• Warcraft Baby (2.58 mb)

Remember, if you've got a piece of music related to Blizzard, be sure to send it in.

There is however, at least one undocumented change. Custom Hotkeys still work, but now you'll have to go to the options menu and activate it. So don't panic if the set of keys that took you a whole day to modify ain't working!

Thanks to 2xtreme21 for the heads up.

• Storm, Earth and Fire  -Drawn By Wild 2k [Comment]
• Anime Night Elves -Drawn By Willy Wonka [Comment]

Got Fan Art? Be sure to send it in. For nearly 200 pieces of exciting visuals, check out our Gallery.

Got suggestions? Post them here.

When you purchase the retail version of The Frozen Throne, what will you do first?
Singleplayer	602	69%
Multiplayer	112	13%
Frisbee with the CD	156	18%
TOTAL	870	100

Looks like for more people, singleplayer it is. Not too surprising, considering that over 30,000 people were able to participate in the beta. A surprising number, however, would rather play frisbee. May I suggest then, that there are much cheaper alternatives than a Frozen Throne CD.

It's a well written article, with good information, and interesting insight. Pick up a copy of PCGAMER to check it out, or wait for it to go up in their online archives next month.

If you're interested in the game, be sure to obtain a copy of the magazine! If you already have it, we'd love a scan, and be sure to share anything new!

So what's the big news at E3 this year? The Magazine hints on the announcement of a new playable race.. stay tuned. Kudos to azazis for the news.

However, editing the keys isn't so trivial, as it involves going througha  huge txt file and hunting down abbreviated names. Often, with words like 'Otrb', its not immediately obviously what it means. So 2extreme21 has started to compile a whole list of such abbreviations. The Orcs and Humans have been done already, take a look:

• Orc and Human Hotkey Abbreviation Chart

In World War II: Blitzkrieg, up to 8 players battle it out in an epic simulation on this historical battle. Side either with the allies or the axis, players attempt to destroy each other's fortifications while getting a constant supply of reinforcements. Featuring lots of units, this is a great map to try:

Download it here.

Got a cool scenario? Be sure to send it in. For other maps, check out our archive.

• Custom Hotkeys for Advanced Players!
• Several New Maps
• Stature Mana Regeneration halved

For a complete list of changes, be sure to visit the relevant thread. Kudos to Neobie for the news!

Good luck to all applicants!

• Smoking Witchdoctor -By wiLLY-wOnKA [Comment]
• Elven Wardancer: -By Dave Christopher [Comment]

A Talented artist? Be sure to send in your work. Check out more visuals in our Gallery.

Project Phoenix is an Arcade Space Shooter set in the World of Stacraft. Players take on the role of a Wraith pilot as they battle against Terran, Protoss and Zerg opponents. Key features include:

• Powerups to increase your Wraith's Armor and Weapons
• Battle Cloaked enemies, such as those next to Arbiters
• Battle on several tilesets, including Korhal, Braxis and Deep Space
• Fight you're way through virtually every Starcraft Air Unit, including Scourges and Carriers.

The game is in its beta stages, and its designer James Withington really wants your comments and suggestions. Be sure to tell him what you think!

You can find screenshots of the game in action here and here.

So, it doesn't have the latest graphics, but it's pretty damn good for independent freeware. Intererested? Relevent links are below:

• Project Phoenix Download
• Project Phoenix Discussion
• Contact Game Designer

Oh, and while you're at it, you might want to check out PacCraft.

Composed and sang by 'SirZealot' Tindall, it is a parody of Eminem's 'Without Me'. The lyrics of the rap have now being converted to thsoe of a Starcraft Player, as he rules his enemy's with marines and more marines. It's pretty amusing, and great comic relief.

• With Marines (2.72mb)
• With Marines Lyrics
• MP3 Archive

Remember, Infoceptor does have arguebly the largest archive of MP3s related to Blizzard games online, featuring two complete albums. So, if you're new, be sure to check them out. If you're one of those rare composers or mixers, we'd love to hear from you.

