As part of the EVO Japan 2025 reveals, Activision Blizzard and Capcom unveiled an Overwatch 2 Street Fighter skin collection that includes major figures like Ryu, Chun-Li, Cammy, and M. Bison. These skins will be sold starting on May 20, 2025. A trailer also appeared, but it is completely animated and doesn’t actually show how each of the designs look in-game.

There will be eight total skins as part of this crossover. We don’t know how all will be doled out yet, and if there will be any free options. Typically, these sorts of crossovers involve content being added to the in-game store so people can purchase them for real money.

Here’s the full list of costumes available, with all of them being major Street Fighter mainstays like Ryu, Blanka, Chun-Li, Cammy, M. Bison, and Guile.

• Hanzo will get a Ryu skin.
• Juno will get a Chun-Li skin.
• Kiriko will get a Juri skin.
• Sigma will get an M. Bison skin.
• Soldier: 76 will get a Guile skin.
• Widowmaker will get a Cammy skin. 
• Winston will get a Blanka skin.
• Zenyatta will get a Dhalsim skin.

As a reminder, there’s currently another major crossover skin collection available in Overwatch 2. Bandai Namco revealed a Gundam Wing collection. This involves skins that turn people into mechs. The four featured characters with new looks in that series are Mercy, Ramattra, Reaper, Soldier: 76.

Overwatch 2 is available for the Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC, and the Street Fighter skins will show up in-game on May 20, 2025. 

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Following Activision Blizzard’s Diablo Berserk tease, it set dates for the Diablo IV and Diablo Immortal events. It starts in the mobile game first on May 1-30, 2025, with the Diablo Immortal: Struggler’s Path event. Meanwhile, the anime-inspired event it will last throughout Season 8 in the main game starting on May 6, 2025. 

In both cases, there will be themed opponents and challenges, as well as some equipment tied to the anime. The Diablo Immortal: Struggler’s Path event includes a Survivor’s Bane event that has you dealing with the Eclipse and fighting demons. Zodd will appear as Nosferatu Zodd, and earning the Crimson Behelit Gem lets you face a harder version of the fight. There will also be a campaign with free equipment and cosmetics and items to earn like The Broken Band’s Armament and weapon skins.

Here’s the trailer for the Diablo Immortal version of the crossover.

As for Diablo IV, the Berserk crossover event will involve both trading Behelits for cosmetics and visiting the in-game shop to buy equipment inspired by the characters and game. Once May 6, 2025 rolls around, you can get Behelits from elite enemies. Get enough and you can trade them at the Berserk Reliquary for items inspired by the series. The store will also sell items based on characters. The Berserker Armor for Barbarians in the event is inspired by Guts. The Rogue’s Hawk of Light equipment is based on Griffith. Meanwhile, it looks like The Struggler Rogue armor is based on Chasca. As for the Necromancer’s Skull Knight, that look is based on… The Skull Knight. You can also get the Chimimoryo in a Pet Bundle called The Schnoz with Chimimoryo’s Resemblance and the Mask Rakshas Mount Trophy, and Griffith’s Warhorse of the Hawk mount and mount and mount armor will be sold. 

Here’s the trailer for the console and PC version of the crossover.

Finally, there will be a a Streamer initiative on Twitch tied to this crossover. There’s no exact date for it yet, but it will involve a chance to earn a Skull Behelit Mount Trophy in Diablo IV. 

Here are screenshots for the Diablo IV items from the crossover:

Diablo IV is available on the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC and Diablo Immortal is on PCs and mobile devices. The Berserk crossover events will start in May 2025 in each game. The Berserk anime is found on Crunchyroll, and Dark Horse handled the manga.

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Blizzard have released a new article looking at how interior decoration will work in WoW's Player Housing system. The hotly anticipated feature is expected to arrive with the Midnight expansion, which currently has no release date but is expected to be shown off sometime in Summer, 2025.

The interior decoration system will work in two modes, which players can freely switch between. Basic mode will allow you to place objects that snap to walls or ceilings, with collision as you might expect. Advanced mode however, will allow for more freedom in decorating by turning collision off and letting players freely resize, rotate, and elevate objects as they wish.

The article includes several short videos showing work-in-progress builds of the system on both control modes. It also gives some examples of how the team has used the advanced mode, such as using paint buckets as spice jars on a kitchen shelf or a bed to make a boat's prow. Additionally, players will be able to recolor some of the interior decoration objects made specifically for WoW's new Player Housing, but legacy objects made previously may be less customizable.

