Just when you thought there couldn’t be another expansion for World of Warcraft, think again! Blizzard have just released details of the latest expansion titled ‘Cataclysm’.

As reported by Edge magazine:

“In addition to revitalising some of the most familiar and iconic areas of the game world, this third World Of Warcraft expansion will add new features and a large amount of new content for players to explore,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment.

WoW fans rejoice!

Wow, that’s a mouthful! I enjoy reading interesting tidbits about the video game industry, particularly finding out things I didn’t know (but probably should!).

Looking through Tweetmeme this morning, I stumbled upon this interesting article about some very big businesses involved in the gaming industry. How many of these scintillating facts did you not know?

Me – I’m sitting on about 4/4 at the moment – and yeah, I know how slack of me!

Here’s the article if you’re interested. Thanks to JoyStiqDivision for the article.

The PC multiplayer beta for Section 8 the new first-person shooter from TimeGate Studios began for Australians and New Zealanders on the weekend and thankfully, I was lucky enough to score a beta key. I hadn’t done any homework on this title and the only thing I knew about it was that it’s a shooter (which immediately sparked my interest).

I decided to jump straight in (without reading the forums or the online manual) and found that the basic control mechanics used in most online shooters these days seemed to work fine for Section 8. The W, A, S, D keys are used for movement (strafing etc) and left mouse button for shooting. But there are quite a lot of different control keys required for alot of the other basic gameplay mechanics in Section 8 so I’ve got a few hours of gaming ahead of me to learn about all of the weapons and their functionality.

From a gameplay perspective, it reminds me of Halo 3 on the Xbox 360. You play as a soldier that is shielded in special protective armour capable of absorbing damage (just like Halo 3). You get to choose from several different classes (such as Assault, Infiltrator) much like Call of Duty with specific weapon sets (which you can edit and change before each respawn). The sprint boost is unreal! Finally, a game where you can dash around the map at super speed that lasts longer than 4 seconds!

Weapons are also really pretty kickass – grenade (like rocket) launchers, assault rifles, sniper rifles etc. There are various other weapons too which I have yet to use. I’ve spent most of my time playing Assault class but when I get more time, I’ll blog about the other classes. Section 8 also features vehicles (much like mechs).

There’s no campaign mode and you can’t upgrade when you rank up as yet. From the looks of things, ranking up (by team assists, kills etc) will be fully featured in the release and you’ll be able to upgrade everything from weapons to armour. Connecting to US servers was easy but laggy. My ping to Aussie servers was looking good on 37. It’s nice having local servers to connect to for online multiplayer.

So far, my first impressions of the beta for Section 8 is ranking at about a 4/5. I’ll blog more once I’ve had more time with the game online but so far, it’s looking pretty solid.

It looks like Game Industry News editor John Breeden isn’t having a fun time of things with Sony. He’s admitted in this article (reported on several websites including N4G) that Sony could be in for even more of a financial loss if they don’t consider dropping the price of the PS3 console. He even goes so far as to state that Sony should give up the race to beat Microsoft and Nintendo and start developing games alongside Sega!

Sounds like a bit of sour grapes to me, Mr Breeden.

Here’s the article in full if you’d like to read it, thanks to N4G for the news.

Quake is one of my favourite game franchises of all time and the dudes at id software some of my favourite developers. I interviewed a kiwi gamer named ‘ChiQ’ some time ago when I was editor of GC magazine and she had some pretty amazing things to say about the guys at id when she was developing skins for Quake. So I support the devs and the franchise wholeheartedly. I’d also give my right arm to attend QuakeCon which is where this trailer was first shown. Thanks to Joystiq for the tweet!

If you haven’t heard of ‘Rage’ you need to check this trailer out!

Just got this sent to me via Twitter from NCSoft – their new game play vid of ‘Metal Black Alternative’. Looks pretty kick ass and yeah, I’d play it. I don’t think it looks anything like Killzone (perhaps the opening animations do a little) but the game play does not remind me of Killzone, more like beefed up Diablo with kick ass guns and hi-tech.

So Yes, no? I think it looks pretty rad but take a looksie for yourself:

Fileplanet have released beta keys for Section 8 via their website for subscribers only. The closed beta keys were released some time ago but the beta is now open if you are a fileplanet subscriber.

Dates for the beta vary depending on your location. If you want a key and don’t yet have one (and you’re a subscriber) get in now because the keys always disappear pretty fast!

Section 8 is also an FPS MMO so if you’re into first person shooters, this is the game for you!

Fileplanet’s website is here.

It IS only rumoured at the moment (as reported by Slash Film) but apparently Steven Spielberg is showing some interest in a screenplay for Halo titled ‘Halo: The Fall of Reach’ which has sparked rumours that the director may be interested in pursuing this project.

There’s no news on Peter Jackson’s input thus far but if Steven Spielberg is interested, who knows where the project could go?

Apparently, Mr. Spielberg is also an avid gamer… another thing I never knew! Although admittedly, I have never played his Wii game ‘Bloom Blox’, in fact, I hadn’t even heard of it until now… oops.

Yesterday I blogged about not having access to the Huxley Dystopia beta via Fileplanet. Today I received an email in my inbox stating that keys for the ‘Worldwide’ beta of Champions Online were available.

This confuses me. So how is it decided what games are made available ‘worldwide’ and what games are not? Obviously, Huxley Dystopia is for US and Canadian subscribers only but Champions Online is available for anyone with a subscription…

So I’ve got my beta key and I am now downloading the pre-load file. Champions Online looks like a whole lot of fun but I really wanted to try Huxley Dystopia because it’s a first person shooter and that’s one of my fav genre’s.

As always, I’ll be updating this blog with details of the beta so watch this space!

I’ve been a member of Fileplanet for a couple of years now, paying the subscription fee for the founders club annually. My issue is that my money doesn’t seem to get me the same beta game opportunities that people in the US and Canada receive.

But why not? I pay the same amount (in NZ dollars) to get access to the services they offer but when it comes to beta testing, somehow living in New Zealand is a curse. Thankfully, I can get access to beta keys through my work but that isn’t always guaranteed which is why I signed up to Fileplanet in the first place…

I understand why some beta keys are limited and it’s a ‘first come, first served’ basis which is fine. But why advertise that ‘All Users’ can gain access to the beta of a game when that’s clearly not the case.

So now I have to wonder what the advantages are for people like me living in countries outside of the US and Canada when we don’t get access to the same things yet pay the same amount of money every year.

And to think, I was really hyped about playing this game…