World of WarCraft The Burning Crusade [PC]

While most MMO developers release expansion packs on a fairly regular basis, fans of Blizzard's staggeringly popular World of Warcraft have had to wait for years to finally get a full-featured retail add on. When it was finally released a few weeks ago, it created a tremendous sensation within the WOW community. And it's no wonder why; the expansion adds two new races complete with distinct starting areas, a new trade profession, loads of high-level content and plenty of new dungeons, arenas and other PVP options. Our initial impressions of the expansion were very favorable and, after playing through for another week, we've come away even more impressed with what Blizzard has done.

The new draenei and blood elf races give old players a chance to start over from a fresh perspective and give new players a fantastic introduction to the game. The blood elves are clearly the more popular of the two races, at least on the servers we've played on. The fact that they offer Horde players the first chance to play a physically attractive character certainly has something to do with their popularity, but you can't discount that they're also the only Horde types that can play as paladins.

This new class offering for the Horde is balanced on the other side by letting draenei play as shamans. While the uproar over opening up all the classes to each faction isn't entirely without merit, we've yet to see exactly how the change will affect the overall balance of power on most servers or the effectiveness of raid groups.

Unfortunately, there's very little sense of connection between the new areas and the rest of the world. The draenei and blood elf starting lands are simply tacked onto the world with little attempt made to integrate them with their neighbors. We'd rather have seen each area a little less isolated with some meaningful connections to the existing lands of Azeroth. On the plus side, there are a few draenei and blood elf NPCs and quest givers scattered throughout Azeroth, so new players won't feel totally alienated. Still, finding trainers for the newly opened classes in each faction is going to require a little extra work.

Reflecting the lessons Blizzard has learned over the years, the new player experience for the draenei and blood elves is much more polished than for any other race in the game. You can run through the first twenty levels without ever hitting a grind or facing lengthy travel times. Each group of quests in these early areas tells a complete and interesting story that reveals the background and current state of the world. Comparing these concentrated new player zones to those of the existing game reveals a much higher level of polish and presentation

If The Burning Crusade falls short in any one area, it's that it doesn't offer much content for players between levels 20 and 60. Presumably, players in this range are already happy with the overall experience and already have tons of content to explore. For them, the forty-dollar price tag might be a little steep and they can safely put off the expansion until they start banging their helms against the level cap.

The new jewelcrafting profession lets players create a wide variety of jewelry. Combined with mining, it makes a pretty lucrative and profitable profession. Once players start to discover some of the buff recipes, they're going to be in even greater demand. Taking a cue from Diablo II, jewelcrafting also allows you to cut specific stones to fit into socketed weapons. The new socketed items are only available in Outlands however, so low-level jewelers will have to wait a good long while before they can really make the most of their skills.