World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

Building on the foundation established in World of Warcraft and its first two expansions, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm adds a variety of new content and offer players the opportunity to rediscover Azeroth and experience the game from a whole new perspective. Players are be able to adventure as two new playable races, achieve new levels of power, take on challenging quests and dungeons in all-new zones, and experience dramatic changes to familiar aspects of the game in the wake of a world-shattering disaster.

In Cataclysm, players will witness the face of Azeroth being altered forever, as the corrupted Dragon Aspect Deathwing awakens from his subterranean slumber and erupts onto the surface, leaving ruin and destruction in his wake. As the Horde and Alliance race to the epicenter of the cataclysm, the kingdoms of Azeroth will witness seismic shifts in power, the kindling of a war of the elements, and the emergence of unlikely heroes who will rise up to protect their scarred and broken world from utter devastation.

Release Date: December 7, 2010

Also on: Mac

T for Teen: Blood and Gore, Crude Humor, Mild Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol, Violence.

Genre: Persistent Online RPG

Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment

Developer: Blizzard Entertainment

World of Warcraft.

Plot:

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm (or Cata for short) is the upcoming third expansion for World of Warcraft. Set primarily in a dramatically reforged Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms on the world of Azeroth, the expansion set follows the return of the evil Dragon Aspect Deathwing the Destroyer -- formerly known as the ancient guardian Neltharion the Earth Warder -- who causes a new Sundering as he makes his cataclysmic re-entrance into the world from Deepholm, the elemental plane of earth.

Cataclysm will return players to the two continents of Azeroth for most of their campaigning, after years away in Outland and Northrend, opening new zones such as Mount Hyjal, the sunken world of Vashj'ir, Deepholm, Uldum and the Twilight Highlands. It will include two new playable races: the worgen from the legendary kingdom of Gilneas for the Alliance, and the goblins of the Bilgewater Cartel from the isle of Kezan for the Horde. Flying mounts will finally be usable in Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms, while the new secondary profession Archaeology will be introduced. Reforging will make its debut in game, while player classes will be fully updated, including new race-class combinations.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm was officially announced on August 21, 2009 at BlizzCon 2009. The "friends & family" phase of the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm alpha began on May 3rd, 2010[2], while closed beta began June 30th, 2010.[3] . Collectors' Edition content and pricing was announced on August 17, 2010[4]. On October 4, 2010, Blizzard Entertainment officially announced the release date for the expansion: December 7, 2010, including for the first time a digital download edition at release.[1]

Major expansion changes and updates:

* Player level cap increased to 85.

* Six new high-level zones: Mount Hyjal and Uldum in Kalimdor; Vashj'ir and the Twilight Highlands in the Eastern Kingdoms; Deepholm in the elemental plane of earth; and the PvP zone and daily quest hub Tol Barad.

* Two new player races, the worgen of Gilneas for the Alliance and the goblins of the Bilgewater Cartel for the Horde. New leveling zones added for these two races include Gilneas, the Isle of Kezan, and the Lost Isles.

* A dramatic alteration of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms due to the Cataclysm, resulting in massive environmental changes, as well as questing and progression changes, for nearly every zone, resulting in new leveling experiences. This includes new starter areas for the gnomes and Darkspear trolls, faction changes for some zones (such as Hillsbrad Foothills) and, with the environmental redesign, the ability for players to fly on both continents. (The blood elf and draenei content will still be instanced and limited to ground mounts only.)

* Seven new high-level dungeons and three new raid instances, all available in regular and heroic modes (with raids in both 10- and 25-player varieties), as well as two heroic revamps of classic dungeons (Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep). This will also include Blizzard's new Flexible Raid Lock system, a change to raid functionality which includes the ability to move between 10- and 25-player raid groups, combine or split groups, and vary regular & heroic attempts.

* New PvP opportunities including the Tol Barad zone and a PvP-instanced dungeon, Baradin Hold, as well as two new battlegrounds Battle for Gilneas and Twin Peaks.

* Class redesign (coming immediately prior to expansion launch in Patch 4.0.1 but optimized for the expansion) including new talents and spells, simplification of talent trees, and reorganization of class buffs.

* Revamp of character and gear stats, including elimination of some stats and major changes to base stat operability (such as intellect creating spell power, strength and agility affecting attack power, etc.) This includes the addition of Reforging to the game, giving players the ability to add certain stats on gear in return for removal of others.

* New race/class combinations (see the chart below) which will be available to all players in Patch 4.0.3.

* New Archaeology profession.

* Level cap raised on all main and secondary professions to 525, with many new items, patterns and rewards.

* A new Guild advancement system, which includes guild leveling, achievements and rewards.

* Consolidation of previous expansion set currency systems; rewards will include two PvE currencies, Justice and Valor points, as well as two PvP currencies, Honor and Conquest points.

* New technology enhancements including support for DirectX 11 features and hardware cursor in OpenGL mode, additional video options and a new water rendering engine.

System requirements:

Intel Processor - Core 2 Duo E4300 1.8GHz

AMD Processor - Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4200+

Nvidia Graphics Card - GeForce GT 230

ATI Graphics Card - Radeon HD 4650

RAM Memory - 2 GB

Hard Disk Space - 12 GB

Direct X - 9

* Predicted System requirements are based on recommended system requirements. If you disagree with our predictions then we encorouge you to login and let us know. Send an email or post a message on our forum. We really want to know! Through your help we can advance our predictions.

The goblins are coming home for Christmas.

Activision Blizzard said today that it would release World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, the anticipated new expansion for its massively popular massively multiplayer game, on December 7.