Gaming World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Review

I have been playing WoW since 9mths previous to the release of The Burning Crusade, here's my observations so far:

1) Levelling is a pleasue and all zones should be fully explored with as many quests as possible completed to help with the reputation grinding owith factions.

2) Normal 5mans are a pleasure, fun, reasonably fast learning curve with some thinking beyond pew pew and AOE.

3) 5 man heroics are nightmare, I would never use more than one person otuside my own guildmates or friends - theya re tough, challenging and unforgiving (akin to shadow labs and shattered halls heroic in TBC).

3a) Heroics require a big chunk of online time, they often feel like raids - LFG tool should be avoided at all costs for heroics, you are likely to burn through several emo-quitters when things go wrong (and they do, often). Players need to be sharp (consistently) and Blizzard should really think about tweaking the difficulty levels of these - right now PUG's are avoided, voice comms is a massive plus and they take too long, I like my WoW dungeons to take less than an hour - I do have a life outside Azeroth thank you.

4) Raids, enough content and variety with a nice difficulty level, should keep most of us entertained until the next content patch.

Rep and mats grinding is reasonably balanced and quite good fun, I find the new areas interesting, although Vash'jr has lost it's novelty now.

Summary, much better than Wrath and with some tweaking could be the best version ever.

 

Other than being paid to play, I'm not going back. Quest grinding and grinding raids for equipment is not my idea of fun. I did have some good laughs with world PVP tho, but that was only a small part of the game.

I'm more into Eve Online these days.

 

Owened by Activision so who wouldn't?

TBH The cata expansion added nothing of interest, It was the 4.0x patch that really shook things up. All the expansion gave was access to level 85 and new areas. After playing through to 85 (probably the best quest lines blizz have done so far) you really feel ripped off with the expansion. Every thing good that "cata" brought was added in the patch. Just roll a new toon and quest with the original game and pick up the expansions when needed. Those wanting to return should still be able to experience most of what was brought ie. revamped areas and quest lines without the expansion.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed the new areas, I've gone round and completed every cata quest now, getting well into the chains etc

 

cata is fun but ive played since release of the game from been hardcore to casual and back again from the world 1sts to the wipes on illidan with guilds that really shouldn't of reached him.

Raiding is as it always has been find a nice group of people and it becomes really fun and the challenge is correct. problem for most is they wont find this and will moan or suffer. Im in the lucky crowd i guess.

Levelling is a bit more fun now 1-60 was a drag before now its a blast quests are fun and different your not stuck in barrans as horde for 20 levels as you were in the old days. 60-70 was always quicker than 1-60 after changes.

Wow will always be a grind if you see gear as the be all and end all of wow. But Gear is a tool for raiders and should be used as such. Same in pvp gear just helps you succeed it wont make a bad player a good one.

gold is easy now you can make several 1000 gold a day with herbing or mining 2-400g a stack of herbs on nearly every server.

Most of the old grind is gone at least now you have a new grind if your doing pve Flasks require alot of mats currently and could be the biggest barrier for most

 

I made 23k herbing on release night... **** yeah

 

That's some narrow-minded thinking. A subscription model that is rewarding is different from a model that drains your money and in returns it gives less back. But that's what I think.

 

How exactly does WoW's subscription model 'drain' your money and in return give less back? You really need to just let your ridiculous claim die instead of digging a bigger and bigger hole.

 

HAHAHAHAHAHA You left wow because you didn't like the grind and went to eve online instead? hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha, you sir are funny.

 

I don't get it.

 

Sonofa, shut the **** up, this isn't a discussion about "OLOL MAH GAEMZ BETTER DAN URS"

go join the xbox vs ps3 fight, you'd fit in well.

Anyways, eVe is more like a waiting game not grinding as such.

 

I never said anything about MY GAEMZ IS DA BEST YO, YOU IS LIEK A NUB IF YOU DNT PLAY YO.

I meant more the fact that, EVE Online is a pure pure grind for the simple fact, that game is pure time spent = better. The more time you put in / longer time you've been a member the more skills you've research etc.

