For the "l33t" gamer, sometimes having a wicked PC setup is more important than the games you want to play on it. Ultraforce tries to appease The Chronicles of Spellborn fans by releasing a special edition customized PC in commemoration of the upcoming fantasy MMO title. You can take a look at the specs of the special edition PC in our full article after the jump.

Running behind on your intel, soldier? Well, you should know that NCsoft has released the Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa Weekend Wrapup for April 7. In this update, you can find more information on the latest contests and competitions in the various sectors of the known world. To find out more, activate your HUD and head on over to the full article.

If you've been yearning for more information on Funcom's upcoming MMORPG, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures for the PC and Xbox 360, well the new FAQ has just been released, including the game's specs, both required and recommended. Find out more of the things included in the FAQ in the full article.

While consoles are hard at work in vying for market share, PC gaming is only occasionally getting love, and AAA titles don't often come by. According to Dean Takahashi, top industry players are teaming up to counter this problem and keep the PC on top as the leading gaming platform. More details await at the full article.

Over the past year, more than US$ 1 billion have been pumped into 35 virtual worlds companies by venture capital, technology and media firms. This information comes from Virtual World Management, a leading media company that tracks the virtual worlds industry.

The biggest chunk of the US$1 billion came from Disney's acquisition of Club Penguin, an online game from New Horizon Interactive where kids take control of cartoon penguin avatars to waddle around, play minigames and chat with their friends. This acquisition cost Disney US$ 700 million.

Intel's US$ 110-million acquisition of 3D virtual worlds graphics technology company Havok made up the second-biggest part of the figure. A total of US$ 196.8 million came from investments in 33 different companies. Investors included Intel, Redpoint ventures, Disney, CBS and Time Warner.

Blizzard poster Hortus dropped by the World of Warcraft Forums earlier to announce that Voice Chat will be coming to the WoW Public Test Realm (PTR) on August 10... er - today.

Voice chat has come with the new PTR build and is currently available for parties, raids and custom channels only. Those who have been waiting for a cross-server battleground voice chat will have to wait a while. Hortus forewarns:

Please be aware, that this is a brand new feature and although it has been tested by Blizzard QA there are still many outstanding issues and we expect to find many more as we roll it out to a larger test group. Please be diligent in reporting bugs either via this forum or the in-game feedback tool, and be patient with us while we work out the kinks in this new system.

In order to facilitate additional testing, a second PVP server has been brought online, and the server population limits have been increased to lessen queues.

Hortus also provided an update that addressed a known issue in the new build. Apparently, the WoW voice chat doesn't work on PowerPC-based Macs but should work fine on Intel Macs. According to the poster, the PowerPC build problem should be resolved in an upcoming PTR update.

If you're good and ready, you should go on ahead to the PTR and check out the new voice chat. Some players have already noticed that the mic volume has to be cranked up and that the sound quality isn't all that hot. We've got to remember though that it is still on the PTR, and is therefore still under testing.

 

After a good Arena bout with MoB *Turtle Power* at World Series of Video Games China to win first prize, Team Pandemic takes a second victory at WSVG Kentucky for the US$ 10,500 prize money of the World of Warcraft PvP competitive leg. Included with their ten grand-prize is a US$ 3,000 travel wallet, which should cover just about everything else.

Next up in the Intel-sponsored WSVG is a classic Texan showdown in Dallas, this coming July 5, sporting another US$ 10,500 grand prize money (exclusive of travel wallet). Will Team Pandemic be up for a repeat performance and bring home the bacon for a third time in a row? Well it all depends on whether second placer Insurrection brings their game up to par or if the collective of MoB could say otherwise.

