Photography enthusiasts who’d like to get their hands on an Alienware M15x laptop will want to take note of the latest Cities XL contest — “Aim, Shoot… Win!”. Cities XL developer Monte Cristo writes: “Since the city is at the very heart of CitiesXL, this competition will allow you to immortalize yours by submitting photos to our jury in one of the following categories:

• Most beautiful photo
• Best Christmas photo”

Those competition submissions should be photos of actual cities, not screenshots captured in Cities XL. If you’ve got a nice shot that would fit into either of those categories, check out the contest rules and head on over to the “Aim, Shoot… Win!” announcement and submission form for your shot at winning the laptop, plus other prizes Monte Cristo has on offer. (Those prizes include Kodak cameras, Nvidia GTX 260 video cards, Novotel gift vouchers, and copies of Cities XL Limited Edition.)

The submission deadline is 23:59 (Paris time) on January 17, 2010.

Win an Alienware laptop in the Cities XL photography competition originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With 2009 wrapping up today and 2010 lurking creepily around the corner, we’re eager to release our predictions on what the next year may bring to the MMO scene. Even though we try to keep our news relatively neutral, it’s the editorials and opinion pieces that garner the most reaction from the readers. Positive or negative, we appreciate that. So for this last day of 2009, we honor it by giving our own opinions (both positive and negative) about how 2010 looks to us.

Follow along after the jump for a few paragraphs from Kyle Horner, Eliot Lefebvre, Seraphina Brennan and me. In addition to our ramblings, we’d love to hear from you as well. So drop us a comment to let us know what you predict for 2010.

Continue reading Massively’s predictions for 2010

Filed under: Culture, Opinion, Massively meta

Massively’s predictions for 2010 originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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And now what about video game blogging on the Xanga Network? Is it, pardon the pun, Left 4 Dead? Thankfully, no. Mancouch will very soon be featuring a tab for gaming content, much in the way Lovelyish has its Beauty, Advice and Style Court tabs. The current HardestLevel staff will still be writing for this new tab. For the sake of a video game analogy, it’s like pressing the reset button on your console, or perhaps better yet, like playing a game on a newer-gen system that has backwards compatibility. There still will be a haven for video game blogging on Xanga!

I’d like to give my thanks to everyone I’ve worked with, if you’re reading: Alex, Andrew, Jim, Justin, Konrad, Matt, Tanner, Tiffany, Tim and Yuliya. I’d also like to thank the dragon and the knights for being faithful mascots to our little webpage. We really should’ve given you fellas names, now that I think of it. Finally, and most importantly, all of us at HardestLevel would like to thank all of you readers and contributors who supported our site, our writing, and made it into a community. After all, that is the essence of sites like Xanga: the community.

In all, thanks for the memories and I hope you’ll continue to keep writing and supporting all the destination sites, including our new home. May you have a Happy New Year, a Happy New Decade, and may you never stop gaming.

Sincerely,

Joe A.K.A. awinnerisyou

Here it is, folks: The moment you’ve all been waiting for. Team Joystiq has been scouring the list of games that came out in 2009, attempting to pick the best of the best, then present them to our readership in an enumerated fashion. Unfortunately, we got bored with that, and instead started playing 2009: The Game, which is, in fact, a game of the year 2009. We apologize for the misleading headline.

It’s more or less an “avoid-these-things-lest-you-die” game flash game which takes quick, topical jabs at the year’s low points. However, it’s a great reminder of some of the ridiculous shenanigans we had to put up with this year. Like, remember Swine Flu? Hoo boy.

Joystiq highlights a game of the year 2009 originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Snowmen in the Snowhill area of Free Realms are nothing new, but lately they’re a little different. While they’ve got the basics of snowman fashion down — top hat, scarf, sticks for arms — these days they don’t look quite as jolly and friendly as one would expect a snowman to look.

They got a bit aggressive during the holidays, and began attacking adventurers on sight, providing a fun new challenge for Free Realms players. It seems to have been a hit with players, and it looks like their feisty new attitude is here to stay. A note on the Free Realms site yesterday informed players “No one knows who made the snowmen or who cast the magic spell that animated them, but they are here to stay.“

So if you enjoyed duking it out with the snowmen, and think you’ll want some frosty cool hunting grounds in the summer months, Snowhill might just be your new favorite place!

Filed under: PvE, Free-to-play, Free Realms, Kids

Free Realms: Evil snowmen are here to stay originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s kind of hard to feel bad for someone who gets caught after stealing loads of people’s electronics. And yet, my sympathies are with Jeremiah Gilliam, whose desire to play video games is what did him in. I understand all too well the pull of video games on a man. My condolences, Jeremiah!

Here’s the scoop from The Escapist: Gilliam was playing Xbox Live on a stolen console. The user from whom his Xbox system was stolen logged onto Xbox Live using another machine and saw that his missing console was logged on. From there, he told his parents, who told the police, who traced the system’s unique IP address back to Gilliam’s location at his grandmother’s house. Upon Gilliam’s arrest and investigation at the house, GPS devices, PlayStations, video games, credit cards and other valuables were found, and our online gaming lover was charged with grand larceny.

There was no word in the Escapist report on what game Jeremiah was playing when his whereabouts were given away. For the sake of irony, though, I’m hoping it was Uncharted 2.

Divinity II – Ego Draconis is less than a week away.  To get ready for the game, cdv has provided a cool new video so you can get a look at the Dragon Knight, dragon and human forms and how gameplay will work with both. You still have time to put in your pre-order for Divinity II if you want the Blood Echelon Armor and Weapon Set.

I dropped by my girlfriend’s on Sunday when she came home after spending Christmas with family. I planned on bringing over my new PS3 Slim for some Little Big Planet and Tekken 6 before I left to see her but ultimately decided against it. Eventually this turned out to be a great decision.

We ended up playing Scrabble when we got to her house, and it was a long, grueling match that had us cutting each other off at every turn and using up almost all the letter pieces. It was a close game, though my girlfriend ended up winning (yes people, this is why I have a BA in English!) We really enjoyed ourselves. But in my mind, I couldn’t help but think about the very nature of games in the process. As a whole, games were originally devised by mankind as a way of passing time when there was little else to do. But they were created with the purpose of stimulating the mind, bringing people closer, and serving as a generally harmless outlet for competitive urges.

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On offer are a hardier keyboard, a HD webcam (which could have some applications hmm hmm), headphone and microphone combination which is really uncomfortable to use, and my personal favourites, the Wireless Desktop, which is a wireless keyboard and mouse combo!

Set up a projection system, hook up your computer, play some Warcraft in style – the downside of course is that using the mouse on the couch carpet doesn’t work too well usually, but Microsoft now uses a HD laser mouse for the wireless, which to my surprise, actually worked well on a number of different surfaces, which makes the whole thing sort of cool.

For more information, and the full release, check out http://microsofthardware.webrelease.in

Get a good paying coop science lab job or something so I can get my hands on a Playstation 3 (I’ve been converted! The Xbox 360 is no longer on my wishlist ).

With said PS3, try out Dante’s Inferno, God of War III, and Final Fantasy XIII when they get released next year.

           

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