World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Comments by Oli Welsh

"Northrend swaps madness for lyricism, spectacle for heart-wrenching, melancholy beauty."

wholeheartedly agree here.
first thing i did was get my rogue past 71.
Then I decided to take a break and try out a deathknight...
2 days, maybe 8 hours total sleep and a few quick meals of questionable nutritional value later...
my Deathknight hit 70.
What should have been an exercise in masochism (powering through TBC content solo :/ ) merely feels like when you put in a hard day at work and then get home for some R & R. My rogue explored Howling Fjord before I parked him in an inn for a few days. My deathknight is clearing up Borean Tundra.
It really is pure mmo gaming joy to run riot around these areas exploring and marvelling at the artistry.
As a 3D artist by trade myself I cant help but stare in wonder at the the execution of the environment art in Wotlk.
pure /win :)

--

on a foot note.
those with high end systems might appreciate trying out a macro I found that Forces wows graphical settings past the default high settings - only to be use if you think you rig really can handle it. Its stunning, almost like playing new game, even old areas like Elwynn forest look top notch now.

/console farclip 777
/console horizonfarclip 6226
/console groundeffectdensity 256
/console groundeffectdist 140
/console smallcull 0
/console skycloudlod 3
/console characterambient

just copy and paste that into a macro in game.
your draw distance will be massive, the ground clutter/vegetation will be very dense and lush... its gorgeous.

if you use it and find it makes your rig cry then feel free to lower some settings or as a last resort here's another macro that will reset everything back to low settings:

/console groundEffectDensity 16
/console groundEffectDist 1
/console horizonfarclip 1305
/console farclip 177
/console characterAmbient 1
/console smallcull 1
/console skycloudlod 1
/console detailDoodadAlpha 1

hope someone finds it useful

Had a chance to play it now and (so far) not really seeing anything 10 worthy - don't get me wrong it's very enjoyable for me as a WoW fan but the first quest in Northrend for me was collect 10 pieces of meat to feed a dog....

Yes but you have an animation seeing your char throwing the meat at the dog which catches it with its mouth...
Subtle things like that rock.
Also being able to locate flying mobs based on the their shadows on the ground (crows) is awesome.
Only started yesterday night and I'm 25% to 71 but I'm already in love with it.
The Nordic setting fits so much better into WoW than the "Starcraft" setting in BC (Netherstorm lol)!
Looking forward to some hell of a ride!

It's a tricky one. Apart from a few bugged quests it can't be faulted.

There's a definite improvement to graphical quality in environment and character models, and the music is very good.

Quests are varied and some really novel ones.

I think it is 10/10 but as someone said, it's an expansion not a full game so I'm not the sure the 10/10 carries as much weight.

"Yes but you have an animation seeing your char throwing the meat at the dog which catches it with its mouth..."

No offense mate but I can see a few of the non-mmo fans round here having a good old chuckle at that one ;)

People saying that it is not a very good expansion, or that it doesn't deserve a high rating probably haven't done the Wrathgate questline yet. I won't spoil anything, but it completely changes how storytelling happens in WoW, and it is probably one of the greatest narrative achievements in gaming - and I do not say something like that lightly (this coming from someone who worships story-heavy games like Planescape: Torment).

If in 2007 Portal was hailed as a breakthrough in storytelling for FPS's, this year the Wrathgate event does this for MMORPGs. Things won't be the same after it.

And, in the end, this is the greatest difference in Lich King compared to BC and vanilla WoW: in LK, even though most quests still conform to the "go to X, kill Y and/or collect Z" model, there is clearly a much greater effort to make those quests meaningful. Pretty much everything you do in Lich King adds to the feeling that you have a purpose, and that you're fighting for something that matters for your character and the world s/he is in. The Wrathgate is just the crowning moment of it all.

Of course, if storytelling is not your thing, then yes, LK is pretty much just a prettier and more refined WoW.

@curtlikesmeat
It's more than Fable2 could handle :P

@curtlikesmeat
Personally, I didnt find anything 10 worthy about Halo3 (or a lot of the 10/10 games from this year) - But I understand that other people do rerally enjoy the title, it's all subjective at the end of the day.

I played the expansion and am loving it to bits.

I have 2 high level chars with a rogue as the main. Before the expansion, I wouldn't think of parking her in the inn for a long period of time. But since I tried DK, I love the narrative in the first quest chains and continue on to Outland.

Northrend is beautiful and quite different with vanilla WoW and TBC which is what I expected from a full-blown expansion. I can see clearly some new technologies being implemented there.

I sadly don't have much time to play because of RL commitments but when I do, I enjoy it so much. It certainly worth the £25 I paid and it is certainly more worthy that £35 that I paid for WAR and AoC.

Kudos to Blizzard for delivering another good expansion.

Beautifully worded, and i agree with everything you said.

I really love gaming. I've always gamed with different platforms, different genres and always looking for something new to nitpick at.

But Wrath is honestly a masterpiece. Hats off to everyone who helped create such a richly filled and beautifully designed expansion. The music, the lore behind the quests, the phasing, the controlling of various vehicles, the instances, the graphic upgrade, the armour design, this list can go forever. truly great.

10/10 from me too! :)

Ive been an avid gamer for just over 30 years,and a WoW gamer since the launch,and Blizzard deserve all the praise heaped upon them in this review.

Every now and again,if were lucky,a title comes along which raises the bar,and this is one such title.

Remember when you first played such titles as Mario 64,Halo,Gran Tourismo,or any of the Half Life games,and that incredible sense of wonder and enjoyment you got from playing,when you knew that you were playing something that will go down in gaming history?Well,now you can add Lich King into that very same bracket.

It truly is a remarkable example of gaming in the year 2008,and a perfect reminder to any gamer of just why they fell in love with this past-time in the first place.

As always the very mention of the word WoW brings out the forum poison pens,well all i can say to you is if you dont like the game,thats fine,go away and play something else.

Stop bashing a game which brings happiness to many millions of people around the world,and go make yourself happy playing what you do like instead :)

lol@mario 64 comparison :)

"Yes but you have an animation seeing your char throwing the meat at the dog which catches it with its mouth... "

fkking groundbreaking stuff I must say...

Hey geek reviewer, you are NOT supposed to split up "war" and "craft" it is one word "warcraft" meaning a measurement of how good you are at conducting a war - and that doesn't mean you have to hit someone over the head behind each tree.

Also I wish people here would shut the hell up about the graphics. Listen kids, it is designed to look the way it does - it will remain looking that way for the next 10 years - and its GREAT - I hate all the crappy pseudo attempts at "realism" in other newer and crappier games. I don't want to see "realistic" blood gore, slime, rotting corpses etc- in wow they look kinda cute, and that's the whole point.