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

@Vistrix: There's nothing new for people under level 70. The new zones are meant for players of lvl 70 to lvl 80, although you can probably start at lvl 68.

That said, they've made it easier and faster to level up to 70 since they want people to get to the new content as fast as possible, but you're still looking at maybe 100 hours of gameplay before you get there, especially if you're new to the entire game. There's guides and help and whatnot that speeds it up a bit though.

Review borked at page 2: "It's a unusual to find [...]".

Play death knight before they are hit with the nerf bat!

5 Deathknights through Ramparts is a real blast. Screw healing/tanking lets just kill everything.

And a heavily Death Knight populated area is a true lolathon. Mobs flying through the air as they are dragged to their doom. Ghouls leaping at the mobs. Classic.

if you dont like MMORPG's because 1. the servers are filled with foul-mouthed 12 years olds (joining a clan doest solve that problem no matter what anyone says) and 2. endless waiting for your team members to come back from AFK, then this add-on wont change your mind about MMORPGs. Just sayin this 10 score is not relevant to every gamer.

these review have been writtten by a fan of the game, that is not imparcial to what he believes to be the holy grail of video games... Eurogamer, please, choose better your reviewers ocncerning the game they are about to evaluate... this shit have fanboy written all over it.

No score in ANY review is relavent to all gamers... that's the point. If you dont like football, would you buy a football game even if it scored 10/10. No.

I have played a lot of MMOs and in my experience, childish behaviour and bad language is not really all that common.

Team members being AFK, well, that can be a problem, but you have to give as well as take and realise that everyone (supposedly) has an external life outside the game, and may have to leave unexpectedly for a few minute from time to time.

Any review score should be taken and related to other games in it's particular genre. ie. You cannot compare a WoW 10/10 review with a Halo 3 10/10 review.

Apologie: Is that irony or are you being serious?

@Apologie, you're just pissed because WoW doesn't exist for PS3, or whatever console you were the idiot fanboy of. :-)

If you stopped playing WoW because of TBC's dodgey Outland and miss vanilla WoW's Azeorth - now's the time to jump back in. It's games like this that make me just snigger to myself when I think about 'console wars', and the uninitiated goons that surround them.

Good review, bar a few inaccuracies.

Anyone thinking about starting or restarting in WoW, there's a dedicated forum Lich King thread here.

Oh and yes, Northrend is simply sublime after Outland. Gorgeous doesn't come close. So nice to be back questing in a zone which feels faintly reminiscent of the real world, that was always the biggest draw of WoW for me. Also, baby mammoths ftw.

Like the screenshot Otto, is that your char?

Also, Apologie: Please stop trolling every thread that isnt WAR related. It is tedious.

Is there anything which makes the early levels more interesting or fresh?
I played the game a bunch in the first year, taking both Horde and Alliance chars to around level 40, doing every starting class to around 20. I'd really like to know of that early stuff has changed significantly.

(ps. including Burning Crusade as well not just this expansion)

I suppose you could play as one of the BC races for a new starting experience.

I personally didn't really like either of the new races or their starting zones, but that's just personal preference.

I always loved the Durotar starting zone, and Orcs of course.

The key thing is, Prox, that the leveling has been made much quicker. Rewards and drops in blue instances have been made better. Each class has been refined.... The list goes on.

Based on the Review, it should take an 11.

I'd like to second the brilliant "10 - lol" comment. I know that games scoring is silly anyway, but honestly, a ten has to mean something and I think a generally good rule of thumb is that a relrelease or an add on pack can basically not get a 10.

I have to be honest... I think you guys are idiots for handing out so many tens. Just really stupid. The reviews are well written as always but this is not the way to get respect around the web. "Oh that's just Eurogamer - they give everything ten".

Of course, I think the 10 point scale is complete horsesh*t anyway. Either use the full-fat 100 scale which actually offers some nuance to a rating, or go with the much more understandable out-of-5-star scale which would solve all these problems. There's a reason films go for the star scale.

