World of Warcraft

Some may have doubted Mr. T's overwhelming hacker skills, but it looks like he's finally put all naysayers to rest and changed the face of World of Warcraft. Introducing, the Mohawk Grenade. It's an in-game item that can be hurled at other players to give them a "T-riffic haircut." Mohawk Grenades can be claimed from any Night Elf Mohawk NPC camped outside every starting zone. How long will these grenades be available? Until the Night Elf Mohawks decide that their work is done and move on...

Download HD World of Warcraft Mr. T 'Mohawk Grenade' Commercial (29 MB)

Not too many retail stores have PC games on sale during Black Friday but an exception is Best Buy. Their full Black Friday 2010 newspaper ad for the biggest shopping day of the year (that's November 27 in case you didn't know) has been posted on the bfads.net web site and it shows quite a number of PC game titles on sale for just $4.99 each.

Most of these games are older of course and many of you reading this might already own some of them but for $4.99 they do make great holiday gifts for you non-PC gaming friends. Here's the full list:

World of Warcraft
Far Cry 2
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl
Assassin's Creed
Civilization IV
Bioshock
Hoyle Slots (yeah, that one threw us too).

Blizzard fans who had hoped to be rolling sevens and pulling on some one armed bandits in Las Vegas next year during BlizzCon can now hold off. Our sister site Wow.com is now reporting that their previous story of BlizzCon 2010 being held in Vegas in late July isn't happening after all.

The Las Vegas Convention Center's web site did indeed show that Blizzard's annual fan event was booked for their venue for July 30 and 31. However the venue's reps have now admitted that due to human error, they had listed the convention on the site when in fact no such confirmation had been made.

Interestingly the convention center rep did say they had one conversation with Blizzard about having BlizzCon come to their venue which may indicate that Blizzard might still move BlizzCon away from Anaheim, California to a new location for the 2010 event. Of course we will post up any BlizzCon news when it happens.

Last August at BlizzCon, Blizzard VP Paul Sams hinted that they might be changing the venue for future versions of their (sort of) annual fan convention. Since its start the event has been held at the Anaheim Convention Center (close to Blizzard's own headquarters) but the 2009 edition made it clear that the venue was close to its limits in terms of holding its over 26,000 attendees.

Now our sister site WoW.com has learned that the Las Vegas Convention Center has a new listing on their calendar . . . for BlizzCon 2010. According to them the show will be held at their venue in Vegas on July 30 and 31. So far Blizzard has yet to admit that they have made such a change, telling WoW.com that they are asking people to refrain from making any travel plans. However if it turns out to be true (and that's likely) it looks like Blizzard will be able to allow even more people to attend than in the past. The Las Vegas Convention Center is the home to tons of conventions every year including the largest trade show in the US, the Consumer Electronics Show, which has well over 100,000 attendees.

Update: WoW.com has updated their story with word that Blizzard is now flat out denying that BlizzCon 2010 will be held in Las Vegas even as the Las Vegas Convention Center's web site continues to show otherwise.

Since its release in 2004, Blizzard's MMO World of Warcraft has stayed on the monthly subscription business model for the most part. While Blizzard does charge its players extra for things like faction or race changes in their characters, they have not gone into the business of selling in-game items for real money as other MMOs have done.

That may finally be changing, however, as Blizzard has now introduced a way to buy in-game pets for your World of Warcraft character via Blizzard's online store. Currently only two pets are available for $10 each; Lil' K.T. and Pandaren Monk (shown to the right) Blizzard has also announced that from now until December 31, half of the proceeds from the purchase of the latter character will go to the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

[Via Wow.com]

After weeks of waiting, Blizzard's MMO World of Warcraft finally came back online in mid-September in China after reported issues with that country's government kept the transition to a new provider, NetEase, from, moving as planned. Now our sister site WoW.com reports that there could be problems in China yet again.

According to the article, China's General Administration of Press and Publications have ordered NetEase to suspend taking new accounts and stop taking money from current subscribers. This is apparently at odds with another government entity, the Ministry of Culture, who have called their fellow government division's action's "not appropriate." Sounds like the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.

It's been highly anticipated for months but now players in World of Warcraft can have the ultimate change. This week developer Blizzard revealed that players can now change the race of their already existing character while still stayin in their faction (Alliance or Horde for you non-World of Warcraft players . . . all two of you).

The game's offiical web site has an extensive FAQ about the new service which is separate from the developer's faction change service which lets player's change from Alliance to Horde and vice-versa. Like that feature, the race change service isn't free; you will have to pony up $25 for each character race shift. Hey, it's still cheaper than most medical charges in the real world.

It's been a little while since we have seen any lists from the NPD Group on retail PC game sales. The organization decided to no longer release their weekly top 10 PC game sales lists to the media but today they did release their top 20 best selling PC games for the month of September in retail stores.

It's not a shock to learn that NCsoft's fantasy MMO Aion was the number one best selling PC game for the month as it was already selling well in pre-orders online. The Collectors Edition made it to number four for the month. EA's The Sims 3 continues to do well in the number two slot while Cryptic Studios' super hero MMO Champions Online made a strong debut at number 3. Blizzard's MMO expansion World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King made it at number four.

