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Star Trek Online celebrates the end of summer with giveaways [Updated]
The days get shorter, the heat diminishes, and students collectively go back to actually studying things. Yes, summer is coming to a close, and the team behind Star Trek Online is pretty happy with how this past summer went. Sure, seasons are kind of a meaningless concept when you're talking about a setting that spans multiple planets with their own annual cycles, but the players are still here on Earth, and they can celebrate the end of the season with free stuff. An as-of-yet undisclosed ship will be going live in the game's cash shop tomorrow, but that's not the really free part. From August 29th to September 1st, around 1:00 p.m. EDT, a new promotional item will be flagged in the store as free. These items are all account-wide unlocks so long as an eligible character is available to claim the item. Who wouldn't like some free stuff for the end of summer? [Update: The team has also today released more information about upgrading tier 5 ships.]
Mumper clarifies seasonal battle pets
There are a number of achievements available for pet battlers, but one in particular has eluded us all. Not because it's particularly tough to earn, but because we're all waiting for MoP's first Summertime in-game. The Qiraji Guardling is said to only spawn during Summer, but there's been a bit of confusion surrounding when WoW's Summer actually is. See, the Raw Summer Bass begins spawning on the first day of Spring here in the real world. With a name like Summer Bass, you'd think that'd make it Summer in-game, right? As it turns out, no. The Summer Bass is a Spring/Summer fish, just like the Winter Squid is a Fall/Winter fish. Players sought clarification on fish versus pet spawning seasons from Lead Content Designer Cory "Mumper" Stockton, and received it: Seasonal pets will follow the pre-existing seasons starting in patch 5.3. Note that the existing fish are available for spring/summer (1/2) - Cory Stockton (@mumper) March 22, 2013 and fall/winter. The pets are available only in the Summer and Winter seasons so the dates are not the exact same. (2/2) - Cory Stockton (@mumper) March 22, 2013 So, the seasonal fish span multiple seasons, and the two seasonal pets span single seasons. Single seasons that loosely mirror our real-world seasons. Be on the lookout for the Guardling around the time Summer hits the Northern hemisphere -- in-game we're guessing it'll be May or June. Are you ready for your Zookeeper title?
Only one week left to get your Winter Squid
Fellow fishing achievement-seekers and completionists, it's that time of year again! The time when birdsong fills the treetops, daffodils bloom merrily on hillsides, and clouds of pollen return to punish your sinuses for daring to survive another winter. Oh, and it's also the time that Winter Squid turns into Summer Bass. Fishing up both Winter Squid and Summer Bass is a requirement of The Oceanographer achievement. Much like the world event and holiday achievements, though, you need a certain time of year to be able to complete The Oceanographer. Winter Squid is fishable from September 23rd to March 20th, and Summer Bass from March 21st to September 22nd. Both can be found in normal waters (no schools or pools needed) in Sunken Temple, Feralas, The Cape of Stranglethorn, Badlands, Tanaris, Blasted Lands, and Swamp of Sorrows. Swamp of Sorrows appears to have the highest drop rate for the squid, and Blasted Lands is the best for bass. If you're a squid away from The Oceanographer, now's the time to cast your line! This has been a friendly reminder from your neighborhood WoW Insider columnists. Happy fishing!
Battlefield Heroes gets new map, weapons with special Halloween content
EA's free-to-play Battlefield Heroes shooter is going trick-or-treating with a new set of Halloween content, as seen in the trailer above and the gallery below. The holiday update will bring a brand new map called the Perilous Port, as well as new Machete weapons, and a few different spooky items and outfits to wear. There are also some new rewards to earn: Winning 10 games on the new map on ranked servers will earn you a faction-specific Halloween t-shirt, and there are also Trick or Treat-themed supply drops, with random chances to win other great stuff. Additionally, all of the other Halloween content from the game's previous years is back online as well, so jump on in and have yourself a frighteningly fun time.%Gallery-168794%
GameStop hiring 15,000 temporary employees this holiday
Like other retailers, North America's largest video game brick-and-mortar chain will be gearing up for the holiday sales rush with a flood of new, temporary employees. GameStop is bolstering its "game advisors" numbers by 78% (see: grunts) and the company's total employee population by 46% (see: covenant) -- that's 15,000 people altogether, RTT News reports.While the employees will be considered "seasonal," they will reportedly receive the same benefits to working at the company as any other employee, including game borrowing and an employee discount. No word on whether they'll also get the complimentary demoralization and up-selling technique training.
