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Another preview has hit the web for The Burning Crusade, Blizzard Entertainment's first expansion for the overwhelmingly popular World of Warcraft. Gaming Excellence examines what is known about the expansion so far, including the increase in level cap, two new playable races, and the chance to explore Outland.

So what is offered to devoted players in The Burning Crusade? First and foremost on anyone's list would be the hundreds of hours of new gameplay in a completely new area for high-level characters. This begins with the opening of the Dark Portal from Azeroth to Outland, which will be similar to a world-event, but will not require that all players be in the same area to experience it. Although the details were sketchy at this point, Blizzard has stated that regardless of where you may happen to be on the world map when this occurs on your server, and regardless of your level, you will experience something akin to hell freezing over. Or the gates to hell opening up and unleashing monsters like you have never seen before. Or the announcement of Starcraft 2 followed by a server crash. Okay, so the last one was a stretch, but I assure you that whatever does happen, you will want to be online for it, even if your character is still only level 25 or so...

If all of this sounds exciting but you have not currently attained an ultra-elite status in the original game, don't despair. I have been assured that Blizzard will continue to release content patches for the Azeroth area of the game even after the expansion is released. Current players will also be able to take advantage of the new socketable items even though the Jewelcrafting profession will not be available to them. The trade off for these is that gems can be replaced once socketed, but the old ones will be destroyed.

Gaming Excellence: Burning Crusade Preview

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