World Of Warcraft: Welcome to Outland, Yo.

Welcome To Outland, Yo.

My story started late in the middle of the night.

To be fair, it started almost two years ago when I asked my friend Jordan if I could “sit down and try that new WarCraft game,” having never played an MMO before in my life. But this particular chapter started late in the middle of the night. I was surfing various internet forums, preparing to go to bed, when I came across an interesting topic notifying the WoW-Addicts on that particular forum that “OMG GUYZ TEH BETA STARTED!1” So, I checked my email, found the beta key, and started the download.

Of course, being as the network I’m on hates torrents, I draped a blanket over my laptop monitor and allowed it to finish overnight. This morning, it’s done-and so, I triumphantly click the button to begin installation of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade.

The game is installed. The character is transferred. The new login screen is, incidentally, totally badass.

The hero of Azeroth, the (Troll) Mage they call Jayne-will ride triumphantly into Outland!

And, y’know, probably Fireblast a critter or two. ‘Cause that’s just how he rolls.

Incidentally, the Mage They Call Jayne found that somebody had already taken his name, and decides to rename himself Jaynez.

First Things First

I log in, enjoying the snazzy new login screen and the snazzier redone “login screen music” theme. I find myself in Undercity, because that’s where I logged my real character off last night. First thing I notice is my lack of mods-but that’s not a real problem, to be sure. Second thing I notice is that all my talent points have been refunded. I’ve kind of been wanting to check out the new +31 Fire tree, so that’s where I go.

A player wanting to see if there’s a level cap on Outland (something I’ve been wondering myself) asks if I could port her to Undercity. I say “sure” because hey-not like these Runes of Portals are costing me anything! But then I realize-gasp beyond gasp-I don’t have the portal to that Blood Elf capital. So, time to hoof it. Though… it doesn’t show up on any map, and I have no idea how to get there.

I take a guess and head out to the Eastern Plaguelands and ride north. Lo and behold, where there was once a pile of rubble, there’s a little swirly instance entrance thing. Must be the place!

It turns out that it IS the place, and I find myself (after a pretty sweet load screen) in the Ghostlands. Some great ambience music, and the area (at least what I can see on my gimpy computer) is quite creepy-looking. Tres cool. I trek on with my trusty Swift Olive Raptor and find myself in the Eversong Woods.

Now, my laptop isn’t the best so I’ve got the settings dialed down. What I see is pretty damn gorgeous, though-but what strikes me is the AMAZING music. They’ve got this sort of cello theme going on in the background and it’s seriously nifty. This continues into Silvermoon City-which is kind of a pain to figure out. I get the portal trainer, and train those portals something GOOD. I’m about to go get the new ranks of all my spells when the server crashes. Yay.

Okay, the server’s back from its minor hiccup. I discover in the same room a “Peoreth of the Weakest Sauce” (heh) who offers to teleport me back to the Undercity. I go to say hi to the Blood Elf racial leader-Lor’Thernar Theron, Ruler of Apostrophes-and then take him up on his (amusingly written) offer. Apparently, his services have been requested by the “regal House of Blizzard.”

What will those wackos in Irvine do next?

Back in the Undercity, I discover that there’s been an NPC out in the Ruins of Lordaeron who could have teleported me to Silvermoon instantly. Sigh.

Now that that’s all out of the way, time to get on the wind rider and fly down to Kargath. Long flight, bah.

When we return: we cover the new Interface features and make our first journey beyond the Dark Portal!

Leet, yo.