Gamertell

The primary means of travel in World of Warcraft is running. You run pretty much everywhere, and some fans became curious as to what it would be like to physically experience that same amount of running in real life. The result was Aaron and Elijah’s RL Race Across Azeroth.

These guys even worked out the how the running in WoW would correspond to running in the real world. They built a treadmill which would work with WoW, set it up so they would run at six mph and prepared to run from the gates of Shadowglen to the sentries of Darnassus. They also dressed up like their characters - for scientific purposes of course.

Click through to watch Elijah and Aaron’s Treadmill Race Across Azeroth video…

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Some of you may have caught the article about the hacked PSP made into a phone and it appears the Sony system hacking hasn’t come to an end.  This week, someone has made a Playstation 3 into a laptop. 

Even though it appears to run, I’m not certain whether you could practically use it as a laptop. It is quite large at 16 in. x 10.5 in. x 4 in. when closed and heavier than most laptops, weighing 15 pounds.  I wouldn’t want that on my…

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Sony has issued a warning to Playstation Network users on the official Playstation website alerting them of a possible security breach. It has warned that the personal information of users on the Playstation Store might be vulnerable to unauthorized access through PCs.

However, the threat level is low if Sony is to be believed:

“Although unlikely, it is possible that the passwords of a small percentage of Playstation Network users may have been changed through unauthorized access, making it possible to view users’ personal information and/or use the Wallet for the Playstation Store. Playstation Network accounts do not display entire credit card numbers, so any unauthorized access to your Playstation Network account is very unlikely to compromise your credit card number.”

If you can’t sign-in to your PSN account using your pre-set password, your account might have been compromised. In that case you should contact customer service immediately and apprise them of a potential hack.

Read [Playstation] Via [Next-Gen]

Today’s chuckle is brought to us by a random hacker who decided that November 20, 2007, would be a good day to alter the EB Games listing for the Wii version of Pimp My Ride. The box art image has been changed to show the box art from the Sega Dreamcast title Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future. Apparently this alteration is fairly recent, as one of the first mentions of it online is through a LiveJournal community called Girl_Gamers. Due to the nature of the image, it is doubtful that this unlikely replacement is some sort of mix-up on EB Game’s part.

I wonder what exactly Ecco has been up to that would merit a Teen rating. I guess he’s just growing up and isn’t the same dolphin which did Ecco Jr. in 1995. To be perfectly honest though, if it were a Pimp My Dolphin game, it would totally be worth $39.99. Of course it also begs the question of how one would exactly pimp a dolphin. I’m sure it would involve various paints, and perhaps some makeup or a little hat of some sort. I suppose the closest we’ll really ever get to knowing is Petz Wild Animals: Dolphinz.

And while we’re on the topic of Ecco, we have to wonder when the eco-friendly dolphin will return to the world of video games. NiGHTS and Samba are both staging their comebacks. Perhaps this little publicity boost is all Ecco needs to get his flippers in gear..

Read [Girl_Gamers] Site [EB Games]

Take Two announced today that it has finally settled all consumer class action lawsuits pending in the US against the company and its subsidiary Rockstar Games regarding the controversial third party program called “Hot Coffee Modification” that unlocks a sex scene in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

The lawsuit began when 85-year-old Florence Cohen who, up until July 20, 2005, didn’t care if her 14-year-old grandson played mature rated games like GTA: San Andreas. That is, until her grandson, who had the modification program unlocked a very steamy scene in a game where the player’s objective is to please the woman he’s with.

The program Hot Coffee v2 was made available online on a few GTA-specific websites on July 7, 2005, allowing players to unlock the scandalous secret hot sex minigame that Rockstar hid in the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions of the GTA: San Andreas game. Since posted, there have been more than 31,200z viewers and has been downloaded more than 7,200 times.The most recent download was made November 10, 2007. The download also unlocked other secret sex scenes and the ability to interact with any female characters any time the player wanted.

