Common Paradox Tech Blog

Aside from one obscure little game whose name escapes our memory at the moment, WarCraft has been out of action since WarCraft 3: The Frozen Throne’s release back in 2003. Don’t take this world without WarCraft to mean that Blizzard’s completely iced the idea of a fourth entry in the popular fantasy RTS series, though. Just be prepared to wait a tick before scratching your orc-commanding, night elf-outsmarting itch.

"Warcraft 4 is certainly something that gets talked about on a pretty regular basis," Blizzard’s J. Allen Brack said in an interview with AusGamers. "While I think we’re all excited about a Warcraft 4, in concept, [the WarCraft 3 team is] going to finish up StarCraft 2, and then they’re going to work on the two StarCraft expansions that we’ve announced, so they’re booked for the next few years."

And though he stopped just short of nailing the team to the project, Brack did say that "it does sort of make sense."

Another Blizzard game, another tremendous wait. But at least we can while away the, well, years until Diablo III’s launch with Torchlight. As for WarCraft 4, though… hey Runic, ever think about making an RTS?

Call of Duty is a huge franchise, and what better way to expand that franchise then to unleash it, World of War style, on the iPhone and iPod touch — and add Zombies. Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies [$9.99 - iTunes link] contains only one map right now, “Nacht der Untoten” (Night of [...]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies Unleashed for iPhone

The elevator up from hell sure is taking its time. We imagine that Mass Effect’s Shepard — even with his eternal patience for cramped spaces, boring music, and upward mobility — would be cursing up a storm by now if he were aboard that infernal machine. So just imagine how poor old Diablo must feel – especially now that the not-so-loveable lug may have a “few years” left before he finally surfaces.

A recent Blizzard presentation listed Diablo III as arriving in the “next few years,” along with StarCraft II’s expansions and Blizzard’s next massively multiplayer cash cow. In store for “next year,” meanwhile, are StarCraft II and WoW: Cataclysm. The bottom line? No loot-grabbing and Satan-stabbing until – at the earliest – 2011. Unless, of course, Diablo III goes into full-on beta mode next year, but we’re not getting our hopes up.

Honestly Diablo, at this point, we’re thinking you should’ve taken the stairs.

Look, it’s the box art from Star Trek Online (along with new screens and impressions)! Also read on for the latest infotainment regarding Diablo III, a Diablo clone, the Avatar game and, of course, Modern Warfare 2.

Even More Star Trek Online Screens
Confession: I downloaded these off Atari’s press site, just for my own personal “use.”

Star Trek Online Preview: Ignoring Regulation
Btw, Jason Chen and I are also very actively begging our way into a press beta. Wish us luck.

LEGO Rock Band Review: Redefining The Rock Block
Spoiler: It’s like every other Rock Band title, but with LEGO.

Avatar: The Navi Side Of The Story
Which will lose more money, the movie or the game?

StarCraft II Expansions, Diablo III Coming in “Next Few Years”
Just like I predicted, Diablo III won’t be here until 2011…at the earliest. Being right can suck.

Diabloriffic Torchlight Coming To Retail
So since Diablo III will take so long, feel free to sleep around a bit.

Modern Warfare 2 Sells Nearly Five Million Copies In A Day
That’s a launch of over $300 million in revenue.

Borderlands Sequel A “No-Brainer”
My siren is level 28. Frucci’s hunter is like level bajillion.

They Made The Wii Bowling Ball, And They’re Not Done Yet
There’s plenty more plastic crap where that came from!

Oh…and as a little bonus, the worst lines in the history of video games:

[Today's Big Thing]

More expansion news from Adeo Ressi’s Founder Institute. The startup incubator is steadily expanding. It recently opened up an outpost in Seattle, and now is expanding to New York. “New York City needs a kick in the pants,” says Ressi.

