World of Warcraft

Other products by Vivendi Universal

Product Details

• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B002AUE07C
• Item Weight: 2 pounds
• Media: DVD-ROM
• Release Date: May 20, 2009
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,133 in Video Games (See Bestsellers in Video Games)

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Product Description

Edition: 14-Day Trial

Amazon.com Product Description

World of Warcraft didn't invent the online role-playing genre, but it certainly benefits from the missteps of other titles that have come before. A mind-boggling array of improvements in graphics, gameplay, networking, and interface--really every category--makes this game the crown prince of the genre, a great starting place for newbies, and a challenge to any other MMORPG currently in the works.

The game's beautifully rendered locations are filled with small details, such as flying birds and flowing water.

A History of Conflict
WoW takes place just four years after the real-time strategy Warcraft series, which chronicles a 25 year struggle between the Alliance (humans, dwarves, gnomes, and elves) and the Horde (orcs, tauren, trolls, and undead). Even though there's tons of accumulated story to the series, new players should not be daunted. The background is there for you to explore, but you don't have to tread a lot of Azeroth history to get into the action.

The makers boast 2,000 existing quests with more being added, many of them noncombat in nature.

The game looks magnificent. There's plenty of detail and variety to the landscapes and interiors, and the artwork has a refreshingly playful style. There's not a lot of variety in the character creation process, but with all the skills and proficiencies to combine in the game, WoW focuses its customization not on the appearance of your character but rather on the character of your character. The game lets you adopt any two trade skills, regardless of character race or class, and combine those skills in useful ways. If you choose skinning and leatherworking, for example, you can fashion bags from the carcasses of monsters you defeat, which will allow you to carry even more inventory items.

Expanded Commerce
You can sell the items you make, find, and loot through a variety of outlets. Like any role-playing game, WoW has merchants who will buy your cast-off items for fixed prices, but you can also sell to other players at your own price through in-game chat or by leaving it with one of the auction houses located across the map. This virtual free market is a game within the game, like Monopoly somehow inserted into the middle of Chess. Heck, you can even send items C.O.D. to other players via the game's mail system.

The game's Quest Log keeps track of up to 20 quests at a time.

In other online role-playing games, starting players have to invest dozens of hours whacking at small prey and doing other odd jobs one at a time to gradually "level up" to more interesting challenges. WoW lets players accept a variety of quests--up to 20 at a time without penalty for abandoning any of them before they're complete. The makers boast 2,000 existing quests with more being added, many of them noncombat in nature. Where some games only grant experience through battle, WoW grants experience for exploring and fulfilling quests too.

A Level Playing Field
There's also a built-in handicap for casual players where your character enters a rest state when you log off from the game. The longer you're logged off (up to a week), the bigger the experience bonus you'll get when you return to battle. An enemy tagging feature--the player who lands the first attack on an enemy claims the loot for himself or his party--prevents onlookers from swooping in and pilfering items from a monster that you brought down. That resolves a common complaint of other titles.

Icons and pop-ups help put complex controls easily within reach.

Most games severely penalize players when they die in-game, usually by shaving experience points, funds, or both. In WoW, death just relocates your ghost to the nearest graveyard, and the only penalty is the time it takes you to get back to resurrect your character's corpse.

All of this makes for a very complicated game, but the well-designed interface puts all the game's elements into icons either visible framing the action or within a simple keystroke. The enemy's artificial intelligence is quite strong too: Monsters will join nearby fights to aid their comrades, switch targets strategically midbattle, and ambush players. The map system fills in details on places you've visited, so you always know where you are and where you've been.

