StarCraft II: Ghosts of the Past Trailer
Jul 24 2010 12:00 AM | Bonesoul in StarcraftStarCraft II Beta Phase Two Begins
Jul 08 2010 12:00 AM | Bonesoul in StarcraftThe second phase of the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty beta test is now underway. We're delighted to invite you back to the battlefield and hope that you will join us through July 19 for more terran, protoss, and zerg action.
As stated previously, all data from beta phase one has been reset. This includes characters, match history, ladder rankings, and achievements. Beta participants will therefore need to recreate their characters and, if joining matchmaking games, complete a new series of placement matches.
We thank you for all the feedback you provided during phase one and are excited to hear about more of your experiences in phase two. Welcome back to beta, and we'll see you on Battle.net!
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Cataclysm UI Updates: PvP Tabs
Jul 02 2010 12:00 AM | Bonesoul in World of Warcraft
The game now features an updated PvP pane with 3 tabs; Honor, Conquest and Arena Teams. The Honor tab allows players to join battlegrounds, the conquest tab instead allows joining PvP matches or Rated Battlegrounds and finally with the newest Arena Teams tab, players no longer need to run Arena Master NPC's to create up arena teams.
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Cataclysm UI Updates: Questing
Jul 02 2010 12:00 AM | Bonesoul in World of Warcraft
In this article we'll discuss UI updates in Cataclysm's questing pane's. The quest giving & completion panes have been updated and quest giver's portrait is honored in new designs. Similarly quest's targeting especially named NPC's will also honor the named one's portrait.

While progressing through level's we'll also see a new level-up notice which also indicates newly available abilities and similar stuff. On the other hand the quest-tracker also introduces an arrow on minimap, which directs the player to very-first quest in his/her list. You can sort your quests by proximity to take advantage and level faster.
Similarly quest-list will also feature newly added "Remote Quest", which one can get & complete without visiting the quest-giver. Lastly the minimap can now track multiple objectives.
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While progressing through level's we'll also see a new level-up notice which also indicates newly available abilities and similar stuff. On the other hand the quest-tracker also introduces an arrow on minimap, which directs the player to very-first quest in his/her list. You can sort your quests by proximity to take advantage and level faster.
Similarly quest-list will also feature newly added "Remote Quest", which one can get & complete without visiting the quest-giver. Lastly the minimap can now track multiple objectives.
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Cataclysm UI Updates: Main Screens
Jul 02 2010 12:00 AM | Bonesoul in World of Warcraft
As the Cataclysm beta is out, we're now able to check user interface updates. Game's major UI elements have been updated to reflect changes in game mechanics.
Spellbook now has a better overall look and re-designed to show you all available abilities - even the ones you can't learn yet. When you progress through levels, Spellbook will also warn you to visit your trainer. Similarly Professions screen also got an overhaul which looks neat now. You can also access the professions recipe panels from the screen.
The character papel also have been updated which now shows most of your stats and easier to use.

We also have updated class & profession trainer tabs;
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Spellbook now has a better overall look and re-designed to show you all available abilities - even the ones you can't learn yet. When you progress through levels, Spellbook will also warn you to visit your trainer. Similarly Professions screen also got an overhaul which looks neat now. You can also access the professions recipe panels from the screen.
The character papel also have been updated which now shows most of your stats and easier to use.

We also have updated class & profession trainer tabs;
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Cataclysm Beta invites being sent out
Jul 02 2010 12:00 AM | Bonesoul in World of WarcraftWe've already chosen which accounts are to receive the first round of invites, and those invites are currently processing (that is, the accounts are in the process of being flagged for beta access). In fact, you may see players confirming that they've received their invites via Battle.net Account Management throughout the evening. As noted previously, though, due to the way invites are being distributed, it may take some time before all accounts selected for the first round receive their invites and are flagged for beta access.
... It's important to keep in mind that we're distributing World of Warcraft: Cataclysm beta invites the same way we distributed StarCraft II beta invites. Instead of sending out a beta code via email and requiring the user to flag their own account, we're doing all of that for you. The invitation process is running, but it takes time to flag each account that's eligible.
Players who opted in and were selected as recipients for this first round of beta invites will likely be informed through Battle.net Account Management sometime today, though, potentially before the invitation email arrives.
