Cataclysm cinematic now available
by Allison Robert 
Oct 17th 2010 at 4:58PM
The Cataclysm cinematic has just become available, and -- words fail me -- it's amazing. Some folks behind the scene here think it's Blizzard's best yet, but personally, I think it's a dead heat between this and the Wrath of the Lich King cinematic.
Interestingly, there are no NPCs or characters of any kind visible in the cinematic apart from Deathwing himself (apart from a quick glimpse of what are probably a few goblin or human-looking armorers). You do see some extraordinary landscapes rendered in high-definition glory for the first time -- The Barrens, Thousand Needles, Darkshore and Stormwind -- and perhaps it's meant as a reminder that the aspect of death was once the aspect of earth and that he hasn't relinquished his power over the latter.
Sorry, gnomes; looks like you're still waiting for a cinematic debut!
Interestingly, there are no NPCs or characters of any kind visible in the cinematic apart from Deathwing himself (apart from a quick glimpse of what are probably a few goblin or human-looking armorers). You do see some extraordinary landscapes rendered in high-definition glory for the first time -- The Barrens, Thousand Needles, Darkshore and Stormwind -- and perhaps it's meant as a reminder that the aspect of death was once the aspect of earth and that he hasn't relinquished his power over the latter.
Sorry, gnomes; looks like you're still waiting for a cinematic debut!
Filed under: News items, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 5 of 18)
Alanid Oct 17th 2010 5:29PM
Thoguht I;d point out (like the others) that in Wrath it was a young boy, the ORIGINAL version however from TFT was a woman, I preffered the woman as it was much more emotional than the boy, but that's a personal prefference.
Dreyja Oct 17th 2010 6:17PM
That's my feeling right now. I can't... form... groupings of words. So.. just. Wow.. EPIC! Me RIKEY!
It is a whole different feel to the Wrath one and I loved it but this one is just... "DAMN Dragons, Your SCARY!"
I'm going to go cry about the dam in Loch Modan. XD
Siorra Oct 17th 2010 6:52PM
Another reason they switched from woman to boy was also to better represent Arthas himself. The Matthias Lehner questline in Icecrown is another play on that same thing.
That aside though, EPIC cinematic!
eROKv Oct 17th 2010 5:04PM
underwhelming to say the least.
Deathknighty Oct 17th 2010 5:09PM
Does it say anything to you that this article has been out for five minutes and your comment is already so black that I can only barely see what it says?
Bryan Dare Oct 17th 2010 5:13PM
Quick, someone get this man/woman a doctor-I mean priest! =O
Underwhelming. Pfft. Clearly you are ill, my friend.
roseclown Oct 17th 2010 5:04PM
Gah! WHY DO YOU TEMPT ME.
*Sits, determined to see it first on TV during the commercial*
Darn me wanting to see the best quality first! DARN ME!
Obijuan Oct 17th 2010 5:10PM
No need to sit. I suspect this is the spot they'll be airing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfPtkexMc14
It was posted about the same time as the cinematic.
I already stopped recording the game on my TiVo.
roseclown Oct 17th 2010 5:14PM
Ok, just watched it on TV then watched it here...
HOLY FREAKIN' LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD.
Deathwing is beyond freaky, and the CGI, and the..../starts rambling at high speed about how awesome it is.
BEST. CINEMATIC. EVER.
Kylenne Oct 17th 2010 5:20PM
I just moved the YouTube window over to my 42" LCD TV and watched it in full screen 720p. Quality is excellent (though I do wish they had a 1080p option; oh well). It's times like this I'm glad I have my TV hooked up to my computer as a second monitor.
nonentity Oct 17th 2010 5:04PM
Pure Epicness! Loved it!
It's about as awesome as can be. :D
On a different level the Wrath intro is still better though, has more of an emotional impact if you played through Warcraft 3 etc. saw the rise and fall of Arthas. There is no such emotional connection, investment into Deathwing (yeah, I read pretty much all the Warcraft novels, still; you WERE Arthas, Deathwing was always only featured as an opponent).
That's not supposed to be a criticism though, both intros are amazing, this one is much more epic than the Wrath intro in the visual aspects. Both of them are far better than the Vanilla and BC ones imo.
In both the Wrath and the Cataclysm intro now the focus was on one character, worked much better imo than the switching between minor, no-name characters in the first two cinematics.
I really hoped they'd do the Cata intro the Wrath-way and damn glad they did.
North Oct 17th 2010 5:08PM
Although there is no emotional investment towards Deathwing, there is an emotional investment towards the lands he destroys, the very lands we had all been to and leveled through.
nonentity Oct 17th 2010 5:14PM
True.
For that to be (even more) effective I'd have to agree with the "too short" comments though, they should have showed more of the world destroyed, at least 3 more areas.
Him soaring through the Badlands, shearing off those mountain tops could have been FANTASTIC to see.
As well as him creating Deathwing Scar, pretty much ripping apart a continent.
Possibly seeing the earthquakes damage the Uldum mechanism, destroying the cloaking effect... seeing mountains... vanish, turn into a desert with buildins etc.
Just seeing MORE of the Catalcysm. What we saw was awesome. Seeing even more would have been even more awesome. ^^
Especially because they just can't adequately show this ingame.
As cool as the ingame cinematics are, they can't possibly hope to translate the Destruction in Deathwing's wake as well as this CGI cinematic does.
Kylenne Oct 17th 2010 5:35PM
People who keep saying "they should have shown more" are proving Blizzard's CG wizards absolutely correct. Give 'em a little and make them beg for more--that's an old, old show business mantra.
And it worked, given the amount of comments along these lines.
nonentity Oct 17th 2010 5:55PM
Yeah, nothing wrong with it, not saying it is. Just wishing there was more, because this will be the last such cinematic until at Diablo 3 probably and the last such Warcraft cinematic for probably 2 years.
But yeah, stuff like this just goes to show that Blizzard should do the film just CGI, not live-action with CGI.
As someone said (I think The Escapist's MovieBob) - when the worst thing you can say about a movie is that it's too short... ^^
vocenoctum Oct 17th 2010 8:03PM
Well, it depends on where your emotional investment lies. For myself, Darkshore was amusing, but seeing the dam breaking, all I could think of was "guess the orphans won't see that next year...".
I've run across that dam numerous times. I've jumped off it a few times also!
Tolkfan Oct 17th 2010 5:05PM
Notice that he "erupts" from somewhere in-land, not the maelstrom. That shows how long it takes to make these - they didn't have time to redo it when the devs changed their minds about where Deathchin comes out.
Oteo Oct 17th 2010 5:30PM
I'm pretending he didn't erupt from that place, but rather that there was a time gap between him rising up under the earth and him flying over some mountains.
Yup. /twiddles thumbs
Luftwaffles Oct 17th 2010 7:09PM
Actually, in the very next shot they show him flying in from the ocean to destroy the docks at Auberdine. So he probably broke out of a volcanic island that was *in* (or near) the maelstrom somewhere. So it's not like he's busting out in the middle of a continent.
Not that it's a huge deal.. most people will be too busy picking their jaws up off the floor to notice.
Psiwave Oct 17th 2010 5:57PM
Also of note is the scene where the thousand needles is flooded. Remember those rumours about thunder bluff beeing flooded? Methinks a cleaner saw a storyboard last year some time and jumped to conclusions.