The Mole: WoW

Here's the latest news in the world of gaming.

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No surprise here - Blizzard announced that they sold 2.4 million copies of "Burning Crusade" worldwide within 24 hours of its release, 1.2 million of those in North America. Pretty sweet numbers for an expansion.

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Closed but not completely - Bungie has announced its first round of Halo 3 beta registrations is now over. If you haven't received an email confirmation already, you might want to try one of Bungie's other two ways to sign up.

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The Rule of Three program is open to players 17 and older in the United States and Canada who have access to an Xbox 360 with hard drive, an Xbox Live gold subscription and a copy of Halo 2. Participants are required to play three hours of Halo 2 multiplayer online during the period beginning Feb. 1 at 12:01 a.m. EST and ending Feb. 3 at 11:59 p.m. EST.

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After that time is over, the first 13,333 players who have met the requirements and registered at http://www.halo3.com/ will be invited to participate in the Halo 3 beta test.
Finally, invites will be included in specially marked boxes of the upcoming Xbox 360 title Crackdown when it’s released Feb. 20. The disc itself will serve as a key to join the beta when it becomes available this spring. Registration is limited to one beta invite per person and gamertag.

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Gears on the PC? - Could "Gears of War", one of the 360's most popular games, be coming to the PC? Check out this quote from Epic VP Mark Rein in a recent interview with Game Informer:

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"We’ve always said that at some point, Gears would come to PC, or could come to PC. We demoed it. The first year at E3 we demoed it, it was on a PC. It’s not a question of if it can run, it’s a question of when’s the right time, and when do we have the right people to do it and is it the right platform for it? So there’s no final decision on that yet. Right now, it’s an Xbox 360 exclusive. If you want to play Gears, go buy a 360."

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Okay, so Epic's awesome game could come to the PC. At least its a possibility.

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And the winner is... - Last week the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (ooh, sounds posh) announced its nominees for the 10th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards. I had no idea that there even were Interactive Achievement Awards, let alone that there have been 10 of them but below is a list of nominees anyway. While I'm all about giving game creators the recognition they deserve, there are a ton of categories. Is this really necessary? It'll take about 2 days to hand all these awards out. When you have a category called "Game Most Likely to Destroy Your Marriage", you know you have too many categories. Lets not turn this into the Academy Awards. Anyway, winners will be announced February 8th.

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Overall Game Of The Year: Gears Of War, Wii Sports, The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Guitar Hero 2, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

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Computer Game Of The Year: Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Company Of Heroes, Battlefield 2142, Prey, Age of Empires III: The Warchiefs

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Console Game Of The Year: Gears Of War, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Wii Sports, Guitar Hero 2, Viva Pinata

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Outstanding Innovation in Gaming: Wii Sports, Nintendo Brain Age, Gears Of War, Viva Pinata, LocoRoco

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Outstanding Achievement in Animation: Gears Of War, Daxter, Lego Star Wars II, Rayman Raving Rabbids, Fight Night Round 3

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Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction: Gears Of War, Final Fantasy XII, Call Of Duty 3, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas,Viva Pinata

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Outstanding Achievement in Soundtrack: Guitar Hero 2, SingStar Rocks!, FIFA '07, Marc Ecko's Getting Up, Scarface

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Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition: Call of Duty 3, LocoRoco, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent, Black

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Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design: Call of Duty 3, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent, Company of Heroes

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Outstanding Character Performance - Male: Gears of War, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent, Bully, Lego Star Wars II, Daxter

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Outstanding Character Performance - Female: Saints Row, Desperate Housewives, Viva Pinata, Bully, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

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Outstanding Achievement in Story and Character Development: Sam & Max Episode 1: Culture Shock, Saints Row, 24: The Game, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Dreamfall: The Longest Journey

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Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering: Wii Sports, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Gears Of War, Company of Heroes

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Outstanding Achievement in Online Game Play: Call of Duty 3, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, Gears of War, Chromehounds, Battlefield 2142

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Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering:Viva Pinata, Resistance: Fall of Man, Gears Of War, Call of Duty 3, Company of Heroes

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Outstanding Achievement in Game Design: Wii Sports, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Company of Heroes, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Nintendo Brain Age

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Sports Game Of The Year: Tony Hawk's Project 8, MLB '06: The Show, NBA 2K7, FIFA '07, NBA '07

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Strategy Game Of The Year: Company of Heroes, Star Wars: Empire at War, Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-earth II, Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends, Medieval II: Total War

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First Person Action Game of the Year: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas, Resistance: Fall of Man, Prey, Half-Life 2: Episode 1, Black

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Fighting Game of the Year: Fight Night Round 3, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, WWE Smackdown VS RAW 2006, Tekken: Dark Resurrection

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Racing Game Of The Year: Test Drive Unlimited, Burnout Revenge, Excite Truck, Full Auto 2: Battlelines, Need For Speed: Carbon

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Role Playing Game of the Year: Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Final Fantasy XII, Final Fantasy III DS, Titan Quest, Phantasy Star Universe

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Children's Game of the Year: LocoRoco, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team Disney's Kim Possible: What's the Switch, Over the Hedge, Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning

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Action/Adventure Game of the Year: Gears of War, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent, Saints Row, Daxter

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Handheld Game of the Year: LocoRoco, Elite Beat Agents, New Super Mario Bros., Nintendo Brain Age, Lego Star Wars II

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Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year: Eve Online: Revelations, Guild Wars: Nightfall, Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach, Auto Assault

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Family Game of the Year: Rayman Raving Rabbids, Viva Pinata, Guitar Hero 2, Lego Star Wars II, Nintendo Brain Age

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Simulation Game of the Year: Microsoft Flight Simulator X, Sid Meier's Railroads!, Tourist Trophy

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Downloadable Game of the Year: Mystery Case Files: Prime Suspects, Virtual Villagers: A New Home, Diner Dash: Flow on the Go, Bookworm Adventures, Plantasia

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Mobile Game of the Year: Orcs & Elves, Tropical Madness, Duckshot, Brothers in Arms 3D

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terry.terrones@gazette.com