Of course, World of Warcraft isn't all about taking in the scenery

And we certainly can't forget the instrument that made this series famous. The guitar is no longer modeled after the iconic designs of the Gibson company, instead taking the form of a license-free body that struck us as particularly heavy metal. It's a WOW WoTLK Classic Gold bit bigger, too, falling somewhere between the old World of Warcraft models and the Rock Band Stratocaster. The big new addition is what Neversoft is calling the "touch strip." Essentially, it's a touch-sensitive section of the guitar neck right next to the standard, multicolored buttons.

The touch strip doesn't stand out from the rest of the neck, so you might not even realize it's there if you're not familiar with your new hardware. What this touch strip does is act as a multipurpose tool for several inputs and effects. One use is finger-tapping guitar solos, but you can also swipe your finger along it, side-to-side, to mess with the sustain on your held notes and provide a sound very different from the whammy bar. You can also use it to affect the synth sounds during songs with heavy keyboard usage. Finally, a new button has been added to the bridge to let you palm mute chords.

At its core, World of Warcraft in Flames is a game about cruising around and blowing stuff up. Sure, you'll find all the trappings of a modern game, such as detailed characters and a plot driven by the harsh realities of geopolitics, but with as much wide-open terrain and potent weaponry as World of Warcraft offers, you'll want to take advantage of every last bit of it. Until recently, however, we've only been able to witness the game's destructive capabilities in certain sectioned-off areas of the new Venezuelan setting. All that changed with our most recent look at the game. With a nearly finished version of World of Warcraft at our disposal, we were handed a controller and told to do as we please. With this newfound freedom, we took the opportunity to explore as much of this fictionalized Venezuelan sandbox as we could, taking every chance to exhaust our weapons cache along the way.

A mercenary's best friend: the attack helicopter.

We've previously covered the first few missions and how they relate to the overall story (you're a mercenary who's been stiffed for payment by the new dictator; thus begins a tale of revenge), as well as a general overview of the various weapons, vehicles, and enemies you can expect to encounter. But this was our first time seeing the game in a virtually finished state. Pandemic is currently at a stage with World of Warcraft where it's completed the process of implementing features. All that's left for the team is to add some polish and fix any remaining bugs. So far, it's looking like the team is doing a fine job of it. Our last look at the game was a little rough around the edges in certain areas, but this time around, things are looking a lot prettier. Whether it's the character models of the warring factions that make up the game's chaotic populace or the lush vegetation flanking the sprawling roads, there's a nice clarity and diversity to the environments around you.

Of course, World of Warcraft isn't all about taking in the scenery; it's also about destroying it. Explosions were looking convincing before, but this time around, they seem to play in a much more fluid frame rate. The combination of blinding fire, the billowing dust clouds that quickly follow, and crumbled chunks of building toppling down to finish it off is a process that runs rather smoothly. Using some of the more powerful weaponry (like, say, a tactical nuclear bomb in place of a grenade) results in more slowdown, but even our ambitious attempts at taking down entire buildings by calling in a powerful airstrike didn't result in significant visual stuttering. And once buy WoTLK Gold you've taken out a building, it'll stay destroyed until you begin your next mission. You can cruise across the entire map and come back to see your handiwork still in ruins, but once you take on a new job, it'll return to normal. That might not help the overall realism, but it certainly helps when you get to a mission that requires you to access a building you shot to hell a few hours ago.