All Entries Tagged With: "Blizzard"

StarCraft II Breaks 3 Million Sales

It was no question that Blizzard was going to hit it big with StarCraft II, especially when the competition revealed itself as very weak in the Real-Time Strategy genre. It seemed like long-time respected RTS franchises simply got out of StarCraft II’s way and wanted to have no part in competing with this behemoth of a title. When it finally arrived the world knew why. The most entertaining and highest selling PC game of the year thus far, and possibly the best RTS for the next decade, has just passed 3 million sales in it’s first month.

This sequel to the 1998 title remains focused on strategy arguably more than any other title out there and has introduced the improved Battle.net system among other innovations. How far will the momentum behind this title take Blizzard? Only time will tell, for now things are looking great with no end in sight.

StarCraft II My Long Lost Love

You know you are addicted to a game when you start viewing replays… in your sleep. I found myself literally dreaming about Starcraft II last night. I could see myself building probes and working out strategies and then realized that I was in fact asleep. I woke up laughing to myself and thinking ‘wow’. This had not happened to me for a while, I was having video game pr0n dreams.

The BlizzCon 2010 Vanity Pet Is…

This little guy! He’s hot from the inside out and named Deathy. That is, honestly, pretty lame. I expected more, Blizzard! But, the little dude is still pretty hot – pun intended. If you either attend BlizzCon 2010 in person, or order the live stream via DirectTV, you’ll receive this lovable, yet not very cuddly, little murloc friend to follow you around during your exploits in Azeroth after the Cataclysm. What do you think? How does he stack up to BlizzCon murlocs of the past?

Blizzard had this to say about this adorable little fella:

“Death will rise from the tide!” Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftain once warned — and at BlizzCon 2010, the band’s dire musical prophecy will finally come to pass. Everyone who attends this year’s BlizzCon or purchases the BlizzCon Virtual Ticket will receive an exclusive set of murlocalyptic in-game items for World of Warcraft and StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. World of Warcraft players will be joined by Deathy, a murloc companion decked out as Deathwing and doing his best to strike fear into the hearts of Azeroth’s crustacean population. You’ll also be able to display your tidal pride in StarCraft II with a Murloc Marine character portrait and a pair of deep-sea decals to emblazon on your units, each with a different terran, protoss, and zerg design.”

J!NX Updates Their World of Warcraft T-Shirt and Hoodie Collection

The video game clothing line J!NX has updated their collection of World of Warcraft t-shirts and hoodies. You can take a look at the offical J!NX website, HERE. Shirts and hoodies come in all different sizes for men and women gamers who really need to show off some of their World of Warcraft love.

StarCraft Noob Files: The Campaign

This is how much of a StarCraft noob I am – until a few months ago, I had no idea the original game had any narrative value at all, I thought it was just one big multiplayer experience. Boy was I wrong! So, I caught up on the story from the first game and delved right into the second. Now I’m about half a dozen missions in and it is actually a fun, exhilarating experience!

Because I’m a noob, as the title of this article states, I started on “Casual” difficulty. What that means, exactly, is anyone’s guess, because playing versus the computer in multi-player mode, I get my ass handed to me time after time on “Casual” difficulty. However, so far, the campaign seems a bit more tame. The key words are “so far”. So, what are the things that an RPG guy like me latches on to in a real-time strategy campaign like we have here in StarCraft II? Narrative, upgrading units and researching new technology, that’s what.

StarCraft II Breaks Sales Records

Blizzard’s much anticipated sequel has made quite a dent on the sales charts. Within it’s first forty-four hours of release, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty has managed to sell more than 1.500,000 copies. This not only makes the game the best selling PC title this year, but also the fastest selling strategy game ever released.

StarCraft II went on sale at twelve AM on July 27th, at more than eight thousand stores spanning North America, Europe, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, The Philippines, Taiwan and Macau. In a few words, the game’s launch was very, very big.

“We launched StarCraft II in 11 different languages and on 5 different continents because we wanted to make sure as many players as possible were able to log on and play on day one,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We’re pleased that so many people around the world have already picked up a copy of the game, and we look forward to welcoming even more players to Battle.net^® in the weeks and months ahead.”

“GameStop had more than 3,000 stores open at midnight, so our StarCraft players got a jump start on playing the epic experience Blizzard consistently delivers with its games,” said Bob McKenzie, senior vice president of merchandising at GameStop. “StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is officially GameStop’s fastest-selling PC game since Blizzard launched World of Warcraft^®: Wrath of the Lich King^®in 2008.”

So in two days, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty became the fastest selling strategy release ever. I guess that says a lot about the games appeal. Why not check out the game that has nearly two million players already? Visit the site below for info.

