(image courtesy of Penny Arcade. Click to see the original comic!

Cataclysm has been out for a while, and although many people have spent the bulk of their time rushing to get up to 85 and geared up for heroics and other dungeons that represent the state of end-game content right now, a lot of other people have taken the other approach: take it nice and slow, and roll on the of the new races or character race/class combinations, start from the beginning, and take your time getting through all of the new quests, changed zones, and updated content.

So, if you’re one of those folks who decided to roll a goblin or worgen and start from level one, how are those races working out for you? Do you find the lore works out for you, or that it’s all just a smashed-together trainwreck?

Some people have noted that the Worgen feel kind of abandoned, much like the Draenei were in The Burning Crusade, that they’re essentially leveled to about 10 or 15 and then shipped off to do quests that essentially already exist and join the storyline of another race (namely the Night Elves.) The Goblin experience, however, is much better – but this is all secondhand that I’m hearing. What I want to hear is what you think! Sound off in the comments.

The video above broke yesterday, featuring – finally – the animated dance that the female Worgen will get in Cataclysm. Who is it from? Yup – it’s Lady Gaga.

We’ve long been reporting that female Worgen animations simply haven’t been finished and are some of the last things that will likely be ready for the expansion, but here we are with the double-dose of the video above showing off their dance (which is pretty sharp, I might add) and the news that they’re available to play in the beta and the dance is in the beta as well, so if you don’t believe your eyes when watching the video above, you can roll one now and give it a try yourself!

The folks over at WoW Insider took this fantastic video which shows some of the new Worgen emotes, gestures, and animations from the latest iteratio nof the Cataclysm beta. Things look to be shaping up really well, and the emotes for the Worgen – males anyway – seem to be either near complete or extremely close.

Sadly, Worgen females aren’t fully implemented yet, so no similar video for them, but with people bantering about a potential release date, it’s likely they’ll be coming soon. In the interim though, this is a fabulous look at what you can expect as far as the way the new race plays when you finish your install of the expansion and roll your first Worgen. Because I know you will.

After a long wait and lots of doubt, Blizzard finally rolled in the new Worgen female models into the latest iteration of the Cataclysm beta, and they certainly look fiercer and more complete than the previous ones did.

Over at WoW Insider they have a gallery of several of the new models, and there are scowly, growly faces abound – which kind of matches up well with the male models, I think.

But enough about what I think – what do you think? Has Blizzard finally ditched the “super-sexy” approach to just about every female model in the game? If you’re inclined to play female characters in-game, will you roll a female worgen? Sound off in the comments!

If you’ve been thinking about rolling a female Worgen but you’ve wondered up until now exactly what they’d look like, then look no further. Blizzard sent The Escapist a number of screenshots of what the character models will look like, and while they currently admittedly look like re-skinned Draenei, some of their stances and animations are definitely unique.

The screenshots at The Escapist show off a specific female Worgen model wearing cloth armor, then wearing leather, then wearing mail, and then again wearing plate. As we know, Worgen will be able to be any class in Cataclysm except Paladins and Shaman, so at least one of their classes will be able to wear any type of armor. The other screenshots are fantastic, head over to take a look!