I really, really, really don't like the Tree of Life change.

New armor class stuff from MMO-Champion:

This may be the single greatest thing ever added to the game.

SHARKS WITH LASERS BEAMS
COMEHERE CURNY

lol

Wow, talk about jumping the shark.

The Stockades is getting completely revamped in Cataclysm. There will be three wings, human, elemental, and gnoll.

And the boss of the gnoll wing is Hogger.

Can't wait to see the new Naxx!

/sarcasm

They're going back over all of the old instances to make them fit with the Cataclysm.

Stratholme is another that's getting some big changes, it's basically being split into two different dungeons with separate level ranges.

And all of the old instances will have the quest givers located either right outside or right inside.

Mini-Deathwing:

Nice. I'd like that, if I don't have to pay for it.

Another vanity pet, this one looks like mummified version of Thing:



Might want to turn the volume down on this one, the music is fairly annoying.

How do you get these pets, Rankin?

A very interesting bit of lore:

What! Did you see how that hand walked? On Two fingers. Not like Thing from the addam's family, which walked on all 5 and was really creepy. lame.

Finally!

And a couple more pets:

Fossilized Hatchling and Deweaponized Mechanical Companion.

They're starting to put in the Guild reward stuff and it looks like the Dark Phoenix Mount will be a part of it.

There's also new loading screens:

Kalimdor
Eastern Kingdoms
Outland
Northrend

The Tol Barad rewards are in as well as some new relic slot items for the various classes that use them.

Also, I'm really hoping the Loot-A-Rang makes it live.

And the 310% Riding Skill will cost 5000 gold. If you already have a 310% mount, you get the training for free. What it does is boost the speed of all your 280% mounts to 310% speed.

IRVINE, Calif., Aug 17, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE)

Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced plans for a limited-release Collector's Edition of World of Warcraft(R): Cataclysm(TM), the third expansion for the world's most popular subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game,* World of Warcraft. The special Collector's Edition package, which will only be available at retail stores, will include the following exclusive bonus items in addition to the game disc:

-- Art of the Cataclysm art book, featuring 176 pages of never-before-seen images from the archives of the Blizzard Entertainment cinematics department and the World of Warcraft development team, as well as progressive visuals from multiple stages of development.

-- Exclusive in-game pet: he may not be a breaker of worlds just yet, but Lil' Deathwing will still proudly accompany heroes on their struggle to save Azeroth from his much, much larger counterpart.

-- Behind-the-scenes DVD with over an hour of developer interviews and commentaries, as well as a special Warcraft(R) retrospective examining the rich gaming history of the Warcraft universe.

-- Soundtrack featuring 10 epic new tracks from Cataclysm, including exclusive bonus tracks.

-- Special-edition mouse pad depicting Deathwing menacing the ravaged continents of Azeroth.

-- World of Warcraft Trading Card Game cards, including a 60-card starter deck from the Wrathgate series, two extended-art cards, and two Collector's Edition-exclusive hero cards, marking the first appearance of goblin and worgen heroes in the TCG.

The first two World of Warcraft expansions, The Burning Crusade(R) and Wrath of the Lich King(R), each shattered PC game sales records upon their release. In Cataclysm, the face of Azeroth will be forever altered by the return of the corrupted Dragon Aspect Deathwing. Players will explore once-familiar areas of the world that have now been reshaped by the devastation and filled with new adventures. In an effort to survive the planet-shattering cataclysm, two new playable races -- worgen and goblins -- will join the struggle between the Alliance and the Horde. As players journey to the new level cap of 85, they'll discover newly revealed locations, acquire new levels of power, and come face to face with Deathwing in a battle to determine the fate of the world.

The beta test for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is currently underway. To set up a Battle.net account and sign up for a chance to participate, please visit the official Battle.net website at http://www.battle.net.

The World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Collector's Edition will be available on DVD-ROM for Windows(R) XP/Windows Vista(R)/Windows(R) 7 and Macintosh(R) at a suggested retail price of $79.99. The release date and other details for the game will be announced in the months ahead. For more information on World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, please visit the official website at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/cataclysm.

http://www.wow.com/2010/08/17/cataclysm ... announced/


Who didn't see that coming?

Oh good, it's cheaper than the SC2: CE

Now they just need to show off the Blizzcon reward.

Also: This is the mount for the Cataclysm Glory of the Hero and this is the Cataclysm Glory of the Raider mount.

hahah same shit different expan for rewards. Oh well, what can you do and stuff. I hope there is some new feature worth playing the game for again.

If you haven't heard about it yet, it probably doesn't exist. More of the same is all I see.

A quick quest chain in what's left of the Badlands:

More of the same is not necessarily a bad thing. We are talking about the most successful MMO ever after all. Not sure what they could really do that would be an actually new feature. They are not adding a new class but they are revamping all existing classes. They are adding new races but that's just different skins. New quests but that's been done before. Updated graphics but that's also been done before. New UI features? What can't you get in the UI community that they could possible come up with? Other MMO's are still years behind this game in terms of a complete package of playability, content, features, etc. If you're looking for something completely different it will be hard to find that.

Not saying that there aren't features from other games that they couldn't borrow from but it seems like it would have to be something major that would change everything otherwise it's almost certain to be "more of the same". Imagine if they implemented collision and the melee system from age of conan for instance. That might be cool, but would also completely change the game mechanics and they would have to redesign every encounter in the game for it (no more stacking in one spot, every melee on the same side, etc.). I guess player and guild housing would be different and would give them something new to give away as cheesy rewards other than pets. I wouldn't mind if they went down the path of random world changes based on some global events.. like seasonal snow/rain/drought or maybe the scourge take over towns/zones periodically. But that's all eye candy for the most part.

I know! They need to invent artificial intelligence and create "ai bots" of all the deities in their lore and let them duke it out against one another while we try to weave in and out of their plots against one another. With "ai bots" that assault each others strongholds and take them over. Completely AI driven quests. And maybe enough randomness in each instance that you can't possibly farm it, you need to just be good at dungeon crawling every time.

Guild houses and player housing would at least give me something new to possibly want to try out. As it is now, there's nothing NEW that wants me want to come back, other than playing as a goblin. And even then, what's the point? Just to change my race? Can't I just pay to have my race changed? When did DKs come out? And no new classes have been released since then?

I don't like bashing WoW because there is no denying that the game is still pretty awesome at what it does. But for me, it has just worn its welcome. I see nothing that wants me to come back. The same problems I had with the game still exist and will continue to exist.