Since the transition into Closed Beta and the release of the Heroes of the Storm Founder's Pack, Blizzard's upcoming MOBA has seen waves of new players jumping into the game and checking out the Nexus for themselves. If you've been enjoying crushing your opponents as your favorite Blizzard heroes, the team has announced a few upcoming skins that may help you look even flashier while doing so.
Check them out!
This week we awarded our top gaming picks of 2014. It wasn't easy; there were many stand-outs this year!
Our Expansion of the Year award went to World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor. ZAM's VP of Technology, Michael "Argo" Ender, said that "World of Warcraft fell off my radar a bit after Wrath. With WoD they made the WoW game I've always wanted to play. Thank you Blizzard!" President Cody "Micajah" Bye added that the release of Draenor "revitalized an entire game." Check out contributing writer Michael "Ragar" Branham's story about how Warlords drew him back to Warcraft in our Expansion of the Year article.
Consoles saw a lot of new titles this year, but Destiny took the prize home for our Console Game of the Year award. Bungie reached for excellence and delivered on many levels with the title that has half of our staff hopelessly addicted. It may not be all roses, as ZAM Deputy Editor Colt "ShdwFlm" Casey mentions in our Console Game of the Year article, but at its core Destiny is a fun experience with room to improve.
PC gamers were treated to a plethora of excellent titles this year, with BioWare's Dragon Age: Inquisition landing our PC Game of the Year award. The in-depth story and replayability ultimately won many of us over as we took the Qunari by the horns and laid waste to all who stood to oppose Thedas. Managing Editor Ann "Cyliena" Hosler talked about how DAI excelled on every level in our PC Game of the Year article.
Finally, we looked forward to what next year will bring and agreed that Overwatch, which Blizzard unveiled during this year's BlizzCon, is our Most Anticipated Game of 2015. Project Manager Katie Welka teared up at the epic cinematic trailer, while Colt admitted that he gets the feels every time he watches it. ZAM's Brand Ambassador, Lindsay "Geektr0n" Ferguson, teamed up with Ann to explain why Overwatch is the game we all should be eagerly awaiting in our Most Anticipated Game of 2015 article.
Thanks for joining us for another fantastic year in gaming! We hope everyone is having a great holiday week and look forward to seeing what 2015 will bring!
2014 has been a fantastic year for gaming and one can only hope that 2015 is even better. So many announced titles are exciting, but one has stood out above the rest.
That one is Blizzard Entertainment's new IP: Overwatch.
At BlizzCon, Game Director Jeff Kaplan described the game as a "team-based multiplayer shooter that is completely action-packed." New heroes (us!) need to step up and battle in teams, aiming to emerge victorious on the field of battle. We went hands-on with Overwatch during BlizzCon and had a blast; the game felt user-friendly even to genre newbies and was highly engaging. ZAM has already launched a site, OverKing, dedicated to the game.
When I originally heard about Warlords of Draenor, I was excited, but a bit worried about the premise. As much as I liked the idea of fighting these big name Orc Warlords and seeing how powerful they truly could be when free of the Burning Legion’s corruption, when you mix in time travel and alternate realities into any fiction, things always have the potential to go off the rails and end up a mess. World of Warcraft has dealt with time travel in the past with dungeons and even the Mount Hyjal raid, but this is an entire expansion built around having an alternate reality invade our own? Can something like this really hold up to scrutiny? In a word: absolutely. For a longer description, I’ll use my own starting experience to give an example.
Following the announcement of the upcoming Heroes of the Storm holiday skins, Blizzard has revealed character model updates and master skins for everyone's favorite Archdruid and Rockstar: Malfurion and E.T.C. While the previous models for these two heroes still made sense with the game's art-style, the team is making efforts to bring out greater portrait quality, face definition and character textures to many of the game's current heroes as development progresses.
Additionally, holding true to the goal of giving every hero an unlockable "Master Skin", the upcoming skins for Malfurion and E.T.C finally make an appearance as seen in the video below.
Check it out!
Right on time for the holiday season, Blizzard gives us a sneak peak at the upcoming Winter Veil skins/mounts and Altered Fate skins that are making their way to Heroes of the Storm. Among these new seasonal additions are the "Great-Father Winter Rehgar" skin, a Reign-Deer mount, a "Betrayer Malfurion" skin, a "Warden Tyrande" skin and—last but not least—a "Winter Veil Jaina" skin.
Check them out in the video below!
Were you one of the players hammering at the World of Warcraft servers during the launch of Warlords of Draenor last week? According to Blizzard, you definitely were not alone.
Lindsay "geektr0n" Ferguson hosts ZAM's latest installment of Friday Update Arcade! Topics discussed are:
World of Warcraft has released its latest expansion: Warlords of Draenor. It adds the new world of Draenor to the game, extends the level cap to 100, introduces Garrisons, new dungeons, raids and more. The Standard Edition is available for $49.99 and the Collector's Edition can be picked up for $69.99. A retail-exclusive Collector's Edition, featuring a hardcover art book, mousepad, and a behind-the-scenes disc can be purchased for $89.99.
Warlords of Draenor sends Azeroth’s heroes beyond the Dark Portal on a desperate mission to save their world from the vicious Iron Horde—a formidable army of the most infamous orc clans from Warcraft’s battle-scarred history. As players explore the savage alien world of Draenor, they’ll encounter fierce new foes and befriend unlikely allies, construct and command a mighty Garrison, and take their place on the front lines in the battle to save Azeroth from a future forged in iron.
Our Wowhead team has compiled a list of our most useful guides and content to help you build your garrison, pick your gear, play your class and more. The database is also completely up-to-date for the expansion.
Join Olivia and Perculia for a very special edition of Wowhead Weekly! This week the ladies recap all the BlizzCon excitement from the World of Warcraft Arena Championship Casting Desk.
