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World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Expansion Pack | 
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| From: Blizzard Entertainment
Category: Video Games
List Price: $39.99
Buy New: $34.99
You Save: $5.00 (13%)
New (25) Used (3) from $29.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  26 reviews
Sales Rank: 88
Format: Cd-rom
Platforms: Macintosh, Windows Xp, Windows Vista
ESRB: Teen
Media: Video Game
Edition: Standard
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Age: 12 - 20 years
Operating System: Windows XP
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.3 x 1.5
MPN: 020626728195
Model: 020626728195
UPC: 020626728195
EAN: 0020626728195
ASIN: B000VJTJNE
Release Date: November 13, 2008 (New: Last 30 Days)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Brand New Factory Sealed Ships from Ga.
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| Features:
| • | World of Warcraft: Wrath of King Lich expansion pack for PC and Mac opens the new continent of Northrend | | • | Death Knight is Warcraft's first hero class and is available for any player with at least a level-55 character | | • | Northrend offers new environments, including Dragonblight, Grizzly Hills, Borean Tundra, and Howling Fjord | | • | New creatures inhabit the icy continent, such as Nerubian Viziniers, Plague Eruptors, Shoveltusks and Flesh Giants | | • | Transform your Death Knight's look with character customization that even include hairstyles and dances |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Product Description
Fans of World of Warcraft, prepare for Blizzard Entertainment's next installment -- World of Warcraft: Wrath of King Lich. In this latest expansion, something is afoot in the cold, harsh northlands. The Lich King Arthas has set in motion events that could lead to the extinction of all life on Azeroth. The necromantic power of the plague and legions of undead armies threaten to sweep across the land. Only the mightiest heroes can oppose the Lich King and end his reign of terror. 
The tuskarr, a walrus-like race of nomadic fisherman, inhabit the icy Borean Tundra. View larger. | 
Half-giant warriors, the vrykul, once inhabited the land. View larger. | 
You'll enjoy exploring Northrend and all its environments and dungeons. View larger. | 
Explore Northrend and battle the Lich King with World of Warcraft's first hero class character -- The Death Knight. View larger. | 
One of many new environments, Dragonblight is an arctic wasteland surrounded by dense forests. View larger. | 
Many strange and terrifying creatures inhabit this frozen continent. View larger. | Enter the Death Knight
This expansion adds a host of content to the already massive existing game world. Players will achieve soaring levels of power, explore Northrend (the vast icy continent of the Lich King), and battle high-level heroes to determine the ultimate fate of Azeroth. As you face the dangers of the frigid, harsh north, prepare to master the dark necromantic powers of the Death Night -- World of Warcraft's first Hero class. No longer servants of the Lich King, the Death Knights begin their new calling as experienced, formidable adversaries. Each is heavily armed, armored, and in possession of a deadly arsenal of forbidden magic. If you have a World of Warcraft account with a character of at least level 55, you will be able to create a new level-55 Death Knight of any race (if on a PvP realm, the Death Knight must be the same faction as your existing character). And upon entering the new world, your Death Knight will begin to quest to level 80, gaining potent new abilities and talents along the way. This expansion allows for only one Death Knight per realm, per account. New Environments in Northrend Await
Journey through the remote, diverse lands of Northrend and explore Dragonblight, Grizzly Hills, Borean Tundra, and Howling Fjord. Named for bones of perished dragons and majestic shrines to the fallen creatures, Dragonblight is an arctic wasteland surrounded by dense forests. Not everything is frozen in Northrend. The lush mountains of Grizzly Hills are the ancestral home to the furbolgs, who have grown accustomed to relative peace. Although their tranquility is being challenged by trappers, goblins, and ice trolls, Grizzly Hills remains a vast and dangerous wilderness. The southwestern tip of Northrend is home to the sprawling Borean Tundra. The Horde has established a dominant presence in this icy portion of the continent and has formed a bond with the tuskarr, a walrus-like race of nomadic fisherman. Magical energy is afoot in the region, and it has caused increased tension. High above the Great Sea at the southeastern tip of Northrend lies the Howling Fjord. Ancient mythology holds that a race of half-giant warriors, the vrykul, once inhabited the land, founding a prosperous civilization. They mysteriously vanished, leaving deserted villages and abandoned temples. In present times, the Alliance and the Horde have come to Howling Fjord to confront the Lich King. Strangely, this has prompted the return of the vrykul, who are attacking the Alliance and Horde settlements. Howling Fjord presents a difficult challenge on two fronts: withstanding the vrykul's onslaught and battling the evil Lich King. A Multitude of Monsters
Strange and terrifying creatures inhabit the frozen continent of Northrend, such as Nerubian Viziniers, Plague Eruptors, Shoveltusks and Flesh Giants, to name just a few. Half-spider, half-humanoid, the viziniers utilize sorcery and high intelligence to emerge as the rulers of Nerubians' underground kingdom. The Plague Eruptors are walking corpses created by the Lich King's evil experiments to spread horror and chaos across the living world. Massive curved antlers make it easy to identify the Shoveltusks. These grumpy beasts are very dangerous, territorial, and best left alone. The Flesh Giants are nothing short of nightmarish abominations. Cobbled together from the pieces of giant body parts, the Flesh Giants employ tremendous strength to carry out the Lich King's wishes. The World of Warcraft: Wrath of King Lich expansion pack allows you to engage in epic siege warfare. The pack presents the first Hero class and allows you to transform your Death Knight's look with character customization that even include hairstyles and dances. You'll enjoy exploring the Northrend and all its environments and dungeons, filled with some of the deadliest creatures -- and greatest treasures -- on all of Azeroth.
