| The utterly beautiful (and soon to be released) World of Warcraft |
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For the two of you still not aware, World of Warcraft hits European shelves next month, and any sane online gamer should be looking to pre-order this sucker if they haven't done so already. However therein lies a small dilemma; opt for the bog-standard vanilla flavoured regular old game, or instead go for the more luxurious "Collector's Edition" that's also due out?
If you're the kinda guy who blows his nose on £20 notes and uses pound coins for croutons in his soup, subsequently going for the more expensive Collector's Edition, you'll find a whole heap of goodies. As well as the actual game, there's also the stunning soundtrack CD, a 200 page book of artwork, a cloth map (!) and an exclusive in-game pet. Best of all however, it also comes with a bonus Behind the Scenes DVD, which I thought I'd chat a bit about today.
Digital Versatile Dragons
When you first pop it in, the DVD springs to life by displaying the incredible World of Warcraft intro. Many may have seen this over the
net already, but here it comes in fully anamorphic DVD quality with Dolby 5.1 sound, and let me tell ya...it's sweet enough to make even a castrated cat strike a boner. Just seeing that razor sharp CGI on a big fuck off widescreen TV is somewhat breathtaking alone, but once those most gloriously animated battles kick in and your subwoofer starts rattling around the room, I defy anyone to not be in true awe.
| The opening cinematic rivals movie CGI |
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It's worth noting that there are five different audio tracks for this trailer, two of which are commentaries from the visual and audio directors. Needless to say, the disc is off to a good start from the get go.
After you eventually reach the main menu, you'll find the bulk of the content. This includes six trailers, less spectacular but more interesting than the intro, as they include proper in-game footage. One has another audio commentary, while my fave is the entire Griffin flight sequence that you may remember
blew me away so much last year.
The real meat of the disc however, is taken up by the five "making of" featurettes, titled World Creation, Game Design, Art, Cinematics, and Sound. Each of these mini documentaries involves the developers and artists talking over images of concept art and in-engine action, going into great detail regarding their thoughts and experiences working on the title. While the team do indeed go on for near excessive lengths, this sadly results in lots of these images repeating on a loop which is a little unfortunate. Never the less, it's more than made up for with what they have to say.
World Creation
| Footage of earlier Warcraft titles pops up regularly for comparison |
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This opening presentation by the Lead World Designer discusses the history of the Warcraft series, its obvious Lord of the Rings influences, and the difference between designing an RTS (such as the previous Warcraft trilogy) and an MMORPG. As he speaks over in-game footage, it's somewhat humorous to see the huge amounts of lag as players teleport and rubber-band all over the place. Not to worry, as this was all culled from early code and beta footage, but it's a little odd never the less.
Listening to Blizzard speak, it's interesting how important the idea of story and questing was on their design, even from the earliest days. It's clear that the team are proud of how they previously brought that aspect to the RTS genre in their older titles, and similarly wanted them to be prominent in their MMORPG too. A good thing, when you consider most MMORPGs flat-out lack
any story, let alone have a good one.
Game Design
| The stunning city of Stormwind in early concept form |
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In this second featurette, two of the game designers speak in more detail about the technical gameplay decisions and concepts behind the game. What they liked about previous MMORPGs, what they didn't, and most of all...what was fun. This in turn leads onto some specifics on the deeper quest system they implemented, which will all be music to the ears of any MMORPG addict who's often craved content in these games that's seldom there.
Additionally they cover a multitude of other topics, such as player vs. player combat, the difference between the various classes and a whole lot more. While it's all fascinating stuff, it's all too brief and could really have been stretched to twice its length.
Art
| If there's one thing I'm certain of in this world...it's that girls with weapons are HOT |
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The largest portion of the DVD is dedicated to the art design, and you can actually catch some of it for free over on
GameTrailers.com. The stuff to be found here on the disc is of much greater depth however; the art coverage is actually divided up into different segments itself - animation, characters, creatures, dungeons, environments and weapons - with various different artists commentating on each of them in turn for a good hour or so.
