I dragged Terri though the Wrathgate stuff last night, so I can now discuss it in-depth.

I’m really impressed with what Blizzard has done with the Wrathgate encounter.  Not so much because it’s a great quest, or there’s wonderful loot, or because the cutscene is dramatic…  But more what it means for MMOGs from a technical standpoint.  What it means Blizzard is able to do with storylines and quests in the future.  And I’m very eager to see where this goes.

For folks who don’t know what I’m talking about…  After a series of quests at Wintergarde Keep you wind up meeting Bolvar Fordragon at Fordragon hold, right outside the Wrathgate.  The Wrathgate is a gigantic structure that looks like it was ripped right out of Lord of the Rings.  It’s a huge, imposing gate blocking the way to Icecrown.

Fordragon launches an attack on the Wrathgate, calling on Arthas to show himself and answer for his crimes.  The Horde shows up to help in the attack on the Wrathgate, fighting right along-side the Alliance.  You get a great in-game cutscene that shows this epic battle.

Pretty much everyone dies.  You are tasked with bringing Fordragon’s shield to King Wrynn in Stormwind.  And then you go on a diplomatic mission to Orgrimmar.  And then you get to fight to retake The Undercity.  It’s all very epic.  It’s all very fun.  But, as I said, that isn’t really the point.

The point is that Blizzard has managed to introduce a real storyline into a MMOG.  This is the kind of action, arc, and development that you typically see in a single player game, not a MMOG.  As far as my Warlock is concerned, the world has been permenantly altered.  Bolvar is dead now.  I will not see him standing watch over Fordragon Hold.  The armies that were massed outside the Wrathgate are now gone, replaced with flaming debris.

By contrast, look at the old Onyxia attunement showdown…  It used to be that if you wanted to fight Onyxia, you had to get attuned.  Which meant a fairly long and involved series of quest, which ultimately resulted in a showdown in the Stormwind throneroom.  Turns out Onyxia was there the whole time, in disguise, advising the child king.  There’s a big showdown.  She’s revealed for who she is.  Several of the guards are revealed to be dragonkin.  There’s fighting.  Eventually Onyxia flees the scene.

And if you wait a few minutes Onyxia will re-appear, in the guise of the child king’s advisor.  She’ll be right back where she was before you unmasked her.  And if you wait a little while longer someone else will come along who’s working on that attunement quest as well, and you’ll get to see the whole showdown again.

If you hung out in the throneroom for a few hours you’d see Onyxia unmasked a good dozen times.  Over and over again.  And even though you had personally unmasked her…  Even though you had personally gone to her lair and killed her…  Even though her head was hanging from Stormwind’s gates…  She was still there, standing beside the child king, waiting to be unmasked once again.

It really hurt the idea of WoW as a living, breathing world when you saw such an obvious example of basic game mechanics.  They couldn’t leave her dead, because she had to be there for the next personto do their quest.  So she’d just re-appear, over and over and over again - regardless of what you had done.  The world was never permenantly changed.  Nothing you did ever had a lasting impact on anything.

Until now.  Now you can actually change the world.

I saved a number of townsfolk in Wintergarde keep, and they’re permenantly saved.  They’re at work in the inn.  If I come back tomorrow, or next week, they’ll still be there.  They won’t need to be saved again in ten minutes, or an hour, or a week.  Sure…someone else may need to save them…  My other characters will need to save them…  But as far as my Warlock is concerned, they’re saved.  It is done and over with.  They’re safe and happily serving drinks at the local inn.

And Bolvar is dead.  The attack on the Wrathgate ended in disaster.  The armies have been reduced to ashes and flames.  I can wait around all day long and I won’t see anybody else launch an attack on the Wrathgate.  Bolvar isn’t going to miraculously re-appear to lead the attack again.

Yes, that Wrathgate encounter was impressive…  But what I’m really excited about is the new dimension this adds to gameplay.  I am now able to permenantly change the world around me.  That’s something I’ve been wanting to do in MMOGs for years now.  And I’m dying to see what other changes I’m going to be allowed to make.

I spent most of the weekend playing WoW…  Didn’t do much on my Death Knight, focused almost entirely on my Warlock.

I located the floating city of Dalaran, out in Crystalsong, but I wasn’t allowed to go up to it.  I guess you need to be 74 to be allowed in Dalaran.  Unless you’re a mage…  And Terri was quick to grab the appropriate quests and tell me how wonderful it was up in Dalaran just as soon as she could.  So I decided to grind my way to 74 just as quick as I could.

