Long before the "World of Warcraft", "Warcraft: Orcs & Human", or even Blizzard itself there was a table top war game made by Games Workshop called Warhammer: Fantasy Battle. So, for those of us in the know, when the Warcraft series came out it wasn't what you would call original, but plagiarism would be a difficult charge to make stick especially if the ghost of JRR Tolkien was called to the stand. Of course Warhammer games have already been made centred in their dark Sci-Fi universe, Warhammer 40K, but with the upcoming release of WAR the great Ouroboros continues. This time it is EA Mythic working directly with the new Warhammer Fantasy Source and Army books. So, yes it is a LOT like WoW, which in a lot of ways is good because we all like WoW. The Question is will it be a WoW Killer? Although similar, the Old World is darker then Azeroth and Draenor especially with Destruction being truly evil unlike the Hoard and Order, with my prediction of the popularity of the half naked Goth Dark Elves, being in a constant uphill struggle. Will it be different enough to convince them to jump the fence? If WAR is ever released, it is a good bet that a big enough percentage of bored WoW players will it a try and find it enough of an upgrade to make it a contender.
The debate over WARs release date, as can be judged from many forums out there, is more raging then the siege battles they promise. The good money is that EA Mythic will release it just barely on time for Christmas 2008 Q4 release to be followed by a couple of patches. So don't dismiss this ambitious dark twin just because it looks like its younger more successful brother; WAR has the backing of the Juggernaut of game companies, EA, and is eagerly anticipated even with its ever pushing release.
