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WarCraft III Expansion: The Frozen Throne

WarCraft III Expansion: The Frozen Throne

List Price: $19.99
Your Price: $19.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: great game, but too buggy
Review: ran the game on my Powerbook titanium and i found it to be buggy, crashed several times on me and for some strange reason, right after a difficult fight. game tends to go slow when there are lots of characters on screen. otherthan that, i like the idea of using a smaller team to on combat as this will require more thinking than suprioirity by numbers

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Almost but not quite...
Review: When i heard that Blizzard was coming out with Warcraft 3 i knew i had to have it considering all the other Blizzard games i had played were amazing. But when i had played the full version of WC3 i felt somewhat between satisfied and dismayed. The game had been wonderful the 3D graphics were amazing and the stroyline was great and the races were evenly set, the only problem was that it was that i expected more. Am i crazy or are other people like that? I also had to say that if you do not have a new high speed computer then i would recommend that you not buy this game no matter what, because it will lag like crazy...and im not exaggerating. Also in my opinion Blizzard did not use its full capacity on the game considering the graphics and all. Overall though i think that WC3 was a wonderful game and i hope to see more Blizzard products in the future. Also i would like to know what the publics opinion on the best race is....

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Once again, Blizzard ups the ante for Real-Time Strategy...
Review: Having perhaps the most popular trilogy of Real-Time Strategy (RTS) games to its credit (WarCraft, WarCraft II, and StarCraft), Blizzard has at last produced WarCraft III - a game that was to revolutionize the genre.

Well it does and it doesn't.

First off, let us dispose of any notion that War III is a Role Playing game (or to use Blizzard-speak a "Massively Multi-Player Online Role Playing Game"). There are no roles being played, there are no free-form or persistent environments, and you do not customize an avatar to express any kind of persona. You choose a race, you choose a map, and you build the units you prefer. Interactions with other players are limited to two choices: Fight them or join them. You might trash talk with your adversaries, or chat a bit with your team-mates, but War III is all about building units that destroy those of the opposition. Saying War III is about Role-Playing is like saying Age of Empires is about cultural anthropology.

This is not to say that War III is a bad game, it's just mis-marketed.

As for the RTS game that War III actually is, it has no equal. WarCraft III is the state of the art in online RTS. What's more, Blizzard has seriously upgraded their online gaming community (Battle.net), ensuring that there are as few barriers as possible between a War III player and an online game.

Simply put, War III is about building an army to crush the armies of your opposition.
You choose one of four races to play: Orcs, Humans, Night Elves, and the Undead Scourge. You start with a few basic units, which gather resources from the map (gold and wood). Resources are used to produce buildings which either produce other units or make your existing units better. Each race has its own advantages and disadvantages - and there is enough variety and balance among them to keep strategies from becoming one-dimensional. The most dramatic addition to War III would be the creation of Hero units. Heroes begin like most other units, but can (and should) become much more powerful until they are the backbone of your army. They can acquire fearsome powers that destroy your enemies, as well as abilities that make your own units much more effective. Blizzard is attempting to shift the paradigm of RTS games towards more diverse and dynamic strategies, and the early reports look good. It is certainly possible to overwhelm your opponent by mass-producing one kind of unit - but the odds are the next time you play them, they will be able to defeat that tactic by exploiting your units' weakness. Blizzard has clearly looked at player tendencies in their earlier games, and has attempted to minimize "defensive" tactics, while rewarding aggressive and bold strategies.

Another departure is the unit cap of War III. You are limited in the total number of units you can possess at one time and while earlier games allowed up to 200 units (with some larger units counting as much as eight units), War III allows only 90 units, and the closer you get to that maximum, the harder it is to stay there due to a new creation called upkeep. Upkeep diminishes your resource production based on how many units you have (a tax, if you will, on having a big army). A powerful army is not something most players will be able to build and maintain for any length of time, so tactics will evolve to accomplish more with less units (an excellent idea, since previous RTS games devolved into "Find a unit you like. Make lots of them. Attack").

Like its predecessors, the game can be played in one of three modes: Single player, campaign, single player skirmish, and multiplayer. The campaign maps that come with the game are designed to be an entertaining and engaging series of tutorials - taking you from novice concepts to advanced tactics and beyond. The campaign maps introduce units and abilities slowly, so experience players may become frustrated in the early maps when they are denied units they know exist. The campaigns are entertaining and full of dialogue and movies that show off Blizzard's high production values.

Single player skirmish offers the player the full range of units and abilities vs. one or more computer adversaries. The AI of War III is much improved over earlier offerings, and skirmishes are a great place for players to "make their bones" before venturing into the more competitive arena of Battle.net multiplayer games. The CPU will pose a challenge for awhile, but sooner or later a player will master the CPU and venture out to Battle.net for a greater challenge.

Online multiplayer is the heart and soul of this game and Blizzard has made the experience as seamless as possible for its players. With an internet connection, a player clicks two buttons and they are connected to the Battle.net servers where at any given moment, upwards of 40,000 games may be going on. Blizzard has provided a ranking system and matchmaking feature so a player can be linked up with random opponents of a skill level that is equivalent to their own. Players can converse in chat rooms, seek out and play their friends, even participate in the ladder competition against the elite players of RTS. Blizzard has learned from its previous titles what to expect in online gaming, and protocols exist to make teaming up with random players easier and more rewarding. For example, teams can now be "locked" to avoid turncoats ruining an evening's play.

