valentines day
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Massively tips to virtual romance
Have you ever fallen in love online? Have you ever met that someone on an MMO that excited you to the point where the addiction of the game mixed with the addiction to discovery of this desirable stranger creates a high so strong that your heart skips just to see that special someone's name pop up on your friends list, to where you ache to hear that Ventrilo voice, to where you get turned on just by flirting while your game fueled creative mind is ready to race into realms of dream-time in a wave of delight, allure, and pleasure that the dingy world of Earth so rarely offers in this lifetime? Um, me neither. But, you know, should that happen, the Dungeon Curmudgeon here has some tips on how to handle your iFeelings for your iBabe or iBeaux for when you're together in the heart but not together in the flesh, accumulated from years of watching virtual romances become real or not-so-real love.
The Daily Grind: Happy Valentine's Day!
Ahh, it's the day of the year when roses will be everywhere, and everything heart-shaped is suddenly "in." Yes, indeed. It's Valentine's Day -- both in the real world and in many different MMOs! While not all of the events include things as funny as the Weighted Companion Crate, there are lots of great quests (easy xp and prizes!) silly and fun events (kissing Lindens!) and more going on in our different lands. For this morning's topic, we thought we'd ask you what your Valentine's plans are for your game of choice? Or are you going to be working on getting some RL love faction, forgoing games altogether and instead heading out for dinner or a movie? Whatever you've got planned, we hope you have the very best of Valentine's Days!
Valentine's Day events in the City
Let the bells ring out for Manticore and Sister Psyche: they're finally formalizing the relationship they started in the comics. Today -- Valentine's Day 2008 -- City of Heroes icons Manticore and Sister Psyche will be wed in a live wedding ceremony in the main Training Room on the Test Server. Manticore will be controlled by Sean "Manticore" Dornan-Fish, and his off-server wife Jennifer Dornan-Fish will allow Sister Psyche to mindride her for the event. With Matt "Positron" Miller officiating, and other iconic heroes attending, it's sure to be a ceremony to remember. The ceremony will begin at 3:00 p.m. Pacific Time and will repeat hourly for the next three hours. Please note, though, that the service is first-come, first-served, and each presentation will only be open to 100 participants. It's the luck of the draw, heroes, so you and your villainous counterparts will need to find the ushers in Mercy Island and Atlas Park in order to attend.
The DS Life: Handheld happenstance
The DS Life is a weekly feature in which we scour the known world for narrative images of Nintendo's handhelds and handheld gamers. If you have a photo and a story to match it with, send both to thedslife at dsfanboy dot com."Did you know that if two people who love each other go to Todai, they'll live happily ever after?""Hm?""If it really works, let's go to Todai together, okay?""It's a promise!"
Cinemassively: Olibith romances us with "Something Stupid"
I came across this machinima while on my quest for the perfect video Valentine. Olibith weaved a cute World of Warcraft tale of love to the sweet sounds of Frank and Nancy Sinatra. The best part was that he appears to have dedicated it to his wife and child. Say it with me now -- "Awww!"While most of Olibith's material is pretty racy, this video isn't so bad. I must warn the viewers that there is some innuendo, though. Overall, I thought it was adorable to see the two gnomes experiencing the joys of courtship.
World of Kung Fu gives North America love on Valentine's Day
Fans of combat systems based on Eastern martial arts will be getting a valentine from VestGame Entertainment. World of Kung Fu is arriving in North America on the 14th as an open beta, and I couldn't be more excited. A kung fu devotee myself, I've been interested in this title, which bases combat styles on your preferred weapon, from standards like the spear and sword, to more esoteric types like the fan and hook. But even better than that is the game's stated intention:'Unlike other games in which the point of the experience is to defeat monsters and enemies, this game invites the martial artists to become deeply involved in the development and establishment of a society which interweaves economic and social systems. The game also enables the players to enjoy the emotions of a private life filled with romance and drama. Furthermore, as they increase their skills, the players can establish their own school and master their own style of Kung Fu which they will then be able to pass on to others, plus much more!'Expect a First Impressions to arrive shortly. I'll do my best to look at this critically, but come on, you can buy a 'Fortune Pig' to pick up your loot for you! How could this not be great? Stay tuned ...
