Blizzcon – That name alone sends chills down any Diablo, Starcraft, or Warcraft fan. This event is the Mecca for Blizzard fans to get their beaks wet with insider info and hands-on demos of upcoming titles. It is almost impossible to get tickets due to the fact that they sell out within minutes (I tried but failed). Luckily Blizzcon was being offered on Direct TV and your boy Iron Spider was right there watching it. So here’s what went down.

There were a lot of announcements this year for our favorite games.

I’ll start with my personal favorite game *gasp* World Of Warcraft. Blizzard is injecting new life into WoW with the release of the new expansion pack called Cataclysm.The Story with Cataclysm is pretty damn awesome. One of Azeroth’s greatest foes Deathwing (for all you noobs, Deathwing was the bad guy from Warcraft 2: Beyond the Dark Portal) has broken free from his prison deep under Azeroth. Deathwing’s escape has caused a Cataclysm that brought many changes in the world (he pretty much ripped Azeroth a new A-hole). Natural disasters are a product of his freedom: tidal waves, volcanoes, earthquakes, sink holes, wild fires. This means some zones have been destroyed while other zones have been given new life. Cataclysm brings us so many goodies. For starters two new playable races, The Horde gets a new ally with the Goblins and the Alliance gets Furies with the Worgen (sorry I just had to say it, Ha ha! Furies).

Blizzard has brought in “phasing terrain” first introduced in Wrath of The Litch King. Phasing Terrain is an effect that actually changes the environment as the player completes quests. One feature I’m super excited for (I had to think of old ladies in leather to calm the wood down from this one) FLYING MOUNTS ALL AROUND AZEROTH!!! The Level Cap has been raised to 85 (shocking its not 90). A Guild leveling system is going to be put into place, pretty much that means pure awesomeness. Guilds can earn levels by doing Battlegrounds, Dungeons, and  Raids together. The higher the Guild Levels up, (max level 20) earns them better perks. Guilds will be able to have massive raid resurrection, massive raid summons, less durability loss when the guild wipes and much more. Another new feature is the Secondary profession of Archeology. Archeology will allow players to uncover artifacts around Azeroth which will gain them rewards and reputation. Race and Class mixtures are being added which means we will get to see Tauren Paladins, Gnome Priests, Human Hunters, Blood Elf Warriors, and many more. Cataclysm looks like it’s going to bring a lot of WoW players back for more. I know I’ll be a ghost for quite a while. Check out the in game trailer for Cataclysm.

Now how about that Diablo!

Diablo is one of those games that is close to my heart for more than one reason. Diablo III is looking to be just as good as the first two. A big addition has been added to the game, The Monk! The Monk was announced as a playable class for the game during Blizzcon. Blizzard made the monk fight like he would as if he was in a fighting game (You can cancel combos to start up a new barrage of pain Nerdgasm!). He can use magic, since he’s a monk it will be “Holy” magic. Gameplay is still the classic Diablo we all know and love, good old brawler/dungeon crawler welcome back, why haven’t you called?! Better graphics, new classes, better Battle.net! Diablo III is going to be one of those games that will steal my life and possibly yours.

Can’t forget about Starcraft!

Starcraft 2 – 12 years in the making and it’s worth the wait. Seeing everything come together so well brings a tear to my eye. Last year at the conference Blizzard only showed off Multiplayer. This year it was all about the single player campaign. Blizzard is splitting Starcraft 2 into 3 games. The first one is called Wings of Liberty. Ok now for some bummer news. Blizzard is making Starcraft 2 the fist game to fully implement the new Battle.net system (okay that wasn’t that bad of news, sorry). Blizzard thought it would be a good idea to take away Lan play (told ya there was bummer news). Instead of Lan play we get the Xbox Live style matchmaking through Battle.net. What’s even more messed up is the fact that you can only install it on a limited amount of machines (so we’ve been told). The game looks amazing anyways. The in game footage that was shown (Direct TV) was breathtaking. The CG cut scenes are movie quality (did you expect anything less from Blizzard?) The gameplay is good old fashion Starcraft (which means Korea will destroy us that much faster online) and that’s a good thing. I’m super excited for Starcraft 2 and im really bummed that it got pushed back to 2010. Sad Face….

So Blizzcon is over. My nerd juices are flowing once again, Ozzy Osbourne was pretty bad ass in concert, and of course WoW is planning on stealing my life yet again. Good thing I have 2 weeks vacation saved up for its first month of release. Right now I’m waiting for my Grunty the Murloc Marine pet code to come in with my Direct Tv bill. I hope next year I’ll actually be able to get freaking tickets for the event.

Other cool stuff: