As of yet, we still need to see female tauren, female orcs, male humans, and both kinds trolls and both kinds of night elves, as well as both genders of the Draenei and Blood Elves.
As always, I've very happy with how this latest preview has gone. As usual, when looking at this, remember that they're only going with one of the available faces, hair colors, and skin colors.
With the more recent races, the Worgen, Goblins, and Pandaren, I've hard a lot of people claiming that these only have one face model, and that they are worried that the new version of the old models will also be limited. While it could be that the Pandaren have one model with only different patterns in the fur, I can say very confidently that the Male Worgen have different faces. One could be forgiven for thinking that they have only one, however, due to the fact that for some strange reason every Worgen NPC has the same face option (which also happens to be the face I used on Ardten, who you can see to the side of this blog, hurtling through the skies above Tanaris.) As an example, take a look at Tripton, my somewhat neglected Rogue (given that my Undead Rogue is one of the last Hordies I've managed to still prioritize over my Alliance toons of the same class.)
Admittedly, the difference is subtle (they are both werewolves) but you'll notice that Ardten the Warrior has ridges on his brow and snout that Tripton the Rogue does not share.
Anyway, all that aside, here's a quick look at the human female.
(Courtesy of MMO-Champion)
I think that's looking pretty damned good. Remember, also, that the reason she has a blank expression is because this is the neutral look, from which they can animate the expressions you'll see in-game.
I was very curious about the humans, because of course the temptation might be to go for a more photorealistic look with them. Yet Warcraft works best with a somewhat cartoonish feel to it. This human has fairly realistic proportions (unlike the weirdly shaped human in the Mists of Pandaria cinematic) but is also just stylized enough to feel as if she'll fit in among the canals of Stormwind and the spires of Dalaran.
In related news, it sounds as if, as a long-term plan, they might actually even do a minor update to the Worgen and Goblins. While the Cataclysm races look far better than anything that came out of vanilla, they did come up with a new rigging system for animations, which is why the Pandaren have such incredibly expressive emotes. Much as I adore the Worgen (the one exception being the stupid flip that I do every time I hit Mortal Strike... and also the way that shields get lost in their cloaks,) their emotes are a little more like the jaw-flapping of the earlier models.
Still no word yet on the WoD beta, and I'd expect that only a couple races (if even that) will be updated at its start, but this is some pretty solid progress toward getting us all looking amazing.
Tip to Blizzard: Make the Tier 17 helmets relatively minimalistic. Let our awesome new faces show!
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