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BlizzCon 2009 Roundup: Cataclysm, StarCraft II and Diablo III

BlizzCon, Blizzard Entertainment's two-day celebration for enthusiasts of its popular computer games, converged this past weekend in Anaheim, Calif. Blizzard used the event to reveal its upcoming "Cataclysm" expansion pack for World of Warcraft, and also provided details of other games in development.

Cataclysm builds on a massively multiplayer game that's been in continuous play since 2004, and has been added onto twice already with expansion packs. While previous expansion packs have emphasized improvements that mainly benefit high-level players, Blizzard is going back to basics with Cataclysm by offering new content to attract both new and existing players.

Accompanying some changes to Azeroth, the mythical land World of Warcraft uses as its setting, are completely revamped quests. Blizzard wanted to create quests that tied in to the new zones and were more enjoyable to the casual player. New "instances" have been added, for example—triggered events that players initiate when they go on questions—along with improved loot tables that should hand players more valuable items.

Cataclysm will also introduce improvements to the game’s graphics engine, permitting players with higher end computers to experience higher quality video. Blizzard development proudly showed off improved water effects. Both representatives we spoke to stated that the minimum hardware requirements to play the game will not be increased.

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Blizzard announces “Cataclysm” WoW expansion

Blizzard Entertainment’s annual “BlizzCon” event is in full swing, and the first major announcement is the revelation of a new expansion pack for World of Warcraft” Cataclysm. The release schedule has not been announced.

“Soon, Deathwing the Destroyer will return to Azeroth, and his eruption from Deepholm will sunder the world, leaving a festering wound across the continents,” reads the press release. Deathwing is a mighty dragon hidden in a secluded sanctuary.

The expansion will feature two new races: the werewolf-like worgen, a new race aligned with the Alliance, and the goblins, playing with the Horde. The level cap has been raised to 85. The “classic zones” have been altered and updated with new content. and new high level zones will be added. More raid content will be added, along with new race and class combinations, such as gnome priests, blood elf warriors and more. Guilds can also progress to earn advancements, levels and achievements, new Player vs Player (PvP) objectives and new rated Battleground areas, a new secondary profession — archeology — that lets you unearth artifacts and earn unique rewords, and the ability to explore Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms using flying mounts — heretofore limited only to high-level areas.

Blizzard notes that there will be “incremental tweaks and updates” to the graphics engine in Cataclysm that will require some increases to the game’s minimum system requirements, but it refrained from identifying what those requirements will be.

World of Warcraft’s Web site has been updated with more information about Cataclysm, including screenshots, videos, a FAQ and other other content.

BurgerTime Deluxe released for Mac

Namco has released a Mac version of BurgerTime Deluxe, a reboot of the company’s classic video game franchise. It costs $20 and a demo version is available for download.

BurgerTime Deluxe puts you in a fantasy world where chefs create delicious burgers by climbing up and down ladders and stomping across platforms to make burgers, buns and all the fixings collapse onto plates. You have to avoid Vinnie Vinegar’s henchmen — Mr. Hotdog, Mr. Egg, and other bad guys — along the way. You can put them in their place with a dash of pepper, however, and you can collect special powerups to freeze, cook, and salt them.

BurgerTime Deluxe features Story Mode and Quick Mode. The game features more than 60 levels plus minigames.

System requirements call for Mac OS X 10.4 or later and 256MB RAM.

Quake Live now live for the Mac

Quake Live, the Web browser-based version of Id Software’s popular first-person shooter, is now playable on the Mac. The company updated the Web site on Tuesday to allow Mac users to play.

Quake Live is essentially a reworked version of Quake 3 Arena, designed for free play in a Web browser using a plug-in. Users create an account and play against each other. The game features more than 40 arenas and five game modes. You can play against other gamers or practice and compete on your own against “bots,” or computer-controlled players.

The game first went online as a public beta version earlier this year, but only for Windows users. Id Software’s Marty Stratton noted that Quake Live for Mac was a top priority when he posted about the status of the game’s developments to Id Software’s forums this past May.

