(Since I have to play a fuckton of games on a daily basis and the Mercury has a limited amount of review space, a lot of games fall through the cracks. Consider this my (hopefully weekly) attempt at covering as many of these titles as possible. I’ll mostly be choosing stuff that I’ve been enjoying recently, but if there is anything you want me to specifically review, let me know and I’ll try to make it happen.)

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Wrath of the Lich King — $40 — PC

There are always going to be the angry, vaguely post-pubescent gamers who feel the need to impose their “World of Warcraft is for stupid babies” ideals on the rest of the world from the comfort of their cramped studio apartments, but for those of you who don’t glean your outlook on life from the staff of your local Electronics Boutique, I’ll say this: World of Warcraft is one of the least destructive, most entertaining addictions you can pick up, and the launch of its latest expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, is tantamount to finding a mountain of blow in your girlfriend’s vagina.

(Don’t try to imagine the physics on that one. You’ll only hurt yourself.)

Key features? Thousands of hours of new content, a gigantic new landmass to explore, 10 more levels to work through, a new, vastly different character class, and improvements to basically every feature of the user interface.

I won’t guarantee that the new expansion will finally draw in all those people who just don’t “get” WoW, but for those who have ever enjoyed wasting endless hours in Blizzard’s world sometime during its four-year lifespan, dropping $40 on the expansion pack is the most worthwhile gaming purchase you can make this holiday season.

Verdict: Buy — unless your holier-than-thou angst forces you away from anything vaguely popular. Then, find a way to play it in secret.

5 replies on “Mini-Reviews: <i>Wrath of the Lich King</i>”

  2. Swedish Teen Collapses After Lich King Binge

    Yesterday, November 17, 2008, 12:15:21 PM |

    Swedish News service The Local reports that a 15-year-old gamer from western Sweden went into convulsions on Sunday after a 24-hour WoW binge.

    According to the report the boy and some friends were playing the new Wrath of the Lich King expansion. The 15-year-old’s father described the scene:

    They played all day and all night. Maybe they got a few hours of sleep. They ate a little food and breakfast at their computers. [When the boy went into convulsions] we were terrified and called rescue services…

    Doctors said that sleep deprivation and lack of food likely contributed to the collapse of the boy, who is expected to recover fully.

    Not unexpectedly, the mainstream press is linking the episode to game addiction. Britain’s The Times quotes child psychiatrist Dr. Richard Graham:

    Some of my clients will discuss playing games for 14 to 16 hours a day at times without breaks and for those the consequences are potentially very severe. The problem with World of Warcraft is the degree it can impact and create a socially withdrawn figure who may be connecting with people in the game and is largely dropping out of education, social opportunities.

    One young man described vividly to me a sense that having achieved very high success in the game, when he switched off he felt downgraded.

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