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World Of Warcraft Battlechest (PC/Mac)
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5/5 |
Reasonable value
(August 10, 2008) |
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The games themselves have been well covered in other reviews, but one thing to bear in mind is that they are constantly evolving, having new content added, being adjusted in various ways. Including guide books in this box is nice for complete beginners, but they are largely out of date or incomplete. The Burning Crusade guide glosses over the bulk of that expansion and only covers the first zone in any great detail. If you want to explore the vast wealth of information to be found about this game then you really need to be using any of the myriad online websites about it (preferably not the ones selling gold and harbouring trojans and viruses!) or the official game discussion forums on wow-europe.com.
Unlike the original releases, this box set comes with a single DVD for each game rather than upto 5 CDs, so installing it is much simpler and less time consuming.
What they don't tell you is that the version on the discs is not the current one being played. There is no way it could be, it evolves so fast. At the moment World of Warcraft is at version 2.4.2 and, having just reinstalled the game from the Battlechest discs, I am now having to download a 1.1Gb (yes, Gb) patch. Depending on your connection speed, that could be quite a wait before you can play! |
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5/5 |
Awesome... although incredibly time-consuming!
(January 24, 2008) |
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Where to start? How about the the original Warcraft game and how awesome it was. It was an innovative Strategy game that was launched back in the 90's, with a great storyline and awesome missions. You even had the option of choosing the human (alliance) or the orcs (horde) races. The second edition "Tides of Darkness" had enhanced graphics and gameplay, and came out during the same decade. It and was a blast. The 21st century version of the game came out as Warcraft III, followed by an expansion. The most incredible features of Warcraft III included awesome 3D graphics, new races (dwarves, undead, elves...), "neutral" armies/enemies, online play, and most importantly, as you should know, the usage of heroes - which I believed sparked the idea of creating an online RPG (Role Playing Game) with just heroes... --> which is WOW!
World of Warcraft is enormous... in fact it could almost be considered too big. I remember reading a review where someone mentioned the size of the world of WOW territories put together amasses to the size of Switzerland. Just give it a thought for a moment. Switzerland - the whole country!! Whoever embarks on this RPG adventure should be aware that this is not a game that can be finished. That is the whole point of online RPG's (MMORPG - Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game). There is no set "objective" in this game, other than enjoying it, and that depends on what sort of gamer/person you are. This means you might find different ways of enjoying this game compared to other people, but rest assured there is an infinite variety of options in WOW to achieve that.
What I enjoy most is exploring every single corner of the land in order to reveal what the map looks like. In doing this, you will encounter roads and paths full of different creatures and monsters leading to a variety of caves, mountains, wells, villages, cities, watch posts, houses, and an ongoing etcetera. Eventually, you will come across NPC's (Non Player Characters) who sell goods and give quests. Upon completing quests, you will gain experience, and upon gaining experience you will become stronger. Quests can be anything from a humble task of carrying goods form one place to the other, to killing a specific number monsters. This is a rewarding experience as you will get money and/or items (weapons, armor, etc) that evolve your character in skills and performance. Ultimately, you will interact with other players and will eventually form a virtual friendship with them, help each other in quests and trading items.
This is all too good though. The problem for most users who are "in love" with the game is that they spend too much time on it, literally. Some people I know have spent so much time on it because they could not get unhooked, that they ended up losing touch of friends and living an unhealthy lifestyle: they slept very little and in wrong patterns because they'd stay up all night, they'd eat very badly (mostly microwaveable meals or take-aways because they could not be bothered to spend time cooking) and they did not exercise whatsoever. I've even heard of some people ending their relationships over this game.
When I started, I had the 14-day trial on the original edition of WOW, and on the 8th day I quit. I saw it was becoming too addictive for me as I wanted to improve my character as much as I could and would try to do every single quest. I found it hard to stop playing as there is always something to do right in front of you, like killing that one last raptor which will finish a quest, or mine that copper vein over there... you don't realise bit everything in WOW leads to something else, and by the time you realise you'll have played for 2 hours and not even done something you wanted to do in the first place.
I have rejoined because 5 of my best friends are playing it and have invited me to experience playing this game with friends, which is supposedly more fun as you know the people you are playing with (and there is no trust issue).
I think the trick in WOW is to enjoy every bit of land and every moment you play. If you just aim at becoming level 70 you will not enjoy the game and by doing this you will have missed the whole purpose of any game. Do not hurry towards achieving higher levels by boring yourself with quests and actions you would not do normally. Do not belong to a group/clan that uses you or does not give you game satisfaction. Do not forget you are in front of a computer!
Cutting a long story short: have fun, enjoy the game in your own way, do not play too much otherwise you'll end up boring and stressing yourself out of it and end up angry. Do not worry about your level as there will always be someone better than you and there is nothing you can do about that - just comfort yourself in the knowledge that, probably unlike them, you've got a life!
Regarding this battlechest, i think it is incredibly good value! it comes with two awesome and really helpful fun-to-read strategy guides too!
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5/5 |
Why Play an imitation?
(January 24, 2008) |
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The CEO of the company that makes EVE online recently said "... the reason we developed EVE was because there were so many World Of Warcraft clones out there that we wanted to go in a different direction, if you want to play a World of Warcraft type game, why not play World of Warcraft?.." So there you have it.. forget the clones play the original and still the best, World Of Warcraft.. as voted for by the CEO of EVE online ;) it doesnt get better than that ! |
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5/5 |
Brilliant value
(January 05, 2008) |
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This is an absolute bargain. As many have said before this would cost over £30 individually and is sold for £25 in the shops.
Just to note: The games come on DVD-Roms so make sure you have a DVD player on your PC. The two game guides are very helpful and the whole things is quite compact really.
Whether or not this game is for you is hard to say, i love it and have been a fan for a while, though i didn't used to like RPG's.
In my opinion it has something for everyone, and the quest system means if you play it for an hour a week or an hour a day there is always something to do. It can be addictive but thats a sign of a truly great game.
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5/5 |
WoW indeed!
(December 13, 2007) |
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World of Warcraft has become famous, and in some circles infamous, for being a highly addictive game. This pack contains both the original game and the first expansion, giving you full access to the game. Also included are Strategy Guides for both games, which is a very welcome addition.
Amazon currently sells the base game and the expansion for £9.98 each, making this pack cheaper to buy, plus you get the guides throw in effectively for free making it a very worthwhile buy.
If you've never played WoW before then I suggest heading to their website, where they offer a 10 day trial. Make the most of those 10 days to get a feel for the different races and classes, then buy this pack to continue playing for the best price.
Apparently, WoW has over 7 million registered users. That many people can't be wrong, so give it a go and see if you don't enjoy it yourself. |
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