They say that the third time is the charm. We'll that definitely holds true for NCsoft's MMO, Guild Wars, as it celebrates its third anniversary. To show their gratitude to the players who support the game, a sweepstakes is going to take place with some delectable prizes. Find out the details in the full article.

 

For the fortunate fans that managed to get their very own tickets to the BlizzCon event this August (we won't ask how...), there's much more than just Starcraft II goodies, souvenirs, and other delectable freebies that await you. Blizzard has just sent word of three competitions that are expected to take place at the event: the costume, character sound-alike, and dance contests. And in case you're wondering what's in it for the competitors, the site posted some rather tempting prizes for each event's first-prize winners:

• For the Dance Contest: One Dell XPS laptop with an approximate retail value of US$ 4,000.00, and a two-year subscription to Sponsor's World of Warcraft game service with an approximate retail value of US$ 300.00.
• For the Character Sound-Alike Contest: One Nvidia graphics card, one Logitech keyboard, one Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi sound card, and one gift certificate with approximate retail value of the prize package to be no less than US$ 1,500.00.
• For the Costume Contest: One Dell XPS laptop with an approximate retail value of US$ 4,000.00, and a two-year subscription to Sponsor's World of Warcraft game service with an approximate retail value of US$ 300.00.
  

Full application rules and details should be available at the BlizzCon site (read link). Just check back in case we pick up an update for these upcoming competitions.

 

The Guild Wars US$ 100,000 Tournament Series May Championship by NCsoft and ArenaNet has already kicked off leaving a lot of players excited. The prizes for the competition were recently announced which only served to pump up the competitors even more. Sponsors ATI Technology and Creative Labs have provided some pretty good stuff for those who manage to claw their way to the top of the tournament.

Guild versus Guild prizes:
1st place:

• ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT
• Permanent Gold Cape trim for guild
• 300 Tournament Reward Points

2nd place

• ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT
• Silver Cape trim for guild
• Tournament Reward Points

1v1 prizes:
1st Place:

• ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT
• 80 GB iPod
• 100 Tournament Reward Points

2nd Place:

• ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT
• 30 GB iPod
• Tournament Reward Points

The tournament has two different divisions: the Guild versus Guild (GvG) and one versus one (1v1). The matches last for a good 40 minutes and 15 minutes respectively. Winners will advance in the tournament which uses the Swiss style format in determining matches and advancement. Eventually the top teams of each division will be competing for the top spot in the respective divisions.

For more information, be sure to click on our read link which will send you over to the official Guild Wars page where the prizes are listed. Be sure to check back here for more news on Guild Wars.

We don't know exactly how hard Windows Vista works to make legacy programs compatible - we do know it's pretty darn hard - but that might not extend to hardware, and not because they don't have the juice or the megahurtz to handle it. Creative Labs has commented that Vista might not work for legacy titles that use its Sound Blaster Xi-Fi cards because, well, techno-jumbo:

The result of Microsoft’s removal of the hardware audio abstraction layer for Vista will confuse many gamers. Many people who have experimented with popular legacy games on the Vista beta release have been unable to experience multi-channel audio, with Creative and other sound cards, and even with motherboard audio. This is not something that a driver update can fix.

Hence, Creative is testing ALchemy - a free app that will bridge legacy audio with Windows Vista. It will convert the EAX or DirectSound 3D calls of these games into the OpenAL calls used by Vista, promising the same sound you've come to expect from the game as though it still were on XP. Hey, Fel Reavers are meant to be heard and not seen, after all - how 'ya supposed to run away from them if you can't hear them, and if you see them, it's too late?

The Via link below takes you to where you can download a beta version of ALchemy.