The insanely popular World of Warcraft received its first expansion this week in The Burning Crusade, which added, among other things, an increase in the max character level from 60 to 70. Somehow, one gamer managed to reach level 70 in an absurd 28 hours. After many speculated that accomplishing this feat might require months of time, developer Blizzard is presumably frustrated that the game’s plateau was reached so quickly.
On the other hand, Xbox 360 gamers are steamed at Call of Duty 3 developer Treyarch and Microsoft over the new COD3 map pack, which apparently doesn’t work. In spite of the arguably excessive certification process for Xbox Live content–you know, the one that recently delayed the demo of Crackdown, a game which is now gold–allowed this content pack, which costs 800 points ($10), the Marketplace, where it has proceeded to anger thousands which have been left with nothing but less free space on their hard drives.
This week has also seen the development of a tragic story involving the death of a woman, who–in the midst of a radio station contest–died as a result of water intoxication. Consequently, the radio station fired a number of employees and an investigation into the death has been opened by the police.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion‘s expansion, Shivering Isles, has been confirmed by Bethesda for both the PC and Xbox 360–with the latter receiving the content as a download through Xbox Live. This will likely be one of the most substantial non-demo downloads–both in terms of price and size–to be made available on the Xbox Live Marketplace. With 30+ hours of new gameplay and an entirely new land to explore, Oblivion fans will undoubtedly have little trouble being sucked into the immersive game once again.
Oblivion was also one of the top selling PC games in 2006, helping to make the PC market see its first increase in sales numbers since 2004. The aforementioned World of Warcraft topped the top 10 list, which included an astounding five Sims 2 titles.
This week also saw an increase in the limit on Xbox Live Arcade games, from 50 MB to 250 MB; Battlefield 2142 will be receiving a booster pack; and BioWare plans to deliver episodic content to its future games.
Over on the forums, our members are discussing the worthiness of collector’s editions of games. Are you the type that’s a sucker for those extras?
We might soon have a staff vs. members game night, so let us know what game you think we should play.
And, of course, we have the obligatory Burning Crusade thread, where you can discuss what you love and hate about the WoW expansion.
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Super Mario Bros. (VC)
Football Mogul 2007
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Justice For All
Wario Ware: Smooth Moves
New Previews:
The Settlers II: 10th Anniversary
War Front: Turning Point
New Feature:
Will Code for Food: Funding the Next Generation of Games