| System Requirements | | | Minimum | Recommended | | Operating System | PC: Microsoft Windows XP or Windows Vista (with latest Service Packs)
Mac: Mac OS X 10.4.11 or newer | | CPU | PC: Intel Pentium 4 1.3 GHz or AMD Athlong XP 1500+
Mac: PowerPC G5 1.6 GHz or Intel Core Duo processor | PC: Dual-core processor, such as Intel Pentium D or AmD Athlong 64 X2
Mac: Intel 1.8 GHz processor or better | | Graphics Hardware | PC: 3D graphics processor with Hardware Transfor and Lighting with 32 MB VRAM, such as an ATI Radeon 7200 or NVIDIA GeForce2 class card or better
Mac: 3D graphics processor with Hardware Transform and Lighting with 64 MB VRAM, such as ATI Radeon 9600 or NVIDIA GeForce Ti 4600 class card or better | PC: 3D Graphics processor with Vertex and Pixel Shader capabilities with 128 MB VRAM, such as an ATI Radeon X1600 or NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT class card or better
Mac: 3D graphics processor with Vertex and Pixel Shader capability with 128 MB VRAM, such as ATI Radeon X1600 or NVIDIA 7600 class card or better. | | Memory | PC: 512 MB
Mac: 1 GB | PC: 1 GB
Mac: 2 GB | | Hard Drive Space | 15 GB of free space | | All Platform Requirements | Keyboard and mouse, required for controls. Other input devices not supported. Active broadband Internet connection required to play. |
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| Customer Reviews: Read 21 more reviews...
 A solid improvement over the core game and previous expansion November 19, 2008
20 out of 29 found this review helpful
This expansion has been out for a week, and there are some who would say you can't really review MMORPG content until it's been out long enough to see how it affects the play environment as a whole. There are hundreds of hours of gameplay in this expansion set, and it will be months before anybody has played through the bulk of it. And of course, the release of an expansion has wide affects on style of play, the in-game economy, and the community. Nonetheless, I've played through the entirety of the first two zones, a couple of the new instances, and visited a few other zones, and I think I can give a fairly good assessment of this content.
I'll assume that if you are a devoted and regular player, you've already purchased this or are planning to do so soon. Reviewing the game for them would be pointless. But what about the casual player, or the lapsed player interested in coming back to WoW? For them, this expansion is really top-notch.
To start with, if you enjoy the questing aspect of the game, you're in for a treat. Each zone now has more flypoints, the quest hubs are easy to identify, and there are more quests at each hub. There's less travel time and less hassle keeping track of your quests, which makes the experience of questing much more enjoyable -- and rewarding. I was able to reach lvl 74 solely by completing the two lower-level areas of the new continent, Northrend. In general, the quests are designed very well. Where to go and what to do are usually quite clear from the quest description. Quests are also designed to lead you to other points of interest, such as another travel or quest hub or isolated quest that you might otherwise have missed. There's no more need to grind out part of a level before heading for another zone, the quest experience is more than sufficient to get you prepared for the subsequent zones. This has come quite a long way since the game was released.
The environments are quite pretty, especially for a game running on a 4-year-old graphics engine. The graphics have reportedly been upgraded a bit, but my NVidia 8800GT is still able to play the game on fully maxed-out settings in the range of 50-80fps in the outside enviroments, and up to 200fps inside. The art design is fantastic, especially on the low level zone Howling Fjord. It's impressive that these designers and programmers can do so much visually with a game that needs to be able to play on alot of computers, including those without high-end graphics cards.
