Posted 12/18/08 at 11:02:57 PM by Nathan Grayson

Move over Crysis; the Lich King’s handing out golden tickets to his chocolate factory too, and frankly, he doesn’t think you have what it takes to oppose him. Why? Simple. Like you, Mr. Wars, the Lich King is abandoning his porch rocking-chair and his shotgun for 10 days, but he’s instancing this thing. None of your “ending on December 29th” bullsh**t. Plus, can your players do things like:

“Explore the frozen wastes of Northrend, wield the necromantic powers of the new death knight Hero class, take control of massive siege vehicles in the new open-world PvP zone of Wintergrasp, and much more”?

Didn’t think so.

Oh, sure, potential trial-takers will need both WoW and WoW: Burning Crusade -- as well as seasoned characters who no longer dive behind nearby bushes when a bright ring of light DINGs around them after a tough battle – in order to access much of WotLK’s content. But really, who doesn’t have a few level 70’s gathering dust in their back of the pantry?

Need further proof of your trial’s inferiority, Crysis? Just check out our comments section, wherein players will surely say whether or not they’ll be partaking of this free Wrath of the Lich King trial. Really, Crysis, we’re sorry it had to come to this.

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Posted 11/20/08 at 05:04:34 PM by Nathan Grayson

After already once claiming the gleaming golden press release for fastest-selling PC game in 2007, Blizzard's back to its crazy shenanigans. According to Acti-Blizz's better half, WoW: Wrath of the Lich King moved 2.8 million units in a single day -- 400,000 more monetarily magnetized boxes than previous record holder WoW: The Burning Crusade.

“We’re grateful for the incredible support that players around the world have continued to show for World of Warcraft,” said Blizzard boss Mike Morhaime.

“Wrath of the Lich King contains some of the best content we’ve created for the game so far, and we look forward to seeing even more players log in to experience it in the days ahead.”

So, did you brave the WotLK-starved hordes to secure a day-one copy? We didn't, but the local line weaved down from GameStop and up into our room anyway, so we still consider our war stories valid.

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Posted 11/17/08 at 10:50:28 PM by Nathan Grayson

Talk about a hollow victory. You and your epic-clad, raid-running buddies wait more than a year for World of Warcraft's jam-packed new expansion, only to be within /spitting distance of its final raid bosses' lifeless bodies after a mere three days of playtime. Vacation's over, team. Back to real life.

Really, it makes us wonder why Blizzard decided to go with the bowling-ball-in-front-of-a-row-of-dominoes method when structuring its latest time-twister -- a question echoed by the guild that did the deed, TwentyFifthNovember:

"We are proud to declare that all WOTLK PVE raid content has now been cleared. This is both a moment of triumph and a cause for concern. The question in all our minds right now is if we could do this, how soon until the rest of the top guilds in the world clear all the raid content that WOTLK has to offer?"

"Did Blizzard miscalculate in the tuning of these encounters? Or is this Blizzard folding under the weight of a large casual player base that demands to be on equal footing with end-game raiders?"

Of course, this guild probably perforated WoW's new batch of glorified piñatas during the WoTLK beta, so odds are, they already knew the encounters inside-and-out before they even got their mitts on a retail copy of the game. Regardless though, that only means other guilds have the tools to pull off a similar thrashing, so we foresee a fairly large 24/7 raid converging on Blizzard's inbox in the near future.

However, before such "fans" sing "wah, wah, wah" all the way to Blizzard, we'd just like to remind them that other games do exist -- as do other, non-virtual worlds. So, you know, do something wholesome. Oh, and those strange people wandering around your house? That's your family. Enjoy.

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