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Cataclysm Live Streams
Jul 01 2010 12:00 AM | Bonesoul in World of Warcraft
If you're not lucky enough to catch a Cataclysm beta-invite yet, here are the most popular live Cataclysm streams you can check while waiting 
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- Vorte: http://www.livestrea.../xfire_vortelol
- Tom: http://www.livestrea...fire_duffbeer2k
- Bibou: http://www.livestrea...m/xfire_kurtler
- Firebomb: http://www.livestrea...fire_skater2510
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World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Beta Patch Notes -...
Jul 01 2010 12:00 AM | Bonesoul in World of WarcraftWelcome to the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm beta test! Patch notes listed here are not comprehensive and will be changed throughout the testing process.
General
- The Alliance starting experience for worgen is available. Venture through the cursed lands of Gilneas to discover your true path! Currently the female worgen character is not available for testing.
- The Horde starting experience for goblins is available. Beginning on the Isle of Kezan in a goblin paradise, players will face a treacherous road ahead!
- The level cap for all characters is 82.
- Players may use our Character Copy feature for copying existing characters to beta realms, or may choose from high-level pre-made template characters.
Zones
- Mount Hyjal and Vashj'ir, two new level 78-82 zones, are available for testing. Players may find their way to these zones by speaking with temporary teleportation NPCs located in any major city.
- The level ranges of Gilneas and the Lost Isles are in the process of being adjusted slightly. Creature, quest, and quest reward levels are all being altered so that players finish questing in these zones roughly by level 12. Further fine tuning will continue in future content updates.
- Several zones have had quest maps integrated.
Eastern Kingdoms
- Arathi Highlands, Blasted Lands, Dun Morogh, Duskwood, Elwynn Forest, Loch Modan, Northshire, Westfall, Hinterlands and Redridge Mountains are ready for testing.
- Stranglethorn Vale (currently Horde only) is available for testing.
Kalimdor
- Most zones in Kalimdor are available for testing, though work continues on polishing the quest experience and flow, as well as zone aesthetics.
Dungeons & Raids
- Teleportation NPCs in Stormwind, Orgrimmar, and Dalaran can transport players to any available new dungeons, including players who are ghosts.
- Blackrock Caverns, a new level 79-81 five-player dungeon, is available for testing.
- Throne of the Tides, a new level 79-81 five-player dungeon, is partially available for testing.
Classes: General
- Ammo has been removed from the game.
- The character levels at which classes gain new spells and abilities have changed.
- The glyph system is in the process of being altered. Existing glyphs may not be fully supported or functional.
- Many item and class stats have been changed or removed.
- Rage has been normalized.
- Spells and abilities no longer have multiple ranks and now scale with character level.
- Talents trees have changed and are still in the process of being reworked.
Death Knights
- A dedicated tanking tree has been implemented.
- The way in which runes recharge has changed.
Druids
- A new Eclipse mechanic has been added for druids. The feature is functional, but the interface art is still a work in-progress.
Hunters
- Five pets can now be stored with the hunter at all times. Any one of these five pets can be summoned via the Call Pet ability.
- Focus has replaced mana as a new resource.
- Hunters now start with a pet at level 1.
- The Stable will now store 20 pets. If a pet is moved into the Stable, its talents are wiped.
Warlocks
- Soul Shards have been removed from the game as items. Instead, they now exist as a resource system necessary for using, or altering the mechanics of certain spells.
User Interface
- The ability to use third-party addons has been temporarily disabled for the test environment.
- The Arena Teams pane has been improved.
- Auto-quests have been added to the game. Players will automatically be given an auto-quest by entering specific areas in the game world. This alert will appear distinctly in the Objectives pane via the Advanced Quest Tracking feature. These quests will still be given to players with full Quest Logs, but will count toward the 25 total allotted quests if the log is not full.
- The Character pane has been redesigned. Character stats can now be shown or hidden via the Show All Details/Hide All Details button on the bottom left. When shown, all character stats will be visible in a window to the right of the pane. Stat sections can be reorganized by clicking and dragging them up or down the pane.
- The Professions panes now have more filtering and search functionality, as well as buttons to easily link recipes in the chat frame.
- Many of the yellow System Messages that would display in the chat frame when leveling up have been removed.
- New text animations now alert players as they level up, also providing information on when new talents, spells and abilities are available.
- Professions and Class Trainers windows have been altered to more clearly display available and upcoming purchases.
- The Spellbook interface has been improved for greater ease-of-use and visual appeal.
Graphics
- Experimental support for DX11 (can be enabled by passing ‘-d3d11’ on the command line or adding SET gxApi "d3d11" to the Config.WTF file).
