Blizzard has announced that the LP version of the soundtrack from World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has been released to iTunes. The new version features bonus content including behind-the-scenes artwork, seventeen tracks and a bonus track only available on the LP download.

Want to bring the music from the latest World of Warcraft expansion with you anywhere you go? The World of Warcraft: Cataclysm soundtrack is now available as an iTunes LP from the iTunes Store, featuring 17 eminently epic tracks as well as special bonus content including artwork, liner notes, and behind-the-scenes interviews. If you previously purchased a copy of the Cataclysm soundtrack album from iTunes prior to the release of this special LP version, don't worry -- you'll be able to receive the bonus content at no additional charge.

The Cataclysm LP Soundtrack is $9.99 on iTunes. Check out the full list of tracks on here.

Since the World of Warcraft Cataclysm expansion was released just over a month ago, there has been a lot of discussion among players about the difficulty of Heroic dungeons. Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street has penned a new article discussing why the dev team made the decision to make those dungeons as hard as they are: In short, 'heroic' is supposed to mean something and that players need the challenge.

First, let me state that we do hear you. We understand some of you aren’t having fun and preferred the Lich King paradigm, or at least something closer to the Lich King paradigm. We greatly appreciate the feedback and it always makes us sad when players aren’t having fun. We're not ignoring you. We get it. We may not always agree on every point, but we understand where you’re coming from, and we want to try to help you understand where we're coming from.

The bottom line is that we want Heroics and raids to be challenging, and that is particularly true now while the content is new and characters are still collecting gear. They’re only going to get easier from here on out. We want players to approach an encounter, especially a Heroic encounter, as a puzzle to be solved. We want groups to communicate and strategize. And by extension, we want you to celebrate when you win instead of it being a foregone conclusion.

The balance of the article gives frustrated players a few tips to improve their experiences within the Heroic dungeons.

Read more here.

Blizzard has announced that over 4.7 million copies of the World of Warcraft Cataclysm expansion were sold in the month following its release on December 7, 2010. According to Blizzard's internal sales partnership statistics and its own sales data, this is a record single-month sales record for a PC title.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm was simultaneously released in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Europe, Russia, Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand on 7th of December , and became available in Korea and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau on 9th of December. With day-one sales topping 3.3 million copies,* World of Warcraft: Cataclysm became the fastest-selling PC game of all time, shattering the previous record, which was held by the second World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King.

Read more here.

As part of the streamlined World of Warcraft community site, the team has posted a new handy-dandy guide to travel in Azeroth. The guide includes information about mounts available, what levels they can be obtained, flight masters, zeppelin travel and more.

Azeroth is a large world and it's recently become much larger. There are hills to climb, deserts to explore, fjords to ford, and a vast sea separating the continents. And let’s not forget that beyond Azeroth proper there lies a whole other shattered world -- Outland. Traveling has never been more interesting, and for some, confusing. To help you with getting around, we’ve compiled a list of some of the more common ways you can see the world, meet new creatures, and (likely) be killed by them.

Read more here.

The World of Warcraft development team has started an interesting series of blog posts about the 'movers and shakers' in Azeroth and their collective metamorphosis since The Shattering that came with the Cataclysm update. The series starts with a look at Orc powerhouse, Thrall, and gives a retrospective look at the way Thrall used to look and the way he looks now.

One of the most notable metamorphoses in Cataclysm is that of Thrall. Thrall He's worn many titles in his lifetime: slave, gladiator, shaman, chieftain of the Frostwolf Clan, and, most recently, warchief of the Horde. Now, as the son of Durotan puts down the mantle of warchief and takes up the simple garb of a shaman once again, we take a look back at his journey and the events that shaped him into the orc he is today.

Read more here.

Blizzard has announced a free 10-day trial of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm to those who have yet succumbed to purchasing the latest expansion. The announcement was made via the new community portal and offers players the opportunity to fully explore Cataclysm.

To participate, you’ll need full versions of World of Warcraft and the first two expansions, The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King. Note that a character of at least level 78 is required to explore the new, high-level zones. More information on the 10-day free trial is available in our FAQ. We look forward to seeing you in the new Azeroth!

Read more here.

Blizzard's juggernaut, World of Warcraft, has been declared the 'fastest selling video game on the planet' and devs have the numbers to back up the assertion. Over 3.3 million copies of the Cataclysm expansion sold in only twenty-four hours. These numbers eclipse the former title holder, Wrath of the Lich King, by more than a half-million copies.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm was simultaneously released in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Europe, Russia, Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand on December 7, and became available in Korea and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau on December 9. More than 10,000 stores throughout the world opened their doors at midnight to welcome players who wanted to be among the first to obtain a copy of the expansion. In addition, approximately 15,000 players attended official launch events hosted by Blizzard and key retail partners in the US, Canada, France, Germany, Russia, Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK, and the region of Taiwan.

If you haven't already joined the masses playering WoW: Cataclysm, you can find out more here.

Now that the heart stopping moment of World of Warcraft's expansion, Cataclysm, has passed, the Blizzard team is filling in more of the lore behind the expansion. Part One of the series, "The Story So Far" debuted a couple of weeks ago. The second installment, The Heralds of Twilight, is now live on the official community site.

Continued from part one of "The Story So Far...".

As the world's races struggled for survival in the wake of the Cataclysm, details came to light concerning what—or who—had caused the disaster. Prior to the upheaval, the Fury of Earth had cryptically told Thrall that Azeroth's instability had been caused by something good that had turned unnatural. Something that wished to inflict pain and suffering on the entire world.

Read Heralds of Twilight at the official WoW Community Site.

Today marks the launch of a new era in World of Warcraft, an era of new beginnings, new levels, newly overhauled areas. In short, World of Warcraft will never be the same. Today, Garrett Fuller from our sister site, MMORPG.com, marks the Cataclysm launch day with some reflections on the game that was and what the changes brought to WoW with Cataclysm mean for him. Check it out and then leave us a few of your thoughts below.

I am not going to try and talk about what the expansion has to offer. We know all about it. We have known for months. Really what I want to bring up is why Cataclysm is so important to MMOs in 2010. Warcraft is a six year old game. It started off strong in terms of a new MMO in 2004 and 2005. Then it grew huge. It became a cultural phenomenon and started to even break into the main stream. This was a turning point for games and, more importantly, for MMOs. By 2006 Warcraft dominated the market and a host of games were launched to try and grasp some of that glory.

Read more Cataclysm Is Upon Us at MMORPG.com.