Admittedly the look of WoW isn't for everyone. Compared to the likes of EverQuest II and Galaxies, it in fact appears quite cartoonish and simplistic. However while it loses out in technical specs, I'm a firm believer that this game towers over its competition in terms of good old artistic style. The exaggerated look, the exquisite animations and the stunning designs of the environments - each of these make WoW such a joy to look at. While other RPGs may boast more polygons and fancier effects, many still seem sterile and lacking in soul compared to WoW. It's got a truly original and captivating visual style, made all the more impressive here by listening to the guys who dreamed it all up. It's a shame that the many who complain of WoW's child-like cartoon-o-vision can't appreciate that.
| Horrendous nightmare flashbacks to Moonwalker kicking in... |
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It's interesting to hear how the artists originally kept the graphics incredibly simple and blocky in order to keep the game running smoothly, thus not relying on huge system requirements like so many MMORPGs. As the years of development time went on however, home computers had become so much more powerful that towards the end they could go back to those much more simplistic designs and ramp up the detail a lot more.
You'll also catch glimpses of pretty much every in-game item and weapon in this section, as well as tons of detailed concept art and some gorgeous in-game fly-bys through some of the more epic sights of the gameworld. But fuck all that, the coolest part is seeing the animators make Elves and Orcs dance like Michael Jackson. Shamone!
Cinematics
| After developing the game for so long, the Blizzard team were starting to look a little worse for wear |
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The cinematics segment damn near made me wet myself, as we get to see the developers acting out the CGI-laden intro that I mentioned earlier. Down in their building's car park, complete with much in the way of bad acting and limp pieces of wood for weapons, it's pretty damn hilarious. Whether this was some kind of moving "storyboard" that the developers used to help them design the intro, or just a bit of lunch-break boredom, is one of the great mysteries of our time.
You can also find some slightly dull chit chat on how the (real) sequence came about, and it's another segment that's available for free up on
GameTrailers.
Sound
Finally we reach the sound section, possibly my favourite of the bunch. First of all we get to hear returning Warcraft music composer Jason Hayes discussing the score. With the aim of creating a game that players would (hopefully) be playing for up to years at a time, he speaks of how he had to subsequently tailor the music away from becoming too overpowering and annoying. He also speaks about using music of differing styles and varying levels of emotion depending on the environments the player found themselves in; quiet moments while exploring a mountain side, loud orchestral tunes when entering epic cities and so on - much like the sort of ambient score and establishing shots used in movies.
It's common for MMORPG music to pretty much suck sweaty scrote when all's said and done though, and in most of these games it's eventually muted by the majority of players. With that in mind, the ultimate aim with the WoW score was really just to have a music track that people, well, left on. From what I've heard so far, it would seem Jason succeeded.
Following that, the actual sound effects are discussed by the Lead Sound Designer. It's cool to hear the different forms of ambient sound used in each area to help provide the right kind of atmosphere and emotion, as well the way they re-used old Warcraft III sounds in new and surprising ways. I was also quite taken back by the sheer amount of detail put into the audio too; different weights of footsteps for different races, jangling chainmail as you walk...heck, even the type of ground you're standing on when you die makes a different sound as your mangled corpse slams into it face first.
Decision Commander
| Elf porn |
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Together these many small but extensive documentaries form a pleasing look into how the game was made, and clock in at nearly two hours in length when watched from beginning to end. All in all, they make this Behind the Scenes DVD an interesting peek into the making of what is, by all accounts, the first near-perfect MMORPG. It's quite clear from spending a few hours with the developers just how much love, attention and sheer talent the team has thrown into this thing, and it seems to have paid off beautifully.
Whether the Collector's Edition is worth your cash over the much cheaper standard version though, is perhaps something only you can answer. Those with a genuine passion and interest in games development, curious to find out just what goes on behind those closed doors, will relish this brief look into the minds of Blizzard. Those who care for little more than playing the actual game however, and don't fancy the shiney but gimmicky knick-knacks that come bundled with this disc should perhaps not bother.
It's been a while since I last had a play of the game, so to see it in action again here was also great on a more personal level. With the final stage of beta testing kicking off this week, expect a European release any day now. I can't fucking wait!