If the presence of one cerebral game in a Top10, selected exclusively by gamers, could be considered a fluke, how would you react to a second one being there? Surely in a year were graphical excellence and stunning visual effects were proclaimed as the Gods of Gaming, in a year were graphics cards argued over which version of shader model should be used, no one could find room for something different. Gamers everywhere however, decided to shake things up a bit. At number 7 in the Top 10 MegaGames of 2004 we find a title lovingly developed by a Californian studio eager to get into a new market. Blizzard’s first foray into the MMORPG genre seems to have left gamers impressed.
From the early days of the franchise, when a humble 16-bit game developer produced Warcraft: Orcs and Humans, to the magnificence of Warcraft II, Blizzard has made it clear that it is no ordinary developer. It was therefore expected that even when facing new challenges, those involved when creating a Massively Multiplayer Online title, Blizzard would emerge triumphant. Blizzard had always been followed by the reputation of being a work-enemy. More hours of studying and work must have been lost to Warcraft and Diablo games than to all major sports events of the last decade put together.
The World of Warcraft is vast, its scale is enough to keep even the most demanding gamer busy, but there is much more to it than just size. Every detail seems distilled from the experience of the previous games. The beautiful human city of Stormwind, has its streets and squares decorated with statues taken from the Warcraft universe, while the gamer will immediately recognize Ironforge as a Dwarf stronghold.
It seems that not only have gamers enjoyed World of Warcraft but that they have been very willing to put their money where their mouth is, since Blizzard recently announced that it has sold over 600,000 copies of the game since its launch in mid-December 2004.
The story of WoW is set just four years following the aftermath of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and players get to explore the ravaged world of Azeroth as Warcraft heroes and what has impressed gamers the most is how …blizzard did a great job turning Azeroth into a beautiful 3d world. Some voters even went as far as to claim that WoW is … WoW is really the best game I have ever played. Some gamers however, accused WoW of bad conduct since World of Warcraft is hands down the best game I have ever came across, I have purchase two other games and I havn't even opened the packaging yet because WoW has captured my passion for rpg gaming.
The praise kept coming in as it was claimed that WOW is simply THE BEST MMORPG out there... Blizzard is showing again why is one of the best - or maybe THE best - videogames designer of ALL times... I mean, c’mon! The graphics are crisp, the sound is superb, the story is excellent, and the overall performance is SUPERB...what else can a game ask for?? All we can add is indeed.
Number 8