Possible new...maybe

So a lot has happened since I last posted. I have been entirely too busy with real life obligations to actually sit down and play some games to write about here. However I have been keeping my ear to the rumor/news mill, and I must say some of the things announced and quasi announced are fairly compelling.

The long awaited sequel to the Diablo franchise was announced a while back with Diablo 3. This is something the series fans have been clamoring about for quite some time. Of course they were, they wouldn't be fans if they didn't. The game takes place sometime after Diablo 2 ended with the worldstone having been destroyed, and I must say the game looks fantastic. Check out the blizzard website for more info (and there is a ton of it to go through).

Cryptic studios, original creators of the City of Heroes/Villains franchise, are developing a new super hero based MMO called Champions Online. This time around they say they have suped up (no pun intended) their combat speeds and changed the art direction they are going in. The game looks good, but only time will tell. They have a countdown going on their web page but I haven't been able to get any confirmed information on what it is for as of yet. Rumor has it that it is a countdown to the beta release.

Speaking of Betas, Wrath of the Lich King (WotLK) the next World of Warcraft installment has gone into beta and the NDA was lifted. There's a ton of officially released info on their website, and visiting any gaming website would be likely to yield some very interesting info about the changes being made.

This next bit of info is pretty sketchy as to whether it is true or not. According to portfolio.com and their Bioware/EA exec's quote Bioware is indeed developing a KOTOR universe based MMO. Now if this is true it will likely spell doom for Star Wars Galaxies (the previous lone Star Wars MMO project). Some of the die hards say they won't be leaving, and truthfully they likely won't. Doesn't matter much if you choose to leave or not if the servers get shut off on you. Really I was a SWG fan once upon a time, in the "golden age" as it was called, but SOE did a lot to destory the fun of the game that they have never been able to completely undo. Whenever two games come out based on the same IP they are always compared, but with a persistent game world, that relies on subscriptions to stay running, this likely means Death Knells for the game that comes out looking inferior.

Warhammer has some information released on it. They apparently took out a bunch of classes that weren't working due to time constraints (thanks EA), but reports from the beta show the game in a highly unfavorable light so I am not going to go into anymore detail other than to say they just started Beta session 3.

DC Online is another Superhero based IP but based on already established characters. Apparently it has been in development for a while and the footage they have released was mediocre at best.

AoC came out, I had fun with it for a while. With out serious attention to some serious issues with the game I got tired of putting up with it and canceled my accounts. There are rumors that the game is in trouble, but those are unsubstantiated by the company (of course) so there's no point into going into details about it.

Well that's about all I have for now, I will attempt to keep adding more entries as I can fit them into my daily schedule.