Burning Crusade: Collector's Edition: Zboard Keyset: Price: £29.99 Players: online Dolby Digital 5.1: No Multiplayer: Yes System requirements: Windows 2000/XP/Me/98 Pentium 4/AMD Athlon 800Mhz Hard disk space: 4.0Gb Memory: 256Mb Other: DVD-ROM drive 32Mb 3D DirectX9.0c graphics card

When I was 14, I was playing a game called Bloodbowl, a tabletop miniature game based around American football. The appeal to me was the fact I could develop my team. I named my players, trained their skills and treated their injuries. I actually cared for their well-being. Since then things have moved on a little. I’m now 29 with a house, car and full-time job. The VCR is dead, mobile phones and ipods are a must have and surfing without broadband is a NO! However my gaming desires remain very much unchanged and I now find myself caring not for a team of games workshop miniatures, but a 7’2” cow called Topside who roams around an online world called Azeroth … and last month saw the release of The Burning Crusade. This expansion has seen the previous level cap raised from 60 to 70 … so I took Topside into The Outlands to see what the fuss was about.

In the two years since Blizzard released the MMORPG World Of Warcraft, over 8 Million souls worldwide have succumb to its devilish addictiveness. The Burning Crusade is the first in a series of planned expansions which add new content, races, skills and items. The first major change is that TBC has added two new races. The Blood Elves (horde) and the Draenei (alliance) are available with the new patch and both races have brand new starting areas to explore and each race has new racial Traits. There is also a new profession called Jewelcrafting for players to try. For new players starting out the new races and skills offer a wider choice of variety. But if you have already made the long hard (and sometimes tedious) grind to level 60 what is there for you? Well Blizzard has raised the maximum level cap from 60 to 70. There are brand new and far superior weapons, armour and items to be had, and all this can be done in a brand new area. At level 70 you gain the ability to take to the skies of Outland on the new flying mounts giving you access to previously unreachable areas.

As from level 58 you can pass through the dark portal and begin to discover the beauty and terror that awaits you in Outland. New mobs and new instances abound are set in some of the most beautiful landscapes in the game. PVP (Player Vs Player) combat has become an integral part of the game, and the push towards PVP is evident in TBC. There are world PVP objectives in each zone which is a welcome break to the monotony and sometimes repetitive quest grinding. There is also a brand new PVP battleground which sees horde and alliance doing battle for territory and flag capture in a Warsong Gulch meets Arathi Basin type affair. Blizzard has also introduced a more hectic type of PVP battle with the introduction of Arena battles. It’s hard to find anything bad to say…but I have so I will. I’m disappointed by the lack of a new class. Sure Blizzard has made the Paladin available to Horde and the Shaman available to Alliance, but this to me seems a bit of a cop out. Also, I was initially impressed with the new variety in the quests. However, now Topside is level 68 and I’m beginning to feel like I’m repeating myself again. Also, the many gaming hours I had put in before TBC to improve my items have almost been in vain as you quickly find your Azeroth rare and epic items becoming obsolete due to the sheer power of the new items available in Outlands.

To say that Warcraft was already a great game is an understatement, and TBC has only served to improve upon that. I mean any game that has a dedicated therapy clinic must be addictive! And with constant feedback from the 8 Million subscribers worldwide and free updates from Blizzard I’m sure the game will continue to evolve and improve until the next expansion. The prospect of something new to do alone would have made purchasing TBC a no-brainer. However, Blizzard have really taken care to ensure that the expansion is worthy of player’s time and money. Make no doubt about it folks, if you want to play Warcraft then you NEED this expansion pack. "Can I roll need plzzzz?!" And for fans of the game who want to see some more info about it, check out these two links which form an interview on BBC2's Working Lunch with the creators of the game: Working Lunch interview (16th Jan 2007) - Part 1 Working Lunch interview (16th Jan 2007) - Part 2 (NB. Although I have listed the playability as 8/10, this does rise to 10/10 as the addiction kicks in)

GRAPHICS SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC PLAYABILITY ENJOYMENT OVERALL Review copyright © Gaz Williams, 2007.