Editorial Review
Blizzard Entertainment took online role playing by storm with their hit title, World of Warcraft. With mind-boggling improvements in graphics, gameplay networking, and interface -- really every category -- this game became the crown prince of the genre. World of Warcraft players will be excited by the approaching release of the new expansion pack:
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. This pack expands the already massive, award-winning multiplayer online role-playing game by tremendous bounds, adding new races, lands, battlegrounds, professions and items, and much, much more. Although no release date has been set, here is sample of what you can expect from
The Burning Crusade.
The Burning Crusade is the highly anticipated, unreleased expansion pack for Blizzard's "World of Warcraft." |
What lies in Medivh's tower? View larger. |
Blood Elves emerge as a new race in The Burning Crusade. View larger. |
The Blood Elves seek the golden destiny that has been promised to them. View larger. |
Warcraft's newest continent: Outland. View larger. |
Once a beautiful land, Outland has been ravaged by war. View larger. |
Outland is a vital strategic location. View larger. |
The expansion pack features an increase in the level cap to 70. There are two new playable races, including the magical Blood Elves that you can read more about below. The other race has not yet been released by Blizzard. There will be new starting zones in Quel'Thalas and beyond. Another eye-opening addition is the entirely new, unexplored continent of Outland that is reachable through the Dark Portal. Plus, you'll find many new high-level dungeons to explore in Azeroth, Outland, and elsewhere that will substantially boost gameplay. There are new flying mounts in Outland; tons of new and dangerous monsters (including epic world bosses); hundreds of new quests and items; and even a new profession: Jewelcrafting. Of course this isn't the end of the list -- this is just a glimpse of what Blizzard has planned for their unreleased expansion pack.
The New Story, the Rumors, and More
Several years have passed since the Burning Legion's defeat at Mount Hyjal and the races of Azeroth have continued to rebuild their once shattered lives. With renewed strength, the heroes of the Horde and Alliance have begun to explore new lands, and have broken through the Dark Portal to investigate the realms beyond the known world. In this expansion pack, The Burning Crusade refers to the Burning Legion's ongoing efforts to destroy life on Azeroth. To date, the Burning Legion's exploits have been documented in Warcraft III and in the War of the Ancients novel trilogy. As part of the expansion pack, players will now be able to travel through the Dark Portal to confront the Legion on otherworldly battlefields.
Although only one race has been revealed, Blizzard has announced plans to unveil details about possible additional races at a later date. On the other hand, many details have been released about the new continent, Outland. Players last visited Outland in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, alongside Illidan as he conquered the Pit Lord Magtheridon's domain. Players will also gain access to Quel'Thalas, the region to the northeast of the Forsaken lands, where the Blood Elves reside. Blizzard says that this expansion pack holds even more new areas that are ripe for player exploration -- additional details will be revealed in the months ahead.
Blizzard also has plans to add new dungeons and battlegrounds with the expansion, though the exact number has not yet been determined. One upcoming dungeon that has players excited is Karazhan, which is located within Medivh's tower. Because Medivh has played such a central role in Warcraft lore, Blizzard is convinced that longtime players will be especially interested in seeing what Karazhan contains. As for battlegrounds, Blizzard has released very little information. However, they have announced plans to make some of the battles from the past accessible through the Caverns of Time.
Blood Elves: The New Race
Thousands of years ago, the exiled Highborne landed on the shores of Lordaeron and founded the enchanted kingdom of Quel'Thas. These high elves, as they called themselves, created a fountain of vast, magical energies within the heart of their land -- the Sunwell. Over time, they grew dependant on the Sunwell's unstable energies, regardless of the bitter lessons they'd learned in ages past.
During the Third War, the villainous Prince Arthas invaded Quel'Thalas and reduced the once-mighty realm to rubble and ashes. His undead army decimated nearly all of the high elven population. In addition, he used the Sunwell's energies to resurrect a powerful undead Lich, Kel'thuzad, thereby fouling the Sunwell's mystical waters. The few elven survivors, realizing that they had been cut off from the source of their arcane power, grew increasingly volatile and desperate.
In the midst of the elves' darkest hour came Kael'thas Sunstrider, the last of Quel'Thalas' royal bloodline. Kael, as he was commonly known, knew that the remnant of his people would not long survive without the nourishing magic that once empowered them. Renaming his people "blood elves" in honor of their fallen countrymen, Kael taught the survivors how to tap into ambient mystical energies -- even demonic energies -- in order to sate their terrible thirst for magic. In search of a new destiny for his people, Kael'thas ventured to the remote world of Outland where he encountered the fallen night elf, Illidan. Under Illidan's watchful eye, Kael and his blood elves regained much of their former power.
Unfortunately, the blood elves practice of embracing demonic energies caused their former comrades in the Alliance to shun them. Thus, the remaining blood elves on Azeroth look desperately to the Horde to help them reach Outland where they can reunite with Kael'thas and achieve the golden destiny he has promised them.
