It’s official. Burning Crusade is out. It’s installed on my machine, my account is upgraded, and I have seen the elephant (or at least the other side of the Dark Portal).

It is kind of odd. For the past many months I’ve been able to roam somewhat at will around Azeroth. Partly because I knew my way around, as well as being at the level cap. Now it’s all new, and while at the moment all the normal monsters are slightly below my level, that can’t last long.

And there is the fact that I’m in for the beginning of everything other than the beta. Last time, the game had been out for six months before we hopped on the bandwagon. The initial Alliance area and quests are just flooded.

I’m also slightly gratified that what I’m seeing in quest rewards is right about at the level of my existing equipment. It’s been slowly gathered from higher 5-man instances, and I’d hate to see all of it rendered useless by the first few quests, the way some have made it sound.