Video-Game-bracketIssue 142: So March Madness is here which means “gaming” takes on a different form, for most. Personally, I don’t partake, I’m not a basketball fan, but madness is clearly the appropriate adjective. People are completing brackets who know nothing, at all, about sports. I just sit idly by waiting for baseball season to start (the official indicator that spring is here) and play games where I have some modicum of control. I know this post has some headlines that are a week old but this post was kind of set aside for other life-related tasks. Because Real Life Happens (RLH).

More Blizzard headlines in this issue. Their resume of popular titles means its quite easy for them to show up frequently. There are, however, other things to read about. How about Virtual Reality gaming? Perhaps more Tomb Raider content? Whether its Hearthstone, StarCraft, or XBox, hopefully there is something here that will be interesting news for you to peruse. KCGO

Blizzard’s H20 Promo

Posted 3.14.16 – Hearthstone’s 6.2.4 patch had an enigmatic “H20 Promo” hidden within it, which everyone assumed was related to the new playable hero Lady Liadrin in Hearthstone. Blizzard’s marketing department has now added the new lure for Hearthstone players in the form of a WoW achievement: Fledgling Hero of Warcraft. You can unlock Lady Liadrin in Hearthstone simply by reaching level 20 in World of Warcraft (but you have to do it without dungeoning). It’s an obvious attempt to hook more people into playing WoW and you can reach level 20 without having to pay the subscription (as part of their Free-2-Play model).
MMO-Champion post

StarCraft II: Nova Covert Ops

Posted 3.15.16 – At the end of the month the first mission pack for StarCraft II will be available. Remember, now that the final expansion for StarCraft II is out, there will be no more “expansions” for the game. Instead new content will come in the form of these missions packs. Nova Covert Ops is the first of three which will continue the story-line. You can pre-order all three packs for $14.99 which will also give you some bonus material.
Blizzard Watch post

Oculus Rift Launching with 30 Games

Oculus RiftPosted 3.16.16 – It’s a strange coincidence that not long after I write a post illuminating my thoughts on VR gaming I find this post on ars technica. I will warn you that this post does qualify as TL;DR but the images from the games make it worth perusing. The screenshots for Elite: Dangerous, for example, look amazing; I wish I could afford an Oculus rig! I’m always a little skeptical when there are new gimmicks released to try to “improving the gaming experience”, because you never know what will actually take off and what will be a complete disaster. As a friend pointed out “Remember the Super Scope?”
ars technica article

Dehaka Is The Next HOTS Hero

Posted 3.19.16 – If you have been playing StarCraft, the name Dehaka should sound familiar. If you play Heroes of the Storm as well, then Dehaka will become even more familiar. Dehaka is the next hero Blizzard is working on to add to your HOTS army. In fact they even have a preview for you to check out.
Massively Overpowered post

Overwatch-WinstonThe First Overwatch Short

Posted 3.21.16 – As Blizzard, and players, gear up for the Overwatch launch (May 24th) the first of the animated shorts has been made available. Winston seems to be the focus of the first short (titled Recall). I think Winston is going to be a bad ass, granted I’ve played a tank for years so I’m always pretty partial to tank characters. Also, don’t forget that if you pre-order Overwatch you can get a Winston battle pet for WoW.
Blizzard Watch post

Rise of the Tombraider Expansion

Posted 3.22.16 – I didn’t know there would be content expansions for Rise of the Tomb Raider, and apparently this is the third “expansion”! I haven’t even played the vanilla version yet (damn housework keeping my XBox out of commission). Cold Darkness Awakened will be available March 29th (next week). We don’t know yet how much this new content will cost but, apparently, Rise of the Tomb Raider is on sale right now or you can get it as part of the Tomb Raider Season Pass ($30).
Gamespot post

The MMO Times is a post I put together periodically of different MMO/gaming news articles that I think are interesting, fun and/or exciting. If you are interested in receiving these posts in an e-mail please click here to subscribe.