Posts with tag blizzard-cinematics

I love this cinematic. There are several reasons for this. First and foremost in my mind, anyway, is that for the first time since the trailer for The Burning Crusade, we've got ourselves a trailer with a little bit of humor in it. Don't get me wrong, I loved the cinematics for both Wrath and Cataclysm, but there is only so much dark doom and gloom I can take. We've dealt with the worst of what the world has had to offer in the past two expansions, and frankly, I could use a breather from it all.

Warcraft has always been a franchise that's had a quirky sense of humor at its heart, and we haven't seen that humor in recent trailers. Given the themes of the prior two expansions, that was understandable -- how can you make light of the Lich King? How can you make a joke about Deathwing literally ripping the world apart? These were dire times, and they required a suitably dire cinematic to get the urgency of that point across.

Mists of Pandaria is an entirely different sort of expansion, and the cinematic reflects that. But there's far more to this cinematic than meets the eye -- and it's the deeper meanings that continue to delight me.

It's weird to think that a little under two years have gone by since we last saw the cinematic debut for an expansion. It certainly doesn't feel like it's been quite that long, but here we are. It's time to put Cataclysm to bed and take a look at the cinematic for Mists of Pandaria. And oh man, fully rendered pandaren are pretty sweet.

What do you think?

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It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!

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Now that the scramble for tickets is over, it remains for the wounded and battered veterans of the battle against the Fail Murloc to gird themselves and march forward, looking for succor where they can get it.

Luckily, a list of panels for BlizzCon 2008 has been released, giving us something awesome to look forward to as we count down the days. For those of you who can't make it, be sure to check WoW Insider. We'll have liveblogs and notes from each WoW panel so you'll know exactly what was said and how it will affect your gameplaying experience. For the Diablo III and Starcraft II stuff, you'll be able to get the same treatment from our sister site, Joystiq.

Check after the break for a complete list of panel titles.