http://www.gamereactor.se/texter/?id=8420
Har inte orkat läsa själv, men den är säkert bra
BC article for the allmighty
BC article for the allmighty
Swedes!!
http://www.gamereactor.se/texter/?id=8420
Har inte orkat läsa själv, men den är säkert bra
http://www.gamereactor.se/texter/?id=8420
Har inte orkat läsa själv, men den är säkert bra
Mains through the ages: Asharak -> Liandrin -> Shaidar -> Albeo
Sneek: So much, so fast. It's hard not to OD
Sneek: So much, so fast. It's hard not to OD
Also in this article is again mentioned what Maug, Ark, Late and Betdel experienced at their conference; Blizzard's backpedaling on the release date using "we try to"s and "we'd like to"'s.
Keep in mind though that technically the WoW we bought so long ago was in fact not finished.
The "free content" we got over the past months was in fact stuff you already paid for but wasn't ready at the time WoW went live.
More or less common practice in MMOG-land - so I've heard.
Having said that, two talent trees of key classes still not done and the beta has yet to begin.
If they are to meet a Christmas friendly release date they have just two months left do finish it and apply the polish they so clamor for.
Severe swenglish below.
Can be hazardous to your mental wellbeing.
We have played Burning Crusade!
By Michael Sundberg
Gamereactor had meet Blizzards founder Stamp Pearce , looking all the nya from expansion and testator they nya demolish. Here is våra overpower impression
I have looking the a thousand times formerly. The Dark Gate Blizzards ominous , almost ikoniska gate among Azeroth and Draenor. Music am chasing me in remember am dreaming. But when self passes per the today am seeing self nots mine usual uppsättning of nattalver and folk , I see a giant blue being at a good-natured , favourably look as only almost am becoming appalling of tentaklerna along chin. The is nots World perceive Warcraft self am acting , the is World perceive Warcraft : The Burning Crusade. As I have yearn.
But tune ourselves wash back one hour. Stamp Pearce , a of am grounding of Blizzard entrance the alike ring up by name Blizzard , had committee for that show expansion to the game self act in countless hour wide this layer , a expansion as self was getting a fascinate blink of precedence autumn but as now ska be seen in heal its glitter. Guess if self able sits quiet.
Journey initiates in blodalvernas take-off Sunstrider Isle. While Stamp tell am acting his colleague Sean and am leaping about few in they vitgulröda environs self was getting watch when self attend Blizzard , and the heal is nots so worst interesting. But so button Sean in a kod in game debugpanel ( as alas nots will exist with in the completed game ), and vips so am standing his blood on Silvermoons gator. Silvermoon is blodalvernas capital , in province Eversong Woods very farthest in north. Defiance sits further north situation and imminence to both the förfrusna Northrend and the stink Plaguelands is Eversong one live and beautifully precinct , if than on one inkling worrying am distorting manner. Wes am going along gatorna among sky high buildings. Stamp tell that Silvermoon is inkling under Stormwind , but vertically is the very major. Wes am meeting a uppsättning caller ambassadors from Hordes as am seeing exceedingly astray into the kristallvita cities , in sina massive armour. On gatorna patrol also any kind magic robots and any brush , as liked Disneys ancient Imagination am sweeping on altogether egen hand. Stamp am labeling that auktionshuset in Silvermoon will product divide up on several various capacities for that avoid trafikstockningen as often rise in Orgrimmar ors Ironforge.
Late is the dags that peek bring nearer to on draenei and their hemområde. To difference from övriga demolish is draenei fairly nya in Azeroth. Sedan they cheated from Draenor of orcherna have the remnant about in one magic rymdskepp faith me , the am matching better into the existent designs than what self only believed but behind one sabotage kraschlandade they on a hittills unknown isle as am laying Southwest if Teldrassil. Your career as draenei initiates literal with that yous crawl out from a flyktkapsel. A scrap away am standing a giant structure few reckless nerkörd in field , this , tell Stamp , is only a bit of rymdskeppet. Heal actions for draenei cycle to a beginning kring that they kraschlandat and must attempt rally sina strength and weather in the nya strange the world. A cheat later and Sean am standing amid Exodar draeneis capital to rymdskepp. The is magnificent on one manner as nots resembles somewhat other in game. Possibly should husband kunna say that the reminder few if a hybrid of architecture in Halo and in Stout Warsaw , with very purify light ytor , crystal and tall corridors. How as rather is the fantastic beautifully , and how much self than favour Silvermoon ( for that nots mention Darnassus and Thunder Fraud ) so I have already certain me for that Exodar ska become mine nya hemplats.
But defiance three nya startområden weekday am laying the foremost component of Burning Crusade on second page of The Dark Gate. The nya continent is almost equal as a of they existent , which am growing the altogether världskartan with a third. Sean am grabbing ourselves with to Hellfire Peninsula , the burn area fair entrance portalen , there sönderslagna krigsmaskiner attests if the wars as harry here among orcher and folk for only a petty term sedan. Hellfire Peninsula is a neutral zone there both variant sedan long secure themselves and for one fairly hopelessly skyttegravskrig. Here find two chamber maid , hordes Thrallmar and alliance Fee Hold , but the tube themselves more if casual fortifications as Nethergarde Keep ors Hammerfall. Few later , when self was getting runs about few on egen hand , brace self on both distortion orcher from Hellfire Quotation and underground mesh as resembles they in Ahn'Qiraj.
Hellfire Citadel , as it were they three second superb instancerna Coilfang Reservoir Auchindoun and Temple Keep , is classify in four ad area , few as Scarf Monastery ors Direct Maul. Tank is that husband ska kunna explore them in pieces if any hour istället for that be firm a good deal evenings ate gangway. Hellfire Quotation am standing wonder krigsherren Basket Bladefist as with help of the enslave demon Magtheridon am attempting breed still compelling orcher. Coilfang Reservoir am laying wonder Zangar Mar , one fairly intact precinct with huge mushroom , there Cenarion Circle had barley a boss from which they am attempting återskapa and save Outlands nature. But Lady Vashj and hers Nagasaki drain water from mire for sina egna underhand object. Auchindoun each one older draeneitempel but had now inlet of orcher from Shadow Council as tried evocation a huge demon. They was disapproving , but few on that place still is dangerous. IN same am weaving fortunate they explode heal area about temple , and draeneis ancestor leg find now spaced about heal bush. Am hearing self reasons for one " rally in twenty of våra ancestor leg quest , maybe? Here find wes also a wholly fresh breed of fågelliknande humanoider with plod bill , under Blizzard only one of they nya people as will emerge.
Temple Keep was belonging original naaru , the ljusbaserade people as gave draenei and paladins their sacred strength , but when they dök up in Outlands for that attempt save the world defeated Kael'thas to and invade. With help of capacities sacred and magic vigour am thinking Kael'thas återskapa blodalvernas dark. The heal reminder if Direct Maul , solid live. Everywhere find oriole tree and a good deal live such. Husband able question themselves whys blodalver shall assault its superintendent Kael'thas , but with mind on that he allies themselves with Wily and Vashj so maybe he nots really is a good reproach inferior. The ultimate rädinstancen landlord that mention is understand Black Temple , there the treacherous ahead this nattalven Wily currently am holding to. All these instancer is divide among rating 60 and 70, but for that nots people only ska plough themselves per these any gangway and sedan repeat they supreme nivåerna in all endlessness , am arriving husband that kunna select a bad version of every unsettled , as is suit for rating 70. On so manner slippers wes desolate place there none ever father , as Maraudon and Temple perceive Atal'Hakkar in expansion. Thereafter had Blizzard for existing inga layouts on that uppgradera ancient instancer on same manner. Herself fancy self that the vore exceedingly bump that am fighting anti VanCleef in an supermäktig version , but the is maybe only self.
Basket Vashj Kael'thas , Wily , the is apparent that Burning Crusade is completes of celebrity from Warcrafts stories. But game cycle nots only kring they nya rädinstancerna and huge superbossar , although millions hardcorespelare bearable over uncover tank that poll nya dare that entangle themselves through , evenings behind evenings. Also they second zones in Outlands fills superb object. Stamp am grabbing ourselves with to Nagrand , a magnificent wilderness with was sweeping steppe as reminder few if taurens dark. Here find Haul , a town cautious belongings depend on whoever for the occasion controlling zones. So ju multi as am attending in contrary desto major is chance that your page sheep possibility that visit Haul for that poll nya missions and nya hantverkarrecept. IN the huge Nagrand able the product appropriation that unyttja sina spring knight for that kunna assault enemies chamber maid from air ors only travel about. Sean am jumping on its kite and am exposing how the am acting , and the is horrible delicious. Indeed , we have fly formerly in World perceive Warcraft , but only along specific rotten. That kunna spring about precise every Tom, Dick and Harry is somewhat we have yearn behind , but self hope really that betatestningen fills its function ju major freedoms desto major potential for buggar. And nos paladins and warlocks am not arriving that poll sina knight for free this gangway!
