Lots of news in the gaming world last week. Here’s a quick run down.

• BlizzCon Sold Out… Stay tuned for a third round of tickets. Buy tix.
• Lord Of The Rings Online follows D&D Online by becoming free. The game will instead make money through premium content such as expansions, equipment and quests. You can get the Beta now.
• Heroes of Might and Magic Online  Open Beta due to be released on 11 June 2010.
• Alpha Protocol released. Is this a sign of what we can expect from Fallout New Vegas?
  Reviews:
  • Gamespot 6.0/10
  • IGN 6.3/10
  • Amazon 3/5
  • 1UP B+
• Company of Heroes Online announced to be released in Fall 2010. Read more in the Q&A.

Alpha Protocol

This week has been relatively quite, apart from the shenanigans over at Blizzard in celebration of April Fool’s Day. I must admit being quite gullible I found myself genuinely confused at why Blizzard had decided to open an online matchmaking service.

Here are the highlights:

• Over at Blizzard (April Fool’s jokes):
  • Find the nerd of your dreams with the Battle.net Matchmaking Service
  • WoW introduced an upgrade showing a leet-o-meter: The Equipment Potency Equivalence Number
  • 2 new games for your iPhone: Blackthorn 2 and Queen’s Quest
  • Some Diablo III promo merchandise was announced:
    • The Deckard Cain version of the Snuggy: X-Treme Gamer Blanket
    • Some terrifying Diablo III Body Pillows
    • Get Deckard Cain on your GPS!
• For more April Fool’s jokes, have a look at Gamespot’s article.
• Gamasutra’s, Leigh Alexander reflects on the latest RPG’s. A great read for older gamers and FF fan’s alike.
• Read The Big Freak’s response here.

I’m sure there is more, but that is all I have time for today. It’s time to head off for Easter Celebrations!

Happy Easter!

The third expansion (World of Warcraft: Cataclysm) to Blizzard’s huge money maker (estimated $810M per year from western gamers only) is due to be released in the fourth quarter this year and there is plenty packed into this tasty US$40.00 morsel.

Brand new races

Goblins:
Yes you can now play these crafty little green men. After many a sour business deal with the ever naive Alliance, the Goblins have joined the dark side as it were.

Worgen:
These great looking wolf-men are the latest addition to the Alliance side. Not entirely tame, it will be fun to take these guys out on the prowl for some Horde blood.

[Mmm, some Tauren hide would be great right now.]

New level cap

Just 5 new levels this time to a level cap of 85. New talents, skills and a new system called the path system which will enable you to improve your characters in a completely new way.

It’s time for a make over

As well as new areas being opened, Azeroth is getting a rather large makeover. You can enjoy checking out the new scenery on your flying mount. YES, flying mounts will be usable in Azeroth once you reach level 85 but be warned they will be very expensive and you may need additional WoW gold.
These new changes will unveil all new quests which will give you some variety if you decide to start as one of the new races.

Amazon have the pre-order available.

Don’t waste precious WoW time going to the shops, get it to your door as soon as it comes out.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

Check out the teaser video:

Then along came Diablo II and blew RPG gamers away again. New classes, skills and weapons as well as ranked online play provided gamers with hours and hours of sweet ass gaming.

Diablo III was announced in 2008 and naturally caused a storm of excitement in the gaming community. Although no release date had been set (and it was predicted to be as late as 2011) gaming stores were flooded with pre-orders. I should know, I was working in EB Games at the time.

Slowly information has been released about what this game will contain. I’ll go over some of it below.

Classes:

There will be five classes (four have been announced):

• Witch Doctor – Freak stuff up.
• (Good ol’) Barbarian – Chop stuff up.
• Wizard – Blow stuff up.
• Monk – Punch stuff up.

You can choose to be a male or female version of each class. The Diablo III classes will feature a new level of skill customization.

Other points of interest:

• There will be a new Tristram called New Tristram. A fairly dark and grizzly place.
• Creatures like The Fallan Ones will return so you can enjoy crushing these small red demons once again.
• Quests and storyline are still top secret. Check my blog closer to the release date for more info.

Something excellent:

At this stage Diablo III is only being developed for PC and Mac. In your face console gamers!

To get in on any special game releases you have to pre-order your copy now. Seeing as it will be such a popular game, any collector’s editions will sell out quickly and you will miss out. Amazon already have a pre-order system up for $59.99.

Diablo III

The latest gameplay video to wet your appetite:

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade has added an incredible amount of new content to the game. The level cap has been increased to 70 and along with this new talents and skills were also available. There is also two new classes, the Blood Elves (Horde) and Dranei (Alliance) which will now allow Horde to access the Paladin class and Dranei the Shaman class. Both side will need these classes as the battle on to new end game instances.

Unfortunately all of your tier gear is now outstripped by most greens that you will find in the new Outland area. If the video below doesn’t get you excited, I don’t know what will.

Buy WoW Gold

Pick up your copy on Amazon

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade

Don’t have WoW? Get The Burning Crusade expansion in the World of Warcraft battlechest.

World of Warcraft Battle Chest

Official Trailer

World of Warcraft is an MMORPG or massive mutliplayer online role-playing game. It is focused around the story of the games Warcraft I to III which were produced by Blizzard throughout the 90′s and early 2000.

You may choose to be on Alliance (good guys) or Horde (bad dudes). Each side has four different races with different unique bonuses which range from humans to elves to orcs. Each race has access to different classes which you can then choose to play.

By far the thing that makes WoW so popular is the unending amount of content that is added to the game. The world is already huge and Blizzard update it regularly with new quests, items and places to discover. There are two expansions, The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King that have been released that also provide a massive boost to the content of the game including new races and classes. A third expansion has also been announced: Cataclysm.

Other benefits to World of Warcraft include a huge social network with 1000s of players on each server and heaps of end game adventures and challenges to complete. Due to the nature of the game it can be played and enjoyed by all ages. World of Warcraft is also supported by a large online community with tons of quest information, forums and cheap WoW gold that you can buy to save yourself time grinding and farming (10,000 gold for ~$60!).

Amazon have a 14 day trial for FREE with any other purchase.

Buy it on Amazon ($36.79 for Battlechest):

World of Warcraft

Details:

Made by: Blizzard
View: Third Person
Game Hours (levels 1-80): 100+
Game Hours (including end game and PVP): 1000+
Gameplay is online only. Monthly fee of US$15.

Here is a video of the new expansion Cataclysm to get you excited: