Any World of WarCraft player worth his carbon knows that their game of choice is filled to the brim with pop culture references that stretch from Paris Hilton to Big Trouble in Little China. It would seem as though Blizzard is continuing that trend with this recent discovery from the Wrath of the Lich King beta.

Everyone’s favorite orphaned anthropomorphic deer, Bambi, makes an appearance in the game, along with his buddies Flower, Thumper, and his mom (who is still alive at this point). Of course, the names were changed to protect the innocent, that being Blizzard’s wallet, but it’s obvious what the inspiration was.

So what happens if you decide to be a tad bit evil and recreate that murder scene of Bambi’s mom? Apparently, Bambi does not like that very much and instead of just taking it lying down like he does in the movie, he decides to totally destroy you. Read more…

Who needs an epic mount when you can get off your ass and experience the steep hills of Azeroth on foot courtesy of a real life treadmill? I’ll tell you who, gamers who haven’t so much as walked around the block in six months, that’s who.

The video below showcases a one mile race taking place in the World of Warcraft by two neon wig wearing gamers on dueling PC connected treadmills.

The sad thing here is that I actually thought of something like this a few weeks ago (my mind wanders when I am searching for news), not so much as a race, but as a means of mixing exercise with lengthy WoW playing sessions. Seeing it in action however — not such a good idea. Read more…

Morgan Webb of G4’s X-Play gives us a little preview and some interesting info on Blizzard’s upcoming World of WarCraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King. Spoiler alert: Arthas is really a good guy and Death Knights are Paladins in disguise.

Seriously, though, there are some spoilers in the video, so carefully consider whether or not you want to ruin the excitement of starting a Death Knight by knowing what happens ahead of time. You’ve been warned. Read more…

This well done cinematic is a prime example of what sets Blizzard apart from all others in the highly lucrative MMO space.

Yes, the three minute plus clip features stunning CGI visuals, but the most impactful aspect of the presentation is the narrative. The voice you hear throughout the piece is that of the former King Terenas Menethil II, slain by his own son Arthas — better known now as The Lich King.

The father speaks as if he is reciting a loving letter written to his son prior to his death, and you get the feeling that his words have been ringing over and over in his son’s head as he sat frozen on his throne.

“My son, I watched with pride as you grew into a weapon - of righteousness.”

The camera pans in close to his face, and his eyes light up as if to say “enough”, as he awakens from his frozen slumber. As the trailer unfolds, The Lich King contradicts each positive said about him by his father leading to a very clever ending.

Have at the trailer below, and feel free to share your thoughts. Read more…

Anyone who has played a Blizzard game knows that one of their most signature features are their masterful cinematics. Blizzard will be revealing their opening cinematic for Wrath of the Lich King at this years GC with a Q&A session to follow. We will report details from the event to you as soon as they happen.

In the mean time, several of us here are exploring the Lich King beta with every intention of sharing our feedback with you in the form of a podcast as soon as we get the green light to do so. I will say that Northrend is gigantic and the two five mans we had the chance to run looked very nice. Stay tuned.

So you’re visiting the World of Warcraft realm forums. It’s the usual flaming, loot drop bragging and guild drama when a new post pops up that says “Pic’s of My Teacher Nekkid!!1!”

There is a link. Do you click it? If you do, chances are that you are going to find your lvl70 paladin for sale on eBay. Read more…

Blizzard fans have zerg-rushed the Blizzard website into submission over tickets to BlizzCon 08, so Blizzard has come up with a solution to sell the tickets in waves.

Did you ever play “Red light / Green light” as a kid, where you can only run forward when the “it” person says go? Seems that’s the game Blizzard is playing with its BlizzCon 08 registration. Read more…

Many BlizzFans mounted up and rode towards the portal that is Blizzard’s BlizzCon 08 ticket purchase page yesterday only to be turned away. After what one can only assume were several attempts to resolve the issue, Blizzard eventually pulled the site offline and issued the following statement: Read more…

Get’cher Zhevra Mount!