Still more candy am awaiting for PVP - lunatic. IN arenaläget am arriving husband that kunna dare second performer , few as in existing battlegrounds but in was limiting contestations among either two anti two performer , three anti three ors in brackets if five. All these tävlingsmoment will had rangordningar , there the performer ors group as succeed best over heal " season " sheep fantastic charges. The am arriving also walk that contend anti second on alike egen page , so the am not becoming only hordes anti alliance heal terms. Every bit as battlegrounds am arriving these contestations that nås per a person in huvudstäderna rather than that husband walk to a given place. The is nots clearly if second will kunna sees contention , but Blizzard am leveling any kind åskådarfunktion.
Wes was getting also watch more of the nya handicraft Jewelcrafting. The is a decently carefully prepared tardiness with mass of användningsområden , especially for draenei as have a natural bonus in tardiness. With this able husband foremost make gems with various characters , but also detached jewellery and other paternal jewellers able think idle with. When self later test a completed character find self both one couple knogjärn , a tiara and mass of various am calling. The is wholly apparent that this tardiness will supplement våra utrustningslistor with the as they tradionella armour - and vapenfärdigheterna nots have been able make. But important is fair ädelstenarna. All object of high quality had one number cubby-hole there you are able deposit gems. Dependents on its characters and combinations of these sheep sedan object further bonus. The find also " go fishing - gems " as am affecting second inkopplade , and eventually had every cubby-hole a colour , as give still a little more bonus if yous am putting in gems of same colour. So the will exist a discharged of various combinations for that really optimal its kit every bit as husband shall have the. Reckon yet with that existent object will become few weak for that compensate for this. I will nots think me how compelling a Thunderfury joining further a mass bonus.
Behind demo was getting self opportunities that seat igång few with game. It was understand draenei as lure most , so self was hoping direct into the world. Been that mention already from beginning is that all feel snipe tidy than formerly. Blizzard speak if that they nya models is had approximate a fourth multi polygon , which understand is doing well heal more detailed devoid that for the sake increase systemkraven unnecessary very. Draenei had also any unique tardiness as dels låter them increase träffchansen for all in its group , and dels a helarförmåga as all categories able uses. A draeneikrigare able thus heal herself hyfsat good each third minute , something like that mine stacks nattalvskrigare had ring up to wide one majorities cases. nåja , husband ska nots product envious.
The find mass of news in övrigt. With tens nya level find the understand wholly nya uppsättningar of powers and handicraft for that eke these level , but every class sheep also five wholly nya tardiness. Among other am arriving sorcerers that poll its heat efterlängtade unseen and isbaserade sorcerers am arriving also that kunna evocation vattenelementarer , every bit as sina antecedents in aged Warcraft - game. Defiance that they nya startområdena only match approximate rating one to twenty am arriving the that exist nya missions about of today the world for that blodalver and draenei ska feel themselves housewife , and so that wes slippers make precise same missions again wonder forty tall level.
But what happens if husband nots am buying expansion? Is game ends then? Nos Blizzard am counting with that a majorities will uppgradera to Burning Crusade , historical had their game had a unbeatable share as bought also expansionerna. But performer with originalversionen will poll nya missions parallel with Burning Crusade. Husband able understand uses gems for that enhance sina object , but others tardiness am not going that uses devoid expansion. On same manner able husband understand meet blodalver and draenei , but nots visit their dark and följdaktligen nots either breed egna characteristics of these demolish. Also they nya zones Caverns perceive Time and Karazhan will product locked up. Thereafter find the still mass of area as still is oupptäckta in the world , and defiance that Stamp nots be able reveal somewhat specific for the occasion so was retelling he that the still find one couple capacities as nots disclosed for expansion , and thereafter am arriving both the version that poll nytt stuff all as.
The find still mass that tell , but the saver wes until we have gotten gamble on egen hand a little more and explore all the nya. Burning Crusade appears that become wholly magnificent and self am believing as hard as nails on that self will continue act to next expansion also. The find only one few crunch. Blizzard sift on one release Burning Crusade in year , but if the nots is clearly and fulfilment their noble demand am arriving the that delay. With 6,5 millions pays performer and none decrease at sight find the either none direct reason for them that stress underline game. But oavsett when the release , expansion ors nots , had Burning Crusade wholly clearly possibility that become årets best game.
Keep in mind though that technically the WoW we bought so long ago was in fact not finished.
The "free content" we got over the past months was in fact stuff you already paid for but wasn't ready at the time WoW went live.
More or less common practice in MMOG-land - so I've heard.
Having said that, two talent trees of key classes still not done and the beta has yet to begin.
If they are to meet a Christmas friendly release date they have just two months left do finish it and apply the polish they so clamor for.
Severe swenglish below.
Can be hazardous to your mental wellbeing.
We have played Burning Crusade!
By Michael Sundberg
Gamereactor had meet Blizzards founder Stamp Pearce , looking all the nya from expansion and testator they nya demolish. Here is våra overpower impression
I have looking the a thousand times formerly. The Dark Gate Blizzards ominous , almost ikoniska gate among Azeroth and Draenor. Music am chasing me in remember am dreaming. But when self passes per the today am seeing self nots mine usual uppsättning of nattalver and folk , I see a giant blue being at a good-natured , favourably look as only almost am becoming appalling of tentaklerna along chin. The is nots World perceive Warcraft self am acting , the is World perceive Warcraft : The Burning Crusade. As I have yearn.
But tune ourselves wash back one hour. Stamp Pearce , a of am grounding of Blizzard entrance the alike ring up by name Blizzard , had committee for that show expansion to the game self act in countless hour wide this layer , a expansion as self was getting a fascinate blink of precedence autumn but as now ska be seen in heal its glitter. Guess if self able sits quiet.
Journey initiates in blodalvernas take-off Sunstrider Isle. While Stamp tell am acting his colleague Sean and am leaping about few in they vitgulröda environs self was getting watch when self attend Blizzard , and the heal is nots so worst interesting. But so button Sean in a kod in game debugpanel ( as alas nots will exist with in the completed game ), and vips so am standing his blood on Silvermoons gator. Silvermoon is blodalvernas capital , in province Eversong Woods very farthest in north. Defiance sits further north situation and imminence to both the förfrusna Northrend and the stink Plaguelands is Eversong one live and beautifully precinct , if than on one inkling worrying am distorting manner. Wes am going along gatorna among sky high buildings. Stamp tell that Silvermoon is inkling under Stormwind , but vertically is the very major. Wes am meeting a uppsättning caller ambassadors from Hordes as am seeing exceedingly astray into the kristallvita cities , in sina massive armour. On gatorna patrol also any kind magic robots and any brush , as liked Disneys ancient Imagination am sweeping on altogether egen hand. Stamp am labeling that auktionshuset in Silvermoon will product divide up on several various capacities for that avoid trafikstockningen as often rise in Orgrimmar ors Ironforge.
Late is the dags that peek bring nearer to on draenei and their hemområde. To difference from övriga demolish is draenei fairly nya in Azeroth. Sedan they cheated from Draenor of orcherna have the remnant about in one magic rymdskepp faith me , the am matching better into the existent designs than what self only believed but behind one sabotage kraschlandade they on a hittills unknown isle as am laying Southwest if Teldrassil. Your career as draenei initiates literal with that yous crawl out from a flyktkapsel. A scrap away am standing a giant structure few reckless nerkörd in field , this , tell Stamp , is only a bit of rymdskeppet. Heal actions for draenei cycle to a beginning kring that they kraschlandat and must attempt rally sina strength and weather in the nya strange the world. A cheat later and Sean am standing amid Exodar draeneis capital to rymdskepp. The is magnificent on one manner as nots resembles somewhat other in game. Possibly should husband kunna say that the reminder few if a hybrid of architecture in Halo and in Stout Warsaw , with very purify light ytor , crystal and tall corridors. How as rather is the fantastic beautifully , and how much self than favour Silvermoon ( for that nots mention Darnassus and Thunder Fraud ) so I have already certain me for that Exodar ska become mine nya hemplats.
But defiance three nya startområden weekday am laying the foremost component of Burning Crusade on second page of The Dark Gate. The nya continent is almost equal as a of they existent , which am growing the altogether världskartan with a third. Sean am grabbing ourselves with to Hellfire Peninsula , the burn area fair entrance portalen , there sönderslagna krigsmaskiner attests if the wars as harry here among orcher and folk for only a petty term sedan. Hellfire Peninsula is a neutral zone there both variant sedan long secure themselves and for one fairly hopelessly skyttegravskrig. Here find two chamber maid , hordes Thrallmar and alliance Fee Hold , but the tube themselves more if casual fortifications as Nethergarde Keep ors Hammerfall. Few later , when self was getting runs about few on egen hand , brace self on both distortion orcher from Hellfire Quotation and underground mesh as resembles they in Ahn'Qiraj.
