The talking plush murlocs that were all the rage at BlizzCon 2008 are now available in limited quantities at Jinx.com for $39.99 as part of their newly unveiled winter lineup. Along with the fishy plushies comes a new line of World of Warcraft t-shirts and accessories for men and women, featuring some of the nicest work I've seen from the company so far. I particularly love the faux sports team shirts, which include the Teldrassil Shadowmelders, Undercity GraveDiggers, and the Darnassus Nightsabers. Anyone reading the site searching for Fahey gift ideas might want to pay special attention to the Arcane Intellect ball cap. Just make sure you opt for the Horde wrapping paper, or you could be risking my ire.

Hit up the link for the full winter WoW lineup, or check out their other winter releases for one damn spiffy Pac-Man shirt.

Jinx Warcraft Winter 2009 Launch [Jinx.com]

BlizzCon 2008 - The Kotaku Griffon Has Landed
Diablo III Playable On BlizzCon Floor, New Class Reveal
Inside The BlizzCon 08 Swag Bag
Liveblogging The BlizzCon 2008 Opening Ceremonies
Diablo III's Third Class - The Wizard!
Diablo III's Wizard - Behind The Magic
StarCraft II Single Player Is A Trilogy!
The Best Of Blizzard - Retro Arcade
StarCraft II Lead Producer On The Split Single Player Campaign
And BlizzCon 2008 Continues, As Foretold By Prophecy
Behold The New Diablo III Logo T-Shirt
When Talking Plush Murlocs Attack
The Obligatory BlizzCon 2008 Cosplay Post
Hands On With Diablo III: Everything Old Is New Again
Look Kids, It's The Cast Of The Guild
WotLK's Death Knight Experience - One Of The Best Things We've Ever Done
Rubie's Costumes Make Even Bigger WoW Geeks
Diablo III's Coolest Feature - The Rune System
World Of Warcraft: The Bean Bag Game

Here's how it works. Basically you have two targets, side by side, each with a large hole in the center (1 point) and a smaller hole near the top (2 points). Teams of two players take turns throwing a set number of bean bags through the holes, after which hits are calculated and a winner is declared. So how is this World of Warcraft?

It's a bit more complicated than that. Before each round, all players choose a character class. On my play through, for instance, I went with a mage. Each class has a set number of standard white bean bags, along with one red crit bean bag worth double points and a number of green ability bean bags. My mage came with the ability Ice Block, which required me to get the green ability bag through a hole in order to negate one of the opposing team's hits. Other classes have more appropriate special abilities, like the hunter, who gets to toss three green multi-shot bean bags at once before the round starts.

Other classes have positional abilities. The shooting area is cordoned off into a number of colored lines, with players shooting from the farthest white line. Warriors, however, get the charge ability, which allows then the move up to the front red line for a toss before the round starts. The shaman class has a totem ability that moves their entire team up one line for the duration of the round.

J!nx only just revealed the game at BlizzCon 2008, so of course there are still tweaks being made to the rule set. Saturday morning, after noticing some balancing issues, they rolled out patch 1.1, which took away the ability for two shamen to stack their totems, giving unfair advantage, while the rogue lost one of its two crit balls in favor of a green stealth ball they get to throw before the round starts.

There were prizes to be had for teams that won consecutive rounds, but these were prizes my trembling hands were not to touch. I missed my crit, my ice block, and the majority of the normal shots, doing a grand total of 1 point of damage, which is about how I generally fare during PVP. I did have a great deal of fun though, and judging by the people who had been there playing for hours, others did too.

I'm not sure if the J!nx folks will follow my suggestion and market the game immediately, so you might want to keep an eye out for them at WoW-themed events to get your hands on the game. They really did do an excellent job of translating the game experience into a more physical, social affair.

The basics: As you play through Diablo III you will come across various runes, which can be slotted into active power slots to enhance their powers. Rather than just increasing the damage or range of an ability, however, the runes radically change the form and function of said abilities, almost creating completely new skills with completely different uses.

During a panel on Diablo III development, Jay went over some of the various examples of how runes interact with powers. By far my favorite example was teleport, an ability the new wizard class receives. By itself, it simply moves the character to a different location on the map. Add a damage rune and suddenly porting into a group of monsters hurts them. Add a multi-attack rune and teleporting splits you into multiple characters for a brief period of time.

