Yep, Blizzard strike again. Just as my Christmas break came to an end and I was due to head back to work I discovered that FilePlanet are offering 10-day trial keys for World of Warcraft. The problem: these keys are only for those in the US (bloody US-centric tits and so on). Solution: use a free proxy server to make it think you're in the US, then, once you've got your key switch back to your standard connexion and download the client. Works rather nicely, although it does mean I'm playing on US servers rather than the European ones.

As for the game: lovely. The graphics are cartoony and all rather pretty, the game is shockingly addictive in the vein of Diablo II and it runs on both my PowerBook (1.5Ghz G4/Radeon 9700 Mobility) and my games PC (A64 3200+/GF6600GT). Of course it does look somewhat nicer on the latter. There's also nice variety - lots of trades, lots of fighting, decent mix and generally friendly people, which the standard hazard of spotty thirteen year olds and their superiority complexes.

The downside: £25 for the game licence & first month followed by £9 per month. There's no facility to suspend half way through a month and there's no support for casual gamers (you can only buy in monthly blocks). And while it's fun, I do have something resembling a life as well as other things to do. Of course it would have been great when I was a student - and I wouldn't have been able to afford it then. Cést la vie...