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Ask WoW Insider: What pre-BC content did you miss?
Welcome again to your weekly dose of Ask WoW Insider, wherein we publish the questions on your mind for readers to answer. Last week we talked about how to find a good guild, and this week we're waxing nostalgic about some of the pre-BC content that new players might now miss as they're levelling up. Megilion from Crimson Blade on Gorgonnash writes: I just realized recently that, as my main is only level 62 and I didn't hit 60 until after BC came out, there's still a lot of this game that I haven't seen yet. There are several zones I've never been in, as well as many pre-BC raids that I'll likely never experience. I'm curious what experiences, locations, and even quests WoW Insider readers have missed on their road to level 70 that they're eager to get to someday if at all? For those of you who made it to 60 before the expansion, what are some of the highlights of then endgame content that new players might be missing? What are some of the best quests, locations and experiences one might miss when rushing off to Outland in the late 50s? Got questions? Ask WoW Insider can help! Send us what you're wondering to ask AT wowinsider DOT com.
80GB PS3 has limited backwards compatibility
We're still attempting to confirm what the new red light means on the PS3 controller from Sony*, but what we can confirm is that the new 80GB PS3 will have limited backwards compatibility. Clearly stated on the box, the system has apparently gotten rid of the chip previously used for US backwards compatibility and switched over to the European software version.The box states: "This product has limited backwards compatibility with PlayStation and PlayStation 2 format software ... visit www.us.playstation.com for system software update." We're attempting to find out if the new 60GB versions rolling off the assembly line will also switch over to the BC software. So, if you're really into your old PS and PS2 games, might want to check and see if they are compatible with the software or get a system currently available before the switch.*Update: From Dave Karraker, Sr. Director, Corporate Communications regarding the red light: "It is just a lighting trick. Nothing different or new about it."
Burning Crusade reference guide
For the reference-minded among you, we've compiled a Burning Crusade reference guide for you, your alts, or anyone new to BC content to use as a handy, one-stop-shop reference. The guide aggregates the most informative links we've found on BC-specific content so far, including dungeon walkthroughs, profession and class changes, new PvP objectives, maps, quests, loots, changes in patch 2.1, etc. We hope you find it useful, and we hope you'll help us continue to improve the guide by making suggestions in the comments here of any other Burning Crusade-related guides, FAQs, walkthroughs, or roundups we haven't yet included. We'll do our best to check this thread and add updates to the guide with your contributions. Burning Crusade reference guide
Terminal Tip: Command Line Calculator
Mac OS X ships with a powerful and useful command-line calculator called bc. GNU bc provides an arbitrary precision calculator that allows you to type in expressions for immediate calculation. It uses the standard conventions for computer arithmetic, i.e. + and - are addition and subtraction, * and / are multiplication and division, ^ is exponentiation. So to multiple, say, 193 by two thirds, you'd enter 193 * 2 / 3 and press return. Parentheses set the order of evaluation, just as they would in a normal arithmetic statement or in a computer language. e.g. (20 / 3) ^ 5 performs the division before the exponentiation. You can also use variables with bc. Just assign them using an "=" command. For example, you can set your principal to 100 with principal=100. The special scale variable indicates the number of digits to show after the decimal point. Enter quit to leave bc. There's a lot more you can do with bc--it's really a full interactive programming language that goes way beyond the simple convenience of quick calculations. To learn about bc, type man bc from the command line.
