The MMO is a strange beast, and I'm not going to lie; I despise the notion of paying to play games that you already own, and I've boycotted every game that has ever followed this structure. Despite the fact that I've always been a big fan of Blizzard's games, I naturally avoided World of Warcraft for years based on this principal alone. In December 2007 I had finally been convinced to see for myself what all the fuss was about, and I've been playing off and on ever since.

So what exactly is it about World of Warcraft that has absolutely captivated over eleven million people? Well, that depends on the person, but put simply: World of Warcraft is fun. Yes, you heard that right, World of Warcraft is fun. World of Warcraft is a game that provides so many different things to a massive audience of people that there's generally at least something about World of Warcraft that any one individual is bound to enjoy, even if they don't realize it yet. Want to play by your lonesome, quest, explore, get lost? You can do that. Want to raid dungeons with your friends? Sure thing. Want to battle against other players? You can do that too.

Let's get the basics out of the way first: World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game that has players choose between either the Horde or the Alliance, both of which are opposed to one another. The Horde consists of the Orcs, Trolls, Tauren, and Undead. The Alliance consists of the Humans, Dwarves, Gnomes, and Night Elves. (The Blood Elves and Draenei were later added to the Horde and Alliance respectively but can only be played as with the Burning Crusade expansion pack). After you've chosen your faction you then build your character by choosing your race, gender, and cIass. There is a large assortment of cIasses to choose from ranging from the druid, hunter, mage, paladin, priest, rogue, shaman, warlock, and warrior.

Each of the game's cIasses play vastly different from the other, and as you quest and explore the game world you'll level up, gain abilities, and build your character. Each cIass can choose from three unique talent tree specializations that are inherently based on the three different types of moves that your character's cIass can learn. As an example, the paladin cIass learns moves that are based around either holy, protection, or retribution skills, most of which can be learned from a paladin trainer. A paladin can learn and use skills based on all three of these types of skills, but will have to specialize in one of them with talents. The talent tree for a paladin is naturally split into the holy, protection, and retribution talent trees, and specializing in one of them will make your skills of that type stronger. Specializing in holy will make a paladin's healing spells more effective; specializing in protection will make a paladin an effective tank (essentially a character that distracts enemies and takes all the damage while other characters attack and heal); and finally a paladin specializing in retribution will become a powerful melee fighter who can dish out a ton of damage. The way you build your character is entirely up to you, and that's a part of what makes World of Warcraft so fun to play.

If you've ever played an MMO or at least seen one in action before, then you pretty much know what to expect from World of Warcraft from a gameplay perspective. You talk to NPCs, slay x number of x monster and retrieve x number of x random item. Thankfully not all of World of Warcraft's quests are as mundane as they sound, and there's usually some unique quests every now and then that keep things interesting. Not to mention the fact that there are plenty of dungeons and nasty boss monsters just waiting for you and a group of compatriots to take them on. This is an incredibly important part of World of Warcraft's end-game content, but there are plenty of dungeons that can be explored by eager adventurers all throughout the lower levels of the game.

Thankfully if you don't have any friends to play with, finding other people to create a party with is easy. When you want to find a group for a dungeon all you simply have to do is open the group menu, select a few dungeons you'd like to go to, select what type of role you can fulfill, and then let match making do its magic. Alternatively you can simply just choose to wait for a pre-existing group already searching for players to send an invitation your way once you've filled out the details. You don't always get into a group as fast as you'd like though, so if you want to do a dungeon it's always a good idea to set yourself up in the group search as you're questing, because even when you do get a group you may have to wait a while until you have a full party with all of the necessary roles fulfilled. Even though it can take awhile, it's immensely fulfilling when you get a good group together and you storm through a dungeon together fighting powerful monsters, finding loot, and getting powerful new equipment to deck out your characters with. Often times the dungeons also have some of the best quests in the game, such as one in particular that has a quest that will be very familiar to anyone who's seen Raiders of the Lost Ark. Dungeons are often one of the best ways to find rare and powerful new equipment, so you'd be wise not to gloss over them unless you're in an absolute rush to level as fast as possible.