[StarCraft II @ Battle.net]

Blizzard Makes Updating WoW Even More Confusing

Blizzard is changing the way we patch World of Warcraft before long. In what way, you ask? You probably don’t want to know. Basically, they’re making it so you can stream updates to your client while playing. What’s wrong with that? Well, nothing, really. It is just more complicated. They’re using colors now, lookout WoW players!

Here’s the deal – there are now three stages to the patch download process, each color-coded so you can easily tell what stage the patch is on. Here’s the three stages, taken directly from Blizzard’s forums:

SETUP (RED): Core game content is being prepared. You cannot enter the game at this time.

AVAILABLE (YELLOW): Major game content is not completely applied. You can play, but your game experience will not be ideal.

PLAYABLE (GREEN): Final game content is almost complete. You may experience a few game issues with playing at this stage.

This change will go into effect soon for those playing the Cataclysm beta, except you’ll have to completely reinstall the beta client from scratch. For everyone else, the first you’ll likely see this change is closer to the Cataclysm launch – most likely in the pre-expansion patch we are almost sure to see.

After the break is exactly what beta testers will have to do to play the beta after the patch that initiates these launcher and update modifications.

Then and Now: Twelve Years of StarCraft

I woke up rubbing away the sleep from my tired eyes, with the annoying sounds of New York City pigeons coo’ing away outside my window as they shuffled into the comfort zone that is the ledge. At any given day, I’d yell at the top of my lungs, shoo them away, and go right back to my forlorn pillow to grace it with dreams. This day, however, was different. Rather than screaming at pigeons, I cheerfully walked toward my window and greeted the gray parasites in song and dance. Due to their nature, my song and dance didn’t bring them any sort of enjoyment. Like previous days, they frantically flapped their wings in despair and flew into the morning sky. I laughed, and took a deep breath. My fourteen year old lungs welcomed the fresh Spring air, and I was up and about gleefully rejoicing at the day’s highlight: StarCraft released that day.

Want to Play StarCraft II With the DualShockers Staff?

Everyone and their grandmother is playing StarCraft II these days, and the staff here at DualShockers is no exception. Not all of us are the crème of the crop as far as the game’s multiplayer goes, but hey, we’re not opposed to getting our rear ends handed to us by our readers a time or two. While this isn’t an “official” playdate or anything, if you leave your StarCraft II character name in the comments, it will help both us and other readers to hook up and maybe play some matches together.

Please note that we advise against using your Battle.net e-mail address, because that will expose 1) your private e-mail and 2) your real name. Remember, that whole Real ID thing Blizzard has going on? Yeah, that’s why. Please just use your character names when posting in the comments unless you really don’t care that the whole Interwebs has your private info. After you play with someone a while, then decide if you want to become Real ID friends with them.

So, drop your character names below and have at it!

A Grip Load of StarCraft II Apparel and Accessories Available From J!NX

Starcraft II has been at the top of the news lately, and well things just got a little more awesome. J!NX has came out with some new apparel and accessories for Starcraft II like T-shirts, patches and keychains. Check them all out here, and show off how much of a Starcraft fan you really are with a kick-ass Protoss T-shirt.

StarCraft Noob Files: First 30 Minutes of Multiplayer

Hello, I’m Chad and I’ve never played StarCraft before in my life. I used to play other, older RTS games back in the day, like Deadlock. I’m also a big fan of turn-based strategy titles like the Civilization franchise. But, when it comes to StarCraft, I haven’t had the gumption to take it on. There could be many reasons behind that, but the primary of which is probably the fact that I knew the sequel was coming out and would rather just wait for that to drop than pick up a 10-year-old game and try to start from scratch.

With some forceful nudging from a couple other editors here, I went out and claimed my copy of StarCraft II yesterday, slightly unsure how my laptop would handle it. I installed it and didn’t even realize it was running some sort of monologue in the background while it was doing so until it was nearly finished. Everything looks and runs great on my machine, albeit not at the highest settings. I’m still amazed how Blizzard can make some of the best games in the world and support a very high array of computer specs, more so than most new titles these days. I mean, c’mon, if I tried to play Crysis on my laptop it would spontaneously combust, setting my apartment on fire. Then I’d have to go through the trouble of turning in an insurance claim and all that jazz. Not worth it. Thank you, Blizzard, for not destroying my apartment.

Cataclysm Beta Report: Let’s Play a Goblin!

I am constantly awed by the large leap forward Blizzard is taking with the upcoming Cataclysm expansion for World of Warcraft. Not only are they redesigning the entire world of Azeroth (sans Northrend), they are completely reimagining the level 1-60 experience. On top of that they have worked painstakingly on giving many races a fresh new starting experience. Finally, they’re giving us two new races altogether.

One of those new races are the goblins. Goblins have been around World of Warcraft as long as the game has existed, but now you can finally play as one, albeit only if you want to be horde-aligned.