E3 2006 Best Expansion Pack: World of WarCraft: The Burning Crusade, Blizzard
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They announced their long awaited Alliance race:
The Draenei. With a game as popular as World of WarCraft, you'll never get 100% agreement, but the average fan on the floor seemed more than happy with the options presented.
Throw in the Blood Elves, that finally should help the population balance by giving the Hoard a "sexy" race and you see how the game addresses a lot of major issues for the community. There is a new crafting line and the ability to use it to enhance your items. Players can also look forward to ten more levels, new high kevel PvE focused gear and plenty of new high level raid content.
As always, Blizzard raises the bar artistically once again in this expansion. The Blood Elf starting area is perhaps one of the most artistic things available in an MMORPG.
A long time in the making, The Burning Crusade is doing a lot more to consolidate the base of their game than any other title.
Is it perfect? No. People want more PvP, and while they are expanding the Battlegrounds, they're not taking it to a whole new level. However, WoW simply is not a PvP game at its core and Blizzard's decision to focus in on what gave them 6 million plus subscribers and make it better is probably the right thing to do.
It was a slow year on the expansion front, with several annual mainstays not quite there yet, but The Burning Crusade was definitely a worthy champion. Remember, check out our E3 Preview.
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The following expansion packs also deserved consideration.
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 | City of Heroes/Villains: Issue 7, Manifest Destiny, NCSoft We argued over two days about this one. In the end, despite being free, it loses out on the fact that it adds a lot of content (levels 40+ for villains) that many feel should have been there in the first place. Nonetheless, the wealth of content NC is providing at no cost is definitely worthy of a mention. |
 | EVE Online: Path To Kali, CCP Games When we heard about Kali at GDC, it was stunning. The expansion sounded like it was going to keep EVE soaring for years to come. It still does, but CCP is playing it safe and releasing the planned features over three expansions. Had they kept it in one, they'd probably have won. |
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