Hellfire Citadel , as it were they three second superb instancerna Coilfang Reservoir Auchindoun and Temple Keep , is classify in four ad area , few as Scarf Monastery ors Direct Maul. Tank is that husband ska kunna explore them in pieces if any hour istället for that be firm a good deal evenings ate gangway. Hellfire Quotation am standing wonder krigsherren Basket Bladefist as with help of the enslave demon Magtheridon am attempting breed still compelling orcher. Coilfang Reservoir am laying wonder Zangar Mar , one fairly intact precinct with huge mushroom , there Cenarion Circle had barley a boss from which they am attempting återskapa and save Outlands nature. But Lady Vashj and hers Nagasaki drain water from mire for sina egna underhand object. Auchindoun each one older draeneitempel but had now inlet of orcher from Shadow Council as tried evocation a huge demon. They was disapproving , but few on that place still is dangerous. IN same am weaving fortunate they explode heal area about temple , and draeneis ancestor leg find now spaced about heal bush. Am hearing self reasons for one " rally in twenty of våra ancestor leg quest , maybe? Here find wes also a wholly fresh breed of fågelliknande humanoider with plod bill , under Blizzard only one of they nya people as will emerge.
Temple Keep was belonging original naaru , the ljusbaserade people as gave draenei and paladins their sacred strength , but when they dök up in Outlands for that attempt save the world defeated Kael'thas to and invade. With help of capacities sacred and magic vigour am thinking Kael'thas återskapa blodalvernas dark. The heal reminder if Direct Maul , solid live. Everywhere find oriole tree and a good deal live such. Husband able question themselves whys blodalver shall assault its superintendent Kael'thas , but with mind on that he allies themselves with Wily and Vashj so maybe he nots really is a good reproach inferior. The ultimate rädinstancen landlord that mention is understand Black Temple , there the treacherous ahead this nattalven Wily currently am holding to. All these instancer is divide among rating 60 and 70, but for that nots people only ska plough themselves per these any gangway and sedan repeat they supreme nivåerna in all endlessness , am arriving husband that kunna select a bad version of every unsettled , as is suit for rating 70. On so manner slippers wes desolate place there none ever father , as Maraudon and Temple perceive Atal'Hakkar in expansion. Thereafter had Blizzard for existing inga layouts on that uppgradera ancient instancer on same manner. Herself fancy self that the vore exceedingly bump that am fighting anti VanCleef in an supermäktig version , but the is maybe only self.
Basket Vashj Kael'thas , Wily , the is apparent that Burning Crusade is completes of celebrity from Warcrafts stories. But game cycle nots only kring they nya rädinstancerna and huge superbossar , although millions hardcorespelare bearable over uncover tank that poll nya dare that entangle themselves through , evenings behind evenings. Also they second zones in Outlands fills superb object. Stamp am grabbing ourselves with to Nagrand , a magnificent wilderness with was sweeping steppe as reminder few if taurens dark. Here find Haul , a town cautious belongings depend on whoever for the occasion controlling zones. So ju multi as am attending in contrary desto major is chance that your page sheep possibility that visit Haul for that poll nya missions and nya hantverkarrecept. IN the huge Nagrand able the product appropriation that unyttja sina spring knight for that kunna assault enemies chamber maid from air ors only travel about. Sean am jumping on its kite and am exposing how the am acting , and the is horrible delicious. Indeed , we have fly formerly in World perceive Warcraft , but only along specific rotten. That kunna spring about precise every Tom, Dick and Harry is somewhat we have yearn behind , but self hope really that betatestningen fills its function ju major freedoms desto major potential for buggar. And nos paladins and warlocks am not arriving that poll sina knight for free this gangway!
Still more candy am awaiting for PVP - lunatic. IN arenaläget am arriving husband that kunna dare second performer , few as in existing battlegrounds but in was limiting contestations among either two anti two performer , three anti three ors in brackets if five. All these tävlingsmoment will had rangordningar , there the performer ors group as succeed best over heal " season " sheep fantastic charges. The am arriving also walk that contend anti second on alike egen page , so the am not becoming only hordes anti alliance heal terms. Every bit as battlegrounds am arriving these contestations that nås per a person in huvudstäderna rather than that husband walk to a given place. The is nots clearly if second will kunna sees contention , but Blizzard am leveling any kind åskådarfunktion.
Wes was getting also watch more of the nya handicraft Jewelcrafting. The is a decently carefully prepared tardiness with mass of användningsområden , especially for draenei as have a natural bonus in tardiness. With this able husband foremost make gems with various characters , but also detached jewellery and other paternal jewellers able think idle with. When self later test a completed character find self both one couple knogjärn , a tiara and mass of various am calling. The is wholly apparent that this tardiness will supplement våra utrustningslistor with the as they tradionella armour - and vapenfärdigheterna nots have been able make. But important is fair ädelstenarna. All object of high quality had one number cubby-hole there you are able deposit gems. Dependents on its characters and combinations of these sheep sedan object further bonus. The find also " go fishing - gems " as am affecting second inkopplade , and eventually had every cubby-hole a colour , as give still a little more bonus if yous am putting in gems of same colour. So the will exist a discharged of various combinations for that really optimal its kit every bit as husband shall have the. Reckon yet with that existent object will become few weak for that compensate for this. I will nots think me how compelling a Thunderfury joining further a mass bonus.
Behind demo was getting self opportunities that seat igång few with game. It was understand draenei as lure most , so self was hoping direct into the world. Been that mention already from beginning is that all feel snipe tidy than formerly. Blizzard speak if that they nya models is had approximate a fourth multi polygon , which understand is doing well heal more detailed devoid that for the sake increase systemkraven unnecessary very. Draenei had also any unique tardiness as dels låter them increase träffchansen for all in its group , and dels a helarförmåga as all categories able uses. A draeneikrigare able thus heal herself hyfsat good each third minute , something like that mine stacks nattalvskrigare had ring up to wide one majorities cases. nåja , husband ska nots product envious.
The find mass of news in övrigt. With tens nya level find the understand wholly nya uppsättningar of powers and handicraft for that eke these level , but every class sheep also five wholly nya tardiness. Among other am arriving sorcerers that poll its heat efterlängtade unseen and isbaserade sorcerers am arriving also that kunna evocation vattenelementarer , every bit as sina antecedents in aged Warcraft - game. Defiance that they nya startområdena only match approximate rating one to twenty am arriving the that exist nya missions about of today the world for that blodalver and draenei ska feel themselves housewife , and so that wes slippers make precise same missions again wonder forty tall level.
But what happens if husband nots am buying expansion? Is game ends then? Nos Blizzard am counting with that a majorities will uppgradera to Burning Crusade , historical had their game had a unbeatable share as bought also expansionerna. But performer with originalversionen will poll nya missions parallel with Burning Crusade. Husband able understand uses gems for that enhance sina object , but others tardiness am not going that uses devoid expansion. On same manner able husband understand meet blodalver and draenei , but nots visit their dark and följdaktligen nots either breed egna characteristics of these demolish. Also they nya zones Caverns perceive Time and Karazhan will product locked up. Thereafter find the still mass of area as still is oupptäckta in the world , and defiance that Stamp nots be able reveal somewhat specific for the occasion so was retelling he that the still find one couple capacities as nots disclosed for expansion , and thereafter am arriving both the version that poll nytt stuff all as.
The find still mass that tell , but the saver wes until we have gotten gamble on egen hand a little more and explore all the nya. Burning Crusade appears that become wholly magnificent and self am believing as hard as nails on that self will continue act to next expansion also. The find only one few crunch. Blizzard sift on one release Burning Crusade in year , but if the nots is clearly and fulfilment their noble demand am arriving the that delay. With 6,5 millions pays performer and none decrease at sight find the either none direct reason for them that stress underline game. But oavsett when the release , expansion ors nots , had Burning Crusade wholly clearly possibility that become årets best game.
translation done late at night by me it probably wont hurt your brain as much as sneeks babbelfish translation i started to think about /wrists after two sentences ^^
Weve played the Burning crusade!
Gamereactor has met Blizzard founder Frank Pearce, seen all the new stuff in the exapnsion and tested the two new races. Heres our impressions
Segment cut due to author rambling about his dreams comming to fruition and his anticipation towards the expansion. And hes Meeting Frank Pearce and feel like a little schoolboy. he also claims to have played wow alot
Our journey begins in the Bloodelf starting area, Sunstrider Isle. While Frank explains his colleague Sean runs around in the white yellow red enviroment i got to see when i visited Blizzard, and its not very interesting tbh. Then sean enters a code into the debuggins panel (wich sadly(?) wont make it into the retail version) and hey presto his bloodelf is standing in the streets of silvermoon. Silvermoon beeing the Bloodelf capital in eversong woods in the northenmost region. Despite beeing placed in the north and next to both the frozen northrend and the infested plaugelands its a beautiful rich area vibrant with life, even if it is in a slightly worrying and twisted way. We walk the streets with buildings reaching for the sky while Frank says thats its slightly smaller then Stormwind but considderably larger on the vertical plane. We meet a collection of visiting ambassadors from the Horde that looks extremaly out of place in the chrystalwhite city with their massive armour etc. Some kind of magical robots patrol the streets and a few brooms reminiscent of the disney movie Fantasia sweeps the streets on their own. Frank mentions that the AH will be divided in a few different places to avoid the trafic-jams that often arises in orgrimmar or ironforge.
