Last Friday night we danced on tabletops, took too many shots, and braved the frigid winter breezes of Texas to watch Blizzard’s annual gaming convention: BlizzCon. It was at BlizzCon in 2019 that we learned about Diablo IV, Overwatch 2, and World of Warcraft: Shadowlands were all on the way. So, as expected since 2020 was basically cancelled across the board, the first BlizzCon since that announcement had massive expectations.
And unlike the Nintendo Direct last week, I think Blizzard did a decent job meeting many of the fans expectations. Well…most of them…
It is insane to me that the big dogs at Blizzard didn’t give Jeff Kaplan and co. at least a 10-minute segment to talk about Overwatch 2. Granted, they had a full panel after the opening ceremony to show all the developer updates to the upcoming game, but damn how do you let every other big franchise get a chance to show off their fancy trailers and Overwatch gets nothing? Like, even just a short cinematic showing the new hero changes and some new levels would have been fine.
The rest of the show was pretty good though depending on how much you like Blizzard games. World of Warcraft has a new expansion coming but I know literally nothing about any of the story or characters. Someone asked me to describe the expansion trailer yesterday and I said “well the evil girl from the last trailer with the big sword? she’s back and she killed this big bright girl but she’s second guessing if she’s following the right guy, who is chained to a rock floating in space.”
Did I do a good job? Here’s the trailer so you can check for yourself.
Hearthstone announced some new cards and their upcoming expansion, which only the nerdiest of nerds care about (like me). But I don’t play Hearthstone; I play Hearthstoned. That’s the true way to experience relaxation and gaming. and I’m actually pretty excited about this new mode they’re bringing called Mercenaries. It seems like HS’s spin on Slay The Spire which is super addicting.
And finally, we got new Diablo IV news (new class: the earsnatcher) as well as the WORLD PREMIERE of Diablo 2 Remastered. I’m not gonna lie I’ve never played a Diablo game before but everything I’ve seen from these trailers over the last few years has me itching to play.
So yea, good overall showing by Blizzard. It helps to have less franchises and more ongoing games like WoW, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, etc because all you have to do is announce a 10 hour expansion that will keep the community happy for like a year. Overwatch fans though…I feel your pain. I too cannot wait to jump right back into world of Overwatch. It’s one of the best games I’ve ever played and I hate that it’s stuck in this stagnent mess.
