So today’s the big day: the final installment of Ulduar: Defiance has been posted, and it’s just as amazing as the first two. I mentioned the first video back at the beginning of September, and the second video was posted only a few weeks ago. Now, the final episode is up in all of its high-quality, epic, beautifully created glory.
The video above doesn’t really do it justice: you have to head over to YouTube and watch it in high-quality and full-screen. The last video takes our intrepid crusaders through the last remaining bosses in Ulduar, complete with audio and beautiful shots that do an excellent job of re-creating the epic feel, the visions and sounds you hear, and ultimately the entire experience of the dungeon itself.
It’s my hope that the creator of the trilogy, Atraira, doesn’t stop with the Ulduar series of movies (and to be fair – without spoilers – there’s an indication in the video that there may be something more, or at least we’ll see the primary character again) – they’ve been spectacular, and considering this is probably the only way I’ll personally see the content anytime soon, I hope she moves on to create more videos – maybe for Icecrown Citadel?
A tip of the hat to WoW.com, who broke the news that Blizzard has unveiled its own YouTube channel, already stuffed full of the animations and cinematics that we’ve already seen up to this point. If you’ve been following the trailers for Cataclysm and fondly remember the opening cinematics for Burning Crusade and vanilla WoW, and if you’ve experienced some of the machinima trailers for different in and out of game events, you’ve seen everything posted right now.
Still, the fact that they’re all on a custom YouTube channel implies that Blizzard is planning to release more videos in the future that won’t necessarily live on the World of Warcraft site, and we’ll likely see videos and trailers for other games in Blizzard’s portfolio as well. We’ll just have to wait and see what else they put up.
I mentioned Ulduar: Defiance a little while ago, and specifically how awesome it was and well made it was as a movie – it’s not super-advanced machinima, it doesn’t create a specifically new story in the form of its visuals, but what it does so well, what puts it above so many other WoW videos I’ve seen, is that it’s absolutely perfect at capturing the atmosphere and feeling of epic adventure and high stakes that comes with the story and lore that leads you into Ulduar as a champion, looking to free it – and Azeroth – from the creeping grip of something very ancient and very evil.
The second installment in the series (second of three) picks up where the first left off, and starts us off at the door to the Iron Council, and gives us the first piece of audio that I think isn’t directly lifted from the game itself in the series so far. I was a little disappointed, because I think the game audio is superior to almost anything a player could record (with some notable exceptions, like the player who essentially redid all the audio for Stratholme), but it fit in well and was quickly followed by in-game audio from there out.
The video takes us through the fights with the council and into the strategy session in the Archivum inside Ulduar before showing us each of the battles with each of the Watchers, and does so without getting into a ton of strats and revealing their exact endings. I think one of the things I really adore about this series of videos is that each of the battles really does have an epic feeling about it, you get the sense that the players in the fight really are crossing weapons with Hodir, for example, trying to convince him they they’re not his true enemy.
I’m not in the kind of guild that’ll probably get to see this content until we’re all 85 and Cataclysm is out, but for the time being? I’ll settle for this.
I was turned onto this video thanks to WoW.com’s Guildwatch column, which is one of the best the site has, I have to admit – if it were all they ran I would still think it was a great blog, but since it’s not the only thing they run, they’re even better – but that being said, one of the entries was that this guild Renaissance, playing Alliance on Ravenholdt-US, had put together a truly fantastic video showcasing not only one of their recent Ulduar runs, but the fun they have together when they run.
And believe me, the video is hilarious. From the music selection (opening up with “United States of Whatever”) to the healers’ hilarious death/rezzing macro text to the absolutely glorious “air ganking squad” (near the end of the video, I won’t spoil how they do it if you don’t know), these guys look like they know how to have a great time, and considering they cleared Ulduar, they know what they’re doing too. Now if only they were recruiting hunters…
Over at MMO Champion (and subsequently WoW.com), video has surfaced of a Pandaren Monk non-combat pet that’s apparently very well animated and has some pretty awesome moves! As awesome as he is though, no one knows how we’ll get him or when he’ll make an appearance in the game.
