Big Titles Await Release

Diablo 3 – Launching 15 May

D3 - Dark yet Colorful
D3 - Dark yet Colorful

I’m looking forward to 3 games this year. The first being Diablo 3. I have zero experience in the Diablo universe. Diablo 3 has the same polish as all Blizzard games, I’m a sucker for colourful graphics and this will be the first welcome sign for me. To be frank it has been kind of tough for me to get into the Blizzard universe. I didn’t quite get the Warcraft RTS series, I played SC2 basically for the story line. The only game that I invested time in was WoW which is mainly for social reasons. I’ll be playing D3 with the same group of friends so it’ll be interesting to see how D3 develops for me. The game will be released on May 15 which will be during my holidays. Perfect timing. I am also getting it ‘free’ because I’m on the annual pass.

Guild Wars 2

GW2 - A new art style to get used to
GW2 - A new art style to get used to

I will be trying out a lighter MMO in GW2. This game removes the trinity roles from MMOs so it is frankly a PVP styled game even in PVE scenarios because you have to constantly watch yourself and keeping yourself alive while doing your job is purely your own responsibility. Of course you run in groups to complement abilities but its focuses on independent play well enough to break the stranglehold of tank-dps-healer. Again, this is a series that I have zero experience in and will be playing only because the same group of friends are. I like what I am seeing so far and considering GW1 has done well this will be an interesting launch for me. No subscription model so it’ll be easy on the pocket too.

WoW: MOP

WoW: MOP - Let's see how Blizz interprets Asia
WoW: MOP - Let's see how Blizz interprets Asia

Because of the annual pass I will have beta access to the Mists of Pandaria. I believe this will be the expansion that WoW goes completely casual friendly and will change the genre of MMOs. They are delineating the hardcore and casuals very clearly this time so there will be loot farming for everyone but special time based achievements will be hard core centric. As much as I give Blizzard stick for WoW, this is a good move. You cannot mix casuals and hardcore players together. It never works out. Make loot relatively easy to get and seperate players by skill and not gear. Also, it will be the first time that WoW will be releasing an Asian themed expansion and while I am not very into Asian styled games, I am often a big fan of Blizzard’s artwork and interpretation so it’s again a big wait and see.

An Exciting Year for Gaming (for me)

2011 was a big year for gamers unlike me. BF3, MW3, Skyrim, Portal 2 were released. A huge year but those were games I didn’t really get into. 2012 will be a huge one for me due to the three titles above. Most of the games will thankfully be released in the hols so it will have no impact on a semester that has been pretty positive for me. A great geeky holiday to look forward to!