• Satyr Hellcaster
• Dragonlord
• Review them

Remember, if you're a talented artist, we'd love to see your work. So send them in and show off your skills to the thousands of people that visit the site each day.

While it has already passed, you can always listen to the archive of tonight's interview. You should find it quite interesting.

• Someone Call for a Doctor?
• Strategy Index

If you're a talented Warcraft 3 Player, we'd love to hear your guide, be it for the Vanilla of Expansion pack. So be sure to send it in.

As its name suggests, Troll Madness is a madness map where players throw massive army's at each other. The goal: take out the enemy bunker or get the most kills. On the way, you'll be aided with powerful items, giant creeps for the hire and various other features that make this scenario a head above others of its type.

Download it here.

Got a cool scenario? Be sure to upload it. A complete listing of maps are available in our archive.

• Prince Arthas -By Dave Christoper
• Samurai -By Kevin M

For other great visuals, check out the Fan Art Gallery. If you're a talented artist, be sure to send in our work!

Finding an enemy's weak spots is the key to success in StarCraft: Ghost, but finding these 'one shot' kill areas requires a fair bit of trial and error. On the lava-filled Char level, Roper demonstrates the point by following a patrolling Fire Bat – a hulk of a sentry with dual mounted flamethrowers. Getting past this beast looks like a right task, until he dutifully snipes the creature's connector valve on its back-mounted gas tanks – not the most obvious of weakness, but the destruction of the nozzle sets the hapless sentry ablaze. Mwahahaha

You should find it an interesting read.

• Corrected 308 data to properly reflect patch 307 changes

Yes, someone made a mistake... well its fixed now. Disregard any of you initial impressions of V308 from yesterday! Comment here. Kudos to scottrick49 and Sephiroth for the news.

• Spell Breakers have experienced a large nerf.
• Tornado has now being reworked, and summons a controllable 'unit'.
• Beserkers are available in tier 2
• Neutral Heroes now require an Altar to be Purchased

For a complete list of changes, be sure to check the list. Kudos to Sworen for the news.

Goes to show you...it never pays to cheat. Stear clear of it, and you'll still be able to enjoy the beta of a game you so desperately wanted to play. Good job Blizzard.

Once you've read it through, be sure to talk about it in our SC:G Forum.

This is firm evidence that the secret tileset of the Frozen Throne will most likely be Draenor, and hence players can expect to return to that blasted world. Could we meet Khadgar and the rest of those folks? Only time will tell.

• Elven Priest -By Dave Christoper
• Orc Warrior -Drawn By Kevin M
• Comment

Check our other great visuals in the Fan Art Gallery. If you've got a great piece of work, be sure to send it in.

Do you think you'll still be play the original Warcraft 3 once you have the Frozen Throne?
No	645	60%
Yes, a little	295	27%
Yes, a lot	66	6%
Not Buying FT	77	7%
TOTAL	1083	100 %

Well, looks like most people do not plan to go back to vanilla once the original is released. Quite understandable, considering that I never touched Starcraft after the release of Brood War. There are, however, a good 7% who won't buy the title, who I certainly hope will change their minds.

Interested? Download it here.

If you have a scenario, be sure to upload it.

• Frozen Throne Interview Translation

Be sure to give it a read, as it features some unknown information about the Orc Campaign. In addition, Blizzard has provided a nice explanation on why they've decided to ban programs that modified hotkeys.

For alternative translations, be sure to check out the thread.

• Automated Tournament Rules

Secondly, Blizzard has sent official word on why they implemented a new change so that players may only thumb down a limited number of ladder maps:

Battle.net will now only select a map for a game if all the players in the game have the map marked "thumbs up".  e have also limited the number of maps a player can mark "thumbs down" to try and insure that there will always be maps available that both players. 

Read more about that here.

Finally, another feature not mentioned has been discovered. Now if you're ally leaves the game, his resources will be displayed on the screen. Very helpful when you need to manage two towns. udos to Goldfish60 for that news.

• The new Impale
• Thunder Hawk Skill Tree
• The new Flamestrike

Remember, a complete archive of screenshot are available in the gallery!