- OpenGL Hardware Cursor support (can be enabled on the Video Resolution Panel).
- Improved water and lava rendering system (enabled by the Liquid Detail slider on the Video Effects Panel)
- 0 = Classic Water
- 1 = New Water (fake reflections)
- 2 = New Water (ocean has real reflection for terrain)
- These values are likely to change during Beta.
- Dynamic Sunshafts effect (enabled by the Sunshafts option on the Video Effects Panel).
Known Issues
- Selecting high Liquid Detail when using Geforce 6 & 7 series video cards will currently prevent lava and water from rendering properly. You can temporarily restore liquid to the world by reducing the Liquid Detail setting via the Video Effects Panel, or by typing “waterDetail 0” in your Config.WTF file.
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World of Warcraft®: Cataclysm™ Closed Beta begins
Jul 01 2010 12:00 AM | Bonesoul in World of WarcraftIRVINE, Calif. – June 30, 2010 – Blizzard Entertainment announced today that the closed beta test for Cataclysm™, its highly anticipated new expansion for World of Warcraft®, has begun. The company has started issuing invitations to participate in the testing process to a wide range of players from around the world who signed up via their Battle.net® accounts. While enjoying an early look at the game, beta testers will provide valuable feedback to help Blizzard Entertainment find bugs, address balance issues, and polish the new content.
"Our focus with Cataclysm has been to build on the knowledge we've gained through the previous expansions to deliver the best, most compelling World of Warcraft content for our players to date," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "Gathering focused feedback during the beta test will go a long way in helping us reach that goal when we launch Cataclysm later this year."
Cataclysm is the third expansion for World of Warcraft, the most popular subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game in the world. The first two expansions, The Burning Crusade® and Wrath of the Lich King®, each shattered PC game sales records upon their release. In Cataclysm, the face of Azeroth will be forever altered by the return of the corrupted Dragon Aspect Deathwing. Players will explore once-familiar areas of the world that have now been reshaped by the devastation and filled with new adventures. In an effort to survive the planet-shattering cataclysm, two new playable races -- worgen and goblins -- will join the struggle between the Alliance and the Horde. As players journey to the new level cap of 85, they'll discover newly revealed locations, acquire new levels of power, and come face to face with Deathwing in a battle to determine the fate of the world.
For more information on World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, please visit the official website at http://www.worldofwa....com/cataclysm. To set up a Battle.net account and sign up for a chance to participate in the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm beta test, please visit the official Battle.net website at http://www.battle.net
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Collider.com interviews with Sam Raimi of World...
Jun 26 2010 12:00 AM | Bonesoul in World of Warcraft
TheCollider.com had the opportunity to talk with World of Warcraft movie's director Sam Raimi.
You can check the video here: http://www.metacafe....rn_awards_2010/
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Quote
Sam Raimi: "I’ve been reading scripts, been reading books. I’ve been doing work with Robert Rodat on the treatment for the movie of WORLD OF WARCRAFT, and that’s coming along very well.
The rumors I don’t follow that much, but the reviews, good or bad, I live and die for. I really want people to like the movies, and if they don’t, it’s a real bummer. I’m thrilled when they like them. I don't follow the rumors too much.
Right now, I’m not really committed to OZ. We’ll have to wait to see how that all goes. I did read it and I love the script and think it’s a great project. It’s something I would like to become involved with.
I love the visual world that the guys over at Blizzard have created. It’s incredibly, engrossingly terrifying and exciting. I like their use of scale and the giant monsters that they have. I love the different landscapes that your character can move through.
I like the personal interactions that you have with other players online. There are so many aspects about the game that I really enjoy. Like the sword battles, the performing spells. Learning new spells, getting to the next level.
We’re still working on the story right now. We have a 40-page document that needs more work. But every draft gets better and better. We’re finding the characters, and through the characters we’re finding the story. And the angle, there is no real angle on it. We’re trying to create realistic characters that can live in the world of WARCRAFT, as though you were in the game itself, in one of its environments, and have that interaction with those great mythical, iconic characters.
There are so many characters in the game that we’re really trying to pull out the most exciting and different characters of the game. It’s so overwhelming. It's a real big universe. There are so many worlds, in fact, and characters, I don’t think we could touch on them all satisfactorily.
So we are trying to choose the characters that are interesting, and play a part in our drama that we're developing.
