Blizzard Announces Upcoming 'Battle for Azeroth' Expansion for World of Warcraft

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

By now Blizzard should've become a movie company. Really looking forward for yet another expansion.

Their cinematics are so well done, my buddy and I dont know why they just didnt use that technology that they use for in game cutscenes and cinematics/trailers for the Warcraft movie. Movie would have been so much better visually and they could have used original voice casting that they have in game for their characters.

 

[dyonoctis]

Their cinematics are so well done, my buddy and I dont know why they just didnt use that technology that they use for in game cutscenes and cinematics/trailers for the Warcraft movie. Movie would have been so much better visually and they could have used original voice casting that they have in game for their characters.

The movie was made by ILM, one of the best VFX studio around (http://www.ilm.com/) they used an old version of Renderman with reyes for the characters (the render engine of pixar), meanwhile blizzard is using (at least now) redshift, a gpu renderer.
(https://www.redshift3d.com/).
The current version of Renderman with RIS is (overall) better than redshift, but when they made the movie it wasn't available, and Redshift was then a very young software, they couldn't possibly have used it for such a large scale production. Even now Redshift is mostly used for short or tv show rather than big hollywood movies. However before working on warcraft, ILM used a software called Arnold for Pacific Rim, and at the time Arnold was a more modern renderer, so I don't know why they didn't used it.

However i think that they managed quite well for something that was made with a tech who was at least 20 years old.

 

[Ravenas]

I have played WoW in the past, all the way to warlords. It was a great game with some awesome polish and game options.

I have since left the game for ESO. Much better game in my opinion. Especially the Morrowind chapter that was just released.

 

[Vayra86]

If you've been subscribed since 2004 at $15/mo then you would have spent over $2,300 on just the base game. Screw this disgusting practice. Yea the game is 13 years old now. That's how old I was when it came out and even then it looked like a small childrens game.

Hahaha somebody has been living under a rock I suppose. And on top of that, you've missed out on perhaps one of the more interesting developments in gaming if you didn't experience this game back in Vanilla/TBC.

WoW has been and still is one of the best MMO's on the marketplace, is hands down the most expansive RPG you can find in gaming, with the largest amount of content, a high degree of quality in all of this content, and a flawless, virtually bug-free experience and net code. Guess all that money did go somewhere useful too

Even today, it still feels like a polished and well designed game with strong mechanics and concept, and even today, it still offers a difficulty and challenge for literally every class of player, from casual to hardcore.

I challenge you to find any game that ticks all the above boxes. There's a good reason it used to stabilize around a player count equalling the total inhabitants of my country, and today is close to a third of that still. In addition, I think its worth stepping in today just to see what you've been missing - I strongly doubt there will be something like it in the future, the age of the MMO is coming to its end rapidly, as is the age of high quality massively online gaming beyond a stupid mobile or browser app.

Disgusting practice - can't disagree more man. Blizzard is one of the most up-front and honest developers you can find. Its a sub based MMO and that was never a secret, and across 13 years, not once did players get left out in the cold. Even today, if I raise a ticket with them, I get a useful response within 24 or 48 hours. Compare this to your random Ubi or EA (or Warner) release, riddled with DLC and loot boxes and effectively making you pay a similar amount to a WoW sub but without all the perks you do get in WoW, both in content and service.

 

[StrayKAT]

Their cinematics are so well done, my buddy and I dont know why they just didnt use that technology that they use for in game cutscenes and cinematics/trailers for the Warcraft movie. Movie would have been so much better visually and they could have used original voice casting that they have in game for their characters.

It's not Blizz themselves who make those. But yeah, I'd watch a movie of that. Preferably Diablo. edit: My bad. I stand corrected. I could've sworn I heard another name floating around but I guess not.

 

[Frick]

WoW has been and still is one of the best MMO's on the marketplace, is hands down the most expansive RPG you can find in gaming, with the largest amount of content, a high degree of quality in all of this content, and a flawless, virtually bug-free experience and net code. Guess all that money did go somewhere useful too

Even today, it still feels like a polished and well designed game with strong mechanics and concept, and even today, it still offers a difficulty and challenge for literally every class of player, from casual to hardcore.

While I definitely agree that WoW is the best MMORPG from a technical standpoint, I still miss the early days, and how it was harder to level say a priest than a hunter. When "solo" meant something. I know the concept wouldn't fly today in WoW because hitting lvl 100+ would take forever and be needlessly hard, but I still miss the sense of adventure. Now it's all a race. I miss the old crafting and the different paths you had to choose from. And I miss the lack of flying, for some reason. The world got so much smaller when you got a flier. That was one thing I liked about WoD: it actually was sorta hard to get a flier, and essentially impossible to do solo. I approve of such things.

 

[Vayra86]

While I definitely agree that WoW is the best MMORPG from a technical standpoint, I still miss the early days, and how it was harder to level say a priest than a hunter. When "solo" meant something. I know the concept wouldn't fly today in WoW because hitting lvl 100+ would take forever and be needlessly hard, but I still miss the sense of adventure. Now it's all a race. I miss the old crafting and the different paths you had to choose from. And I miss the lack of flying, for some reason. The world got so much smaller when you got a flier. That was one thing I liked about WoD: it actually was sorta hard to get a flier, and essentially impossible to do solo. I approve of such things.

Agree 100%

Vanilla WoW was an actual quest, it felt like an actual journey, priceless. When a full day of playing would net you perhaps 1G or 2G, towards the 1000 needed for that horse mount They had the immersion sorted like nothing else back then. Nostalgia

 

[Frick]

Nostalgia

Ome would think so, but personally I actually enjoy WotLK servers the most. It has a balance between what's new (can store more than 5 ores per slot, which is super annoying in Vanilla) and old (still pretty difficult). Or TBC.

