Thursday, 31 October 2013
With All Hallows Eve fast approaching, many developers are prepping their Halloween-themed events for public consumption. Here are some of our favorite spooktacular video game events.
Borderlands 2 Goes Headhunting
Gearbox is celebrating the fall holiday with some brand new stuff to shoot. The first bit of Headhunter DLC
is available now, and goes by the name of TK Baha’s Bloody Harvest. TK,
who died in the first Borderlands, only to be brought back in The
Zombie Island of Dr. Zed as a, well, zombie, has a mission for you: Find
the Pumpkin Kingpin and blow his head off. After you’ve done so, you’ll
have the squash’s noggin to wear as your own.
Team Fortress 2 Lets Fans Bring the Frights
In years past, Valve has handled the Halloween items for Team Fortress 2,
bringing hats like the Ghostly Gibus and the Infernal Impaler to the
free-to-player shooter. This year, however, the developer is taking a
slightly different approach. Players and modders can submit their own ideas for items via the Steam Workshop,
where they’ll be thoroughly looked over by Valve. If they’re deemed
terrifying enough to be put into the game, we’ll all be able to put them
on our Scouts’ heads and frighten anyone trying to take the capture
point away.
League of Legends Bursts Out of its Skins
There have been various points over the history of League of Legends
where Champion skins were offered for a limited amount of time. Often,
those skins were only available during Halloween season and were
appropriately themed. This year during The Harrowing,
they’re bringing them all back for the public to buy. Sad you missed
out on that Headless Hecarim or Definitely Not Blitzcrank? Now’s your
chance to grab them again. Oh, and Harrowing ward skins are back too.
Not too shabby.
Bad Piggies and Angry Birds Friends Turn Undead
The Angry Birds spinoff Bad Piggies got itself 30 brand new Halloween-inspired levels
in the new chapter From Dusk Til Dawn, while Angry Birds Friends has a
tournament going on, hosted by said piggies. But what makes it a
Halloween update? Well, all the pigs have become undead. Is that
Halloween enough for you?
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn Changes Costumes
It’s only fitting that a game that rose zombie-like from
the dead like Final Fantasy XIV has a Halloween event. Basically, you
can talk to a bunch of quest givers in the various starting cities and
grab yourself some ghost costumes. First, though, you’ve got to talk to
the Impresario, a mysterious little dude hanging out in the various
cities. We’ve got a guide for how to get all the limited costumes right here.
Animal Crossing Gets Masked
Animal Crossing: New Leaf may not be the king of the 3DS
right now - that spot is currently being held by Pokemon X and Y - but
it’s bringing its own flavor of Halloween fun to the month of November.
Starting on October 31, the towns mayor can find the pumpkin-headed Jack
wandering around the town. He’ll hand you a terrifying mask to go scare
up the townsfolk. The Able Sisters’ shop will even get in on the fun,
selling a variety of masks for the entire month.
World of Warcraft Gets Mischievous
As always, Azeroth is celebrating Hallow’s End
by dressing up and passing out candy. Oh, and going on quests. This
year, there’s a new Headless Horseman boss that players can group up to
take on and earn “special holiday loot.” For those who prefer a little
mischief, head over to opposing factions’ towns and toss stinkbombs
around. Or, just wander around picking up candy from the jack-o-lantern
buckets strewn around.
Guild Wars 2 and the Mysterious Tower
On October 29, Guild Wars 2 will be getting a new series of horrors in the Tower of Nightmares.
Players who head over to Kessex Hills will find the mysterious
skyscraper and fight the krait that lay within. We’re not entirely sure
what else will be in the Tower, but the event will bring a new piece of
equipment in the Antitoxin Spra, which removes poisons and the like from
the player and surround allies. Oh, and if you manage to survive the
Tower, you’ll get the Krait Obelisk Shard to put up in your home
instance.
Sony Online Entertainment spreads the terror
SOE is spookifying their huge library of online games,
bringing Halloween-themed events and items to DC Universe Online,
Everquest 1 and 2, PlanetSide 2, Dragon’s Prophet, Free Realms, Wizardry
Online, Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, and Vanguard Saga of Heroes.
Guncraft Swarms in with Paranoia Mode
Just in case you were tired of simply running from zombies, Guncraft
is about to let you play as one. The
Minecraft-meets-competitive-shooter title will be getting a new
multiplayer mode in Paranoia, in which players must figure out who the
zombies are before they are killed and assimilated into the horde. The mode launches today.
Even more super spookies!
Halloween updates will be coming to a huge number of other games. Here’s some of the highlights:
Badlands on iOS getting four new multiplayer characters and a new level.
Dragon Academy on iOS had four new maps, 48 levels, and a new dragon in Rattle in the Rise of the Zomblins update.
Glu Mobile is bringing Halloween updates to Zombies Ate My Friends, Deer Hunter 2014, Eternity Warriors 2, and Stardom Hollywood.
Kingdom Rush: Frontiers will add Bonehart the skeletal dragon & Dante the vampire slayer on Halloween to the iPhone and iPad.
Pixel People's huge Halloween update includes new jobs, quests, buildings, and a brand-new hourly event.
The browser-based Anno Online will bring a new quest giver in the Ghost Ship, the newly added Lantern Island, and a slew of Halloween-specific items.
PC gamers playing Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams can download an exclusive free Halloween-themed stage.
Of course, if we were to include every single Halloween update, we would
be here all day. Now that game developers have a lot more flexibility
to add and tweak content on-the-fly, it's easier than ever to get into
the spirit of the season. Lord of the Rings Online, RIFT, TERA,
MapleStory, RuneScape, and virtually every other MMO all run
Halloween-themed updates. Plenty more mobile and social games are also
getting spooky this month. Our picks above are just a few highlights.