If you are one of those casual or lapsed players who are on the fence about this expansion, consider giving it a try. The revisions to the game over the past couple years have really cut down on the things that often gave MMORPG players the biggest headaches. If you have a character at or near lvl 70 and can hop right into the new zones, all the better, as their design seems to be the best yet.
Finally! Getting What You Pay For With WotLK November 22, 2008
9 out of 15 found this review helpful
I am a fairly casual gamer. I enjoy many types of games and have played a few MMORPGs over the years. I began playing in November of 2005, about a year after WoW first came out. Being a woman there was no way in heck I was going to go with the cliche and play a healer. So my first toon was a warrior. Since then I've tried each class to some extent and tried different incarnations of the talents available for those I've chosen to level. When Burning Crusade came out I was more interested in making my first toons in the new races and exploring the new zones there. But eventually I had to head out to Outland and work on getting my characters to 70.
That was when I realized how little I cared for the BC expansion. The environments were alright but the questing was tedious and constant long runs made it hard to get from place to place. I prefer World PvP and play on a PvP server so the addition of Arenas didn't really appeal to me but my husband and cousins tried it and enjoyed it to some extent. Outside of raiding with some guildies and friends once I hit 70 there wasn't much appeal to do anything.
Enter Wrath of the Lich King. I admit, I was going to wait until after the holidays to bother. With BC being very disappointing I didn't see the point of grinding to 80 and having nothing to do but raid. Fortunately the patch before WotLK introduced Achievments. I began to dabble a bit with those before the expansion and have found that it has made the leveling process much more entertaining. As someone who enjoys exploring, professions and world PvP my needs have been well met with the new expanion. While levels are certainly goals in themselves, finishing the majority of quests in a region to get the questing achievments has been a good motivator. This time around there is a wide variety of quests (collecting, locating, taming, flying/riding, kill-so-many, named mobs, group quests, lower level dailies, rep, sneaking and soooo many more types!!!) and many are chains that stick to one general area, then send you to another -- less running all over a zone in circles. You will also find that most quests now give better directions ("Go south of here and talk to so-and-so, he's standing by a tall rock...") to what you're searching for.
The changes to the graphics engine have indeed made it easier for me (I am a frequent lag sufferer when flying mounts are near) to move around. The environments are so beautiful, Dalaran PWNS Shattarath! The mobs are great looking and have terrific animations. Multiple flight paths per zone have made travel in the large areas much easier! Daily quests pop up all over, from basic gathering quests and bombing runs to the new cooking dailies (earn Dalaran Cooking Awards and use them to buy new recipes!) it's easy to make a little cash every day without spending hours on them. The only thing I'm not very impressed with yet are the instances. I've had time to do Utgarde Keep (70-71), The Nexus (71-72) and Azjol-Nerub (74-76) so far but other than the final boss of UK I haven't found any of it really fabulous. Maybe I'm just sulky because I'm running an Arms War and a Boomkin and still haven't seen any gear I can use drop. /giggle
Now, I'm sure most players are looking forward to trying out the game's first heroic class: the Death Knight. Knowing the first few days it would be insanity I waited a couple so I haven't gotten very high yet. I've been royally ganked by a few so far though and watched a lvl 68 DK with less than 25% health (& a mob on him) get ganked by a 70 mage w/full H/M... the DK made the mage look like a noob, hardcore. Needless to say it looks like they are going to be a very strong class in PvP situations. I haven't given into temptation and tried the ganking yet but DKs definitely have some really cool spells and talents. Plus, if you're into Lore they have a detailed, entertaining story. My husband and I have come across cut-scenes (sorry not cinematics, but still a nice touch) related to the story that were very enjoyable to watch.
Overall I have been so impressed with the expansion I actually felt I HAD to write a review. I have a pair of friends who quit in the weeks right before the expansion because they were so bored. I think with the many factions to earn rep with (in more quested forms than mob grinds TY Bliz!), areas to explore, more instances, achievments and enjoyable dailies players who cap out their levels will find more to do with their time while waiting for the next expansion. Having been pretty bored at 70 myself I am glad I decided not to wait or worse--quit! I do think it definitely depends on what aspects of the game appeal to you. PVP vs. PVE, Instance grinding vs. Questing, Crafting professions vs. Gathering professions. I think WotLK has added elements to keep the more casual player like myself (lvling 2-3 days a week, raiding 2 nights a week, lots of herb farming and crafting on the lvling days) busy without neglecting the hardcore gamers in the process. A balance I think we all can appreciate! Now I just wish I had sprung for the collector's edition... that Frost Whelp pet is awesome!
