Ding!! Level 70 in Burning Crusade.

Gawell, a gnome mage character in the World of Warcraft European server, Archimonde (French EU-PvP server) has reached level 70 in less than 2 days of playing time. While many of us are still grinding hard and running through the instances, killing all the elites and bosses with the raid groups, one has reached the top level, with the help of his guild mates.

The first ding of level 70, happened on 4:04 am (CET) on Januar 17, 2007. You can check out the page for the pictures and interviews. The owner of the character is a 24 years old French, named Gullerbone, member of the Millenium guild. He played for 28 hours straight, with his guildmates.

Well, for most of us, the casual gamers, we will take our time and enjoy the the journey of Burning Crusade and the path to Level 70.

PlayStation Portable 2?

Gizmodo has posted some leaked information of Sony PlayStation Portable 2 (PSP2). It’s cool. PlayStation Poratble (PSP) has been around for more than a year. Is it time for a new portable device? Well, if it is a yes, there will be some concerns regarding this new PSP2

1. Will the new device be back-compatible with the PSP games?
2. Will it still support the UMD format?
3. Will Sony Memory Stick M2 replace the Memory Stick Pro Duo?
4. Does the new PSP2 have a internal flash drive or hard disk built-in?
5. Will it support IP calls, like Skype?

The new PSP2 is codenamed Cobalt. Nice name.

Here is some of the features listed by Gizmodo.

• All Metal & Ruggedized Rubber Build
• 200% Brighter Screen
• Dual Analog Controllers
• Visual Battery Display
• 8GB Flash Drive
• Wifi (a,b,g)
• Bluetooth V.2 (A2DP, AVRCP)
• Firmware 4.0

This is the picture taken for Gizmodo.

Erm, not exactly that attractive as compared to the the current PSP. Maybe this is just some concept designs for the new PSP2. And some of the features have answered the concerns, however, there is a need for more details to be available in order for the gamers to make their decision on jumping to the new console.

And wait, the revealation of iPhone from Apple at the MacWorld Conference has sparked interests all over the world, including me. Will PSP2 match up to compete with Apple’s iPhone? We will see.

Lord of the Ring Online: Shadows of Angmar beta

The Lord of the Ring Online: Shadows of Angmar has begun its beta testing in Europe and North America, according to Gamespot.com.

The Europe signup page is available http://www.lotro-europe.com/beta-signup.php and the North America signup is available at http://lotro.turbine.com/betasignup.

More news to available if any. Watch out for it.

World of Warcraft v2.0.5 patch released

For those who are still in dreamland, it’s time to go to the Outland. Burning Crusade is here and the new version of WoW is here too.

Version 2.0.5, the third patch that was released in the weeks before the release of Burning Crusade.

Here is the change log for version 2.0.5.

-  Increased the maximum number of realms that can be listed in the Realm List.
-  Updated the Terms of Use.
-  Created an option to disable UI Acceleration for users of select video cards
experiencing graphical corruption of the User Interface. To use this option,
enter the following line to the Config.wtf file, located in the WTF
subfolder of the game:

Set UIFaster “x”

Where x equals:
0 – This turns off all UI acceleration
1 – For Internal Use Only - DO NOT USE!
2 – Enables partial UI acceleration only.
3 – Enables all UI acceleration.

Example:
Set UIFaster “2”

Note:  For users experiencing graphical corruption of the User Interface,
it is recommended to try option 2 in order to correct the problem.  If
this does not solve the issue, then use option 0 to disable all UI
Acceleration.

This patch focuses mainly on the UI (User Interface) of the game.

Version 2.0.4, which was released days before version 2.0.5, addresses different issues.

Change log for version 2.0.4.

-  Fixed a bug where flags in Arathi Basin could be captured at extremely long
distances.
-  Fixed a bug where players who had set dungeons to Heroic difficulty level
previous to patch 2.0.3 could no longer enter instances.
-  Fixed a bug that was causing multiple LUA errors in the German and French
battlegrounds.
-  Fixed a bug that was causing the promotion of raid members to yield
incorrect results.
-  Fixed a bug where NPC faction changes were not properly affecting quest-
giver exclamation marks.
-  Fixed a bug where changing party options would briefly cause erroneous
information to be displayed in the party options menu.

You can download the version 2.0.5 incremental patch (from version 2.0.3) from the following web sites.

FileFront
Fileplanet

World of Warcraft Burning Crusade Released.

The Crusade has begun.

Yes, the much anticipated expansion to the world’s most populated massive multi-player online role playing game, the World of Warcraft Burning Crusade has officially released throughout the entire world. You can activate Burning Crusade on your account by visiting the World of Warcraft community site.

And let’s get on to Level 61. Hooray!

DotA Allstars 6.40 released

IceFrog has released version 6.40! Come and get it, right here, right now.

Here is the change log for version 6.40.
*  Reworked Neutral Creep abilities and mechanics to better balance them out
* Improved Leshrac’s base str
* Reduced Chen and THD movement speeds
* Mangus’s Shockwave cooldown reduced from 12 to 11/10/9/8
* Increased Shadow Fiend’s movement speed
* Improved Berserker’s Call AOE by 25
* Increased base armor on Harbinger
* Lowered initial wait time before drafting starts in -rd
* Improved Presence of the Dark Lord AOE
* Lowered level 1 Hawk ms and vision
* Removed entangle from level 1-3 of Spirit Bear
* Reduced Sanity’s Eclipse cooldown from 200 to 160
* Fixed Radiance Effect in center of map when Spirit Bear dies with it
* Improved HP on Spiderlings
* Lowered Siege units armor
* Increased Razor’s base damage a bit
* Reduced Watcher’s cooldown
* Fixed some bugs with Shallow Grave not workling properly on units that morph
* Sent and Scourge are now colored in -rd text display
* Lowered Hawk HP and gave them bounty
* Fixed a rare but serious bug with Geomancer leveling up
* Satanic life steal increased from 23% to 25%
* Increased Eye of Skadi slow duration from 2 to 3 seconds when used by melee heroes
* Restored normal hero name display
* Fixed roshan exploit with geomancer
* Reworked Shallow Grave a bit, it has a duration now
* You now see a decline message when someone refuses to swaphero
* Fixed an old bug with level 3 Elder Form attacking gem
* Fixed a few typos

You can download the map from getdota.com or from FileFront.