Late last year, Blizzard announced the return of the Plunderstorm battle royale mode alongside a new zone called Siren Isle. More recently, we saw the launch of The War Within Season 2 which brought a variety of new mounts and delves.

WoW's Player Housing system is expected to launch alongside the Midnight expansion, which does not currently have a release date. World of Warcraft: The War Within is immediately available for PC and Mac.

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Microsoft released a list of new additions heading to its Xbox Game service in January 2025, which includes the original Diablo game from Activision and Blizzard. Other games ing the Game library include the console version of My Time at Sandrock and EA Sports UFC 5, while others like Exoprimal will be leaving the service.

Diablo originally launched back in 1997, and Activision and Blizzard since released several installments and spin-offs, most recently Diablo 4 (which is also currently on Game ) and its expansion Vessel of Hatred. The original game will the Game service on January 14, 2025 and be available for PC s.

You can find a list of other games ing or leaving the service below:

• Road 96 (PC, Console, Cloud) - January 7, 2025.
• Lightyear Frontier (Preview, Xbox Series X/S) - January 8, 2025.
• My Time at Sandrock (Console) - January 8, 2025.
• Robin Hood: Sherwood Builders (Xbox Series X/S) - January 8, 2025.
• Rolling Hills (Console) - January 8, 2025.
• EA Sports UFC 5 (Xbox Series X/S and Cloud) - January 14, 2025.
• Diablo (PC) - January 14, 2025.

Meanwhile, these games are set to leave the service on January 15, 2025:

• Common’Hood (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Escape Academy (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Exoprimal (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Figment (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Insurgency Sandstorm (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Those Who Remain (Cloud, Console, and PC)

Back in November, 2024, Microsoft also announced that Persona 5 Tactica and two Yakuza/Like a Dragon games would be leaving the service. The month before that, Good Smile Company announced it would be producing a Pop-Up Parade L figure of Lilith, the chief antagonist of Diablo 4.

Diablo will become available via Xbox Game for PC on January 14, 2025. The game is already available for purchase via GOG and Battle.net.

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When World of Warcraft update 11.0.7 and the new Siren Isle zone were first announced, one of the first questions for many fans was whether or not Flying Mounts would be usable in the area. It's a contentious topic, with many players vehemently against any restriction of flight, but after the update's release it's especially clear that sometimes a little less freedom is to the benefit of the game's design.

For context, while Flying Mounts were added all the way back in WoW's first expansion, Burning Crusade, it wasn't a universally available mechanic even then. It was originally restricted to the new expansion areas until 2010's Cataclysm expansion redesigned the original launch areas to accommodate flying. Even after that, however, expansions like Warlords of Draenor and Legion didn't allow flying on launch, making it available later after players unlocked a 'Pathfinder' achievement as a compromise. Similarly, WoW's new Siren Isle was announced to have flying restricted until players upgrade the new Cyrce's Circlet item, with no flying allowed at all during the island's storm phase.

While often accompanied with the usual internet vitriol, it is understandable why people would resent the restriction. Flying is a huge convenience and convenience is held at a in MMO's especially. It doesn't just let you circumvent annoying obstacles without risk of roaming monsters knocking you off your steed, it's also flatly faster. Ground Mounts in WoW boost movement speed by 100% at maximum (or a bit more for certain classes), while Flying Mounts go up to 360% with the newly added Skyriding/Dragonriding system going even faster. And of course, once you've tasted those highs of altitude and velocity both, it's hard to go back to that piddly 100%.

But Siren isle is not the kind of zone where that speed is necessary. In fact, it's quite small and more intimately packed with secrets and goodies including hidden cosmetics, invisible treasure chests, and of course lore. This is a zone that is intended to reward close attention and eye for detail, the kind not really encouraged by skyriding. But once you've seen most of what's available on Siren Isle, flying is still there to help out with finding those last few items or finishing off the usual WoW currency grind.

That's part of why allowing flying later works so well in other WoW zones, since you get the best of both worlds while stopping either getting stale. Your first few forays into a zone or expansion can be directed traditionally but when levelling your 3rd character (or just running through to gather herbs and ores) you get the freedom to skip to where you need to be or explore from another angle. And after being land-bound for a while, you'll appreciate the freedom of flight all the more. It's currently not certain whether flying on Siren Isle will be -wide like with the Pathfinder achievements or tied to your characters progression with Cyrce's Circlet, but unless you're a power-gamer that keeps multiple characters Raid-ready at once you can likely do everything in the zone on one character.

Until you do earn your wings back, there's a plethora of other transport options available to try out. The new Experimental Go-Pack gives players a burst of verticality, while I finally found a use for all those Goblin Glider Kits i stockpiled a few expansions ago. Then there's all the class-specific leaps, slow-falls, and stealth abilities that once more come into their own, especially during the island's storm phase where tougher monsters roam ready to mince squishier characters. Players will need to once again pay attention to their environment, rather than simply floating over all their terrestrial problems.

That's why I was actually happy when I first heard about the Flying restrictions on WoW's Siren Isle, despite the loss of convenience. Flying is great and I wouldn't want it removed from the game writ large, but I do also long for the days when you had to engage with the terrain, where roads provided a relatively monster-free pathway through a zone and Flight Masters were invaluable checkpoints. Not all of those last few apply to Siren Isle itself, but it's a welcome change of pace that I hope Blizzard isn't afraid to do again.

Because the isle was repurposed from old content from the Battle for Azeroth expansion, there's a common refrain among some players that it's "cheap and lazy" asset reuse and that flying was only restricted to make the isle seem bigger than it is. But clearly there's been more thought than that put in to the decision than that, even if it was a consideration. Restricting flying, at least for a while, simply fits better with the zone's design ethos. So even if you're a die-hard flight enthusiast, try taking a moment to think about how being restricted to ground mounts changes how you engage with the map, even if you'd rather be flying. Or, just rush through to get your wings if that's your preference.

World of Warcraft: The War Within is immediately available for PC, including the 11.0.7 Siren Isle content.

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Blizzard has released a new WoWcast video detailing some of the content in WoW's Version 11.1 update, including new Mounts and Delves. The video features insights from Game Designers David Hollings and Mark Kelada ahead of the update's launch sometime in early 2025.

The WoWcast gives us a better look at some of rewards for the Goblin Cartel reputation system, including toys, cosmetics, and customizable parts for the D.R.I.V.E. system. Interestingly, the article version of the update also mentions a potential 5th Cartel that we might "learn about later". We also get a glimpse at the two new delves coming, Side Street Sluice and Excavation Site 9, as well as the new tanking specialization for delve companion Brann Bronzebeard. Perhaps most importantly, several new mounts are confirmed for WoW 11.1 including a Goblin airship earnable from delves and two from the raid: a mechanical dinosaur and an extra rare one from the Mythic difficulty final boss.

You can read the full article here, or watch the WoWcast video via Youtube below:

Shortly after the launch of the Undermined update, the second season of The War Within is expected to launch bringing with it a new rotation of Mythic+ dungeons for players to run. The game also recently saw the arrival of Patch 11.0.7 and the new Siren Isle zone, which was previewed back in October, 2024.

World of Warcraft: The War Within is immediately available for PC, while the 11.1 Undermine(d) Content Update is expected to land sometime in early 2025.

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Last week, Activision and Blizzard announced the Overwatch 2 crossover with Avatar: The Last Airbender, and now there’s a trailer showing us more of the character skins we’ll be able to get. There are six heroes who will be available, with some of the most notable being Zenyatta as Aang and Mei getting a free Katara costume. The event starts on December 17, 2024, and it will end on December 30, 2024. 

The trailer begins with a teaser showing silhouettes of the different Overwatch 2 characters in the Avatar skins as they perform actions. It is then that it cuts to Zenyatta in the Aang attire. We get to see footage of him, as well as first-person gameplay. The Katara version of Mei comes up after that. The video makes sure to point out that we are able to earn this Epic Skin by playing. It’s free, unlike the others. After Mei, we see Venture in Toph attire. That’s followed by Genji in the Zuko skin. Kiriko shows up as Suki after that, followed by the Orisa Appa skin. 

Here’s the full trailer from YouTube:

While the skins are the most obvious and likely desirable items in the crossover, there are other items too. Challenges will be available until December 30, 2024 that are based on the show. If you complete them, you can get cosmetics like icons, sprays, and voiced lines. 

These kinds of Overwatch 2 crossovers with other series are common now, and we’ve seen quite a few notable ones before this Avatar collab. For example, there was a One Punch Man one in 2023. A My Hero Academia crossover followed that. In 2024, we also ended up seeing Transformers and Cowboy Bebop show up.