Yahoo! recommends Toshiba's HD-A3 as husband's Valentine's Day gift
For whatever reason, the author(s) of Yahoo!'s Valentine's Day gift guide for the husband saw fit to recommend Toshiba's HD-A3 HD DVD player, but didn't give any Blu-ray player as much as a noteworthy mention. You heard right -- rather than suggesting a combo player of some sort to make sure his favorite studio was covered no matter what, a single-format unit was listed and the Blu camp was effectively snubbed. 'Course, if you're trying to get across a slightly different message than the traditional one this Thursday, maybe the HD-A3 isn't such a bad choice after all (we jest, we jest).[Thanks, Anthony B.]
PGR4 DLC hits this Valentine's Day
Having spent the last few months polishing off The Club, Bizarre Creations just released word of brand new downloadable content for Project Gotham Racing 4. On Thursday, February 14, two content packs will be released for the latest installment in the popular racing franchise, the Free Challenge Pack and the Premium Challenge Pack. The Free Challenge Pack is, well, free and includes the design contest winning Peugeot Flux as well as two new game modes. The two new modes include, Tourist Mode which allows players to take in the sights with their friends over Xbox Live and Free Roam Cat and Mouse where a slow mouse vehicle must avoid enemy cats. The Premium Challenge Pack includes the free pack content, 7 additional cars, 3 bikes and the World Challenge Arcade Mode, which gives you 20 arcade events in 3 themed chapters for 400MS points. Additionally, the packs include an auto-update for PGR4 that sports 10 new achievements, 3 of which are exclusive to the Premium pack. Time to strap back into the driver's seat people!
Newman's Valentine's Day DAP is so very appropriate
Isn't that cute? It's like two music players, but they make a heart! Oh, and look, there's a crack down the middle, it kind of looks just like two people kissing. Maybe you can stick the Juno soundtrack on there and give half this Newman DAP to that special someone. It's like giving a piece of your heart, only with plastic and silicon. What's that? She doesn't appreciate your finely honed taste in indie music? Well that's no problem, just glue the two players back together and look at what you've got: a broken heart. Yeah, we can tell that this February 14th will be one to remember.[Via Newlaunches]
Valentine's Day for the gamer in your life
var digg_url = 'http://www.digg.com/nintendo/Valentine_s_Day_for_the_gamer_in_your_life'; Valentine's Day might be all about spending ridiculous amounts of money on crap sharing sweet moments with that special someone, but that doesn't mean that those moments -- and the gifts -- can't be tailored to your specific quirks. If you're blessed with a significant other with a particular gaming-related fandom, why not get creative and find gaming-friendly ways to juice up the holiday? Wii Fanboy is here to help, of course, with some holiday gift ideas for all the gamers out there who view the approaching holiday with the utmost dread. From the traditional candy and glittering jewelry to ... well, gifts of a more unique variety, we've got everything you need (if it's Nintendo-related).And, for the really clueless, we've also got some handy tips on what not to buy. Valentine's Day gift-giving can be dangerous. You don't want to be beaten with violence when your S.O. starts opening boxes, after all.
The DS Life: Portable paramours
The DS Life is a weekly feature in which we scour the known world for narrative images of Nintendo's handhelds and handheld gamers. If you have a photo and a story to match it with, send both to thedslife at dsfanboy dot com.Have you already found someone to spend this upcoming St. Valentine's Day with? If not, you have only a week to develop a stratagem to trade Luvdiscs with someone, or you'll wind up spending February 14th playing Mario Party DS ... in single-player mode. Protip: Don't be that guy (or girl). Jump past the break to see how your V-day could turn out if you play your cards right (or if you use hackz).See also: The DS Life: Holding handhelds in public
Romantic crafting gifts to charm on Erollisi Day
Aren't crafters doing well in GU42? To celebrate Erollisi Day (Erollisi is the goddess of love) in EverQuest II, there will be a slew of crafted gifts available for the citizens of Norrath to woo the ones they fancy. As with the special Frostfell crafted items, these will be also be available for purchasing ready-made, but where's the fun in that? A recipe book can be purchased that contains 14 recipes for all crafters, and 2 recipes for tinkers. Players will need to collect hard candy and love notes from mobs as the primary component in crafting the gifts, but these can also be handed in for certain items from the recipe vendors, so you'll need to choose how they are used. These items will only drop during the Erollisi holiday, so you'll need to stack up during this period if you plan on cranking out the love-goodies any time in the future. Check out EQ2 Traders Corner for the full gallery of gifts, and expect the Erollisi festivities to commence with the release of Game Update 42, some time in early February.