Italian PS3 owners want their PS2 soccer
While Sony may boast that over 1,000 PS2 games work on the modified European PS3, statistics don't matter much if your favorite game doesn't work correctly. Case in point, an editorial in Italy's Corriere Della Sera with the translated headline "Yesterday I bought a PS3. Today, I'm selling it." Apparently, at least one journalist is so mad about the PS3's lack of full support for Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer series (Eurogamer points out that the online matches don't work) that he is willing to sell the system at a discount just days after buying it. He's not alone, either. An Italian consumer association is reportedly demanding that Sony address the compatibility issues or offer PS3 owners a free game. Hell hath no fury like an Italian footie fan scorned.[Via GameSetWatch]
Breaking down the Euro PS3's backward compatiblity
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/Euro_PS3_BC_full_details_breaking_down_the_numbers'; Amid concerns that the European version of the PlayStation 3 will be less than fully backward compatible, Sony has unveiled a new web site listing old games that will work under the version 1.6 firmware, due to be released concurrently with the European launch on Thursday. Unfortunately, the site is organized in a rather user-unfriendly paged format that requires a lot of clicking around to get to the data you want. We did some extra legwork and copied the data into a couple of convenient Google Docs spreadsheets (PS1, PS2). We also crunched the numbers to see just how extensive the European PS3's backward compatibility will be at launch.The results are a little underwhelming. While over 2,800 combined PS2 and PS1 games are listed as working on the PAL PS3, they represent only about 56 percent of the approximately 5,000 discs available for both systems in PAL format. Unlisted games like Metal Gear Solid 2, Final Fantasy VII, Resident Evil 2 and all the Ratchet and Clank games will not work at all come launch day -- as it says in the fine print of the site, "if your game is not listed here, emulation is not yet supported on PLAYSTATION®3." [update: added fine print quote -- thanks Ian] (Note: Discs are listed by serial number, one game may be listed under multiple serial numbers).What's more, of the roughly 2,800 listed games, only about 1,800 of them (approx. 63 percent) work with "no known issues." A good 550 or so have "noticeable issues," according to Sony, among them big names like Metal Gear Solid and Tomb Raider II on the PS1 and Final Fantasy X, Kingdom Hearts, SingStar, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on the PS2. [Update: Moved Kingdom Hearts from PS1 to PS2. Whoops!]Of course, these numbers will only go up as Sony continues to update the firmware, but as a starting point, we're a little disappointed that roughly two-thirds of the PlayStation/PS2 library won't work perfectly on Europe's launch day PS3s.Continue reading for a quick breakdown of the numbers and more chartly goodness.
Over 1,000 PS2 games to be compatible with Euro PS3
In an "exclusive interview" with "semiofficial" Playstation blog, Threespeech, Sony's Phil Harrison provides some clarity regarding the PAL PS3's range of backwards compatibility, not to mention the opportunity to place even more quotation marks into this paragraph. "The situation is changing every day, but on March 23, we expect the list to include over 1,000 PS2 titles." Sony's head of worldwide studios is referring to the list of PS2 games that are expected to be supported by the software emulation found in European PS3s.This announcement certainly defuses some of the controversy that resulted from Sony announcing the removal of PS2 hardware from European PS3 systems. After promising software support for a "limited" number of titles, many European gamers were feeling rightly cheated for having to pay a higher price for a PS3 with fewer features. Though the specific titles that comprise the list have yet to be announced (Harrison notes that Sony's policy is to focus on popular titles), it seems Sony is already far better equipped than Microsoft when it comes to fighting the inevitable onslaught of gamers complaining about their favorite title not being supported. Mr. Harrison also promises that an online list of backwards compatible games will be available on March 23, and that it will grow with every PS3 firmware update.
BC's effect on the census
The Burning Crusade has been upon us for two months, and already, as I'm sure you've all observed, it has had a dramatic effect on the race/class balance of the game. First off, due to the massive influx of Blood Elves -- they are now the most popular Horde race! -- the Alliance:Horde ratio is more even than ever at 1.3:1 (though of course individual servers do vary substantially). Draenei have not been quite as winning as our love-to-hate-'em elfly friends, placing solidly in the middle of the pack for Alliance races (between Gnomes and Dwarves on the one side and Humans and Night Elves on the other).How about classes? Well, the stereotype is true: more Blood Elves are Paladins than are any other class (35%). This has made Paladins 6th most popular class for the Horde, which is kind of surprising for a class that just became available recently. Who thought so many Hordies had been secretly longing to bubble-hearth? This having been said, Draenei Shaman are even more popular, relatively speaking, than Blood Elf Paladins -- 49% of Draenei are Shaman. That's a lot of space totems. This also means Draenei represent almost half (48%) of all the Shaman in the game; 39% of Paladins are Blood Elves. Due to the relative unpopularity of Draenei, though, Shaman is still the least popular Alliance class, as it has been for the game's history (not entirely by choice for most of it, of course).All of this data is from the ever-lovely WarcraftRealms.com census data, and ignores characters below level ten. Head over there if you want more detailed stats of any kind. How is your realm doing?
WoW Moviewatch: Tempest Keep Exploration
After taking out Magtheridon, the guild Nihilum has been able to complete the attunement quest to access the Eye of Tempest Keep. And since they can get there and we can't, they've decided to share some video of the place with the rest of us, giving us a first look at the place. And if the video's not enough for you, there's also a preview of the instance with some pretty sweet screenshots.[Via World of Raids]
WoW Moviewatch: Valentine's day commercial
A day late, perhaps, but better than never. Here's a charming Valentine's day piece from Blizzard about what to get to prove your love this year. The video is not available for embedding, so you'll have to click on through to Blizzard's page (sorry, at-work people). And remember, buffs may fade, but sockets are forever (or at least until they get overwritten with new jewels).
