Lich King Expansion pack

The World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Expansion Pack is designed for veteran warriors who have worked their way up through the ranks in Blizzard Entertainment’s previous two installments. In this installment The Lich King Arthas has betrayed his father’s instructions to rule with wisdom, strength, and restraint, unleashing evil forces and setting in motion series of events that may wipe-out all life on Azeroth. Developing his character for “Wrath of the Lich King,” the Blizzard guys have made Arthas even more hideous, heinous, and generally detestable than ever before. Naturally, therefore, they have made him bigger and stronger; they also have made him considerably more ruthless.

If you have an existing World of Warcraft account and have achieved at least level 55, you’re eligible to create a new Death Knight of any race, and you’re ready to launch your sorties into the frozen continent where the Lich King commands his devilish hordes. The Expansion Pack allows you to quest and battle all the way up to Level 80; and, as always, you may choose among the four options for realms or modes of play. Just as in the previous two installments, the designers and developers recommend you play against the environment and use all the help tags until you become thoroughly familiar with this frozen landscape, its inhabitants, and especially its terrible-roaring, fiercely-tusked menaces.

Although you maintain your level from your last Warcraft adventure, you join a new class: your new and improved Death Knight numbers among the Heroes who have freed themselves from service to the Lich King. Now, as you wage war against your former master, you learn and practice his necromantic arts, but you promise to use them only for good. Your new Death Knight enters the fray heavily armed, sturdily armored, and commanding a truly awesome set of forbidden magic powers.

The graphics and sound “Wrath of the Lich King” will dazzle and overwhelm you; they actually live up to the description “awesome.” And the Blizzard guys wisely have added to and enhanced some of our favorite features in the older games: we have a whole lot of really cool new hairstyles from which to choose when we visit our barbershops, and we have a whole bunch of really cool new dance moves, too. If only my real-life body moved like my avatar does!

You already know how seductive and addictive these adventures become. You know the Blizzard Entertainment guys are masters of their media. Still, your jaw inevitably will drop as you discover the “epic” content in this new game.

Lich King Arena

In regular play, you and your party or team occasionally skirmish with other parties as a natural consequence of pursuing the same objectives and rewards. Once you and your party have prevailed over your opponents, you continue advancing toward your goal while your opponents’ spirits recover their bodies and find their mounts. Although you score some points, gain some skills and experiences, and maybe get a little loot from your skirmish, no one really keeps score or watches the standings.

Arena play, however, invites aggressive teams to take-on others in player-versus-player death-matches, and the Blizzard guys do keep score and standings. According to Blizzard Entertainment’s own wiki, “these contests center around your team’s ability to obliterate the other team.” In other player-versus-player modes, your team’s diversity matters at least as much as your weapons and tactics. In those modes, your spell-casting, control of the environment and other magic elements influence how well you hold your own territory and advance toward your goal. The other modes are not nearly as bloodthirsty or violent.

In Arena play, it’s kill or be killed. You may join two-, three-, or five-player teams, and players below level 70 can gain valuable experience in practice matches before they begin playing for high stakes that earn Arena Points and Arena Rewards. At the lower levels, players usually join impromptu teams, kinda like playing softball on the neighborhood playground. At the higher levels, where the grizzled veterans play to quench their bloodthirst, players join official teams, drafting and agreeing to Team Charters, and competing under strict supervision of an Arena Battlemaster.

Most teams have twice as many players as immediate play requires. In other words, teams have starters and back-ups, and the rules allow for fairly liberal substitution. Naturally, if a team loses a player, they can bring-in a substitute. Just as naturally, as situations change and play evolves, teams may summon experts in various disciplines. If the combat calls for strong offense, you draw from your strongest offensive reserves. If the game situation requires careful maneuvering and strategy, you bring in the warriors best prepared to deliver what you need.

With its typical concern for fairness, and with respect for teams’ desire to move-up in the rankings and compete for higher rewards, Blizzard has arranged a system that matches teams of equal strength. Called “Rated Matches,” teams have their ratings adjusted at the end of these contests, and their rewards match their ratings. Although most players find the realm and mode that best suit their characters and personalities, some develop two sets of gear for the two kinds of play. Playing against the environment and completing quests, they carry one set of equipment and use its complementary skillset. Playing in Arena matches, they doff all their environment gear, and take up the more aggressive, lethal tournament gear.

King Collector’s Edition

The more time I spend in the World of Warcraft, and the more I learn my way around Azeroth, learning not only its landscape but also its cultures, values, and possibilities, the more I realize evolution is the keyword throughout this virtual universe. Everything about me, my surroundings, my companions and combatants evolves as I grow more familiar with my environment and more proficient with my talents. When I take a more critical look at the whole World of Warcraft franchise, I recognize evolution is one of its hallmarks. Everything about the worlds, games, and their makers continues growing bigger and better.

Naturally, then, different editions of the game had to emerge and evolve until they developed a deluxe Collector’s Edition. In the Collector’s Edition, of course, the game remains the same, but the goodies get better.

Along with your software, you get a 208-page book—The Art of World of Warcraft:Wrath of the Lich King—the perfect coffee table accent for the hard-core warrior or mage. Many of the images that didn’t quite find their place in the game but are too good to bury in the archives appear in the book. And a lot of the exquisite features in the art jump off the book’s pages more vividly and vibrantly than they ever could appear on your computer monitor no matter how pixels you get.

You also receive a behind-the-scenes DVD, which gets you into the studios and even more into the minds of the geniuses at Blizzard Entertainment. In an hour of interviews, developers share their perspectives and insights on the game’s features, what it took to create them, and what sophisticated players can do with them. The DVD also includes the director’s commentary on the cinematic trailer. Like most artists, the director isn’t always the best source of critical information about his powerful production, but it does provide a useful descant to the sounds and images in the three-minute clip.

Of course, there’s more: The Collector’s Edition includes a soundtrack CD, so that you can recreate the World of Warcraft pretty much wherever you go. I personally think this is a great advancement in soundtracks for rush-hour traffic, because some of the more animated and grandiose themes inspire me to pilot my 4-Runner more skillfully, gracefully, and strategically than I normally would. Taking the best, most powerful music directly from the game, the soundtrack CD really gives the music the attention it deserves. And the music helps me recreate the game’s moods and motivations. The soundtrack CD really powers-up my domestic search-and-destroy missions: when I do battle with a teen-ager’s gnarly bedroom, the music helps me conquer the nasty landscape.

And just to make sure nobody feels deprived, the Collector’s Edition also brings you a mouse pad emblazoned with a handy map of Northrend and two starter decks of Lich King trading cards.

Yes, the Collector’s Edition is a little expensive, but you and your World of Warcraft collection cannot evolve without these valuable editions. And, in time, the set will live-up to its title as a collector’s item. Oh, yeah, and don’t forget you also get a little pet—a real life one, not a virtual one—along with all this other great stuff.