Project Lore

Sometime in February my day job decided that it would be beneficial to the company's bottom line to disable Internet streaming for audio and video.  The IT department's shenanigans lead me to go on the hunt for my own ear-pleasing cuts.  Considering I haven't purchased a CD since high school, I didn't really know where to turn initially.  Then I remembered that the Wrath of the Lich King Collector's Edition came with the official soundtrack.  After ripping the disk to the hard drive and listening to the OST over and over, I can only say that Blizzard's soundtrack is even more amazing than I may have lead you to believe in the review. My new found appreciation of Wrath's auditory pleasures kicked off my first infatuation for non-MIDI music in video games.  Previous games have had fantastic music (BioShock), but I tended to overlook what the music, rather than sound effects or engineering, can really do for a title.  The fact that BioShock's - whose music is now part of my work collection - and Wrath's OST can remain entertaining pieces outside the game, or even the universe, says a lot.  If you don't believe me, try firing up the Wrath cinematic while some friends are over.  Just play the music and see what kind of responses you get.  The first half of that track is flat out brilliant. There has to be bigger video game OST audiophiles out there.  What OSTs would you recommend?  I am preferably looking for original music, not soundtracks like Grand Theft Auto's.  Currently my collection is fairly bare and very recent, the two aforementioned titles, The Witcher, Red Alert 3 (bad game, nostalgic OST), MadWorld and some random Final Fantasy CD I found. For those of you with the Collector's Edition, I suggest you add the CD to your digital library if you haven't already.  Seriously, play it for some none-WoW friends without telling them what it is, see what they say and report back to us.  If you don't have the cd, may I recommend a pair of e-tailers to you - Amazon and eBay?

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Earlier I discussed some of the hidden gems in the Wrath of the Lich King Collector's Edition Artbook. That article focused solely on the idea that a few artistic scribbles could be Tier loot that will be added to World of Warcraft in the near future. This post will have a much larger scope, peeling back the shrink wrap on all aspects of $69.99 Collector's Edition. A price that a few of us balked at.

Behind-the-scenes DVD

The DVD featured a widely varying collection of World of Warcraft related content. Naturally, we have some developer comments on things like The Burning Crusade versus Northrend, Northrend's art direction and environments and the in your face lore that so many people love about Wrath. The DVD includes trailers from TBC's content patches, v2.1, v2.3 and v2.4 and a collection of funny machinima. It is a pretty standard fare DVD pack-in, with no shocking revelations or insights we weren't already aware of. Content discussions aside, the sheer passion that Blizzard's employees emanate, especially their Lore Historian, is what makes them, and WoW, so great. Worth a watch when your internet is down.

Official Soundtrack

There is actually a section in the Behind-the-scenes DVD that perfectly expresses my feelings for the OST of WotLK. As I have been walking around Northrend, I have never been hit in the face by the ambient music kicking in. Instead it weaves in and out of the background, adding some stimulation to my auditory senses, while not being too disrupting. The OST simply gives us a continuous stream of this music, and while it doesn't flow as well as in the game, I do not expect it to. Nonetheless, I have added it to my playlist of game music which includes The Witcher: Enhanced Edition's OST and everything from The Advantage. Way more utility than the DVD.

Feelies

Feelies are a lost art in video games. The young whippersnappers out there - who won't stay off my lawn – missed out on the golden age of feelies. Back in the day of walking to school, up-hill, both ways, purchasers of PC games would be meet with trinkets galore in their ridiculously oversized boxes. Especially if you had just purchased an adventure game.

Nowadays, the only place to find anything remotely close to that is by paying extra for the “collector's edition” (Actually the aforementioned re-release of The Witcher had feelies included for only $39.99. Also, I like The Witcher: EE). Blizzard's best feelie, is not a physical item at all, but the mini Frost Wyrm pet that becomes account bound when you upgrade to Wrath. The initial oohs and ahhs of guildmates and friends have worn off though, so back to Egbert. The mousepad is cool, but not replacing my dirty Pokemon pad ('m' doesn't bring up a list of the badass Pokemans now does it?!) and I didn't score any godly cards from the two packs of WoW TCG. Not being a TCG player, they are now worthless, although some users will enjoy the free cards.

Wrath of the Lich King Artbook

I suck at art, but wow do I appreciate this book. The book, rather tome, is chock full of Northrend goodies and broken up by sections. Often with an introduction that was lifted from the official website. The book is probably the only thing in the CE that would interest anyone outside of the game. My casual gamer friend looked at it for about 20minutes yesterday after we watched the Behind-the-scenes DVD. Not counting the actually game, the art book is what defines the Collector's Edition and made the purchase worth it, even if there were a lot of prints straight from the cinematic.

While I don't feel that buying the CE was a waste of $30, I do wish there was a bit more to it. I mentioned that I would have loved a cloth map, well, I guess I can hang-up the mousepad since I won't be using it. Still, pre-loading the title would easily make the CE's hefty mark-up worth it to many users, while not upsetting the casual base as much as in-game items.

Blizzard, are you listening? We want more bang for our buck next time.

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