I managed to burn through two levels on Sunday, hit 74, and ran off to Dalaran to see the sights…

Dalaran is certainly cool.  It reminds me a lot of the Blood Elf architecture you see in various places.  Which makes sense, I guess.  Blood Elves used to be High Elves, and they were always very magical.  The city is far more friendly to foot traffic than Shattrath ever was.  It feels more like a real city.  You’ve got streets that wind around buildings…  An assortment of shops and inns…  I’m a little disappointed that there are no trainers or auction houses in Dalaran - you have to port back to the capital cities just like you had to in Shattrath.  I was kind of hoping they wouldn’t do that again.

But, honestly, the trip to 74 was far more interesting than seeing Dalaran was.

I did a bunch of quests for the dragons at Wyrmrest Temple.  They had me flying around on the back of a dragon, fighting off other dragons.  They had me holding back waves of the undead.  I had to help out the Bronze Dragonflight, and the Obsidian Dragonflight, and the Emerald Dragonflight…

Then I wound up over at Wintergarde Keep fighting back the scourge.  The place was under assault - undeads everywhere.  Zombies, ghouls, death knights, abominations…  People running, screaming, dying.  And I actually managed to make a difference.  I saved a bunch of villagers that were otherwise going to get eaten.  The inn, when you first arrive, is deserted.  After you save a bunch of villagers though the inn is able to re-open.

I also got to see the battle of the Wrathgate, which was simply awesome - in the purest sense of the word.  I can’t say any more, because Terri hasn’t completed it yet…  But, wow.  Best moment in any MMOG I’ve ever played.

So, I’m 74 now.  I’m done with the Dragonblight.  I’ve completed every quest that I could find out there with the exception of a couple dungeon quests and a few group quests.  I’m not quite sure where I go to from here…  I have, for the moment, gone off to Howling Fjord to do some easy quests and see the countryside.  And there were a couple silver quests that weren’t available to me yet in the Dragonblight.  But I’m really not sure what is the next zone for me.  Maybe the Grizzly Hills?

I managed to grab the flux capacitor out of the Valor.  Actually, I guess it’s a “singularity core”, but it certainly looks like a flux capacitor.  Zach got killed by one of the giant, hulking necromorphs.  I was hoping those super-fast necromorphs would stay aboard the Valor, but it looks like some of them made it aboard the Ishimura as well.  Had to go down to the crew section of the ship to repair a shuttle.  Turns out it needs more than a flux capacitor…  Needs navigation cards, which means I need to wander around the crew deck looking for them, as soon as I find myself a key to open some of these doors.

The crew deck is pretty neat.  It is reminding me a lot of the common areas aboard the Nostromo in Alien, or maybe some of the dining hall scenes in Aliens.  Tables and chairs everywhere, some vending machines, a bar or cafeteria or something like that.  Lots of posters on the walls advertising what look to be movies…but maybe I’m misunderstanding.  Found a Unitologist shrine, surrounded by dead Unitologists.  Also found a text log that kind of explains the whole Unitology thing.  And there’s someone singing in the background…  I can’t quite make out what they’re singing, but it’s damn creepy.

I got another message from Dr. Kyne - he wants to meet me, talk to me, tell me some secret plan or something.  He doesn’t want us just to run away.  He seems to think that the planet itself is angry because they removed the marker.

I also ran into Dr. Mercer again.  He’s still ranting and raving about the end of humanity.  So, now I’m wondering if his buddy the regenerating super-necro is going to show up as well.

Kendra seems to be taking Zach’s death pretty well.  In fact, she didn’t seem to care at all.  I’m not sure what to make of that…  It’s obvious the developers wanted the player to choose sides between the two of them.  There was tension right from the start, and the two of them were often arguing over how best to proceed.  And both of them have acted very suspiciously at one time or another.  Obviously I’m supposed to have doubts about who is trustworthy and whatnot.  And now I’m left with Kendra.  And I do have doubts.  I’m wondering what, exactly, her agenda is.

I also ran into one of those giant tentacles again…  Thing grabbed me and dragged me to my death.  Was not expecting it, had the line gun ready, and couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn with it.  I really figured I was done dealing with those giant tentacles.  I thought that when I killed the leviathan I wouldn’t be seeing any more of them.  I guess I was wrong…  And now I’m wondering how many more I’m going to have to deal with, because I do not like them.

I’m also kind of wondering how all these other people are managing to stay alive - where they’v been hiding, what they’ve been doing.  Me, I’m constantly getting jumped by necros, constantly fighting to stay alive.  But Kendra doesn’t seem to have that problem…  Nor Dr. Kyne…  Nor Dr. Mercer…  And it looks like Dr. Mercer found himself some more survivors to experiment on.

Fired up Dead Space today, after a several-day break.  Unfortunately the interlude has dulled my reflexes, softened my killer instinct, and getting back into the game is proving somewhat difficult.  I found myself panicking when attacked again…  And aiming for their bodies instead of their limbs…  Had a couple very rough fights, died a couple times.  But I think I’m getting the hang of it again…

So, I stopped playing shortly after I lobbed that rock into space with a distress beacon attached to it.  Almost before the “Objective Completed” notice faded from view, a military ship was picked up on radar.  Rescue!  But we couldn’t talk to them because the communication array was down.  So I had to run off to the bridge to fix it.

Once again, I’m sure Isaac was breathing a sigh of relief when faced with this objective.  He is, after all, a repair technician.  I’m sure he’s thrilled to be given a task that is actually in his job description.  Not all this running, screaming, and killing.  Unfortunately, the trip to the communication array involved an awful lot of running, screaming, and killing.

Fixing the communication array involving walking around in zero-g, removing broken communication antennae, and replacing them with working ones.  All while constantly looking over my shoulder to make sure something nasty wasn’t sneaking up behind me.

So, we got the communication array on-line and were able to hear what the new ship - The Valor - has to say.  They were on a recon mission in the area and happened to pick up one of our escape pods, the escape pod that Zach jettisoned with a necromorph inside it.  Kendra tried to warn them not to open the escape pod, but the blast shield was in place over the communication array, and we couldn’t get a signal out.  So I had to go clear whatever was blocking the blast shield and keeping it from opening.

Turns out that the leviathan has an ugly sister, and she’s sitting on the communication array’s blast shield.  I had to trek all the way up to another one of those defensive guns…  And as soon as I popped up to see what was going on, I saw a big ol’ tentacle-y blob sitting on the hull of the ship.  Had to blast it repeatedly with the defensive gun to make it let go of the ship.

We got the blast shield open, and Kendra called up the Valor.  We got the communication channel open just in time to watch someone get eaten by a necromorph.  Then the Valor, sans pilot, crashed into the Ishimura.

Zach showed up again.  He claims someone has been blocking his signal and he’s been unable to communicate with us.  He’s now officially in favor of aborting the mission and running for safety.  Kendra thinks that’s a good idea, and I have to agree.  The plan is to get aboard the crashed Valor and grab some spare parts to repair a shuttle and get the hell out of there.

I made my way to the cargo bay, which is where most of the Valor landed.  Had to clear some debris and make my way to a functioning airlock.  And now I’m working my way through the Valor, trying to find the part we need.

Exploring the Valor is a new kind of creepy.  The Ishimura went to hell a while before we arrived.  Most of the chaos and slaughter was over and done before we showed up.  It’s got an old, abandoned, empty feeling to it.  Any movement, any noise seems out of place and worrisome.  Like walking through a long-abandoned house, or maybe a crypt.  The Valor is still falling to chaos.  It just recently crashed, was just recently infected with necromorphs.  Things are still breaking, exploding, falling down…  People are still screaming in terror…  It’s like walking right into a slaughterhouse.

I’ve also met a couple new necromorphs…  One of them is very tall and gangly, moves fairly slowly, and falls apart when you kill it.  Literally comes apart.  Its hands and head grow spindly little legs of their own and scamper up the walls…then they leap at you…  Very riminiscent of The Thing.  Very annoying to fight.

The newest addition is some kind of super-fast necromoroph aboard the Valor.  The soldiers were wearing some kind of military suit with a built-in stasis module…which is allowing these new necromorphs to move very, very quickly.  Quick enough to dodge shots from the line gun.  They’re almost unstoppable unless you hit them with stasis first.

The plot is definitely starting to thicken.  I’ve picked up a couple logs aboard the Valor that show it was not simply doing recon in the area.  They were sent out specifically to look for the Ishimura, because the Ishimura may have located “marker 3A.”  And they were warned that some kind of deadly infection was distinctly possible if the marker had been recovered.  So it looks like this wasn’t some innocent mining operation gone wrong…

More Dead Space today…  Finished up chapter 5 - Lethal Devotion.  I was chased around by that regenerating super-necro several times.  Basically just had to stay alive long enough for Kendra to open a door, and then run away again.  And again.  And again.  Eventually there was a showdown in the cryogenics lab and I was able to freeze the thing solid.  Unfortunately Dr. Mercer is still around somewhere, and the regenerating super-necro isn’t actually dead, so I’m sure they’ll both show up again.  I would’ve been much happier to feed the both of them into the engines, or jettison them into space.  Maybe I’ll get my chance later…

So, I brewed up the anti-necromorph poison and headed off to hyrdoponics for chapter 6 - Environmental Hazard.  Ran into Zach there, he wasn’t doing so well.  Apparently there was something big in food storage, and several smaller somethings in the growing rooms that were poisoning the air.

Hydroponics reminded me a lot of Aliens.  There were sections where the entire room was covered with some kind of biomass.  Pulsating, seething, twitching biomass.  Much like the hive scenes in Aliens.  Creeped me the hell out.