Enjoy your adventures in Azeroth!
And just because I imagine it might help you judge whether my opinion and what I play reflects what you might be interested in... I play Alliance on Azgalor(PvP) -- 70+ Warrior (Arms) & Druid (Balance), 40+ Hunter (Hybrid), Mage (Frost) & Priest (Holy), 60+ Death Knight (Frost), 20+ Shaman (Enhancement) -- Herb/Alc, Herb/Tail, Skin/Mine, Mine/JC, Skin/Ench, Mine/Insc, Min/Eng ...and I always lvl Cook/Fish/FA on all toons.
Graphics/Music Review of WotlK + Unfairness to Horde in Strand of the Ancients November 14, 2008
10 out of 18 found this review helpful
Graphics & Music
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The ethereal graphics are astoundingly beautiful, tailored to real-life tastes, with snow-covered pine trees and a pastel colored sky dazzled by the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights). One of the most crazy places I've visited was the starting zone where I actually climbed a snow-covered mountain (which is drawn to scale!) in Howling Fjord. It as so realistic, I could almost smell the fresh pine cone scent, feel the icy cold nip of the crisp air, and taste of flying snowflakes on my lips.
If the graphics don't surprise you, the music will. The celtic-like Uilleann pipes (sounds like bagpipes) have a middle-earth feel and mythical tunes, that, for a moment I felt like Xena or a character from Lord of the Rings. The music is truly pleasure to my ears. The Dark Knight class is very well thought-out, with a strong storyline and new voice effects. I recommend you playing through the Death Knight class even if you intend *not* to play it, because the entire storyline ends in 3 hours and is quite epic. Just make sure not to skip any cutscenes or dialogue for the DK quests, or you'll miss out on a lot. In addition, the entire expansion pack has an innovative "feel" for the game of WoW, in fact so much so I thought I was playing a different game with characters that looked like WoW.
Problems with Strand of the Ancients
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WotlK is a fantastic new addition to WOW but there's one thing I dislike, the new BG. Much like the inequality to Horde found from AV, Strand of the Ancients has an Alliance advantage.
There are 2 rounds (1 round for Alliance attacking/Horde defense, 1 round for Horde attacking/Alliance defense) in the game and 5 gates. Whoever reaches the final gate by breaking through with tanks wins the game. 1 tank can controlled by as little as 1 person. The defending side may use turrets or people to kill the tanks.
The problem with unfairness comes from the fact that Alliance ALWAYS starts the battle as the attacker and has the full duration of 10 minutes to break the gates. In addition to this, Alliance are able to SET the time limit for the second round. If they zerg and win the game in 3 minutes, for example, Horde now has 3 mins or less to reach the final gate themselves in round 2 to win. This means, unless Alliance used up the full duration of 10 minutes attacking, Horde will never have the full 10 minutes to attack, as Alliance would.
In addition, having Horde start out as attacking in the 2nd round (middle of game) will almost always mean people (Alliance & Horde) will have had the chance to finish queue-ing up and make it an even game (10 v 10), thus allowing more Alliance be ready to defend the gates with the turrets. Whereas, when Alliance attack in the beginning, there is a shortage of players on both sides making it easier to attack (since you are attacking with tanks not with people, and 2 tanks is more than enough to break a gate), where there is less defense.
The PVP forums are alive with complaints against Strand of the Ancients and its inability to randomize who starts the game first (attacking).
Besides this unfairness, great game.
Blizzard makes a great game better, wow! November 25, 2008
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
The Lich King expansion has been out for almost two weeks now, and whereas I can only review portions of the expansion, what I have seen and done has been amazing thus far.
As soon as I got to Northrend, I could tell this place was built correctly. The beginning areas of the continent have a very old-world feel to them, and you can immediately understand that this place has history. Anyone who played the prior Warcraft games knows that Northrend is a place with a certain feel to it, and the creators of the expansion have hit that dark, evil feel on the head.
The expansion is typical of a WOW game with numerous quests available the moment you get off the Zeppelin. There is a lot of variety, and as soon the starting areas clear out from all of the people looking for new continent, there really is a lot to do.
Graphically they've improved the look of the game completely, which is saying a lot because the prior content looked amazing as well.
I've only run one instance, which was Uthgarde Keep and it was stellar. The difficulty was there, the place was just crazy looking with a huge forge and an outside area where dragon riders fly over head. The loot has been upgraded to be in line with players over level 70, and unlike Burning Crusade, not everything is as obvious an upgrade. Many of the stats on items have been redefined so you won't always be looking for the same stats you had looked for previously.
