Note from David: The Citizen correspondent and mild “World of Warcraft” addict Gavin Strube checks in with his thoughts on its newest expansion, “Wrath of the Lich King.” As a fearful outsider to the series, I gladly defer to him.)
Four years ago, Blizzard Entertainment released a title with modest expectations that swiftly became a juggernaut. The developers of “World of Warcraft” have recently celebrated reaching 11 million active accounts, a four-year anniversary and the release of their second expansion to the best seller, “Wrath of the Lich King.”
“Wrath” offers a brand new continent to explore, the icy reaches of Northrend, and a brand new class to play, the Death Knight. These undead warriors are versatile, capable of acting as damage soaking “tanks” who can protect other characters or function as melee damage dealers.
The expansion offers many improvements over the original game. For starters, the graphics have been updated substantially. While the game is still obviously based on a four-year-old graphics engine, everything from textures to fire and lighting effects have been upgraded. The new continent added in the expansion is the frozen wasteland of Northrend, but the tundras and glaciers offer a startling array of variations in design and color. Even more amazingly, the expansion still only requires a paltry 512 megabytes of RAM to run.
Other improvements include an achievement system that rewards players for various accomplishments, some as mundane as completing 100 quests, while others involve completing nearly every single portion of “World of Warcraft's” holiday events, a daunting process that will take players at least a full year.
The storylines have also improved, including portions that feel more like a single-player RPG rather than the generic MMO (massively multiplayer online) fare, where nothing ever changes despite a player's heroic escapades. I won't spoil anything, but one quest line results in an in-game cinematic that is truly epic and will have consequences in future stories in the game. New phasing technology also allows players to progress through areas that change visually based on each player's accomplishments in an area. Complete a quest to clear enemy forces from an area, and those enemies will always be beaten back, while players who have not completed the quest still see (and fight) the opposing army.
Casual players, by far the most common variety, will also find more to do. End-game content is far more accessible for the casual player, no longer requiring endless hours of trial and error to learn the ins and outs of a specific dungeon. While more hardcore players lament the comparative ease of later dungeons and encounters, Blizzard did find a good balance between difficulty and accessibility.
The game is far from perfect, even in a niche genre like MMOs. Despite the heroic, sweeping nature of some quests, the majority are exactly the same as the thousands of “Kill (X) bears,” or “Gather (Y) Super-arcan-o-meters”. Now you just have to kill ice bears or gather frozen arcan-o-meters.
The expansion is also far from friendly to brand new players. While Blizzard's previous expansion, 2007's “Burning Crusade,” offered new races to play, nearly all of “Wrath's” content is exclusively for players who are level 68 or above (the minimum level required to enter Northrend). Even playing as a Death Knight requires a player to have a rather advanced character, which translates to a significant time investment into the core game.
Despite these factors, Wrath serves to elevate “World of Warcraft” even further beyond competitors like Mythic's “Warhammer Online” and helps the franchise remain the undisputed “King” of the MMO genre.
‘Super' in HD
By David Wilcox
One of the finest fighting games ever receives a fresh coat of paint in the downloadable “Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix.”
Ryu, M. Bison, Guile and the rest of Capcom's combatants are realized in piercing colors that spruce up the almost perfectly balanced cast. The 2-D action will invite new players with its accessibility while luring long-time “Street Fighter” fans back to test their years of accrued skills against friends and online opponents.
Though “Remix” doesn't match its next-gen counterparts in depth of features, there's simply no imperative to compete. The game's fighting formula remains intact in all its delicacy. No character will enjoy absolute preference over any other and no cheap strategies will be exploited with unreproachable success against players of the most modest skill.
“Remix” even re-creates the social atmosphere of the arcade with Quarter Matches, which players can watch before challenging reigning fighters. Nostalgic players can also play the unfettered version of “Super Street Fighter II Turbo” in Classic Mode.