I had a level 29 shaman that somebody deleted by accident. Now I’ve worked a new character all the way up to level 72. That’s how big of a fan I am. I’ve spent that many days in the world of Warcraft.
The studio is very enthusiastic. It’s Legendary Pictures. Tomas Tull is running Legendary. He's a great fan of the game itself. He really produces good-quality pictures, and he wants to make a top-quality movie. That’s his only concern. So he's very excited about the process. I love working with him.
I really love working with World of Warcraft. It’s still a long ways away. It's only a 40-pages story. I really want to direct the picture, but it’s possible that a film that is ready to make could come in. I mean, I haven't seen it yet. I love making movies. The development process is a little less interesting to me, but it’s something you have to do if you want to start something from scratch. That's what we did with World of Warcraft.”
The rumors I don’t follow that much, but the reviews, good or bad, I live and die for. I really want people to like the movies, and if they don’t, it’s a real bummer. I’m thrilled when they like them. I don't follow the rumors too much.
Right now, I’m not really committed to OZ. We’ll have to wait to see how that all goes. I did read it and I love the script and think it’s a great project. It’s something I would like to become involved with.
I love the visual world that the guys over at Blizzard have created. It’s incredibly, engrossingly terrifying and exciting. I like their use of scale and the giant monsters that they have. I love the different landscapes that your character can move through.
I like the personal interactions that you have with other players online. There are so many aspects about the game that I really enjoy. Like the sword battles, the performing spells. Learning new spells, getting to the next level.
We’re still working on the story right now. We have a 40-page document that needs more work. But every draft gets better and better. We’re finding the characters, and through the characters we’re finding the story. And the angle, there is no real angle on it. We’re trying to create realistic characters that can live in the world of WARCRAFT, as though you were in the game itself, in one of its environments, and have that interaction with those great mythical, iconic characters.
There are so many characters in the game that we’re really trying to pull out the most exciting and different characters of the game. It’s so overwhelming. It's a real big universe. There are so many worlds, in fact, and characters, I don’t think we could touch on them all satisfactorily.
So we are trying to choose the characters that are interesting, and play a part in our drama that we're developing.
I had a level 29 shaman that somebody deleted by accident. Now I’ve worked a new character all the way up to level 72. That’s how big of a fan I am. I’ve spent that many days in the world of Warcraft.
The studio is very enthusiastic. It’s Legendary Pictures. Tomas Tull is running Legendary. He's a great fan of the game itself. He really produces good-quality pictures, and he wants to make a top-quality movie. That’s his only concern. So he's very excited about the process. I love working with him.
I really love working with World of Warcraft. It’s still a long ways away. It's only a 40-pages story. I really want to direct the picture, but it’s possible that a film that is ready to make could come in. I mean, I haven't seen it yet. I love making movies. The development process is a little less interesting to me, but it’s something you have to do if you want to start something from scratch. That's what we did with World of Warcraft.”
You can check the video here: http://www.metacafe....rn_awards_2010/
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Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty Ad on Korean Air
Jun 26 2010 12:00 AM | Bonesoul in Starcraft
Blizzard’s Korean arm has announced it will be working with Korean Air to promote StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty.As part of this deal, artwork of in-game protagonist Jim Raynor will be wrapped on two of Korean Air’s planes. The two aircraft will fly domestic routes in Korea, as well a international routes to the US and Europe, for six months starting today.Additionally, four Korean Air limousine buses wrapped with StarCraft II character images will be in service during this time. “We’re pleased to be partnering with Korean Air, Korea’s leading airline, on this campaign,” said Blizzard’s COO Paul Sams.
“As we approach the global launch of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, this promotion represents a unique, large-scale opportunity to introduce the characters and style of the StarCraft universe to gamers throughout the world.” Korean Air’s executive VP Yong-won Suh added: “eSports is an established part of youth culture all around the world. “We look forward to positioning ourselves as a global airline that appeals to the younger generation by operating airplanes wrapped with StarCraft II images and celebrating the launch of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty.” StarCraft II will be released worldwide on July 27th.
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“As we approach the global launch of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, this promotion represents a unique, large-scale opportunity to introduce the characters and style of the StarCraft universe to gamers throughout the world.” Korean Air’s executive VP Yong-won Suh added: “eSports is an established part of youth culture all around the world. “We look forward to positioning ourselves as a global airline that appeals to the younger generation by operating airplanes wrapped with StarCraft II images and celebrating the launch of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty.” StarCraft II will be released worldwide on July 27th.
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