Monday, March 7, 2011

Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne



INTRODUCTION

Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne is a real-time strategy computer game developed for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS and Mac OS X by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the official expansion pack to Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, requiring Reign of Chaos to play. Released in stores worldwide in multiple languages beginning on July 1, 2003, it includes new units for each race, a new neutral race, four campaigns, five neutral heroes (an additional neutral hero was added April 2004 and two more were added in August 2004), the ability to build a shop and various other improvements such as the ability to queue upgrades. Sea units were reintroduced; they had been present in Warcraft III but were absent in Reign of Chaos. Blizzard Entertainment has released patches for the game to fix bugs, add new features, and balance multiplayer.
The setting, arguably one of the most acclaimed of the Warcraft mythology, plays a prominent role in the Warcraft MMORPG as the backdrop for World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, as well as World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King.


PLOT
As in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, the single-player campaign of the Frozen Throne follows each of the main races in sequence. In this game, that is Night Elves (Maiev Shadowsong tracks the escaped Illidan Stormrage), Human (or Blood Elves, following the struggles of the last High Elves in Lordaeron after it was destroyed by the Scourge and the Burning Legion), and Undead (following Arthas' return from Kalimdor to Lordaeron, and his subsequent journey to find the Lich King of the Scourge). Unlike Reign of Chaos, there is no Orc campaign. However, there is a Diablo-style RPG campaign separate from the others that chronicles the early days of the Orc Horde's establishment in Kalimdor.
In the first campaign of the game, Illidan Stormrage has gained the allegiance of the Naga, mutated night elves, and obtained an artifact called the Eye of Sargeras from his tomb (in chapter 3 of the campaign), which grants him extraordinary power. Illidan's former warden, Maiev Shadowsong, calls for the aid of Malfurion Stormrage and Tyrande Whisperwind to capture Illidan. Partway through the pursuit, Tyrande is swept away by a river while helping a group of blood elves. Maiev convinces Malfurion that she died. When they finally capture Illidan, he explains that he planned to use the Eye to destroy the Lich King, ruler of the undead. At this point, Malfurion discovers that Tyrande may still be alive. After Malfurion rescues her, he pardons Illidan for his actions done with the Eye, but reminds him that he is still exiled. Illidan then flees to Outland.
The second campaign follows the blood elves, the last of the High Elves, led by their prince Kael'thas. They are given the job to fix watchtowers and defend them by A human leader named Garithos, who despises non-humans, he later discovers that Kael'thas was helped by the Naga and imprisons the blood elves. They are rescued by Lady Vashj, leader of the Naga, who leads them all to Outland, where they join with Illidan and conquer Outland. Once Outland is conquered, Illidan's master, the warlock Kil'jaeden, finds Illidan and prepares to punish him for his failure to destroy the Lich King. Illidan, however, convinces Kil'jaeden to give him one more chance, claiming that he was gathering more forces to assail the Lich King's Frozen Throne.
The third campaign follows the undead, who have split into three factions. One is led by Arthas and is loyal to the Lich King and accompanied by the necromancers of the Lich, Kel'thuzad. (Largely controlled by the player in the game); another is led by the banshee Sylvanas Windrunner (who has a chapter controlled by the player in the game); and the third is led by three dreadlords and is loyal to the Burning Legion. Sylvanas defeats the dreadlords and unifies the two factions, while Arthas travels to the lands of northrend to defend the Lich King from Illidan, the Naga, and the Blood Elves' combined assault after having painful attacks and visions of the Lich King commanding him to the Frozen Throne. After a fierce battle between Arthas' undead forces and Illidan's, Illidan appears to be slain, and while Arthas is walking away from the nearly dead Illidan he warns Illidan to "leave and never return to Azeroth." and Arthas is able to reach the Lich King's Frozen Throne. Once there, Arthas shatters the ice-prison that held the Lich Kings remains, releasing him. Arthas dons the Lich Kings helmet, joining their souls into one ultra-powerful being: Arthas, the new Lich King.
The mini-campaign focuses mainly on two Heroes, Rexxar and Rokhan.
The separate RPG-style campaign follows the Horde defending their land in Durotar and building up a new kingdom. After defending Durotar from a series of lesser threats, Rexxar learns that a force of humans from the island of Theramore, led by Admiral Daelin Proudmoore, plans to invade Durotar. Admiral Proudmoor is unwilling or unable to accept a truce between the Horde and the Alliance despite their combined penetration of the World Tree in Reign of Chaos. The orcs invade Theramore (aided by a guilty Jaina Proudmoore) and slay the Admiral, replacing him with his daughter, Jaina.


SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Minimum system requirements

  • 400 MHz Pentium II or equivalent, or a 400 MHz G3 processor or better.
  • Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, or Windows XP. Warcraft III requires Mac OS® 9.0 or higher, or Mac OS X® 10.1.3 or higher
  • Warcraft III requires 128 MB of RAM. Virtual Memory should be enabled on computers running pre-Mac OS X versions of the Mac OS®.
  • A keyboard and mouse are required.
  • A hard drive with at least 550 MB of free space
  • 8MB 3D video card (TNT, i810, Voodoo 3, Rage 128 equivalent or better) with DirectX 8.1 support. For Mac OS® systems, a video card consisting of an * ATI Technologies or nVidia chipset with at least 16 MB of memory is required.
  • A DirectX-compatible 16-bit sound card is recommended. Warcraft III will work with the built-in sound features of the Mac OS®.


SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Recommended System Requirements

  • 600 MHz processor or better
  • 256 MB of RAM
  • 32 MB 3D Video card


Multiplayer System Requirements

  • Access to Blizzard Entertainment's online gaming service, Battle.net, requires a low-latency, active Internet connection rated at 28.8 Kbps or faster.
  • Multiplayer games played over a LAN require an active connection to a TCP/IP network.


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