• Ballistas have experienced a huge nerf, including hitpoints, build speed and damage.
• Runes are no longer on random drop tables.
• Breath of Fire Nerfed

For a complete list of changes, check the relevent thread. Kudos to FuMuChuGuLu for the news.

• Custom Games now have filters, so you can filter out sceneries that your not interested in.
• Hovering your mouse on armor tells you the exact percentage of damage it negates.
• Hovering your mouse over resources will bring up nice tool tips.

Well there you. If you find more, post them here.

• Beastmaster with Stampede in Action
• Summoned Spirit Bear
• Rune Closeup
• Pit Lord and Aerial Binding
• Howl of Terror
• Doom: Pit Lord Ultimate

Be sure to check keep up to date with the latest images in our Screenshot Gallery. If you've got screenshots of new V306 stuff, be sure to post them!

In 1st place sits Blizzard's most recent release, WarCraft III, followed by Diablo II: Lord of Destruction in 5th place. 

Congrats to Blizzard for still staying on top of the charts!

• Tournament Support
• Creeps may now drop Runes, which provide instant buffs.
• Ethereal Units now gain 66% extra healing.

There tonnes of changes. Be surer to read them:

• Patch V306 Changes

Kudos to Thalassicus for the news.

• Gallery of all Frozen Throne Units
• The Elemental Pandas
• Skeleton Mage Madness
• Ancient Hydras
• Spidercrab and Skeletal Grunts

Kudos to Darkmoogle for many of these shots!

• Singleplayer Screenshots

Wondering what's what? Discuss it here.

UD has probably had the biggest change in terms of playstyle. Whereas the other races can still do roughly the same strategies as before, UD has to completely rethink their playstyle. The reign of ghoul-massing is over. The new era involves units of the other upgrade tree, namely, fiends, aboms, and sphynxes. Granted ghouls aren't absolutely useless, however, their usage is now severely limited, as tier3 absolutely destroys them now, and AoE spells are prolific.

Be sure to give it a read: 

• Undead Beta Guide
• Frozen Throne Guide
• Comment

A high level player? be sure to send in your guide.

Please don't get mad at that news. That game was in seriously need of help, more so than Diablo II. People who were working on that now can possible be added to Diablo II 1.10. Also I read on some site that they expect to have Patch 1.10 for Diablo II by E3 (May). Could be earlier I suppose. It's getting to the final stages in that the items are being finalized. You're flip out when you see the crazy new stuff. Hopefully we can reveal some more info before the patch comes out.

From the sounds of it, the patch is going to be earth-shattering! Diablo II fans rejoice...your salvation is at hand!

Thanks to Diabloii.net for the news.

Best of luck to you.

• Zul'jin -By Wild-2k
• Necromancer -By Dave Christoper

Check out other great visuals in the Fan Art Gallery. If you're a talented artist, be sure to send in your own.

What is the most powerful Neutral Hero in the Frozen Throne Beta?
Dark Ranger	115	15%
Naga Sea Witch	222	28%
Pandaren Brewmaster	321	41%
Huh?	132	17%
TOTAL	790	100

Well, it's of not surprise that the Panda wins, I mean, he's a Panda for god sake! though one wonders if people voted for him because he's actually the most useful, or just because he's well, a big walking panda!

In response to Tuesday’s notice about downloading and using hacks, some of our customers have written in with concerns about being banned from Battle.net for using certain "non-cheating" third-party programs. In order to clarify our statement and hopefully address these concerns, please read the following post.

Regardless of the program, if it's not made by Blizzard, then chances are you'll get in trouble for using it. Solution? Play the game normally, just like everyone else.

Marooned in an original map that is asymmetrical, and yet fairly well balanced, providing refreshing gameplay. Ideal for the 3 player FFAs, it makes for long of furious games.

Download the map here.

Got a scenario? Be sure to upload it! For other cool levels, check out the archive.

