It's been a long two years since Blizzard unleashed World of Warcraft on a gaming world that was apparently primed to receive it. While some massively multiplayer games had done well before WoW hit store shelves in November of 2004, none had achieved anything like the unprecedented success of Warcraft. As one of the biggest smash hits in PC gaming history, whether online or off, World of Warcraft has taken on a life of its own, increasing its worldwide subscriber rolls to eight million players in the last two years.

Unfortunately for those of you who dabbled with WoW and managed to escape the addiction, Blizzard has managed to unleash another four compact discs full of captivating content in the form of The Burning Crusade, the first full expansion for World of Warcraft. The list of new additions in the Burning Crusade is a rollcall of the popular features that you might have expected: new races, new zones to quest in, a new profession, a raised level cap, and so on.

This short primer to the Burning Crusade is intended to introduce you to some of the new features of the game. The amount of new content that's been added to the game, especially in the Outlands, will be more than we can possibly cover in a short space, but if you're looking for some of the new surprises in the expansion, then feel free to read on!