Friday, August 21, 2009

News Filter: World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

  • Now that Blizzcon has started, we finally have the announcement we've all been waiting for. The third expansion for World of Warcraft will be called: Cataclysm. Hmm, that sounds familiar. Of course, many were skeptical or downright hostile about MMO Champion's leaked info. Time to get out that scorecard and see how they did:

  • New races: Goblin and Worgen - Correct - This was the least surprising of the leaks since it's been around so long. Goblins will be joining the Horde and Worgen go to the Alliance. I am so rolling a Worgen just as soon as I can.

  • New classes: Sort of - Correct - Remember the list of new race & class combinations everyone was scoffing at? It was right. Every last one of them. Check out this chart if you're curious.

  • Level cap: 85 - Correct - You know what? I get this idea. By keeping the level cap low, they can get players into the new endgame quicker. 85 levels total is plenty, especially if they are expecting a lot of rerolled characters.

  • Revamping old world Azeroth - Correct - I'm really excited about this idea. I'm going to miss some of the changed zones, but who really loved Darkshore? How about reworking Azshara and the Barrens? The only downside to this change is nostalgia. But if the changes are good enough, I'll be happy to chuck nostalgia out the winder.

  • Well, that looks like four correct out of four. And I think Blizzard has made the right choices here. Between Age of Conan's expansion announcement and now Cataclysm, horizontal expansion may be the new black this MMO season.

2 comments:

  1. I am more excited about this expansion than WoTLK by about an order of magnitude. The leveling game in WoW has always been the most fun part to me. That part of the game being freshened up enough that I can have fun going through it again will definitely get me back.

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  2. @ Yeebo - While I'm excited about the expansion for rolling a new character, Blizzard hasn't said too much about 80-85 leveling outside of naming zones, dungeons, and raids. I enjoyed leveling in WotLK a lot (Howling Fjord is my new favorite zone) so I not worried. I just don't have anything to be excited about there.

    Of course, I'll probably enjoy playing my Worgen so much that I won't care. :)

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