The Burning Question...

By Haloperidol of Aman’Thul

The Burning Crusade (TBC) is the long awaited expansion to Blizzard’s juggernaut massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), World of Warcraft. With a current player base in the vicinity of 8 million accounts, this game is literally the biggest thing since sliced bread.

And now you get to put your favourite spread on top.

But is it worth it? Let me put it this way – if you own and play World of Warcraft, there’s a 25% chance you’ve already bought TBC. Only a couple of weeks after release, the number of TBC accounts had already topped 2 million, and is likely to grow at a phenomenal rate. 

I purchased my copy several days after release, and the price had already dropped $10 from the pre-order, and expect it to probably drop further over the coming weeks. And if you do the math, you'll know that 2 million multiplied by $50 is a lot of cash, enough for Blizzard's staff to ensure their game servers and administration are second to none, making for a very good online gaming experience.

So what does TBC get you? Firstly, there are new races to choose from (Dranei for the Alliance, Blood Elf for the Horde), and now Alliance characters can choose shaman and Horde can choose paladin. 

Okay, yes, there are no “new” classes available, but Blizzard have spent the better part of two years fine-tuning the class statistics and abilities such that no one class is “the” class to play, or any class is the one no-one plays at all. Adding another class would have been nice, but may well have upset the delicate balance that exists in World of Warcraft. I must add that this is one of the great things about WoW – Blizzard constantly taking in feedback from the player base and adapting the game mechanics to keep everything in balance.

The level cap has been increased from lvl 60 to lvl 70, and there are seven new high level zones in the Outlands area to accommodate new content. 

In addition, four new low level zones have been added in Azeroth for the starting areas for Blood Elves and Dranei. There are more than 1000 new quests to battle through and be rewarded for, more 5-man instances and 25-man raid instances (an instance is like a dungeon, full of nasties to defeat and treasure to plunder). 

The older “end-game” 20- and 40-man raid content designed for level 60 characters can now be attempted in “heroic” mode, where the dungeons have been retuned for level 70 characters. A new Player vs Player battleground for the 61-70 bracket has been introduced, plus Arena battles for 2v2, 3v3 or 5v5 - however to earn rewards from the arena you must be level 70.

There is a new profession, jewelcrafting, which complements the introduction of socketed items (a la Diablo II). 

Profession skill caps have been raised from 300 to 375 and there are also many more methods to upgrade your current items, with new enchants and inscriptions. Blizzard has put a greater emphasis on items which increase maximum health and reduce critical hit damage in an attempt to foster greater, longer and more epic battles. 

Less time spent dead is a good thing, in my opinion. 

There are thousands of new items, which unfortunately quickly outstrip some of the older gear which took a lot of effort and skill to obtain. Each class could obtain a set of armor from the level 55-60 five man dungeons dubbed tier 0 (zero). 

They could then have completed a quest chain to upgrade them to tier 0.5, which was a long, arduous and expensive task. However, the new items which drop off random monsters in the Outlands pretty much completely blow these items away. The tier 1 and 2 items from the old 40 man raids may last you a bit longer into your mid sixties, and the tier 3 items (if you’re lucky enough to have them) will probably stand the test of time until level 70, but otherwise get ready to throw away that epic helm with all the cool spikes and get something that looks 10 times worse, but has 10 times better stats. Pros and cons, I guess...

At level 70, you gain access to flying mounts (yehaaw!), and while they can only be flown in the Outlands, they greatly aid in avoiding all those nasty mobs on your way to a dungeon. It also gives access to areas which can only be reached by flying.

Graphically the game hasn’t changed much in terms of quality. Having played WoW for the better part of 8 months, I must say the new zones and instances look fantastic and are well designed, from the cracked mountains of the Hellfire Peninsula to the rolling green fields in Nagrand, the game delivers the new content with style and pizzazz.

The music score is what you have come to expect from Blizzard – used extremely well to enhance the experience without overpowering it. There aren’t many games I play without immediately turning off the music so I can listen to my own, but this is one them.

World of Warcraft is such an immersive game that a whole subculture has evolved around it, but it is not unaware of the (real) world around it -the pop-culture references in WoW are abundant. 

Southpark has been referenced so many times I’ve lost count, and for there part, the guys at Southpark made an episode based on WoW (“Make love, not Warcraft”). There are numerous other culture references: movies, music, TV, socialites (go to the bar in Shattrath city and you will get to meet Haris Pilton). It all adds to the enormous enjoyment that the WoW experience brings.

There is only one thing that is wrong with TBC and WoW in general. If you get hooked, say goodbye to your life. 

The game has the ability to track how much real time you have played on any one character. I bought the original in mid July 2006, and just on my main character, in the last 6 months, I have clocked up over 1200 hours. That’s 50 days. You have been warned.

Game: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
System: PC
Players: 1 - 30,000,000
Online: Yes
Developer: Blizzard

Rating: 90%

(Ratings Key/Explanation)