World of Warcraft officially expands @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on October 28, 2005

News: Are you ready for The Burning Crusade?

Blizzard has put the World of Warcraft 360 rumors to bed for now, but they've struck back with something bigger: official word on the World of Warcraft expansion.

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade will be coming to a PC near you soon and expand WoW in lots of different ways:

New Player Races: New allies will join the game, expanding the story line and allowing players to develop powerful new characters within the world.

Higher Level Limit: The game's level cap is being raised to 70, and every new level will offer meaningful spell, ability, and talent upgrades for each character class.

New Lands and Battlegrounds: Explore the magical realms of the Blood Elves, journey through the Dark Portal into untamed Outland, and visit dungeons and battlefields previously inaccessible to players.

Flying Mounts: In Outland, players will gain access to unique airborne mounts that will allow for smoother travel over some of that region's more hazardous terrain.

Jewelcrafting, Socketable Items, and More: Crafters will be pleased to know that the expansion adds an all-new profession to the game: Jewelcrafting. With Jewelcrafting comes the advent of socketable items in World of Warcraft, which will give players additional variety in how they can customize their gear. In addition, existing professions will be enhanced to take advantage of the increased character-level limit.

New Quests, New Monsters, and New Challenges: As the boundaries of World of Warcraft are stretched farther than ever before, there will be exciting new quests for players to undertake and new monsters to confront. And with greater challenges come greater rewardsЕ

"We're extremely proud of what we created with World of Warcraft, and we look forward to expanding the boundaries of the game with The Burning Crusade,Ф said Mike Morhaime, president and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "With all of the new content we have planned, the expansion set will offer something for every World of Warcraft player to explore and enjoy."

We'll have more on World of Warcraft's expanding ways soon.