Santa Claus
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The Canadian AI that writes holiday chiptunes
Is there no industry safe from economic encroachment by automation and machine learning? A team from the University of Toronto have built a digital Irving Berlin that can generate Christmas carols from a single image.
Payday 2 'Charlie Santa' Heist DLC drops in time for the holidays
Payday 2 on Steam will receive a free bit of festive DLC on Monday, December 16. The free "Charlie Santa" Heist mission, which sees Payday 2's four crooks busting into a custom bank map, can go one of two ways: you can quickly hunt down the two key cards necessary to break into the vault, bag the cash and get out; or, if things go pear-shaped and you must drill into the vault, you can set up some lift cages on the roof and have your pilot swoop in and skyhook the packaged cash. The "Charlie Santa" Heist DLC also features some festive St. Nick masks for those who are part of the official Steam community group for the game, plus a new scope to unlock, courtesy of Gage the weapons dealer. Finally, there are some new achievements to unlock, including one where you have to neatly package four dead bodies and place them under the bank's Christmas tree. Nobody wants to unwrap that on Christmas morning!
Saints Row 4 DLC aims to save Santa from the simulation
Saints Row 4 developer Volition will drop some holiday-themed DLC on December 11. The "How the Saints Save Christmas" DLC pack sees Santa Claus trapped inside the Matrix-like simulation that is at the heart of Saints Row 4's campaign, and only the Saints can save him. But there's just one problem: the boss isn't fond of Christmas, despite the visible exuberance for the holiday demonstrated in the art above. The DLC will be available as part of the Season Pass or as a separate download for $6.99 on December 11. Check out the gallery below for more festive shots of the Saints and a snow-covered Steelport.
EVE Online's holiday celebration trailer is all over the naughty list
If you woke up this morning thinking to yourself, "Will today be the day that I see the strangest MMO trailer of my entire life," then we're happy to let you know that yes, yes it is. CCP wasn't just content to slap together a humdrum video highlighting the cool EVE Online snowball-slash-fireworks launcher that it's giving out to players this season; it decided to dial the crazy up to 11 and film the resulting mayhem. So once you hit the jump and watch this (and you will watch it), you'll be treated to such jolly activities such as Santa being incinerated, a charming fairy tale about a witch that eats kids, close-ups of a developer's slack jaw munching on masticated sausage, peeping toms, bleeped swears, and a snowball fight in space. Really, we have no words to sum it up. We best just give it to you and let you be the judge.
Best Buy 'Finding Santa' ad touts Apple products
Here's a cute holiday ad from Best Buy, featuring an assortment of Apple products being used by an enterprising young man trying to contact Santa Claus. A Siri search gives him Santa's location at the North Pole, a quick Internet search on a MacBook Pro shows that flying to the North Pole isn't exactly within his allowance budget and an email to Santa nets him an "out of office" message. Fortunately one of the helpful blue shirts at Best Buy reminds the kid of FaceTime ... and the rest is magic. Enjoy the video while you make your Cyber Monday purchases.
Google and NORAD's Santa tracker is another victory for terrorists
Google and NORAD should rethink their annual Santa tracking service. Do we really want the evil doers to know the exact whereabouts of Mr. Claus on Google Maps and Earth from any PC or smartphone? A man so old that he's ineligible for a driver's license in some states yet pilots a 353,000-ton missile around the globe at a rate of about 650 miles per second? For shame.
What does Santa want for Christmas? World of Tanks!
Boom boom boom. Boom boom boom. Boom boom boom ba-boom. Dashing through the shells, waging war today. O'er the fields we drive, blowing tanks away! HEY! It just wouldn't be Christmas without a little panzer turret action, right? Well, never fear. Christmas is finally here. Wargaming.net has given us a Yuletide trailer to fill your life with holiday cheer -- and canon fire, of course. Today, the company released a new World of Tanks teaser to whet your warring appetite. Wargaming.net CEO Victor Kislyi knows that Kris Kringle likes a little ka-boom with his jingle-jangle. "The first present I got from Santa was a tiny plastic T-34, so I'm pretty sure that he just loves tanks. In fact, we've got a letter from Lapland recently with him asking to film a Christmas of his dream. We didn't hesitate for long and have come up with something he will surely like," explains the gaming executive. To catch this explosive video, follow after the cut. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from World of Tanks!
