Ah the holidays! The perfect time to stay home and play MMOs as much as your heart desires.  Trust me, get your shopping done online (if you dont have ideas you can check out our Holiday guides), skip the lines and avoid everyone that seems to forget how to drive!!!  ¬_¬ *ahem* and now… the news…

Atlantica Online December Update is Now Live:

A swarm of new updates are now available for the strategic turn-based MMO, Atlantica Online. The large-scale update includes a new dungeon, an overhaul to the Tactical Battle System, new journeys, and more.

• New high level dungeon.  It allows up to 3 lvl 125 players and above to join together.
• Tactical Battle System facelift, with bigger and bolder interface. Camera angles, alert messaging, and battlefield have gone through some major modifications as well.
• Solo Mode battle system has been added to the Trojan War Missions.
• Several new storylines and journeys
• Addition of stables to the mansions, being able to showcase two mounts for display.

GET A JOB!!! or Occupation in Forsaken World:

Forsaken World now has a total of 14 occupations available to any character.  Players are able to craft weapons, food and even see into the future for personal use or profit.  Not all occupations are available initially, but they can be unlocked by earning job points during the main quest.  Let the questing begin!

Perfect World International:

Genesis, the latest expansion to  Perfect World Entertainment’s MMORPG, has a teaser up at their site.  You can watch it here.   Some of the new content will include Earthguard race, two new classes with over 24 new skills, four expansive lands and customizable guild bases. Enough talk, watch the video!  It’s really pretty.

Dungeons & Dragons Online - Attack on Stormreach:

The continuing saga of the Siege on Lordsmarch Palace in Stormreach continues with the addition of the powerful green Hag, a primary leader from Droaam.  Some of the new features in Update 8 include:

• Defend the city’s outer ward from waves of attackers
• Execute a sneak attack on Droaam minelayer ships
• Beat back sneaky sappers in tunnels beneath the city
• Face an evil medusa and the deadly Green Hag
• New Armor Appearance Kits

The Lord of the Rings Online – Yule Festival:

This year they have brought a winter wonderland of activities for all of us to do!!!

• New Quests – Help the residents of Winter-home with the final touches for the celebration
• Snowball Fight – Check out the Snowball arena where you can challenge your friends to a frosty duel
• Theatre Event – Head over to the local playhouse to catch the seasonal show
• Eating Contest – Get your fill of pies, eggs, mushrooms and more in the Winter-home eating contest
• Festival Square – Check out the local vendor, meet up with your fellows, or raise a mug to toast the season.

MapleStory’s Big Bang Part 2 is Coming Soon:

If the big changes in MapleStory wasn’t enough, there is part 2 coming soon! “What does it bring,” you might ask? Well two new classes: Wild Hunter and Battle Made, and a new zone, Edelstein!

DOFUS brings us teasers:

This video teaser is for the upcoming rogue class which is to be released in April of 2011.

It’s not too late to get into the Pandora Saga Closed beta:

You can try to score a key by going to:

1. OnRPG.com
2. MMORPG.com
3. MMOhut.com
4. MMOsite.com

Good luck!

Zentia goes PvE:

To accommodate the growing community, the PvP server Spoon has been converted to a PvE realm.  This is available to all players.  If that wasn’t enough, in celebration of the new PvE server and the holidays, players will be randomly selected to receive 200 tokens.  Check out your inventory, maybe you’ll be the lucky one! The Zentia team will also be giving out $500 amazon.com gift cards to four lucky winners!

Global Agenda: 12 drops of Christmas!

If you play Global Agenda, you have your work cut out for you.  Abominable Snowman flair is up for grabs, and everyone needs more flair! There is a calendar available at 12 drops with the quests currently available.

On the 7th day of Christmas, Vindictus gave to me…

Ah yes, Vindictus has the holiday spirit and does it Victoria Secret style with Permanent Holiday Inner Armor  (¬_¬), decorations, snowball fights, and more!  Players can now stock up with a daily supply of 11 free snowballs or purchase them in bulk.  They make handy secondary weapons that can be used to pummel or even occasionally freeze enemies.  Players can also eliminate the holiday-hating Glitches and collect puzzle pieces along the way to earn a set of the reindeer antlers and a shiny red nose that you could say glows.

Meanwhile, in other news….

W.O.W CHEERS!

And what better way to celebrate a raid than using the Murlock Stein? Or staying up late drinking coffee our of the Oggrimmar/Stormwind mug?  Nothing! I tell you that much!  Even if you don’t play World of Warcraft, these nifty mugs are just awesome to have! Check them out: Tavern Craft

The Spy Alliance wants YOU!