Another example was the witch doctor's flaming skull spell, which by default has him filling a skull with fire and tossing it at the enemy. With a power rune attached, the skull leaves behind a damaging pool of fire. With the multi rune, it bounces. Bouncing flaming skulls equals love.

It seems like a ton of work, not only creating each of the skills but determining how they function with runes attached, but Jay assured me it wasn't a problem for Blizzard.

"We have a saying at Blizzard when something looks like too much work. How about we pay you? You can work on it, and every two weeks we'll cut you a check."

I love Jay Wilson, and Jay Wilson loves the Blizzard fans. Not only does he love them, but he also values their input. At the end of our far too brief interview, he urged me to urge fans to come up with their own rune / power combinations and send them in. Who knows, if you put in a lot of work, maybe one day they'll pay you.

"When I got to that point I had to stop. I actually said "Holy shit" out loud in the office."

Having played through the entire Death Knight experience myself on multiple occasions, I know exactly how Brack feels. There were several moments in the starting area where I was completely blown away. It's an experience unlike anything I've experienced in an MMO, all centered on this one, heart-rending moment.

During our discussion, J. Allen actually brought up the old Electronic Arts magazine ad that asked the question, "Can a computer game make you cry?" He then quickly dismissed the comparison, but I thought it was quite apt. The Death Knight starting experience from start to finish is one of the best things I've seen in any MMORPG, and Brack agrees.

"It's a very powerful, very visceral experience. It's one of the best things we've ever done."

Those of you who know the moment I speak of try not to ruin it for everyone else. You have to agree that it is something you just have to experience for yourself.

Be sure to check back on Monday, when I'll be tying up a few BlizzCon loose ends. Until then, it's time to sleep the sleep of the sleepy.

Sure, the core concepts remain exactly the same as they did in the original game. You play a character that clicks their way through levels, hacking, slashing, and spellcasting your way through hordes of enemies. You still upgrade your equipment, quaff potions, and identify magic items along the way. In essence it is the same game we've been playing and loving since the very start, only updated to the point where we can look at it on today's systems and still go "Damn, this is an amazing game."

The demo starts off by allowing me to select a class. Currently available are male and female versions of both the Witch Doctor and Barbarian, as well as the female Wizard, with the currently incomplete male unable to be selected. I went with the Wizard, partly because of my affinity with the mage class but mostly because I like to play as girls.

I begin in a burnt out village of Tristam, overrun with undead. Entering the village proper the first sight I see is a person trying to crawl out of a cellar doorway. Approaching them causes them to be yanked inside with a scream that continues as blood splashes out of the opening onto the ground. Oh yes, things are pretty fucked up round here.

Soon you come across your first enemies, your basic zombies. The power mapping is pretty simple. You have a standard hotbar numbered 1-9, a left button power, and a right button power that can be swapped on the fly with the tab key. I had an electrical melee attack on my left button and magic missile on the right, at least until I got the awesome disintegration ray at level 2.

I come across a wounded soldier laying near an open crypt who warns me....somehow the fires have awoken him - The Skeleton King lives again. Feeling uppity, I plunge into the depths of the dungeon, ready to click some ass.

The monsters come in waves, dying with that characteristically satisfying feel of all Diablo games. They do an excellent job of making you feel like you're causing the damage directly. These aren't spell effects and death animations - these are beams of magical energy shooting from your hands, committing your enemies to nothingness. As I fight through hordes of skeletons, they drop reddish heart containers, and running over them replenishes my heath. There are still potions in the game of course...the pickups just add to the action a bit.

Eventually I get my first rune. The rune system in Diablo III allows you to slot stones you find into powers in order to increase their effects in specific ways. The minor power rune I pickup adds a bit more damage to my disintegration ray, whereas a multi-hit rune might very well split the beam into multiples. The developers have not only had to create the powers for each class, but determine how each rune you can pick up effects said powers. Each run has a cosmetic as well as functional effect on each power. It's a very ambitious system that I cannot wait to see more of.

At know point during my 3-level dungeon descent do I worry about the bright colors ruining my experience. It's still moody and pretty dark. The spell effects, on the other hand, are vibrant and colorful, and the death animations for the creatures I kill seem to vary depending on the power I use. Disintegrate actually disintegrates my enemies. No caned death animations here.

Along with the requisite zombies and skeletons I run into a few bigger creatures, like giant, bloated, headless bodies that explode in a cascade of maggots as they die, with several groups of the worms attacking you, perhaps a bit miffed that you destroyed their home.

