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Last Week's 'Cool' News: Nov. Week 3

5:50 AM - November 22, 2008 by Marcus Yam
Source: Tom's Hardware – Keywords: toms, hardware, news, reviews

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Headlining this week’s news is Blizzard’s release of its second World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. Indeed this week’s top news topics are dubbed as “cool” to keep with the WoW expansion’s frosty theme.

Within its first 24 hours of sales, Wrath of the Lich King, sold an astounding 2.8 million copies, becoming the fastest selling PC title of 2008. Not surprisingly, the previous WoW expansion, The Burning Crusade, held the record for 2007 with 2.4 million copies sold at release in January 2007.

Without a doubt, PC gamers are addicted to WoW. Some players are so dedicated that they’ll do everything possible to win the race to the next level cap, which for Wrath of the Lich King is at level 80. One player reached the top level in just 27 hours.

Sadly, marathon gaming stints can be hazardous to one’s health. We’re all reminded of that award-winning episode of South Park, but it’s no joke when someone actually collapses from WoW overdose. After a 15-hour WoW marathon with only two hours of sleep the night before, a15-year old boy collapsed with epileptic seizures. Thankfully, his parents quickly rushed him to the hospital.

It’s clear then that the market for more World of Warcraft is still insatiable. Blizzard, knowing this full well, said that it is already brainstorming the next expansion, set for release perhaps as early as late 2009.

Comments
malveaux 11/22/2008 2:15 PM
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There's nothing `cool' about it. Silly game. No one is `cool' for playing it. The art work is really nice.

HeXploiT 11/22/2008 4:26 PM
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Poor suckers get to pay for the same game 13 times a year.
How cool is that?

Tindytim 11/22/2008 9:45 PM
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malveaux :
The art work is really nice.


To bad the game looks like a PS1 game with higher res textures. You would think they could increase the poly count, and use newer DX versions at higher settings, rather than making the game look like crap for everyone.

physx7 11/23/2008 3:30 AM
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2.8 Million sales in the first 24 hours!?! That's just scary....

afrobacon 11/23/2008 10:17 AM
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lets see:
-wrath of the lich king sells 2.8 million, wow cool; are that many people really addicted to it?
-ipod firmware upgrade, sweet now i have more reasons to buy something i dont need.
-gmail now has themes, cool i guess, what does it have to do with hardware?
-core i7 now in desktops, that was a little predictable; its nice knowing the price of core2 desktops will go down slightly.
-verizon employees looked at some of Obama's call history from a few years ago... thats funny.
-yahoo CEO steps down, intriguing, wonder why?
-toms survey, why do they want to know my purchasing habits? if anything i would think they would want to have opinions on how to improve the site.

randomizer 11/24/2008 12:58 PM
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afrobacon :
-gmail now has themes, cool i guess, what does it have to do with hardware?


Nothing, that's why it's on Tom's Guide.

Anonymous 11/24/2008 4:40 AM
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You guys probably didn't even touched World of warcraft by the looks of it. Don't judge before you played it. ;)

Tindytim 11/24/2008 5:50 AM
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Tasty :
You guys probably didn't even touched World of warcraft by the looks of it. Don't judge before you played it.



I played it for a few months. Ironically, I spend most of my gaming time playing PS1 games on my PC with AA and texture filtering at high resolutions (not to mention various shader effects).

I'd much prefer a game use my processing power for AI, Physics, etc, rather than graphics. But there is a certain limit. When Megaman Legends (a game that's over 10 years old) looks better on my PC than WoW, I would think you'd need to step it up.

Not to mention that it's an MMO, so little processing is being done client side other than the graphics and IO. You would think I could benefit from a nice Video Card, and processor to get a higher poly count, with some of the improvements from DX9.

