It was going to happen. Of course it was going to happen. World of Warcraft’s subscriber numbers might be deflating, but that won’t stop its loot-and-gizzard-laden frontiers from expanding. Blizzard mega-personality Chris Metzen took the stage to discuss WoW’s “next chapter,” sadly lacking his sunglasses that typically raise the convention’s net sex appeal by 400 percent. He went on to announce that the new expansion, titled World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor, is rooted in the stories of Warcraft’s RTSes, Warcraft I, II, and III. Yep, we’re going back to the good old days – but, you know, in MMO form.

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Blizzard Convention Two Thousand And Thirteen Anno Domini Year Of Our Metzen is upon us. Shortened to “BlizzCon” despite the svelte elegance of its full name, the show is Blizzard’s favorite place for new announcements. I am sitting in a very prickly chair in gaming’s most cavernous convention hall, and I’ll be writing about and recording what happens all weekend. First up, Blizzard’s repeatedly reinvented MOBA Heroes of the Storm.

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Level With Me is a series of interviews with game developers about their games, work process, and design philosophy. At the end of each interview, they design part of a small first person game. You can play this game at the very end of the series.

Thomas Grip is creative director of Frictional Games, based in Helsingborg, Sweden. They’re known mostly for the Penumbra (a first person horror game series) and Amnesia (another first person horror game series), and they’re currently working on another first person horror game called SOMA (a first person horror game). Astute readers may sense a pattern. (more…)

Alright, I take it all back. Maybe Microsoft really are going to deliver more PC games. Though this is an odd place to start.

Available to buy from Steam as of yesterday, Age of Empires 2: The Forgotten is the first Age of Empires 2 expansion in 14 years. (more…)

Like Autumn, the forest alchemist, I’ve spent this week splashing hillsides with gold and crimson. In woods, fields and towns the length of West Germany I’ve been tirelessly turning earthy greens into vibrant reds and yellows. Hundreds of hurrying APCs, hastily dug-in MBTs, and hovering helo gunships have flared like frost-startled beech trees as I’ve fought to resist Red Storm’s irresistible red storm. It’s years since I witnessed such wholesale destruction in a tactical wargame, and years since I was so impressed by the rules and mechanisms underpinning hexagonal aggro.>

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I like Euro Truck Simulator 2 more with each passing day. Last time, it was because the game now has Oculus Rift support. This time, it’s because developers SCS Software have re-invested the profits from some recent DLC back into the game. By recording cars smashing into one another from great heights.

Check out the video of this week’s sound recording session below. (more…)

The Code Liberation Foundation offers free game development workshops for people identifying as women in New York City. So far they’ve provided short courses on C++ and openFramework, as well as their own game jam, and between now and the end of the year they’ll be offering classes in GameMaker, HTML5 and Unity.

I spoke to Nina Freeman, one of the foundation’s founders, about the whys, hows and future of the project.> (more…)

I’m sure everybody goes through a phase when they want the baddies to win. That’s why antiheroes were invented and why Han Solo shot first – if every protagonist was a beaming paladin, impressionable youngsters would flock to the guy with all the best tunes. Blackguards is a turn-based tactical RPG, with a focus on combat, and the characters in the player’s party are a rum bunch. There’s something far worse for them to fight against though and the journey will take them across the Dark Eye setting’s world of Aventuria. The game is on Steam Early Access now and there’s a trailer below.

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Star Citizen this, Star Citizen that. It’s in the news significantly more often than any real space program, and it’s probably better funded at this point too. Personally, I still can’t help but question Chris Roberts’ and co’s ability to pull it off, but I’m now much less doubtful that their aspirations are sincere. I recently lobbed all the skepticism I could at each of Roberts’ claims, and he backed them up with dates, times, and plans to prove he’s not just blasting hot air into the empty blackness of our bank accounts. Look for that mammoth back-and-forth very soon. First, though, Squadron 42. The single-player story-based spin-off kind of disappeared after Star Citizen’s initial announcement, but apparently it’s benefiting from Roberts’ lightspeed jump into the Implausible Wealth Nebula just as much as its big brother. According to Roberts, it’s now just as big as anything he could’ve done working with EA to make a new Wing Commander.>

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Bullet Bros is a co-op Contralike with physics, in which you can use a grappling hook to tether a jeep to a helicopter before fighting other much larger helicopters. It’s up on Kickstarter now.

I like this line from the pitch video: (more…)