E3 2006: Waiting for WoW

Tomorrow night I'll be flying out to Los Angeles for E3. I've been over the floor plans and made some plans of my own. Last year we didn't make it through all of the South Hall in the first day. I've been playing a lot of WoW lately, so I'd like to check out Blizzard first thing. I'd guess they'll get a substantial chunk of the Vivendi booth (1224) in the South Hall. The big news expected from them is what's coming up with the Burning Crusade expansion. The Horde will get the Blood Elves and the Alliance will get a new race as well - the new race is expected to be announced at E3 2006. These things often show up a day or two before in a press release, so it could be tomorrow or the day after... keep an eye on their town hall and it should pop up there. Or, if you're interested but not desperate to know, I'll mention it here in the next few days when I hear. There are a lot of new places and creatures that will show up after the expansion as well. You'll need the expansion to play as one of the new races or to access some of the other new content, but the rest of us will see some changes when it finally comes out as well - they can't very well make all this invisible to everyone else. Socketed items sounds like an interesting new feature too. When I first read it I immediately thought: socket wrench. Not exactly. It's been done before by Blizzard in Diablo II and in this article at Gamespot, Lead designer Jeffrey Kaplan is quoted as saying

The system will be fairly similar to that of Diablo II, along with some nuances that will make it unique to World of Warcraft. For example, we plan to introduce a new type of gem that grants bonuses that depend on the other types of gems your character is using.

The article goes on to talk about how the new Jewelcrafters will be necessary to create socketed items.

I have the feeling that these new features as well as the increased level cap (from 60 to 70) aren't going to be relevent to me as a player for a while yet. I've been trying to take my time about it, but I've only just hit level 11 with a couple of my characters. Maybe by the time the exapansion's actually released I'll be ready for it, but I'm in no rush.

Average:

Your rating: None