World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth (PC)

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth for PC is the seventh expansion pack for the already immense World of Warcraft universe, adding two new continents and eight races, four each for the Horde and the Alliance, along with a host of other boosts and advantages.

Azeroth is a Titan – or, rather, she will be a Titan in time. She is growing deep within the planet, and when Sargeras took against this new life form, and stabbed his immense sword deep into the planet’s core, he injured, not only the planet – some areas are still smoking and damaged – but the embryonic Titan too.

She began to bleed, unwittingly providing the Alliance and the Horde with a precious commodity: azurite, a hugely magical substance which can be used for a host of inventions, from weapons to tools. Both sides immediately try to acquire as much azurite as possible.

At the top end, there are new levels to play, so if you’ve got all the way up to level 110 you are no longer at the top. There are now ten more levels to play to: you can get all the way to Level 120 now.

This expansion pack introduces two new continents and the eight races found on them. Kul Tiras (Alliance) and Zandalar (Horde) are inhabited by:-

• Alliance allies: these include void elves (who can tap into shadow magic), lightforged draenei (heavyset blue-skinned elf-like people), Dark Iron dwarves (they have fierce tempers, but are determined and tenacious allies), and Kul Tiran humans (big, heavyset people).
• The Horde-supporting races include the Nightborne (night elves from Suramar), the Highmountain tauren (tauren are basically cow-people, minotaur-like creatures: these Highmountain variants have moose or elk antlers rather than bovine horns) Mag’har orcs (the Mag’har means ‘uncorrupted’ in Orcish), and the Zandalari (warrior trolls from the Zandalari Empire, where they are ruled over by Queen Talanji).

The new continents are beautifully rendered, each divided into different regions which are unique and distinct enough to provide interest and drama to the game, and the characters, from elf to orc to tauren to human, are all equally well designed, with no overtly villainous nor excessively heroic clichés to set the teeth on edge, and put you off committing to the believability of the game.

Another new feature is the twenty-player PvE (player versus environment) battles where you and nineteen other players battle against the elements, the terrain and, quite often, ferocious hostile NPCs (non-playing characters).

There are also some brand-new islands for you to explore and claim as your own – they are uncharted so who knows what you will find lurking thereon?