Daily News - 24th December 2011 - Rift Hacked, 3DS Ambassador Games Updated and Old Republic Starts Off Strong

Rift Players' Account Information Stolen

Bad news for Trion Worlds today, as they dicovered their account database has been maliciously hacked. The hackers got away with your date of birth, name, password etc., but the MMO developer don't think they have your credit card info:

"There is no evidence, and we have no reason to believe, that full credit card information was accessed or compromised in any way. The database in question contained information including user names, encrypted passwords, dates of birth, email addresses, billing addresses, and the first and last four digits and expiration dates of customer credit cards. We have already taken further action to strengthen our systems, even as we, with external security experts, continue to research the extent of the unauthorized access."

It's important to note that the account database also hold info from anyone who was in the game's open beta, so if you've had any interaction with Rift at all, you may want to consider a fresh password for any games that you use the same password for. Merry Christmas indeed.

The game got some good buzz about it at luanch, I hope they recover strongly from this

3DS Ambassador NES Games Gain New Features

Us 3DS Ambassadors were promised quite a few things as part of the Ambassadors program, so long as it came with the understanding that fulfilling those promises will take a while. Well, Nintendo are nothing if not honest, as we're finally starting to see them roll out these updates to our free NES games. The update adds virtual manuals, better home screen icons and, most importantly, the ability to make, and then load up, restore points whilst playing. That means you won't have to play through the entire Legend Of Zelda or Metroid in one go, which actually makes them a much more attractive time-wasting propsect.

A better way to enjoy the classics is always welcome

Star War: The Old Republic Already Doing Well With 1 Million Players

The Old Republic was never going to be a guaranteed hit, with much of the pre-release talk being negative, but the demand for a Star Wars MMO is obviously high enough, with 1 million players already clocking in an impressive 28 million hours and killing over 2 billion NPCs. The game may not be perfect (apparently the server queues are horrendous right now) but I'm glad to see it's had a nice, strong start. Also, fans of Star Wars Galaxies, the older Star Wars MMO whose servers shut down a week or so ago, may be interested to read the Star Wars Galaxies Memory Book, an free online book chronicling the game from it's release in 2003.

Star Wars Galaxies - Free "Memory Book"

I'd try the game out, but Star Trek Online goes free in a month... so yeah.