Blizzard, the developers behind the world conquering MMO World of Warcraft, have added a new incentive to play WoW in the form of the Recruit-A-Friend system. Read all about it after the break. Read more…

The trend in gaming as of late has been a push towards “reality”. Games like COD, Battlefield, and SOCOM all boast military advisors on staff, with a focus on making the game experience as “realistic” as possible.

The obsession with reality doesn’t end there, and its relation to a game’s overall fun factor, got me thinking — just how real do we want things, and at what point does reality cause a game to no longer be fun? Read more…

An Australian man was arrested recently after he convinced a 15-year-old girl he met while playing World of WarCraft to run away from home to be with him. He even paid for the trip. How sweet. Read more…

As my fellow writers and I discussed back and forth the possibilities for Blizzard’s upcoming announcement, we decided to hit up the Blizzard site again, and noticed that the image had been updated since our last post.

A few sites are reporting on a confirmation of sorts, from an unnamed source, stating that the mystery game is in fact Diablo 3. However, we have spent a few hours discussing and browsing reference images, all the while making comparisons to the slow reveal image on Blizzard’s site. While Blizzard very well may be announcing Diablo 3, we do not believe that the image on their site is necessarily directly related to that release. Read more…

The Paris Game Developers Conference, in session yesterday and today, brings us an interesting tidbit from a Keynote discussion (“In the Eye of the Blizzard”) with Rob Pardo, the vice president of game design at Blizzard Entertainment.

Apparently, the game was envisioned as an ad-supported, free-to-play MMO. “We didn’t want to charge a subscription, but as we researched market conditions, we realized that wouldn’t support us,” he explained.

Well, it is probably for the best that we don’t have to sit through Mountain Dew loading screens or whathaveyou, but it’s always unpleasant being reminded how many hundreds of dollars worth of $14.95s we’ve paid over the years.

Source

Among the many changes the upcoming World of WarCraft patch 2.4.3 will bring, the most significant is probably the ability to get a mount at level 30. Paladins and Warlocks will get their first summon at this level, while other classes can purchase Apprentice level riding for a mere 35 gold. This will make leveling up an alt slightly more bearable, and hopefully you all read this prior to dinging 40 and plunking down too much cash for your soon-to-be-overpriced level 40 mount.

Read on for the full Test Realm patch notes, including ridable dragonhawks and a huge nerf to twinks. Read more…

Information from the upcoming World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King expansion has been leaked on to the web complete with visual talent trees, descriptions of new spells and abilities, as well as changes to the old.

Some quick highlights include the ability for druids to now root enemies indoors and warriors, with the help of titan grip, will be able to duel wield 2 handed weapons. For a complete list of changes check out the list below. Read more…

Great news for anyone who finds grinding a chore. Plus cash prizes are in excess of $200,000 USD. What are you waiting for? Hit the jump! Read more…

Ken Kutaragi isn’t the only one with sweet dreams of Protoss on PS3

Starcraft 2, a PC sequel nearly ten years in the making, hasn’t been announced for any consoles. But that didn’t stop the wishful thinking of PSU, who hypothesize that the flexible Playstation Network, Bluetooth keyboard/mouse support, and required hard drive make the PS3 the best choice for porting Starcraft 2 to the console side. Read more…

In yet another attempt to bring together the worlds of Mountain Dew and videogames, PepsiCo created the DEWmocracy. This Massively-Multiplayer Online game casts players as “an anonymous hero that rebels against the the forces of uniformity and seeks a new world, and a new elixir, that will change everything”. That must be pretty interesting because hundreds of thousands of gamers have already begun doing the Dew. Read more…

Say hello to Activision Blizzard, the result of a Sunday-morning announcement between Activision and Vivendi Games that they’ve agreed to combine their resources. The new company results in about $3.8 billion of pro forma and the greatest operating margins of any current third party publisher. Stick that in your craw, Electronic Arts! Read more…

Still loves you after all these years

On September 25th, EA celebrated the birthday of their long running franchise Ultima Online. The game still supports an avid fan base despite 10 years of developer changes, nerfs, buffs, and class balances. If not for UO breaking through multiple boundaries, great games such as World of Warcraft and Guild Wars may have never come to fruition. Read more…