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It seems the World of Warcraft franchise is just unstoppable and the public can’t get enough of it. At least that’s what NPD’s latest PC sales chart says.

As it turns out the online RPG came in first place while it’s expansion pack, “The Burning Crusade” came in second. What’s even more amazing is that the Warcraft franchise sold more copies than the next five runners up put together.


The Sim’s 2 expansion pack came in third place with over 50.000 sold copies, while Supreme Commander the successful RTS from Gas Powered Games took fourth place with over 40.000 sold copies in the first eight days.

Sony Computer Entertainment announced that it has joined Stanford University in it’s quest to find the cure of diseases like Parkinson’s, Alhzimer’s, cystic fibrosis and many cancers.

The PlayStation 3 will be able to connect to Stanford’s Folding@Home program, a computer project aimed at understanding protein folding, misfolding and related diseases. The pocess of protein folding is very complex and computer simulations are needed to study the process, but to simulate this process on a single computer could take up to 30 years, so a computer network is needed to shorten this activity . And since the PlayStation 3 Cell processor is about 10 times faster than a standard PC processor, the researchers could speed things up even more.

With the latest software updates PlayStation 3 users will be able to join the program by clicking the Folding@Home icon or set the application to run automatically while the machine is idle

Sony Computer Entertainment also declared that this is only the beginning as they intend to support other academic fields such as social sciences and environmental studies.

If you are an RPG enthusiast and the name Gothic doesn't tell you anything then… you’re not an RPG enthusiast.

This game is a classic of the genre and the first game in the series can truly be considered a pioneer in many ways. So considering the success of the first two games it's only natural that the producers decided to release a third one. But…does Gothic 3 have what it takes? Let's find out.

The 3rd installment in the RPG series lets you play as the same nameless hero from the first two games. After vanquishing all kinds of foes (from orcs and goblins to trolls and even ghosts) on the prison island he had been exiled to, in Gothic 3 our hero arrives on the mainland where the human kingdom is enslaved and oppressed by the bloodthirsty orcs.

Those of you who took the time and played any of the Gothic games surely appreciated at least the length of the game, its complexity and the beautiful open-ended world ready for you to explore. So after this long wait you were probably expecting a really good game. And I think that if you’re able to overlook some technical problems most of you won’t be disappointed.

The graphics are absolutely wonderful provided you have a powerful enough graphics card, the sounds are also very impressive and the voice acting isn’t bad (the hero’s voice finally got a little tougher, yey!) and even the gameplay improved a bit (Gothic 3 has all the previous’ games strongpoints, like all those special side missions and the useful activities, but also a much better combat system, for example now one click means one swing of the sword, which really makes combat a lot simpler.

The story in Gothic 3 picks up where Gothic 2 left off and it contains a lot of the characters and artifacts from the first two installments so you might think it will probably be better understood and appreciated by Gothic fans…buuut it’s so well built and so interesting that in the end it will surely appeal to everyone.

Unfortunately Gothic 3 also has some defects mostly due to its technical issues .For example in some missions you have to escort some characters and most of the time they either get stuck on solid objects or have problems finding their way. Also unless you have a powerful system (at least a 256 ram graphics card and 1,5Gb of ram) you’ll encounter difficulties every time a new area opens up. It’s a damn shame too, that such a great interactive game be set back by avoidable technical problems but that’s just how it is.

In conclusion Gothic 3 can be considered one of the greatest games of the RPG genre and I really recommend you give it a try, I guarantee you’ll grow to love it, But only if you have a strong enough machine to spare you all the technical issues frustration.