Tag Archives: Chris Metzen

Blizzard’s Chris Metzen has said that StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm is the darkest chapter in the trilogy.

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Blizzard has released a video in which various members of the development team discuss the 2D animated short Diablo III: Wrath. The video features Nick Carpenter, Chris Metzen, James Waugh, director Peter Chung and president and owner of Titmouse, Inc., Chris Prynoski detailing the short’s conception and creation. You can help unlock the short via the Darkness Falls, Heroes Rise minisite. Diablo III is out May 15. Thanks, EvilAvatar.

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Blizzard COO Paul Sams has tikd CVG he already knows what the next World of Warcraft expansion entails, and that SVP of creative development Chris Metzen and his team already “know what they’re going to be doing for multiple expansions ahead.”

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As appropriated from the great scribe and scholar Mr Bartholomew Simpson: Eat my shorts.

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World of Warcraft’s upcoming Mists of Pandaria expansion is no walk in the petting zoo, according to Blizzard’s Chris Metzen.

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Kid? You rule.

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Did you think we were going to get some crappy tie-in for World of Warcraft with Sam Raimi at the realm? This is Blizzard we’re talking about.

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Chris Metzen’s just announced at Blizzcon that Diablo III will have PvP battles.

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The final playable class for Diablo III is the demon hunter, as announced at Blizzcon tonight.

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Blizzard’s Vice president of creative development, Chris Metzen, has said the progress on the World of Warcraft movie has slowed, but it’s still happening.

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It’s late in the afternoon and it’s fitting to find the developer known as the Bourbon Cowboy – Chris Metzen – on horseback. Admittedly, it’s a virtual steed; we’ve just walked in on him playing World of Warcraft in his office at Blizzard’s Irvine, CA headquarters. It turns out even the mind behind some of the most distinctive (and lucrative) worlds known in gaming – StarCraft, Warcraft and Diablo – is an achievement junkie, with Metzen trying to nail in-game exploration accolades “between meetings”.

Or at least that’s his story.

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Blizzard lore-master, Chris Metzen, has told VG247 that while less is more when it comes to creating a story for games, the instinct to clobber people with amazing stories is rather strong, which was one of the lessons Blizzard learned with Warcraft III.

Because of that, changes were implemented in StarCraft II – giving the way it all plays out a more retro feel instead of drowning the player with story.

“Story [in games] can get a bit complicated. You don’t wanna clobber people, but you want the right amount and to include some immersion where it feels like there is something going on when you are playing,” Metzeno told VG247. “But at the same time, you don’t wanna drown people, which is one of the lessons we learned with Warcraft III.

“While I am very proud of the game, take five steps back and you see that it was cool, but a little dense. You are playing through these missions linearly and there’s all sorts of story playing out. It was almost too much, to the point where the really cool moments didn’t stand out because there was just so much to take in because I threw everything I could throw at it at the end of the day.

“This time around, I think, that’s why we went with story mode the way we did with StarCraft II. We wanted to see if there was way to kind of go retro with the core gameplay and just make it about the cleverness of the map and not necessarily with giant betrayals or drama playing out in your actual gameplay. To really find a way to take all those thematic and character components and construct a space where they can play out and you can choose to charge that or not.”

There’s more past the break, and the full thing can be listened to via our latest podcast.
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Two great interviews for you this week. I went to Irvine recently to see StarCraft II, and was lucky enough to get some face-time with Chris Metzen, Blizzard’s lore boss. Despite being a proper rock star, the guy’s switched on beyond belief. Hear him talk story in games, WarCraft III, SCII and loads more in this week’s recording. Really don’t miss this.

Very special interview number two is Stewart Gilray from the UK’s Just Add Water. The firm’s working on Gravity Crash for PS3 and PSP at the moment, and given the recent PS3 price drop we thought talking to a first-party dev would be interesting. Turns out we were right. Who knew?

The rest of this week’s show is me, Steph and Nathan talking about PS3 Slim, the fact PS3 sales have rocketed and how long we think the upside will stay up. Some of the sound quality in there’s a little flaky: sorry about that.

Have a listen. Again, because of the two interviews, it’s quite long this week, so here are the stamps:

• 0-16.18 – Pat, Steph and Nathan and the PS3 price cut and Slim’s introduction.
• 16.18-30.18 – Blizzard’s Chris Metzen on StarCraft II’s plot and loads more.
• 31.08-45.34 – Just Add Water’s Stewart Gilray on Gravity Crash.

Remember you can now subscribe to the podcast on the iTunes Store.

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Chris Metzen, Blizzard’s VP of creative development just took the stage at BlizzCon and announced the new expansion for World of Warcraft, along with two new playable races.

Looks like the new races are Goblins on the Horde side and Worgen are the new alliance race.

Cataclysm was just announced despite earlier leaks and it looks like new dungeons, flying mounts, raids and dungeons will be present as well.

Good times.

The Opening Ceremony just finished, and you can have a look at what was all revealed, and not revealed, here.

According to this, Blizzard creative boss Chris Metzen has said StarCraft II “feels like the best work we’ve ever done”.

He added: “It’s been very, very rewarding to see this thing take shape. Just getting back to that Blizzard of yesteryear where it’s not all about WoW – don’t get me wrong, I love WoW! But we’re so much more than that.”

These quotes are taken from a Blizzard podcast. Get it here.