Blizzcon - dropping the Blizzbomb

Well seems the announcements have come thick and fast - Diablo 3 has the Monk class returning (kind of) from the original Diablo expansion Hellfire. Unfortunately it looks like a 2011 release date with SC2 and Cataclysm releasing 2010 for maximum effect.

Speaking of that massive surprise - World of Warcraft Cataclysm is on the way for 2010 and Blizzard announced the following

• Two New Playable Races: Adventure as one of two new races--the cursed worgen with the Alliance or the resourceful goblins with the Horde.
• Level Cap Increased to 85: Earn new abilities, tap into new talents, and progress through the path system, a new way for players to improve characters.
• Classic Zones Remade: Familiar zones across the original continents of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms have been altered forever and updated with new content, from the devastated Badlands to the broken Barrens, which has been sundered in two.
• New High-Level Zones: Explore newly opened parts of the world, including Uldum, Grim Batol, and the great Sunken City of Vashj'ir beneath the sea.
• More Raid Content than Ever Before: Enjoy more high-level raid content than previous expansions, with optional more challenging versions of all encounters.
• New Race and Class Combinations: Explore Azeroth as a gnome priest, blood elf warrior, or one of the other never-before-available race and class combinations.
• Guild Advancement: Progress as a guild to earn guild levels and guild achievements.
• New PvP Zone & Rated Battlegrounds: Take on PvP objectives and daily quests on Tol Barad Island, a new Wintergrasp-like zone, and wage war in all-new rated Battlegrounds.
• Archaeology: Master a new secondary profession to unearth valuable artifacts and earn unique rewards.
• Flying Mounts in Azeroth: Explore Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms like never before.

No announcements about Starcraft 2 as i can see, guess maybe something tomorrow. Then again we already know that

"Blizzard Entertainment has moved the anticipated release date of StarCraft II to the first half of 2010 to coincide with the relaunch of its upgraded Battle.net^® online -gaming service." (hat-tip SC2.blog)

Plus quite a bit of info about multiplayer and the single player campaign is already out in a series of videos and preview pieces dotted around gaming sites.

Anyway got to hand it to Blizz they do know how to get players going! Even though i quit WoW quite a while back after 2 burnout years of playing practically nothing else, it still excites me to read all this stuff and may tempt me back. However.....

It will be going head to head with probably the most eagerly anticipated MMO to date - Star Wars The Old Republic. The Hype train is full steam ahead and it has a lot going for it if and if they deliver it could be a real match up for WoW if they release within a few months of each other.

I guess many gamers will play both if SWTOR is as good as many people hope it to be, i confidently predict as long as SWTOR doesn't pull a WAR maneuver and release without being polished to a fine shine of excellent content and gameplay it will be the second most popular MMO easy enough and break a million plus subscribers. If it fails there is no wrath compared to how Starwars fan+the MMO community and the Internet in general will react and Bioware better re-hire Mark Jacobs to have someone to blame for it.

Still good news from Blizzcon so far - have to look into it more as 12.30am in the UK so bed time :)