New 'Warcraft' trailer is death warmed over

Blizzard Entertainment is currently hawking Wrath of the Lich King, the World of Warcraft expansion, due out at Christmas, and they've gone all out on the trailer. The beautiful, HD-quality animation is amazing for the MMO genre, and the content is like crack for gamers: a Lich King, a big undead dragon, a voiceover talking about great power, a Soul Calibur-esque flaming sword, and singing to orchestral music in some elvish language. Of course, this is not the quality of art you'll be seeing in the game itself. New game releases now need two trailers—one for cinematic effect and one for actual game play. See gameplay trailer here. Blizzard has to pull out the stops because a new MMO called Warhammer, from Mythic Entertainment, has come to join the party. Warhammer is releasing Sept. 18 in an attempt to draw WOW players over before Lich King breaks. Note again the classical music and the elvish singing, but this time you also get a Matrix-like time slowdown and a half-naked ice lady with huge knockers. Once again, actual gameplay in trailer No. 2. Sure, neither game is introducing anything new like Spore. But hey, what's wrong with fan service?

—Posted by Rebecca Cullers

September 12, 2008 in Cullers, Video games | Permalink