World of Warcraft (PC Games, 2004)

Word of Warcraft by Blizzard. A Review.

World of Warcraft is Blizzard's very popular Massive Multiplayer
Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG). This game is a 3D game set in
the Warcraft universe. This title is the 4th installment in the
Warcraft games.

In this game you control a character that you create in an online
world. You have two main factions to choose from. The Alliance
(Night Elves, Dwarves, gnomes, and Humans) or the Horde (Tauren,
Undead, Orcs, or Trolls). Once you create a character using a
highly evolved creation sim (pick your own mohawk!) you are
immersed inside the world.

You have to choose a class and a profession now young player (or
noob as you'll be called). You can choose from the nine available
classes Druid, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Shaman,
Warlock and Warrior. Two of the classes are faction-specific:
Paladins for the Alliance and Shamans for the Horde.

You also can choose to have a couple of professions inside the game
to help you make items to use or sell. You can only have two
at a time, but you can always drop one and get another. Skinning,
mining, blacksmith, and engineering are just a few.

The world is highly evolved with oodles of quests to fill your time.
The graphics and sounds are incredible and the game play is fun.

If questing is not your main goal you can participate in player vs.
player combat (PVP). This can be accomplished in the open world
or inside the many battlegrounds. The advantage of the battleground
is you are grouped within a 10 level grouping to avoid being 'ganked'
by a level 60 player, when you are only level 15!

You can group up with players and even form a guild. Grouping can
last for 30 seconds to as long as 6 hours to do instances like the
Molten Core. The nice thing is that with every major upgrade Blizzard
releases some sort of instance.

Cost:

World of Warcraft costs about $15 dollars to purchase. You have to have
high speed internet to play and a decent computer with memory/video card.
You also have to pay a subscription fee per month (or pick a 6 month rotational
plan).

Drawback:

WOW tends to get a bit tedious at the best of times. I'm currently in
the process of dropping my subscription (playing it out until January).
There is only so many times that I can "farm/Grind" (kill the same critter)
for hours on end before I feel like throwing my monitor out the window. You end up doing the same silly types quests over and over again. And if you
don't have time to spend 6 hours at a crack to go inside an instance most
of the neat equipment will be totally out of your reach.

Not to mention the fact that this game tends to suck all of your social life
out of you. If you happen to get inside a great raiding (instance) guild
you will almost be spending every night at 6 hours a crack running these
with them.

Be warned. WOW can be fun at first. It is by far the best MMORPG out there.
At any time there can be over a few thousands playing at a time. Ah heck,
probably a few hundred thousand. *laugh*. Yet. This game can be really
monotonous, boring, and frustrating. Yet the graphics can be pure
eye-candy.

Play it, Enjoy it, but remember to go out in real life also!

As the game tip says. Meet your friends in the land of Azeroth. But
don't forget to meet them outside of Azeroth also!

4 stars out of 5.

Latsyrhc
Tamarack Collectibles