Love is in the Air begins tomorrow
Love is in the Air everywhere I look around.Love is in the Air every sight and every sound.And I don't know if I'm being foolish, don't know if I'm being wise. But it's something I must believe in, and it's there when I look in your eyes.Tomorrow will mark the start of the Love is in the Air season event. Theoretically, from past events, it should start around 4:00 a.m. sever time. But whether or not that ends up being true, you'll have to check for yourself.You'll need to get finish the achievement Fool for Love in order to get the ultimate seasonal achievement What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been. The thing is... you only have a few days to get Fool For Love, so hurry up. The seasonal event ends early next Monday morning.Ideally you'll want to set aside some time tomorrow night; you don't want to be waiting until Saturday evening to do this. Unless, you know, you and your significant other are into that sort of thing. (I'm talking about playing WoW together. Jeeze... get your mind out of the gutter. You don't think I'm just going to sit here and make gratuitous Valentine's Day jokes for the rest of the week, do you?)So what are you waiting for?"AFK honey, need to become a fool for love." %Gallery-15723%
Breakfast Topic: All I want for Winter Veil
Merry Christmas Happy Winter Veil, everyone! In this season of giving, it's probably appropriate to ask everyone what their wish is for the season and, heck, the next year. To keep things in line, we'll ask for what everyone is wishing for in the game so there probably won't be any wishes for World Peace (although Dalaran and Shattrath pretty much killed all that inter-faction hate). I know my brother-in-law is wishing to get the Merrymaker Achievement as his first step towards the Violet Proto-drake. As much as I love it, I'd like to see Wintergrasp get some improvements soon, with more incentive to actually play it aside from being insanely fun. What about you guys? Anything you're wishing for or wished for that you already got? Phat loot? Achievements? Acceptance into that high-end raiding guild you've been working on for months? What's the sweetest in-game thing you want for Winter Veil? We can't guarantee you'll get it, but here at WoW Insider, we're certainly wishing you the best!
Lunar Festival is up to its old tricks
Blizzard has previously told us that they plan to renovate as many of the holidays as possible, but from what we've seen so far, the Lunar Festival hasn't really recieved any of that love-- as Lodran says, players who've done the Lunar Festival quests in the pasts aren't finding anything new to do this year.Not that there's anything really wrong with that-- Omen is still out there to be taken down, and for a lot of people, Omen was the first raid boss they'd seen (in fact, he was the Horseman before there was a Horseman-- a seasonal boss, except that Omen didn't drop epic loot). And lots of people are still having fun running the old Lunar Festival quests and turning those in.But it is too bad there's nothing new yet. Guess we'll have to wait for Love is in the Air and Noblegarden to see if Blizzard's done any more seasonal updating. Love is in the Air and on WoW Insider. Check out our continuing coverage of the event and our guide to earning the achievement. And you better hurry; the holiday only lasts five days!
Webcomics come back to WoW
Penny Arcade posted a joke about Figureprints driving people back to play WoW, but today's commentary (by the always insightful Tycho) shows that it wasn't just a joke-- the PA guys have sold their souls back to Blizzard. The game has changed a lot in the past few years, and I admit-- going back to play my Hunter, which I've been doing lately, has made the game almost completely new for me. From all the talent changes to all the new items and the midgame updates, it's almost a brand new Azeroth for anyone coming back to the game.PvP Online, another popular webcomic, has been running a "return to WoW" comic series as well-- 'tis the season, apparently, to come back to Azeroth. Besides all the changes and the new content, the only other reason I can think of is that there's not much else out there in terms of really established MMO experiences-- everybody else is still getting up to running speed when most WoW players already know what they're doing and how to do it. Are we in the middle of a World of Warcraft cultural resurgence right now?
Strong Q1 sales point to less cyclical gaming calendar
MCV takes a look at some recent ChartTrack sales data and notes that British game sales for the first few weeks of the new year are up significantly over 2006's already record-breaking first quarter. An interesting little factoid, to be sure, but the true importance comes out in a quote from Eidos UK's Jon Brooke, who told the trade paper that increased Winter sales "prove the industry doesn't need to be so seasonal." Amen to that. We are sick and tired of publishers clogging up store shelves with big name titles around Christmastime only to leave us with months of nothing once the new year comes around. Fortunately, this trend looks like it might be slowing, with quality releases like WarioWare: Smooth Moves, Crackdown, and MotorStorm filling in the quiet Winter months. It's about time publishers realized that good games will sell no matter what time of year they're released. [Via Guardian GamesBlog]
Video game character advent calendar
If eagerly ripping up a piece of cardboard to reveal novelty-shaped chocolates isn't your idea of a good advent calendar, this may be more to your taste. Game-Addicts.com has been compiling an advent calendar featuring a different video game character every day in December, ranging from favourites like Guybrush Threepwood and the four-block-long Tetris piece to Samus Aran and Katamari Damacy's King of All Cosmos. It's a labour of love worth reading to satisfy those nostalgia urges, although we can't help but imagine what Lara Croft-shaped novelty chocolates would look and taste like. Tomorrow's instalment is the last in the calendar, and we have a feeling it's going to be a good one.
