The obvious difference between Wrath of the Lich King and previous boxed sets isn't what's inside but what isn't. Wrath of the Lich King only comes with a DVD edition of the game. This makes the entire case feel lighter and seems born of the calculus that those gamers who would shell out for a Collector's Edition probably sport computers with DVD-ROM drives. The game also has a paper instruction manual, which comes as a bit of a surprise. In an era when most gamers freely admit that they never read instruction manuals, it's extraordinary that the gaming industry still prints them.

Blizzard's art department often draws praise and this book well illustrates why that praise is deserved. In its 207 pages, players can check out landscape studies for many of the new areas they'll be exploring in Northrend. They include the kinds of arctic-themed areas one would expect in the frozen north, such as the Howling Fjord, home of new half-giant bad guys called Vrykul.  Interestingly, not all of Northrend is frozen wilderness. One chapter of the book shows off the insane tropical foliage of the Sholazar Basin, a great depression where the world-shaping Titans experimented with life forms before populating the rest of Azeroth.A beautiful image of a glowing purple tree greets readers as the first glimpse of the art of the Crystalsong Forest, new home of the wizard city of Dalaran and the new central city for both Horde and Alliance.