Rappelz, a free-to-play MMO developed in South Korea, is getting a face lift to bring it into line with the Middle-east's Islamic sensibilities, according to website TechRadar.

[Dubai publisher] Game Power 7... has made a few adjustments to Gala's role-player Rappelz to make it supposedly more appealing to customers in Islamic countries...

 

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Comedy troupe LoadingReadyRun has launched its second annual Desert Bus for Hope charity drive.

The gimmick here is that LRR members control the annoyingly monotonous Desert Bus simulator continuously as long as their mostly gamer audience continues to make donations.

A live stream shows the "drivers" at work (see pic). The game is reportedly part of the never-released Penn & Teller's Smoke & Mirrors, originally intended for the Sega CD system.

As a bonus, none other than actor Wil Wheaton (he's an ECA member!) will be checking in with the Desert Bus crew later today.

Online portal Newgrounds is a favorite of gamers as well as an occasional target of criticism over its hosting of controversial games.

The site, coincidentally, is located not far from the GamePolitics command bunker. GP's local rag, The Intelligencer, profiles Newgrounds founder Tom Fulp in today's edition.

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Black Friday kicked off the holiday shopping season and, for third straight year, Nintendo's Wii console remains a smoking hot gift choice, according to PriceGrabber.com.

The well-trafficked price comparision site lists top products searched for by consumers. Its most recent results, which include Black Friday data, show the Wii at #1 and the Wii Fit exercise board/game at #4.

Despite recent economic conditions, a press release cites an 11% uptick in Black Friday traffic at PriceGrabber over 2007's numbers. Pointing to sales driven by retailer discounts, PriceGrabber Ron LaPierre remarked:

Louisiana game publisher Nerjyzed Game Studios is readying the launch of an Xbox 360 version of its Black College Football Experience game, reports The Advocate. The release of BCFx will mark the first-ever publication of a console game by an African-American owned studio.

A national ad campaign for Black College Football Experience will kick off today during the Bayou Classic as Southern University and Grambling square off in their 35th gridiron tilt. BCFx debuted last year on the PC. Of today's launch, Nerjyzed CEO Jacqueline Beauchamp commented:

Some gamers have been burned by bootleg games unwittingly purchased on Ebay, warns Aeropause.

Writer Stephen Munn reports a recent scam to which he fell victim:

I was thinking about that Harmony of Dissonance cartridge that failed on me not so long ago, and how strange it was to open the thing up and find the battery soldered to the board. I only had a very passing understanding of what a bootleg GBA cartridge looks like at the time... A failed battery is a common sign of a bootleg game, but there are more specific ways to tell while the game is still working. Unfortunately, these things don’t tend to leap out at you in an auction listing, but there are a few things that are a clear tipoff that something’s not right.

Say it ain't so, Houser Bros.

IGN reports that the upcoming PC flavor of Grand Theft Auto IV will install the dreaded SecuROM 7 copy protection on gamers' computers.

On an up note, however, the number of times that the game can be installed will not be subject to a limit. GamePolitics readers will recall that EA's much-awaited Spore came with a three-install limit. At least, it did until a gamer revolt prompted EA to relax the resrtiction.

Regarding GTA IV's SecuROM, an unnamed Rockstar spokesperson told IGN: