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One Shots: Revenge!
It's a pretty common experience. There you are, running along in your favorite MMO, and the next thing you know -- one, two, your character is dead. At that point, you decide to avoid that area until later and go on with your day (unless you rolled on a PvP server, in which case a gank is probably no surprise). With that said, some of us love nothing more than returning to those lower-level areas once we've gotten more powerful and utterly destroying those noob-ganking mobs, like Laura did recently in Lord of the Rings Online! She writes in to tell us this tale of sweet, sweet revenge: "One of the benefits to running around in lower zones in order to complete slayer deeds is feeling like a total badass when you absolutely demolish a mob that used to kill you when you were smaller. This is my fiance's level 65 Dwarf Guardian showing off in the North Downs while working on a worm-slayer deed for Turbine Points." Have you put a well-deserved smackdown on a mob (or boss) in your favorite game? Would you like to share your take of triumph? If so, send in your screenshot to us here at oneshots@massively.com along with your name, the name of the game, and a description of what we're seeing. We'll post it out here on Massively and give you the credit for sending it in. %Gallery-85937%
Singing Sunflower companion pet voiced by Laura Shigihara
If you're a Plants vs. Zombies fan, you are quite familiar with Laura Shigihara, the composer for the PopCap Games plant-a-thon. She is also the voice behind the Plants vs. Zombies theme song. On her blog today, Shigihara confirmed that her voice will be used for the companion pet, the Singing Sunflower, which players receive after completing the Peacebloom versus Ghouls minigame in Hillsbrad. How awesome is that? Besides being fun and kind of novel if you're into PvZ, you get a pretty cool reward for finishing the quest: a "singing sunflower" pet! I actually had no idea this information was public until Hashimoto linked me to TotalHalibut's video earlier tonight... incidentally, I was right in the middle of recording the sunflower's voice when I watched it. ^_^ I am so excited about voicing a WoW-pet because what can I say ... I'm a big nerd. Peacebloom versus Ghouls is a minigame/quest in Hillsbrad that puts the player in charge of Brazie the Botanist's garden of ghoul-destroying plants. If you've played Plants vs. Zombies, you'll feel right at home. Defeat wave after wave of ghouls and you will claim your very own Singing Sunflower companion. These new facts continue to illustrate the intimate and awesome relationship between Blizzard and PopCap, bringing good tidings to gamers who are fans of both excellent companies. Hopefully, more collaborations like this are in store for the future.
Apple bites back at Laptop Hunter ads, 'agrees' with Microsoft that Macs are cool
Looks like Apple finally has something to say to Lauren, Giampaulo, Lisa, Jackson, and any future laptop hunters showcased in Microsoft's new commercial series. In a statement to Macworld, spokesperson Bill Evans goes through the usual list of touted Mac features -- security, stability, design -- before quipping, "a PC is no bargain when it doesn't do what you want." Ouch. He continues by "agreeing" with Microsoft that, yes, everyone does think its computers are cool. We don't expect Redmond's ready to end the ad campaign anytime, and as enjoyable as this statement is, our only hope is that the gang at Cupertino ups the ante and retaliates tit-for-tat by sending Hodgman on an filmed adventure through Best Buy.
Microsoft's Laura will rule your Outlook calendar, nightmares
Back in Office 97, Microsoft wowed us with Clippy, the talking paperclip that made Word tasks far more annoying than necessary. By Office 2007 he was finally out of a job, but his spirit lives on in Laura, an oddly creepy virtual digital assistant shown off as part of Microsoft's vision for the future (video of an earlier demo is below). She's said to be able to schedule reservations, make appointments, and maybe even get you tickets for the first Watchmen showing tonight -- much the same as the company's EVA assistant, but not in a car and not as hot. She can judge you based on what type of clothing you're wearing and even tell if you're engaged in a conversation, perhaps keeping the doors on an elevator open while you chat with someone getting off, thus further annoying every other person on board. Can she write really stellar blog posts, though? We think not.
