Hackers took over Comcast Corp.’s Web portal for several hours overnight, denying 14.1 million subscribers access to the cable company’s site for e-mail, news and technical support.

The front page of Comcast.net went down shortly before 11 p.m. EDT Wednesday and was replaced with a note saying the hackers had ”RoXed” Comcast, according to postings at BroadbandReports.com.

Comcast spokeswoman Jennifer Khoury said Thursday that the hijacking had been reversed in the morning, but that it was possible some users were still unable to access Comcast.net and Web-based e-mail.

There was no indication that e-mail or other private information was compromised by the attack, Comcast said. It didn’t stop customers from getting their e-mail through programs like Outlook.

The hackers appeared to have seized control of the Comcast.net domain name at registrar Network Solutions Inc. and redirected it to other servers, Khoury said.

”We have alerted law enforcement authorities and are working in conjunction with them,” Khoury said.

Subscription-based PC gaming service GameTap announced today that Ion Storm’s shooter-RPG hybrid Deus Ex (PC, PS2) will be available to play free of charge on the platform beginning next week.

Often regarded as one of the most influential shooters ever developed, Deus Ex blended first-person shooter gameplay with a branching, complicated storyline, upgradable stats and skills and extensive character interaction. A sequel, Deus Ex: Invisible War, was released in late 2003.

The title will be playable via the service’s free-to-download launcher program, which allows users to browse and download a variety of PC and emulated console games. Those players who don’t shell out the $9.95 per month for the “Gold”-level subscription can expect a 15 second video advertisement to air before each play.

In addition to Deus Ex, GameTap also offers Ion Storm’s Thief: Deadly Shadows and Doublefine’s Psychonauts among some 120 other titles in its free game roster.

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Funcom has released the sales figures for the long-awaited and well-received Age of Conan MMO, showing 400,000 copies sold since its release on May 20. Of those 400,000 copies sold, the North American market accounts for half of those figures.

The developer is claiming this release to be the highest amount of pre-orders ever for an original PC game. This combined with 2.2 million hits on the game’s website over the last week confirms what we already knew: people are excited for some Conan-themed MMO action.

It is expected that Centrino 2 will ship on July 14 thanks to problems with the new integrated graphics system and some misfiled paperwork with the FCC. Only some of the chipsets will ship on that early date and more will arrive over the following weeks, though Intel is still being quiet about any details at this point. We do know that starting models will ship with Intel’s a/b/g wireless thanks to that problem with the FCC and 802.11n WiFi will come slightly later down the road.

Perhaps the most interesting point to all this is that AMD’s new Puma notebook platform is on the way and if not for these problems Intel could have pushed up its time line to match the Puma release. This delay gives Puma a small windows in which it can get established and move some units. That noted, it won’t be too much of a boon to AMD as their current strategy is mainly aimed at mainstream buyers and Centrino 2 will be rolled out in a number of different segments.

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Word on the street is that Google just busted out a live demo of the oft-rumored HTC Dream doing its Android-flavored thing at the company’s I/O conference in San Francisco. Reports tell us that the device is a roughly 3-inch by 5-inch touchscreen phone with a slider keyboard. Not a lot is known right now, though apparently the device packs an accelerometer which allows you to tilt the unit to scroll across Google Maps or Street View.

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In 2002, when Electronic Arts signed a multimillion-dollar agreement with McDonald’s to place virtual burgers in an online version of its popular Sims video game, the move drew protests from players who resented the commercial intrusion.

But the Sims, a virtual family designed by players, are only becoming more brand-conscious. Starting in June, people who play The Sims 2, the current version of the game, will be able to buy a “stuff pack” (on a disc or online) that lets them decorate their simulated families’ homes with Ikea furniture. Last year a similar deal was made with H&M, the Swedish clothing retailer, that lets players buy a disc full of H&M-branded clothing for their Sims avatars.

While most other “stuff packs” contain generic accouterments — one called “Glamour Life,” for instance, lets players pick from label-free furnishings and evening gowns — the Ikea pack will let players move items like the Ektorp sofa and the Leksvik coffee table into their families’ virtual homes.

Electronic Arts, the world’s largest video game company, said it made the deal with Ikea, the Swedish furniture manufacturer, in response to requests in online players’ forums for more modern, realistic furniture.

“Because we have such a direct relationship with our players, the players help shape the product strategy,” said Nancy Smith, president of the Sims label, which has sold more than 100 million copies.

The deal is yet another example of how the traditional lines between paid-for content and marketing material are blurring in the media world. Companies that sell products and services are increasingly eager to place their wares inside television shows and other media rather than relying on stand-alone commercials. Media companies like Electronic Arts, meanwhile, are looking to sponsorship deals to help recoup the growing cost of developing games.

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Yahoo today announced that it has filed a lawsuit against “lottery” spammers, a group of unknown individuals who have been scamming people into thinking they had won some kind of prize or lottery winnings from Yahoo. The Internet giant may very well not see a settlement or even the defendants themselves anytime soon, but that isn’t stopping the company from trying.

Yahoo’s lawsuit was reportedly filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York in New York City, under the Federal Trademark Act, the Federal CAN-SPAM Act, and related state laws. The suit “alleges that without permission or authorization, and with full knowledge and notice of Yahoo!’s trademark rights, the spammers willfully masqueraded as Yahoo!, and sent e-mails claiming that the recipient had won a lottery, prize or other award from Yahoo!.” Yahoo neither runs these kinds of contests or lotteries, nor does it hand out these kinds of awards.

The phishing e-mails, if you’re one of the fortunate few to have never seen one, attempt to trick their recipients into handing over personal data like passwords, credit card information, and Social Security numbers. Sometimes this information is used to forge documents or gain access to bank accounts, while some winners were duped into paying hefty shipping and processing fees for their prizes.

As Yahoo runs the most popular webmail service with reportedly 260 million users worldwide, the company touts the fact that it blocks more than a mind-bogging one billion spam and phishing messages each day.

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