Aside from its diverse gameplay options, one of the reasons why World of Warcraft is so captivating is more or less how incredibly well realized the game world is. Azeroth is absolutely massive is size - so big in fact, that depending on what faction and race you choose to play as, you'll be lucky to see at least half of what the game world has to offer. Even if you're one of those people that isn't heavily into online gaming or the competitive nature of online games, World of Warcraft is a game that you can just get absolutely lost in.

Naturally, seeing as how the game world is so huge and that it's separated into two factions, players of the opposing factions can actually kill one another when they are in the appropriate areas. Every race begins in their own unique starting zone that is allied with their faction, and you cannot be killed in these areas unless you've openly attacked a player from another faction in one of your zones. Contested territories on the other hand are neutral zones that are not owned by either faction, and the vast majority of the game takes place in these zones. Once you've reached level 20 you'll venture out into the vast wilderness where you can encounter players from the other faction, and you can and will be killed by them, and can and will kill them as well. Fortunately if you aren't into that sort of thing you can play on a Player versus Environment server (PvE), rather than a Player versus Player server (PvP). In PvE servers you can only be attacked by other players if you enable it, therefore creating a much more relaxed gaming experience if that's what you're looking for. Likewise, people looking for the intensity and danger of being attacked at any moment and being able to attack other players have that option as well.

World of Warcraft is massive in size and scale, but a part of why it's so incredibly well realized is because of Azeroth's beauty. World of Warcraft is an old game, and even when it was released back in 2004 it had already been soundly trumped in the graphics department by the triumphant Half-Life 2; a game which essentially rendered every other game released prior to itself completely obsolete from a graphical standpoint. Even with World of Warcraft's dated appearance it's still a beautiful game from an artistic point of view. All of the locales are gorgeously well realized, and are truly breathtaking to behold. There are so many unique environments ranging from the snowy Dwarven mountains, to the gorgeous Elwynn Forest, to the vast emptiness of the Barrens, that you'll never tire of simply exploring the areas, as well as trying to find the next one just to see what wonders it will behold. While World of Warcraft is visually dated it never loses it's charm, and that's the reason why it can still be described as a beautiful game, even in light of its aged appearance. The only real issue with World of Warcraft from a graphical standpoint is that you may notice the odd clipping here and there, but it's never a big enough issue to really detract from anything. Some of the animations can also occasionally be a bit funky, but all of this really amounts to nothing more than mere nitpicking.

Complementing the breathtaking world is an absolutely gorgeous symphonic soundtrack that cannot be summarized as anything but perfect. World of Warcraft's music is expertly composed and perfectly fits the game world. Each area is accompanied by its own styIe of music as well as beautiful and mysterious ambience, or dark and sinister undertones that really nail the feeling of each area. Voice acting is minimal, but all of the NPCs have a variety of generic dialogue they mutter whenever spoken to. It's probably not the game's strongest aspect, but since it's such a minor part of the game it's not something you'll ever pay attention to.

World of Warcraft is such a huge game, that it's really difficult to accurately describe every thing that it is, and every thing that it can be. World of Warcraft can essentially be whatever kind of game you want it to be. It has that vast epic scope that fans of questing and exploration will adore, and it also has a hugely competitive player versus player component to it as well. Not to mention all of the guilds, dungeons, and all of that optional stuff you can get into if you want to - but again, that's why World of Warcraft is so great, you can go through the entire game ignoring all of the conventional MMO trappings that are generally associated with the genre that some people who avoid MMOs can't stand. Guilds, socializing, PvP, don't like it? Don't do it! On the other hand, if that's your thing, then go nuts! World of Warcraft caters to pretty much everyone and that's why no other MMO ever has a chance of beating it.