Again, WarCraft III is without equal in the RTS world. It is polished, entertaining, and obviously put together by people who are the Zen masters of online gaming. If you've always wanted to lead an army - or if you just love RTS games - this is a must-have.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This is the perfect mix
Review: Wow, wat a game. It beats out all other RTS games i've played. Its ease of control is unmatched. Its the first RTS game to fully incorporate a RPG story line. The mixture of 2 totally different video game genres has neva been done like this. Its a perfect mixture of story, music, video, heroes, units, gameplay, heroes and their special abilities. Neva have i seen a RTS game with heroes that gain levels and spells. The number of spells are limited, but they are undoubtably useful.I give it a 5 out of 5, and support its number 1 rank in sales. Way to Blizzard.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Intense
Review: Warcraft 3 is possibly the most fun, and most intense game I've ever played. There is no time to rest, after you issue a command to build something, you move on to something else, like upgrading. You have to learn how to control an army and upgrade your troops at the same time.
Also, it's not your normal RTS game, think the Gauntlet series meets Starcraft. You control a hero as well as an army, and the heros are very powerful troops at higher levels, so you need to level them up quickly.
The only way the soundtrack could possibly have been better is if the orcs' battle music wasn't made up of war drums.
Online the game falls short a little, people have a tendancy to ditch you in the middle of team battles. Plus everyone is treating this game like D&D online or Starcraft 3D, since there are more Starcraft and D&D spinoff games then there are war games. It's also hard to get good, since there are a lot of experts and 'no newbies' games. And quite a few of these experts like to add insult to injury by telling you that 'you suck' in more ways than you probably knew was possible.
Overall, great game. If you get it, try clicking on your units and heros several times, they start to say funny things.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Build and Rush build and rush build and rush build and rush
Review: First man to rush wins. 12 minute games (MaX). This would have been a great game two years ago. Certainly not worth the 60 bucks. All your paying for right now is HYPE.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Game of the Year?
Review: For months, I've been eagerly awaiting one of the most anticipated games of the year: Neverwinter Nights. The day I picked it up, I decided to pick up Warcraft 3 while I was at it on a whim. I loved Starcraft, although I wasn't a big fan of Diablo. After playing Neverwinter for a few hours, I decided to see what Warcraft 3 was about... and I haven't played Neverwinter Nights since.

Warcraft is one of the best games I've ever played. It seems to get everything right. First of all, it looks amazing. Instead of abandoning the old cartoonish feel of the first two games, Blizzard has improved upon it with 3D graphics and vibrant colors that are a pleasure to look at. The environments, characters and troops look beautiful. The sound is equally amazing. Lightning thunders, battles roar, orcs scream and music crescendos in a multitude of formats. I've experimented with EAS and Dolby Surround and prefer Dolby. The voice talents are also excellent, whether we're talking about peons, heroes or, my personal favorites: goblins. "Are you threatening me?"

The gameplay is revolutionary in it's simplicity. Many of the newer RTS games I've bought, like Empire Earth for example, have an overwhelming amount of units which require a lot of micromanagement. By adding RPG and squad based elements to the pre-existing framework, WC3 goes for quality over quantity. You can't simply overwhelm your opponent with superior numbers. Instead you have to actually apply squad based tactics more common in games like Freedom Force or X-Com.

The most noticeable new feature is the inclusion of "Heros", powerful units capable of leveling up and gaining extraordinary powers and attributes. The heroes drive the story and gameplay in both single, and multiplayer games. In the single player campaign, they are the Stars of the show complete with their own motivations and eccentricities. In multiplayer mode, they can turn the tide of battle singlehandedly. Between the four races there are about 12 of them (three for each race) which doesn't include the unique characters from the single player campaign.

Technically I found it a lot less demanding than the last three or four games I've bought (Neverwinter Nights and Morrowind seemed to need a lot of resources). I've heard otehr reviewers with better machines than mine complaining about lag, but I haven't had any problems. I have a 1ghz processor, 512 megs of RAM and a 64meg Radeon video card. This baby scrolls like glass with everything cranked to the max.

The biggest and best feature of Warcraft 3 is the world itself. WC3 has personality whcih is most evident in the four races. I don't think I have a favorite race, but the Night Elves definitely have the best buildings: living trees that can actually uproot and relocate. The single player campaign is excellent, complete with epic storyline, colorful characters, scenic locations and some of the best cut-scene animations I've ever seen in a game. There are more twists and turns than most of the movies that came out this summer. The well-written well-executed story is THE reason to own this game, but the multiplayer element will keep you playing it indefinitely.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The best just keeps on getting better
Review: Only 4 stars because it appears to target the power game player a little too much...

I no longer have the time to spend hours mastering the game, and hence am having a little more trouble competing... but it is still a great game!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Warcraft III
Review: Very nice game... but unlike Warcraft 1 & 2 (which I own) your race changes instead of picking Orc or Human.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: lamentable
Review: the main menu backdrop is amazing to behold -- a realtime 3d rendered scene of inauspicious meterorites and summer insects milling around a gloomy wind-swept prairie. the good intro atmosphere certainly bodes well for the game to follow.... until you actually play the game. yes there are more races this time around, yes it has gorgeous 3d graphics. however, the game just didn't add up to the sum of its parts. blizzard fails to breathe life into the tired old genre.


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