Overwatch 2 is available on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC. The Avatar: The Last Airbender event runs until December 30, 2024. You can find the Avatar series streaming on Netflix.

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Firearms and tanks in otherwise pre-industrial societies, comically large piles of crude explosives, meandering contraptions of questionable function and even more dubious construction. These are all as much staples of Warcraft's aesthetic as the orcs and dragons it may be better known for. But despite how popular and recurring the theme of goofy fantasy technology is, there has never been a character Class focused around it. Now, with the reveal of WoW's Goblin-centric Update 11.1, players are once again discussing the possibility of a new World of Warcraft class to fill that niche: a technology-focused fighter concept usually referred to as the Tinker.

Now, speculation regarding a Tinker Class in World of Warcraft isn't new. Even a cursory Youtube search will bring up videos from over 5 years ago half-jokingly declaring the inevitability of the Tinker's WoW arrival. That, of course, never happened but the desire for one has remained significant enough that the new patch information immediately spawned a new round of hopeful videos. One group of enterprising modders even decided to make their own rather than wait for Blizzard to do so, which I think is testament to the enduring popularity of the idea.

And it's easy to see the appeal of the Tinker (or whatever other name you would prefer). While some classes channel magic, rely on their physical strength and agility, or wield a mix of both, the Tinker utilizes a suite of custom-made gadgets and their own intelligence. As a non-magic based intellect class it has a strong and as-yet unrepresented fantasy, but it's also open-ended enough to translate to a multitude of potential playstyles. Mechanized exo-skeletons and forcefields would suit a tanking role, while injected concoctions and portable medical devices a healing role. Or, Blizzard could expand on the '' role introduced with the Augmentation Evoker, letting the Tinker use their gadgets to amplify other player's outputs. Whatever niche the developers feel needs filling.

But it's not the mechanical implications that make it such a good fit, it's the fantasy and theming. There's no shortage of fan-made class ideas floating around, like D&D staple the Bard. But something like that doesn't have quite that same presence in the Warcraft world, even if it's a popular idea. The Tinker, meanwhile, draws on theming that has been with the Warcraft series since its RTS days, and is already represented by several characters like Gazlowe (who was prominent enough to appear in Heroes of the Storm) and High Tinker Mekkatorque (who featured as a raid encounter back in Battle for Azeroth) who can serve as archetypes and story stand-ins. Engineering has a long history as a profession too, while entire zones and instances like Mechagon and the Undermine content are all heavily based around the theme of wacky Warcraft technology. That's what I mean when I say the Tinker class is overdue, the theming is *so* present that it's odd it hasn't shown up earlier.

But there's also one more reason for why a Tinker class could be a fitting addition to WoW's roster, and that's to do with the potential future direction of the World of Warcraft story. For those who haven't followed the lore too closely, Blizzard began tightening up their universe and worldbuilding with the Chronicle books, beginning around 2016. These books codified the existence several types of fundamental energy in the world such as Arcane, Void, or Fel and described how many of the major factions were motivated by or otherwise aligned to them, which some players have criticized as 'flattening' the universe too much into known, sectioned quantities (though I don't necessarily agree). But the theming of the Tinker is specifically not tied to any of these elements, and instead represents the the mortal inventions that arise from combining them. And with a lot of recent lore reveals related to the Titans, beings aligned to the Arcane that seek to mould Azeroth into their own image, what could be a better symbol of independence and self-determination to arrive during The Last Titan expansion?

It's easy to fall in to demanding content for content's sake, but in the Tinker's case I think there really is a strong case for its inclusion in the WoW class roster. It's simply such a beloved and integral part of the Warcraft aesthetic and world, that hasn't seen the level of playable representation that others have. Where the Demon Hunter and Death Knight stand as iconic classes, I absolutely believe the Tinker deserves to stand alongside them.

World of Warcraft: The War Within is available now for PCs.

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Blizzard released a preview of the next content update heading to World of Warcraft, and a new zone and the return of the Plunderstorm event will appear in patch 11.0.7. The new version will appear on the Public Test Realm on October 31, 2024, though the developer has yet to share a date for when we can expect it to hit the Live servers.

The big attraction for the new patch will be a new zone called the Siren Isle. Described as smaller, but denser, than full zone maps, this new area will use its own currency called Flame Blessed Iron. Blizzard also promised a powerful new ring with multiple sockets will appear there. The island is said to have been used as a Kul Tiran Azerite mine in the past, and players will need to fend off Vrykul, Naga, and other threats as they explore it. Additionally, the battle-royale style event Plunderstorm is set to return to the game in early 2025, alongside new transmog items and mounts.

