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Cataclysm screenshot of the day

by Michael Gray on Jul 27th 2010 (59 minutes ago)

The latest Cataclysm screenshot from Blizzard is shown above. The Gilneans continue to look like dark Victorian versions of Stormwind humans. Edward would be proud.

If you've missed any of the previous Cataclysm screenshots of the day or you want to see a high-res version of today's image, check out the gallery below.

Gallery: Cataclysm Daily Screenshots

Filed under: Cataclysm

WoW.com's Weekly Comic: Byron, the Tauren Rogue

by Kelly Aarons on Jul 27th 2010 (1 hour ago)

Welcome to another edition of the WoW.com Weekly Comic, Byron the Tauren Rogue!

Gruuka was taken down in cold blood (because that's what rogues do), and now Evi is relishing in her minor victory (as rogues do). I wonder if Byron will take any initiative and fight back -- because, well, that's just what rogues do.

Check out the full version right here, and tune in next Tuesday morning for a new page. You can also see all the previous pages in the gallery below.

Gallery: Byron The Tauren Rogue

Filed under: WoW.com's Weekly Comic

WoW Moviewatch: Icecrown Gunship Battle: Now in Real Life!

by Michael Gray on Jul 27th 2010 (2 hours ago)

The creation of WoW movies -- whether it is machinima or live-action -- stems from the author's love of game, cinema, or just raw creation. It takes a lot of love to create a WoW movie. And sometimes, just sometimes, you manage to do something unique. Sometimes, you can do something so completely awesome that it nearly defies description.

The Icecrown Gunship Battle: Now in Real Life! is one such unique movie. A guild got together and built cardboard replicas of the gunships floating above Icecrown. They loaded these replicas with firework cannons. And then they let them do battle.

I won't spoil the ending for you. This movie is beautiful in its simplicity. Its pureness lends it elegance. It is, in a word, awesome.

Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an e-mail at machinima AT wow DOT com.

Filed under: WoW Moviewatch

The Queue: Hell, it's about time

by Adam Holisky on Jul 27th 2010 (3 hours ago)

Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky will be your host today.

I really couldn't do The Queue today without talking about StarCraft II. It really is about time that it's released. The original StarCraft cam out on March 31, 1998; it required a 90 Mhz Pentium and 16 megs of RAM to run on Windows -- any iPhone or Android is more powerful than that. What's even more amazing, though, is that StarCraft I is still widely played and loved by millions of people around the world. People ask when WoW will end; you only need to point them to the 12-year mega success of Blizzard's second franchise.

The above video is an awesome run-down of the lore in StarCraft I. I highly recommended that you watch it today before you sit down and play through the single-player campaign.

Babaloo asked:

"How much damage do you do in Cataclysm? Because Deathwing has 858 Million HP."

Filed under: The Queue

Enter to win a Blazing Hippogryph and other loot

by Alex Ziebart on Jul 27th 2010 (4 hours ago)

Yes, you read that title correctly! Courtesy of the ever-generous WoWTCGLoot.com, WoW.com will be giving away an assortment of prizes for the next week, including a Blazing Hippogryph. The full assortment of prizes includes:

The contest begins immediately and ends Monday, Aug. 2 at 11:59 p.m ET. On Aug. 3, winners will be announced right here on WoW.com. To enter, simply leave a comment on this post. You may enter once per day each day of the contest. That means if you enter every single day of the contest, you will have seven chances to win. Winners will be chosen at random.

Good luck to all who enter!

Filed under: Contests, WoW TCG

Around Azeroth Beta Edition: Give war a chance

by Elizabeth Wachowski on Jul 27th 2010 (4 hours ago)

The horror ... the horror. Beta tester Dendaris of <Empire> on Eldre'Thalas sent in this screenshot with a bloodstained note attached: "Having slain a dwarven paratrooper, my goblin warrior took a moment to survey the frantic battlefield around him. The fiery sunset served as the perfect backdrop for the Alliance planes flying overhead."