0* - comically bad
1* - boringly bad
2* - pretty badly executed but you may find an hours enjoyment if you like the genre or you're drunk.
3* - blah. We all know what 3* is.
4* - You're likely to get your money's worth
5* - a great experience

Some interesting comments about scoring Omroth. It is funny how people understand 3 stars as average, yet never consider 5/10 as average. I mean in most cases anything sub 6/10 equals shit.

Anyway, I am trying not to be tempted back to WoW. I know it will be the same item based grind-fest, but some how I just want to find out.

Omroth +1.
A 10 means perfect, there is no perfect game. Anyway this is great news for wow players, but not for me, just aint got the time.

I can't comment on the quality of Lich King, but that was a horrible review. Sorry Oli but listing superlative after superlative - no matter how good the game is - just comes off as some kind of schoolgirl crush or something...!

@ swede, yes that's my wee ginger dwarven huntress with the fake Scottish accent, Krankie, bless her. \o/

moar mammoths

swede

what??? you also think that this EXPANSION is one of the best things that ever happened in videogame history, and the that the 10/10 score is more then justifiable??? please, the review is idiotic to say the least, as someone said early, its well written by a fanboy who cant be imparcial... ffsake men, you call this journalism??? these is one of the reasons why i dont consider gaming press professional... 10/10 scores dont mean shit anymore, they even give them to expansions, yes, expansions, nothing more, its the same game.

lol 10, thats funny.

I refuse to comment on whether this expansion is worth 10/10. I havent played it enough to fairly rate it.

All I will say is that IN MY OPINION, it has certainly has improved vastly since it's release. Is still great fun to play even starting again from a lvl 1 character. My preferred server is always full of mostly helpful players.

I am no fanboy, I tend to be a casual player, I have a LOTRO sub as well, and almost spend as much time with that also (fantastic) game. I also have a WAR account. My experience of WAR has been mixed to be honest. Firstly I was really disappointed by the wait times for the battefield instances. Waiting one and half hours for an instance is not good. Conversely and somewhat ironically, the open areas (especially public quests) now seem to be pretty much deserted. I cannot remember the last time I managed to finish a PQ, because there simply isn't the required numbers of people around to play them. Hopefully they will address these problems soon, because I still think the core of a great game is in there, and my first 2 weeks with the game were very enjoyable.

And to answer that question... yes I think that WoW (and it's expansions) are "one of the best things that have ever happened in video game history". Simply put, WAR and LOTRO would either not exist at all (most likely), or they would be a pale reflection of the games that they currently are.

Ye it was fanboyish and a bit adjective heavy...

But at the people whining about all the 10s, have you not noticed that there has been a load of high quality games out lately? Hence all the 10s...

Drogul

Omroth +1.
A 10 means perfect, there is no perfect game. Anyway this is great news for wow players, but not for me, just aint got the time.

No, it really doesn't. More tards please.

Thankyou butler for hitting the nail on the head...

To say a game that scores 10 has to be perfect is mad. How can you define anything so subjective as a game (which is essentially a work of art) as perfect?

10/10 simply means that the game is exceptionally good in it's genre...

So have I got this right:
If I have a character @ level 55(say, a Mage) or above I can create a Death Knight and still keep the old character (the Mage).

Thanks.

@rogueJT: Yes, you create an entirely new character, you don't replace your old one. That means you also need a different name, of course.

People still can't wrap their heads around the score of 10/10...

There's a link to the scoring policy right beside it.

swede

". Waiting one and half hours for an instance is not good. Conversely and somewhat ironically, the open areas (especially public quests) now seem to be pretty much deserted."

depends on the server m8, WAR is a new MMO, not every Server is full of players, i can guarantee to you that in both my servers, whenever i choose a queue, i access one almost instantly... and i do PQ's all the time with my guild and random players.
you really need to try the game again, but do yourself a favor1st and choose at least a medium populated server.

Oh christ, I just decided I'm never going to play WAR.

There is an infitesimal chance I may stumble upon Apologie, and my life would end.

Did anyone else find this review annoying? I mean I'm sure its a good expansion and all but seriously the reviewer was cumming all over the place...

Wow, so that's what 'wax lyrical' means! : D

Sounds good though... am sorely tempted to pick up WoW properly.

Oli Welsh should be running a WoW fansite not an mmo channel. Astonishing lack of objectivity and balance.