Next its tome to take a look at the Draenei and their areas. Separating the Dreanei from the other races is the fact that there new to Azeroth.
Since they where driven from Draenor by the orchs theyve been traveling around in a magical spaceship - belive me it fits better into the gameworld then i first thought - but after an act of sabotage they crashlanded on a hitherto unknown island thats of the southwestern coast of Teldrassil. Your adventuring career as a Dreanai begins with oyu crawling out of an escapepod. Some distance away is a large structure carelessly driven into the ground, this Frank tells us is just a part of the spaceship. The entire starting storyline for the Dranei consists of them crashlanding and slowly adapting to their new suroundings and learning to survive in this harsh new world. A cheatcode later and Sean is standing in the middle of Exodar the Draenei Capital and spacesip. Its magnificent in a way that doesnt remind you of anything in the game thus far if i had to say it reminded me of something its a mix of the arcitecture from Halo and StarWars with a lot of clean surfaces, crystals and long hallways. Anyway its very beautiful and no matter how much i liked silvermoon(not to mention Darnassus and TB) ive alredy decided that Exodar will be the new place i set my hearthstone. (questionable translation i know but i take it thats what he meant/Morlog)
Despite the three new starting areas the majority of the burning crusade takes place at the other side of the dark portal. The new continent is almost as large as one of the two current ones wich enlarges the world by a third. Sean takes us to Hellfire Peninsula the charred area just inside the portal where wrecked warmachines testify of the struggles/wars between orcs and man recently. HP is a neutral zonewhere both sides are entrenched and wage a pointless turfwar. HP has two cities Thrallmar(horde) and Honour Hold(ally) but they are more temporary encampments like Nethergarde keep or Hammerfall. Later on when i got to run around on my own i ran into both twisted orcs from the hellfire citadel and underground worms that look like the ones in AQ
Hellfire Citadel aswell as the other 3 large instances are winged like SM and DM. the point is beeing able to explore them for a few hours at a time instead of beeing stuck for an entire evening of raiding. HellfireC is under the command of warlord Korgath Bladefist with the help of the enslaved demon Magtherion is trying to create an even more powerfull breed of orcs.
Coilfang Reservoir is situated beneeth Zangar Marsh a fairly untouched area with huge bogs and marshlands where CC has built a base from wich they try to recreate and save the natural balance of outland, but Lady Vashj and her naga minoins drain the marshes for their own sinister purposes.
Auchinduon was an old drenaitemple but orcs from the shadow council tried to summon a large demon here, they failed but the area is still very dangerous. they did however manage to blow the entire area around the temple scattering the draenei forefather skelletal remains across the entire crater. Do i sense a "collect x of the bones of my forefather"-quest?
Well also find a new race of birdlike humanoids with sharp beeks acording to blizz only one of the new races that will make their apperance in tbc
Tempest keep was originally the home of the Naaru, the lightbased people that gave dranei and pallys their holy powers, while they where trying to save Outland Kael'thas invaded the fortress and plan to recreate the bloodelf homeland utilizing the holy and magicla energies of the keep.
Its a lot like diremaul but alive, Golden trees are everywhere and a few alive ones aswell. One may ask himslef why the bloodelves would want to attack their leader but since he has allied himslef with illidian and Vashj he might have fallen from grace.(in reality: might not be a really good rolemodel anymore)
The last Raidinstance worth mentioning is the Black Temple, where the traitorous former NE Illidian is currently residing. All theese instances are situated for chars between lvl 60 and 70 and to prevent that people do theese sintances only once on their way to 70 and never return there is a new hardmode for each instance suited for lvl 70 chars. This way we avoid thoose empty isntances noone wants to go to like marudon(?) and Sunken Temple in the expansion. Sadly blizz have no current plans to upgrade the old instances in a similar manner. Personally id find it fun to battle VanCleef ina a superpowerfull version but that might just be me
Korgath, Vashj, Kael'thas, Illidan, its obvious that BC is filled with familiar faces from previous WC games. But the exapnsion is more the just the new raidzones and huge superbosses, even though millions of hardcore players drool over the chance to get new challenges to overcome, night after night. The other zones in outland also fullfill a different purpose. Frank takes us to Nagrand a grand wilderness with steppes that remind me of the tauren homeland. Here we find Halaa, a town wich allegience depends on who is currently in controll of the zone (on the majority of the servers this would be the allies due to population imbalance). so the more people that paticipate in the fighting the bigger the chance that your side gets to visit Halaa and get new quests and new crafting recepies.
The vast Nagrand is perfect for utilizing the new flying mounts for an arial assault or jsut fly around exploring. Sean mounts his dragon and show us what its like and its really cool. Sure weve flown before in WoW but only along predetermined paths. To be able to fly around freely is something a lot of people have been longing for but i really hope the betatesters manage to squash all the bugs this time - the bigger the freedom the bigger the possibility for bugs. And no pallys and locks wont get their mounts for free this time!
Theres lots of candy for the PvP-crazed. In the Arenamode youll be albe to challenge other players in battles of 2vs2, 3vs3 or 5vs5
All theese bracets will be ladderbased where the player of grp that has the best overall preformace over the entire season (said to be 3 months) wins faboulus prizes. youll be able to battle grps from your own faction so no more horde vs allys exclusivly. just like the BG thees will be reached through battlemasters in the capitals not walking toa certain point on the map. its still to be determined if there will be a spectator option but blizz is planning to implement something along thoose lines
We also got to see more of the new proffession Jewelcrafting. The Dranei have a racial bonus for jwlC. You can primarily make gems with different attributes but also jewelry and other stuff a jewelsmith could be expected to produce. when i tried a premade char i found both a pair of brassknuckles a tiara and scores of different rings, its obvious that this will let us craft gear that the old proffessions wouldnt let us.
But the focus lies on the gems. All items of high quality has sockets where you can place jewels. depending on their properties and combinations of theese the item can get additional bonuses. thers alos a range of "meta-gems" that affect the other gems its socketed with. All sockets have a colour that improves the bonus if a gem of the correct colour is placed within. there will be a wide range of combinations that will let you really optimize your gear just the way you like it. take into acount that excisting items will become a bit weaker to compensate, i cant eve begin to imagine how powerfull a Thuderfury would be with more bonuses..... (i call bullshit and pure speculation on this last part btw/Morlog)
Afterr the demonstration i got the opportunity to play abit. ofc the drenei tempted me the most so i jumped right into the gameworld.
Worth mentioning is that everything looks better then before. Blizz told us that the new models have roughly 1/4 more polygons wich ofc makes it more detailed but still managing to keep the min sys specs low.
Draenei also have some unique abilities that lets them raise the +hit for everyone in their grp and a healing ability that all classes can use. A dranei warrior can heal himself a decent amount every 3 min something my poor NE warrior would have needed on more then one occasion....
Theres a lot of other new stuff, with the lvlcap raised by 10 there are ofc new talents and new ranks of old skills but each class also get 5 totally new skills. the mages get their coveted invisibility and icemages will be able to summon elementals just like their counterparts in previous WC-titles. Despite the fact that the new starting areas will only take you from lvl 1-20 theres a lot of new quests availeble in the old areas of the world so that we wont ahve to redo the same old q for 40 long lvls
But what happens if you dont buy the expansion? is it game over? No blizz expects the majority to upgrade to tbc, historically their games have very high salefigures for the expansions aswell. players that dont buy the expansion will still be able to socket their items but not learn jwlC, they can meet the BE and Dranei but not create chars of their own nor visit their starting zones. CoT and Karazhan will be of limits aswell but there will be a lot of areas that are still undiscovered in the woirld although Frank couldnt disclose any of theese areas atm he verified that theres still a few unanounced ares for tbc and new areas will be released for both versions as time passes.