Speaking to the assembled throngs at QuakeCon 2009, Id Software’s annual gathering of enthusiasts in Texas, Id president Todd Hollenshead announced the game would go live for Mac and Linux on August 18.

System requirements call for Mac OS X 10.4 or later and Safari 3.0 or later. Id Software notes an issue with “the very latest version of Firefox on Mac,” so this release is intended for Safari only.

EVE Online maker producing console crossover

CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Petursson on Tuesday took the wraps off Dust 514, a forthcoming console game based on the company’s popular massively multiplayer online (MMO) title EVE Online. Dust 514 is described as “a hybrid MMO/FPS” (First Person Shooter that will interact with EVE Online itself. Petursson made his remarks during a keynote address at the Game Developers Conference in Cologne, Germany.

EVE Online, playable on both Mac OS X and Windows, is set in outer space, envisioning a future on the far end of the Universe where mankind has populated a galaxy after being cut off from its homeworld. Players occupy starships as they fly from system to system, carrying cargo, refining materials, mining, pirating, engaging in player vs. player combat, playing a constantly evolving market — the choices are almost endless.

The MMO differs from other popular games like World of Warcraft in a few respects. One is its single server design — all players share one common place to play, rather than being fragmented onto server “shards.” Another is the storyline of the game, which is largely dictated by what players do. EVE Online makes a strong emphasis on player-led “corporations” — the equivalent of a guild — whose actions provoke what’s happening in the game.

Dust 514 will focus on ground combat, with first person shooter and real time strategy game style combat. The game “combines equal parts battlefield reflexes and strategic planning, giving commanders and ground infantry real-time configurable weapons and modular vehicles to manage dynamic battlefield conditions,” according to a press release.

Dust 514 won’t require EVE Online to play, but the game will “interact directly” with EVE Online, according to CCP, enabling the console gamers playing Dust 514 to become part of the social experience that makes EVE Online unique.

The game is being readied for the current generation of consoles, according to CCP, and has been in development for the past three years at the company’s satellite studio in Shanghai, China.

Specific supported platforms and release dates were not announced, but CCP will discuss Dust 514 more at its annual Fanfest gathering in Reykjavik, Iceland in early October.

Quake Live for Mac hits the Web on August 18

It looks like id Software is at last ready to deliver on its promise of providing quality browser-based fragging to Mac users. Speaking at this past week’s QuakeCon 2009, id CEO Todd Hollenshead said Quake Live is expanding to Mac and Linux platforms on August 18.

The game, which is a Web-based re-creation of the 1999 classic Quake III Arena, went into public beta for Windows in February, with promises of coming to the Mac and Linux in due time. Executive producer Marty Stratton said in May that internal testing on those versions had begun, and that support for the Mac was a top priority.

Firefox will be the de facto browser choice for Mac users looking to unload some plasma cannon blasts next week: the only other supported browser is Internet Explorer 7 or 8. Hardware specs aren't yet available, but the PC specs recommend a 2GHz or better Intel processor and an Nvidia NVIDIA GeForce 7 Series, ATI Radeon X1800 series, or better, so you can read between the lines.

Quake Live is free for all players, though you need to register an account to play. But when that’s all that stands between you and some rocket launcher action, it's hardly even worth noting.

Blizzard pushes back StarCraft II launch to 2010

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty won’t be winging its way to a PC or Mac on schedule. Blizzard Entertainment announced that the eagerly-anticipated game won’t meet its 2009 release date; instead, Blizzard is pushing back the launch until after the new year.

First promised two years ago, StarCraft II is a sequel to the ground-breaking real-time-strategy game set in space. The game was easily one of most anticipated releases of 2009; now, there’s no firm release date from Blizzard, other than a first-half of 2010 target.

The reason for the delay? A longer-than-expected development time for upgrading Blizzard’s Battle.net online multiplayer service, according to the company. Battle.net first launched with the Blizzard title Diablo in 1997 and revolutionized online gaming by providing an in-game multiplayer service that contrasted with external online multiplayer services at the time. Battle.net has since become an extremely popular method for playing online and an integral part of the Blizzard gaming experience.

