OMG RPG

It's early morning in Sanctuary, the birds are chirping and the pitter-patter of locals pumping water from the village well outside sounds like an elephant is stampeding through your head. The rising sun illuminates your quaint village on the edge of Tristram but all you can think about is how your mouth is dryer then that witch doctor you came home with last night.

You don't remember the moments that pass between when you got out of bed and when the coffee hit your palate, but you're thankful it's black with two sugars. As you sit at your sad excuse for a kitchen table, trying to piece together the blotchy events of the previous night, you're forced to take notice of a scuffle taking place just outside your crib.

The plywood board that you call your door swings open as each step you take is arduous and methodical. Before you can lift your axe above your head, the action is over. Nearly ten Fallen Imps lay mangled on the ground and all you saw was a cloud of dust and a few bright flashes. Out of that cloud emerges this rather tall, bald dude with a long scraggly beard who says, “just another day in the life of a Monk in Diablo III.”

OK, so maybe that isn't exactly the story Blizzard told in their cinematic announcement at BlizzCon '09, but it has a similar theme: the Monk is bad ass. I had a chance to get my hands on Diablo III while I was out in Anaheim, and after the jump I'll share the juicy details with you.

Thursday afternoon, while we were still on our World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Blizzcon announcement high, I got the chance to sit down with WoW Quest Designer Alex Afrasiabi.  The result was the interview above, where Alex dropped a couple nuggets of lore gold and hinted at godly boss battles to come.  Again we here that Cataclysm is a reforging of Azeroth, and to a largest extent the entire game of WoW.

We're live from Blizzcon 2009, sitting here waiting for the Opening Ceremonies to begin.  The room is full of excitedly quiet people, since everyone thinks they already know what is coming.  Well until it's official, we don't.  We'll keep you all updated as the information comes in.  For now, we wait.

While all the world watched, Bioware yesterday released a new Dragon Age: Origins trailer at the Games Convention in Cologne Germany.  I wanted to share it with you, because the more I see from this game, the happier a Mandifesto I become.  Hopefully we will have more news out of the convention as the week progresses.

That's right friends, the Fallout-esque gritty MMO Fallen Earth will start it's Open Beta testing on Monday August 17th.  When I saw this game at GDC this year I was all kinds of impressed, not only with seeing one of the truly brutal MMOs out there (Age of Conan comes to mind here), but more because this is a realistic world built on a solid story.  The trouble is, for me to tell you about my favorite game mechanic, I would have to ruin a story element for you -- and that's the sign of a good RPG. 

I do know that Fallen Earth will allow players to focus only on what they love.  I personally have been waiting for a game that will let me craft to my heart's content -- and Fallen Earth promises just that.  I won't need to take up arms against the mutant hordes in order to collect the pieces I need to build my friends armor -- and that's just the way I like it.  If you're interested in getting into the beta, head on over to FilePlanet and sign up.  You'll need to register for an account first, but any good beta-file will already have that set up.  You have the weekend to get everything set, because come 1PM on Monday, the servers go live, and you too will need to live by your wits to survive the unsurvivable.

This week WoW players began pitting themselves against the badasses of Icecrown with Patch 3.2's Trial of the Champion, but that wasn't everything we saw this week in World of Warcraft.  Here are some of the most recent headlines that caught my eye about everyone's favorite MMO:

* Icecrown Citadel will have 31 bosses: Now this might be counting all three versions of the instance, so before you all go fainting in the isles, take a breather and read what Ghostcrawler had to say about Patch 3.3.

In case you missed it already, World of Warcraft Patch 3.2 is LIVE and playing in a realm near you. Here's a link to the patch notes and above is a beautfiul video to get you excited.

What's your favorite part of patch 3.2? The new raid instance? The cheap mounts? The mounts for lower levels? Or are you just a fan of the new druid forms? Leave a comment with what and why.

It had to happen eventually right? Patch 3.2: "Call of the Crusade" was just something people have expected will launch some time soon. But now industry folks are saying that tomorrow is the day. According to Rilgon on Twitter, Blizzard has closed the Patch 3.1 Common Issues sticky. What makes this so important is that typically this is done the day before a new patch only. 

Not only that, but they've opened a Common Issues sticky for all things related to Patch 3.2. If that's not a dead giveaway, well, we don't know what is. This seems a bit early to me, perhaps I'm a little crazy but have most people defeated the mighty Ulduar? Are they even ready to take on the Coliseum and Icecrown? 

Me thinks not, but that won't stop Blizzard from pushing forward with new content to keep the elites busy. I have to say, I'm extremely intrigued by what is due up next in Patch 3.2, especially the decrease in levels needed for mounts. That couldn't be more awesome. But what about you all? What are peoples favorite (and least favorite) new patch items for 3.2? Comment below to let us know your thoughts! 

Happy Patch Week :-)

A few days ago the folks from Riot Games came up to show me the latest build of League of Legends: Clash of Fates.  For those of you who haven't heard of this game, it's Warcraft III meets the World of Warcraft battlegrounds.  I've been waiting for months to hear about their intriguing Summoner system, a meta game that connects all the session-based fun together into a meaningful meta game, and this was my chance.

In LoL you play a Summoner, a powerful mage that calls Champions into combat to fight in your name.  Each of the more than thirty Champions earns points for you as a Summoner, experience that can be used to unlock new tricks and abilities that you can then use in subsequent sessions.  It's in the Summoner meta game that you can also purchase new skins for your Champions through a sleek metatransaction system. 

You know a game is going to be good when you constantly say to yourself "that's a smart decision," and I must have said that six times during the preview.