Ask WoW Insider: Aldor or Scryer?
We've explored the topic of the Aldors and the Scryers before, but reader Tetelestia gives us a great excuse to revisit this question of faction allegiance again now that we've had some time to spend in Burning Crusade. For this week's Ask WoW Insider, Tetelestia writes "I primarily play a horde character, and I want to make the best choice of allegiance for the quest in Shattrath city. As a noob coming up on my first character, I made the grave mistake of 'fighting' my way through to Winterspring. Mistake. I'd like to avoid that in BC, so I'm looking for readers input on which allegiance they took and why, instead of me just guessing." So, which faction did you choose to (or plan to) ally yourself with, and why? As ever, please don't forget to send us your questions for Ask WoW Insider to ask AT wowinsider DOT com. See you next week!
Confessions of an Outland clown, part 2
I'm still feeling awfully silly running around in my set of Outland greens and blues. And I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who thinks my character's appearance has taken a turn for the worst since leveling past 60. Even Drysc has chimed in on the topic, telling us......leveling items are almost always go to look more or less "plain". We want the end-game items to really stand out, both in ability/power and the way they look. The items you had at 60 were the end-game items, they were the best of the best and their look really showed that visually just running around the city. As you're leveling again you may be finding better gear than what you had, but it's not the uber end-game gear, and so it sort of has a plain look to match.Of course, I don't think that my complaint is over the fact that the gear looks "plain" -- in fact, I think "plain" would be a major improvement over what I'm wearing now. And while all of us want the incredible end-game gear to look, well, incredible, that doesn't seem like a great reason to make the rest of the gear in the game look awful, or just as bad -- boring and recycled. With most of the sights in Outland making me want to gape in wonder, the fact that my character would look about the same (perhaps better -- I don't recall low level greens being this jarringly colored) if I went and geared myself with the best that Elwynn Forest had to offer is a little disappointing. How could the current system be improved? Read on for some thoughts.
Breakfast Topic: Outlands at 58?
Currently, the lowest level at which you can pass through the Dark Portal and go to Outlands is 58 (although it is possible to be summoned or portaled to Outlands at any level). However, is it better to go straight for the portal when you hit 58, or are the quests going to be too hard, and would it then behoove one to wait until 60? Personally, I'll be taking all my alts in when/if they get high enough, because the quest rewards are just overwhelmingly good. Aeus agrees with me: Outland would be your ticket there... did it with one of my alts; best thing I ever did.. On the other hand, some members of my guild (mostly Warriors) firmly maintain that Outlands is just too hard until 60. What do you think? Does it depend on class, and if so, which classes would you recommend leaving behind in Azeroth a little longer?
Ding! 70!
My warlock hit level 70 during one of the horrendous trash pulls in the Auchindoun's Shadow Labyrinth. It took about 2 weeks, a little over but for the first four days my server was unplayable. I have a few suggestions for those of you who are trying to get 70 in the minimum amount of time spent. First, get out of Hellfire Peninsula as quickly as possible. There are so many people in that zone that I spent way too much time waiting for spawns. Second, unless you are a mage getting powerleveled with the help of a entire guild, quests are the way to go, not grinding and not instances. Finally, my pattern was Hellfire Peninsula to Zangarmarsh to Nagrand to Terokkar Forest to Blade's Edge to Shadowmoon Valley. I did Nagrand first Terokkar Forest was very heavily in use, and I wanted to stay out of that mess. They're about the same level, so it works out. I haven't even been into the Netherstorm area. Why did I skip Netherstorm? I'm a warlock. Shadowmoon Valley is full of demons. I was completely playing to my strengths. I started The Burning Crusade with about 150 gold on my warlock. I ended with a tad over 1500, not counting green items (sold via my bank alt) but counting all consumables, repairs, flights, and other expenses. Whenever there were quest rewards with no usable options, I picked the 2 handed weapon or the plate armor, those items tended to sell better. Unless you blow all of your cash on tradeskills, you should have basic flying mount cash very quickly.I managed to find groups to finish nearly all of my group quests on an ad hoc basis. On a couple of quests I got help from in-guild. Now that I've finished leveling, my goals are to finish up all my keys, do some instances, and help the rest of the people in my guild level.
