The Shattering

As everyone should now know, Blizzard's new World of Warcraft expansion "Cataclysm" will be hitting store shelves on December 7. However, Deathwing has come early to reshape the world of Azeroth in the newest content patch. Much of the Cataclysm content is in this patch, including class changes, entirely new zones, and the new race/class combos.

I could go on, but most of this information is known to you if you're a World of Warcraft player. If not, I recommend you read this post over at MMO Champion detailing the contents of the new patch. The importance of such a game changing patch should not be lost upon you, even if you've never played WoW. "Old World" Azeroth is being reshaped with new quests and updated areas for the first time since the game came out back in 2004. It'll be fun to go around seeing all of the new changes once the servers come back up in a few hours.

I realize that we never really posted anything about our trip to Blizzcon this year. Well, as expected, Cataclysm was playable and we all played it multiple times. How was it? Well, I've never been this excited for a WoW expansion. One of my least favorite things about the game (leveling) is one of the main points of this expansion, but with new quests and changes to all classes that streamline the experience, it'll actually be fun. (That's the idea, at least.) From the first second I logged into the beta server at Blizzcon, I could tell that things were different. The new Troll starting zone and developments in their lore are especially cool. I have been waiting for Trolls to get their own city since Vanilla, and while they certainly have one now, I'm a little disappointed. It looks like a larger version of Sen'jin Village. Oh well, I suppose beggars can't be choosers. Developments in lore between the new Warchief Garrosh Hellscream and the Darkspear leader Vol'jin make up for the lameness of the Troll city. Vol'jin actually has some worth now as opposed to being just the guy who taps the Brewfest keg. Other highlights include the new look for Orgrimmar and the Worgen starting zone.

I felt a twinge of jealousy when Worgen were announced for Alliance, I'll be honest. Goblins are pretty neat, I suppose, but I don't think they're as cool as werewolves. Especially now that I've played as a Worgen, I just feel like Alliance are walking away with the better deal. Their starting zone and story are super cool, and everything in Gilneas just oozes awesomeness. Gilneas draws heavily from classic werewolf movies, taking architecture, clothing, and even accents from old school Europe. Everyone who gets Cataclysm, even if they're a hardcore Horde player, needs to make a Worgen.

I didn't have much interest in the Goblins, to be honest, and that interest was further reduced by everyone else from the Boss VG crew telling me how lame their starting zone was. Everyone I talked to kept telling me that they didn't feel like there was a point to doing any of the Goblin quests. I don't know since I didn't personally do them, but that doesn't sound like good news to me. Maybe the Lost Isles and Azshara make the Goblins cooler.

If you've never tried World of Warcraft, and even if you have but disliked it, I would recommend trying Cataclysm (when a trial version is available of course). After all, the changes to Azeroth will be applied even if you only have the original WoW with no expansions. Now I get to wait a few more hours before I can see the world anew and hopefully love the changes.