Gallery: Around Azeroth

Want to see your own screenshot here? Send it to aroundazeroth@wow.com. We strongly prefer full-sized pictures with no UI or names showing. Please include "Azeroth" in the subject line so your email doesn't get marked as spam, and include your name, guild and server if you want to be credited.

Filed under: Around Azeroth

The Guild's new music video: Game On

by Gregg Reece on Jul 27th 2010 (5 hours ago)

The Guild has released a new music video, which was originally debuted at San Diego Comic-Con last week. This time, they've jumped from the virtual scene into the Bollywood scene. Zaboo (Sandeep Parikh) leads a song in which he tries to convince Codex (Felicia Day) to put down her book and jump into the game. The set is complete with a full ensemble of dancers, wonderful choreography, the rest of The Guild's cast and even a real elephant. They did a wonderful job of mimicking Bollywood style and still keep with their usual sense of humor, which shows up in everything they do.

This comes in the middle of their season 4 storyline involving the quest to build the better guild hall, as well as Codex's usual dose of drama where gaming and real life collide. Check out their latest adventures on Bing.

Filed under: Humor

Breakfast Topic: What's your story?

by Adam Parkinson on Jul 27th 2010 (6 hours ago)

This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com.

I have a confession: I am not a roleplayer, yet I feel the need to create a backstory for every single one of my characters, from the mighty main to the lowly banker alt who sits comfortably in Stormwind. I do not really know why. Maybe it is the storyteller in me, the sheer boredom, or the 60 ounces or so of various energy drinks that keep me up at night, but I begin to imagine the details of my characters, even going so far as to create a web of connections between them, as if when I'm not playing, they are banded together, battling side by side as brothers and sisters in arms.

A main example is my main and all the human alts I play on. There are only two at the moment, but a third shall arise, of the wolfish variety, come Cataclysm. Their story? All of them are brothers, my death knight being the eldest, a once-accomplished paladin who fell during the purging of Stratholme, being one of the very few against it. My main warrior is the middle child who was the least likely to accomplish anything of the three brothers but fought nonetheless as part of the Stormwind guard, before becoming a mercenary for hire. The newest addition will be a worgen rogue, the long-presumed-dead, sickly little brother who was astute in the arcane and was taken under tutelage of a sorcerer in Gilneas before being infected as a worgen. He will return instead as a quick and nimble character, one of the few worgen who likes his new form.

Filed under: Breakfast Topics, RP, Guest Posts

Tuesday Morning Post: Suspect timing edition

by Daniel Whitcomb on Jul 27th 2010 (8 hours ago)

Happy Tuesday Morning, everyone! In what may or may not be a mea culpa for the massive amount of downtime, both expected and unexpected, last week, Blizzard's announced that there will be no downtime this morning. That's right, we won't even get rolling restarts. Now, usually I'd be pretty grateful for this. It's always nice to know the server's going to be up and ready for you when you get a chance to play. But today, of all days, is the day they chose? Honestly, I wouldn't even be phased if they put my server on the 24-hour downtime list for today, because I'm just going to spend all my free time playing Starcraft 2.

Actually, never mind. It's pretty clear to me now why they're keeping the servers up. Obviously, the server maintenance team would rather take the day off and play Starcraft II too. If you're still agonizing over whether to play Starcraft or log on and do your dailies, maybe you should stop by WoW.com while you think. We have a lot of juicy Cataclysm news for you to catch up on, and more coming throughout the day.

Filed under: Realm Status, News items

Cataclysm screenshot of the day

by Michael Gray on Jul 26th 2010 (16 hours ago)

The latest Cataclysm screenshot from Blizzard is shown above. This is clearly a goblin harbor, which makes it about the most awesome place on the planet.

If you've missed any of the previous Cataclysm screenshots of the day or you want to see a high-res version of today's image, check out the gallery below.

Gallery: Cataclysm Daily Screenshots

Filed under: Cataclysm