City of Heroes server improvement details
The City of Heroes team announced in their 2008 "State of the Game" post that there we some server upgrades coming soon in preparation of double experience weekend and Valentine's Day events. Considering that the end of January is nearly a week away, you may be wondering just exactly when all these upgrades are going to happen. The answer is soon, very soon. Beginning today (on January 22nd) the server upgrades start. Keep in mind that with each server getting an overhaul it's no normal weekly maintenance. You can expect server downtime to be spread out over different servers for the next two days as well. Champion, Guardian, Justice, Protector and Virtue (also, the training server) are all going down for the first round of upgrades today. Then, tomorrow all servers not upgraded today go down as well. Thankfully, there's a handy forum post concerning all downtimes this week. Expect some more upgrade downtime next week as well, according to the NCsoft Norcal developer post.
Beefing up the holidays
Okinos does a little trolling on the forums about holidays supposedly being boring (when actually, with the exception of no new content for Winter's Veil, they have been anything but), but at least something good did come out of the thread: not only does Drysc lay down a huge burn, but we're rewarded with a visit from Kisirani, part of Blizzard's world events team.And she's got great news for those who love holidays-- all of the holiday events are scheduled to get a makeover, Hallow's End style. Darkmoon Faire is getting beefed up, as is "an older holiday" that is getting "a significant amount of punch" added to it. Chinese New Year, aka the Lunar Festival? Valentine's Day? Your guess is as good as ours.Blizzard's team has to take time off, too, so it's not too surprising that there wasn't too much new content to go through this year (although the Clockwork Bots definitely make up for it, if only they'd work right). But it's definitely awesome to hear that there's more in store for holiday events around the realms.
Disgusting Valentine from Lionhead Studios
Those crafty folk at Lionhead Studios must have taken a break from developing Fable 2. Why, you ask? Because they had time to come up with a nice Valentine for us all to share on this capitalist romantic holiday. It's not any ordinary Valentine either. Oh, no, this one is special. We won't spoil the surprise, save to say that this particular Valentine is unique. Check it out after the break. Don't say we didn't warn you, though.
Ahh cute, Viva Piata Valentine wallpapers
As part of Microsoft's Let's Play on Valentines Day celebration not only are they urging fellow gardeners to trade piñatas, but also posted some downloadable goodies too. Over at the official Viva Piñata website they put up a few downloadable wallpapers for you to send to your loved one or to simply spiff up your own desktop. And for those of you who are in a relationship, remember this Wednesday is Valentines Day. Forget the candy and flowers, just snuggle up for a nice romantic four hour Viva Piñata gaming session. You just can't get much more romantic than that.
iPod Valentines Negligee
With Valentines Day around the corner, here's yet a TUAW gift idea for your special someone: iPod lingerie. For only $24, add a little spice to your someone's iPod and get into that Valentine's mood. Or if you don't have a special someone in your life, you can just dress up your iPod for the fun of it. Not that there's anything wrong with that. We at TUAW do not judge.
Best Valentines Day Gift Ever
Right about now is the time for you to look at your S.O. and evaluate your relationship based on how their gift compares to this one. This Massachusetts resident actually won a store opening contest last fall after being nominated by her boyfriend, but the prizes were delivered only a couple days ago. Samsung was courteous enough to come through with several DLP HDTVs for the winner of the "helpful people" contest at Bernie's.Quick relationship test, show this picture to your Valentine and see if they react more quickly to the chocolates or the TVs. If it's that sweet 1080i loving that gets them going, marry them, thats a keeper.
Apple's Valentine's Day gift guide
Love is in the air, and Valentine's Day is just around the corner. Just in case you're at a loss for what to get your significant other (or favorite TUAW blogger) for Valentine's Day, Apple's Valentine's Day gift guide is here to help.It seems that iPods and iMacs make great Valentine's day presents (and who can argue with that?).What are you going to be getting your Mac hugging loved one on this Valentine's Day?
