ILLER STRATEGIES: FRO/EN THRONES \ Online RPGs suck. Blizzard's won't. PaCS any aiouci@c isos ev f REVIEWED & RATED Mi =, Falcon Northwest's ultracool FragBox: Lead nak = Sr aR] | ||Cred AoC a ete tig Slek of MMORPGs yet? Yeah, us too. But if anyone can save the genre, it's Blizzard, How will they dot? By mixing Diablo! with Warcraft. Computer Gaming World 20 24 34 42 98 128 138 152 Editorial Another 400 words of weepy treacle from our dimult-in-ehet ary and ertiism from our loyal readership. Walt, why are we lisping? We're not quite sure Loading... Its history appreciation month for CGM. This month in Loading, take a trip to ancient Rome ‘medieval England with Rome: Hood: Defender of the Crown, Read Me George Jones inlerviews former Bizzard front man Dill Roper to see where the king of 2ug-2u9 will hang his helmet Plus, quick takes on Terminator 3, NHL Hockey 2004, NOLF2: Contract JACK. Commandos 3, and the transmogrtcation of Age of Mythology into..something ese Columns 5 Scott MeCloud CGW Goes to War Listen up, maggots! You want to experince wi combat ike never before? Then fll infor our {rontin recon o! Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault Call of Duty, and Medal of Honor: Breakthrough Pius, to days of hel at Dale Dye's Boot Camp. Tech Wt eviews Falco's mighty mini Fragdex and a row Fg by iBuypower, wile Dave beats upon Art's abivtonder 9800 Pr. OF course there's everyone's favorit, Cracked Case, aswell as Tech Medes, Kier Rg, and 8 WH Power thats actually anout hardware. Gamer's Edge Brace and Tor faceoff asthe Humans and the Undead in WarCraft Il: The Frozen Throne Pus Erk and Chet take you to new heights of vice in part tno oftheir comprehensive que to cheating YoUr way Uvough Grand Theft Auto: View Cty, and tps for successful attack in any strategy game, Scorched Earth Good night, sweet prince, may dreams atlend thee.Goes O; rik) Joos san ree eyes (0) TFNis why Entertainment ce understand it you'te skeptical i sup ming a bit of a bust, With ene high y hyped massively multita anather coming out figure you're a si profile, hua ha then failing of reading about them as we are them, in agreeing tod ve multila had to be a the Conroy Pro Rern ry ce reine able to play the game for hours, as freely as we wanted and many characters nining detals-ike unannounced ca secret, No promises or hype © announced i, we took @ Hie in irvine, California, for ith the o yeas alter Bll nine down to Blizzard ‘of WarCraft playing sessions days later, they had to tear us ‘The smell of success The airs heavy at the Bi just from the smell of unwashed biaek gaming Tshirts. The 235 Is palpable, The team-now at more ard offices when we arrive-and not reason to be tense. In oan oniine mi ‘a monthly fee to ive They have go: bestseling strategy role playing game in sively multiplayer ich gamers pi nturing into a genre nowit tranapring Blow You. increasingly fitered with failures and disappoint ft Star Wars Galaxies sit on practically every desk. ‘one at lzar d would be so unaiplomatic as te criticize the Seoote vou character, your persona who will ive and fight and Grow in Azeroth, Blizzard's war-torn fantasy universe In keeping with Bizzara’s longstanding design philosophy, characte nts. Copies crea and while ne tition inthe presence ofa game journalist, no one was ‘openly singing its praises either. (And neither are we. See our review on page 11) As a growing number of developers are now Finding ou, creating an entire worlds not an easy job-nor is ita creation is butt simple: Pick a race and class (see the sidebars Race Wor” and "Cass War” for a breakdown of the new stu) pick a name, customize your look, and you're in. No fideling with nbers oF dciding on religious factions or any number of quarantee of success. BLIZZARD IS VENTURING INTO A GENRE : INCREASINGLY LITTERED WITH DISAPPOINTMENTS. Stil this Is Bilzard wore talking about. You don't create the Warcraft, Diablo, and StarCraft franchises by belng stupid or ‘even jst lucky, The true genius of those franchises is that they are hardcore games made uterly accessible tone exactly the sort of thing the MMORPG genre is lacking. And, sure ‘enough, fom the second they situs dawn at our PCs and let us ‘boot uo the game, it's clear even in a pre-beta stage that we're ‘once again going tobe in good hands. So, enough of aur yakking. Let's look at the game already! For the Alliance As in all MMORPGs, your frst job in World of WarCraft isto Cena eee Pee ies Beis osg Poe eek Ty ieee Po en er ea eee eee! ee oe ec moe ra tere De eee i oer ce Ser onions through town, quards helplessly throw themselves at it at set polnts. Any other Pe a) ene ceed ‘other chores with which other IMORPGS bag down the game's beginning and alienate or overwhelm newbies. n ess than five ‘minutes of siting down with the game forthe fist time, and with 10 tutorial, manual, or cheat sheet of keyboard commands, we Created our first characters-a Night Elf rogue and Dwarf paladin oth new classes)-and were off and running in Azeroth, To keep thins simple, izzard gives us jst one cheat ‘star fom the same location, the Dua stating zone of Anvil Man actualy, al races will have their own starting zone, so the Dwarf and Night Elf would have had to trek a-ways to find ‘each othe. (The game's builtin buddy and e-mail functions, hoxteve, allow you to iit players instantly into your group, no matter where they are) To keep things consistent with the v & R ee ce ay Ree) rae et) eee Lies soe oa ue cy ‘Abomination and requires someone to ei eee) ‘and walt for the Abomination to appear, er ed erect ee ea quality ofa single-player RPG but has the Pee are py eet Serre ers eer tea te pee t eat wewrwecomputerguming.comee ee ee eT errr nes WwW ee eee mT eee ee Erman eee ees ee et eee a eh et me eee rennet WOW offers quite a ew options besides ee od oe a es etd merely hooting it on foot. De ere ees ee eee ae eee ee ee) ree ere en er de er eer players can also use race-specific mounts. There are also the gryphons and wind Ce een Confirmed mounts so far are horses for ea ee er eee Humans, rams for Dwarves, nightsabers for you get across vast tracts of land. You find time, at the moment that It happens. That SO ee ee eed ee ee cer etre) Ce oe oe enc et sty time, the specifics of the Gnomes and Trolls specific, meaning Ores will never get to fly ugly mug to see you flying above, a = ~BLIZZARD HAS TRULY REALIZED ITS « GOALS WITH THE GRAPHICS: IT FEELS LIKE YOU'RE INSIDE WARCRAFT. » strategy games, by the way, Alliance race coup with other Alliance players, andthe same goes for the Horde. Early reports that an Ore player may be able te graup with a Human, for example, have proven fase ‘Once inside Azeroth far the Just to look around, And immeciately fee ike @ couple of Backwoods Otes getting our fist glimpse of ig cy. n Tirst time, wo take a few minutes ic, but not 0 Character animations are also brilianty Player race exhibiting cstincive gaits and expressions, Over the next two days, we try out a number of different characters and each feels completely dierent: the h rambiied Undead the lithe, graceful Nght elves: the lumbering, bulF-ike Tauren, We don't want to attach too much importance to eye ealzed, with each Computer Gaming World me's look is Indeed a ‘game you've ever played. Ready to work oth to admire the scenery however. We want todo stl Kl stu No three hour “tring” of bats nd rats to kil until we're sufficiently leveled upto start playing the real game aft opens almost as i it's @ single very specific goals, coo! rewards, and ution to the world around yous In fat ‘but instead of, wll two other Blizzard games Diabo Wand the recent RPGIke Orc campaign in The Frozen Throne, In which Thrall and other NPCS send you out on a series of increasingly more dificult, missions, while giving you pie World of WarCraft takes its que from WarCraft li, NBCS with ques‘Computor Gaming World MOST QUESTS GIVE YOU A CHOICE OF REWARDS-SAY, BETWEEN A FEW PIECES OF ARMOR.alga Jey a} ra me a gel bk into completty This structure: read ee ees Cea ee formerly-bad-but-now-mostiy-sympathetic ee es ey Corre ear) with the previously announced Humans, Cte ea Ty Conan emote nie who make the Dwarves look gigantic. On the ‘Computer Gaming World Bejore you kno time you hit lovel $-you'l have abandoned your starting zone ithout even realizing i's happened. ds to the thied and most important goat of ahes the focus away, and XP bar. Make no mista other MMORPG, i largely about leveling up, Hlting that ext iovel ssl the big event-you'l get new nere. But what the campany has trie to aly impression, succeeded in deing-is to mal lot more entertaining. By Keeping smaller goals with the earrot-andstick promise of tana an pal leat dangling in font of lorminate gameplay experience fresh and eewar than making you tong impatiently fort roan pertinent you venturing out nto it-somewhere around the ne quest ts your eyes of, the orld af Warcra ites, spells, points ou, Blizzard keeps you ing-rather one fleeting moment minate RO aid pre stne oeerrirery cnt koe) ee ree eo ec pe ea eed ee en eee ey SU a Poe ert ny ere eee een y 9 eet eee) Ceo! jouid't be much of an RP of sills you can tweak as you pleaser talents ands to your charac regeneration to mages of priets, far example, ar specialization ina particular weap Secondary sill are the more crucial, and wil Hkely be many players focus much (an in some case their game time the larger quests at hand, because fe as too exc hunting for flowers wal about than any other MORE single-player RPG-something Blazard