With the news in June that Blizzard had opted to not ship StarCraft II with LAN support, the delay caps a rather tumultuous two months for the game maker. As reported by Joystiq, Blizzard’s Bob Colayco had already suggested that Blizzard killed off LAN in order to move players to an upgraded Battle.net, which he called “the best option to ensure a quality multiplayer experience with StarCraft II and safeguard against piracy.”

By making Battle.net the only show in town, the pressure on the service to deliver a compelling and new experience has only mounted. Colayco already said that Battle.net will offer new features like “advanced communication options, achievements, stat-tracking, and more.” These new features are seemingly taking more time to upgrade than they had previously anticipated, and fans of the series will have to wait a bit longer for what now looks to be the most anticipated gaming title of 2010.

Opinion: For gamers, waiting's better than Boot Camp

Sometimes it’s not a question of can you, it’s a question of should you.

TransGaming deserves a lot of credit. While its “Cider” translation technology may not be perfect, the company has sought to resolve one of the single biggest complaints that Mac gamers have had over the years: The long lag time between Mac and PC releases of the same game.

Not all of TransGaming’s Mac releases have been same-day, same-date, but the company has proven that it can be done with titles like The Sims 3 and Spore, and I think that’s great. From my conversations with TransGaming executives over the years, I know that this is vital to the company’s overall business strategy. TransGaming understands as well as anyone that a Mac game that lags behind its PC counterpart isn’t nearly as appealing to some consumers.

That’s a goal to work toward, but today many Mac games—including a fair number that TransGaming has released or been involved in the development of—lag behind their PC counterparts. There are a lot of reasons why this happens: contractual issues, for example, or a lack of flexibility in the workflow from the original game developer that might prevent or inhibit a Mac version from happening at the same time. There might be a lack of interest in the Mac market from the publisher, or it could boil down to a simple numbers game—Mac games sell in much, much smaller quantities than their PC counterparts, even for the most successful Mac games.

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Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning comes to the Mac

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is now available for the Mac. The game is expected to be released this fall, although Mac gamers can download a beta version now.

Based on the legendary fantasy-themed tabletop war game, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR) is a massively multiplayer online game originally developed by Mythic Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts (EA) for the PC in September, 2008. Like other recent EA Mac titles, Warhammer Online works by way of TransGaming’s Cider translation technology, which works on Intel-based Macs only.

Described as a “Realm vs. Realm” (RvR) game, Warhammer Online pits players against each other in massive online battles. Players can participate in public quests with other players, and unlock Warhammer lore, detailed monster information, new abilities and rewards, and even major story plotlines using the Tome of Knowledge.

The Mac beta of Warhammer Online is available to new players and existing players alike; people who have a PC or Boot Camp partition that they already use to play WAR with can download the Mac client and start playing the game on the Mac right away; new users can download a 10-day trial version for free and kick the tires before jumping in. Mac users will coexist on the same servers as their Windows-using counterparts.

Mac users will also receive exclusive WAR Mac titles “I’m an Order” or “I’m a Destruction” as well as an exclusive in-game trophy: the iPomme.

System requirements for the Mac version of WAR call for Mac OS X 10.5.3 or later, Intel Core Duo processor, 2GB RAM, ATI X1600 or Nvidia 7300 GT with 128MB VRAM or more, 15GB hard disk space.

Aspyr releases Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword expansion

It hit Amazon.com last week, but on Monday Aspyr Media made it official by announcing thet Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword is now available. It costs $35.

The second expansion pack for Sid Meier’s Civilization IV, Beyond the Sword adds ten new civilizations, 64 buildings, 16 leaders, five new wonders, six new technologies, corporations, a new espionage system and expanded trade routes. Aspyr and 2K Games describe Beyond the Sword as the largest-ever expansion pack for the popular turn-based Civilization strategy game series.

Eleven new scenarios let you explore new worlds, battle zombies, conquer medieval Western Europe and more. You can also start games in later eras, purchasing units, roles, improvements and technologies to help get started.

Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword is rated E10+ for everyone age 10 and older. The original game is required to use the expansion pack.