World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

If you are a huge fan of games made by Blizzard-the Warcraft, Starcraft or Diablo franchises-you may have already heard about the second BlizzCon gaming festival that took place last week in California. About 8,000 people attended this second-time event,and it’s especially famous in World of Warcraft (WoW) circles. This time around, the biggest announcement was World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, WoW’s second expansion.

“This expansion will add some of the most infamous characters and settings from the Warcraft universe to World of Warcraft,” said Mike Morhaime,president and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “In addition to new story content, Wrath of the Lich King will introduce a number of features specifically requested by players over the past couple of years.We’re looking forward to sharing further details with everyone as development progresses.”

Building on the foundation WoW and The Burning Crusade expansion, this second expansion will include a few different new features,the biggest probably being the Death Knight Hero Class. This is the game’s first hero class, likely fulfilling a demand. The Death Knight will start tentatively at a high 60 or 70 level so you don’t have to play your way back up the chain again.

The continent of Northrend will be opened up. It was last visited in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, when Arthas Menethil fused with the spirit of Nerzhul to become the Lich King, one of the most powerful beings in the Warcraft universe. He will now brood atop the Frozen Throne deep in Icecrown Citadel, clutching the rune blade Frostmourne and marshaling the undead armies of the Scourge. In Wrath of the Lich King, the forces of the Alliance and the Horde will venture into battle against the Scourge amid Northrend’s howling winds and fields of jagged ice.

Additional features include new level cap to be set at 80, instead of the current level 70. This will allow your characters to gain potent new talents and additional abilities.Adding to that, the new Inscription profession will let you customize individual spells and abilities in your spell book permanently.

You can take your battles to another level with the new player-vs.-player (PVP) mechanics and battlefields to wage your wars on. Taking advantage of this with the siege weapons and destructible buildings; there will be at least 10 new zones to give you this capability. And, last but not least, with the new character customization you can change how your characters look and express themselves with different hair-styles and dance animations.

What is just amazing, though, is that since its launch in November 2004, World of Warcraft has become the most popular MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) with more than 9 million subscribers/players. The game’s first expansion,The Burning Crusade, broke PC game sales records by selling nearly 2.4 million in the first 24 hours, and 3.5 million in the first month. With WoW’s popularity, the Lich King expansion is sure to be all the rage.

A launch date and price are yet to be announced for World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, but it will be available for both Mac and PC platforms. Keep checking www.worldofwarcraft.com for more information and progress updates.