World of Warcraft - Wrath of the Lich King - Burning Crusade @ IncGamers World of Warcraftt

Posted 2nd Aug 2007 10:00 AM by Rushster

Over the weekend the Blizzard community descended on the convention centre in Anaheim for the second time in gaming history. The last BlizzCon took place in 2005; at the time, quite frankly, we were not quite sure what to expect. It turned out to be a very memorable convention. In fact, we still speak about the first BlizzCon with fond memories.

BlizzCon 05 was, very simply, unique. There were so many things that we’d never experienced before. The Blizz folks set up a series of LANs to play with � and they worked almost flawlessly. A few of us really enjoyed playing with the Starcraft: Ghost LAN in particular; that game’s PvP just plain rocked. Sadly, SC:G is never to be seen again. But feel free to ask Mike Morhaime (Blizzard President and all around head dude) about it any time you like. His visible irritation when asked about SC:G (which reporters insist upon doing all the time) is obvious. As a side note, it’s also obvious by his responses to these little queries that Ghost is completely dead.

Blizz also set up a bunch of LANs to play betas of their games in 2005, and it was no different at this BlizzCon. I don’t think this has ever been done before. Heck, in other gaming events we’ve attended, most companies are so protective of their games they won’t actually let you touch them. You only get to watch the devs play them. At BlizzCon 05, we got to actually mess around as much as we wanted with not one, but two betas: both SC:G and the WoW expansion, The Burning Crusade.

This time around we were better prepared for what Blizz might throw at us. Apparently, so was Blizzard. The con was very well put together. BlizzCon must be a monumental task to organize and in true Blizzard style they did a superb job. A new game announcement in the form of the expansion Wrath of the Lich King was made. This alone was big news, but they also gave us quite a bit more information on Starcraft 2. Sadly no news on a new Diablo title just yet, but we still live in hope.

Wrath of the Lich King

The event kicked off with the new expansion presentation . Of course by then we knew (sorta) what the title of the game was going to be. In fact we’d heard a couple of days before (thanks to a leak over in Germany) that it would be Wrath of the Lich King. We have it from a very reliable source that Blizzard were not too happy about the leak (to put it mildly). In fact, word is they were downright pissed off about it. We’re sure some heads will roll over that one.

While the leak got the Internet community buzzing, it was like telling someone about their birthday present ahead of time. Blizzard really did want to surprise the BlizzCon attendees with the news, and make the opening ceremony extra special. Blizzard’s motivation in putting on BlizzCon is to reward the fans, the players, by giving them something unique. It’s funny, you can really feel this during the whole convention. BlizzCon is not a commercial event. It’s a big fat �thank you� to Blizzard’s fans. Fortunately, despite the rumors, things worked out just fine. The fans were so hungry for new information it didn�t really matter that they’d heard what the expansion might be called beforehand.

The Wrath of the Lich King announcement, made by co-founder Frank Pierce, received rapturous applause from the crowd. All 6000+ of them whooped and cheered the news that Northrend was the next stop for their WoW adventures, and that the level cap was to increase yet again, this time to level 80. Just as important though was the announcement of the new hero class, the Death Knight. [View announcement movie Part 1 and Part 2]

The Death Knight is a �hero� class in the game. This means that you can�t choose this class right off the bat, you need to earn it. First, you have to get a character to level 80. Then you have to complete a quest chain to unlock the class. This chain is similar, according to the devs, to the warlock quest chain to get their mount. This �unlocking� concept is a very nice, and very innovative, idea indeed. Also gone is a mana or rage system for the DKs. A �Rune Resource System� will be implemented instead. In a nutshell, a DK inscribes runes onto his weapon; these runes are from the Unholy, Frost, or Blood trees. Instead of a mana bar, your weapon blade with the runes carved into it appears beneath your character icon on the interface. This is really just a minor interface change. The real innovation is that the 6 runes that appear on the blade get used up when a DK casts spells or uses abilities. They runes then recharge just like mana, rage, or energy. Use a minor spell, and only one rune is consumed. Use a major nuke and 3 or more runes will be used up. It’s an interesting alternative to what Blizz has done before.

Death Knight Art

The runes recharge over time and and any combination of the Unholy, Frost, or Blood runes can be included on the blade. This flexibility means you can mix and match the three attributes depending on what you want to do. If you inscribe a lot of Blood runes on your blade, you’ll be able to cast more Blood spells and use more Blood abilities. However, you’ll have a reduced ability to cast Frost or Unholy abilities, since you chose to emphasize your Blood runes. Get it? If you find yourself struggling a bit to understand the nuances of being a Death Knight, head over to the Death Knight Fact Sheet. It explains everything. Well, everything we know at this point, anyway.

An important thing to note that is once you make the transition to a Death Knight, your old character does not change, nor is it eliminated or replaced. You are given a new DK character slot. As it stands right now, all races can become DKs and it won�t matter if you�re Alliance or Horde.

The other major addition to the expansion is the new profession Inscription. This is related, obviously, to the DK ability to inscribe their weapons. Don’t worry, you don’t have to be a DK to do Inscription. Anyone can learn it. Inscription is the ability to add special effects to any spell or ability to the game. For example, you caninscribe someone’s Fireball spell. You can add extra damage, a knockback effect, or other small nuances to make the spell more interesting. While we don’t have a lot of new information about Inscription, it’s got everyone fascinated, that’s for sure.

With the Lich King comes the new continent of Northrend. This has been a point of speculation for some time following the discovery of Northrend entries in previous WoW patches. Fans of the Warcraft series, especially the background lore, will be pleased to hear that this expansion will be heavily story driven. Players will be interacting with Arthas and his minion from day one, according to the devs. There�s also going to be plenty of content to get sucked into; this includes more daily quests, a new PvP arena, a new battleground, and the introduction of siege weapons, along with fortifications that can be destroyed by those siege weapons, into the BGs.

