Dean Takahashi of the Mercury News was recently able to get a preview of the new Burning Crusade expansion pack for Blizzard’s World of Warcraft. He was able to talk with lead designer Tom Chilton and Shon Damron from public relations. The expansion is still on target for the end of the year and the beta program is set to begin soon.

Chilton covers some previously known territory; the level cap gets raised to 70, and there are two new races: the Draenei for the Alliance and the Blood Elves for the Horde. Then Chilton releases new details about the starting areas for the new races. According to him, the new areas will increase the world size by about 30 percent. Blizzard also revealed some new characteristics for the races, and some details about the new level 70 region, Hellfire Peninsula. Finally, Blizzard also released some new screens for the expansion pack as well. With all the new content, expect World of Warcraft fans to have all available time stolen towards the end of the year.