...And it was a glooooorious day of Tuesday, in the year of 2006 month of July, day 16, that the nicely colored package arrived to my address, making practically jealous a lot of friends of mine!

You have conquered every mountain. Vanquished every foe. But the battle... has just begun! Two bold new races. Hundreds of epic quests. Uncharted Dungeons. Explore the shattered realm of Outland. Flying mounts. Socketed items. Jewel crafting. New spells. New abilities. All up to level 70. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade: ...a new world awaits...

"Several years have passed since the Burning Legion's defeat at the Battle of Mount Hyjal - and the races of Azeroth have continued to rebuild their once shattered kingdoms. With renewed strength, the heroes of the Horde and Alliance have begun to explore the broken lands beyond the Dark Portal. What dangers or rewards await mortal champions in Draenor? And what will the Alliance and Horde do when they discover that the demons they thought vanquished have returned to renew their terrible Burning Crusade?"

YOU are NOT prepared

And neither was Blizzard. After several hours (yes, several...) of installing and patching (the torrent system that blizzard is still using for patches is very very slow especially when you need it most: patch day or, even worse, expansion), the game finally finished installing and downloading and applying patches (two patches already, and the game wasn't even out yet).

Fantastic introduction movie that presents the two new races: the Draenei and the Blood Elfs, and some fighting scenes in the new introduced continent: the Outland. One of the best FMVs I've ever seen in my life, hat down.

Being impressed, but with previous bad experiences (Warhammer: Mark of Chaos has a fantastic intro movie, but the game is not that good...), I awaited patiently to see what happens next. Well the next thing that surprised me was the new login screen. It shows the imposing Dark Portal, but on the new Outland side. Looks great. The “menu” music has been changed (I could say just reworked but that would be an understatement). I liked most of the music in the World of Warcraft, but the songs from the expansion are one of the best soundtrack songs I ever heard in my life. And the excellent music scores don't stop with the menu, the whole expansion continent has a really great soundtrack. Another A+ for Blizzard.


Burning Crusade login screen. Pretty.

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After the tormenting work of getting the latest Add-Ons I use / disabling the ones that don't work, I finally got in the game, and on my way to Nethergarde Keep in the Blasted Lands, around where the Dark Portal is located. Apparently you need to be level 58 or higher to enter, but I haven't checked, my character was already 60.

After you pass by the ganking around the Dark Portal, you will find yourself in the middle of a battle – demons fighting against alliance and horde NPCs. It's huge! The other side of the portal I mean! The first impulse is to go forward and get involved. I won't spoil the moment for you. After you come to your senses and resurrect, you will notice the dot on the map to saying “quest”. The quest show you a flight path to the main town in this area: Honor Hold. Once you get there, your story in the Outlands starts.

Although game engine is the same, there is significant improvement in the graphics. Everything is more detailed, and worked out more. The architecture on most new places is brilliant, and everything is “built” in a way that it seems massive and imposing. I also saw some frame increase that suggests a bit of engine optimization. The animation of the new characters and monsters is complex and amazing, and everything seems really alive – a job well done!

The interface is a bit changed here and there, adding cast bars for your enemy to see what's he casting and how long does it have until he's finished, more statistics on the character screen, and a new Looking for Group tool, which comes in handy. They could of done more, but then again, they could of done less. The thing that makes the interface extremely powerful is the possibility to create addons for it. So many addons with different functionality make it very customizable for every taste.

As I've seen, people who bought the expansion have gone two ways: either they chose to create a new character (especially one of the new races) or continue with the level 60. I will try to cover as much as I can from both these aspects, starting with the new races.

 

Bone Dragon anyone?

The Draenei (Alliance)

The noble Draenei have crashed on an island South of Darnassus with their mighty ship “The Exodar”. When they heard the heroic battles that the Alliance fought against the Burning Legion, they decided to join them and help out. I won't insist much on the story/lore, but I will point you out to the official website so you can read more if you are interested.