Anonymous 11/24/2008 6:13 AM
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Who cares if the game looks like a Playstation 1 game? I've seen the game played and it doesn't look that bad in motion especially if you crank the settings all the way up plus who the hell cares about graphics? Graphics do not make a game fun... a game being fun is what makes a game fun. Crysis looks amazing but the game is crap and outside of being astounded by the level of detail I wish I hadn't spent money on it.

pbrigido 11/24/2008 12:34 PM
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HeXploiT :
Poor suckers get to pay for the same game 13 times a year.How cool is that?



If it is up to the free willed consumer, very cool.

Anonymous 11/24/2008 7:40 PM
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Blizzard has managed to develop some amazing titles if you never played the game to its fullest you have no true reason to complain or call its users names. There is a reason to its success. Ive personally played the game to its fullest the found my self bored & quit for 4-8months at a time waiting for new content. Blizzard manages to develop some interesting things some bad but most good.

Starcraft, Warcraft, Diablo, WoW..... all great games and no DRM. Blizzard > EA Games. any day.

WoW is addictive as *ell & most people don't take the time to say hey its time for a break or I need to get IRL stuff done first.

PS: There are companies in this world who pay people to play WoW all day so they can say their #1,2,3,4,5 in the IRL World of WOW.
Be scared.. be very very scared.

NeoDude007 11/24/2008 7:52 PM
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The Lich King expansion seems far superior to the 1st expansion BC. There are a bunch of new quest types and new way to get faction reputation that are much better than the old ways. I think it is pretty neat and well worth it.
People that make fun of the graphics just don't get it or haven't seen it with higher resolution and eye candy.
People that make fun of monthly payments can keep buying their $60 Xbox games and stoofoo as far as I'm concerned.

tallguy1618 11/25/2008 3:23 AM
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afrobacon :
lets see:-wrath of the lich king sells 2.8 million, wow cool; are that many people really addicted to it?-ipod firmware upgrade, sweet now i have more reasons to buy something i dont need.-gmail now has themes, cool i guess, what does it have to do with hardware?-core i7 now in desktops, that was a little predictable; its nice knowing the price of core2 desktops will go down slightly.-verizon employees looked at some of Obama's call history from a few years ago... thats funny.-yahoo CEO steps down, intriguing, wonder why?-toms survey, why do they want to know my purchasing habits? if anything i would think they would want to have opinions on how to improve the site.


well said brother afrobacon

Anonymous 11/25/2008 5:06 AM
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comon guys, you can't just give on the World. of warcraft...

SpectreCGR 11/25/2008 5:16 PM
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Paco :
Blizzard has managed to develop some amazing titles if you never played the game to its fullest you have no true reason to complain or call its users names.



WoW is a crap game and you are a dork.

pbrigido 11/25/2008 6:04 PM
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SpectreCGR :
WoW is a crap game and you are a dork.



Crap games don't sell 2.8 million copies within the first 24 hours of release. Like it or not, you cannot deny its success around the world.

randomizer 11/26/2008 12:53 PM
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pbrigido :
Crap games don't sell 2.8 million copies within the first 24 hours of release. Like it or not, you cannot deny its success around the world.


Success != quality. Look at how popular Runescape with the kiddies, but the game just plain sucks in every way.

iLLmexican 11/26/2008 1:25 AM
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The fact it sold 2.8 million copies only tells me there are 2.8 million suckers some where out there.

pbrigido 11/26/2008 4:14 AM
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randomizer :
Success != quality. Look at how popular Runescape with the kiddies, but the game just plain sucks in every way.



Perhaps from your perspective. With a game as massively successful, any attempts to state otherwise is plain foolish. WoW has been out for 4 years now, and it is more popular than ever before. That cannot be said about any other MMO that has hit the market.

Like I said before, you cannot deny WoWs success.

pbrigido 11/26/2008 5:04 AM
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iLLmexican :
The fact it sold 2.8 million copies only tells me there are 2.8 million suckers some where out there.



It actually states that there are 2.8 million people who wanted to continue to enjoy a good product.


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