The second half of my Heart of the Swarm review is still coming, but there are a few pieces of news I want to cover today.

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

Blizzard got everyone excited when they announced that they would be showing off an entirely new game at the PAX East convention. Everyone believed it would be Blizzard All Stars (formerly known as Blizzard DOTA), their new MOBA game based on the Starcraft II engine.

Instead, we got Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, a free to play online collectible card game.

Did not see that coming.

There’s not much else to say about it, really. It’s a collectible card game, except all digital. The only things to separate it from, say, Magic: The Gathering’s online versions are the presence of a lot of whizz-bang special effects and some simpler rules.

It will be available on the PC, Mac, and iPad. It’s said to be released “IRL soon, not Blizzard soon.”

I’m going to be honest: this is probably the first ever Blizzard project that I do not find even remotely interesting. Even if I was a collectible card game fan, why would you play one online? My brief experiences with Magic in my youth were all about getting together with friends and having the physical cards in your hands.

Also, dear God, that Dwarven announcer. My ears…

My expectations for this announcement were fairly low — I’m lukewarm towards All Stars — but even so, I’m a bit disappointed.

Ah, well. Hopefully they’ll be some cool stuff at Blizzcon this year.

Story in Video Games:

On a brighter note, I’m pleased to announce I have a new regular writing gig. A new men’s lifestyle website by the name of All Day, All Night, All In (ADANAI) has hired me to provide regular video game content.

My first article, Video Game Story: Challenges and Advantages, went up yesterday. Have a look and enjoy my semi-insightful thoughts on what makes video games both a stronger and weaker medium for telling effective stories than movies or books.