In order to bring “balance to the force” and in the game, Blizzard decided that the Draenei can be Shamans, and consequently the Blood Elf - Paladins. While the lore fans were again totally against it, and the story on how they came to know those classes is indeed a bit “light”, it is indeed true that the game is more balanced now. And besides, it saves blizzard the trouble in designing new classes. Thus, when you create a Draenei it can be a Warrior, Paladin, Hunter, Priest, Shaman or Mage.

The Draenei are robust, have demon-like legs and horns, and some Blizzard fans claim they resemble Protoss. It is true that they bring a certain Sci-Fi aspect to the game - crystal decorations can be found everywhere in the new Draenei areas. By the way, they start on an island south of Darnassus, where the Exodar, the mothership crashed. Ok now to the important part: dances! Female Draenei don't dance that well, but the males look really cute. First, check out the dance moves carefully here. Then check out the music video here. Finally try this out.

Good! Now that that's done, we can go back to more boring stuff.


Racial Traits


Other Information


While Gemcutting isn't the most brilliant trait (it helps though), every other trait makes Draenei a really good choice. Gift of Naaru means a healing ability for Warriors, Hunters and Mages, and another healing available for Priests and Shamans, without any additional cost (no mana/rage, just 1.5 sec cast time). Inspiring/Heroic Presence makes Draenei really wanted in parties, and the Shadow Resistance was one of the best thing for raids or PvP they could get. Not to mention they are the only alliance race that can be Shamans.

They make great Priests because they have Fear Ward (first fear attack is absorbed), and an ability to restore 33 mana every 5 seconds to every party member within 30 yards. Gift of Naruu is another heal over time, with no mana. Gift of Naruu also makes Draenei good Warriors and Mages, because these classes don't normally have a heal ability.

The Draenei mount is the Elekk, some sort of an elephant... looks... interesting.

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The Blood Elfs

The mana avid Blood Elfs are all that remained after the Scourge led by the evil death knight Arthas destroyed the mystical Sunwell, thereby severing the elves from the source of their arcane power. They seek out new sources of arcane magic and the means of defending their land against the undying horrors of the Scourge. For more information about the Blood Elfs, go here.


The females are a bit skinny, and the males a bit... feminine... and there is a certain Final Fantasy look to them. But they look really good and the animation of the new races (yes, Draenei too) are really very good. As always females don't dance that great - but they wear red underwear and have red polished nails. Males dance like Napoleon Dynamite - if you saw the movie, which I can't describe as “good” or “bad”, or anything similar. Have a look! That being said, I couldn't help notice the brooms that clean the places around Blood Elf towns themselves - really cool.


Racial Traits


Other Information


Excellent casters, great mages, with the ability to drain mana ands silence opponents (silence prevents them to cast spells). Magic Resistance – what more can you say? Affects all schools of magic. And 10 to enchanting is great, enchanting is such an expensive profession but a profitable one as too. Overall one of the best race in the game.

The Chokobo *cough* ... excuse me... the Hawkstrider is the Blood Elf racial mount. It looks like a big colored bird.

 

In A Blink Of An Eye

Although it feels like ages ago, on February 2nd World of Warcraft celebrated two years of existence. What can I say... the time passes so quickly. So many changes happened since its launch. The game has grown so much. Aaaah but enough nostalgia! Let me talk about the things that matter.

Questing and quests in the Outland - the new continent from Burning Crusade - has evolved quite a bit. You don't get send to “kill 30 wolfs” anymore. Quests now involve killing “30 sand worms” or “25 buzzards”. Seriously now, the quests seem a bit more natural, usually better than the original game, making it easier for players to understand and complete the objectives. I could find a couple of bugged quests while leveling to 70, but they were eventually fixed - nothing big or crucial, considering that you have hundreds to choose from.


As you can see, a knowledge base section has been added into the game, with hot topics and possible solutions, so you don't have to contact a Game Master everytime something is wrong, and wait in line till you get a resolution for your problem / an answer.