Outland: The New Continent
Once the beautiful homeworld of the orcs, all that remains of Draenor is the scattered wastes of Outland. Following the Second War, the Alliance invaded Draenor by crossing through the Dark Portal. To their horror, they discovered that Ner'zhul -- the dark warlord of Horde -- had constructed a series of new gateways that could lead the beaten Horde to newer, unspoiled worlds. As the Alliance forces closed in around him, Ner'zhul opened his gateways as a means of escape. However, his plan backfired and the gateway's clashing energies resulted in a massive catastrophic explosion that ultimately ripped the world of Draenor to pieces.
Nearly thirteen years later -- towards the end of the Third War -- the fallen night elf, Illidan, discovered that huge chunks of Draenor still existed, floating upon the astral winds of the Twisting Nether. After his defeat at the hands of the evil Prince Arthas, Illidan fled to the remnants of Draenor and dubbed them "Outland." He quickly seized control of the chaotic region and sealed the last of Ner'zhul's gateways.
Though he is the undisputed ruler of the ravaged land, Illidan lives in fear that he will be discovered by his powerful enemies -- most notably Arthas, the new Lich King, and the remaining Lords of the Burning Legion. For now, Outland is home to a number of scattered draenei tribes, primitive orcs, and powerful, arcane creatures of the Nether itself. Agents of the Burning Legion have also targeted the region as a vital strategic location in their unending Burning Crusade to scour all life from the universe.
What else can expected? Blizzard has tantalized Warcraft players with the brief glimpse into The Burning Crusade's storyline. Will these heroes find friends or foes? What dangers and rewards lie in wait beyond the Dark Portal? And what will they do when they discover that the demons they thought were vanquished have returned to renew their terrible Burning Crusade? These and other questions will remain unanswered until the gameplay can be explored by role-playing Warcrafters.
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Customer Reviews
Stick up the butt! 
2008-04-29
Before I get into the meat of this review let me explain the title. Early on, after getting the game me and my brother began playing the game as Draeni. We were excited about the new race mainly because they spoke with a Russian accent. After a half hour or so of playing our blue skinned giants my bro commented that they ran like they had a stick up their butt. I can only assume that means they run with a very erect carriage, in other words very stiff. We stopped playing the Draeni and have not picked them up since.
The main addition in this game is the introduction of the outland and the raising of the level cap to level 70. The outland is a pretty interesting place with different types of terrain. Marshes, plains, desolate burning steepes like plateaus and forests abound. The only thing missing is a snowy realm. (Though I'm sure if you want snow you'll get plenty in the next expansion) With the new levels come an increase in gear. The green or common items(technically uncommon if you read the manual) are often better than the epic gear you got before the expansion. Not the high end stuff but the more easy to get epics(not that any epics are easy to get but some are easier.) Even though the gear is good you may have reservations about dropping your hard earned epics for random greens that look like crap. I have a dwarf warrior that I started early on and got to 60. He is still at 60 because I don't feel like replacing his pvp gear so I rolled an orc warlock for the expansion and now he is 70 and saddled with his own set of 70 pvp epics ('welfare epics' is a slang term for these reasonably easy to obtain items) will I roll another new character for the next expansion? Maybe but who knows?
The second addition is the two new races. As I eluded to earlier these are the Draeni and the blood elves. The Draeni, aside from their uncomfortable looking movement, seem the more hastily slapped together of the two races. They have a weird backstory involving spaceships and demonic corruption. The blood elves, on the other hand, are the more well known race. They were an integral part of the early warcraft games (as the high elves) so they are more familiar (if generic) to gamers. I personally think that the inclusion of the blood elves has shifted the balance of power towards the horde side. When I journey in the wild I seem to see a lot more horde about but that's just my opinion. Things obviously vary from server to server but no one can deny that the inclusion of the blood elves has boosted the horde population. The people like those pretty, pretty elves. The butt ugly horde have a new poster boy.
With the new world to explore there are also some new dungeons. Though I have not explored the harder more epic dungeons I am aware that there are no longer any 40 man epic dungeons. The cap is set at 25 which is a more realistic crew to assemble. I don't have a whole lot to say about that topic.
Anyway, this game is a great addition to the series. I can't wait for the next expansion. Too bad there aren't any plans for new races. I have a hankering for some ogre action. "Arrgh!Me smash (fill in character race)!
You roll greed, I roll need, you cry like a baby, poor baby :) 
2008-04-07
WOW took the Unreal Tournament 1st person shooter type engine and put orcs in it. However, it is still a 32 foot horsefly splattered across the road by a Mac truck going 90mph. A beautiful mess. Where else can you get the most epic of epic weapons, find friends, sell your own stuff you craft, and then have some idiot punch 'NEED' and steal the best loot in the game and ruin months worth of work in a second? Then the jerk can go change is name, so he can do it again. Obviously, my comment on WOW is their looting policy. It is a deep rich game. However, by not allowing buffs to stack anymore (food, alcohol, regional, etc), and forcing people to stay in areas and then forcing them to turn to battlegrounds for gear it has become increasingly more linear. I've heard complaints that they ruined Star Wars Galaxies in a similar way. I've hear that EQ is 'exclusive' in the same way. Unless you are hanging out with your friends, and even then....you'll find out if they are your friends after that super level mega damage once in a life time drop comes up, and they ninja the heck out of it and log off. Happens day after day, instance after instance. Then in town you'll hear, "Poor baby. Get over it," and it'll happen again. :( I won't whine about the usless reputation grind for factions with not yet-built out rewards because I like crafting and just having fun, but looting sucks and should be fixed el pronto. Is 3 years enough?
