World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
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Blood and Gore,Suggestive Themes,Use of Alcohol,Violence
Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment Genre(s): MMORPG Home Page: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/wra...
World of Warcraft - Still Going Strong Even if it's too easy, it's still the best MMO on the market. In summary, even with it's minor flaws and features that didn't quite make it for launch, Wrath of the Lich King raises the bar for other MMOs - again. It is consistently balanced to the new standard of "very easy" and perfectly polished to a point where you need to actively seek for that one quest that happens to be slightly bugged. Character talents have some outstanding minor bugs, but none of them truly affect casual gameplay - they mostly come into play when people start optimizing their performance and try to theorycraft every last bit out of their abilities. Personally I have found no quests with actual bugs that prevented completion during my leveling rampage and overall the expansion sets new standards in quality and quantity of MMO content. Up and coming Blizzard wannabees should take notice. As a counter-example, take a good look at how things are for Funcom and Age of Conan or Mythic and Warhammer Online today. Two big MMOs took a swing at World of Warcraft this year and both are licking their wounds as Lich King reigns supreme over the land of MMOs. Noticeably both contenders failed at the very basic level - people grew bored of sub-standard PvE content on their way to the level cap and the PvP in both cases was riddled with bugs and poor balancing. A lot can be said about class balance in WoW, but it's nearly perfect when you compared it to the contemporary contenders - and that's after a major shuffling of the deck with the changes introduced in Wrath. Even the visuals proved that just upping the texture resolution and polygon count or bolting on tons of shiny shader code does not help if the underlying animation and art design is not as good as the stuff done by Blizzard - who, once again, have bumped up the standard with Wrath of the Lich King. If you currently play World of Warcraft, you already have the expansion and in that sense the whole review is a bit moot. You might not be 80 yet, but I can assure that there is plenty to do for a good while, it's all good stuff and more is coming in future patches. For those who gave up somewhere along the way, Wrath of the Lich King is a great reason to come back. Even if you skipped Burning Crusade, you have the option of rolling a Death Knight as long as you have a level 55 character on the server. Sure, if you bailed out over two years ago you need to buy the previous expansion as well, but it's available at bargain bin prices anyway. For those who dropped out of Burning Crusade because it was initially too hard, it's definitely time to take another look at things - nothing is too hard any more. PvP may still have it's fair share of balance issues, but at least the wheel has turned and last month's overpowered classes are crying how gimped they are while the old underdogs enjoy being able to compete again - it's the natural cycle of things for PvP-related class balance, and Blizzard is getting better at it with every iteration. For complete newbies, the expansion offers absolutely nothing, but this is not really an issue - everyone either has played or is already playing World of Warcraft, and those few who have never tried the game (silly people) - Blizzard can hook you up with a free downloadable trial that can be upgraded with the expansions as your first character goes up in level. With the re-adjusted leveling curve at level 60-70, the total playtime to join in with the existing players has not really changed much - it's still a good couple of months for a casual first-timer, but the expansion doesn't really increase it and the road up there is finely polished and accessible. Besides, if you are eager to join your friends in Northrend, Blizzard even has a promotion that allows existing players to recruit their friends with extra-fast leveling, bonus levels and a freebie Zebra mount for the recruiter. If the game interests you even in the slightest, you will be at level 70 and in need of the expansion sooner than you may think. Blizzard wants to take over the world, after all... Summary of YouGamers Hardware TestingThe publisher of this game state the following specifications for their minimum and recommended requirements:
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AMD Athlon 64 3500+
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