purpose. Blizzard actualy designed the game so that the of glory every two oF 10 oF 40 Belore we started Alera tole us that on Sais was to achieve wha i uid /-make World of 1 s0 fun that “level ups come as a surprise. Weil be darned if that dient happen a numberof times throughout fur two days of playing Further distractions When you do level up, you get lose alerious new sills, points and stats, Bizard decided BREEN ieorss oulsgoup ekaM utomaticaly. Thus, a warrior pe i) automaticaly get aset increase in Strength, for hitting a specific fevel, rather than the player ‘misapprapriatng points in Useless catenory hout which this game Blizzard includes two ether sets ‘ondary allow you to add a small Bt of extra points eclieelass-ading mo veher acobably al) of pending on your race and class, you'l be able Lo specialize in a number of diverse sil, such as fist ai, alchemy, cooking, lanquanes, herbalism, mounts, and lockpiching make Ihe world more interaetive. As ne point, again, to avoid the level grind ant the quosts, the swards for specialization in secondary skills come early anc clten, Once Jet's Tauren druid took a sie specialty in it was hard for him to slay focused en d about at Would yield him the key to specific pes, An Ore player specializing ia mounts wil at higher levels, be able to ride to Alliance pi treasure chests-olten with unique, valuable loot-seattored realures normally available only fers. And a lockpick expert willbe able to open ard has nok eeiaventcd the whee! throughout the world Other players will have zero access to a, fom ou those treasures that vheet a your quest book filed with Playing with others 1 players? World of WarCraft, more wove tried, plays much more lke a signed very much on Ce) Pees eee ees Dee ts Arete na? een enero ia ee Ue oe ts Cee ee art nig Ae eae Se ei att Cree caoutsiae works utdaor tertitories alone. Furthe other player For the cover rewards, the best loot, the others and venture underground or into the c WOW's 100 plus “micro dun CLASS WAR Dee Cea) =] players when World of Warcraft Pee ery Cees Se ee ne ey ree es peer eae tea le eee eee rogue, but the most damaging in eeeernont ss tanks who ean take damage, but eee ira ‘damage. n addition te a bunch ee nn ees Se mre ogee Oa ee Seana Peorier tiny Cee onus aoe Ceara) eee ee Cee pesos een tos Consputer Gaming Wostd wil yield any ofthe ind of unique “phat inh no want to play srs in players, nest XP, fogroup with ce} fon messing with See Besides being eer] a od ae ee a ets ak) Deere Trg Words, which are instant-east and include: Cees Ce ead Cree OCC reece renin eens Ee peed eee ey per provide useful eee ery the Devetion or cre Ceres Sey Cea ene < Ba diant dungeons-t n entire reat We found a few arer't grouped with other pa ‘gameplay in the dungeon id week to of the smalier du are all level appropriate for 35" monsters may each be 7 to 10 leve 9m other words, instant death it As such, the TGs Se eee Ces Pa aneres pee en attack moves an erry ar Co per rns Cy Re eo the Human footmen Defend ability in Corea Fe os are the Hero elasses, Once you hit level Peete eee er ee ry eer eee course, besides skills, there are race Sree eet ns ree ee rear Pree eat) Poe ee CR ad PonrocridA cart mines fr gums in the mestlyintoractive env cooperative than that outdo best part a dungeons large a use when trigge the “instance’ (as Bizzard can even send messages tof iting then we di, you'l land right away.) This apples to the game's largest whieh Blizzard ically fr large quilt id colision” is even ne in World of Ver Craft n't have te camp the game's biggest monster id can crea ed ee CC ead ee ey ee eee reac rt) ea eee eee een ets ‘the bear form turns you into a warrior tank, Coa nes ‘around fast, and the scout Meiheoecrttoetiote Seon te etre sy ean Sens Ses uty eee prey ore % eg ar Seren’ rai pea en Cees ais) of your dungeon, and tsi the dungecn, disconnect accidentally, as oy smal, is i [Asin WarCraft, NPC with quest Off we go, then Uatortunately ued really sib tt a active est Wor that Blizzard Blizzard has taken genre a bly have done: im wien it ha The betais coming soon, pn pu 3 pat Perecinee neem troy af eager Rem ug = pereaveerrapintye tri Pe Moran Pee et ee) od anything in the game that's ery Ne call ee a perry i eee nee) foe if ener ee ti ee “ ‘ PCs ey ied having 3 exh Le Pik Cad at Blizzard’ oice playing the game. I ade Diablo that (un Hand the WarCraft games bottom line right have been ofits depth here, in a and done the best made a Blizzard gar ready eer es Tote Cee rt ranged weapons-some use bows and athers Ps Roce ee creer Ce ay ete rect nad ee Ts eee me eee] ee ae ae ees also use the astral recal spel, which zaps you back to your last bindstone. ae eed See Pore one eae rtrd Saeed ere rr cies Creer cr cugen Serna rr i