 

[Aquinus]

Never made a Blizzard account.

Yet, you judge the game without ever having owned it? Seems legit.

 

[TheTechGuy1337]

The one thing that I miss from WoW is the good old days of an open skill tree. Do you guys remember the shockadin build for paladins? I rocked the holy shock out of that build and loved every minute of it. Blizzard tried to give healers some dps abilities with the later expansions, but it was not the same. Or maybe I needed to tank a few mobs for a specific boss. What would I do? Hearth to Stormwind, respec to prot/ret build, and then get summoned back in to own some mobs. They started handing stuff to us like locked down talent trees to help the younger players and duel spec to allow raiders to change on the fly... We no longer need hit points to hit mobs....I call this hand holding. I should have the choice to spec my talent tree to whatever I want in any spec.

I went to Path of Exile and never came back.....go look at that talent tree. You can get lost for days....weeks even....trying to figure out the optimal spec. You want to be a melee ranged healing spinning warrior of doom? No problem. Path of Exile has you covered and it is f2p.

 

[StrayKAT]

The one thing that I miss from WoW is the good old days of an open skill tree. Do you guys remember the shockadin build for paladins? I rocked the holy shock out of that build and loved every minute of it. Blizzard tried to give healers some dps abilities with the later expansions, but it was not the same. Or maybe I needed to tank a few mobs for a specific boss. What would I do? Hearth to Stormwind, respec to prot/ret build, and then get summoned back in to own some mobs. They started handing stuff to us like locked down talent trees to help the younger players and duel spec to allow raiders to change on the fly... We no longer need hit points to hit mobs....I call this hand holding. I should have the choice to spec my talent tree to whatever I want in any spec.

I went to Path of Exile and never came back.....go look at that talent tree. You can get lost for days....weeks even....trying to figure out the optimal spec. You want to be a melee ranged healing spinning warrior of doom? No problem. Path of Exile has you covered and it is f2p.

I barely even played but I remember those Paladins could solo well, and were nearly unkillable.

 

[Upgrayedd]

Yet, you judge the game without ever having owned it? Seems legit.

Doesn't mean I haven't played it. Its just Horde V Alliance, children themes.

 

[StrayKAT]

Doesn't mean I haven't played it. Its just Horde V Alliance, children themes.

Not exactly. It's not dark vs light or anything. If that's what you mean. Thrall is one of cooler goody characters around....and his people (Orcs) aren't beasts like humans first thought. They're space aliens who got abused into being that way.

 

[exodusprime1337]

It's funny people harping about the subscription. I've had a WoW account since alpha/beta and never once cancelled, even in the times where i fell into other things or just didn't have time to play. Honestly i think that WoW offered an experience that many other games couldn't offer to me. I spent hours, hundreds and thousands of them over the last 13 or so years doing all sorts of things in the game. I never felt like i was just grinding, never felt like someone could do it better. This expansion seems to build on many of the fixes in legion and i'm pretty excited for it.

Sure you can complain about the sub fee, but you clearly didn't spend thousands of hours playing to max level, raiding, staying up late on a work/school night and getting up the next morning to find out a casual player just dumped 100 bucks on loot boxes and has all the same gear you do. WoW is about the experience, that comes with a cost. I'd rather pay the 15 a month to not put out with P2W games. It's not worth complaining on the forums about the cost.

On another note, it's hard to listen to people harp about it being a "bad game". Just go google the number of MMO's that fell at WoW's feet in the last 13 years.

 

[exodusprime1337]

Ome would think so, but personally I actually enjoy WotLK servers the most. It has a balance between what's new (can store more than 5 ores per slot, which is super annoying in Vanilla) and old (still pretty difficult). Or TBC.

I agree that Wrath might be my favorite of the Xpacs for sure. Even with every other toon being a DK(me included lol)

 

[joyman]

Clearly strange that its not mentioned the really big surprise on blizzcon - the new classic(vanilla-and other expansions) servers that blizzard are working on. They will come probably next christmas, but still its much more interesting news than the next crappy expac that is just rehashing of rehashing of rehashing. I left in WoTLK and if they don't remake vanilla how it was I am not coming back.

 

[StrayKAT]

It's funny people harping about the subscription. I've had a WoW account since alpha/beta and never once cancelled, even in the times where i fell into other things or just didn't have time to play. Honestly i think that WoW offered an experience that many other games couldn't offer to me. I spent hours, hundreds and thousands of them over the last 13 or so years doing all sorts of things in the game. I never felt like i was just grinding, never felt like someone could do it better. This expansion seems to build on many of the fixes in legion and i'm pretty excited for it.

Sure you can complain about the sub fee, but you clearly didn't spend thousands of hours playing to max level, raiding, staying up late on a work/school night and getting up the next morning to find out a casual player just dumped 100 bucks on loot boxes and has all the same gear you do. WoW is about the experience, that comes with a cost. I'd rather pay the 15 a month to not put out with P2W games. It's not worth complaining on the forums about the cost.

On another note, it's hard to listen to people harp about it being a "bad game". Just go google the number of MMO's that fell at WoW's feet in the last 13 years.

I used to be an earlier (pre WoW) fan of MMOs. I have no prob with the sub. I just hate how they all eventually became very Everquest-like. And WoW killed them all, as it was the best of the bunch. By the time it came out, I was too familar with the gameplay, so I never could stick with it. It's great for what it is though. I just wish there had been more sand boxy games, like UO. There was never enough of those to get bored with them.

edit: The thing that got me to play at all is the story from the rts games. But I lost track of what's even going on in the setting. It's not "kiddie" though. Not sure what that other poster is talking about.