Night Elves, Orcs, and Gnomes all over the world rejoiced this weekend, as Blizzard officially announced the next World of Warcraft expansion at BlizzCon in Anaheim, CA. This next expansion, officially titled Cataclysm, will bring the rise of Deathwing, causing the destruction of all of Azeroth as we, the players, know it.

G4 brings us the official debut trailer (which you can check out after the jump), as well as the details on the expansion…

• Two New Playable Races: Adventure as the cursed worgen with the Alliance or the resourceful goblins with the Horde.

• Increased Level Cap: Advance to level 85 and earn new abilities, tap into new talents, and progress through the path system, a new way for players to customize characters.

• Classic Zones Remade: Quest to level 60 as you never have before. Familiar zones across the original continents of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms have been reforged by the cataclysm and updated with new quests and content.

• Flying Mounts in Azeroth: Explore Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms from a whole new perspective.

• Guild Advancement: Progress as a guild to earn guild levels and guild achievements.

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In case you were curious what Sam Raimi was up to these days, wonder no more because Blizzard Entertainment and Legendary Pictures just signed him to direct the upcoming movie based on the hugely popular game Warcraft. Raimi, of course, is the director of the blockbuster Spider-Man series and will now bring the forces of the Horde and the Alliance to life in an epic live-action film. He will also produce the pic in association with Charles Roven’s Atlas Entertainment.

“At its core, Warcraft is a fantastic, action-packed story,” said Raimi. “I am thrilled to work with such a dynamite production team to bring this project to the big screen.” In case you’re not familiar with Warcraft, its set in a rich fantasy universe that revolves around the epic conflict between the opposing forces of the Horde and the Alliance.

World of Warcraft, the subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game set in the Warcraft universe, is the most popular game of its kind in the world. Its most recent expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, is the fastest-selling PC game of all time, with more than 2.8 million copies sold in its first 24 hours of availability and more than 4 million in its first month.

No other details on the movie such as cast, writers or a release date are available as of yet. But rest assured, when details emerge, we’ll bring them to you right here.

Can video games actually be good mature comic properties? Very few have been able to in the past with World of Warcraft and the miniseries promoting Hellgate: London being the most notable exceptions. The sad truth about video game comics is they are often shameless promotion tools that end up showcasing the lack of overall story quality in the games that is often made up by graphics and gameplay fun, Gears of War being the prime example of a story so flimsy that a strong sneeze could burst through it but still considered great because of its gameplay mechanics.

But if there is anyone who can bring the classic epic poem turned video game, Dante’s Inferno, in to a quality comic read, it’s The Flickcast favorite Christos Gage, scribe of recent hit G.I. Joe: Cobra and his up and coming Absolution. DC Comics will be pairing him up with Incredible Hulk artist Diego Latorre. A first peek at the comic will be available this week at Comic-Con where EA will also be debuting the trailer for the upcoming Starz channel animated spin-off. Other than that, details have been slim about the comic project.

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For last week’s edition of The Pull List, click here and here.

Pull of the Week:

Captain America #600 – Marvel – $4.99
Score: 9.0

Without a doubt, Captain America #600 is a work of love. 104 pages dedicated to the Sentinel of Liberty that has been around for nearly seventy years. The sheer volume of work in the book including new stories, classic reprinted work and a cover gallery let the reader know just how important this character is to the creators who were privileged to play a part in it.

The issue begins with “Origin”, a two page painted summary of Cap’s history done by Alex Ross and Paul Dini. The pages are beautifully painted in a style that only Ross can capture with Dini telling Captain America’s origin in his own words. This had been originally published in Captain America: Red, White and Blue back in September of 2002. Of anything written, this two page synopsis of Cap’s history may be the best explanation of the essence of the character and his motivations.

The next piece of the book entitled, “One Year After” continues the current Brubaker story arc of the Captain America series as it takes a look at how the world deals with the aftermath one year after of Steve Rogers’ assassination on the steps of the New York courthouse where he was going to be tried for treason. Ed Brubaker hits every foreseeable corner of Captain America’s world as he catches up with Sharon Carter, Steve’s ex-lover who had been brainwashed in to delivering the fatal shots on Steve, as she begins finding pieces of her shattered memory and searches for the “most notorious murder weapon in the world”. The shooter of the first bullet to hit Steve Rogers, Crossbones, is given a spotlight as his fellow inmates praise his actions from a year ago, ultimately resulting in a prison riot. 

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