For those of you dreaming of a white Christmas this year, you’ve probably already heard that Blizzard’s upcoming release Diablo III won’t be waiting under your tree until sometime in 2012 (and you might want to put it on the curb before then- dried up trees can be a fire hazard). Sure, extending and expanding the beta will be the spoonful of sugar to help with the bitter pill of no loot-whoring over the holiday break, but with the flurry of impressions and videos that have been flooding the web all week, capping it off with the downer announcement of a largely indeterminate delay is enough to send any diehard gamer into a spiral of depression. That is, until Bioware announced the very next day that their juggernaut MMO release Star Wars: The Old Republic should squeak right in before Santa fires up his sleigh. This week Ron goes into detail about the time he’s spent with the beta, and he and Mike discuss how this impacts the landscape of the holiday release season.
Hosts: Mike Dunn & Ron Burke
Producer: Mike Dunn
Music: Strange Motorcycle
01:49 – What we’re playing (Diablo III Beta, Old Republic Beta, X-Men Destiny)
06:21 – Coming out this week
16:50 – Diablo III beta impressions
18:42 – Each character run is unique
25:15 – The auction house
35:28 – Enemy variation
39:29 – Whither Bill Roper?
41:05 – The delay and the impact on the holiday release onslaught
42:41 – Gamespy asks a silly question
46:11 – Death and Diablo III
47:40 – Why the delay?
54:43 – Summing up the beta
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[powerpress]
Mike Dunn is the old man of Gaming Trend, having cut his teeth on Atari consoles and First Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons back in the day. His involvement with Gaming Trend dates back to 2003, and he’s done everything from design and code to writing and managing. Now he has come full circle, with a rekindled passion for tabletop gaming and a recent debut as Dungeon Master (nearly forty years after he purchased the original DMG).
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