Thers still ots of things to tell you about, but well save that untill weve gotten the chance to play a bit more and explore all the new content that tbc has to offer. BC is shaping up to become magnificent and i firmly belive that ill still be playing it untill exp2. theres a small cloud on the horizon though Blizz is aiming for releas this year but if its not done(meeting blizz high demands qualitywise) itll be delayed
but with 6.5 million paying players and no diminishing trend in sight so far there really isnt a reason to rush it out the door. regardless of when its released though BC has the potential to become the best game of the year
Resan börjar i blodalvernas startplats, Sunstrider Isle. Medan Frank berättar spelar hans kollega Sean och springer runt lite i de vitgulröda omgivningar jag fick se när jag besökte Blizzard, och det hela är inte så värst intressant. Men så knappar Sean in en kod i spelets debugpanel (som tyvärr inte kommer att finnas med i det färdiga spelet), och vips så står hans blodalv på Silvermoons gator. Silvermoon är blodalvernas huvudstad, i provinsen Eversong Woods allra längst i norr. Trots sitt nordliga läge och närheten till både det förfrusna Northrend och det förpestade Plaguelands är Eversong ett levande och vackert område, om än på ett aningen oroande förvridet sätt. Vi går längs gatorna bland skyhöga byggnader. Frank berättar att Silvermoon är aningen mindre än Stormwind, men vertikalt är det betydligt större.
Vi möter en uppsättning besökande ambassadörer från Horden som ser ytterst vilsna ut i den kristallvita staden, i sina massiva rustningar. På gatorna patrullerar även någon sorts magiska robotar och några kvastar, som likt Disneys gamla Fantasia sopar på alldeles egen hand. Frank nämner att auktionshuset i Silvermoon kommer att vara uppdelat på flera olika platser för att undvika trafikstockningen som ofta uppkommer i Orgrimmar eller Ironforge.
Sen är det dags att titta närmare på draenei och deras hemområde. Till skillnad från övriga raser är draenei tämligen nya i Azeroth. Sedan de fördrevs från Draenor av orcherna har de rest runt i ett magiskt rymdskepp - tro mig, det passar bättre in i den befintliga designen än vad jag först trodde - men efter ett sabotage kraschlandade de på en hittills okänd ö som ligger sydväst om Teldrassil. Din karriär som draenei börjar bokstavligen med att du kravlar ut ur en flyktkapsel. En bit bort står en gigantisk struktur lite vårdslöst nerkörd i marken, detta, berättar Frank, är bara en del av rymdskeppet. Hela handlingen för draenei kretsar till en början kring att de kraschlandat och måste försöka samla sina krafter och överleva i den nya främmande världen. En fuskkod senare och Sean står mitt i Exodar, draeneis huvudstad tillika rymdskepp.Det är magnifikt på ett sätt som inte liknar något annat i spelet. Möjligen skulle man kunna säga att det påminner lite om en korsning av arkitekturen i Halo och i Star Wars, med mycket rena ljusa ytor, kristaller och långa korridorer. Hur som helst är det fantastiskt vackert, och hur mycket jag än gillade Silvermoon (för att inte tala om Darnassus och Thunder Bluff) så jag har redan bestämt mig för att Exodar ska bli min nya hemplats.
Men trots tre nya startområden vardera ligger den främsta delen av Burning Crusade på andra sidan av The Dark Portal. Den nya kontinenten är nästan lika stor som en av de befintliga, vilket ökar den sammanlagda världskartan med en tredjedel. Sean tar oss med till Hellfire Peninsula, det förbrända området just innanför portalen, där sönderslagna krigsmaskiner vittnar om det krig som härjade här mellan orcher och människor för bara en liten tid sedan. Hellfire Peninsula är en neutral zon där båda sidorna sedan länge befäst sig och för ett tämligen hopplöst skyttegravskrig. Här finns två städer, hordens Thrallmar och alliansens Honor Hold, men det rör sig mer om tillfälliga befästningar som Nethergarde Keep eller Hammerfall. Lite senare, när jag fick springa runt lite på egen hand, stötte jag på både förvridna orcher från Hellfire Citadel och underjordiska maskar som liknar de i Ahn'Qiraj.
Hellfire Citadel, liksom de tre andra stora instancerna Coilfang Reservoir, Auchindoun och Tempest Keep, är indelat i fyra separata områden, lite som Scarlet Monastery eller Dire Maul. Tanken är att man ska kunna utforska dem i stycken om några timmar istället för att vara fast en hel kväll åt gången. Hellfire Citadel står under krigsherren Korgath Bladefist som med hjälp av den förslavade demonen Magtheridon försöker skapa ännu mäktigare orcher.
Coilfang Reservoir ligger under Zangar Marsh, ett tämligen orört område med enorma svampar, där Cenarion Circle har byggt en bas från vilken de försöker återskapa och rädda Outlands natur. Men Lady Vashj och hennes naga dränerar vatten från träsken för sina egna lömska syften.
Auchindoun var ett gammalt draeneitempel men har nu intagits av orcher från Shadow Council som försökte frammana en enorm demon. De misslyckades, men lite på att stället fortfarande är farligt. I samma veva lyckades de spränga hela området runt templet, och draeneis förfäders ben finns nu spridda runt hela kratern. Hör jag grunden till ett "samla in tjugo av våra förfäders ben"-quest, kanske? Här hittar vi också en helt ny ras av fågelliknande humanoider med vassa näbbar, enligt Blizzard bara ett av de nya folkslag som kommer att dyka upp.
Tempest Keep tillhörde ursprungligen naaru, det ljusbaserade folket som gav draenei och paladins deras heliga krafter, men när de dök upp i Outlands för att försöka rädda världen slog Kael'thas till och invaderade. Med hjälp av platsens heliga och magiska kraft tänker Kael'thas återskapa blodalvernas hemland. Det hela påminner om Dire Maul, fast levande. Överallt finns gyllene träd och en hel del levande sådana. Man kan fråga sig varför blodalver vill anfalla sin ledare Kael'thas, men med tanke på att han allierat sig med Illidan och Vashj så kanske han inte riktigt är en bra förebild längre.
Den sista rädinstancen värd att nämna är förstås Black Temple, där den förrädiske före detta nattalven Illidan för närvarande håller till. Alla dessa instancer är fördelade mellan rang 60 och 70, men för att inte folk bara ska plöja sig genom dessa några gånger och sedan upprepa de högsta nivåerna i all oändlighet, kommer man att kunna välja en svårare version av varje instance, som är anpassad för rang 70. På så sätt slipper vi ödsliga ställen dit ingen någonsin far, som Maraudon och Temple of Atal'Hakkar i expansionen. Däremot har Blizzard för nuvarande inga planer på att uppgradera gamla instancer på samma sätt. Själv tycker jag att det vore oerhört kul att slåss mot VanCleef i en supermäktig version, men det är kanske bara jag.
Korgath, Vashj, Kael'thas, Illidan, det är uppenbart att Burning Crusade är fyllt av kändisar från Warcrafts historia. Men spelet kretsar inte bara kring de nya rädinstancerna och enorma superbossar, även om miljoner hardcorespelare dräglar över blotta tanken att få nya utmaningar att krångla sig igenom, kväll efter kväll. Även de andra zonerna i Outlands fyller stora syften. Frank tar oss med till Nagrand, en storslagen vildmark med svepande stäpper som påminner lite om taurens hemland. Här finns Halaa, en stad vars tillhörighet beror på vem som för tillfället kontrollerar zonen. Så ju fler som deltar i stridandet desto större är chansen att din sida får möjlighet att besöka Halaa för att få nya uppdrag och nya hantverkarrecept.
I det enorma Nagrand kan det vara lämpligt att unyttja sina flygande riddjur för att kunna anfalla fiendens städer från luften eller bara åka runt. Sean hoppar på sin drake och visar hur det fungerar, och det är fasansfullt läckert. Visst, vi har flugit förut i World of Warcraft, men bara längs bestämda rutter. Att kunna flyga runt precis var som helst är något vi har längtat efter, men jag hoppas verkligen att betatestningen fyller sin funktion - ju större frihet desto större potential för buggar. Och nej, paladins och warlocks kommer inte att få sina riddjur gratis den här gången!
Ännu mer godis väntar för PVP-galna. I arenaläget kommer man att kunna utmana andra spelare, lite som i nuvarande battlegrounds men i begränsade strider mellan antingen två mot två spelare, tre mot tre eller i grupper om fem. Alla dessa tävlingsmoment kommer att ha rangordningar, där den spelare eller grupp som lyckas bäst över hela "säsongen" får fantastiska priser. Det kommer också gå att strida mot andra på ens egen sida, så det blir inte bara horden mot alliansen hela tiden. Precis som battlegrounds kommer dessa strider att nås genom en person i huvudstäderna snarare än att man promenerar till en given plats. Det är inte klart om andra kommer att kunna se på striden, men Blizzard planerar någon sorts åskådarfunktion.
Vi fick också se mer av det nya hantverket, Jewelcrafting. Det är en ordentligt genomtänkt färdighet med massor av användningsområden, särskilt för draenei som har en naturlig bonus i färdigheten. Med den kan man främst göra ädelstenar med olika egenskaper, men också enstaka smycken och annat som en juvelerare kan tänkas syssla med. När jag senare testade en färdig karaktär hittade jag både ett par knogjärn, en tiara och massvis av olika ringar. Det är helt uppenbart att den här färdigheten kommer att komplettera våra utrustningslistor med det som de tradionella rustnings- och vapenfärdigheterna inte har kunnat göra.
