The World of Warcraft is vast, no doubt about it, but covering the distance between the Human city of Stormwind and the Dwarf stronghold of Ironforge was hardly a chore; in fact it was masterful exhibition of the level of artistic style and polish that the Californian developer has put into its first massively multiplayer game. Mounting a griffon within the relative confines of the resplendent Stormwind, we were flown gracefully and precariously out through the city walls, past towering statues of heroes of the Alliance, over the verdant dew-specked forests dotted with farmhouses and cottages, across the arid, rocky and desolate mountainous regions beyond, up the thrashing columns of vast waterfalls and over snowy peaks before diving inside a mountain, circling caverns full of molten rock geysers and gliding to the ground to make our way.