Beta, Beta, Beta!!!

Hey Folks!

So much gaming goodness has been afoot over the past few months! Recently, I have had the opportunity to play in a few Beta tests of some upcoming games. The result is I have not had enough time to properly test them all, but I did play enough of each to get a very good snapshot of how the games will be, and I must say, I am excited for all of them. So, what I have I been testing?

Guild Wars 2

The races of Guild Wars 2 

Not since the days of yore (i.e. Star Wars The Old Republic) has there been such a frenzy of anticipation for a MMO release. The folks over at ArenaNet are close to releasing their highly anticipated MMO, which continues the storyline established in Guild Wars. I was impressed with so many new and innovative features of this game. It was very fun to play, and I can easily see myself trying it out once the game is live. Some of the features I liked the most were the Dynamic Event questing system, the Skills system, and how your attacks and powers are based upon which type of weapon combination you are using. But the biggest impression was simply how gorgeous the game is. The amount of detail in the game is amazing. As my buddy Roman said, it is like playing in a highly stylized and intricate painting.


Diablo III

The Witch Doctor causing some Confusion in Diablo 3

Wow. This one has a special place in my heart, as I am a huge fan of "dungeon crawl" anything, and Diablo was my first true video game on my "new" computer back in the early 1990s. This time around, Blizzard updated the graphics, added more story and new classes, including the ranged Demonhunter and the way too cool for words Witch Doctor! Like StarCraft 2, Diablo 3 does feel familiar, yet that is why I think I like it so much. New Tristram is in need of heroes! Again, really looking forward to this release, which is just next week!!! May 15, 2012!










World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria

Pandaren Monk 

Yep, the Pandaren will be making their official entrance into WoW with the next expansion. I love the changes made to WoW graphically. The starting zone for the Pandaren looks like something out of Disney's Mulan. Beautiful! Like ancient China on the back of a giant Sea Turtle. The new Monk class was fun. Despite the cluster**** that was 1,000 Pandaren trying to click on the Edict of the Unclickable, the starting zone was fun, and I got a good impression of the new Monk melee class. I did copy over a level 85 Mistweaver Monk, the melee healing spec, but I had no idea what I was doing so I stopped playing. This looks to be a "love it or hate it expansion for WoW", but I'm a fan boy and loved what I did get to play.

Much more in depth and detailed reviews will follow once these games are released. This is just my initial impression of these great games coming our way. So keep a weathered eye on the horizon for some truly fun online games.

-Wicked