WORLD OF WARCRAFT

With the impending arrival of Wrath of the Lich King for Blizzard’s World of Warcraft a lot of players have been looking for any kind of updates they can possibly get their hands on. Well, if you’re one of those people, you’ve just hit pay-dirt.

We have 11 new screenshots which showcase some of the more scenic areas in the expansion. Various locals such as Howling_Fjord, Skorn, Utgarde Keep, and even Wyrmskull Village are on display here. While there’s little to no action in the images, just imagine traversing through each area with your party. After being stuck with the same content for quite some time, the change of scenery should be refreshing.

Anyway, you’re probably wanting to see the screenshots so we’re not going to keep you hanging. Here they are, Enjoy! Be sure to keep checking back here for more updates on Wrath of the Lich King.

World of Warcraft

(Credit: World of Warcraft)

As I was struggling with my slow Internet connection today (it’s fixed, thank goodness), I came across one of the best stories I have ever read. According to Techdirt, researchers were trying to find a way to simulate the death toll of another plague. And, luckily for everyone involved, they thought World of Warcraft would be a great place to start.

Yes, you read that correctly–your WoW character may soon be the recipient of some pretty serious bleeding of the organs, vomiting fleas that release bacteria and a whole bunch of other plague goodness.

Personally, I think this is great. How many times have we heard of people hiring others to get them up to level 70 or cheating their way to the top of the WoW social hierarchy? I’m sick and tired of it. If you play WoW, learn how to play it and earn your level 70 the right way–spending 16 hours per day for the next six months in a dark basement running through the world and picking up attractive “female” avatars. Now that is living.

If you ask me, the Bubonic Plague should be unleashed on these cheaters. Let’s round them all up and keep them in a secluded area in the world. From there, let’s see what a little bleeding will do to that god-like level 70 now. In a matter of minutes, the characters would start to know what it’s like to be a level 15 trying to fight with the big boys. Then and only then would those bullies have some appreciation for the game.

Then, if we’re really lucky, scientists will start releasing the bird flu and maybe even a scientifically engineered plague that rivals the great mouse plague of a few years ago. I like the sound of that!

OK, so you heard my hopes for the plague. What kind of plagues would you like to see in WoW?

Blown away, are we? Yes, it’s true: the Warcraft movie is confirmed to be budgeted with over US$ 100 million (to compare, “LotR 3″ had around US$ 90 million, while “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within” got around US$ 120 million). This and a couple other details about the upcoming movie have been outlined during the BlizzCon event.

A panel composed of Paul Sams (Blizzard chief operating officer), Chris Metzen (Blizz chief creatives officer), and Thomas Tull (Legendary Pictures chairman) talked about the movie coming out. Aside from revealing their budget, here’s the long and short of the Q&A session:

• it’s scheduled for a 2009 release
• live-action with digital effects
• will run for about two hours to two and a half hours
• Thrall, Cairne Bloodhoof, Bolvar Fordragon likely to appear, Arthas won’t
• no director, no actors named yet

Sweet. Expounding on the story now, they say that it won’t be like LotR – a “journey type of tale.” Their silverscreen adaptation of Warcraft will revolve around the aches and pains experienced by the various races as tensions between them rise. They actually thought of basing the movie’s story line on the very first RTS game – a story between the humans and orcs. But now, because of how much the franchise has grown, the story has to be far meatier than that.

Right now, the plot would be told from the perspective of the Alliance and will be set about a year before the events in World of Warcraft. To give some vague comparison, Thomas Tull was eying a blend of blockbuster elements like those found in 300, Gladiator, and Braveheart. Epic fun? Hellsyeah.

The picture above was taken from the Q&A session at BlizzCon. It shows an actual storyboard panel used for the movie, and it shows Teldrassil, the big “life tree” of the Night Elves.