each hero has an Ultimate move that can be launched by filling up the ultimate meter during play.

The combination of class-based team FPS with more special moves than typically found in an FPS make Overwatch seem more like a FPS/MOBA hybrid than anything else, which is pretty cool. In the few rounds I played, I was pretty impressed with how balanced each hero felt (especially considering we were able to choose from twelve heroes) along with how seamless integrating special moves have been with standard FPS combat. The best complement I could give to Overwatch is the simple fact that I really wish I could have played it more at BlizzCon.

A beta for Overwatch is scheduled for 2015, but unfortunately there’s not much else that was revealed in regards to a release window.

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BlizzCon Flora and Fauna

BlizzCon is more than just playing the hottest announcements from Blizzard – there’s also tons of other things to check out and experience on the expo floor. The Hearthstone competitions have been pretty enjoyable this weekend and the tournament stage is totally awesome. The same goes for the Starcraft 2 World Championship stage, which actually takes place in the adjoining arena next to the Anaheim Convention Center. There were also a plethora of great statues, cosplay, community chats, panels and even custom motorcycles (courtesy of Azeroth Choppers) to check out. However, all this paled in comparison to the Metallica concert that took place Saturday night during the closing ceremonies. Regardless of how you feel about their musical stylings, they really know how to put on a show and the crowd was going wild for the entire 1+ hours of music.

Well, that’s about it for BlizzCon. By all means, check out our articles on Hearthstone’s new expansion in case you missed it. Otherwise, hope you enjoyed the coverage!