World of Warcraft v2.0.3 patch released

6 days before the opening of the dark portal that allows you, to enter the mysterious Outland, for more adventures in the world of Warcraft.

Version 2.0.3 is the last patch before the storm arrives for Burning Crusade. Burning Crusade is the first expansion of the world’s most popular and most populated MMORPG, World of Warcraft. This new patch will open up new skills, quests, races, professions, monsters and items for the expansion.

In order to enjoy the features of the expansion, you need the expansion. Else, you can forget about levelling up to level 70 and the 2 new races, Draenei and Blood Mage. So you just need to buy the expansion for once, no additional fee, except your normal monthly subscription.

Let’s get our energy ready to burn for the Burning Crusade!

You can download the patch from FileFront or Fileplanet. You can download through the Blizzard Downloader too.

FIFA Manager 07 patch released

EA Sports has released patch for the FIFA Manager 07, a football management game under the FIFA series. FIFA Manager 07, is a competitor to the popular Football Manager series as well as the Championship Manager series.

The patch is available for 2 different versions, one is for the game you purchased and downloaded from the EA web site, and other one is for the DVD version which you bought off the shelf from the game shops available near you.

Here is the change log for the patch

• Removed rare crash on saving game
• Removed rare crash on opening scout reports
• Removed logic flaws and unfinished sequences in text mode
• Reduced number of fan chants in text mode
• Yellow cards do not have so much influence on rating
• Better rating for defenders
• Player rating does not change after substitutions
• Corrected minutes played after red card in player career
• Fixed rare crash due to ball physics in 3D match
• Correct display of energy in 3D match
• Correct undo of substitutions in 3D match
• Improved game speed “Weekly Progress”
• Training camps can now be booked over unscheduled qualification rounds
• Congrats screen after promotion from lower leagues
• No easy transfer after low second offer anymore
• Correct indication of matches for reserve team in stats details
• Removed problems with free-agents
• Corrected minutes without goals (conceded)
• Youth team is displayed in news messages
• Players who do not play are not shown in The Duel
• Corrected some problems with team colours in the menu system
• Removed duplicate sponsors
• Line graph in Home screen now functions correctly
• Opinion of the board now takes into account reserve teams
• No teams with rating of 0 in Found a Club mode
• Functional contract clause on offer from higher league
• Correct recovery after an injury
• Players can now gain Hero status during game
• Removed irregular news messages after player ban
• Duration of pause after goals in teletext is now uniform
• Fixed some cup draw comments
• Loading bar is not stuck at ¾ anymore
• Fixed some comments in manager biography
• Updated player salaries
• Fixed some colour problems in text mode
• Not possible to give orders to opponent players anymore
• Corrected some faulty messages on Internet page
• Fixed some minor bugs in private life
• Mail problem with children going to wrong school

Fixed a number of minor bugs

• Various old typos in English and German
• Changed four probabilities for actions in text mode (own goals, referee)
• Some issues with the personal records on the career screen
• Corrected some design and content issues in the statistics (missing tooltips, alignment)

Digital Download patch:

Gamespot
FileFront

DVD patch:

Gamespot
FileFront

Please note that the patches are English version, for other languages you can proceed to FileFront for the patches too.

DotA Allstars 6.39b released

IceFrog has released the new map to version 6.39. The version 6.39b fix a serious issue with regards to Mac users. There is some minor changes to the mod, and here is the change log.

6.39b
====
* Fixed a very serious Mac bug
* Reduced Shallow Grave cooldown from 300/150/75 to 300/200/100
* Fixed Lycan’s icon on scoreboard
* Fixed a bug with the last nerf to shadow word (it wasn’t actually nerfedas i said it was in the code, thx malle)
* Changed Infernal HP from 900/1400/1900 to 900/1200/1500

As usual you can download the new map from getdota.com or you can download from FileFront.

World of Warcraft : Burning Crusade gone gold

Yes, 2 more weeks to go to the release of the hated (for some) and the beloved and much anticipated Burning Crusade, the latest expansion to World of Warcraft. And Burning Crusade has gone gold, according to Blizzard Poster at the WoW Forum, source.

Here is the preview to the new features for Burning Crusade

• Level cap increases to 70.
• 2 new races, Draenei (Alliance) and Blood Elves (Horde)
• Arena-based PvP Ladder System; Improved PvP Honor System
• New Continent: Outland
• New Profession : Jewelcrafting; item socketing
• New flying mounts for new races and Outland
• New Dungeons
• New spells and skills
• New mobs and quests

World of Warcraft : Burning Crusade is set to release on 16 January 2007, after a delay.

World of Warcraft v2.0.3 is set to be the new patch for Burning Crusade. The patch is already available for download.

Let’s hope the Taiwan fibres will be fixed asap, so that the Asians WoWers can enjoy Burning Crusade when it comes online!