Project Lore

After all of the panels, all of our surprise and not-so-surprise announcements, all the shopping and meeting other players, and of course all the demo playing that we could squeeze in, Blizzard still had one hell of a closing ceremony in for BlizzCon ticket holders. The closing ceremony began with Blizzard Chief Operating Officer Paul Sams recapping the overall feel of the convention and announcing that 1,000 BlizzCon-goers and watchers on Direct TV would receive guaranteed beta slots for Starcraft II. Take a look to see the closing ceremony remarks and a video Blizzard put together highlighting the events of the weekend: Next up on stage, we had the band Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftans. Excuse me, now that the level cap is getting raised to 85, they’ll be The Artists Formerly Known as Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftans. The band rocked out to songs including "Power of the Horde" (for the Horde!) and "I Am Murloc." Here’s a clip from their first song of the night, "Rogues Do It from Behind" (yes we do, thank you very much.) These guys know how to rock hard, and as you probably tell from the audio in this video, the bass was pumping so hard that I could feel it reverberating in my chest. Awesome. The most anticipated performer of the night had a drawn-out entrance. After L80ETC (TAFKAL80ETC) finished their set, the Direct TV broadcast came on the screens around stage, as the audience (including me and Juggy) grew antsy. Ropes that designated aisles and a mosh pit area were taken away, and the audience brave enough to be right up front crowded in toward the stage. Finally, the Prince of Darkness made his appearance with some shouts to the audience and introductory music accompanied with glowing red lights throughout the room. The audience grew so loud that I couldn’t even hear myself as a I screamed along. Ozzy played almost a full setlist of 10 tracks, including classics such as "War Pigs," "Iron Man" and "Crazy Train" (with special accompaniment by 9-year-old guitar prodigy Yuto Miyazawa). And at several points mid-show while singing, he doused the audience up front with buckets and hose streams of foam. The concert was an epic ending to an epic event. Wish you all could have been there rocking along with us! Here, Ozzy opens up the show with "Bark at the Moon." This one contains some NSFW language! That's it for now, but keep checking back at Project Lore for more videos from BlizzCon. Coming up in the next couple of days we'll have more footage of live gameplay of the new races as well as more sights and sounds from the event. Leave us a comment and let us know what you think!

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Looks like Mr. T's gone and hacked the game again (he's pretty handy with computers, I hear). It seems that the sudden release of 3.2.2 on the test realms reveals more than just the revamped Onyxia raid. As usual, Boubouille over at MMO-Champion has already done some digging through the  new files, and he's come up with a few unlisted spells related to "Night Elf Mohawks," and their human alter-ego, one Laurence Tureaud (that's Mr. T to you, buddy):

• Silence Fool (Instant, Melee Range) - Pummels an enemy for 15 damage and interrupts the spell being cast for 5 sec.
• Pity the Fool (Instant) - Reduces the melee attack power of nearby enemies for 30 sec.
• Maximum Mohawk (Instant) -  Only one Night Elf Mohawk may assist a group at a time.
• Create Mohawk Grenade (Instant, Unlimited Range) - Right Click to throw and pity some fools!

Can you handle the 'hawk? With Ozzy playing at Blizzcon, I knew it wouldn't be long before other WoW commercial luminaries got their due. It remains to be seen how these spells will be incorporated into the game, though. Due to their obviously whimsical nature, I suspect that they may be related to some sort of mini-game (with the 15 damage figure up there, this certainly isn't attached to some hidden raid boss or anything). Will this be a stand-alone event or might it be attached to a holiday (I can't imagine which one)? Are these spells used by players or an enemy mob that they have to fight? Maybe some more digging will reveal the answers to these questions in time. At this point, it's all speculation, but we here at Project Lore will be sure to keep you up-to-date on all the latest WoW-related Mr. T happenings! Chime in with all your thoughts and Mr. T love below (and if you don't love Mr. T, then you're a fool and you won't be receiving any pity from me).

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