What's New: Pandaria,Soccer, Angrybirds

Whats new this week in gaming? Every Tuesday I'll be writing about it!

First up we have World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria which actually released today on the PC and Mac. I'll probably be talking about that a little later on. That was the big release of the day, but along with that we have 2 soccer games. FIFA:2013 on everything imaginable, and Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 on the PC, 360 and PS3. We also see Angry Birds Trilogy on the 360, PS3, and 3DS, as much hate as Angry Birds gets it's still an addictive game, although I think I'd prefer to just play it on my phone when I have a spare minute or so, I don't know how well it would do on the consoles.

Other games include:

Tokyo Jungle - PS3
One Piece Pirate Warriors- PS3
Garshasp: Temple of the Dragon - PC
Dead or Alive 5- PS3, 360
Heart of Iron 3: Their Finest Hour - PC
The Testament of Sherlock Holmes - PC, PS3, 360
Final Fantasy 3- PSP
Castle Crashers- PC
Half Minute Hero: Super Mega Neo Climax Ultimate Boy

Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm

Blizzard has been surprisingly quiet with news regarding their upcoming Starcraft 2 expansion, slaving away on it in secret at the Blizzard headquarters in Irvine. However at the latest MLG tournament they had a lot to show off, even letting the contestants play with the new units. According to a recent interview with them Heart of the Swarm is actually about 99% finished. They are in polish mode, and expect to be done soon (tm). Until then, you can enjoy these videos!

New units

MLG Footage, where they got to play Heart of the Swarm

[WoW] The Black Market Auction House and Raid Design Concerns

As a bit of a note, I am an avid WoW player. I have been for years now. These are, like most of the other things on my blog my opinions. They could be, and are likely wrong.








Blizzard has been making big changes to World of Warcraft in the recent years, and with change, comes. I just wanted to take a few minutes to describe one of the more recent changes in the beta to World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, the latest expansion that is set for a 2012 release.






First I want to say kudo's to Blizzard for making the world look so artistic and beautiful, even on the 8 year old engine that WoW is running on. Pandaria is massive, the scenery is great, and they seem to have an eye on the story this time around. However probably there most controversial change has been the Black Market Auction House. The first screenshot that showed up of it showed the "Ashes of Alar" a pretty rare mount that requires a lot of farming (doing the same thing repeatedly until you get what you are after) to actually obtain. It had a 0.01% chance to drop off of a boss that can be for the most part soloed by max level characters. With this anyone with the gold (in game currency) would be able to buy that mount.

The mount in question

Now, to some people that wasn't so bad. Sure it was like "Um, I don't think you should be able to buy that, but whatever." However the way that the Black Market Auction House works is that every so often items cycle in and out. And in one of the more recent cycles? Heroic mode raiding gear showed up. Not just one piece, but two. This is gear that takes a lot of people time and dedication to obtain, being bought. It begs the question: "What can't  show up on it?" Is Blizzard just testing the waters because it's beta? Either way, the best gear in the game can be bought for in game gold at the moment.


Blizzard is pushing new features, and the revitalization of PvP, but what are they doing with raiding? Allowing you buy the gear for gold? That kind of undermines the purpose of raiding to get the gear. Why not just save up the gold and buy it when it shows up? Why do people need to be able to buy the best gear in the game? We also haven't heard Blizzard talk about raid design at all. Maybe it's still to come, I mean, I doubt the game is near release at the moment. They have plenty of time to talk about raid design, and to say that raid gear won't be buyable.


Rest assured, this is one of many articles to come about WoW. As long as I am playing it, I will be covering it. I might even make it a weekly Friday thing.