Recruitment has began for Spy Alliance, a free online game that trains you how to become a spy, earn “Intel”, and build their own spy agencies It’s mostly directed to Tweens/teens and parents.

Contest Rules:

• To enter, post a comment on this entry telling us why you love these Holiday Classics!
• For extra chances to win, RT this on Twitter: Enter me @GamingAngels to Win Some Holiday Cheer! http://t.co/DbKzd6X #GamingAngels
• SORRY, THIS CONTEST HAS ENDED!

Good Luck and Happy Holidays from the GamingAngels Staff!

But for players, there will be new hero skins and glyphs to get in order to get you into a festive mood.

Champion skins: We will release 3 new skins on Day 1 of the Snowdown Showdown:

• Snow Bunny Nidalee (special price of 260 RP if bought as bundle with Nidalee from 12/16-12/23, then priced at 520 RP)
• Happy Elf Teemo (available from 12/17-1/6)
• Workshop Nunu (available from 12/17-1/6)

We will also be releasing 2 limited edition skins which will only be available during the following periods:

• Old St. Zilean (only available from 12/23-12/27)
• Earnest Elf Tristana (only available from 12/31-1/3)

Runes: We will release 6 special holiday runes that will only be available from 12/16-1/6. 3 of them will be Tier 1.5, and 3 will be Tier 2.5.

• Mark of the Crippling Candy Cane (Tier 2.5, critical damage)
• Mark of the Yuletide Tannenbaum (Tier 1.5, critical chance)
• Glyph of the Special Stocking (Tier 2.5, cooldown reduction)
• Seal of the Elusive Snowflake (Tier 2.5, dodge)
• Glyph of the Gracious Gift (Tier 1.5, AP per level)
• Seal of the Stout Snowman (Tier 1.5, HP per level)

Map: We will replace the winter map with Snowdown Rift, a seasonal variant of the winter version of Summoner’s Rift that includes many holiday elements.

Consumable item: The health potion in the in-game store will be replaced by the Riot Nog potion. The effect of the potion will remain identical to the effect of the health potion.

So make sure to keep your eyes on the store and grab up these awesome holiday items! You can read all about the Snowdown Showdown on the official site here and be sure to keep checking for more announcements!

Games that Give has unveiled two new holiday themed games to their lineup, Ornaments, and Holiday Swap. Both of these games will get you into the spirit of the holiday season both in getting into games that offer great holiday imagery and in helping give to those in need. Ornaments is a match-3 shooting game in which players attempt to clear the colored ornaments from the screen before they reach bottom, and Holiday Swap is a classic swapping match-3 with icons from different holidays and wintry memories. Both games are a great way to take 5 and feel good about it! So So start playing!

Patrick Swayze may have passed, but many films he starred in will live on as classics. This Christmas you can have the time of your life for 12 hours. That’s right, for 12 hours on the TV Guide Network, they are showing Dirty Dancing.

“Sometimes a movie encapsulates a period or a moment in all of our lives in such a way that it never dies. And I think ‘Dirty Dancing’ did that,” Swayze commented in an interview featured on the film’s 20th Anniversary DVD release.

Dirty Dancing fans will be able to chat on TVGuide.com to share favorite moments, watch rare cast interviews and chat about the film.

Nobody puts Baby in a corner, so if you haven’t seen Dirty Dancing, schedule a two out of the twelve hours to make sure you watch this classic.

Cooking Mama 3

The little girl that tries to impress mama with her cooking is coming back to the DS with Cooking Mama 3. This time Mama is trying to fill Christmas stockings with food. Cooking Mama 3 is set to release on November 13.

The title has over 80 recipes, 200 mini-games, and four player multiplayer. There are also three new modes: Let’s Match!, Let’s Shop!, and Cooking Contest.

The release date is for Europe in this press release. No word if it’s getting a US release.

Ubisoft Logo

Ubisoft’s Michael De Plater has spoken out to explain why most titles are being moved out of this holiday season and into Q1 2010. Michael De Platter feels that the holiday season is a “brutal” period to send new IPs out to the market.

“It’s a bit tough to launch a new IP exactly at Christmas when you’re head-to-head with blockbuster sequels. It’s interesting to see a number of big titles, like Heavy Rain, being targeted at 2010 to avoid the Christmas rush,” said the dev boss.

“And Ubisoft’s got Ruse coming out in 2010. Even God of War 3’s in 2010, that’s how brutal it is. I mean, you’ve got Assassin’s Creed 2, Modern Warfare 2, Mass Effect 2…

“To me, it’s been a period of enormous change, and the last four years I would say has been the time when games have actually surpassed movies as the premium blockbuster entertainment.”

Read more on what Ubisoft has to say in an interview with GI.