Men viktigast är just ädelstenarna. Alla föremål av hög kvalitet har ett antal fack där du kan sätta in ädelstenar. Beroende på dess egenskaper och kombinationer av dessa får sedan föremålet ytterligare bonusar. Det finns också "meta-ädelstenar" som påverkar andra inkopplade, och slutligen har varje fack en färg, som ger ännu lite mer bonus om du sätter in ädelstenar av samma färg. Så det kommer att finnas en uppsjö av olika kombinationer för att verkligen optimera sin utrustning precis som man vill ha den. Räkna dock med att befintliga föremål kommer att bli lite svagare för att kompensera för detta. Jag vill inte tänka mig hur mäktig en Thunderfury blir med ytterligare en massa bonusar...
Efter demonstrationen fick jag tillfälle att sätta igång lite med spelet. Det var förstås draenei som lockade mest, så jag hoppade rakt in i världen. Värt att nämna redan från början är att allt känns snäppet snyggare än förut. Blizzard talade om att de nya modellerna är har ungefär en fjärdedel fler polygoner, vilket förstås gör det hela mer detaljerat utan att för den skull höja systemkraven onödigt mycket. Draenei har också några unika färdigheter som dels låter dem höja träffchansen för alla i sin grupp, och dels en helarförmåga som samtliga klasser kan använda. En draeneikrigare kan alltså hela sig själv hyfsat bra var tredje minut, något som min stackars nattalvskrigare hade behövt vid ett flertal tillfällen... nåja, man ska inte vara avundsjuk.
Det finns massor av nyheter i övrigt. Med tio nya nivåer finns det förstås helt nya uppsättningar av talents och hantverk för att fylla ut dessa nivåer, men varje klass får också fem helt nya färdigheter. Bland annat kommer magiker att få sin hett efterlängtade osynlighet och isbaserade magiker kommer även att kunna frammana vattenelementarer, precis som sina föregångare i de gamla Warcraft-spelen. Trots att de nya startområdena bara motsvarar ungefär rang ett till tjugo kommer det att finnas nya uppdrag runt om i världen för att blodalver och draenei ska känna sig hemma, och så att vi slipper göra precis samma uppdrag igen under fyrtio långa nivåer.
Men vad händer om man inte köper expansionen? Är spelet slut då? Nej, Blizzard räknar med att en majoritet kommer att uppgradera till Burning Crusade, historiskt har deras spel haft en oöverträffad andel som köpt även expansionerna. Men spelare med originalversionen kommer att få nya uppdrag parallellt med Burning Crusade. Man kan förstås använda ädelstenar för att förbättra sina föremål, men själva färdigheten går inte att använda utan expansionen. På samma sätt kan man förstås träffa blodalver och draenei, men inte besöka deras hemland och följdaktligen inte heller skapa egna karaktärer av dessa raser. Även de nya zonerna Caverns of Time och Karazhan kommer att vara låsta. Däremot finns det fortfarande massvis av områden som fortfarande är oupptäckta i världen, och trots att Frank inte kunde avslöja något specifikt för tillfället så berättade han att det fortfarande finns ett par platser som inte avslöjats för expansionen, och därefter kommer bägge versionerna att få nytt material allt eftersom.
Det finns fortfarande massvis att berätta, men det sparar vi tills vi har fått spela på egen hand lite mer och utforska allt det nya. Burning Crusade ser ut att bli helt magnifikt och jag tror stenhårt på att jag kommer att fortsätta spela till nästa expansion också. Det finns bara ett litet krux. Blizzard siktar på ett släppa Burning Crusade i år, men om det inte är klart och uppfyller deras höga krav kommer det att försenas. Med 6,5 miljoner betalande spelare och ingen minskning i sikte finns det heller ingen direkt anledning för dem att stressa fram spelet. Men oavsett när det släpps, expansion eller inte, har Burning Crusade helt klart möjlighet att bli årets bästa spel.
Weve played the Burning crusade!
Gamereactor has met Blizzard founder Frank Pearce, seen all the new stuff in the exapnsion and tested the two new races. Heres our impressions
Segment cut due to author rambling about his dreams comming to fruition and his anticipation towards the expansion. And hes Meeting Frank Pearce and feel like a little schoolboy. he also claims to have played wow alot
Our journey begins in the Bloodelf starting area, Sunstrider Isle. While Frank explains his colleague Sean runs around in the white yellow red enviroment i got to see when i visited Blizzard, and its not very interesting tbh. Then sean enters a code into the debuggins panel (wich sadly(?) wont make it into the retail version) and hey presto his bloodelf is standing in the streets of silvermoon. Silvermoon beeing the Bloodelf capital in eversong woods in the northenmost region. Despite beeing placed in the north and next to both the frozen northrend and the infested plaugelands its a beautiful rich area vibrant with life, even if it is in a slightly worrying and twisted way. We walk the streets with buildings reaching for the sky while Frank says thats its slightly smaller then Stormwind but considderably larger on the vertical plane. We meet a collection of visiting ambassadors from the Horde that looks extremaly out of place in the chrystalwhite city with their massive armour etc. Some kind of magical robots patrol the streets and a few brooms reminiscent of the disney movie Fantasia sweeps the streets on their own. Frank mentions that the AH will be divided in a few different places to avoid the trafic-jams that often arises in orgrimmar or ironforge.
Next its tome to take a look at the Draenei and their areas. Separating the Dreanei from the other races is the fact that there new to Azeroth.
Since they where driven from Draenor by the orchs theyve been traveling around in a magical spaceship - belive me it fits better into the gameworld then i first thought - but after an act of sabotage they crashlanded on a hitherto unknown island thats of the southwestern coast of Teldrassil. Your adventuring career as a Dreanai begins with oyu crawling out of an escapepod. Some distance away is a large structure carelessly driven into the ground, this Frank tells us is just a part of the spaceship. The entire starting storyline for the Dranei consists of them crashlanding and slowly adapting to their new suroundings and learning to survive in this harsh new world. A cheatcode later and Sean is standing in the middle of Exodar the Draenei Capital and spacesip. Its magnificent in a way that doesnt remind you of anything in the game thus far if i had to say it reminded me of something its a mix of the arcitecture from Halo and StarWars with a lot of clean surfaces, crystals and long hallways. Anyway its very beautiful and no matter how much i liked silvermoon(not to mention Darnassus and TB) ive alredy decided that Exodar will be the new place i set my hearthstone. (questionable translation i know but i take it thats what he meant/Morlog)
Despite the three new starting areas the majority of the burning crusade takes place at the other side of the dark portal. The new continent is almost as large as one of the two current ones wich enlarges the world by a third. Sean takes us to Hellfire Peninsula the charred area just inside the portal where wrecked warmachines testify of the struggles/wars between orcs and man recently. HP is a neutral zonewhere both sides are entrenched and wage a pointless turfwar. HP has two cities Thrallmar(horde) and Honour Hold(ally) but they are more temporary encampments like Nethergarde keep or Hammerfall. Later on when i got to run around on my own i ran into both twisted orcs from the hellfire citadel and underground worms that look like the ones in AQ
Hellfire Citadel aswell as the other 3 large instances are winged like SM and DM. the point is beeing able to explore them for a few hours at a time instead of beeing stuck for an entire evening of raiding. HellfireC is under the command of warlord Korgath Bladefist with the help of the enslaved demon Magtherion is trying to create an even more powerfull breed of orcs.
Coilfang Reservoir is situated beneeth Zangar Marsh a fairly untouched area with huge bogs and marshlands where CC has built a base from wich they try to recreate and save the natural balance of outland, but Lady Vashj and her naga minoins drain the marshes for their own sinister purposes.
Auchinduon was an old drenaitemple but orcs from the shadow council tried to summon a large demon here, they failed but the area is still very dangerous. they did however manage to blow the entire area around the temple scattering the draenei forefather skelletal remains across the entire crater. Do i sense a "collect x of the bones of my forefather"-quest?
Well also find a new race of birdlike humanoids with sharp beeks acording to blizz only one of the new races that will make their apperance in tbc
Tempest keep was originally the home of the Naaru, the lightbased people that gave dranei and pallys their holy powers, while they where trying to save Outland Kael'thas invaded the fortress and plan to recreate the bloodelf homeland utilizing the holy and magicla energies of the keep.
