BlizzCon 2009 Kicks Off - Friday BlizzCon Highlights

At 11:30am PST Mike Morhaime, CEO of Blizzard Entertainment took the stage at the fourth BlizzCon, a massive celebration of Blizzard Entertainment game titles, focusing in on Diablo, Starcraft, and World of Warcraft. While his presentation was fairly generic and didn't reveal anything exciting, the mildly comic introduction (featuring a particularly funny stab at Ret Paladins) closed when he brought Chris Metzen (Vice President of Creative Development) on stage.  

 Chris Metzen's stage presence was huge, as usual, with a mix of comedy and enthusiasm little seen in game developer presentations. And why shouldn't he be in a good mood, considering he had the honor of presenting two of the biggest announcements from the company this year. Shortly before noon, Metzen addressed the  Diablo fans in the crowd, then proceeded to unveil the fourth playable class in the upcoming Diablo 3. The new class, the Monk, joins the Wizard, Barbarian, and Witchdoctor in the lineup of Diablo 3 classes, with a fifth still yet to be announced  (though we are assured the announcement will not be at BlizzCon 2009).

Immediately following the eventful Diablo 3 announcement, Metzen segued directly into World of Warcraft, where he teased the audience with a little banter about "unsubstantiated lore" rumors floating around the internet of late. He then proceeded to shock even the most die hard of us with when he announced the new World of Warcraft expansion pack: Cataclysm, then gave extensive details and aired a trailer. It would be impossible to cover everything he announced in this summary and the following panel discussion, so here's the highlights.

• New Playable Races - Goblins (Horde) and Worgen (Alliance)
• Return to the Old World, with a complete overhaul of all Kalimdor and Eastern kingdom zones, questlines, items, and more.
• Deathwing returns as the star of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
• Seven new zones announced, including Hyjal, Uldum, and the zone containing the lore rich Grim Batol
• Guild Advancement System
• Level cap raised to 85
• Flying mounts throughout all of Azeroth
• New Race/Class combinations (Tauren Paladin, Dwarf Shaman, Troll Druid, and more)