World of Warcraft

[Razola]

I'm currently in the stress test, because I'm a cool kid. The graphical details are incredible. It's 6am right now, and I'm just about to go to bed, and that's because I physically can't play WoW and longer. It's that good.

Some screenies:

First (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v126/Razola/WoWSit.jpg\)

Me sitting. Inns can bring your character to a Rested state which gives you a temporary exp. boost when killing stuff. It can take a while, thus the chairs.

Second (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v126/Razola/WoWIF.jpg)

Discovered Ironforge indeed. Need to get some inside screens; it looks amazing.

Third (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v126/Razola/WoWTrain.jpg)

A free train/tram allows quick travel between the biggest cities of the Humans (Stormwind) and Dwarves (Ironforge). Very cool.

Fourth (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v126/Razola/WoWTheOnlyWaytoFly.jpg)

Being a Night Elf, I am trapped on an island. You could take a ship, but...

[ryandude713]

jesus tittie-****ing christ
i seriously want to play that game now
i just hope my compter can handle it
and if its bewtter than coh, then ill have to quit college

[PNT510]

Any word on how well lower end PCs will be able to handle it, because blizard always seems to make games that work on a large varity of machines.

[Razola]

My machine is a Radeon 9600 XT, P4 2Ghz, and 512 megs of RAM. Runs smoothly at 1024 x 7xx res. The only real problems are when entering new areas, especially big cities like Stormwind. It'll slowdown as it loads up the city, but then play fine. This does, however, make Gryphon rides like power-point presentations. Keeping up with the barrage of news zones is normally too much for my computer to handle. No crashing, you just don't get the nice view. I bet I could fix this by lowering my resolution.

Internet wise, Blizzard is making localized servers and so far I've had little lag-related problems (and my internet is far from perfect). There's also a nice lag-meter on the interface that gives you an at-a-glance look at the current server load (green, yellow, red) and you can hover your pointer over it for a precise number.

Open beta starts next week, and is open to everyone. Well, technically there is a maximum number Blizz is allowing in, but if you sign up the first day you should have no problems. If the November 23rd release date rings true, that's a solid two weeks of free WoW.

Servers are divvied by time zones (for America anyway. Due to Blizzard's stance on reducing lag, things are limited to continents.). I'm on Test Server 4 on the Eastern Standard Time zone (it's PvP).

[Craig]

This game rocks. Hard. Its a lot more fun than any other MMORPG i've played.

Here are some screenshots I took. I'll take more, later.

http://img121.exs.cx/img121/7076/Armondselfportrait.th.jpg (http://img121.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img121&image=Armondselfportrait.jpg)
A self portait of my undead warrior: Armond

this char is on: Test Server 4 (EST)

http://img121.exs.cx/img121/7594/Ayriincamp.th.jpg (http://img121.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img121&image=Ayriincamp.jpg)
my human rogue sitting in a camp after brutally slaying an elite gnome named Hogger.

This char is on: Test Server 6 (central)

Raz I was going to play with you but already I knew lots of people who decided to play on the central server because its more equal in fairness to those between pst / est for time/server location etc :)

[Razola]

I'm level 22 Night Elf Priest on Test Server 4 (Razola). I have other alts but they are just placeholders and I doubt I'll use them during the open beta.

New patch was just released, and it adds racial traits among other things. Servers are down at the moment, though.

And Craig, just to let you know, if I ever see Armond I will personally kick his dirty Horde ass.

EDIT: And you're lucky Undead are Humanoids now.

[Last Exile]

If I do get in, I'm going as a Night Elf Druid.

[ryandude713]

if i get it im gonna be a dark templar or a zergling
wait what?

[Razola]

If I do get in, I'm going as a Night Elf Druid.
If you do, hop on Test Server 4. That's where all the cool people go.

And Druids are pretty good from what I have seen. Besides the coolness of turning into animals, they have a number of buffs and nature spells. And Night Elves turn into wisps when they die now, so you go 50% faster to your corpse.

And there is a way to get zerglings as pets. I saw a mini-Diablo yesterday, and there are files in the WoW folder for zerglings. I believe it's obtained via Collector's Edition.

EDIT: Sign ups start later today! While there's no rush (I doubt Blizzard will run out of spots on the first day), it's best to get it now rather than miss out.

[ryandude713]

are there any classes that specialize in debuffing?

[Razola]

You might want to take a look at Warlocks.

[Craig]

and if its bewtter than coh, then ill have to quit college
Time to drop out.



And there is a way to get zerglings as pets. I saw a mini-Diablo yesterday, and there are files in the WoW folder for zerglings. I believe it's obtained via Collector's Edition.
.

Yep, you can also get a little panda, too :) I think there are others! The inclusion to test collector's edition pet means that there is undoubtedly either going to be a character wipe, or a character reset. Blizzard probably wouldn't like people complaining / knowing about people that didn't get the CE, but have their special little pet anyways.

