Six years after launch, Azeroth is still evolving.

This close to E3, it's the do-or-die time for many, with the annual show being one of the only opportunities for most developers to show their wares to a massive audience. Like it or loath it, it's currently a necessary part of any big-name game's development cycle. That is, with a few notable exceptions...

Blizzard Entertainment is one of the studios that has grown far beyond the need for E3. Since the launch of the juggernaut MMO World of Warcraft, Blizzard has garnered such an enormous following that it's capable of holding its own convention, and selling out way in advance. It's at this convention, Blizzcon, as well as its Worldwide Invitational events, that the developer has taken the opportunity to announce major new titles over the past few years, including the title we recently had the opportunity to see: World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, an expansion to World of Warcraft.

Seated in the Blizzard Entertainment theater (they have a theater!) we were given a demonstration of how far Blizzard have progressed through Cataclysm's development, as well as a couple of surprise changes to the plans they had announced back at Blizzcon 2009.

Remember Path of the Titans? It was supposed to be a way for players to progress their characters after hitting the level cap as a complement to the usual tiers of gear. Well, that's gone. Like, completely. In fact, Blizzard isn't entirely sure what its going to replace it with, but the current replacement being worked on is a retooling of the Glyph system. We were told that the glyph system as it stands now is not quite what Blizzard had in mind. As it stands, there are three major and three minor glyphs available to max-level players, and the trend for most players is to choose the three major glyphs that people have determined are most effective for your probably-cookie-cutter build. Blizzard would like glyphs to have a greater effect on your character, and is looking at adding a middle tier of glyphs. They're also looking at making glyphs function more similarly to spells – once you've acquired a glyph, it's there for good. Of course, this would have enormous implications on the inscription profession, and Blizzard is aware of this. Path of the Titans may not be gone forever. They liked the idea and may try to implement it in a future expansion.

Also announced, and closely tied to the original Path of the Titans concept, was the new secondary-profession of Archaeology. In Archaeology, players collect scraps of relics, or occasionally entire (and likely rare) ones, and basically compile a lore database for themselves. Originally, Archaeology was going to help advance players along the Path of the Titans, but with that gone, it is now a profession more keyed towards the casual player base. It functions as a collectible meta-game that rewards players with mostly cosmetic items. We were told, though, that players would be able to sometimes get something not only functional, but powerful from the profession. We're not sure how we feel about the change it has undergone quite yet.

Some players may remember the gates of Uldum in the southern part of Tanaris as one of the final locations for the Uldaman discs quest chain. Some players may have spent hours fruitlessly trying to get into that hole at the top. Some may have actually succeeded, only to find that, on the other side, lay a black impasse. Well, like much of Azeroth, the awakening of the Black Dragon Aspect Deathwing has torn the gates asunder, and on the other side lies an enormous, sandy desert filled with structures inspired by ancient Egyptian architecture.

During our hands-on time I attempted to gain entry to Uldum, but the zone was blocked by an invisible wall. What I can tell you is this: within those gates lies a room with a chest, and to the right of the chest are the remnants of an enormous titan-made machine. Also, there was a hole in the world, and I fell through it and died. Uldum, like almost everything in Cataclysm at the moment, is still very much a work in progress.

Above the structures of Uldum a swirl of clouds fills the sky. There, a tower, different from those on the sand below, stands above them. It serves as the entrance to areas within the elemental plane of Air. It seems that Deathwing's activity has upset more than just the residents of Azeroth – they have begun to tear the divide between worlds, and Al'Akir, The Windlord, is none-too-happy about it. We glimpsed one of the territories within the plane – a five-man dungeon known as Vortex Pinnacle – where towers and platforms were joined by bridges. Like The Oculus, players will fly between platforms to complete the dungeon. Unlike The Oculus, players will be flying their own mount, and there will be no mount-based combat.

Grim Batol, at the northern end of the Wetlands, is another area players have been dying to see since they first fought their way past the red dragons that guard it. Within the walls lies the first raid dungeon – or the Naxrammas, if you will – of Cataclysm. It pits players against the Twilight's Hammer and their leadership in a mostly-grey series of chambers, lit by bright purple torches. Like Ulduar, fulfilling certain requirements within Grim Batol will unlock a secret final boss, where the floor opens up and the group plummets deep into the caverns below. Blizzard stopped short of showing us what was within this cavern, though I distinctly saw lava and a very large number of black dragon eggs. We're guessing (or perhaps hoping for) the triumphant return of Nefarian.

In vanilla WoW, most raids needed a full 40-player group. When Burning Crusade launched, that was lowered to 25, with a couple extra 10-man dungeons for good measure. By Wrath of the Lich King, Blizzard had ensured that every raid would be accessible by both 10- and 25-player groups. For Cataclysm, Blizzard wants to close the difficulty gap between the two versions, thus allowing the loot between versions to be similar. Groups who enter the 25-player version will have a higher loot-per-player ratio to make up for the extra coordination required in a larger group, but the quality of the loot itself, they hope, will be the same. On top of this, should your guild fail to get together a full 25-players for a dungeon that you've already begun, you can split that dungeon into up to three 10-man versions and continue from where you left off. Finally, if you've slain the first boss of a dungeon, you won't necessarily be locked to that instance. If you enter an instance that is further along than yours, you will be locked to that instead, meaning if you land in a crummy group where everyone has spoons for fingers and is incapable of defeating more than the earliest boss in any given dungeon, then you won't be stuck there for the rest of the week. You can team up with another group and push forward. There's no going backwards, though, so if you're halfway through a dungeon and try to enter a dungeon that is isn't as far through, you'll be locked out.