You can read more about the content on the official site, and catch the video preview via Youtube below:

The last update for WoW brought with it the 20 Year Anniversary Celebration which included updated Classic armor sets and variety of new activities. Blizzard and Good Smile Company also recently announced a new Nendoroid figure of Alleria Windrunner, who figures prominently in the story of the latest expansion.

World of Warcraft and its most recent expansion, The War Within, is immediately available for PC while Patch 11.0.7 will be available via the Public Test Realm starting from October 31, 2024. There is currently no release date for when Patch 11.0.7 will appear on the Live servers.

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Not only are Raids the highest level of content in World of Warcraft, they're often also a climax point in an area's storyline, or even of a whole expansion. There have been a whole lot of Raids added over the game's 10 expansions, but here are our picks for the best of the lot.

Ulduar (Wrath of the Lich King) 246x6z

Beginning with a unique, vehicle-based assault on a mountaintop alien research facility, before ending with a showdown against an imprisoned chthonic deity, Ulduar was a wild swerve into WoW's more space-fantasy side. The raid and especially its special optional boss encounter also gave us some more information on the Titans, who may yet be less benevolent than first assumed. Oh, and there's a chance to earn a flying mount shaped like a mechanical gnome's head, and who wouldn't love one of those?

The Temple of Ahn'Qiraj (Classic) 2w56c

Grand, ambitious, and full of bugs in more ways than one, the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj were one of WoW's biggest early updates. After a lengthy quest chain and an enormous cross-faction event, players were finally able to delve into two new raids set in an underground city of Old God-aligned insects. While today the raid is massively outclassed in of design and graphics, at the time its size was unprecedented and frequently caused the game (and player's internet connections) to buckle as they gathered for the 40-man raid.

Trial of the Crusader (Wrath of the Lich King) 186a30

Nowadays, Trial of the Crusader is mostly known as the origin of the highly meme'd upon Lord Jaraxxus, Eredar Lord of the Burning Legion and objectively Hearthstone's best card. But it was also a really creative series encounters with interesting mechanics, even without some of the narrative weight of other raids. One encounter even emulated a Player versus Player battle, pitting raiders against a team of NPC's from their opposite faction!

The Eye (Burning Crusade) 3s1i3k

Floating above the shattered remains of Outland, Tempest Keep is a series of dungeons culminating in a raid where players throw down with Kael'thas Sunstrider himself. It's also set inside several enormous, crystalline space-ships like the ones the Draenei race use as a home city. To us, this era of space-fantasy technology fueled by neon crystals is as iconic as any of the more traditional faux-medieval aesthetics used in other expansions. Due to being portioned up, the raid itself is also not as much of a maze as some can be, instead being a short and sweet run of 4 bosses including a souped-up Fel Reaver and gauntlet of Kael'thas' lieutenants.

Antorus, the Burning Throne (Legion) 457054

Climax of the fondly ed Legion expansion, Antorus was at once the highpoint of a decades-long plot line and another foray into WoW's space-fantasy side. Alongside classic Warcraft anti-hero Illidan Stormrage, players would assault a demonic space fortress and fight giant robots, demonic generals, and eventually the soul of an entire planet. It also has, for our money, some of the coolest armor sets available.

Castle Nathria (Shadowlands) 4g4i1y

While Shadowlands is an expansion many players would rather forget, Castle Nathria really gave the people what they wanted: Vampires. Gothic architecture, macabre masquerades, and suitably vampy armor sets awaited players as they fought through a host of vampiric residents and misbegotten pets. One encounter even flips the usual dynamics and mechanics by having players heal and defend the soul of Kael'thas Sunstrider, who proved that each of his previous defeats were merely a setback.

Battle of Dazar'alor (Battle for Azeroth) 6q2e4h

The Alliance must have felt pretty miffed when Battle for Azeroth gave them a British port town while the Horde got a gold-encrusted South American city full of dinosaurs, so they decided to invade it. Thus the Battle of Dazar'alor took place, set within the Horde's capital city for the expansion and featuring a climactic final fight against Warcraft heavy-hitter Jaina Proudmoore.

While most raids tend to be fairly faction-neutral, Dazar'alor has both faction-specific bosses and sections where you get to play as a member of the opposing faction. It also served to show off some of the variety in each faction's allied races like the Dark Iron Dwarves and Kul Tiran Humans, while taking place in the city where some players will have spent a lot of time gave the raid palpable stakes other areas struggle to match.

