WoW next big patch, Undermine(d), gets a release date, starting the countdown clock until my gaming time is entirely consumed with doing donuts in my new ride

Two goblins go for a joyride via the D.R.I.V.E system in World of Warcraft: The War Within. — (Image credit: Blizzard)

World of Warcraft: The War Within has been collecting dust in my digital library (and a bit of subscription money, oops). Not for any particular reason, I've actually rather enjoyed myself—it's just that I happen to be a games journalist, and as such I have to keep up with a lot of different games for work. I'm also back into fighting games again, which is an affliction that claims me every four months or so.

If my Skyriding achievements list is any indication, however, I'm going to be very busy come February 25—because that's when WoW's 11.1 patch, Undermine(d), will be releasing, as per a recent Blizzard post. It's also when Plunderstorm will be going away, so ye best be plundering them chicken dinners if ye haven't already, yarr.

The update will introduce the expansion's properly-sized major zone: Undermine, the beating, polluted, and hyper-industrialised heart of the goblin empire. It's got all the hallmarks of a big new patch—a new raid, new dungeons, new delves, and a customisable goblin rig you can do donuts in. You know. Normal fantasy MMO stuff.

I am a huge fan of Skyriding—so much so that I've gotten basically every gold medal achievement for every Skyriding race I've been able to access, and the D.R.I.V.E system will have similar racing challenges littered around Undermine. While you'll be busy gearing up, I'll be studying the gearstick.

I'm honestly quite excited—as mentioned, I don't have much in the way of free time for MMO grinding. I've tried to expense cloning myself, but it's apparently 'prohibitively expensive' and 'not a good use of company resources' and also 'scientifically impossible'. I will, however, be carving out a solid chunk of my weekends to have a riot in goblin town when this thing hits the servers February 25.

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Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.