World of Warcraft

I’m a little late to the party, but if you’re one of those people that’s been traveling for the past few weeks like I have, you may want to check out the Wrath of the Lich King Cinematic Trailer!

I’ve always been a big fan of Blizzard’s game cinematics, but this is one of my favorites. The irony of Arthas’s fathers words to him (especially if you’re familiar with the back story through Warcraft 3) really makes the old trailers of cut-up combat scenes between the two factions seem rather shallow.

I’ve been excited for both the expansion and I’ve also been on the look out to play Warhammer Online as well, but this renewed my enthusiasm for the game. There’s a lot I have to look forward to in the expansion (10-man raids are my personal favorite), but most of all I look forward to continuing the story line in to North Rend. I just hope that it’s not too bogged down in faction grind and key quests to stay interesting. How do Blizzard CM’s feel about the intro to the expansion? Here’s an excerpt from a recent post on the forums from Neth:

“It was incomplete. You’re right. Where players come in is facing that army and moving the story forward. For me the most beautiful thing about the cinematic is the heartbreaking dichotomy between Arthas’ fathers hopes and dreams for Arthas and what Arthas inevitably becomes.

The cinematic sets the stage, it (hopefully) catches people up a bit on just how tragic the situation is, how deeply ingrained the power of the Lich King is, and how it has spread out like icy tendrils to corrupt everything it touches.

This is the stage, this is Arthas, and ultimately, this is the Lich King in all his power set out before you.

For me, I think it is the cinematic I have been most waiting for and most love.”

What do you think about it?

As you may have guessed, I’ve been busy exploring the new content that patch 2.4 has to offer, and so we’ve missed a few posts along the way. Not to worry though! In case you missed it I’ve brought up the Fury of the Sunwell Trailer for your entertainment.

In other news I must say I’m pretty impressed with the new dailies/content. I love Magister’s Terrace as an instance (though a bit heavy on the need for crowd control) and I’ve been doing my part to unlock the latest badge gear vendor, who only shows up once enough dailies have been done to build the anvil!

If you haven’t been in there just yet, Magister’s Terrace is an interesting mix of healer, anti-caster, and melee mobs. You’ll have to deal with dampening magic fields, fast-casting arcane mages, and full-heal blood knights if you expect to survive! A good rule of thumb is to CC the mobs that do the most damage while targeting healers first (with a healthy amount of spell-interrupts of course). The boss fights are a lot of fun, if familiar. Many seem to take a page from karazahn, just in 5-man form. Here’s a short breakdown:

It should be noted that this is a summary for non-heroic mode, and while I’m sure you can find a more detailed explanation elsewhere, hopefully this will give you a taste for what’s in store!

I’ll be the first to admit that this video is a bit dated, but from what I understand it’s a classic (although I had never seen it before, that’s hardly an indication). There were a number of videos on youtube as well in reference to switching classes.

And really? I’m all for it!

I think the presentation on this clip is great, and it also demonstrates the “grass is greener” mentality that a lot of players have when it comes to other classes. Warlocks may seem like the most overpowered class in the game right up until you roll one and level him up, only to find that it’s not an “I win” button all the time like you thought it was. It helps puts things in perspective when viewing game balance as well. I’ve seen a lot of players begrudge Blizzard for having horrible class balance in reference to X class, without ever really taking the time to think about how the class plays or whether in the grand scheme of things they’re all that and a bag of chips.

Of course there are going to be classes that do have significant advantages at one time or another in the game’s development, but wailing and moaning isn’t going to help you. Playing other classes and being an altoholic can help freshen up the game a bit with no playstyles and abilities.

Enjoy!

I’ll be the first to admit that I hate rap, and I think that a rap inspired warcraft video would be doomed to failure. However, I think this one came out surprisingly well. I only cringed maybe once or twice through the whole thing. Overall I think it was pretty funny, and being a big fan of ZA I can appreciate the use of the bosses throughout.

