IGN snackar om The Burning Crusade

Raids are a big part of high level gameplay. They become necessary when players find themselves challenged to complete quests full of monstrously powerful baddies incapable of being taken on without the strong support and love of a few friends. In days past, raiders would need around 40 of these chummy fighters to stand a chance. The days of needing to pump up guild recruitment pressure to gain the bodies necessary to take on the biggest challenges are about to change. With the Burning Crusade addition, players will now only need to gather about 25 others to run screaming into danger's fat face.

Player vs. player is also getting a rather large makeover in the expansion. The honor system is being changed around so that honor gained is used like a currency to purchase goods. There will be no more ranks in the honor system but those that have been participating will be able to keep anything they've earned to date including titles and equipment. Otherwise it's effectively being reset. The hope is also to encourage players to move between battlegrounds by having some equipment cost basic honor along with specific honor won in different locations.

Teams will be ranked depending on their fights. Blizzard is going to use a ranking system to set up appropriate fights between equals. The system of scoring will be much like that used in chess. Teams that compete with those higher in rank will get a more significant increase in rank with a win while those fighting teams significantly lower will only get a small increase with a win. The opposite is true for losing teams.

More interestingly, the gameplay surrounding the zone will involve stations set up on the four bridge entrances into the town. For instance, if the Horde holds the town, the Alliance will be able to set up griffon towers that players can use to fly across the town (on a rail) and drop bombs onto the NPC guards and enemy players. Attackers will have to aim and blast what they can quickly because defenders can run across the bridge (without dying of course) and click on the towers to knock them down. Once the NPC guards have been killed the town can be captured in the same way that flags are captured in Battlefield games.

Buying the flying mount to reach the Tempest Keep doesn't sound like it'll be too difficult for high level players. Basic mounts for each of the factions will be available to purchase through regular means for a reasonable price. Those that are looking for more speed and prestige can search out other special mounts such as the nether drake, which will be much harder to find and may even serve as rare drops.