Bear's been wanting to check out the last World of Warcraft expansion, Mists of Pandaria since it came out more than four months ago, but considering the cost of the expansion in addition to the monthly subscription fee, it was seeming a bit too much to spend just to satisfy his urge and curiosity to explore its unknown lands. Bear's always had an explorer's soul and since we quit WoW long ago and have played various other games, the absence of WoW's world left an unsatisfied hole in his heart. As old as the game is, WoW definitely stands strongly among the competition of MMO's in having a strong lore, a vast explorable world with unique environments, and an art style full of strong flavor and character.

Last week, Bear was having the longing to revisit and wander WoW's beginning areas and in poking around their website, found that a ten day free trial for the Pandaria expansion was available. He jumped to the opportunity to check it out, resulting in us making new characters and spending hours that evening fooling around in Azeroth!~ As much time as we spent in-game, we actually didn't get very far due to us underestimating how addicting it is to chase down and capture little animals on the field. The new pet battling feature is an amazing addition to the game!

In one of our forum topics, a number of people have mentioned how one of their dream games was to have an actual on-line multiplayer Pokemon game. Oh how successful it would probably be if Nintendo invested in one. For now though, WoW might just give you the feeling of how one might play out. =)

It's kind of a shame that WoW doesn't have a larger variety of unique or odd looking pets with different evolutions, but hey, what they have is a huge amazing first step! There are already over 200 different battle pets, ten different elements with strengths and weaknesses, racial abilities, six battle skills per pet and even different rarities for pets you catch. Catching a mouse of rare quality will yield higher battle stats than a common quality mouse.

I think the pet battle system adds a very interesting dynamic to the game in that it feels like two very different RPG's in one. You have a more active battle system through which your character journeys the land, fights baddies, does quests and levels, but then you can find battles on the field against animals and trainers which is completely turn based, your strength being based on your animal party and not your own. It feels a bit weird and funny when encountering an enemy that's dangerously above your character's level range; I start thinking "hey, it's okay, I got BACK UP!! =D", you know... the little animals strapped to your back... but no, they don't help you. They don't even try.