Apple releases new Santa-themed iPhone 4 ad
Apple has posted a new holiday-themed iPhone ad titled "Under the Covers." In the ad, a mom nestles with her young son in bed while he uses FaceTime on the iPhone 4 to video chat with Santa. The mom leaves the room and the son hides under the covers, still talking to Santa. Cut to the mom entering a room where her husband is dressed up as the big red guy. The parents have apparently recreated Santa's workshop in the garage in order to fool the boy by using every bit of technology available to them. The ad features "The Christmas Song" by Nat King Cole. It's a heart warming spot, but personally I was hoping Apple would release a holiday iPhone ad featuring Krampus, Santa's Alpine-European demonic sidekick. Oh well, there's always next year.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Snowflake Festival
Jingle brother's time is here. Time for slaying. Time for cheer. Presents abound every Christmas in the Snowflake Festival, and I've been hoarding them like a squirrel. This is one of my favorite holidays, probably my favorite one in Runes of Magic. Not only are there lots of treats to get, but the quests are fun. I reminisced last week about the events held in RoM year-round, but I wanted to run through some of the things I've been doing in this year's festival. Despite some recent patching trouble, the holiday is up and running. There are new mounts, furniture, Christmas graphics and prizes galore to enjoy this year. If you've never played RoM during the Snowflake Festival -- or never took part in the quests -- this will serve as a fun guide and idea engine for what's in store for you. Get your space bar primed and ready for lots of jumping and read on past the break.
On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me: Vindictus, zebra stockings and giant spiders
It's not often that we in the Massively offices are just plain stumped, but today Nexon receives that rare badge of distinction. To usher in Vindictus' holiday event, Nexon has put together a 48-second video of pure insanity. It runs the gamut of snowball fights, mostly naked people wearing zebra underwear, giant spiders, pigs and one exhausted-looking Santa Claus. The festivities begin in Vindictus on Wednesday, December 15th and revolve around the battle with Laghodessa, a giant arachnid with a penchant for taking all the presents and drinking all of the egg nog. Nexon has asked the players to speculate about why their characters may have a vendetta against the plus-sized spider and for the players to send in their stories. Once players have defeated Laghodessa, they'll have the opportunity to craft a unique spider cloth armor set. Nexon's also throwing out a number of goodies, including free XP weekends, free boat trips and free potions for the taking. Head on over to Vindictus to read up on the event, or hit the jump and witness the holidays seen through the lens of the insane.
The Daily Grind: What do you want from Cyber-Santa this year?
Weird fact: Did you know that today is St. Nicholas Day? 'Tis true! Nicholas, the Greek bishop who's been the inspiration for Santa Claus due to his penchant for gift-giving, got his very own holiday that nobody really celebrates. Except us! Because what is the internet for, if not to get all giddy over long-forgotten trivia and then demand more gifts from your Amazon.com wishlist? So in honor of good ol' Nick, why don't you hop up on our lap and tell Massively what you want for the holidays this year from the land of MMOs. Is there a game that you've just been too poor -- or too stingy -- to buy, even though you dream about it every night? Do you wish that you could get into an exclusive beta? Is there an item in the cash shop that you've been coveting? Or would you love it if a friend helped you accomplish a tricky achievement in game? Make a list -- and check it twice for factual and grammatical errors -- and let us know what you'd like from Cyber-Santa this year! Who knows... he might even be reading this post right now! Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Santa's Dragon Quest IX cameo now available in Japan
He might know if you've been bad or good, but that won't stop St. Nick from sending you on a horse-related fetch quest in new DLC for Dragon Quest IX in Japan. Released on November 27, the Mr. Claus' Horse downloadable content brings the mythical gift giver to the insanely popular Nintendo DS title. Sadly, we can only hope Square Enix plans to include this and previous Dragon Quest IX DLC when the game eventually lands in North American stores. You'd think a guy with a sleigh and a few flying reindeer could help speed-up the process, but apparently Santa's busy horse-sitting.
