Because the internet needs another gaming blog.

I don’t remember officially announcing a topic or submission date for the weekly screenshot challenge, but I was receiving entries anyway, so here they are.  The theme turned out to be Wrath of the Lich King: any screenshot you want, as long as it’s from the new expansion.  Not all of the usual contributors have submitted entries (undoubtedly because the challenge was never announced), but I’ll add them if they get them in soon.  Feel free to leave any comments as to which are your favourites; I’m putting my early vote in for Kuarlos’ entry…

Anoco: Crystalsong Forest

Insect: Sholazar Basin

Ordeth: Dragon Riding in Coldarra

Kuarlos: Frostmourne…

I am confident in saying that I have now seen all of the content that Borean Tundra has to offer.  I believe that I have now completed every single quest available there, as there isn’t an exclamation point to be seen.  That includes all the quests in Coldarra as well as the ones which took me into The Nexus, which I was fortunate enough to run through this past weekend.  When all was said and done, I had gained roughly two and a half levels worth of experience.

My impressions of the zone are generally quite favourable.  While not the prettiest zone in the game (it is tundra, after all) it’s varied enough to be interesting.  It almost feels too varied however, like a hodge-podge of differently themed areas stitched together.  Of all those areas, I found three that stood out: Riplash Strand, Temple City of En’Kilah, and Coldarra.

The quests are fairly standard, and most were just variations on things we’ve all done before.  A few that stood out for me though were the DEHTA series of quests, the Murloc quests at Winterfin Retreat, and the quest line that culminates with Last Rites in the Temple City of En’Kilah.  It’s a rare occurrence for me to actually laugh out loud as a result of something I see in a game, but the quest that had me wear a Murloc disguise definitely elicited a chuckle.

I’ve now moved on to Howling Fjord, the other starting zone in Northrend, and I love what I’ve seen so far.  It’s look is more consistent than that of Borean Tundra, and even though I’ve just started the quests there, I’ve already come across several that had a “cool factor” that just isn’t present in Borean Tundra.

I’d be willing to bet that Borean Tundra was one of the first zones Blizzard worked on while making the expansion, while Howling Fjord wasn’t completed until later.  When compared to the rest of the game, Borean Tundra has a “more of the same” feel to it, whereas Howling Fjord feels more unique.  Actually, if I were to describe it, I would say the zone’s atmosphere is akin to that of a traditional fantasy role playing game.  I get more of a dungeons and dragons vibe from it, which for me, is a good thing.

I certainly enjoyed my time in Borean Tundra but to this point, I’m enjoying Howling Fjord a lot more, and looking forward to spending some more time there.

For all the things that World of Warcraft does right, there’s one thing about it that has bugged the heck out of me ever since I started playing.  It’s user interface is terrible.

WoW has often been lauded for its user interface, how simple, functional, and great it is.    Personally, I think it’s a piece of crap for one reason:  I can’t move my action bars around the way I see fit.  Yes, I know I could always download a user-made mod to add that functionality, but that sort of thing should be available right out of the box.

After playing EverQuest II, the pinnacle of MMO interface design in my opinion, World of Warcraft’s interface limitations become much more apparent.  I’ve been able to live with these limitations up until I’ve started using my Shaman’s Feral Spirit talent.  This talent allows me to summon a couple of Spirit Wolves to fight by my side for 45 seconds.  Once cast, a pet bar appears which allows me to control the wolves.  This pet bar appears above my bottom two action bars, which normally would be just fine, but I’m using an add-on called FloTotemBar which I keep docked in the same place the pet bar wants to be.

What I’d really like to do is move the pet bar up half an inch so that it rests above my FloTotemBar, but no, I can’t do that, because it’s stuck in place with some industrial strength digital glue.  I can move FloTotemBar no problem though, so I tried arranging it last night but that pet bar just kept getting in the way, and dad-gammit, I like FloTotemBar just where it is.

I prefer not to use add-ons.  At present, I use FloTotemBar, Cartographer, and Atlas.  Now, I’ve got to get another one just to move that silly pet bar which only appears for 45 seconds at a time anyway.  In EQII I had relatively unlimited control over my action bars, never mind just moving one a short distance, and I didn’t have to install a mod to do so.  WoW gets pretty much every thing else right, why not this?

Despite the best efforts of my “real life” to keep me away from the computer this past weekend, I did manage to finally spend some time in World of Warcraft to check out the new expansion.  After spending just a few short hours in Northrend, I’m prepared to declare that Wrath of the Lich King is, quite simply, awesome.

The first thing that struck me upon arriving on the new continent was how great the environments looked.  Blizzard has outdone themselves once again in creating an environment that feels like a real living and breathing continent.  So far I’ve spent all my time questing in Borean Tundra aside from a quick journey of exploration where I ran through some of the other zones, just to check them out.  There is some seriously nice looking scenery in this expansion, particularly the view pictured above from Grizzly Hills.

Aside from looking great, the content itself seems pretty solid.  Quest-wise, there hasn’t been anything radically different from anything I’ve done before, but it’s been interesting enough to keep me going.  That’s Blizzard’s hallmark I suppose; “don’t recreate the wheel, just make the best darn wheel possible”.

I’ve said it a few times on this blog before, that EverQuest II’s Rise of Kunark expansion killed that game for me.  The whole thing felt like one grind following another.  I wondered if the same would happen with this expansion, but from the very moment I first entered Northrend, as the boat I was on approached the dock, I could tell that Blizzard just “gets it”.  I’m definitely eager to see what else the expansion has in store in the levels to come, but by no means am I in a rush to get there.  That to me, is a sign of a great expansion.

Either way, I should at least have something to blog about for the next while.

Quick side note: I’ve updated the theme of the blog.  Just leave a comment if something appears to be broken.

Hey, did you hear that the latest expansion for World of Warcraft went live this week?  Talk about coming out of left field…

Sarcasm aside, Wrath of the Lich King did indeed release this week, and like all of the other MMO expansion releases that I’ve played through, I’ve found some good along with some bad.  New content, new areas to explore and new mobs to kill are always a good thing, but the flip side to that is how crazy people get over these releases.

Apparently, someone reached the new level cap of 80 after just 19 hours or so.  Wow.  Apparently it’s fun for some people to blow through content that’s been two years (or more) in the making.  To each their own I suppose.  Personally, I’ll never understand the desire to rush to the level cap, but that’s probably more indicative of my playstyle than anything.  When my main character hit level 70 I got bored of him pretty quick.  Even in my raiding days I was content to do a particular raid a few times, but couldn’t bring myself to endlessly repeat them.  I suppose it helps that I’m more interested in the content itself as opposed to the loot.

What bugs me the most about the rush to the cap is how dividing it can be.  I was in a great guild in EverQuest II which was very friendly and, to use the oft-quoted term, “very tight-knit”.  Everything was just peaches when we were all 70 working on the same things, but as soon as Rise of Kunark released and the level cap went up to 80, the guild split apart.  Those that could play all day stuck together and steamrolled their way to 80.  Those eight to ten players left the rest of the guild behind to fend for themselves.  It just so happened that those players formed the core of the guild leadership.  It didn’t take long for them to grow frustrated at the “lack of progress” of the guild and they left for supposedly greener pastures.  The guild subsequently disappeared.

I have yet to spend any time in Northrend at all, but when I do, I intend to soak in all the content the expansion has to offer.  I’m told there’s a lot of lore and I’m going to make sure to read every single bit of quest text that I receive.  I have no idea how long it will take me to reach level 80, but I’m in no rush to do so.