As if the opportunity to play Wrath of the Lich King and StarCraft 2 wasn't enough, Blizzard is giving us not one, but two more reasons to go to the 2008 Worldwide Invitiational: Video Games Live and Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain. Details in the full article.

PLAYXPERT announced in an official press release that their new line of in-game "widgets," uncannily named PLAYXPERT (oh the horror!), for the avid PC LAN and MMO gamer. These little management tools sit inside your game, offering a semi-transparent feature so that they don't obscure your field of view, but still allow you to view content streamed right through.

 

The universal instant messaging and chat system (with VoIP support) is compatible with Xfire, Yahoo!, AOL, ICQ, and MSN engines for IMing or chatting. But the PLAYXPERT platform is especially helpful for World of Warcraft players, since the initial release will come with special features for the successful Blizzard MMORPG. Future support for other popular games will soon be supported through add-on releases to the platform.

Other widgets include the Armory widget, Thottbot Widget, WoWWiki widget, and a WoWhead widget. A Google widget will also be provided so that any game can find key information online without having to ALT-TAB out of the game and launch a browser. Utilizing an in-game overlay technology, the widgets actually are rendered through DirectX (with OpenGL support coming soon) and not through the Windows GUI.

Aimed specifically for the techie, geeky and even hardware enthusiast gamers, other future widgets will include real-time hardware diagnostics. Game stat tracking, clan and team management, in-game music access along with other additional community features are also slated to come soon.

And of course, budding coders can even add their own widgets to the platform without having to tackle the difficulties in coding overlay engines. PLAYXPERT has already published a full application programming interface (API) for the platform so widget coders can get started on their own custom additions to their gameplay experiences.

While we so love to follow and report on the developments concerning consoles and handhelds (and science and technology), MMO stuff also make us go ga-ga from time to time. Like this one for example - LucasArts and Sony Online Entertainment releases Star Wars Galaxies: The Complete Online Adventures today to North American gamers for US$ 29.99.

When they said complete, they actually meant that every (okay, almost every) Star Wars title was included - Galaxies: An Empire Divided, expansions Jump to Lightspeed, Rage of the Wookiees and Trials of Obi-Wan. Aside from those mentioned, the package also includes a special bonus DVD with contents:

• A slide show of Star Wars Galaxies screenshots and never-before-seen concept art, all set to beautifully orchestrated in-game music
• Interviews with Star Wars Galaxies production staff, detailing the incredible art, characters and inside stories of the making of the game
• Excerpts from the popular "From Pencil to Pixel" book that chronicles the art of Star Wars Galaxies
• In-game movie featurettes produced by Star Wars Galaxies fans
• Cinematic trailers and commercial television ads produced for Star Wars Galaxies
• A demo of the popular PC strategy game Star Wars: Empire at War

Furthermore and consistent with how they do it in home TV shopping channels, "that's not all!" All players who install the Complete Online Adventures will get in-game item AT-RT vehicle as well as a series of game updates that are scheduled to be released throughout the remainder of 2006 and into 2007.

... Well, at least that's what the organizers of the Leipzig Games Convention are expecting. Just in case you haven't heard of it, it's going to be held in Leipzig, Germany from August 24 to 27.

Last year, around 134,000 visitors came to attend the convention, and organizers are expecting roughly the same number of attendees or more, as 367 exhibitors (that's a lot!) have already signed up for the videogames expo.

The Games Convention will also have other activities aside from the main expo; these'll include a Gladiator Fight, sports on the karting trach and on the halfpipe, and a concert.

A bit more about the concert for ya - it'll feature game music and will be held in Leipzig's Gewandhaus on the 23rd. It's bound tp be exciting because music from games such as Two Worlds, Castlevania, Revenge of the Shinobi, Anno 1707 and Final Fantasy will be included in the concert. Unfortunately, tickets for the concert have already sold out...

We'll be bringing you the final list of the exhibitors at the Games Convention once the complete list has been released. Any of you folks going?

So, you sit there playing World of Warcraft without really ever giving thought to the music playing in the background. It rarely occurs to us to stop and listen to the music, and wonder, "how much time went into making this soundtrack?" Well, German site working-title.de has conducted an interview with the lead composer of the World of Warcraft soundtrack to answer, among other things, that age old question... What came first, the music or the game? Check out the full interview at the link below.

Hi Jason! What effects do you intend to achieve with your music on the players?

It is my hope to give the games some kind of emotional context - to make the player feel something, and get him/her emotionally invested in the experience. In the case of the cinematic trailers and cut-scenes, I try to help tell the story and convey its dramatic impact. When it comes to in-game music for a game like World of Warcraft, my hope is to develop a sense of depth and richness, to help create a compelling aesthetic environment that people will want to linger in and explore.