The smaller things that were poisoning the air were absolutely no issue.  They couldn’t even move or attack.  I just stomped them.  Much like in Aliens though, stomping them alerted every necromorph in the area.  So I had some pretty intense firefights on my hands.

There was also a fairly tense sequence where I had to make my way through the air purification system…  Apparently the best way to purify air is to send a giant jet of flames down the corridor.  Fun!

Eventually I got all the poisonous little bastards dead and cleared the air up enough to go through to food storage and deliver the poison.  Unfortunately, the poison wasn’t strong enough to kill the thing in food storage - it just made it angry.  So I had to go in and kill it myself…  Honestly, I wish they’d just sent me in to kill it in the first place, instead of making me deal with that regenerating super-necro.

Zach wasn’t kidding when he said it was big…  I guess the fact that everyone kept referring to it as the “leviathan” should have been a hint…  Anyway, there’s a giant creature taking up most of the food storage chamber.  And it’s the source of those awful tentacles that have grabbed me a couple times.

The fight itself was actually fairly easy.  It reminded me a lot of a Zelda boss fight…  A tentacle would come out to kill you, and you had to blast a certain spot on the tentacle to kill it.  After three tentacles died the mouth would open up and spit things at you.  You could blast the explosive spit-globs…  Or grab them and throw them back…  But ultimately you had to do damage to the inside of the mouth.  And after a couple rounds like that the leviathan was dead.

Once the leviathan was dead we discovered that Zach has gone missing again.  Dunno if he got eaten or if he ran off someplace safer.  But he isn’t where I left him.  And Kendra’s got this brilliant idea of calling for help…  She wants to strap a distress beacon to an asteroid and launch it into space, so someone can come save us.  I’m not really sure how that’s supposed to help…  I mean, isn’t that why we showed up in the first place?

Chapter 7 - Into the Void.  I had to go down to the mining decks…  Apparently these planetcracker ships rip a planet to pieces, then pull smaller pieces into the ship to be mined/refined/processed.  And there’s a big chunk sitting down there that we can stick a distress beacon to and lob off into space.  Of course the whole place is over-run with necromorphs…  And doors are locked…  And keys are missing…  But, hey, it gives me something to do, right?

Nicole mad an appearance.  I’ve gotten a few messages from her, but I kind of assumed they were pre-recorded.  I certainly didn’t expect to see her looking alive and healthy down in the mining decks…  But, there she was.  She hacked a door for me while I protected her from necromorphs.  Then she ran off to wherever she came from.

So, now I’m seriously wondering what is going on with her…  She didn’t seem any worse for wear.  Wasn’t all messed up, wasn’t covered in blood, didn’t seem crazy.  I would assume that it’s a hallucination…  Plenty of other crew members reported seeing folks that couldn’t possibly be there…  Except that she actually hacked a door for me…

There was some very fun zero-g stuff in the mining section…  Had to clear a room of debris by throwing it into the mining beam.  Had to climb out onto the surface of the ship to plant that beacon on the asteroid and disable some gravity tethers.  And eventually I lobbed the asteroid off into space.

Of course our receiving system isn’t working right, so we’ll never know if someone’s heard our call for help…  So I’ve got to go back up to the bridge to fix it.

I played around with some of the other weapons, and I’ve come to the conclusion that most of the really expensive guns are pretty much useless.  I still like the plasma cutter the best, followed up closely by the line gun, with the pulse rifle in 3rd place.  I don’t have much use for any of the bigger guns.

The force gun does almost no damage, but it tosses enemies around.  Ok, I guess, for keeping things at distance…  But I’d rather just kill them.  The alternate fire tosses a grenade that does the same kind of knockback thing.  But again, it really doesn’t kill anything.

The contact beam does a lot of damage but you have to literally be in contact with the enemy.  It’s got basically no range.  And the last thing I want to do is let one of these things get close enough to hug me.  The alternate fire does an AoE blast which can be very handy if you’re getting swarmed…  But it seems kind of silly to lug the thing around just so you can AoE now and again.

The ripper is just kind of annoying to use.  It throws out a circular sawblade that hovers in front of you, and you can use it to slice and dice the badguys.  That’s kind of neat…  But the blad just vanishes on its own after a while, and you have to move and aim the blade itself to do damage.  You have to swing it around, up and down, side to side…  It certainly works, but I’d rather just blast them with the line gun or something like that.

And then there’s the flamethrower…  Still just as useless as the last time I tried it.  Doesn’t do enough damage quick enough to really matter.  Kind of fun to hose an area with flames…  But it eats ammo far too quickly to be useful.

I also got my suit upgraded again…level 4 now.  I’m definitely starting to look kind of necromorph-y.  I’ve now got bands of armor over most of my body…  And my spinal column looks very skeletal now…  The faceplate is almost all armor, with tiny slits to look through…  Looks very heavy and unweildy.  But it keeps me alive, so I won’t complain.