The Winter New York City Semester will be led by Razorfish co-founder Craig Kanarick. Mentors for the program will include Munjal Shah, Patrick Keane, Max Hoat and others. You can apply here.

The original Mass Effect rocked our socks. Its DLC, though? Not so much. Fortunately, if a Microsoft Expert Zone retailer quiz is to be believed, BioWare’s making up for Mass Effect’s DLC deficiency in a big way with Mass Effect 2.

According to the quiz, planned content includes “episodic combat via DLC, weapon and armor packs, new downloadable characters for the campaign experience, new downloadable worlds, as well as full campaign expansions for download.”

Here’s hoping that BioWare doesn’t also take the EA Renegade route and peddle things like cheat codes and cosmetic upgrades for exorbitant prices.”Exorbitant,” in this case, meaning “anything other than free.”

Adeo Ressi’s Founder Institute is steadily expanding, with a new outpost opening up in Seattle. The startup incubator, which just completed its first successful “semester” in Silicon Valley, recently announced expansions to both Washington DC and San Diego, California.

The program was first announced in March 2009. It is a semester-based startup camp for very, very early-stage entrepreneurs and students who have basic ideas for potential startups but have not yet founded a company. 198 founders applied to the program. 79 were accepted, and 66 graduated. 31 companies have been incorporated by these founders so far, and a handful have actually launched (including Skimble and Molo Rewards).

Ample thrills with minimal frills

Acer’s entry-level easyStore H340 gives you everything you need to attach a robust Windows Home Server to your network, with plenty of room to expand. Its technical specs edge out HP’s comparably-priced LX195—both are budget servers equipped with a 1.6GHz Atom processor, but the H340 includes 2GB of RAM and 1TB of included disk storage. The feature that really sets Acer’s offering apart, however, is the availability of four hot-swappable drive bays, meaning you can add three additional 3.5-inch SATA drives with ease. And if those aren’t enough, the H340 also has five powered USB ports and even an eSATA port for you to go nuts with expansions.

Sweet hardware aside, the software bundled with the H340 is pretty basic. Included server Add-ins provide compatibility for DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) supported hardware and iTunes library sharing, but the Lights Out power management Add-in is something you can freely download for any WHS build. You also get six months of McAfee virus protection for your server, but this is a service that you can’t uninstall from the WHS console—you’ll have to use Remote Desktop to manually remove it.

One other notable feature is a one-touch USB backup button. Plug any USB hard drive into the front of the server, push the button, and the H340 automatically copies all of the files into the Public Shared Folder. It’ll also sort the files based on file type, distributing them into music, video, and photo folders. We found this to be a really quick and efficient way to back up the myriad USB keys found lying around at home. As a starter package, the Acer H340 is great for power users who want a home server without building their own.

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Phaethon360 sends in a piece that looks at how quickly game costs can add up these days, now that DLC, microtransactions and standalone expansions are commonplace, writing, “If you were trying to the think of the most expensive games to play, Rock Band or a monthly-fee MMORPG would come to mind. But Halo 3 is right up there, too.” It’s reminiscent of a recent post at IncGamers where the author tallied up how much he’d spent on World of Warcraft over the past several years, and was astonished to realize it numbered in the thousands of dollars.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

PSP Minis, coming to the PSP Go, are just like iPhone/Android apps (just more focused on gaming). But the list of things developers can’t do on the platform destroys any point of its existence in the first place.

• no network or online features
• no downloadable content (expansions)
• no peripheral support

It’s funny, the 100MB size restriction is the least of PSP Minis’ problems. We’re talking about closed box games, titles that are not only restricted in terms of multiplayer, but completely thwarted from doing anything interesting (like rendering superior graphics or, say, pinging twitter) in the cloud.

The original PSP was forward-thinking, stuffed with stars in its eyes as it promised networking with the PS3 anywhere from in the world. Now PSP Minis present the complete opposite idea. You will play your game on the PSP, and on the PSP it will stay. [joystiq via kotaku]