cataclysm posts

Azeroth gets the short end of the stick almost constantly. Huge demonic invasions, corrupting eldritch horrors, self-righteous extraterrestrial deities, and insane world-shaping dragons are just a few of the crises that the humble inhabitants of this important world face on a regular basis. This trailer for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm gives a glimpse into the changes that the last one (dragon) has wrought on the world since revealing itself once more, and there's a lot. Things such as Thousand Needles being flooded, Orgrimmar being orcs only, and the ancient city of Uldum opening up are only a smattering of the new content given in this expansion. The trailer doesn't really go into a lot of depth, but it gives a quick overview of everything new and changed in the environment of Cataclysm.

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Blizzard knows how to craft some truly stunning cinematics. First there's the cinematic for the start of Starcraft 2, and now comes the intro movie for the new Cataclysm expansion pack. Interestingly enough, Blizzard worked the cinematic into a TV ad. Granted, it's not like they need to, given that World of Warcraft is the largest MMO ever made, but there's always room to expand, even if you rake in millions of dollars each month.

The cinematic in question shows a very irate Deathwing in some sort of underground forge, complaining about how he's so angry and pained and whatnot. Considering he is having molten steel hammered into his flesh, it's understandable that he's pissed. Queue footage of natural disasters befalling many different areas of Azeroth, and a finally in Stormwind. That's the entirety of it. The lines are cheesy, but Deathwing's been underground for so long that we can't expect much from him.

Those waiting for Blizzard's next World of Warcraft expansion don't have to wait much longer. Cataclysm has been announced for a December 7th release date, and soon players will be roaming and flying through new and revamped areas of Azeroth. The expansion is retailing for $40, with the collector's edition (comes with a bunch of goodies, like an art book and in-game pets) retailing for $80. The straight version will be available in most stores as well as through digital distribution, while the collector's edition will only be retail. We're sure we don't need to explain to you what World of Warcraft is, or even what the expansion is about, so we'll leave it at that.

Do we even need to write up this interview? This is World of Warcraft. It's the most popular game on the planet. Naturally, the game director talks about plans for the Cataclysm expansion, such as the new zones, new races, and flying mounts in old world. Nothing particularly new, but it's still nice to hear it directly from the director's lips. It's also nice to hear that the expansion won't cause a massive issue for new players trying to make it in the radically changed old world.

Most of the time we really don't care about new trademarks filed by game companies. Quite frankly, filing trademarks is easy; it's making the games that's the hard part. However we will make a small exception for this mention of a new trademark from Blizzard Entertainment who seems to milk its previous IPs (Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo) for all they are worth (which is quite a bit actually).

According to game trademark-hunting web site superannuation, Blizzard has put in a trademark for "Catalysm" that will cover "computer games, paper-based products, and online games". Our sister site WoW.com hints that the name could be used for an upcoming World of Warcraft expansion pack or it could be used for . . . something else. Anyway, as we said, it's not the title that's really important . . is it?