From the moment you log in to WoW, it draws you in and keeps you enthralled with its endless content, entertaining combat, and delightful presentation. Perhaps the single thing that makes adventuring and crafting in WoW so captivating is the way that you can choose your own pace and style of play. Whether you are popping in for half an hour before dinner or pulling a 16-hour power session on the weekend, you´ll be able to find something to do, accomplish it, and feel like you actually got somewhere. This has largely to do with the quest system ? throughout my playtime, I was on a variety of quests, ranging from simple delivery to intense dungeon crawls. Unless you´re trying to get a crew together to do something very specific and all of your friends are offline, it´s awfully unlikely that you´ll be sitting in town looking for a group like some other MMOs are infamous for.
The sights of the world of Warcraft are anywhere from grandiose to chilling to simply beautiful. While the Forsaken (my race of choice) battle to keep the evil Scourge and do-gooder humans from eradicating their fledgling undead society in the corrupted Tirisfal Glades, the night elves work ceaselessly to purify the towering forests of Kalimdor of the aftermath of the great war against the Burning Legion. These struggles are epic, and the way that they are presented hammers the point home. Also, the world is drawn in the slightly off-kilter Warcraft style, which lends that extra little immersive touch. Though WoW doesn´t sport the sheer bleeding-edge technology of EverQuest II, it nonetheless is one of the best-looking games I´ve ever played. Plus, this allows WoW to run acceptably on even low- to mid-end machines.
WoW also does many more things that almost completely remove the tedium and "grinding" commonly associated with the genre. Tradeskills are easy to learn, simple to use, and allow you to craft useful items. Combat is fast and fluid, with little "sit on auto-attack until the monster is dead" going on. Travel times are not bad at all, since all of the towns and cities are linked by quick transit. Basically, nothing ever feels like a timesink that´s just there to keep you playing and paying the monthly fee. It really says something when I´ve yet to be bored or annoyed for a single moment after playing an MMORPG for weeks.
Some people have been afraid that WoW sacrifices its long-term appeal in favor of ease of use, much like the way certain folks think of City of Heroes. To this criticism, I say humbug. WoW offers both depth and breadth of content for players to experience, and I seriously can´t imagine anyone getting bored with the game before the inevitable expansion comes out. Between tradeskills, questing, exploring, high-level dungeons, and player-vs-player combat, there is so much to do in WoW that it seems silly to think that there´s not enough content. What really blows my mind, though, is that it´s all fun. This truly is the best online role-playing game to date. Now if you´ll excuse me, I have to defend my people from a filthy human invasion.
Game Features:
* Adventure together with thousands of other players simultaneously.
* Explore an expansive world with miles of forests, deserts, snow-blown mountains, and other exotic lands.
* Join the Horde or the Alliance as one of 8 playable races.
* Select from 9 classes, including holy Paladins, shape-shifting Druids, powerful Warriors and Mages, demon-summoning Warlocks, and more.
* Encounter many familiar and new Warcraft characters and monsters.
* Learn the continuing story of Azeroth by completing a wide variety of challenging quests.
* Journey through an epic world filled with dungeons of different styles and depths.
* Explore 6 huge capital cities, which serve as major hubs for the races inhabiting them.
* Practice various trade skills to help locate reagents, make and enhance custom items, acquire wealth through trade with other players, and more.
* Purchase tickets for travel along a number of air routes flown by creatures such as Gryphons and Wyverns. For global transportation, travel by Boat or Goblin Zeppelin.
* Once a certain level has been achieved, players can choose to purchase permanent personal mounts, such as Dire Wolves and Horses.
* Establish a guild, purchase a custom guild tabard, and promote or demote recruits to different ranks within the guild.
* Locate and engage other players with easy-to-use features and tools, including chat channels, friends lists, and animated and audible character expressions.
* Customize the game´s interface via XML.
* Enjoy hundreds of hours of gameplay with new quests, items, and adventures every month.
Warcraft 3 Frozen Throne
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VU Games
11/2004
Role-playing Games
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