What you need to know
- World of Warcraft is a 20-year-old MMO from Blizzard entertainment, and is about to get a brand new expansion called The War Within.
- To celebrate, another Blizzard title, Diablo 4, has grabbed some Warcraft-style skins as part of its Season 5 Infernal Hordes patch.
- The skins offer a glimpse at what WoW might look like with a more modern engine, showcasing Xavius, Varian Wrynn, Xal’atath, Sylvanas, Kael’thas, and even Warcraft’s infamous sparkly Celestial horse.
As someone who has been around the gaming block a few times, I must say, watching the evolution of these iconic franchises is nothing short of fascinating. The recent developments with World of Warcraft and Diablo 4 have left me both intrigued and nostalgic.
In the previous year, Microsoft completed its purchase of Activision-Blizzard, thereby gaining ownership of iconic series such as Candy Crush, Call of Duty, and World of Warcraft. Notably, the acquisition of Blizzard is particularly enthralling since it may lead to revival of timeless franchises like StarCraft from their slumber.
Recently, Blizzard Entertainment has been consistently delivering impressive projects. Overwatch 2 is progressing smoothly and is considering the return of 6v6 gameplay, which fans are eagerly anticipating. Diablo 4 recently launched its new season, Infernal Hordes, and it’s shaping up to be fantastic. Additionally, World of Warcraft is preparing for a new expansion titled The War Within, marking the beginning of a fresh story arc directed by returning franchise architect Chris Metzen.
World of Warcraft has been operational for 20 years now and continues to run on the original engine, although it’s received numerous graphical updates. Essentially, the engine still maintains its distinctive style. Some areas within World of Warcraft have not undergone visual enhancements, such as Ironforge and the Undercity, which has sparked requests for upgrades in older regions. Future expansions like Midnight and The Last Titan might bring graphical overhauls to some of these older zones. However, some players have gone so far as to contemplate a complete redesign of WoW using a modern engine like Unreal Engine, as demonstrated by the abundance of fan art on YouTube, such as this impressive Ironforge render. But what if Blizzard itself were to reimagine World of Warcraft with a contemporary engine?
In the recently introduced Diablo 4 season titled “Infernal Hordes,” an assortment of fresh skins for characters are now available for purchase, and certain ones exhibit a strong resemblance to the theme of Warcraft.
In this game, you can find various character and mount skins inspired by famous Warcraft characters. For example, there’s a sorcerer skin modeled after Kael’thas, who was once the heir to the Blood Elf throne but became infamous as a villain after aligning with Illidan and the Burning Legion. Similarly, there’s a Druid skin based on Xavius, an elven traitor who sought demonic power.
The skins each cost 2800 platinum, which costs around $25 depending on your region and the current sales events going on. Right now, Blizzard is offering 300 platinum on top of a 2500 purchase, which matches how much the skins generally cost. They come with weapon visuals and so on, too.
Use Microsoft Rewards to get Diablo 4 skins for free
As a tech enthusiast, I’ve discovered an exciting way to snag some Diablo IV Platinum without digging too deep into my wallet! Here’s the scoop: If you rack up Microsoft Rewards points by using Bing as your search engine, you can swap those points for Diablo IV Platinum. And guess what? You can even grab the Diablo 4 battle passes this way too! Just navigate to the Microsoft Rewards redemption page and start spending those hard-earned points. To kickstart your earnings, make sure Bing is set as your search engine on mobile devices and Chrome. Happy gaming!
It would be awesome to see World of Warcraft get a true next-gen visual makeover, but it would also make the game astronomically more expensive to build. The game’s more “simplistic” stylized visuals are at least potentially cheaper to build at scale, over something more photorealistic. World of Warcraft patches and expansions come with veritable mountains of content, in part owing to the size of the team making the game, but also the maturity of the tools and its engine. Moving WoW to a more complex engine probably wouldn’t do the game’s content release schedule any favors, but it’s fun to dream.
As an analyst, I can confidently say that World of Warcraft (WoW) boasts some of the finest pre-rendered cinematics in the gaming industry. The anticipation for the expansion’s launch on August 22, 2024, has been palpable, with both the gripping intro movie for The War Within and the captivating Nerubian faction profile cinematic serving as a testament to this.
You can also grab Diablo IV right now as part of Xbox Game Pass.
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2024-08-10 18:09