Blue Notes: BC launch vid, contest and move for Europe
A few small items of interest for you all today. First, a documentary video by Blizzard of the BC launch, in both California and Europe. Cop the vid here; it's fun to see the festivities leading up to the new sandbox we're all playing in.Second, it seems that WoW is turning two in Europe on February 11. There's a lore contest and a wallpaper contest; prizes include Alienware computers and Nvidia video cards. As usual for their European contests, many countries are ineligible, because of their laws as regards lotteries -- it's not that Blizz just hates several random countries in Western Europe, as many forum posters seem to think. Blizzard's got the full details on their page.
BC download now available for North America as well
Rejoice! Now we North American types can also upgrade and download the Burning Crusade! I was heading over to www.worldofwarcraft.com just now and was hit with the following message: You can now buy account upgrade keys and download the game client for World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade directly through the account management section of www.worldofwarcraft.com. With this new direct online upgrade method, you don't even need to leave your desk if you decide to upgrade to The Burning Crusade and join more than two million players who are already adventuring beyond the Dark Portal. Pretty sweet, eh? Head over to the account management page to get your upgrade on.I was chatting with Elizabeth Harper about why they might choose to offer direct download now, and not at launch. Here's what I came up with: Offering direct download at launch might irritate retailers. Offering it now might get a few people to buy who weren't motivated enough to go out to the store. It probably costs them relatively little to do this. What do you guys think? Was it a sensible business move to wait until now for this? And how many of you are going to buy, now that you can do it without moving more than five or six muscles?[thanks also to Doug for tipping us off]
BC now available to download in Europe
Blizzard did say that they were looking into digital distribution, and now they've made good on that promise. You can now pay for and download the expansion in your bathrobe in the warm sanctuary of your own pad (because game stores have such a stringent dress code). From Crezax, who is indeed, as his signature claims, "so hot right now:" You can now buy and download The Burning Crusade online. No need to wait in line at your local store, just click (http://www.wow-europe.com/account/) to buy and download The Burning Crusade from the comfort of your own home! Whether you journey through the Dark Portal as a seasoned adventurer, or witness the wonders of Outland as one of the two new playable races- the blood elves and the draenei... Cut because we all know what the Burning Crusade has to offer, don't we?No word yet on when or if this is coming for North America, but if you're in Europe, you don't have the BC yet, and you want it but really hate going out, now's your chance!Edit: There is some strangeness going on. The forum thread I found this in no longer exists, and apparently the link Crezax gave does not have any way to buy BC online as promised. A premature announcement on Crezax's part, maybe? (Thanks, Pete, for writing in.)Edit 2: "It seems we encountered a small problem with that feature, so it is taken down for now." (Crezax)
Countdown to Burning Crusade: Burning Crusade winner
We'd like to thank everyone for helping us level up our contest skill with one final contest in our Countdown to Burning Crusade. We're happy to announce two lucky winners -- Baxmaniac is going to be the recipient of a copy of Burning Crusade for lucky comment number 260, and Kieron is going to receive a copy of Christie Golden's Rise of the Horde novel for lucky need roll number 119. Grats to Baxmaniac and Kieron, and thanks to everyone for taking part in the Countdown this month!
Ask WoW Insider: Top PvP classes at level 70?
It's time for this week's edition of Ask WoW Insider, wherein we publish one of your questions for your Warcraft-loving peers to answer. Last week we looked at the best ways to make money in Burning Crusade. This week we turn from fiscal concerns to our concern with pwning faces. Our question comes from reader Noah, who writes: "I know this is a heavily debated question but I was wondering what you guys thought the top PvP classes at 70 will be." We've looked at who you love and who you hate, and now Noah wants to know who'll be ripping you to shreds in the level 70 PvP bracket. Have at it! And don't forget to send us your questions at ask AT wowinsider DOT com.
Countdown to Burning Crusade: Just. One. More. Contest.
Now that the expansion is out we've been able to access the Master Contest Trainer, and in the interest of leveling up our contest skill beyond 300 we've got one final Burning Crusade giveaway for you. Plus, we had such a good time counting down to Burning Crusade that we're going through a bit of withdrawal. This contest is yet another very simple /Need roll affair, and we're going to pick one winner and one runner-up from the needy, undergeared commenters. The winner will receive a copy of Burning Crusade -- we realize many of you already pwn own the expansion, but for those who haven't or have been waiting, or who want to give the gift of WoW to a friend or S.O. (pushers!), this contest is for you. The runner-up will receive a copy of The Rise of the Horde novel by Christie Golden. You must leave your comment in this thread by 3pm EST tomorrow, Wednesday January 24 to be eligible to win one of the prizes. Good luck to everyone!