I've only played myself to level 72 which is a lot of play considering Blizzard has DOUBLED the amount of exp it takes to gain a level. It's been alot of questing and hunting, and more questing for my Warlock as I've been trying to balance finding new places with upgrading my character.
All in all, an excellent upgrade, WOW never fails to impress me.
Yes its more of the same, but way better November 26, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
I see a lot of bad reviews talking about WOTLK as "more of the same" and heres my point of view:
1- Yes its the same but way better, thats why its "an expansion". If you have played wow for more than a year you ll know that this is a game that evolves, in graphics, gameplay and many other things.
2- The new class (the Deathkinght) is very very fun and it doesn't feel like any other class
3- Everyone will have a different point of view, mine is that this expansion is great and it revived the wowness in me lol.
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The Nintendo Wii goes on sale on Sunday, November 19. Thanks to the inclusion of the simple--but infectiously fun--Wii Sports game, the Wii is the first console in recent memory that lets you have fun straight out of the box. Still, there are a few key Wii accessories you'll want to pick up to maximize your Wii experience--especially if you're buying it as a gift.
Extra controllers: Like all recent consoles, the Wii ships with just a single controller (well, one two-part controller: one Wiimote, plus one nunchuk). But the real fun of the system is playing the head-to-head Wii Sports games such as tennis and boxing. To do so, you'll need at least one extra set of controllers--and again, that's one Wiimote ($28.99) plus one nunchuk ($12.99). The Wii supports as many as four, but just the one extra controller set should suffice--at least for Christmas morning.
Rechargeable batteries: The Wiimote takes two standard AA batteries. They're included--with the Wii, and with the sold-separately version of the controller mentioned above--but avid players may find the juice draining pretty quickly, especially if they keep the nunchuk attached (it draws its power from the Wiimote). Instead of buying an endless stream of costly AAs, consider investing in a set of rechargeables. You can score a charger and four rechargeable nickel-metal-hydride batteries for less than $25.
GameCube controllers: The Wii is fully backwards compatible with the Nintendo GameCube, but there's a catch: to play the GameCube games, you'll need a GameCube controller ($15.99). You can even go wireless with the Nintendo WaveBird ($59.99). If you already have a GameCube, your existing controllers will work just fine--just plug them in to one of the four ports underneath the flip-up panel on the Wii's topside. GameCube controllers should also work with the Wii's "Virtual Console" games--which saves you the trouble of having to buy a Classic Controller.
GameCube memory cards: One other annoyance when playing GameCube games: your progress can only be saved to GameCube memory cards, not to the Wii's internal memory or to an SD card (we're hoping Nintendo fixes this with a future firmware update). Like the controllers, your old GC cards will work just fine--there are two slots right next to the GameCube controller ports. If you don't have any onhand (and you want to save your games on GC titles), you'll need to spring for a $26.90 (2GB) memory card.
Wii Points: One of the big attactions of the Wii is its Virtual Console, which lets you purchase classic games that originally came from the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), the Super NES, the Nintendo 64, the Sega Genesis, and the TurboGrafx16. By the end of 2006, at least 30 titles should be available, including Donkey Kong (NES), Super Mario 64 (N64), and Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis). To purchase the downloadable titles, you'll need to use a Nintendo currency known as Wii Points (similar to the Microsoft Points on Xbox Live), which currently have an exchange rate of 100 points per U.S. dollar. You can buy Wii Points directly through the console's online store, or use prepaid cards (2000 Wii Points) available in various denominations.
SD card: If you're close to filling the Wii's built-in 512MB of storage with your Virtual Console games, you can always expand your available space with an SD card. Nintendo sells its own, but any run-of-the-mill card will do. Fairly spacious 1GB cards are available for less than $20--even less with mail-in rebates--and they'll work in plenty of other gadgets as well.
Wireless access point: In addition to the downloadable Virtual Console games, the Wii offers online "channels," including news, weather, and even an Opera Web browser (head-to-head online gaming is said to be coming sometime in 2007). You can get online for free via the Wii's built-in Wi-Fi. To do so, of course, you'll need a nearby wireless access point or router. Alternately, you can plug the Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector into any nearby PC on a wired network, and the Wii--plus your Nintendo DS--will be able to use it to get online instead.
Component video adapter: The Wii doesn't have the graphical horsepower to handle high-def graphics, but it can do DVD-level 480p video, which will look considerably better on large HDTVs. To see the Wii's games in 480p, you'll need Nintendo's proprietary component video adapter, which should run about $20. |
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www.seeker-wii.com | |