PC.IGN has published a preview of Starcraft:Ghost, its several pages in length, and offers a nice summary of what's happening with the game so far. Key information include:

• Nova will need to be able to hack into security codes. The security codes are different for each race. For example, Zerg security codes deal with trying to match the right Psi "frequency", while Terran security codes are binary puzzles.
• If an enemy sees or hears you, they will be alerted and activate their shield (if they have one).
• The different Call Downs include Identify, Irradiate, EMP, Arclite Siege Tank, Yamato Cannon and nuclear strike.
• The Xbox and GC versions will look nearly identical; the PS2 version is receiving special attention because of its graphics capability.
• If Nova's cloak gets partially damaged, the graphics will displayed bits of Nova decloaked.
• There will be a new Protoss unit, the Vindicator.
• There will be around 30 missions.

The whole preview is available here. Kudos to Firefly for the news.

Comment

The first of the series addresses the Horde, detailing their strength and weaknesses, as well as a build order for you to use.

• Orc Beta Guide
• Frozen Throne Beta Guide
• Comment

Got a strategy? Be sure to send it in.

• Avatar of Vengeance Close-up
• Fire and Ice
• Phoenix Egg

For hundreds of screenshots, covering every new unit and ability, check out the archive.

Secondly, Harel-nomi was the one who supplied the fake World of Warcraft Screenshot. A big kudos to him. The screenshot is now available in our Wallpaper's Archive in several resolutions.

Blizzard Entertainment considers any third-party program designed to affect the way that a Blizzard game interacts with Battle.net -- including seemingly harmless programs designed to make doing things easier, such as changing hotkeys -- a hack program. In addition to jeopardizing the user’s continued access to Battle.net, many of these hack programs contain "Trojan" code that subjects the user’s account or CD key to the risk of being banned from Battle.net for reasons they might not even be aware of. Please click here for more details.

So, if you want to keep your CD Key safe, both from third parties and bans, heed the message.

It seems that Blizzard is going to unveil their hidden graphics engine, which looks like it'll include Skeletal Imaging that'll make the game, and especially the landscape almost real.

We've included the screenshot that we managed to download, showing the Polymorph spell used on a Grunt, turning it into a sheep. As you can see, the grass and mountains are will, photographic quality. Check out the enlarged version here.

2003-APR-1

Major Issues:
- Added an option in the Options > Gameplay menu that allowed the Tome Bug to be switched On and Off.
- Added 3 new maps: (4) Tristram (6) Secret Cow Level (6) Aiur
- Added 2 new Mercenaries available for hire on the Stranglethorn Vale map: Rob Pardo and TillerMaN
• Rob Pardo - 15565 HP -- Heavy Melee Unit
• TillerMaN - 100 HP -- Spell Caster. Abilities: STLSOOA (Scare The Living Shit Out Of anyone) - spawns a giant picture of Tiller and floods an opponent's screen with it.

Human Changes:

- Archmage's Ability Blizzard now heals 25hp / sec and the art has been changed to falling candy.
- Sorceress now spawns nude.

Orc Changes:

- To compliment for the Sorceress' spawning nude, the Tauren, Witch Doctor, and Grunt now all spawn nude. Hell, we decided to make every unit in the game spawn nude. The name of this game is now Nudecraft III

Night Elf Changes:

- Priestess of the Moon is now armed with an SP-12 Automatic Shotgun.

Undead Changes:

- All Undead units have been reduced to 5 HP and their damage to -1/-4 (yes that means you get healed every time an Undead unit attacks).
- We just hate Undead. NE 4 EVAR!!11@

Neutral Changes:

- The Pandaren's Ultimate now creates a new elemental: The Drunken Mofo. He spreads a malus aura to all, spreading Drunken State to all enemy units around him. As a bonus effect, he is soaked in alcohol, if ever he's immolated he will blow up, resulting in a thermonuclear explosion only matched by an AMD XP running without a heatsink.

Game Changes:

- Armor will be changed, yet again, for the sheer enjoyment of confusing the players. Light Armor (previously heavy armor) is now changed to Medium Armor and takes extra damage from piercing. Heavy Armor (previously light armor) is now changed to light armor which takes extra damage from normal. Medium Armor is changed to Heavy Armor "II" and takes extra damage from seige.

We're delighted at all these changes, they will surely add a new dimension to the game. Be sure to discuss it in our forums.