Its a lot like diremaul but alive, Golden trees are everywhere and a few alive ones aswell. One may ask himslef why the bloodelves would want to attack their leader but since he has allied himslef with illidian and Vashj he might have fallen from grace.(in reality: might not be a really good rolemodel anymore)
The last Raidinstance worth mentioning is the Black Temple, where the traitorous former NE Illidian is currently residing. All theese instances are situated for chars between lvl 60 and 70 and to prevent that people do theese sintances only once on their way to 70 and never return there is a new hardmode for each instance suited for lvl 70 chars. This way we avoid thoose empty isntances noone wants to go to like marudon(?) and Sunken Temple in the expansion. Sadly blizz have no current plans to upgrade the old instances in a similar manner. Personally id find it fun to battle VanCleef ina a superpowerfull version but that might just be me
Korgath, Vashj, Kael'thas, Illidan, its obvious that BC is filled with familiar faces from previous WC games. But the exapnsion is more the just the new raidzones and huge superbosses, even though millions of hardcore players drool over the chance to get new challenges to overcome, night after night. The other zones in outland also fullfill a different purpose. Frank takes us to Nagrand a grand wilderness with steppes that remind me of the tauren homeland. Here we find Halaa, a town wich allegience depends on who is currently in controll of the zone (on the majority of the servers this would be the allies due to population imbalance). so the more people that paticipate in the fighting the bigger the chance that your side gets to visit Halaa and get new quests and new crafting recepies.
The vast Nagrand is perfect for utilizing the new flying mounts for an arial assault or jsut fly around exploring. Sean mounts his dragon and show us what its like and its really cool. Sure weve flown before in WoW but only along predetermined paths. To be able to fly around freely is something a lot of people have been longing for but i really hope the betatesters manage to squash all the bugs this time - the bigger the freedom the bigger the possibility for bugs. And no pallys and locks wont get their mounts for free this time!
Theres lots of candy for the PvP-crazed. In the Arenamode youll be albe to challenge other players in battles of 2vs2, 3vs3 or 5vs5
All theese bracets will be ladderbased where the player of grp that has the best overall preformace over the entire season (said to be 3 months) wins faboulus prizes. youll be able to battle grps from your own faction so no more horde vs allys exclusivly. just like the BG thees will be reached through battlemasters in the capitals not walking toa certain point on the map. its still to be determined if there will be a spectator option but blizz is planning to implement something along thoose lines
We also got to see more of the new proffession Jewelcrafting. The Dranei have a racial bonus for jwlC. You can primarily make gems with different attributes but also jewelry and other stuff a jewelsmith could be expected to produce. when i tried a premade char i found both a pair of brassknuckles a tiara and scores of different rings, its obvious that this will let us craft gear that the old proffessions wouldnt let us.
But the focus lies on the gems. All items of high quality has sockets where you can place jewels. depending on their properties and combinations of theese the item can get additional bonuses. thers alos a range of "meta-gems" that affect the other gems its socketed with. All sockets have a colour that improves the bonus if a gem of the correct colour is placed within. there will be a wide range of combinations that will let you really optimize your gear just the way you like it. take into acount that excisting items will become a bit weaker to compensate, i cant eve begin to imagine how powerfull a Thuderfury would be with more bonuses..... (i call bullshit and pure speculation on this last part btw/Morlog)
Afterr the demonstration i got the opportunity to play abit. ofc the drenei tempted me the most so i jumped right into the gameworld.
Worth mentioning is that everything looks better then before. Blizz told us that the new models have roughly 1/4 more polygons wich ofc makes it more detailed but still managing to keep the min sys specs low.
Draenei also have some unique abilities that lets them raise the +hit for everyone in their grp and a healing ability that all classes can use. A dranei warrior can heal himself a decent amount every 3 min something my poor NE warrior would have needed on more then one occasion....
Theres a lot of other new stuff, with the lvlcap raised by 10 there are ofc new talents and new ranks of old skills but each class also get 5 totally new skills. the mages get their coveted invisibility and icemages will be able to summon elementals just like their counterparts in previous WC-titles. Despite the fact that the new starting areas will only take you from lvl 1-20 theres a lot of new quests availeble in the old areas of the world so that we wont ahve to redo the same old q for 40 long lvls
But what happens if you dont buy the expansion? is it game over? No blizz expects the majority to upgrade to tbc, historically their games have very high salefigures for the expansions aswell. players that dont buy the expansion will still be able to socket their items but not learn jwlC, they can meet the BE and Dranei but not create chars of their own nor visit their starting zones. CoT and Karazhan will be of limits aswell but there will be a lot of areas that are still undiscovered in the woirld although Frank couldnt disclose any of theese areas atm he verified that theres still a few unanounced ares for tbc and new areas will be released for both versions as time passes.
Thers still ots of things to tell you about, but well save that untill weve gotten the chance to play a bit more and explore all the new content that tbc has to offer. BC is shaping up to become magnificent and i firmly belive that ill still be playing it untill exp2. theres a small cloud on the horizon though Blizz is aiming for releas this year but if its not done(meeting blizz high demands qualitywise) itll be delayed
but with 6.5 million paying players and no diminishing trend in sight so far there really isnt a reason to rush it out the door. regardless of when its released though BC has the potential to become the best game of the year
Resan börjar i blodalvernas startplats, Sunstrider Isle. Medan Frank berättar spelar hans kollega Sean och springer runt lite i de vitgulröda omgivningar jag fick se när jag besökte Blizzard, och det hela är inte så värst intressant. Men så knappar Sean in en kod i spelets debugpanel (som tyvärr inte kommer att finnas med i det färdiga spelet), och vips så står hans blodalv på Silvermoons gator. Silvermoon är blodalvernas huvudstad, i provinsen Eversong Woods allra längst i norr. Trots sitt nordliga läge och närheten till både det förfrusna Northrend och det förpestade Plaguelands är Eversong ett levande och vackert område, om än på ett aningen oroande förvridet sätt. Vi går längs gatorna bland skyhöga byggnader. Frank berättar att Silvermoon är aningen mindre än Stormwind, men vertikalt är det betydligt större.
Vi möter en uppsättning besökande ambassadörer från Horden som ser ytterst vilsna ut i den kristallvita staden, i sina massiva rustningar. På gatorna patrullerar även någon sorts magiska robotar och några kvastar, som likt Disneys gamla Fantasia sopar på alldeles egen hand. Frank nämner att auktionshuset i Silvermoon kommer att vara uppdelat på flera olika platser för att undvika trafikstockningen som ofta uppkommer i Orgrimmar eller Ironforge.
Sen är det dags att titta närmare på draenei och deras hemområde. Till skillnad från övriga raser är draenei tämligen nya i Azeroth. Sedan de fördrevs från Draenor av orcherna har de rest runt i ett magiskt rymdskepp - tro mig, det passar bättre in i den befintliga designen än vad jag först trodde - men efter ett sabotage kraschlandade de på en hittills okänd ö som ligger sydväst om Teldrassil. Din karriär som draenei börjar bokstavligen med att du kravlar ut ur en flyktkapsel. En bit bort står en gigantisk struktur lite vårdslöst nerkörd i marken, detta, berättar Frank, är bara en del av rymdskeppet. Hela handlingen för draenei kretsar till en början kring att de kraschlandat och måste försöka samla sina krafter och överleva i den nya främmande världen. En fuskkod senare och Sean står mitt i Exodar, draeneis huvudstad tillika rymdskepp.Det är magnifikt på ett sätt som inte liknar något annat i spelet. Möjligen skulle man kunna säga att det påminner lite om en korsning av arkitekturen i Halo och i Star Wars, med mycket rena ljusa ytor, kristaller och långa korridorer. Hur som helst är det fantastiskt vackert, och hur mycket jag än gillade Silvermoon (för att inte tala om Darnassus och Thunder Bluff) så jag har redan bestämt mig för att Exodar ska bli min nya hemplats.
Men trots tre nya startområden vardera ligger den främsta delen av Burning Crusade på andra sidan av The Dark Portal. Den nya kontinenten är nästan lika stor som en av de befintliga, vilket ökar den sammanlagda världskartan med en tredjedel. Sean tar oss med till Hellfire Peninsula, det förbrända området just innanför portalen, där sönderslagna krigsmaskiner vittnar om det krig som härjade här mellan orcher och människor för bara en liten tid sedan. Hellfire Peninsula är en neutral zon där båda sidorna sedan länge befäst sig och för ett tämligen hopplöst skyttegravskrig. Här finns två städer, hordens Thrallmar och alliansens Honor Hold, men det rör sig mer om tillfälliga befästningar som Nethergarde Keep eller Hammerfall. Lite senare, när jag fick springa runt lite på egen hand, stötte jag på både förvridna orcher från Hellfire Citadel och underjordiska maskar som liknar de i Ahn'Qiraj.
Hellfire Citadel, liksom de tre andra stora instancerna Coilfang Reservoir, Auchindoun och Tempest Keep, är indelat i fyra separata områden, lite som Scarlet Monastery eller Dire Maul. Tanken är att man ska kunna utforska dem i stycken om några timmar istället för att vara fast en hel kväll åt gången. Hellfire Citadel står under krigsherren Korgath Bladefist som med hjälp av den förslavade demonen Magtheridon försöker skapa ännu mäktigare orcher.