Overall, World of Warcraft is a game that's easy to learn, challenging to master, beautiful to watch, and tons of fun to play. --Porter B. Hall

System Requirements
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating System	PC: Microsoft Windows XP or Windows Vista (with latest Service Packs) Mac: Mac OS X 10.4.11 or newer
CPU	PC: Intel Pentium 4 1.3 GHz or AMD Athlong XP 1500+ Mac: PowerPC G5 1.6 GHz or Intel Core Duo processor	PC: Dual-core processor, such as Intel Pentium D or AmD Athlong 64 X2 Mac: Intel 1.8 GHz processor or better
Graphics Hardware	PC: 3D graphics processor with Hardware Transfor and Lighting with 32 MB VRAM, such as an ATI Radeon 7200 or NVIDIA GeForce2 class card or better Mac: 3D graphics processor with Hardware Transform and Lighting with 64 MB VRAM, such as ATI Radeon 9600 or NVIDIA GeForce Ti 4600 class card or better	PC: 3D Graphics processor with Vertex and Pixel Shader capabilities with 128 MB VRAM, such as an ATI Radeon X1600 or NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT class card or better Mac: 3D graphics processor with Vertex and Pixel Shader capability with 128 MB VRAM, such as ATI Radeon X1600 or NVIDIA 7600 class card or better.
Memory	PC: 512 MB (1 GB for Vista) Mac: 1 GB	PC: 1 GB (2 GB for Vista) Mac: 2 GB
Hard Drive Space	15 GB of free space
All Platform Requirements	Keyboard and mouse, required for controls. Other input devices not supported. Active broadband Internet connection required to play.

Product Description

World Of Warcraft lets players experience the lands of Azeroth from a newer, in-depth perspective. They'll discover new lands and take on epic quests and challenges in massive online multiplayer action. Special 14-day FREE trial!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars If you get the retail game, GET THIS TOO!!! Read why..., October 2, 2007

By	Dave Y. "nobody777" (Pasco, WA USA) - See all my reviews

Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

I always tell people who are considering purchasing WoW to go ahead and buy the retail version of the game but buy this trial version too! Why? Because the trial version includes the same full game as the retail version, only on a single DVD! You will need the retail version too, for the serial key, but not for installation. I prefer using this trial disk because one DVD is sure a lot faster to install than sitting through 6 CDs on the original retail version. I don't know why they don't re-publish the game on DVD. Oh well... The other bonus is that if you install the trial version first and use its key, then register and put in the retail key on the WoW site, you will have the benefit of 14 extra days of game time (for a total of 44).

WoW is a fun game. I'm not big on RPGs but I really enjoy this one. The game also includes built-in voice chat so you can use your headphones and mic to actually talk to your friends that you're gaming with. Very cool and it works well.

Parents who may be concerned about the subject matter of this game should know that, while there is violence, it is not excessive or grotesque. Though the game also includes some content involving demons, spell-casting, and the like, these are presented as "abilities" that your character earns in order to accomplish more challenging tasks and there is not a pressing focus on "the Occult". In fact, if you like you can be a priest and use your spiritual abilities to combat the foes of darkness. Think Lord of the Rings kind of stuff. I know some parents will not want their kids exposed to this kind of subject material and that is understandable, but I just wanted to offer these comments so you have some idea of the content involving such themes. The game involves a lot of clean fun and I can't help but believe that this game does good for the brain as there is a lot going on to keep track of and I think it must sharpen visual reflexes and mental stamina. It pretty much forces you to learn to multi-task better (something I am terrible at), but you have to improve on these kinds of things in order to level up quickly. The game also emphasizes honorable behavor, justice, efficiency, goal-setting and goal-accomplishing, strategy, creativity, team work, and most everyone seems to help each other out and is mostly courteous.

The game also features a lot of humor and is a light-hearted fun experience. The game also includes filters to cancel out bad language in the chats if you desire although I rarely have found people abusing the system. Most people you chat and quest with in the game are friendly and helpful.

The game is also addictive. ;) Generally I am drawn to games that have cutting edge graphics... This one is a few years old now and nothing special to look at (IMO), but I have to say it is a lot of fun (and this is coming from a guy that prefers FPS games, not MMORPGs). The quests are entertaining as well as challenging and the levels paced for your ability. Trust me, if I can play this, anyone can. If you've ever played Fable, it is similar (graphics wise) though more involved (objective wise); However, it is not as complex as games like Morrowind.

All-in-all, fun game and worth the $1.99 for this trial disk, if nothing more than to make installing the full game easier. It's the exact same game as the retail version. Get both or get two and give one to a friend. Have fun... Oh, by the way, my characters are SgtGodfear (human warrior) and Xdoulos (human priest). Look me up in the Eldre'Thalas realm. Happy gaming! :)

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