Siege of Orgrimmar (Mists of Pandaria) 3u725l

Take what I said about thematic weight of setting a raid in a faction city, and but make it one player's have known for several years instead of a single expansion. Beginning with an excursion in Pandaria, players must then the Horde revolt on the beaches of Durotar and fight through the forces of Garrosh Hellscream's loyalists, some of whom players will have been fighting alongside for much of the expansion!

So that's our picks for some of the best Raids in World of Warcraft. Let us know which ones you think are best, or simply have fond memories of running, in the comments below!

World of Warcraft and The War Within expansion are immediately available on PC and Mac.

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Among the Good Smile Company New York Comic Con 2024 reveals was a teaser for the Diablo 4 Lilith Pop Up Parade L figure. It’s early in development, so it seems the social media reveal didn’t include any concept art. Instead, the official art of the character showed up in the announcement. 

Lilith is a character who has been a part of the Diablo series since the second game, though she features most prominently in Diablo 4. In that installment, she appears as the primary antagonist. 

Here’s the official announcement for the Diablo 4 Lilith figure:

Good Smile Company only released one Diablo series figure prior to this, and it was a Demon Hunter. That was based on the class’ Diablo 3 appearance. However, that class did also appear in Diablo Immortal. That figure launched in 2024 and is widely available.

As a reminder, the L size versions of Pop Up Parade figures are typically quite a bit taller than the standard ones. Normal ones are under seven inches tall. An “L” variant could be nine inches or taller.

Diablo 4 and its Vessel of Hatred expansion are available for the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC, and there’s no release window yet for the Lilith Pop Up Parade figure.

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Good Smile Company announced a new World of Warcraft figure at the 2024 New York Comic Con, and it is a Nendoroid of Alleria Windrunner. She’s very early in development, so only concept art of the character appeared at the event appeared on social media. She’ll be the third one based on the game.

Alleria Windrunner is a prominent character in the World of Warcraft series, with the Void Elf featuring prominently in multiple expansions. Most recently, we saw her appear in The War Within.The concept art design is based on her appearance in that expansion. It also suggests she’ll wear the same armor and come with the same bow she used in it.

Here’s the official reveal of the new Nendoroid:

There is quite an array of World of Warcraft figures available via a number of sources and companies, but this will only be the third Nendoroid based on the MMORPG so far. The first was a take on Sylvanas Windrunner, which debuted at the beginning of 2022. An Anduin Wrynn one launched in the beginning of 2024. 

There’s no release window for the World of Warcraft Nendoroid of Alleria Windrunner yet. The game is available on PCs.

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Blizzard have anounced the date that the World of Warcraft Anniversary update will go live on October 22, 2024, after the weekly maintenance. The event arrives alongside The War Within Patch 11.0.5 which also brings the usual suite of balance changes and lets Dracthyr characters use different classes.

Celebrating WoW's 20th Anniversary, which lands on November 23, 2024, the event includes a new raid based on the Classic Blackrock Depths Dungeon. Several other Classic dungeons that were updated or revamped during the Cataclysm expansion will also be available in their original forms via the Timewalking feature. These dungeons will include the Dees and several wings of Stratholme and Dire Maul. There will also be several returning World Bosses to slay, a whole event ground with activities, and an array of mounts and cosmetic items to earn as well.

The the update will go live after the completion of weekly regional maintenance on the week of October 22, 2024. Do note that different regions have their maintenance begin at different times, for example the North American region has it at 11 am EST/8 am PST on a Tuesday, while for EU servers it occurs at 4 am UTC/5 am BST.

You can take a look at what else is coming in the event here, or check the official announcement via Twitter below:

The World of Warcraft 2024 Anniversary event will go live alongside update 11.0.5 on October 22, 2024, after the weekly maintenance period. World of Warcraft and its latest expansion The War Within are immediately available on PC and Mac.

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World of Warcraft's Alliance and Horde conflict is iconic: on one side all your classic "friendly" fantasy races like elves and dwarves, on the other a misfit pack of refugees, outcasts, and bestial creatures. The faction war was a formative keystone for the game, and many others in the genre as well, but for a long time now it seems like Blizzard has been less and less interested in centering it in the story. Worse still, halfway steps towards letting the two factions interact have left the whole system feeling vestigial. It may be time to ask whether the system still has a place in Blizzard's modern vision of the game.