One interesting note before we get to the list itself. Phantom EFX has two of their popular casino PC games in the top 20 list but their hardcore PC FPS Darkest of Days, released in September, failed to make the top 20.

1. Aion - NCsoft
2. The Sims 3 - Electronic Arts
3. Champions Online - Cryptic Studios/Atari
4. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King - Blizzard
5. Aion Collector's Edition - NCsoft
6. Mumbo Jumbo Assortment - Mumbo Jumbo
7. The Sims 3 Double Deluxe - Electronic Arts
8. World of Warcraft Battle Chest - Blizzard
9. Real Deal Slots Treasures of the Far East - Phantom EFX
10. World of Warcraft - Blizzard
11. Spore - Electronic Arts
12. Grand Theft Auto IV - Rockstar Games
13. StarCraft: Battle Chest - Blizzard
14. Zuma's Revenge - Popcap Games
15. World of Warcraft: the Burning Crusade - Blizzard
16. Batman: Arkham Asylum - Rocksteady/Eidos
17. Real Deal Slots Adventure - Phantom EFX
18. Nancy Drew: Ransom of the Seven Seas - Her Interactive
19. Civilization IV: The Compete Edition - Firaxis/2K Games
20. The Sims 2 University Life Collection - Electronic Arts

A while back we mentioned that DC Comics' Wildstorm division was going to end their current World of Warcraft monthly comic book series and then start again with not one but two new series, one for the Alliance faction in Blizzard's hit MMO and the other for the Horde. This week, via Comic Book Resources, we now have more info on both of the new World of Warcraft comic book series.

The all new Horde comic (you can see the cover for the first issue to the right) is written by Doug Murray and drawn by Pop Mhan. The Alliance-based comic retains the original World of Warcraft issue numbering (hence World of Warcraft: Alliance 26). It will be written by Mike Costa and drawn by Neil Googe. Both issues will go on sale in January.

You may remember that former game journalist and current big time Hollywood screenwriter Gary Whitta admitted publicly that he had worked on drafts for the upcoming World of Warcraft movie for two years. That ended when Sam Raimi was named as the director of the adaptation of Blizzard's hit MMO game.

Now MTV News is reporting that the new screenwriter has been revealed. According to an interview with Raimi he stated that Robert Rodat, who has credits including Saving Private Ryan, is now writing the script for the adaptation. Raimi also stated the movie will be an original story and not really based on specific World of Warcraft storylines. Raimi is scheduled to begin production of the movie after his work on Spider-Man 4 is completed.

You may remember a while ago that the wonky Australian game ratings system allowed MMO titles like World of Warcraft to be sold in stores in that country, even though the ratings system never assigned such games with a rating. Normally such a situation would have banned a game from being sold. Now GameSpot is reporting that has changed for World of Warcraft and its two expansion pack as they have all received an "M" rating with an extra note saying "online content variable."

The game's publisher Blizzard stated that they have been trying to get the game rated in Australia since World of Warcraft's release in 2004 and that "recent changes" in the ratings board have allowed such titles to receive a rating. However the Australian Classification Board isn't talking about those changes, saying only, "The Classification Board has been following developments in online gaming."

The documentary film Second Skin, Directed by Juan Carlos Pineiro Escoriaza, examines the different aspects of the MMORPG's (Massively Multiplayer Role-Playing Games) phenomenal popularity, the culture that has grown around them and speaks to experts and developers about them. While the documentary has a tendency to fly in different directions in its attempt to cover every facet of gaming, it mainly focuses on three distinct stories. The first centers on a group of friends in Fort Wayne, Indiana who are dedicated World of Warcraft players; the second includes a budding romance between two EverQuest 2 players; and the last involves a man who hits rock bottom with his MMO addiction.

Title: Second Skin
Directed and Edited By: Juan Carlos Pineiro Escoriaza
Rated: Not Rated
Running Time: 94 Minutes
Year: 2008

Sports fans, and we are taking die-hard sports fans here, always seem to have an opinion on how they should be running things if they were in charge of a sports team. Well, one of the executives of Blizzard Entertainment has decided to take some of his vast earnings and dive into the world of professional sports ownership.

Or at least a small part of that ownership. As revealed last week on the weeb site of the Pittsburgh Steelers, there is a new collection of 10 owners for the NFL pro football team. That includes the Sams family which has Paul Sams, currently the COO of Blizzard, as part of the group (along with his wife Susan and their three children). It's currently unknown exactly how much of a share the Sams family owns and how much it's worth.

[Via Joystiq]

This patch updates World of Warcraft and its expansions to v3.2.2a and addresses some minor issues introduced in the v3.2.2 patch. Full patch notes can be found at the official website.

Download World of Warcraft v3.2.2a Patch [US] (8 MB)
Download World of Warcraft v3.2.2a Mac Patch [US] (4 MB)

This minor patch updates World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King from v3.2.0 to v3.2.2. It addresses a number of gameplay issues and fixes bugs. Full patch notes can be found at the official website.

Download World of Warcraft v3.2.0 to v3.2.2 Patch [US] (40 MB)
Download World of Warcraft v3.2.0 to v3.2.2 Patch Mac Patch [US] (37 MB)