That's the impression I got, yeah. But I'm not a WoW player so I don't know - maybe Lich King really is that good.

Just need to wait a few months now for another reviewer to re-review the game and rate it properly. This 10/10 novelty review from Oli Welsh was anticipated by, I assume, most Eurolol readers who follow MMOs.

Of course Wrath of the Lich King isn't 10/10, there are numerous flaws and anyone playing the game can see that. Flaws that take the whole enjoyment of the game? I would say yes, and here's one example for you to chew on right now -- Try doing quests in Wrath without using a quest-helper mod.

There you go.

I look forward to a less novelty fuelled review in the coming months.

*EDIT*

Orange - Oli Welsh should be running a WoW fansite not an mmo channel. Astonishing lack of objectivity and balance.

Very true, but then, the same can be said for the majority of reviewers on this laughable website; the reviewer for GTAIV should be working for Official X-Box Magazine, and the reviewer for Bio-Shock should be working for Daily Star (etc...).

Wow (pardon the pun), but what a load of tosh most of you are spouting. Could you lot be any more up yourselves? So the reviewer enjoyed the game immensely and didn't hide the fact behind some cynical games journo attitude. I found the review quite refreshing.

Get. over. yourselves.

In fact I think that Eurogamer has been giving away a lot of tens, lately. Im not talking about which titles, thats the reviewer opinion and I respect that. Maybe I'm just too demanding, but currently when I read a 10 here, for me its a 9 or even a 9,5 but clearly not a 10/10.

Reviewer likes game, writes positively about it, must be shit reviewer. YES.

If you skip on WotLK (and playing a DK including the initial storyline is so fricking cool you will be missing out), the new 3.x patch makes enough changes that you should check back in "vanilla" WoW as well - e.g. the reworked classes, the inscription crafting, the "enchantment battery" scrolls which makes it easier to be an enchanter etc.

Bah bought it and while i do have a 70 shaman, i still feel that the Death Knight is much more fun to play. So i have the whole of outland in front of me, before i will get to this content.

Its just that the reviewer is a uber-rabid fan of the game, which makes this a dubious review from the POV of anyone reading it who isnt also a rabid fan.

This read like a love poem.

I feel exactly the same, the game already was fantastic and this expansion somehow manages to improve upon it.

Bravo Blizzard, bravo!

lol, what a surprise, oli is a wow nub. who would have thunk it

I resisted the urge to play wow previously, though it feels like it's getting harder...
A friend showed me her collectors edition wotlk and offered me one of the passes.
I declined, knowing that I'd feel the need to continue playing it: The subscription cost is prohibitive.

Or am I the only one who thinks that? Seriously, how much money do you really need to run servers...

You hear me Blizzard? You're not at market saturation yet! Bastards...

Meh.. Im a big fan of wow but this just screams fanboyism rather than a "fair" review. Like its the allmighty-god of games and everything related to it is super-awesome. Id rather read three 1page reviews from three different players rather than one long "review" from a huge fan.

But yes its is good no doubt about it.

Stupid ****ing GPU / lack of money to buy new PC.

I won't get to play this for a loooong time.

/weep

Vistrix: Can someone just confirm this...

There is absolutely nothing new for people under level 30? This expansion is pointless for anyone lower than 30?

There may be new stuff for lower level players to do, but, if you wanna see Northrend, then you have to be level 70.

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....

Also, my computer is three years old (old but not ancient) and it shat itself when it got to Howling Fjord. Draw distance had to be put right down, I wonder what people playing on really old comps are doing. On the plus side the idea of a hero class starting at 55 is awesome as is the Death Knight starting area so far.

In my book though, original WoW is 10/10. I need more time with this but so far nothing revolutionary.

curtlikesmeat: On the plus side the idea of a hero class starting at 55 is awesome as is the Death Knight starting area so far.

DK starting zone is amazing, really glad I got to experience it in the beta. Just a shame it doesn't last that long.

Yeah - the phasing technology is nice and you start off feeling very powerful. I'd have been skeptical about allowing players to start at 55 but it works great. You're far enough behind that it doesn't feel like cheating, but near enough to max level that it feels like it wouldn't be a chore to get there.