Whether new to the “Super Street Fighter II Turbo” or not, self-respecting fans of the fighting genre owe it to themselves to find the $15 to download “Remix” through Xbox Live or the PlayStation Network and enjoy its pristine mechanics and polished visuals.
David Wilcox
253-5311 ext. 245
david.wilcox@lee.net
“Wrath” offers a brand new continent to explore, the icy reaches of Northrend, and a brand new class to play, the Death Knight. These undead warriors are versatile, capable of acting as damage soaking “tanks” who can protect other characters or function as melee damage dealers.
The expansion offers many improvements over the original game. For starters, the graphics have been updated substantially. While the game is still obviously based on a four-year-old graphics engine, everything from textures to fire and lighting effects have been upgraded. The new continent added in the expansion is the frozen wasteland of Northrend, but the tundras and glaciers offer a startling array of variations in design and color. Even more amazingly, the expansion still only requires a paltry 512 megabytes of RAM to run.
Other improvements include an achievement system that rewards players for various accomplishments, some as mundane as completing 100 quests, while others involve completing nearly every single portion of “World of Warcraft's” holiday events, a daunting process that will take players at least a full year.
The storylines have also improved, including portions that feel more like a single-player RPG rather than the generic MMO (massively multiplayer online) fare, where nothing ever changes despite a player's heroic escapades. I won't spoil anything, but one quest line results in an in-game cinematic that is truly epic and will have consequences in future stories in the game. New phasing technology also allows players to progress through areas that change visually based on each player's accomplishments in an area. Complete a quest to clear enemy forces from an area, and those enemies will always be beaten back, while players who have not completed the quest still see (and fight) the opposing army.
Casual players, by far the most common variety, will also find more to do. End-game content is far more accessible for the casual player, no longer requiring endless hours of trial and error to learn the ins and outs of a specific dungeon. While more hardcore players lament the comparative ease of later dungeons and encounters, Blizzard did find a good balance between difficulty and accessibility.
The game is far from perfect, even in a niche genre like MMOs. Despite the heroic, sweeping nature of some quests, the majority are exactly the same as the thousands of “Kill (X) bears,” or “Gather (Y) Super-arcan-o-meters”. Now you just have to kill ice bears or gather frozen arcan-o-meters.
The expansion is also far from friendly to brand new players. While Blizzard's previous expansion, 2007's “Burning Crusade,” offered new races to play, nearly all of “Wrath's” content is exclusively for players who are level 68 or above (the minimum level required to enter Northrend). Even playing as a Death Knight requires a player to have a rather advanced character, which translates to a significant time investment into the core game.
Despite these factors, Wrath serves to elevate “World of Warcraft” even further beyond competitors like Mythic's “Warhammer Online” and helps the franchise remain the undisputed “King” of the MMO genre.
‘Super' in HD
By David Wilcox
One of the finest fighting games ever receives a fresh coat of paint in the downloadable “Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix.”
Ryu, M. Bison, Guile and the rest of Capcom's combatants are realized in piercing colors that spruce up the almost perfectly balanced cast. The 2-D action will invite new players with its accessibility while luring long-time “Street Fighter” fans back to test their years of accrued skills against friends and online opponents.
Though “Remix” doesn't match its next-gen counterparts in depth of features, there's simply no imperative to compete. The game's fighting formula remains intact in all its delicacy. No character will enjoy absolute preference over any other and no cheap strategies will be exploited with unreproachable success against players of the most modest skill.
“Remix” even re-creates the social atmosphere of the arcade with Quarter Matches, which players can watch before challenging reigning fighters. Nostalgic players can also play the unfettered version of “Super Street Fighter II Turbo” in Classic Mode.
Whether new to the “Super Street Fighter II Turbo” or not, self-respecting fans of the fighting genre owe it to themselves to find the $15 to download “Remix” through Xbox Live or the PlayStation Network and enjoy its pristine mechanics and polished visuals.
David Wilcox
253-5311 ext. 245
david.wilcox@lee.net
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