The Burning Crusade: AKA Midnight Madness

01-16-2006

Sort of a bland day isn't it? Not much happens on January 16th. The holidays have ended, you have your credit card bill by now and realize you can't afford a vacation anymore, work has started full tilt again, and all the good games released before the holiday rush. Amirite?

Well, usually I am, but not so this year. Blizzard Entertainment has launched The Burning Crusade, the first expansion to their record breaking MMO. If you have played WoW since release as some of us have, you have done every last thing there is to do in Azeroth over the past 26 months. You are either devastatingly bored, or you quit.

The Burning Crusade offers new zones, 10 new levels and spells, new Battleground, flying mounts, and wait for it... PHAT LOOTS! So as any addict in need of immediate gratification, I headed down to my local EBGames outlet at 11:25pm last night and got in line... with about 300 other geeks who couldn't wait 6 hours to buy the expansion at a reasonable hour.

I quickly upgraded my CD keys for my wife and I, knowing full well that the Account Management system was about to get owned in the coming storm, then proceeded to install the game. After an hour long 2.5MB download, I was IN!

My first experience in Outlands did not last long, but what a job Blizzard has done. I really have never seen anything like it in gaming before. The graphics, the detail, the smooth transition from release to expansion... simply amazing, and at a standard only seen once prior in my long gaming career... 11/23/2003, World of Warcraft launch day.

I grabbed a few new enchanting recipes, set my hearth to Honor Hold, and logged out a very happy Gnome. What adventures await in this uncharted land? What horrors lurk in the depths of this war ravaged terrain? What treasure shall be uncovered and at what cost?

To say I am excited about The Burning Crusade is a mild understatement. I don't remember ever feeling this giddy and lightheaded in my entire gaming career (although that could just be the lack of sleep and 12 cups of coffee...) and my guild seems more focused and hungry for success then we ever have. I'll keep you posted...