Sure, paying a monthly fee for World of Warcraft sucks, but the game does every thing an MMO should do, as well as all of the things that other MMOs don't do, and it does it better than all of them. If you're ever going to pay a monthly fee for a game, then World of Warcraft should be that game. Every thing from the genre you'll ever need to experience is here, and it's executed at such a masterfully perfected level that only a developer with Blizzard's pedigree could ever hope to achieve.

Score.

2 THINGS:

1. I seriously can't believe I actually just wrote a review for World of Warcraft. I'm sure with the extreme polar opposite views this game gets (being either extreme hatred or the utmost admiration) I'm sure I've lost the respect of at least someone who's tracking me for not only publicly displaying that I've played this game, but also for the fact that I've subscribed to this game. That being said I only have one proclamation:

HAHA I DID IT I GOT TO LEVEL 60 TAKE THAT WORLD OF WARCRAFT THE GAME THAT STOLE 250 HOURS OF MY LIFE I BEAT YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2. If you get the blog title reference without having to look it up or only realizing after reading this sentence then you are awesome.

When you break Left 4 Dead down to its core components it's a relatively basic game; you grab some items, run through a level shooting countless common infected, fight a few special infected, and eventually seek shelter at the next safe house ad nauseam. Left 4 Dead has a bare bones selection of weapons and items at your disposal, so playing it by yourself gets very old, very quickly. Fortunately Left 4 Dead has an exceptionally well-realized cast of playable characters and a fantastic online co-op experience that help keep it interesting from start to finish.

Left 4 Dead deliberately skimps on the story and begins two weeks after the initial infection that has turned all but a select few into ravaging brain-dead zombies. In Left 4 Dead you'll have access to four playable characters, all complete with their own vastly different personas: Bill, a hardened Vietnam War veteran; Francis, a tattoo-covered biker; Louis, a Junior Systems Analyst at his company's IT department; and Zoey, a college student and horror film enthusiast. This is as far into each character's background as you're ever going to get, but it's their dialogue, personalities, and the way in which they interact with one another that keeps them interesting.

As one of these four characters (and hopefully with a group of friends) you'll trek through various locations chock full of infected just waiting to ravage you and your comrades. You begin each level armed with nothing but a pistol, but you'll have access to either a shotgun or an Uzi, plenty of ammo, and some medkits. Along the way you'll come across various items scattered across the levels, which includes pain pills, Molotov cocktails, pipe bombs, as well as superior firepower. Unfortunately Left 4 Dead's weapon selection is painfully limited and you will only have access to five main weapons in the entire game. Eventually you will be able to upgrade your Uzi or shotgun to an m4 or an automatic shotgun, both of which serve as upgrades to each of the starting weapons, as well as a hunting rifle which can be used as a sniper. Left 4 Dead's gunplay is kind of weak though. It's not really bad but the lack of weapon variety makes it pretty underwhelming in general and the weaponry is not nearly as satisfying as that found in Valve's other games such as Half-Life, Counter-Strike, and Day of Defeat. Oddly enough there are no melee weapons to speak of in Left 4 Dead which seems like a glaring omission, especially considering you're in the zombie apocalypse and all. You do have access to melee attacks with your firearms but they serve more as a shove than an actual melee attack and do minimal damage at best.

Left 4 Dead's level design is pretty good though, and the four main campaigns have enough variety to keep the gameplay experience interesting. Perhaps what gives Left 4 Dead the majority of its longevity is the AI director which alters the gameplay experience depending on how the players are performing. Unfortunately the AI director isn't really as significant as Valve would have you believe, as weapons and items generally always appear in the same few locations. The infected are generally everywhere so it's hard to really take notice of how differently they may have been dispersed this time, especially since the levels always play out the exact same way despite the minimal differences.