When WoW first launched, nearly 20 years ago now, the faction war between Alliance and Horde was a pretty inspired design choice. It made obvious sense for those coming from the Warcraft RTS games, while being an immediately intuitive framing device for newcomers. It helped people get invested in their characters by giving them a team to and a foe to fight against, to say nothing of how conflict of this scale is fertile ground for drama and stories. It even set up for grand moments when the two factions would come together to face a greater foe, though that is in fact where part of the problem arises.

See, this is a trope that Blizzard's storytellers love. And I don't blame them, it's compelling in many of the same ways as the ever popular enemies-to-lovers or shonen rivalry tropes. But after 10 expansions, that particular well has been wrung dry of pathos. After uniting to fend off first the Old Gods, then the Illidari, then the Scourge, the Old Gods again, then more Old Gods, the Burning Legion, then yet more Old Gods, it's less and less plausible how the petty rivalries and politicking of the Alliance and Horde are still supposed to be WoW's status quo. As the announcement trailer for The War Within illustrates well, several of the various faction leaders like Thrall and Anduin are by now personal friends, and more than aware of the larger threats looming.

Of course story is only part of the equation, and implementing this into gameplay is unlikely to be as simple as hitting the "merge the factions button". WoW is an old game by now, ancient by the standards of the medium, and decisions made during the initial development still influence the shape of the game today. Who knows how deep into the code the faction mechanic is buried. But that point also cuts both ways, as the setup of WoW's two-faction system previously required two separate levelling experiences for the Alliance and Horde. Endgame content like raids have traditionally been set against a third party (like those pesky Old Gods) so they could be shared, though 2018's Battle for Azeroth experimented with faction-variant raids and dungeons. The split is great for flavor but it's also a lot of extra content to make, especially since those who only play a single side are unlikely to see the rest. But then, playing characters on both sides was also discouraged because you weren't able to share most money or items between them.

Nowadays, the developers at Blizzard have made fairly irable efforts to change or at least work around most of these limitations, especially with the new Warband system and its shared bank. Even servers are no longer the imable barriers they once were, as guilds and groups now work as long as the servers are within the same region. Most of the more recent expansions have also had a (mostly) unified storyline for both factions to follow, which means more development time spent on content accessible to everyone, albeit at the loss of a fair bit of story flavor. But these new conveniences only make the remaining restrictions feel more egregious. Despite guilds, groups, and raids all working cross-faction now, you are still unable to use certain Group Finder features while in a group with friends from the opposite faction.

That's not to say that WoW wouldn't lose something by moving on from the Alliance vs. Horde conflict, there's still plenty of drama to be mined and many players still hold an improbable amount of pride in their chosen faction. Hell, having those two separate levelling paths was a boon for replay value, and in some cases let players see the same storyline from different angles. But losing the current incarnation of the faction system doesn't preclude the introduction of a new, more flexible one in its place. One perhaps not so rigidly drawn along racial or national lines that has to be swept away when something more important comes up. WoW has even dabbled with similar things in the past with Legion's beloved Order Halls system or the (slightly less beloved) Shadowlands Covenants.

That's really the main point here, not that the Alliance and Horde faction system is bad or unnecessary but that it just hasn't evolved alongside WoW like it needs to. When the Cataclysm expansion modernized many classic zones some players mourned the loss of areas that they held great nostalgia for, or preferred the old designs of cities like Orgrimmar. Those are entirely valid feelings! But that same modernization also made them flatly more enjoyable and intuitive to play through and let the designers utilize new styles of quest design and technologies like Phasing. In a similar way, putting the old faction system to bed would go a long ways to modernizing the game and, more importantly, open the door for exploring new systems and stories.

World of Warcraft: The War Within is immediately available on PC and Mac.

The post WoW has Outgrown the Alliance versus Horde Faction War appeared first on Siliconera.

Superficially, World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XIV have a lot in common, gameplay-wise. Both are, after all, hotkey MMO's in (broadly) medieval fantasy settings. But despite running on similar archetypes and party roles, the Classes of WoW and Jobs of FFXIV can feel distinctly different to play, sometimes to an overwhelming degree for an unfamiliar player.

The most immediate difference is simply the amount of options you have to choose from. FFXIV has about 21 Jobs (22 if you include the Blue Mage), but each class generally has only a single way to play them. Each Paladin you meet will have the exact same capabilities as any other.