Wow on the other hand, yes its a grind to level, and then it's a grind to gear. But that's it... you can get on equal footing with a player again, in eve not so much.

Eve is vastly more hardcore than wow, hence the funny side of him quitting wow to then join a more hardcore game when he left in the first place because of a grind.

LIEK LOL FACE YO.

 

I tried WoW once, but gave it up quite quickly after struggling with the feeling of insignificance. Maybe I've played too many single player games, but the idea of dedicating my life to a game where not only could I never win, but the game itself didn't actually care how well I did, or even what I did, was a real turn off.

On the first quest, I had a strange sensation of six million other players going through the exact same motion, in the exact same place. It wouldn't matter how many times you cleared the corn field or whatever, it would never, ever be done. It was like being in purgatory - an endless plane with no beginning and no end, or some terrible torture laid out by Greek gods.

Zeus: "I will punish you for all eternity!"
Sisyphus: "Am I to roll a boulder up a hill forever more, never to reach the top?"
Zeus: "No, you are to play the first quest on WoW until it has been permenently completed"
Sisyphus: "Nooooo!!!!!!!"

 

With the new phased zones and quest lines in the "old" world, when you complete a quest, you have no made a difference - the world changes around you to reflect it.

Areas of Northrend are the same; when you take The Shadow Vault in Icecrown Citadel, for example, it turns into a friendly area with more quests from the NPCs you liberated in the run up to it and the big fight.

Every zone in the old world is like this now, and its much better for it.

 

Unless I am in a major city or in the leveling zones to get to 85, I feel like I am in an empty game. I can run around the Southshore area for hours and not see another player let alone participate in the world pvp-fest the area once provided. Instance groups are even more to the point and you hardly have time to zone in before the tank is off pulling everything in sight. Battlegrounds at the lower levels are about the same. Leveling seems much slower even with BOA equipment and the prices at the AH have gone wild. Mage glyphs (even the crappy ones) were over 100g per glyph, and there is seldom something in the AH that is worth buying that you can't get dropped in an instance. I still have fun with the game but I don't feel like I am playing with millions upon millions of other people like all the hype would leave me to believe.

 

ker-ching!

 

I've always had a problem with the term MMORPG. For technical reasons, if you did something in the world, nothing really changed. Phasing spawns in WotLK helped a good deal, but now the landscape can be phased too, things can get truly epic and you can actually, you know, play a ROLE in a changing world! Actions finally have visible consequences!

And I don't have time to play it anymore! ARRRRGRGHHGHGHH!

 

ONLY A 9 ARE YOU NUTS!?!?!?

 

Broken logic is broken. Define a derogatory label as being something that people will deny, and you can slap it on anyone and it will instantly work. The test of addiction is in action, not a person's claims. Don't assume you've made a point by noting that addicts always deny addiction. (Apart from anything else, that isn't true - plenty of addicts can admit it.)

To put it more clearly, the addiction accusation boils down to this:

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affirming_the_consequent)

You could easily mix this around to display how stupid the assumption is:

I don't mind anything else you said really, but you shouldn't use that kind of broken logic to try and accuse people of being something they're not.

Also, for balance, the other side of the Cataclysm coin:



I will buy it eventually, but I'm conscious that a lot of this went on with all the pre-orders, when people didn't even know if it would stink or not

 

I am thoroughly enjoying it and I think the 9 is deserved.

A note on the monthly subs. I look at it this way, it costs what 10-15 quid for a dvd which will give you entertainment for 2 hours or maybe even 10 if you REALLY like it. For the same or less (I don't pay in pounds) you pay your monthly WoW sub and you can get 2 hours a night EVERY NIGHT (life permitting) for 30/31 days. If you are entertained by the game, then this is money well spent, right?
Funny thing is, people don't think of comparing TV or a DVD or a game for your PS3/xbox/single-player PC game and put them in the same bracket. They should be in my opinion as it's all just simply entertainment.