Game Evaluation World of Warcraft The Burning Crusade

Game Evaluation World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade CIS 487 Alex Zammitt

Basic Information l l l Game Title: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Company: Blizzard Entertainment Genre: Massively-multiplayer role playing game Price: $29. 99 Requires Original World of Warcraft: $19. 99 Monthly Subscription Options l l l $14. 99 – One Month Recurring $41. 97 – Three Months Recurring ($13. 99 per month) $77. 94 – Six Months Recurring ($12. 99 per month)

System Requirements l System Requirements for PC l l l OS: Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4) or Windows XP (Service Pack 2) Processor: Intel Pentium 3 800 MHz or AMD Athlon 800 MHz Memory: l l Minimum: 512 MB RAM Recommended: 1 GB RAM Video: l Minimum: 32 MB 3 D graphics processor with Hardware Transform and Lighting, such as an NVIDIA Ge. Force 2 class card or above l Recommended: 64 MB VRAM 3 D graphics processor with Vertex and Pixel Shader capability, such as an NVIDIA Ge. Force FX 5700 class card or above Sound: Direct. X-compatible sound card

System Requirements l System Requirements for Mac l l OS: Mac OS X 10. 3. 9 or newer Processor: l l l Memory: l l l Minimum: 933 MHz G 4/G 5 Recommended: 1. 8 GHz G 5/Intel Minimum: 512 MB RAM Recommended: 1 GB DDR RAM Video: l l Minimum: NVIDIA or ATI graphics processor with 32 MB VRAM Recommended: 64 MB VRAM

Installation l Original World of Warcraft must be installed first and fully updated l 5 CDs l Many updates need to be downloaded l Burning Crusade l 4 CDs l A few patch upgrades need to be download l May take a few hours

Expansion Feature Overview l l l l l New Zones New Races New Dungeons Level cap increased to 70 New arena-based Player vs. Player Ladder System 3 New Cities Flying Mounts New profession: Jewel crafting Socket items

Artwork of New Races Draenei Blood Elf

New Zone – The Outland

Player vs. Player Arena sizes: 2 vs. 2, 3 vs. 3, 5 vs. 5 l Win games to improve your team’s rating l Points are awarded each week based on your team’s rating l Turn in points for powerful weapons and armor l

New Dungeons and Raids l l Many new 5 -man dungeons to explore “Heroic Mode” dungeons l l Dungeons originally designed for lower levels are retuned for players at the level cap. Features harder encounters and upgraded loot. Raid size reduced from 40 to 25 in the expansion New high level armor sets found with in raid dungeons

Story Line "The Burning Crusade" refers to the Burning Legion's ongoing efforts to destroy life throughout the universe. l To date, the Burning Legion's exploits have been documented in Warcraft III and in our War of the Ancients novel trilogy. l As part of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, players are able to travel through the Dark Portal to confront the Legion on otherworldly battlefields. (From www. worldofwarcraft. com) l

Player’s Role l l Quest your way to level 70 Use professions to aid your characters success Improve characters weapons and armor In a party there are 3 basic roles l l l Tank: His job is to protect other party members by making the creatures attack him Healers: His job is to keep the party alive Damage dealers: Kill things as quickly as possible

Manual The Burning Crusade’s manual is only 20 pages long l Majority of game play is learned through in game tutorials and hints l

Sound and Music Each zone has its own music l Realistic background noises l Many “Bosses” have their own voiceovers that are triggered throughout a fight l

User Interface Overview Simple l Easy to find important information l Fully customizable l Blizzard supports and encourages players to develop custom “add-ons” to help game play and to customize their own interface. l

User Interface

Customized User Interface

Game Review l What’s fun about the expansion? l l l What’s bad about the expansion? l l l 2 v 2, 3 v 3, 5 v 5 Arena’s Many new challenging raid encounters Being able to fly makes for easier travel Same feeling as the original but with lots of new content to explore A complete fresh start, anything accomplished before the expansion doesn’t really matter. (This could be a good thing for some players) A lot of the graphics are reused from the original World of Warcraft Appropriate Audience l l The Burning Crusade is rated T for Teen 13 years +

Game Review (continued) l How does this game compare to other games in the same genre? l l Focus on interacting with other “live” players Similar leveling system found in many online roleplaying games Similar features of other online games (Quests, experience, leveling, killing monsters for experience, magic) Design mistakes and bugs l l There are bugs and mistakes found within the game But the game is constantly improving, many of the bugs are fixed with patches shortly after they are reported

Game Play Screen Shot

Screen Shots (Continued)

Summary l Pros l l Cons l l l Reuse of old graphics for creatures and armor Flying mounts only usable in the new zones Is the game worth purchasing? l l Lots of new content to explore Flying Mounts New Pv. P features (Arena system) Yes! Many hours/days/months of game play How could the game be improved? l l In my opinion, the game is overall very solid Fixing the little bugs that exist and creating new content is the best way the developers can improve the game.

The End l Any questions?