As of a few hours ago now, the highly anticipated expansion to the world’s most popular MMORPG (some would argue that point of course) went on sale around the world, and is now live on all the realms.

That’s right. All 8 Million of you can now throw even more of your lives away questing, grinding, PKing and all that good stuff. For the 2 or 3 of you who don’t know about the expansion, well - go look it up, seriously. Well OK, you have this Dark Portal thingie, and you can go to this Outland place. The level cap has been increased to 70, flying mounts are in, two new races, a new profession, new socketed items, new instances, dungeons and PvP arenas. The entire PvP system was revamped, and the new arena has a ladder style system in place. Dungeons now have a selectable difficulty setting, and there are 3 new cities. Of course there is alot more to the game, not to mention the hundreds of new quests available. So time to dust off those plate boots and go exploring!

You can buy the expansion, and simply add the key to your account. Which will give you the ability to go to Outland and get a flying mount and drop bombs on innocent players. Sorta.

Enjoy everyone, see you on the fields of Azeroth or Outlands!

View: World of Warcraft Homepage
Source: Neowin

Foresight is an Anti-cheat Administration tool used for scanning Medal of Honor servers to detect unwanted players cheating, monitoring pings and managing all aspects of the server remotely. The scanner will detect any variables in Medal of Honor designed for single-player cheats and any third-party cheat variables designed by dishonest players.

Download: Foresight Anti-Cheat Server v1.6
Download: Foresight Anti-Cheat Client v1.6
View: Foresight homepage

Thanks to AzNDuDe for the submission…
Well you’d never think it’ll be possible yet but hackers have found a way to play backup games on the ps3 using a loader - i.e linux a popular distro is the Fedora Core 5, It is also possible to use it to play emulators like MAME (arcade games) though an application called AdvanceMAME.

A few games are out already most of them dumps titles like Ridge Racer 7, Call Of Duty 3, and the massive Resistance fall of man on blu-ray disc @ 15.5 GB! It’s going to be hard to back up though on a blu-ray burner but games like CoD3 will fit on a DL disc @ 6GB, that said the console looks pretty promising. The price that it retails for $999 last i read is harsh on the pocket. Anyways I’ll probably get one when its released in Australia, Its already been launched in the US! More news on the ps3 can be found over at PS3 News.

The PlayStation 3’s Sixaxis controller has been honoured with an award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. “The overwhelming consumer demand and critical acclaim for PS3 is testament of the platform’s strength and the industry’s desire for a true next-generation entertainment system,” commented Jack Tretton, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America.

“The full potential of this powerful machine has yet to be realised. What you’ve seen so far is just a taste of what will be on the table for 2007 and years to come,” he added. The Sixaxis controller has added motion sensing technology to re-define the original Dual Shock controller, detecting natural, real-time movements, along with input via pressure sensitive buttons, analogue sticks and triggers.

Sony’s PlayStation 3 has also picked up the CES Best of Innovations Award for 2007, PC World’s 20 Most Innovative Products Award, Sound and Vision’s Editor’s Choice Award and a Digital Innovation Award from the Digital Entertainment Group.

Source: GamesIndustry

Sony today announced that they have sold 1 million Playstation 3’s in North America since the launch of the console six weeks ago.

That makes the Playstation 3 the fastest selling home console Sony has ever launched.

Microsoft sold 600,000 of their Xbox 360’s from their November launch to the second week in January.

“SCEA went to great lengths to help meet demand for PS3, including airlifting systems into North America on a weekly basis to ensure a steady stream of units were available to consumers throughout the holiday season,” said Jack Tretton, president and CEO, SCEA. “The fact that we were able to reach the one-million mark faster than our top-selling platform, the PS2, further validates the strength of the PlayStation brand and our belief that consumers are ready to experience true high-definition gaming.” … “Reaching the one million mark for PS3 is the first of many major milestones for us as we head into a new year. Even more impressive, is that we were able to accomplish this feat while successfully managing two other gaming platforms–PS2 and PSP,” said Tretton. “With three PlayStation platforms now available to gamers, 2007 will be about software and delivering innovative, new experiences and award-winning franchises to consumers, both through retail and through our online PLAYSTATION Network.”

Source: Kotaku

Looks like all the bellyaching over the price of Sony’s PlayStation 3 has done some good. Sony exec Ken Kutaragi just sent jaws to the floor over at Tokyo Game Show with an announced price cut of the 20GB PS3 base unit from ¥62,790 to ¥49,980 in Japan. Closer to home, we’d be looking at a move from about $715 to $569 (looking at current exchange rates) representing a drop of some 20% when the PS3 hits later this year, or uh, early next if the cut applies across the board. Not exactly cheap when looking at the Wii or Xbox 360, but that Cell processor, Blu-ray Disc player, and HDMI 1.3 output supporting Deep Color will certainly draw a premium.

Update: Price reduction confirmed for Japan only. Waiting on rest-of-world price cuts, if any.

View: Full Story
Source: Engadget

Microsoft today released a demo version of its long awaited Flight Simulator X, which celebrates 25 years of the extreamly popular franchise, It will be fully optimised for Windows Vista. Flight Simulator X immerses you in a beautifully rich and realistic world with dozens of aircraft and interactive Missions for a completely new and innovative gaming experience. Free Flight lets you fly anywhere in the world, from your hometown airport to the most exotic places you’ve ever dreamed of.

View: Flight Simulator X Homepage
Download: Mirror 1 (4 Players) | Mirror 2 (Extream Players) | Mirror 3 (Gamespot) | Mirror 4 (Gamespot) | Mirror 5 (Microsoft) | Mirror 6 (Gamespot) | Mirror 7 (Gamespot) | Mirror 8 (Gamespot) | Mirror 9 (Planet Mirror) | Mirror 10 (Worth Playing)
Source: Flexbeta

Despite the fact that Microsoft seems to be doing quite well in the second generation console battle, it is lagging behind when it comes to winning the war.

According to sales figures in the US, Vole’s super soaraway Xbox 360 is being outsold by the older and less technologically advanced PS2.

According to the NPD Group, the PS2 has outsold the XBox 360 in six of the seven months since the Voleware was first released.

View: Full Story
Source: The Enquirer via Flexbeta

Yes this has been confirmed too. It appears that microsoft forgot to digitally sign some of its demo discs and it appears that backups of the demo disc can be downloaded and copied and played on DVD-+R. This is huge luck in the scene because it will allow hackers to gain information into the executables of the xbox 360.

Source: Console News via Flexbeta

In an effort to gain developers attention regarding the lack of anticheat support in Call of Duty 2, a mass server strike, whereby Call of Duty 2 servers will be renamed to “on strike” and locked, or simply shutdown. This event is set to take place on December 16th and seems to be gaining mass server admin support.

View: Digg | IW Nation Forum
Source: Flexbeta