Over at WoW.com, there’s speculation that he might be a reward for Brewfest, scheduled to begin this Sunday, and another idea is that he might be the non-combat pet for the Cataclysm Collector’s Edition (since every previous collector’s edition has come with a non-combat pet) although he’d be making an awfully early appearance in the game for that to be the case.
In any event, we’ll have to wait and see, but one thing’s for sure – I want one.
I picked this one up thanks to WoW.com, who highlighted it in a recent Moviewatch segment. The video, which is the first part in a trilogy (the other two parts haven’t been released yet) is incredibly well done: the only dialogue in the video is voicework from World of Warcraft set to music and sequences from Ulduar.
Backing up a bit, the premise of Ulduar: Defiance is that a Paladin, after suffering nightmares of fighting the scourge as they attack Lorderon, sees visions and hears voices beckoning her to Ulduar in her dreams. She collects her friends and fellow champions and together they march on the city, intent on fulfilling their destiny. The video is incredibly dramatic, and scene by scene we’re taken through Ulduar as she and her friends go forth and tear up some bosses.
The music is incredible and fantastically timed to the video, and I can’t emphasize how wonderful it is that the video creators allowed the characters and the in-game video they took to show emotion and expression all by itself – they didn’t dub over horribly mixed audio to create dialogue, and the only voices you hear are ones already in the game, professionally done, that sound fabulous. Head over to YouTube to watch Ulduar: Defiance in all it’s glory if the above isn’t enough for you.
As a number of outlets have already reported, the guild Premonition did a very special raid during Blizzcon, live on stage with thousands of people watching. A number of the guildies were at home away from all of the action, but a few of them who had made the trek to Blizzon were set up on stage as the masses watched their guild coordinate and run through wave upon wave of bosses we’d seen before, some we hadn’t. In some cases, Premonition faced off against teams of bosses that would be more than a challenge on their own, and more than enough firepower to wipe even the hardiest of raids.
Even so, Premonition faced them all one at a time, frequently one-shotting waves of baddies, all until the final round, when one boss stood before them. One figure emerged to face the Premonition army, one face known to all and feared by many: Hogger.
What happened? Click play on the video above to see – or head over to YouTube to watch the video in higher quality. But know this. He certainly had more bones to gnaw on that day.
When I found out about the winners of the movie contest at this year’s Blizzcon, I was thrilled, partially because the video above, called A Day in the Life is such a hilarious video, but it’s also based off of one of my favorite WoW comic strips, Dark Legacy Comics! I actually remember the specific strip that inspired this video.
The whole premise is fabulous, and while it’s not exactly comedic genius, it’s hilarious and it resonates so much with WoW players and what we would likely do that it’s hard to not love it. In fact, all of Dark Legacy Comics’ strips are that way, so if you’re not reading it, you should be.
Interested in who else placed in the contest? You can read all of the contest winners here.
If you were lucky enough to get to Blizzcon this year, you were also lucky enough to get the exclusive non-combat pet, Grunty – the Murloc Marine!
Now if that weren’t adorable enough, if you were also lucky enough (or know someone who was, rather) to get the collector’s edition of the original World of Warcraft game, you have the option with each new character to get a mini-diablo non-combat pet, a panda non-combat pet, or a zergling non-combat pet, in all of his spiky glory.
Now since there are two non-combat pets from Starcraft in World of Warcraft, someone decided to see what would happen if you had them both out at the same time (or discovered it by chance) – they fight! The video above shows that whoever is out first is the winner, but it’s so perfect that the two of them would go at it like this. Now I’m going to have to keep my zergling out all the time.
Discussion: Would Blizzard Ever Allow Character Copies? phoenix That’s a really good point! I think it’s safe to presume that Blizzard wouldn’t allow you... Hirvox That depends on whether Blizzard likes duping: 1) Move all your gold and other valuables into one character 2)...
