June 30, 2008 - While the announcement of Diablo III naturally dominated Blizzard's Worldwide Invitational held this past weekend in Paris, the gaming giant had much more than that on display. The Irvine, Calif.-based developer also had its two other big upcoming releases at the event: the real-time strategy game StarCraft II and World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, the second expansion pack to the dominant MMORPG.
IGN dispatched a four-member team to Paris for the event, and they came up with coverage of all three games. So look below for the latest details, screens, and videos for the Blizzard game that you're looking forward to the most.
Diablo III
Monday marks the eighth anniversary of Diablo II's release, so it's fitting that Blizzard announced the sequel this past weekend. Of course, eight years is a long time to wait, but at least the company finally gave Diablo fans some good news.
Diablo Video
Since this was the crown jewel of Blizzard's weekend, we have a wealth of coverage about the game. Your first stop should be the Diablo III Information Center, where you'll find a ton of details regarding the announcement. We also have an interview with Rob Pardo, Blizzard's executive vice president of game design. Then there are separate articles on Diablo III's art and narrative design, as well as class and skill creation. And the Diablo III coverage goes on, because we also have a FAQ, coverage of a Blizzard panel discussion, a slew of videos (with some in HD), as well as more than 25 screens.
StarCraft II
Then there's StarCraft II, the game that Blizzard unveiled at last year's Worldwide Invitational, which was held in Seoul, South Korea. Like with Diablo, Blizzard has waited a long time (almost a decade) between franchise installments. Needless to say, this promises to be one of the biggest PC games of the year, assuming it releases later this year. And if slips, it'll easily be one of the biggest PC games of 2009. We have a fresh hands-on impressions piece, as well as 11 new screens and art images from the game.
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
And finally there's Wrath of the Lich King, the upcoming expansion to Blizzard's blockbuster MMORPG World of Warcraft. WoW fans--and there are more than 10 million of them out there--should definitely check out our hands-on preview of the new Death Knight class, as well as an article detailing Blizzard's new dungeon philosophy with the expansion. We also have 12 new screenshots for you to peruse.
That's it for now. However, keep an eye on IGN this week, because we'll have a video tour of the show floor, which is perfect if you couldn't make it over to Paris.
