Pew. Pew. Pew.

Gertbee about to take some target practice on the latest spammer recruits. Either that or it’s a family with horrible creativity in names.

Remember this thing?

I still don’t know how the Dalaran we know today fit inside of that bubble. Took this screenshot back on December 13, 2006.

Click for bigginess.

This was from the end of a quest in Uldum. The prisoners were trying to escape, but they needed to look like the other creatures. Budd is up to his old tricks again. You may remember Budd from such places as Grizzly Hills and Kelp’thar Forest.

Your new boss

There are a ton of great quests in Cataclysm. Blizzard definitely went all out. I really enjoyed the Worgen starting area. The quest line there felt epic and the story was well written. The Goblin starting area was great. They made it really fun with a lot of nice little hidden gems, like the Goblin Supermodels in Kezan having a gasoline fight (ala Zoolander.) The quests in both areas were unique and kept you busy without the repetition we have been used to.

The only other starting areas I’ve ran through were the Trolls and Gnomes since I wanted to see how those panned out. I enjoyed both of those, too, for different reasons.

I just recently ran through the Undead starting area. It’s always been one of my favorites. I like the atmosphere of those areas. Very creepy, with just a touch of life. The other reason is that is was the first area I ever ran in WoW, back in 2005 with Sideshow. It’ll always have that nostalgic feel to it.

I like the changes they’ve made, aesthetically, to Tirisfal Glades. Brill is much nicer now, not only with “new” Undead architecture, but with many more facilities and even a flight path. The quests in Deathknell have more to do with life after Arthas’ reign and Sylvanas building an Undead army. Once you’re out of Deathknell, a lot of the quests are similar to what they were, but they are much easier to run through now. Everything is laid out better and the flow was really appreciated.

Silverpine is also completely overhauled. The Sepulcher has received a complete makeover and is now a full-fledged Undead center of command. I really liked the Silverpine quests because they bring you more into the Undead’s history and their march into the future. You’re working directly with Sylvanas for most of the area while fighting back the Worgen from Gilneas. It makes you feel like you’re directly affecting the outcome of that area. Great job on the phasing and quest design there.

Meet your new friend.

Once you’re done with Silverpine, you go into Hillsbrad. In my opinion, Hillsbrad has, hands down, the best quests in Cataclysm. There is no doubt in my mind. I can honestly say, I’ve never laughed so hard at a quest in WoW. Starting with the first quest you get, Welcome to the Machine, you get to be a quest giver and you meet three very interesting (very real, some might say) NPCs. I can’t give away anything, otherwise it’s not as fun. Just go do it. (Otherwise, you can be a party-pooper and read the dialogue on the Wowhead link.)

Once that’s  done you will get to meet your questers (questees?) again on your travels through Hillsbrad. The area is also very well-done. No more dealing with (a high number of) Alliance gankers (if you’ve ever tried to quest here on a PvP server.) The Alliance has officially been removed from the area, at least town-wise.

It’ll take a lot to overthrow that line of quests from the throne, but I’ll keep trying the new areas. What was your favorite quest/quest line so far?

I’m really enjoying it. It’s not extremely exciting by any means, but they did a good job with it. It gets you to see the world and to learn the history and lore in a fun way. Think of it as exciting as fishing to level up, but it’s relaxing. A lot of flying is involved, so you can do something else while you’re playing. Another benefit to archaeology is the chance of a rare item and there are a bunch of them. I got pretty lucky a last week when I saw that the current project I was unlocking was the Fossilized Hatchling, which is adorable. It was my first rare archaeology item, so I got an achievement for it and a new title, Assistant Professor.

But, then I found the item that I haven’t really seen on our server. It’s the Fossilized Raptor, which is a skeletal raptor mount. Since I unlocked it yesterday I have only seen one other person with it. I’m going to enjoy showing it off while I can.

Rawr..

Us.

