First Impressions:

If you play World of Warcraft, then you know that World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade is THE "must have" expansion of the year. It continues on the rich storyline Blizzard created with the first three Warcraft series to include the exiled Night Elf Illidan who resides in the world of the Outland. The Burning Crusade increases the level cap from 60 to 70 and introduces two new playable races called the Draenei and the Blood Elves. The Draenei are factioned with the Alliance and were nearly obliterated by the Orcs, while the Blood Elves are Horde and the hated cousins of the Night Elves. With TBC comes the ability to finally choose to play as a Shaman for the Alliance or a Paladin for the Horde. Needless to say, this has been an eagerly-awaited-for addition to the Warcraft family.

Graphics:

The opening cinematic, like all of Blizzard’s cinematics, is incomparable. I could sit in front of the monitor and watch it all day long and not get bored. The graphics though retain much of the same look and feel as the original World of Warcraft. The scenery is colorful and bright, and although the Outland gives a very gloomy feeling of forboding, there doesn’t seem to be any real advancement in the graphical sense of the game. The great thing about World of Warcraft in the past has been the ability to enhance certain aspects of the User Interface. Hopefully, in The Burning Crusade someone will come up with some great UI mods and eyecandy to help distract from the lack of improved graphics.

Sound/Music:

Again, Blizzard have outdone themselves in the game’s musical quarter. The orchestrated music during encounters and zone areas just puts you in the game. The ambience music matches the feelings and mood of the areas. The Burning Crusade introduces many new voices from both NPCs and the new races, as well a slew of new special effect sounds. The Blood Elf /flirts and /sillies really had me in shock with the limit of how far Blizzard is willing to push the envelope. I’ll admit I was giggling like a schoolgirl (and I'm a guy!), but it’s hard to see how a parent would react positively if they heard what their 13 year old was listening to in the game (TBC is expected to be ESRB rated “Teen”). Since TBC is an expansion, the sound controls remain the same, with the ability to change each of the sound settings individually.

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