Cataclysm: My Life for the Horde!!!

BlizzCon 2009 has wrapped up this past weekend and we now have time to reflect on what has been shown and where we, the collective fans of Blizzard Entertainment, shall come up with spare time to enjoy all these great titles next year. With Starcraft II, a new World of Warcraft expansion, and possibly Diablo 3 all coming in fiscal year 2010, Blizzard and its parent company Activision looks to destroy the competition with classic franchises that are known multi-million selling games. Of all the offerings Blizzard was showing last week, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is by far the most ambitious and powerful title. Lets look at the story behind the new expansion.

An ancient evil lies dormant within Deepholm, the domain of earth in the Elemental Plane.

Hidden away in a secluded sanctuary, the corrupted Dragon Aspect Deathwing has waited, recovering from the wounds of his last battle against Azeroth and biding his time until he can reforge the world in molten fire. Soon, Deathwing the Destroyer will return to Azeroth, and his eruption from Deepholm will sunder the world, leaving a festering wound across the continents. As the Horde and Alliance race to the epicenter of the cataclysm, the kingdoms of Azeroth will witness seismic shifts in power, the kindling of a war of the elements, and the emergence of unlikely heroes who will rise up to protect their scarred and broken world from utter devastation.

Now as a fan of the fiction of Warcraft I had to change my pants. Of all the end bosses that are in the Warcraft universe, Deathwing is by far the greatest threat. Poor Arthas wouldn't last 5 minutes in a battle with the mighty Neltharion. This character is going to be massive and hard and a dream come true for a fan of the universe, sorry I'm a fan and not impartial when it comes to this series so take my words with caution.

Looking down the list of features we have a massive update to the core world zones and a major step forward for the series as a whole.

1. Two new playable races. The Goblins for the Horde and the Worgen for the Alliance.
2. Level cap raised to 85.
3. Classic zones redesigned to to deal with Deathwings return. Every classic zone will be altered in some way and new quests replacing original quest content.
4. New high level zones.
5. High level raid content.
6. New race/class combination's. (Gnome Priest, Blood-Elf Warrior, Tauren Paladin)
7. New PVP zone and rated battleground.
8. New secondary profession Archaeology.
9. Guild advancement system with guild achievements
10. FLYING MOUNTS IN AZEROTH!

These last 2 are the most amazing features to be included. The amount of quality content is a great value to anyone who has left the game for an extended period of time. Also, the fact that the actual breaking of the world will happen months in advance of the official expansion pack. Once this event happens in-game all previous quests will be lost in favor of a new set of quests regardless of whether you bought the expansion or not. Needless to say this is not a hard sell for me. Now granted I love the changes but I have a feeling of guilt for not playing all the quests or dungeons. I mean I never ran Shadowfang Keep! I wanted to but by the time I was in that part of the world I was to high of a level to make it worthwhile.

So here I am running through the world with my 64 shaman and my 27 warrior trying to get all my achievements for running dungeons and exploring before its all wiped from the game. I've never played as much as I do now. This announcement is pushing me even farther. I will have that discussion on my next post.