The other new item we procured, though not inside of a virtual game, it the Microsoft Kinect. We picked it up last night using a combination of gift cards, cash, and trades. I’m pretty sure there was a math problem involved. We also picked up Harmonix’s Dance Central since Syrana wanted it. We don’t have a ton of time played on it, yet, but so far I am really impressed. It’s extremely good at picking up your movements without much, if any, configuration. It’s really solid while playing Dance Central and besides learning how well it works I also learned how deep my white man runs in regards to dancing.

We’ll have more of an in-depth review once we get to play with it more, but color me impressed off the bat.

In the last few years, I started paying more attention to movie and game music. With the new consoles and more powerful computers, they’ve been able to make much stronger music, though I do enjoy some MIDI and 8-bit beeps and boops, too. Fortunately, it has also been brought into the mainstream with  shows like Videos Games Live.

I was able to hear the WoW music more in-depth after Syrana bought the Collector’s Edition of WotLK. We actually used to use that CD when we fell asleep. We also now have the original soundtrack and the Burning Crusade soundtrack, plus she plans on getting the Cataclysm CE once she has time to play again. I really enjoy a few songs from the soundtracks.

Here are a few of my favorite songs from the soundtracks. (You can listen to them in the player below.)

1. My favorite is the one on the Burning Crusade soundtrack named “The Sin’dorei” though you may know it as the music used in Eversong Woods. It’s very peaceful, but with some dark cello parts. It makes it sound like everything is wonderful, but there is a darkness just beneath the surface. Similar to the Blood Elves themselves, I guess.
2. Another one I enjoy from BC is called “Azuremyst Isle.” It’s not hard to tell where that one is from. This one has sort of a Native American feel to it with the wind instruments. It’s very calming and peaceful.
3. I also enjoy the music from the WotLK cinematic, which they call “Arthas, My Son.” It’s very dark and brooding and it gave me chills while watching the cinematic and hearing that beautiful voice come in.
4. Two others that I enjoy from WotLK are the songs from both Howling Fjord and Grizzly Hills. The first one having the same name as the zone, “Howling Fjord” and the second one named “Totems of the Grizzlemaw“

I hope to listen to more of the Cataclysm soundtrack. I already like a lot of the music I’m hearing while playing. I especially like the re-tooled Northern Barrens music and the Worgen/Gilneas music. Listen to the songs below:

Western Plaguelands

Rebuilding Andorhal

The rest of the zone is pretty well done, also. It flows very nicely and the addition of flight paths is great (as it is with all zones now.)

Stonetalon Mountains

I did the STM quests on my new Troll Mage. I really liked this area since you would do a few quests and  then get a promotion in Overlord Krom’gar’s army. With every promotion, you can buy a new piece of gear from his quartermaster. Most of this epic quest line is just normal killing of Alliance and other random NPCs, but towards the end there is a few major quests involving some grim subject matter and infighting between members of the Horde. In the end, without giving it away, it was pretty intense and it actually makes Garrosh Hellscream seem like less of an ass. Props to Blizzard on that quest line.

More posts will come as I play with more of the new content and additions.

Things are very busy right now IRL.  I’m used to short breaks and hiatuses, but this is the longest I’ve gone.  I’m on a pretty epic real life quest and I’ll resubscribe when I have the time and attention to give to the game.  But right now, I’m just not playing enough to justify continuously paying for it.  My account runs out on Tuesday.  I actually went in a few weeks ago to cancel and thought I might pop in a bit before the end of my sub… but nope.

Will I complete Loremaster of Kalimdor before Cataclysm drops? Who knows.  I still would like to…

Will I be back for Cataclysm? Hell yeah, but maybe not right away.  It depends how it lines up with the arrival of babygirl.

Do I play anything anymore or am I just a fuddy duddy now?  I still play some games.  Once the weather gets cooler I’ll spend more time in the computer room again rather than loungin’ on the couch with the laptop.  Otherwise my gaming staples right now are on my iPhone: Words with Friends, Carcassone, and Civilization Revolution.