You will also encounter various types of special infected throughout the game: the hunter, smoker, boomer, tank, and the witch. The hunter stalks players from various angles and can leap great distances to incapacitate and maul the survivors. The smoker can snatch players with his long tongue from great distances and drag them off to their doom, he'll also explode into a cloud of smoke when defeated, obscuring vision. The boomer can puke on players blinding them, as well as alerting their presence to a horde of zombies which will then hone in on their location. The tank is a rare special infected who usually spawns during climactic moments, such as a chapter finale. He can easily incapacitate an entire team of survivors if not quickly dealt with, and can take an incredible amount of punishment. Finally you have the witch, who will not attack players if left undisturbed, but when provoked can incapacitate a survivor in one attack. The special infected are what keep the gameplay interesting, as their appearances are much more infrequent and unpredictable, and generally require the team to work together to bring down. The special infected can also be controlled during versus matches in multiplayer (with the exception of the witch) which can lead to some amusing moments.

Playing Left 4 Dead co-op definitely gives the player the best experience possible, and you will have to rely on your teammates to make it through all of Left 4 Dead's campaigns. You will constantly be attacked by hordes of infected, and the special infected's unique abilities with often incapacitate players to a helpless state where they will need to be saved by a fellow survivor. When players are incapacitated you will have to revive them, and you'll earn points for doing so. You'll also earn points for protecting other players by shooting infected that are just about to attack them. Friendly fire is always enabled and cannot be turned off, so you'll have to be careful not to shoot your friends. You can heal each other with med packs, and you can give pain pills to each other which temporarily restore health. When you're incapacitated after a serious injury you'll have to wait for a teammate to revive you, and in these cases you can only use your pistols. This can lead to some intense moments as the rest of your team struggles to survive as you blast the infected swarming you with your pistols from the ground.

The finales featured at the end of each of the campaigns hold some of the best moments of Left 4 Dead, as you and your friends protect a fixed position from a seemingly endless horde of infected. If anyone is left behind as you eventually make your way to the escape vehicle the game will display 'In Memory of' listing the players name, along with all of your gameplay statistics listed as if they were movie credits at the end. It's fun to compare your stats to those of your friends, and the way it's all presented makes it a lot of fun.

Left 4 Dead's presentation is perhaps one of its strongest selling points. Each level is presented by a poster showing all of the characters (as well as the names of the people controlling them) topped off with a cheesy catch phrase, reminiscent of campy horror movies. The sound design is excellent, and easily one of the best aspects of the game in general. The music is appropriately foreboding and contains repetitive loops that get stuck in your head and immerse you in the zombie apocalypse atmosphere. The zombies themselves actually all have sound effects provided by experimental musician Mike Patton, who actually made an album based solely around him making weird sounds with his mouth. So it's not really very surprising to see him voicing zombies in a video game, and he does an excellent job. The voice acting is also superb and breathes life into all of the characters as they talk, scream, and laugh together. It really makes them feel like actual people struggling through the zombie apocalypse rather than a bunch of mindless drones void of any type of personality.

Left 4 Dead's replay value is essentially defined by how high a tolerance you have for repetition. There are currently five campaigns in total including the recently released Crash Course DLC, but the campaigns themselves are fairly short and all play out in an entirely similar fashion. With a significant lack of weapons and overall gameplay variety you're probably going to wear out on Left 4 Dead pretty quickly. So unless you have a high penchant for doing the exact same thing over and over again you're probably only going to play through Left 4 Dead once or twice before calling it a day. The versus mode can provide some additional amusement after you've gone through the campaign normally, but it's also riddled with annoying players who hog items, use cheap or otherwise irritating tactics, and people who like to play lone wolf styIe rather than playing as a team. You're definitely going to want to be playing with people you know if you try any of these modes. If Left 4 Dead had more content it would be an easier game to recommend, but as it stands it's a relatively short experience that is significantly lacking in long term replay value and it's sole long lasting benefit is it's charming characters, excellent audio, and entertaining but brief co-op play.

Score.

ZoMg 2 rEvIeWs In 1 DaY!?!? AND 2 BLOG POSTZ?