During our hands-on time, we were locked out of all dungeons. After we got settled down and logged into our premade characters, I made a beeline for Hyjal. It was an extremely slow, crash-filled beeline, made even slower due to the fact that we started in Stormwind – a city that I, as a Horde loyalist, found alien. I was slowed further still by the fact that Stormwind underwent some remodeling. It seems that Deathwing awoke quite close to Stormwind, and paid a visit to the parks district, where he let off a little steam (and a lot of fire). I took a boat from Stormwind to Darnassus, at which point the client crashed. This is extremely normal for games at this stage of development, and unfortunately still pretty normal for most MMOs that are live. I eventually got logged back in, mounted my trusty drake, and flew across the sea towards Darkshore, where the coastline looked to be somewhat shattered and a swirling vortex surrounded by elite (although low-level) drakes rose into the sky. Beyond that lay Felwood, which I ignored, and far up above was Mt. Hyjal.

Some of you may have already visited Hyjal, back when you could ghostwalk straight through the gate, and seen the empty, although stunning, zone that lay on the other side. Today's Hyjal is quite different -- the funneled path that leads from the gate is completely changed, for example – while elements remain the same. The crater and World Tree are still around, although they've been moved somewhat. Nordrassil – the big-ass tree – now serves as a quest hub. We tried a couple quests; one pits you against some invading rock elementals, and another has you collect apples. Admittedly, they were not the most creative quests we've ever seen, but the elementals were a great deal tougher than we initially expected. They were capable of silencing for 6-8 seconds, and would attack in groups, meaning that I, as a mage, was almost constantly spell-locked. This could indicate a much higher level of difficulty in Cataclysm, or it could indicate that the zone just hasn't been tuned at all.

From the tree I headed south and came across Sulfuron Spire – the entrance to what appeared to be a 5-player dungeon that dealt me heat damage from the surrounding lava as I flew close. The new lava textures look quite nice, by the way. Flying further south, I reached the Barrens. There were no immediately discernable differences as I flew through until I came across the halfway point and found a flaming gash bordering on some distinctly non-barren land. South of the gash, creature levels hovered around 30 and the landscape was extremely different, with lush foliage adjacent to ruined siege-weapons.

Approaching Thousand Needles, I was surprised to see that the entire zone was submerged beneath the ocean, with only the peaks of the spires not waterlogged. That will certainly make for a very different leveling experience. I also had to wonder how the "trials" quest chain (the one where you have to jump off the top of a spire) would change – if it were even still around – to accommodate this.

One area I was shown but unable to experience was the new Orgrimmar. Like Stormwind, the orc capital has undergone major changes, both visually and structurally. Thrall has been ousted as the Horde leader, and with Garrosh Hellscream in charge, the Horde are ensuring that Orgrimmar is battle-ready. The architecture of Ogrimmar is wildly different, with sharp, jutting edges and towering walls filling the city. The trolls and goblins are now sequestered in their own area, while the Tauren have made a home in the Valley of Wisdom. Thrall's chamber is gone entirely, and the now-faction-leader Garrosh rests inside a citadel in the center of the Valley of Strength.

Shown too, but not played, was Deepholm – where Deathwing dwelt before taking flight in Azeroth. This zone was extremely dark and filled with jutting spires. The only respite from the cold hues was the bright crystals that dotted the landscape, and the Temple of the Earthwarder that glowed in the center.

The conflict between the Horde and the Alliance is as strong as ever, and to reflect this, the emphasis on Player versus Player combat (PvP) is now focused towards battlegrounds. To go alongside rated arena matches, rated Battlegrounds – where guilds form organized teams and go head-to-head in ranked matches – will now earn arena points (now known as conquest points) as well. With the launch of Cataclysm, players will be able to duke it out in two more battlegrounds. One we were shown was a capture-the-flag scenario like Warsong Gulch, but with extra graveyards and a longer, but narrower, playfield.

Competing in these, as well as questing, killing raid bosses, and earning guild-achievements, will help your guild towards their next level in the new guild advancement system. There no longer going to be a guild-only currency system as had been originally planned. Instead, unlocking something allows you to purchase it with your regular, everyday gold. Rewards will include guild mounts, and as the guild levels up, perks will be unlocked. No specific examples of perks were mentioned, but we're guessing at least one of them will be increased experience gains for guild members. There will also be a guild reputation bar that goes up any time you do something that helps the guild advance. The reputation will be tied to the rewards you can get, and will reset if you get booted for more than a day or so, so doing the ol' "boot your guildmate because it's funny" still won't impact players (unless you boot them overnight, which, it could be argued, will then be extra funny).

We also got a chance to make both Worgen and Goblin characters. The worgen zone is very grim and somewhat self-serious, while the goblin zone is, well, awesome. For example, you can get in a car, drive it around, and hit other goblins. I personally didn't spend much time in either zone, though, as the pull of flying through old Azeroth on the back of a drake was far too strong.

There was a lot we didn't get to check out – such as the other capital cities, any of the dungeons, and Azshara, which is drastically different – simply due to time constraints. In the time leading up to launch we'll be sure to keep you up to date with as much World of Warcraft: Cataclysm coverage as is humanly (or orcishly) possible.

Source: IGN.com

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