Link: http://www.blizzcon.com

Why do I feel like this might be old news to most readers? Maybe because it seems to me that Blizzard fans personify "fanatics" more than others. But down to the news.

Blizzard announced that the fourth Blizzcon gaming convention, Blizzcon 2009 will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California on Friday, August 21 and Saturday, August 22. The convention will be expanded from three convention halls to four.

The website http://www.blizzcon.com hasn't been updated yet, but fans will be able to find out more about ticket pricing and availability as the event draws near.

While I was still traveling back from E3, news of the Mythos beta going on hiatus for an unspecified period of time. This was announced on their Website.

This came just a few days after a press release from Flagship Studios that they were still open! This had impact of course, on their currently running MMOG, Hellgate London.

San Francisco, CA (July 14, 2008) -- Flagship Studios has announced today that despite rumors to the contrary, the company is still operating.

“It is with deep regret that I must announce that Flagship Studios has laid off most employees. However, the core management and founding team members are still at Flagship.” said Bill Roper, CEO of Flagship Studios. “The past five years have been an incredible experience for us, but unfortunately, we couldn’t sustain the size of the company any longer.”

Flagship Studios owns the rights to all its technology and IP, including Hellgate: London and Mythos. Due to the current situation, Flagship will not be taking any new subscribers for Hellgate: London, and all current subscriptions will not be billed.

Hmm... I figured out resident Age of Conan expert (fanboi) would have been all over this. Funcom announced this morning that they will be partnering with GameSpot to play AoC - specifically to test their PvP functionality.

Details Here on the FunCom Site.

In a highly exclusive event, 15,000 gamers from across the world can log in and play Age of Conan, non-stop, from Friday April 18th to Sunday April 20th.

To make the weekend even more interesting Eidos and Funcom also includes the engaging Age of Conan character creation system, allowing players to create avatars with strong personalities. All 12 classes in the game, including the barbarian, can be picked and tested, with Funcom transforming each character into a fully specced level 20 death machine. In PvP lobbies players can then chat and socialize, prior to entering PvP matches. Participants are urged to test different classes, and offer any feedback on the forums. There will also be forums on GameSpot.com where people can talk about the event, and Funcom staff will be present to gather feedback.

You have to be a registered GameSpot member of course... but here's the link where you can sign up: http://www.gamespot.com/test/ageofconan/

Have fun and tell us all about it!

Link: http://www.hellokittyonline.com/

Yes, it's true. Hello Kitty Online has opened Sanrio Town for Closed Beta sign ups.

It's cute overload!

It's Bat Mitzvah time for Music in Games (in the USA anyway). It's come in to itself. One of the most under-stated, neglected aspects of games has been sound and music. However, with games leaping into the consciousness of mainstream entertainment, developers are paying more attention to and putting more resources into sound and music in games.

EverQuestII dug into their parent's movie pockets and hired Emmy award winning composer Laura Karpman who scores the music and works with the Prague Symphony Orchestra to record the music.

Play! A Video Game Symphony certainly helped stick an oar into the snobby upper-crust. Oy! Look! Symphony orchestras are play themes and music from *gasp* computer games!

I'm talking main-stream of course. Not the onesies, that's popped up here and there over the years in the US. This Wikipedia article talks about game music outside of video games. Hmm... needs to be updated. But I digress. I'm not often impressed by the music in video games but the music from two games stand out in my mind currently.

Pirates of the Burning Sea - I heard the music broadcast over the loudspeaker system at Talk Like a Pirate Day. I've also received the CD of music that's in the Pre-Order. There's some beautifully scored music. Unfortunately, it's been processed for a video game - i.e. ambient music. There's no image for one.

Halo3. I've heard the music when playing the game and the 2-CD set of music will be released in late November. I may have to pick that up to have a listen and see if it's recorded in a way to recommend to my audiophile club.