WoW Moviewatch: Kael'Thas and the Santa Claus
Wow, Christmas is only 8 days away. I feel like it snuck up on me this year. But Kael'Thas is plenty aware, and he goes to pay a visit to Santa in Kael'Thas and the Santa Claus by Ian Beckman. While the Bad Boy of the Sindorei is eager to plop in Santa's lap, Santa's having none of it. The Christmas Dwarf remembers all too well the stink Kael'Thas made last year. This is definitely an antic driven comedy, and is a wonderful bite-sized bit of Christmas humor. The graphics are pretty simple, but that really just helps the audience focus on the dialogue. Ian Beckman's the auteur behind Azerothian Super Villains, and I think his emphasis on word play and surreal speech comes across well. Check it out yourself, here! [Via Myndflame]If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.Previously on Moviewatch ...
This just in: Santa Claus has his own iPhone app
Santa Claus has decided that he'd like all good little boys and girls to check in on what he's doing at the North Pole, so he's set up a special webcam network at his workshops. The webcams can only be viewed through a special iPhone app called SantaLive 2008. Starting on Thanksgiving Day and for 30 days after, you can get a daily update on your iPhone or iPod touch as Santa trains his elves to make toys, feeds Rudolph and the other reindeer, and prepares for worldwide toy deliveries during the evening of December 24th - 25th. On Christmas Eve, he'll be providing a special report. Santa's cyber-helpers warn that the Christmas Eve report might take a while to download. In an exclusive interview, Santa told TUAW that he's not much of an iPhone developer, so he had to outsource this work to The Casual Game Network to set up the webcams and make the system work. Since he has to pay these subcontractors, he's charging US$1.99 for SantaLive 2008 (click opens iTunes) through November 30th, after which time he's going to charge $2 more. We'll be talking to the Easter Bunny's press manager soon to see if he's going to follow up with his own app. Update: Comments suggest that the developer of SantaLive may have offered a cash bounty for five-star reviews on the App Store. While the Amazon bounty page is now offline, we have to say that if this was an actual strategy for harvesting positive feedback... well, someone's getting a lump of coal in his stocking.
First Impressions: Albatross 18
Have you been pining away for a great golf MMO? We have, too! Look, even if you haven't, let's just go along with this, okay? Albatross 18 is an engaging, colorful, whimsical game that doesn't disappoint. When one considers golf, there really isn't too much to it -- hit the ball into the hole, rinse, repeat. The beauty of its simplicity is that a developer can go crazy with that concept and add all sorts of madness to it, and it can only improve the game.And that's exactly what's going on with Albatross 18: beautiful environments, useful power-ups, crazy caddies, mascots, costumes -- this game is hilarious. Will you like it? Let's find out. As always, we remind you that this is not meant to be a full review of everything in the game; these are the first impressions we got after spending an hour or so playing. Excelsior!%Gallery-21821%
Merry Christmas from Gran Turismo!
The team at Polyphony Digital made this short video (starring Santa!) to wish everyone Merry Christmas. But don't expect Rudolph and his red nose in this vid. No, Santa's driving away in a new car. And it looks awesome.[Thanks, Jeffrey M.!]
Nominate your favorite Second Life newbie to receive 10,000L
Do you know someone completely new to Second Life? One of the very first questions the newbie asks is 'How do I make money?' Well, your favorite newbie can receive 10,000L from Ecstacy Realty in a new contest, who appear to be quite into paying it forward. Cynical types will call it mere marketing, but 10,000L is nothing to sneeze at, especially if you're a new resident. What can you do with ten grand? You can shop for a new outfit and skin, which is one of the things that keeps the new player from blending in with established residents. You can sell your prize money for $34.97, at current market prices. Or, you could play Santa Claus and just wander the world dropping loot on random people, which will assuredly establish some kind of reputation for yourself. If you know someone deserving, you can go to this thread to nominate them. There's no one nominated there yet, but there's also no displayed deadline, so I suppose that evens out.[Thanks, Steve!]
Flying Santa sans reindeer
You'd be sporting the very same expression of horror if your jolly ass was strapped to a Brando remote controlled helicopter. The rechargeable unit features a "super wide" IR remote and spare tail prop for $25. Rudolph's wrath: free.
