World of Warcraft: Worldsoul Saga

[Blackhawk]

These guys really know how to do a cinematic.

Anyway, they just announced a trilogy of expansions, starting with The War Within. I don't have a lot of time to dig right now, but I did see that the first expansion will include a new race (the Earthen, the stone golem looking guys from Northrend), and will be set mostly underground (likely with Dwarf elements.)

Announcement

Explore the new continent of Khaz Algar: Off the western shores of Kalimdor lies The Isle of Dorn, a new hub for both the Horde and Alliance. Begin to explore what dwells beneath the surface in the lava-fuelled forge of The Ringing Deeps, the lush Hallowfall, and the pinnacle of Nerubian society, Azj-Kahet.

New Playable Allied Race – the Earthen: Players will meet and unlock this Titan-forged race who have made Khaz Algar their home, with their own unique civilization and culture.

Expand your Warcraft fantasy with Hero Talents: A new level of class specialization customization, Hero Talents are modelled after well-known archetypes from the Warcraft universe, including Dark Ranger, Farseer, and more.

Delves: New bite-size adventures seamlessly integrated into the world, which flexibly scale to support 1-5 players, and offer meaningful progression.

Warbands: A quality-of-life feature for players with multiple characters, Warbands allow banks, reputations, transmogs, and more to be shared across all player characters.

The last one has me a little leery - hopefully they don't do the Blizzard thing and over-streamline it so that there's no fun to be had in playing new characters.

[Blackhawk]

One quick thought: I have played enough WoW and know enough of the setting's lore that I know exactly what it is that's being discussed in that video. Given Blizzard's normal timeline of an expansion every couple of years, and given that the 19th anniversary is in about a week, these are likely to wrap up right around WoW's 25th anniversary.

One possible outcome of what they just showed could, potentially, be the end of the setting.

[Exodor]

One possible outcome of what they just showed could, potentially, be the end of the setting.

I'd be sad but I guess a quarter century is a pretty good run for a vidya game.

I'm looking forward to the expansion but I'm a hopeless WoW addict so I'm easy to please. Dragonflight has been the best expansion in a long while and I'm hopeful they can keep up the quality.

[Daehawk]

[Blackhawk]

This is one game that does not benefit from that treatment. Part of the character of the game (and the environments) are the art style. Making it realistic completely changes it's atmosphere (and given that it - and Dun Morogh, the area outside - are some of my favorite places in the game, that makes me prickly.)

And, honestly - he didn't really do a great job with the port/recreation. Way too much shine, way too much glare, and honestly - poor lighting. It just looked orange. And outside they added too much 'stuff' just for the sake of making it more complex.