

My Monk, named Lanik (after my son), stood amidst a class of students training in the ancient martial arts ways of the Pandaren. They’re keeping things as Blizzard as possible, and this means no fancy talking or CG cut-scenes or the like, it’s just you, your chosen class and sex, a whole new continent and a heck of a lot of gameplay variety for a game that popularised terms like “farming” and “grinding”. Honestly though, this is easily the most mature I’ve seen Blizzard’s game-design, from an introductory level in the MMO space, since they blew this whole thing up. Starting from the very beginning, I worked my way up to level 11 before the game gave out on me (and my time with it was over), leaving me both wanting more and very satisfied at the introductory experience the team have crafted here, despite it being what many people still see as a bit of a joke. Out at a special hands-on event at Blizzard HQ in Irvine, California, yours truly took the newly added Monk class and Pandaren race for a spin in World of Warcraft’s forthcoming expansion, Mists of Pandaria. No longer rewards money or XP.Click here to check out our interview with Mists of Pandaria game director, Tom Chilton. Replaced with a new version given by Chromie's Timewalking Campaigns UI (was automatically received after choosing Pandaria during Wars on Two Fronts).