Eventually I descend to the final level, where the skeleton king rises in spectacular fashion. Gates all around him open, the area is flooded with undead, and my disintegrate ray quickly runs out of mana, leaving me relatively defenseless and definitely dead. Oh well.

When I first saw Diablo III in action, my initial thought was, "How is this different?" Now, having played the game I realize that it isn't all that different, and it doesn't really have to be. It's got upgraded graphics, a new leveling system, and some new classes, but this is still Diablo, and that has never been a bad thing. If it was the sort of game we got a new installment of every year than it would certainly be less impressive, but with it being seven years since we've entered this world, familiarity is definitely a good thing.

Hopefully they'll have some more of these little guys available for the holidays. Until that day, enjoy the gallery of the unboxing before the inevitable hand-humping.

The shirt is of course a direct response to the fans who cried out that Diablo III was too bright and colorful for a Diablo game. I'm a little sad that this isn't the real logo myself.

Jay said that if there was a huge outpouring of demand thaqt these shirts might one day be offered to people for sale, so you might wanna start outpouring now. I need one of these. I briefly considered taking Jay's, but he seems like a rather tough fellow and I'd rather not take any chances. Outpour!

"Oh my god, this thing is so flimsy," explained the elderly attendant as Fahey apologized and quickly ran away.

BlizzCon 2008 continues today, with the doors opening as I type. I'll be on hand all day with more news, more interviews, and more things to view as I try desperately not to break any more of the convention.

Which character had photographers violate the rules of cosplay when snapping shots of her at a show this year?

Each new single player campaign will come with upgrades and changes to the multiplayer. The main difference here is that instead of giving you a tacked-on extension of the single-player experience as you often find in an RTS expansion, each title comes with a fully realized campaign.

Chris explained that each of the three installments would play a bit differently as well, with different meta-game types in each. The initial campaign would feature Terran Jim Raynor, with a meta game that involves upgrading technologies. The second focuses on the Zerg, with a meta-element involving diplomacy. I mentioned Star Control, and Chris said that that sort of gameplay element had been discussed.

So why the change? It really comes down to scope. "We always start with this really gigantic scope", Sigaty explained. Basically StarCraft II got bigger than they expected. They have a huge, solid Terran campaign that needs a bit of fleshing out at this point, and once you figure out the dev time needed for the other two campaigns it would have delayed the game for years. After months of discussion, this was their solution.

So basically, as I suggested to Chris, instead of thinking of the StarCraft Trilogy as three separate courses, think of it as three different meals, each with a different flavor.

Wings of Liberty - Terrans
Heart of the Swarm - Zerg
Legacy of the Void - Protoss

Each campaign is treated as a fully fleshed out game, with each title ending the same way. The change will allow for more characters, more missions, and more complete experiences overall.

Personality-wise the wizard is a bit of a rebel. Ambitious, perhaps even power hungry, the wizard is the kind of person who pays no attention at all in class yet still manages to ace her magic exams. Everybody expects her to fail, but she's got the power and desire to come out on top.

What powers? Hit the jump for a few hit the jump for a few of the tricks she's got up her sleeves.

Magic Missiles: Was an important skill choice. Fireballs, ice bolts would have set her up to be an elementailist. The higher the level the more missiles.

Electrocute: Part of the Wizard's weather control discipline. Controlling weather feels epic.

Slow Time: Part of the reality control kit for the wizard. RPG games don't generally manipulate time. It's a slow time bubble, for multiplayer use.

Disintegrate: The real face melter. Nothing like it has been in a Diablo game before, but it feels very Diablo. Hold down the mouse and a beam shoots out. So awesome. IT originally started as a charged swing for the Barbarian class that you'd have to hold down the mouse to charge and the release when finally charged. Teammates would kill the monsters, leaving you alone, and you'd still be waiting for the power to go off. Now you hold down the beam and it comes grows in power as a monster is hit.

So that's what we have on the wizard so far. She's a glass cannon class, basically. Over-powered yet severely under armored. My kinda girl.

Don't Miss... Diablo III Gameplay Stations: Venture deep into Tristram Cathedral to face the Skeleton King.

Along with the hands on sessions, there will also be a Diablo III Class Design panel that promises to delve deeper into the design of the previously announced barbarian and witch doctor, "and a new champion who has emerged to defend the mortal world."

The panel kicks off tomorrow at noon following the opening ceremonies, so be sure to check back tomorrow afternoon to see who joins the line up!