Despite what you may think, Northrend is not just be covered in ice and snow. While some of the zones will be rather chilly, the landscape will be more diverse than that. The Grizzly Hills for example, while cold, won�t be covered in snow and ice. They are actually forested. There will naturally be icy locations and Blizzard has developed a new �ice cave� rendering technology to make sure these zones have the right �feel�. Learning from the BC, Blizzard are also adding two points of entry to the new continent to stop overcrowding at launch. The continent is split into what appears to be 10 zones right now, though this may change.

The zones we saw had a slightly different feel to them than previous WoW iterations. The art seemed a bit more detailed, though that’s only our impression. The �feel� of many of the zones was very Viking-like. In several zones, the houses and buildings and landscape felt very Norse. Their were also mobs that were reminiscent of the Vanir, and the armor and weapons also had something of a old Viking appearance. Overall, it was a very good look.

Character customisation has been a point of discussion for some time in WOW and finally players will be able to tweak their character�s looks with new hairstyles; this elicited lots of applause. The irony of this is pretty rich. Warcraft is a wargame; the fact that fans went nuts over having new hairstyles options in the game is downright hilarious. Even funnier, more dances are being added, which is ideal for those of you who are fans of naked WoW dancing. You know who you are, you naughty naughty people. StarCraft II

Starcraft II was actually playable, and it played well. It is definitely Starcraft game. The look and feel is familiar. The game plays smoothly, even at this early stage. The Protoss and Terran races were available (the Zerg aren’t in the game as yet), but some balancing does need to take place. The tech trees are bound to change as well. The biggest, most notable improvement is the graphics. The game is fully 3-D, and looks stunning. It’s the best looking RTS game I’ve ever seen.

According to Dustin Browder (he’s the lead designer for SC II) among the biggest innovations in SC II is the use of terrain, something no one else is doing. Some units can transverse rough terrain; others have to take the long way around. This adds a whole new element to the game, making your choices of units that much more challenging. Dustin also indicated that he’s fully aware of the pressure to produce an excellent game. He won’t publish it unless it’s simply outstanding. If the game has any shortcomings the fans will notice them immediately. Intensely aware of this, Dustin promises SC II will not disappoint even the most hardcore old schoolers. Being a big C&C fan (Rushster) I feel confident that Dustin will deliver a very polished RTS experience that will set a new benchmark for the genre. [View BlizzCon RTS Summit Reports] [Dustin Browder Video Interview]

On the show floor, we were surprised at how mainstream things have become. The people who attended BlizzCon were, by and large, �normals.� They people who attended the last BlizzCon were, quite frankly, more stereotypical gamers. In short, there were a lot more geeks last time. This time around there were a lot more normal, regular folks in attendance, people who looked like they had lives, mowed the lawn at the weekends and liked a nice bottle of red with a tasty pasta. Particularly astonishing was the number of hotties at the convention. We spoke to several women in costume at the show (strictly for interview purposes, of course!) and were surprised to learn that they were not models. They were simply fans.

The raw number of women who play Blizzard games is also remarkable. Gaming, at least traditionally, has been a male-dominated hobby. Not any more, at least according to what we saw at BlizzCon. While the majority of people there were male, the number of females present made it clear that gaming, as a hobby, has a large proportion of female adherents.

BlizzCon exhibitors really were in the spirit of gaming as well. Many offered quests of various kinds. One exhibitor offered a number-matching game which turned out to be pretty fun; another offered a chain quest in which different pieces of information were gathered and turned in. The prizes of these various quests ranged from t-shirts to computer systems. Overall, quite fun.

The contest were, as they were last time, hilarious (see movie 1, movie 2 and movie 3). Comedian Jay Mohr hosted most of them, and made things actually very funny. The dance contest was particularly funny, and the quality of the costumes at the costume contest was surprisingly good, certainly better than last tim

On the last day, to wrap things up, was a Blizzard-inspired concert. Things started with some stand up comedy by Jay Mohr. The guy obviously plays WoW; he knows the lingo and the gamer culture. He’s also funny as hell. He was followed by what was, in our opinion, the highlight of the show: Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain who simply rocked the house! This is a metal band composed of Blizzard employees. We immediately recognized them. Sam Didier, senior art director (lead singer), Chris Sigaty, lead producer for Starcraft II (rythm guitar}. Mike Morhaime, Blizzard President (bass), Alan Dabiri, senior programmer (drums) and finally, Dave Berggren, senior artist (lead guitarist). The concert closed with the musical stylings of VideoGames Live, an orchestra that plays themes from various video games. Obviously, the music they played at the show had a very strong Blizzard theme, and it was quite entertaining. There was a little too much of the ‘inn music’ for our tastes and the lack of Diablo music was dissapointing but overall this was an entertaining show. After the show we met the guy who had organised the Videogames choir while we supped a few beers to wind down. BlizzCon was obviously a big deal to him as he asked us what we thought before telling us who he was. Happy with our answers of �the show was great and so was the choir�, he slumped back to his beer a very upbeat guy.

Overall, BlizzCon was a very good time. It compared nicely to the old BlizzCon; it certainly exceeded our expectations. The games played well, the presentations were both informative and entertaining, and all the extras � the concert, the contests, and all the exhibitors � were fun to see, play, and experience. As we did two years ago, we enjoyed this convention much more than any other. BlizzCon does not disappoint.

If you’ve never gone, start making your plans, save your cash and donl;t crack open your piggy bank early. While it’s all rumor at this point, we hear there’s going to be a BlizzCon 08. Don’t miss it.

Article by The Pig and Rushster

Further BlizzCon 2007 viewing and reading

Movies