Some quests are really exceptional, making you laugh or getting you more into the game. Blizzard also introduced tour quests which explain your way around big areas like Shattrath city (the main Outland city) or Caverns of Time. You get that warm feeling as well when they escort you and every guard in town salutes you, and all the others players look your way.

This particular zone in the game is inspired by Starship Troopers. You have to be a labrat and test a piece of gnomish technology, but you have to sign a “Discharge of Liability” contract first.

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There are certain areas or quests inspired by some famous books/movies or TV shows like Dune, Star Trek, Men in Black, Starship Troopers, etc. and the NPCs are also scripted to act in most areas, making it seem so real. We have a whole city called “Area 52” in Netherstorm region for example, and a “Neuralizer” is used on you as you exit the city.

 

The flash of light you did not see did not erase your memories.

There are also a lot of factions in the game, that you need to get revered or honored in order to get the keys for heroic mode instances (gonna talk about that a bit later), or items and equipment. But getting reputation isn't by far as hard as in the old World of Warcraft, as you get a lot of reputation points per kills or per quests that you have to do with that certain faction.

While the first zones after the Dark Portal were invaded by new players, the respawn time of the monsters was reasonably high so everyone could basically complete quests there. And as the number of available quests was high, if one quest was too hard to complete, players could always switch to another and come back later. The biggest problems are at the end of a quest chain, when you are trying to kill a boss and 10 more around you are attempting the same thing; but boss respawn times are generally fast, and players usually have common sense to group up for it. (*Usually* - that is).

This quest for example asks you to transform into a monster, to be able to communicate with a specific faction faction, that is otherwise hostile.

 

This character looks great, doesn't it? And it has the animations to match!

All in all, questing just got better in Burning Crusade.

The new areas are also amazingly varied, from barrens to sci-fi decors, and all in-between. The design is awesome, and it makes the new areas feel vast and alive.

 

“Bio-dome”

While it's a shame you cannot use your flying mount in Azeroth, (Blizzard explains that the way the game was designed two years ago couldn't make this thing possible) once you get to level 70 you are free to fly everywhere in the Outlands, assuming that you have around 1000 gold to buy a regular mount. Epic mounts are a much more expensive (around 6000 g), but they are much faster.

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Instances and Instancing

If you just got to level 60 and you are continuing through the Dark Portal, you will find the rewards from the “low level” instances there are really good - close to most epic equipment players could obtain from 40 man high-level instances before expansion. But if you are already a veteran to lvl 60, you will find little items of use. All the instances are 5 man up to level 70, and the maximum raid members in a high-end instance then will be 25. So by lowering the number required to do those instances, guilds are insured more committed members will do a better job, and not have 10 people slacking and everyone else dragging them in instances because they are needed on a certain boss. I totally agree with this move on Blizzards side, even if some guilds may be broken because of this.

 

Ooohh BIG mushroom people!

At level 70 rewards tend to get better, but the best ones you can get are on “Heroic” difficulty. I will explain: You are required to do certain quests or faction reputation in order to obtain a key to a previously plaid instance (on “Normal” mode. Once you get that key, you can unlock the “Heroic” difficulty for that particular instance, with harder monsters and bosses, but with rewards to match. This insures great replayability to the lower level instances. Most of the quest reward items have a thing in common: they have a lot of +Stamina on them, so in a way Blizzard is ensuring that battles will last longer. Character progression isn't that strong in stats, so equipment and talent points matter more now. And of course - player skill.

PVP, “Balance” and New Talents

When I say PvP, I take into consideration tow different things: world PvP and arena/battleground PvP. Comparing to the previous world PvP system found in the original World of Warcraft, not much has changed in The Burning Crusade. Each map now has its PvP objectives and you can gather wining can give you tokens that can be eventually exchanged for rewards. Objectives vary but you can still group them all in the general category of “capture and hold the most strategic points”. For some reason this doesn't seem to work that good, and players choose either not to play these “mini games”, or just take turns - horde and alliance - in capturing the objectives, thus making token gathering faster. However, the rewards are not that earthshaking, so most of the players prefer to do quests together, or they go into battlegrounds for PvP.