Coilfang Reservoir ligger under Zangar Marsh, ett tämligen orört område med enorma svampar, där Cenarion Circle har byggt en bas från vilken de försöker återskapa och rädda Outlands natur. Men Lady Vashj och hennes naga dränerar vatten från träsken för sina egna lömska syften.
Auchindoun var ett gammalt draeneitempel men har nu intagits av orcher från Shadow Council som försökte frammana en enorm demon. De misslyckades, men lite på att stället fortfarande är farligt. I samma veva lyckades de spränga hela området runt templet, och draeneis förfäders ben finns nu spridda runt hela kratern. Hör jag grunden till ett "samla in tjugo av våra förfäders ben"-quest, kanske? Här hittar vi också en helt ny ras av fågelliknande humanoider med vassa näbbar, enligt Blizzard bara ett av de nya folkslag som kommer att dyka upp.
Tempest Keep tillhörde ursprungligen naaru, det ljusbaserade folket som gav draenei och paladins deras heliga krafter, men när de dök upp i Outlands för att försöka rädda världen slog Kael'thas till och invaderade. Med hjälp av platsens heliga och magiska kraft tänker Kael'thas återskapa blodalvernas hemland. Det hela påminner om Dire Maul, fast levande. Överallt finns gyllene träd och en hel del levande sådana. Man kan fråga sig varför blodalver vill anfalla sin ledare Kael'thas, men med tanke på att han allierat sig med Illidan och Vashj så kanske han inte riktigt är en bra förebild längre.
Den sista rädinstancen värd att nämna är förstås Black Temple, där den förrädiske före detta nattalven Illidan för närvarande håller till. Alla dessa instancer är fördelade mellan rang 60 och 70, men för att inte folk bara ska plöja sig genom dessa några gånger och sedan upprepa de högsta nivåerna i all oändlighet, kommer man att kunna välja en svårare version av varje instance, som är anpassad för rang 70. På så sätt slipper vi ödsliga ställen dit ingen någonsin far, som Maraudon och Temple of Atal'Hakkar i expansionen. Däremot har Blizzard för nuvarande inga planer på att uppgradera gamla instancer på samma sätt. Själv tycker jag att det vore oerhört kul att slåss mot VanCleef i en supermäktig version, men det är kanske bara jag.
Korgath, Vashj, Kael'thas, Illidan, det är uppenbart att Burning Crusade är fyllt av kändisar från Warcrafts historia. Men spelet kretsar inte bara kring de nya rädinstancerna och enorma superbossar, även om miljoner hardcorespelare dräglar över blotta tanken att få nya utmaningar att krångla sig igenom, kväll efter kväll. Även de andra zonerna i Outlands fyller stora syften. Frank tar oss med till Nagrand, en storslagen vildmark med svepande stäpper som påminner lite om taurens hemland. Här finns Halaa, en stad vars tillhörighet beror på vem som för tillfället kontrollerar zonen. Så ju fler som deltar i stridandet desto större är chansen att din sida får möjlighet att besöka Halaa för att få nya uppdrag och nya hantverkarrecept.
I det enorma Nagrand kan det vara lämpligt att unyttja sina flygande riddjur för att kunna anfalla fiendens städer från luften eller bara åka runt. Sean hoppar på sin drake och visar hur det fungerar, och det är fasansfullt läckert. Visst, vi har flugit förut i World of Warcraft, men bara längs bestämda rutter. Att kunna flyga runt precis var som helst är något vi har längtat efter, men jag hoppas verkligen att betatestningen fyller sin funktion - ju större frihet desto större potential för buggar. Och nej, paladins och warlocks kommer inte att få sina riddjur gratis den här gången!
Ännu mer godis väntar för PVP-galna. I arenaläget kommer man att kunna utmana andra spelare, lite som i nuvarande battlegrounds men i begränsade strider mellan antingen två mot två spelare, tre mot tre eller i grupper om fem. Alla dessa tävlingsmoment kommer att ha rangordningar, där den spelare eller grupp som lyckas bäst över hela "säsongen" får fantastiska priser. Det kommer också gå att strida mot andra på ens egen sida, så det blir inte bara horden mot alliansen hela tiden. Precis som battlegrounds kommer dessa strider att nås genom en person i huvudstäderna snarare än att man promenerar till en given plats. Det är inte klart om andra kommer att kunna se på striden, men Blizzard planerar någon sorts åskådarfunktion.
Vi fick också se mer av det nya hantverket, Jewelcrafting. Det är en ordentligt genomtänkt färdighet med massor av användningsområden, särskilt för draenei som har en naturlig bonus i färdigheten. Med den kan man främst göra ädelstenar med olika egenskaper, men också enstaka smycken och annat som en juvelerare kan tänkas syssla med. När jag senare testade en färdig karaktär hittade jag både ett par knogjärn, en tiara och massvis av olika ringar. Det är helt uppenbart att den här färdigheten kommer att komplettera våra utrustningslistor med det som de tradionella rustnings- och vapenfärdigheterna inte har kunnat göra.
Men viktigast är just ädelstenarna. Alla föremål av hög kvalitet har ett antal fack där du kan sätta in ädelstenar. Beroende på dess egenskaper och kombinationer av dessa får sedan föremålet ytterligare bonusar. Det finns också "meta-ädelstenar" som påverkar andra inkopplade, och slutligen har varje fack en färg, som ger ännu lite mer bonus om du sätter in ädelstenar av samma färg. Så det kommer att finnas en uppsjö av olika kombinationer för att verkligen optimera sin utrustning precis som man vill ha den. Räkna dock med att befintliga föremål kommer att bli lite svagare för att kompensera för detta. Jag vill inte tänka mig hur mäktig en Thunderfury blir med ytterligare en massa bonusar...
Efter demonstrationen fick jag tillfälle att sätta igång lite med spelet. Det var förstås draenei som lockade mest, så jag hoppade rakt in i världen. Värt att nämna redan från början är att allt känns snäppet snyggare än förut. Blizzard talade om att de nya modellerna är har ungefär en fjärdedel fler polygoner, vilket förstås gör det hela mer detaljerat utan att för den skull höja systemkraven onödigt mycket. Draenei har också några unika färdigheter som dels låter dem höja träffchansen för alla i sin grupp, och dels en helarförmåga som samtliga klasser kan använda. En draeneikrigare kan alltså hela sig själv hyfsat bra var tredje minut, något som min stackars nattalvskrigare hade behövt vid ett flertal tillfällen... nåja, man ska inte vara avundsjuk.
Det finns massor av nyheter i övrigt. Med tio nya nivåer finns det förstås helt nya uppsättningar av talents och hantverk för att fylla ut dessa nivåer, men varje klass får också fem helt nya färdigheter. Bland annat kommer magiker att få sin hett efterlängtade osynlighet och isbaserade magiker kommer även att kunna frammana vattenelementarer, precis som sina föregångare i de gamla Warcraft-spelen. Trots att de nya startområdena bara motsvarar ungefär rang ett till tjugo kommer det att finnas nya uppdrag runt om i världen för att blodalver och draenei ska känna sig hemma, och så att vi slipper göra precis samma uppdrag igen under fyrtio långa nivåer.
Men vad händer om man inte köper expansionen? Är spelet slut då? Nej, Blizzard räknar med att en majoritet kommer att uppgradera till Burning Crusade, historiskt har deras spel haft en oöverträffad andel som köpt även expansionerna. Men spelare med originalversionen kommer att få nya uppdrag parallellt med Burning Crusade. Man kan förstås använda ädelstenar för att förbättra sina föremål, men själva färdigheten går inte att använda utan expansionen. På samma sätt kan man förstås träffa blodalver och draenei, men inte besöka deras hemland och följdaktligen inte heller skapa egna karaktärer av dessa raser. Även de nya zonerna Caverns of Time och Karazhan kommer att vara låsta. Däremot finns det fortfarande massvis av områden som fortfarande är oupptäckta i världen, och trots att Frank inte kunde avslöja något specifikt för tillfället så berättade han att det fortfarande finns ett par platser som inte avslöjats för expansionen, och därefter kommer bägge versionerna att få nytt material allt eftersom.
Det finns fortfarande massvis att berätta, men det sparar vi tills vi har fått spela på egen hand lite mer och utforska allt det nya. Burning Crusade ser ut att bli helt magnifikt och jag tror stenhårt på att jag kommer att fortsätta spela till nästa expansion också. Det finns bara ett litet krux. Blizzard siktar på ett släppa Burning Crusade i år, men om det inte är klart och uppfyller deras höga krav kommer det att försenas. Med 6,5 miljoner betalande spelare och ingen minskning i sikte finns det heller ingen direkt anledning för dem att stressa fram spelet. Men oavsett när det släpps, expansion eller inte, har Burning Crusade helt klart möjlighet att bli årets bästa spel.
Disenchants into: 1 Brilliant Mind