“If the case had continued, we believe the court would have agreed that Take-Two was not liable for consumers acting independently to modify their games with third-party hardware and software to access normally inaccessible content,” said Ben Feder, Chief Executive Officer of Take-Two. “Nonetheless, we believe it is in the best interest of the Company to avoid protracted and costly litigation to prove our case and to finally put this matter behind us.”

It was already bad enough that Take-Two’s subsidiary, Rockstar Games, had already caused controversy because of its violent content, but things got out of control when it was discovered that sexually explicit scenes could be unlocked.

As a result, under the terms of the settlement Take-Two agreed to offer the following benefits to consumers who were upset or offended by the “hot coffee” content of the game if they:

• Bought a copy of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas before July 20, 2007.
• Were offended and upset by the ability of consumers to modify and alter the game’s content using the third-party Hot Coffee modification.
• Would not have bought the game had they known that consumers could modify and alter the game’s content using the third-party Hot Coffee modification.
• Would have returned the game, upon learning the game could be modified and altered, if they thought this possible.

Take-Two also agreed as part of the settlement to offer benefits that ranged from exchanging the game disk for an edited “sex free” copy of GTA: San Andreas to paying consumers up to $35 if they can submit detailed proofs of purchase for the game. The actual value of cash payments will depend on the number of consumers who actually apply for these benefits. Take-Two said in their press release that it’s prepared to commit to $1.025 million in settlement benefits.

This amount is in addition to the out of pocket costs, cost of providing notice to class action members and paying a fee to the plaintiff’s counsel, the expected cost of the settlement and other related expenses Take-Two must endure as part of the agreement.

“Its coming out of a rough stretch and we’re very optimistic for the new year,” said Mike Hickey, Janco Partners analyst, who added that this lawsuit would not likely have any negative effect on the company but its organizational restructuring would help their earnings.

Take-Two took the initiative to set aside more than a million dollars to pay the benefits and set aside as much as $2.75 million if needed to meet the needs despite the companies shares dropping 9 cents and closing at $16 per share prior to their announcement of the settlement.

Read [CNN Money News] Read [Take-Two Press Release] Read [Game Politics] View [Original Complaint] Site [GTA-themed Forum]

Playstation 2 might have gotten slimmer but interest in the all-time best selling console is certainly not shrinking - not with 120 million consoles out there. Rumor has it that a new add-on for the PS2 will soon be launched. No, it is not a Wii type controller officially released by Sony, but another ingenious creation of modders. If this rumor is to be believed then it would be the first plug-n-play modchip for the PS2.

It is a custom memory card named “Vast” - so not actually a mod chip, per se - with a pre-loaded OS that serves as a plug-n-play virtual mod chip. Once plugged into the memory card slot, the custom OS on the memory card loads, allowing many mod chip style functionality including the ability to boot backed-up copies of games. Price and PS2-version compatibility details of the device are not yet known. 

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Although no official announcement was made, Nintendo recently updated the Wii Firmware to version 3.0. The update is performed through the Wii and takes 5-10 minutes to download.

The only major update I noticed was when surfing through the arcade games in the Wii Shop Channel. Not only have the search features been expanded but a note on the Virtual Arcade’s main screen mentions something about being able to watch videos of the games. I’m guessing this means we’ll seen be able to watch quick clips of actual gameplay.

Since this also comes right after the…

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Ah, the shady, questionable use of mod chips. Tons of fun for gamers, fattening wallets for makers and sellers but the cause of huge losses for many game companies.

In an effort to crack down on cracked game systems, US Ferdeal customs agents raided more than 30 homes and businesses (using 32 search warrants) in 16 states to stop the flow of game system mod chips.

The raids, performed Wednesday, August 1, 2007, were the end result of a year-long investigation and, according to the New York Times, took place in California, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin.

Soon after the raids, Nintendo sent out a press release applauding the effort which, it hopes, will help stop…

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