Complete letdown considering how great the original was. Its become a monotonous gear race. 2008-04-06
I was really excited about this, I even had it pre-ordered. When i first started it up after the long install process I made a blood elf to check out the new Silvermoon area. I actually thought it was quite beautiful, the art design for it reminded me a lot of Fable. I goofed around on my Blood Elf mage until level 12 then went onto my troll priest to start the grind to 70. The leveling process wasn't as painful as i was worried it would be, and actually went by rather quickly. The new environments were pretty cool looking, my favorites being Nagrand and Zangarmarsh. The rest were actually pretty bland. The brief time I spent leveling managed to make me feel like a lone hero again, but that feeling soon went away as I hit 70 and began raiding and saving money for my epic mount. Eye of the storm was a disappointment and the rest of the battlegrounds were overrun with idiots who just spent all day AFK to get honor points. I soon noticed it became extraordinarily easy to get epic pieces of gear. There was no more challenge, in the original if you saw someone with epics you knew they accomplished something, in BC, if you saw someone without epics they either just hit 70 or are completely incompetent at playing their class. The flying mounts were neat but you couldn't even use them in Azeroth. Oh and of course the raid bosses are as boring and robotic as ever, they don't even have the epic feeling the ones from the original had. So here I am, a level 70 troll shadow priest with a netherdrake, full frozen shadoweave and other epics from kara, and my raid group is on High Astromancer Solarion. Its everyone's dream right? Wrong, I was having less fun being on top of the world in BC than I was being in the middle in the original. This is an expansion with nothing but more of the same but without any of the epic feel to it. It doesn't feel special like the original. I have now quit the game because its just become a monotonous gear race.
Just buy it... 2008-04-01
I'm addicted to WOW. I needed The Burning Crusade to get my character to level 70. The Outlands are awesome, the challenges are insane, lots of new cool stuff. Now Im just waiting for Wrath of the Lich King. But warning - you need a fast gaming computer to be able to play. I am in the process of upgrading my computer because I am experiencing lag issues after installing TBC.
Same Quests different titles 
2008-03-09
I started off playing World of Warcraft at release only to quit a year later do to the lack of end game content for the casual gamer. Spending 30hrs a week in Molten Core or Black Wing Lair just was not my idea of fun. After some friends told me all the great things about the expansion I decided to reactivate my account and give it a try.
To make this review short. The type of quests are the exact same that were prior to the release of this expansion. Go to this area, kill 200 of this monster to collect 6 pieces of certain item, rinse and repeat.
The addition of 10man raid groups was a pleasant surprise, but even this still makes the end game fall short. The 10 man dungeons in this game have pretty much no impact on the main story line and are just stepping stones to the larger 25man main story dungeons. So pretty much what this means is unless you are in a hard core raiding guild it will take you at least a year, if ever, to see the main boss in this expansion.
World of Warcraft does have some positive attributes to it, but I have never been the type to want to grind out dungeons repeatedly in the hope of the one item I needed from there would drop, and like I said unless you plan to spend every seven days a week, 5hrs a day raiding you will never see the end game content, or have the best items for your class.
So to sum up, you pay for a game that you can never complete do to the hard core raiding atmosphere, the pvp system with the institution of resilence makes any button clicker able to kill you, and be prepared to enjoy the grind fest either in dungeons or in battlegrounds to get any items that may be helpful to your character.
Wonderful Expansion 
2008-07-15
This is an amazing expansion for World of Warcraft. They took an addicting game and just added more stuff.
Needless to write a review 2008-07-11
What should I say?
Dont tell me you play WOW and you dont buy this, I'm gonna gank you! hahaha
WoW just WoW 2008-06-20
I bought the original game almost three years ago. I'm still here rocking on and killing horde. Want to waste hours of your life away? Buy this game!
Want to get out some aggression, then definitely buy this game!!
Fun but repetitive 2008-06-10
Fun game, with a lot of content while leveling. If you like leveling multiple characters you'll love it. But at max level it's very repetitive. Everything at 70 is a grind of some sort with little 'just for fun' content. New high level content is frequently just new textures on the same mobs and quests are frequently almost identical to older content. PvP is lame, requiring either a grind of a few maps or else arena content that's heavily biased towards certain classes/builds. Real large group PvP and world scale PvP are almost completely absent.
Outland Outstanding 2008-05-05
I started playing WoW in November of 2007 so this review is as much about WoW as it is about the Burning Crusade expansion. Wow and BC are sophisticated MMORGs in that the story development and plot lines are well constructed and thought out. Playing the game and leveling can be a bit of a grind now and then, but there are plenty of in-game activities from battlegrounds to seasonal quests to arena PvP events that make the game fun month to month, week to week, and even day to day no mater what. The environments are beautifully rendered with a variety of complex terrains and texture mapping.