Anyways: I have some more screenshots.

all TPMers should be playing on the same server come retail
the open beta doesn't matter all that much.

http://img36.exs.cx/img36/3919/defenderofstormwind.th.jpg (http://img36.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img36&image=defenderofstormwind.jpg)
The defender of Stormwind guard.

http://img36.exs.cx/img36/544/paladin3.th.jpg (http://img36.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img36&image=paladin3.jpg)
A fairly high level Paladin I saw. Looked kinda cool.

http://img36.exs.cx/img36/6302/tourist-alleria.th.jpg (http://img36.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img36&image=tourist-alleria.jpg)
Me acting like an asian tourist infront of the massive statue of Alleria.

http://img36.exs.cx/img36/1226/stormwind.th.jpg (http://img36.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img36&image=stormwind.jpg)
The first thing you see upon entering Stormwind.

http://img36.exs.cx/img36/8218/griffon4.th.jpg (http://img36.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img36&image=griffon4.jpg)
http://img38.exs.cx/img38/1342/griffon1.th.jpg (http://img38.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img38&image=griffon1.jpg)
My character on a griffon.

[ryandude713]

where do i sign up?
how much does it cost?
and how big is the download?

[Razola]

1. You could sign up at Fileplanet, but they have already run out of Beta keys.

2. Open Beta is free.

3. The download is 2.5GB, though I'm not sure if they are including the newest patch (another 20 megs) with it or not. If they are, then it's a 2.7 gig download.

[Tainted]

Craig convinced me to get it last night... It's at 95% right now, and I'm making my account. Looks like tonight there'll be a new Human Warrior... Fear my abilities and whatnot.

Adieu,
Zak Hunter

[Craig]

Here is some of my "artistic" screenshots taken in WoW

I am WoW Mastar photographar!

Ironforge shots
http://img10.exs.cx/img10/7462/artifact2.th.jpg (http://img10.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img10&image=artifact2.jpg)
http://img10.exs.cx/img10/3397/artifact1.th.jpg (http://img10.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img10&image=artifact1.jpg)
@ Explorer's Guild Museum
http://img16.exs.cx/img16/6201/ironforge.th.jpg (http://img16.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img16&image=ironforge.jpg)
@ The Great Forge (looks cool no?)
http://img16.exs.cx/img16/5107/kingbronzebeard.th.jpg (http://img16.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img16&image=kingbronzebeard.jpg)
@ The High Seat (thats the king of the dwarves btw)

http://img16.exs.cx/img16/713/selfportait-ayri.th.jpg (http://img16.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img16&image=selfportait-ayri.jpg)
http://img16.exs.cx/img16/7831/dockside.th.jpg (http://img16.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img16&image=dockside.jpg)
self portraiture :rolleyes:

http://img16.exs.cx/img16/1226/stormwind.th.jpg (http://img16.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img16&image=stormwind.jpg)
Stormwind :)
http://img16.exs.cx/img16/1031/westfall.th.jpg (http://img16.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img16&image=westfall.jpg)
View from the Westfall docks

You know when you are poor when your idea of "digital photography" is taking screenshots in a video game and then altering them to look better on photoshop.

[Razola]

I just snagged myself a copy. My server is unknown at the moment, but I'll probably be on an Eastern PvP server.

[Craig]

PLAY ON ILLIDAN SERVER IF YOU ARE ALLIANCE.

Sorry for the size.

Hey Raz, any one else... Illidan is a central server but the central servers and the eastern servers are in the same building, much like how the pacific and mountain servers are housed in the same building

... so the only difference is having the in-game clock being an hour behind.

[Razola]

I'm on Warsong as Raniras and Stormrage is the home of my alt Gritmor.

I had to play ASAP. So if you got a problem blame Blizzard for not giving us names until zero hour.

[Austrian ViceMaster Alex]

Awesome game, loved the beta. Graphically very outdated (no surprise with Blizzard's countless delays) but at least it runs on your average computer on full specs. The only real disappointment was that it didn't do anything for the genre, nothing new, nothing we haven't seen elsewhere before.

It's also the right game for MMORPG newbs, easy headstart, easy to play and handle, no real challenge anywhere till you reach the mid 20s in level.

Too bad I can't play it yet, there's no release date for Europe yet.

[Razola]

WoW looks beutiful; I have no idea what you're talking about. It's got a very detailed style to it and runs circles around the painfully generic graphics of it's contemporaries. I should also mention that development time has no bearing on end product (see Half-Life 2, which took longer to make and yet has some of the finest visuals for the year).

And Blizzard isn't normally known for innovation: just look at their previous work. They take what's established and refine the hell out of it.

[Heald]

This isn't released in the UK until like the 25th February, same as CoH.

This is the first MMORPG that I have seriously wanted (Planetside doesn't count since it is a MMOFPS). The screenshots look masturbatingly awesome, and it looks kick-ass. I went to the website last night to check out the features and it sounds in-bloody-credible.

I want this.

[Austrian ViceMaster Alex]

WoW looks beutiful; I have no idea what you're talking about.

So does King's Quest 7 and still it's not state-of-the-art and neither is WoW.

[PNT510]

WoW doesn't have the most powerful technolgy so it can be used by people who have less than great PCs.