In contrast, WoW only has 13 base classes but each of those has around 3 specializations that can drastically alter the playstyle or even its role within a party, for a total of 38 different options. Depending on their specialization, a given Paladin could fill the role of damage dealer, healer, or tank, though not every class is quite as flexible. Warlocks and Mages, for example, will always be fulfilling the role of a ranged DPS, but the spells they use and their priorities or cooldowns can be wildly different.

And it goes further because each specialization has a talent tree, which gives players to option to tailor their class further. They obviously aren't quite as impactful as an entirely different specialization but they do mean you will have to choose between picking up certain abilities and bonuses over others, which can lead to builds more focused around single target damage, dealing with various larger groups, or perhaps simply providing more utility options to a raid. It's a lot to get your head around if you're used to a more streamlined system, and it will only get more complex as The War Within expansion adds new Hero Talents on top of everything.

Then there's the Global Cooldown difference, which may be less obvious until you get to higher levels of play but nonetheless underpins a lot of the immediate game-feel differences. The Global Cooldown or GCD is essentially the short delay between activating an ability and being able to activate another, though there are abilities that are aren't affected by it. In FFXIV the GCD is around 2.5 seconds long before any reductions from stats, which at lower levels can feel sluggish and unreactive. However, at later levels this develops into a deliberate, rythmic dance as you weave in abilities from off the GCD in between your main rotation.

WoW, on the other hand, has a base GCD of 1.5 seconds going down to 1 second for certain classes. It's much faster, and will only decrease as you amass certain stats, though the difference is less than you would imagine once you factor in the more consistent usage of off-GCD abilities in certain FFXIV Jobs. The Summoner, for example, will often be using off-GCD skills regularly to command their minions, sometimes two within the same GCD period. No, the real difference is felt when you combine this with the way rotations work.

A rotation is basically just what order you need to press your buttons in to put out the most damage (or healing, or damage mitigation...) possible for your class. Performing well at higher levels in MMO's like FFXIV is all about executing your rotation optimally while also dodging hazards and performing whatever mechanical tasks the encounter asks of you. In WoW, it's much the same, except its classes tend not to use fixed rotations.

While both games use basic builder-spender frameworks for most of their classes (you build up a resource, then spend it for damage/healing, etc.), WoW's class design has slowly moved over the years to focus more on Procs. Short for Special Procedures (Or Programmed Random Ocurrence, there is a little bit of disagreement on the origin), a Proc in this context refers to an effect that has a certain chance to activate, usually on using an ability but sometimes things like taking damage too. A critical hit is technically a kind of Proc, but the effect could also be applying a buff, refreshing a cooldown, or enabling or upgrading a certain ability. Certain Jobs in FFXIV also use them, such as with the Archer's Straight Shot skill, but they aren't nearly as common as in WoW.

Because this random element throws a wrench into fixed rotation sequences, WoW Classes tend to use a system of button prioritization. A basic priority may include a fixed opening rotation that sets up your buffs and DOT effects, but once you get into the meat of the fight you'll need to maintain a degree of flexibility. Your biggest damage ability might suddenly come off cooldown, or you may find a string of lucky procs inundates you with your class resource and you'll need to spend it before doing anything that might generate more. It's a more reactive system to be sure, and getting to smash the big glow-y button that just activated sates the lizard-like part of the brain like nothing else. But it can also be trickier to learn a priority than a simple rotation sequence, and if you're accustomed to FFXIV's steady dance then WoW's combat can feel frantic or button-mashy.

This is the part where I have to disclaim that it's not about one game being flatly "better" than the other, but I'm going to skip past it because this should be common sense to most good faith actors. WoW is a more *complex* game to be sure, at least in of density of mechanics, but complexity does not always equate to depth, nor does relative simplicity imply a lack of it.

Instead I want to encourage a look at the effects these small differences in design have on two games that occupy very similar spaces. How something as small as the wait time between casts can change the tempo of combat so much, and how a different mechanical focus can change the way players think about their inputs so drastically. And most of all, I'd like to encourage players of both WoW and FFXIV to give the other game a try, if only because a look at another system may refresh your perspective on the one you're more used to. They both have free trials, after all, you have nothing to lose but time.

World of Warcraft is immediately available for PC and Mac, with The War Within expansion launching on August 26, 2024. Final Fantasy XIV and its latest expansion Dawntrail are available on PC, PS4, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

The post WoW Classes Can Be Overwhelming Compared to FFXIV Jobs appeared first on Siliconera.