Here's the Soulcalibur review if you missed it.

With the recent fighting game revival taking place during 2008 it's no surprise that Namco saw it fit to re-release the game that sent the Soul series to super stardom on a modern day console. Despite the odd numerical scheme, Soulcalibur is actually the second game in the series. Following Soul Blade for the PlayStation 1, and complete with name change and a significant roster update, Soulcalibur took the the Dreamcast by storm. The original Soulcalibur is arguably the reason why the series is so well known to this day.

It's unfortunate then, that this Xbox Live Arcade port of Soulcalibur feels like half of a game. Soulcalibur for the Xbox 360 is significantly lacking in features and modern day enhancements, which essentially makes this port feel incredibly lazy and it comes across as a half-assed effort to cash-in on the rising popularity of fighting games.

Over the years fighting games have evolved to certain standards where the exclusion of such features can generally be summed up as lazy and completely unacceptable. Online play is a must for any current generation fighting game. Unfortunately Soulcalibur is having none of that. There is no online play whatsoever to speak of, so unless you have a friend or two who is willing to throw it down with some old school Soulcalibur then you're not going to have too much to sink your teeth into here. Soulcalibur lacks the mission mode from the Dreamcast version of the game, which is the mode that actually gave people a reason to play the game by themselves. Without any sort of single-player component aside from arcade mode, Soulcalibur is significantly lacking in replay value, and anyone who picks this up will find themselves bored with it relatively quickly.

Soulcalibur plays almost identically to later games in the series, so if you've played any of the newer iterations of the franchise then you will be surprised by how similar this game is to the rest of them. In fact, if you've played any of the later games then you've essentially played Soulcalibur altogether. That's not to say that Soulcalibur does not provide an awesome fighting system - because it does. The core fighting mechanics featured in Soulcalibur are exceptionally well executed and it's not difficult to see why the game was so highly regarded when it launched on the Dreamcast.

You will only have a very basic assortment of modes at your disposal however. There is an arcade mode with a relatively nonsensical plot line that is hardly explored beyond extremely brief what-if ending scenarios, as well as a few multiplayer modes; you will have access to a basic versus mode, as well as what is arguably the best mode in the game: team versus battle (which is a mode that has gone mysteriously absent and sorely missed since its exclusion from Soulcalibur III). Team versus battle functions the same way as regular versus with the exception that you can have up to eight characters battling against another team of up to eight characters in an all-out battle to the death. There is also a survival mode which pits you against an endless stream of opponents until you are killed, and an extra survival mode that functions the exact same way except for its sudden death properties which sees all combatants die in one hit. Last but not least, you have a museum mode that comes complete with character artwork, biographies, and more.

Soulcalibur features updated graphics presented in HD, which is arguably the best feature about the port. Unfortunately there is no support for widescreen, so if you are playing on an HDTV you will have to play the game in 4:3 with a rudimentary wallpaper filling up the sides of the screen. Naturally Soulcalibur features a soaring orchestral soundtrack much like every other game in the series, which is suitably epic and appropriate. The sound effects are great, with weapons clashing and clanging off each other as you'd expect. Soulcalibur has no English voice language option for the characters though, so the entire roster is presented with their original Japanese voices.

Soulcalibur is ultimately just simply disappointing. For a fighting game that is this highly regarded you'd expect Namco to take the proper effort and resources to give this legendary fighting game a proper rebirth on a modern day console. There simply isn't enough to sink your teeth into here. With every thing being unlocked from the beginning, the removal of mission mode, and the lack of online play or any other sort of significant upgrade such as widescreen support makes this port come across as nothing more than a blatantly lazy waste of time for anyone but the most ardent fan.

Score.

It may not be easy to tell, but right now I'm attempting to review every game I've played so far this year. Doing so will make any sort of potential GOTY blog(s) I do at the end of the year that much easier. This is also the shortest review that I've written in an incredibly long time.