BlizzCon 2009: WoW Cataclysm Revealed

For many fans following the clues left behind by Blizzard, the revelation of the Cataclysm expansion pack should not have been a surprise when it was officially announced today at BlizzCon 2009. With the domain name registration, and the goblin and worgen masks appearing in a recent PTR build, many fans and websites figured out the basis behind the new expansion as well as the new races walking the demolished lands.

However Blizzard confirmed all the detective work today, revealing that the original "classic" continents of Kalimdor and the Easter Kingdoms have been "reforged" by a cataclysm caused by the corrupted Dragon Aspect Deathwing. "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," reads the press release.

Here's a list of features fans can expect to receive with the new expansion:

Two New Playable Races
Adventure as the cursed worgen with the Alliance or the resourceful goblins with the Horde.

Increased Level Cap
Advance to level 85 and earn new abilities, tap into new talents, and progress through the path system, a new way for players to customize characters.
 
Classic Zones Remade
Quest to level 60 as you never have before. Familiar zones across the original continents of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms have been reforged by the cataclysm and updated with new quests and content.

Flying Mounts in Azeroth
Explore Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms from a whole new perspective.
 
Guild Advancement
Progress as a guild to earn guild levels and guild achievements.

New High-Level Content
Explore newly opened parts of the world, including Uldum, Grim Batol, and the great sunken city of Vashj'ir beneath the sea, and enjoy even more high-level raid content than in previous expansions.

New PvP Zone & Rated Battlegrounds
Take on PvP objectives and daily quests on Tol Barad Island, a new Wintergrasp-like zone, and wage war in all-new rated Battlegrounds.
Archaeology: Master a new secondary profession to unearth valuable artifacts and earn unique rewards.
 
New Race and Class Combinations
Explore Azeroth as a gnome priest, blood elf warrior, or one of the other never-before-available race and class combinations.

To catch a glimpse of Cataclysm, GameTrailers mirrored the debut trailer right here. Additionally, the Lost Isles video is mirrored here, and a Gilness walkthrough video is located here. There's also a Cataclysm preview panel write-up located here on the WoW forums.

Blizzard expects to launch the expansion pack in 2010.

  • airborne11b
    People still play this trashy old game? My god people upgrade already. There are way better MMOs out there. Aion is coming out soon, beta has been a LOT of fun. If Aion isn't your thing, go with anything but WoW. lol
    Reply
  • The_Blood_Raven
    Airborne +1000

    Worst MMO I've ever played.
    Reply
  • NuclearShadow
    I find MMORPG's to be sad really... they suck peoples lives away and make them sit in front of a computer doing the same thing for hours and hours. Even when you take something like D&D or any similar game at least it got people together and made them socialize with their friends. Those games even helped people with their imagination and creativity because they often made up their own quests and such. WoW and games like it offer none of that.
    Reply
  • nightsc
    Never like those Korean games

    Aion, another level-machine?
    Reply
  • ricin
    Aion? Are you seriously buying into the NCSoft hype machine? The game is a huge disappointment. Come to think of it, I can't think of a single game NCSoft has been able to produce in the United States that didn't suck. WoW can't be that bad, considering it easily beats every other MMO into the ground. This isn't coincidence.
    Reply
  • dheadley
    easily is the key word there, it succeeds because it started out as an extremely easy game to play to max level and has gotten progressively easier to play ever since. It has gone way past the easy-mode jokes that used to describe it to be almost auto-mode on this last expansion. I transferred to WoW in beta with a guild of 70+ people that had played Everquest since its release. Long before even the first expansion came out we had filled out all our character slots with max level characters and probably 30 of the people had quit the game completely. Before the second expansion came out we were deleting our characters and starting over from scratch when they opened new servers, just competing on who could get to max level fastest and trying to be the first raiding guild on the server to reach the highest raid zones at the given time. When the second expansion came out I leveled a rogue in crappy gear, solo the ten levels and did every non-raid quest i could find, while watching TV and barely paying attention to the game. Hell i let my 7 year old daughter sit on my lap and play him, not even knowing how to do a mutilation rotation. She would just run up to stuff and fight like a warrior and she still never died. I quit finally in like april-may time frame out of shear boredom and out of those 70+ people I was the last person from the original group that even played anymore. everyone else had moved on to other games. If they continue the trend they have been on. You'll be able to level up just standing in town talking to people.
    Reply
  • pbrigido
    I don't understand why people bash WoW. If someone has an attraction to the lore, game play, Warcraft in general, or the community it creates, why not play the game? Isn't desirable content and PvP action determined by the individual playing...not the outsider's opinion? What's more, $13 per month to enjoy a recreational activity is a rather cheap expence compared to other pastimes or hobbies.

    For 4 and a half years, Blizzard as done an incredible job at creating a digital universe full of diversity in many different aspects. For those who are drawn to other MMOs are attracted there not because WoW is a bad game, but because they prefer the services that other games provide.
    Reply
  • jamesl
    Airborne11bPeople still play this trashy old game? My god people upgrade already. There are way better MMOs out there. Aion is coming out soon, beta has been a LOT of fun. If Aion isn't your thing, go with anything but WoW. lol
    Aion is horrible
    couldn't make it past 10 minutes
    it is SO boring

    what is is out there ?
    Warhammer ? broken
    Age of Conan ? broken
    EVE ? boring
    EverQuest ? never tried it
    Dungeon Runners ? crap, crap, crap
    Dungeons & Dragons Online ? never tried it
    Champions Online ? never tried it
    Lord Of the Rings ? crap
    Guild Wars ? boring

    I prefer Warhammer, but I'll admit that as boring as World of Warcraft is, its as good or better than the rest

    Reply
  • I used to play WoW on a private server and even then it was fun for awhile. MMORPGs are meant to be fun in different ways than your typical RTS or FPS. There is less instant gratification and often more long term planning involved, but the game world is MUCH more immersive. I almost shit myself the first time I (virtually) ran around the starting zone for the tauren--it was just so neat looking. WoW is refined and interesting as far as PC games go, even if its players have gotten a bad rap by society. I say good job to blizzard and it makes perfect business sense (it was their strategy, wasn't it?) to publish more expansions
    Reply
  • Harby
    Airborne11bPeople still play this trashy old game? My god people upgrade already. There are way better MMOs out there. Aion is coming out soon, beta has been a LOT of fun. If Aion isn't your thing, go with anything but WoW. lol
    And how do you know how Aion's endgame looks? I'\m personally playing EVE but I wouldn't start calling WoW trashy and I would definitely wouldn't say that there are way better mmo's out there.
    Reply