Regarding battlegrounds, a gladiator arena and a new battleground have been introduced. The 3 old battlegrounds have been extended 10 more levels, from 61 to 70, but no additional rewards can be purchased from them. The gladiator arena is innovative for Warcraft, and involves tow groups of 2vs2, 3vs3 or 5vs5 players fighting each other in a tight gladiator arena. The rewards are pretty good and you can just team up with a couple of buddies and start gaining arena points and get your team rank up in the top.

The new 15vs15 battleground - Eye of the Storm - is a mixture of capture the flag and capture strategic points. There are four towers, and the road between them is square-shaped. In the middle point of the map there is a single flag. You need to capture some strategic points, then take the flag from the middle to a friendly tower. Repeat until victory/defeat. It's a fun battleground, but Arathi Basin is still, in my opinion, the most strategic one.

 

Eye of the storm - almost ready to start

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The new PvP rewards are good, and ensure you great survivability. The new resilience stat was added to equipment, the higher meaning the less chance to get critically hit and when you do, you receive less damage. Also spell penetration was added, to combat those high resist sets.

While everyone is crying about the game being “unbalanced”, if you look at the talent points and new things introduced you will find that the balance comes in teams of 2 or higher amounts of players. Even so, i think some classes still need a bit of a balance - for example hunters who are the kings of PvP at the moment. Also some talents make some classes too powerful: nether protection and soul link for warlocks for example. The overall “term” to describe balance would be “so-so”.

I will not go into further details as this article is long already, but it is just scratching the surface of the newly introduced things, so i will just go straight to the...

Conclusion

A solid expansion pack, that I am sure it will be very popular. It manages to be a bit better in almost every aspect, from quests to itemization, from terrain and architecture to graphics even if the engine hasn't been changed. The user interface got a bit more powerful and the fact that there are so many addons for it makes it one of the most customizable game ever. The intro movie is again made in that Blizzard way to let you speechless. Too bad there are still some problems with the servers sometimes - it's annoying but they will be fixed eventually.


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Gameplay: 95

Great playability and an enormous amount of game content. While many quests are still “kill 20 of these and bring me 10 livers”, there are a lot of quests worthwhile, fun to do, with well thought rewards. The humor and some references to classic movies and sci-fi titles make it even more enjoyable. One of the best MMORPGs, if not the best.

Graphics: 86

Almost nothing changed in the game graphic engine, but somehow the textures, new models, animations and architecture of places evolved much. The player gets the feeling of vast varied areas from the first moment he steps into the Dark Portal. I've noticed a minor bug with the user interface, whenever you get disconnected you loose sometimes some icons (they are black or transparent) - but doing “/console reloadui” fixes it.

Multiplayer: 92

Enjoyable experience while soloing, or grouping with other players. By lowering the raids cap to 25 man or below in the new instances, and by design, individuals are more meaningful in raids, and players feel more important - and they are.

Sound: 94

I just love the music scores, absolutely superb. Sounds are good as Blizzard always thought us. More speech has been added to NPCs which gives dungeon battles a more dynamic aspect. It supports DirectSound and hardware acceleration, but that's about it.

Hardware: 82

It doesn't require a powerful system, and it will run acceptable even on a GeForce 5200. The main problem is that you need at least 1 GB of RAM in order to experience it smoothly. Also, a lot of disconnects and server restarts at the beginning, and it will still happen from time to time - you are in the middle of a dungeon and you get disconnected, and you have to start all over. That's not too pleasant, you have to have a lot of patience.

Recommended Addons

I am not gonna leave you yet - I know I know you must be so bored; soon. I am gonna direct you to a few addons that I use and found to be very handy:

I am sure I can find many more, but I will stop here, and let you discover the rest. Here are some links to sites containing addons so you can search there if you are interested in something particular:

http://wow-en.curse-gaming.com/files/addons/

http://ui.worldofwar.net/

http://www.wowinterface.com/

Happy gaming!