Enjoy!

So after watching Inside World of Warcraft last week, the mentioning of a warcraft movie named Tales of the Past 3 really piqued my interest. The last “good” wow movie I saw was The Return, and that was only a few minutes long. An hour and a half movie made entirely from the game? I wasn’t sure if it was going to be terrible or great.

I’ll be posting soon enough with my own review of the movie. If you’d like to see it for yourself, you can head to wow wiki for information and downloads!

This week we have an interesting review of the current state of the game as we know it, class by class. It examines the class forums and summarizes the complaints that each class has and what improvements they would to see happen. While I’m sure some reviews are more biased than others, they spread plenty of humor around all the class issues and do harp on a couple of glaring things that need to be fixed.

It also mentions a wow movie that was recently released and has gotten rave reviews since. I may have to look into that…

This week’s video is another Warcraft rendition of 300. I know, I did show a moonkin version, but I think this one warrants a post as well. While 300 relied on real movie footage to link it up to the warcraft world, this video uses nothing but in-game footage to recreate the images from the trailer. I think using the orc as the Persian ambassador was particularly appropriate, and the rest of the cinematic was put together beautifully.

Have any suggestions for future movies? Feel free to drop me a line!

If you’ve never heard Jonathan Coulton, then consider yourself missing out. He’s got some great stuff out there and a lot of it appeals to your average gamer. As such our Mid-week video will be featuring a song from him. If you’ve ever played Portal to the end..he did the end song for the game! This song is called “The Future Soon.” Enjoy!

After all, who wouldn’t want to be a cyborg overlord that rules earth? You know you’ve thought about it…right?

This week’s video is done in Robot Chicken style (if you’ve ever watched the show!). It’s a funny collection of skits that incorporates many of the sound bits from Warcraft 3. The actual clips, however, are all from World of Warcraft. While the editing is done very well, the skits themselves are a mixed bag in my opinion, much like the show. Some are absolutely hilarious and some are just plain “meh.”

Have any suggestions for next week’s video? Feel free to drop me a line!

Being a Wii-owner myself, I often wonder what it would be like to play games on other consoles/PC games with the Wiimote. Well my curious inquiries have been answered with this new video demonstrating how to use your Wiimote to play World of Warcraft!

On on one hand, it looks like it would be a ton of fun, but the functionality isn’t quite there yet. They’ve yet to add in right-click functionality to the program, which means you’ll have to shift-click to interact with NPCs. I think this would get annoying pretty fast. Obviously this wouldn’t exactly be the best setup for PvP scenarios either, but it’s worth contemplating. Regardless I think it would be a fun activity to try. Now if only I could get it to swing my sword when I do….

Hello again everyone! While I’m sure you are all busy testing out the latest changes from the patch that went through yesterday (Personally I’m a big fan of Icy Veins), I’m still here for the mid week video, which of course I think you’ll enjoy. This week, I dug up a hilarious music video to the song “Code Monkey” sung by Jonathan Coulton, an artist who’s done a variety of interesting musical pieces and is pretty well known (at least in my social circles) for his creative music. Regardless the Warcraft video corresponds to the song perfectly and while I’m not a programmer myself, I can definitely empathize with the feeling of being trapped at your desk.

Enjoy!

I don’t know about you, and maybe it’s because I’m a cultural wasteland, but there were a few dances in warcraft that I didn’t immediately recognize. Some are obvious, like the Orc and Human dances, but the night elf female ones I didn’t immediately see. So if you ever had any doubts or thoughts as to where these dances come from, I have great news for you.

This video categorizes each race’s dance and syncs it up with a real-life video with shocking accuracy. Curious? Here you go!

I can only hope that this video will be updated as new races are added, because this particular one was extraordinarily well done. If you ever have any suggestions for new videos, feel free to drop me a line. While I try to keep a steady stream of entertaining and interesting content, it’s tough to find consistently solid videos on my own!

Happy New Year!