The World of Warcraft Final Standings at Louisville, Kentucky

1. [US] Team Pandemic - $10,500 + $3,000 travel
2. [US] Insurrection - $6,000 + $3,000 travel
3. [US] MoB Turtle Beach - $4,200 + $3,000 travel
4. [US] MoB TurtleForce - $2,400 + $3,000 travel
5. [US] Check-Six - $2,400
6. [US] 519 - $1,500
7. [US] Cute Baby Elephants - $1,500
8. [US] Evil Geniuses - $1,500

Tied at 9th place:

• [US] Cloak of Shadow word: Death Coil
• [US] Elitist Jerks
• [US] MoB *Turtle Power*
• [US] The One Shots

Tied at 10th place:

• [EU] Fnatic.WoW
• [US] Sapped Girls Can't Say No
• [US] Serenity Now
• [US] The Challenge

There's been talk of the upcoming E3 being downsized by the just-held Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2007. Reasons vary: this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo will be an invitation-only event, and the GDC saw a 32 percent rise of attendance.

We've all witnessed so much hype for this year's GDC, all with good reason. The GDC people worked hard to bring out a good show; GDC boss Jamil Moledina and his crew brought a good load of dealmaking, press conferences and industry parties to go around in the event.  It also helped that they were able to secure the interesting hands-on hardware workshops with Microsoft and Intel, as well as hotshot keynote speakers such as Shigeru Miyamoto, Phil Harrison and Cliff Bleszinkski.

Said GDC boss Moledina:

The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Our alumni attendees uniformly felt it was the best GDC they've attended in recent years, citing the high quality and relevance of sessions, while newcomers were saying it was the best event in the game industry where they made connections and deals with all the key people they now had access to.

More than 16,300 people and 260 exhibitors attended this year's GDC, seeing a rise of 30 and 32 percent, respectively. Everybody's expecting an even bigger attendance at next year's GDC, but as Moledina cites, it's not the size of the event, but the quality that matters. This may exactly be why the usual E3 people are moving to the GDC.

Hmmm, looks like someone was having second thoughts of considering these additional entries for the "Azeroth Exposed" contest. The total number of entries now rises up to 24 (let's see, that's 13 more or less left to go), although admittedly from entry 7 to 17, there's a huge gaping hole of at least 9 entries that haven't made the cut. mrmintel's own entries have also been noticeably removed from the official finalist list.

But lo and behold! GoRemy's "Warcraft: The Rap" and Myndflame's second entry "Druid Epic Flight Form" (although his first entry is missing) is now included in the top finalists! With no more than two days to go, your options for voting your favorite, hilarious World of Warcraft videos just got a whole lot broader. And even before we lead you to the official entry page, we're telling you, it's a lot more difficult to decide.

So we're just wondering how exactly the voting will go... can we vote on all our favorite ones or do we have to make a single choice and support the best in our books? That, we're afraid, will have to be revealed on April 1, 2007 when the voting starts. The entry list now stands at:

• Snacky's Journal - Episode 1 by wasteofaces
• Jimmy: The World of Warcraft Story by Rurikar
• Druid Epic Flight Form by Myndflame
• I am a Warrior! by dem0ndeath
• Warcraft: The Rap by GoRemy
• 10 Second Warlock by Xorco1
• My life in World of Warcraft by Chrisislikeagod
• The Murloc by Flurd70
• Unidentified by Triodin
  

Best one? It's a tough choice. But it looks like "Unidentified" by Triodin is a sure win, if Myndflame's latest entry can't garner enough votes. Ultimately, the fans will decide who'll get to grab the Intel Core 2 Extreme gaming PC from Intel, Blizzard and Youtube.

Finally, more than three entries can now be voted on at April Fool's Day (that's a Sunday folks!) and these two new entries follow up on Myndflame's approach to conjuring humor in World of Warcraft: telling interesting stories of avatars in-game. Not only do they fit the rules of the contest, they also look professionally polished.

As covered last time, there were reportedly 37 entries submitted (could be more now), although those suggested at the World of Warcraft Forums have yet to make an appearance on the finalists' list. So don't forget to reward these guys for making the cut and vote on your favorite video starting April 1 all the way up to April 15. Remember: the grand prize winner gets to take home an Intel Core 2 Extreme gaming PC.

But if you're looking to add your own entry, we've got bad news for you: the deadline for submissions have already passed. Still, you can enjoy these videos from wasteofaces and Rurikar (in that order).

Snacky's Journal - Episode 1

Click on Full Article to view the sixth entry for the World of Warcraft Youtube contest.