Linden Lab has come out with the newest Release Candidate for Second Life with 1.19.0. This new version features a host of bug and security issue fixes as well as reverts back to the same XUI-based login code in the previous version. You can check out the rather extensive changelog of the game in the full article.

PLAYXPERT, a provider of in-game community management tools, has announced a new EverQuest 2 widget that will "provide Sony Online Entertainment's EverQuest 2 players a more complete online gaming experience".

The widget will let players get guild information, item information, and character details right from within the game through PLAYXPERT's semi-transparent in-game overlay technology. The new widget will also be accompanied by standard PLAYXPERT widgets such as a universal chat widget and a Tunes widget that allows users to manage their music in-game.

"PLAYXPERT offers something for all EverQuest 2 players," said SOE president John Smedley. "Providing in-game access to character data, item data, leader boards, and guild stats is fantastic. We're excited to see third parties such as PLAYXPERT delivering this exciting new kind of UI mod."

The new PLAYXPERT widget will debut at the SOE Fan Faire in Las Vegas.

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.