Lego Starcraft: Brick Rush & more [Machinima Videos]

Blizzard had always had a special place in my evolution as a gamer. When I first made the switch from Macs to the world of PCs, Diablo 2 and Starcraft were the first two games I purchased. I remember hours of gaming late into the night, with ice packs on my right forearm to keep the pain and swelling down. Those clickfest were some of the best gaming sessions I've had.

And though I've yet to get Starcraft 2 - I'm still debating download vs boxset - I still plan on getting the game. Getting it now would be futile though, as I'm busy enough with my gaming time (or lack of), this blog and the work I do for the EVE Community.

In the mean time, I'll enjoy these little gems of videos. The first is a Lego Machinima based on the original Starcraft. The second is Blizzard's own "Ghosts of the Past" Trailer. Speaking of ghosts, remember Starcraft: Ghost? Watch the 3 video for a little flashback down memory lane.

Blizzard, the MMORPG that has yet to be made

For a while it looked like the only successful MMORPGs would be Fantasy-based. Well most were using a Tolkienesque universe in which to allow players and their characters to explorer and roam.

But then, slowly but surely, we started seeing science-fiction based MMOs, some successful (EVE Online), some not so much (Earth & Beyond anyone?). Now, with Star Trek Online and Black Prophecy soon to be released, it looks like that genre is finally coming into the main stream of MMO games.

But science-fiction is not just limited to futuristic space combat! So many settings have yet to be explored by developer and players a like, that one would think we lack creativity and a need for diversity?

(Image used with permission from Wm. Robert Johnston. Original can be found here.)

Take for example an Ice Age, or Glacial Age since that's really the correct term. Now here's a setting that would be amazing for an MMO. Think of pockets of humanity scattered on cold and desolate continent of ice, where huge pack of 5-feet high wolves roam in packs of 20, 30 or even hundreds. A land where the Mammoth are once again the biggest beast on land, or where the illustrious Yeti walks the land terrorizing human outposts. Hell why not! A world where one has to travel far south to visit the last remaining cities on Earth. Can you picture it?

I could probably go on and on, but I think you get the idea. Now, I no Game Designer, so I have thought of all the details and possibilities, but I just can't fathom that we're going to limit ourselves to Elves and Dwarves or Spaceship and asteroid fields.

There's gotta more out there then dusting off an old franchise and wrapping it up in an MMO carcase.

What other settings would you like to see come to life? I'd love to know your ideas!

Games for Windows Issue 07

Just finished reading the latest issue of Games for Windows (June 2007) and I must say, I'm still very much impressed with the quality of the content, the articles, artwork and reviews.

The four articles that I enjoyed in this month's issue (well actually next month's, since we're not even in June yet...) were "GFW Live", "Inside Blizzard: World of Warcraft" and the Spore and Mythos preview.

As a current XBOX Live Gold subscriber, I'm looking forward to GFW Live and seeing the various community possibilities it'll offer. Cross-platform gaming will bring in a whole new aspect to bragging rights and plain fun.

And even though I don't play WoW, I was still very much interested in the story behind it's phenomenal success. I'd be first in line to buy a book on the subject. Something along the lines of "Dungeons & Dreamers: From Geek to Chic", a book I thoroughly enjoyed reading.

As for the two preview, I can't wait to start building organisms and see them evolve in Spore - it's just to bad EA delayed the game until 2008. And I've signed-up for the next Mythos' Beta testing phase. This last one looks like a lot of fun, with some heavy flashbacks to my days of Diablo 2 and carpel tunnel syndrome episodes (thank god for Myoflex).

World of Warcraft having record sales in Europe!

Well Blizzard is doing it again, and again. There's a slew of articles talking about how World of Warcraft (WoW) is a hit in Europe following its success in Korea the previous month, and North America late last year.

Sales rose to 280,000 on its first day, it had sold over 380,000 on its openning week-end. This shows how a well executed MMOG can be a very successful enterprise, and that should be a lesson to the "Earth & Beyond", "Wish" and other failed attempts.

Head over to GamesIndustry.biz, joystiq.com, Gameplanet, TotalVideoGames, Eurogamer.com, to read up on it.

Lets just hope that Blizzard has learned from its overwhelming success in NA last year, and that it now has the infrastructure the massive amounts of european players having fun in this World of Warcraft!