If you play EverQuest, EverQuest II or Free Realms and happen upon a Station Cash card this week, you may want to considering picking one or two up. Sony Online Entertainment will be giving players with accounts in good standing a 25% boost to any Station Cash card they redeem between Monday, November 23 (after 10:00am PST) and Sunday, November 29th (before 10:00pm PST).

A pretty good offer if we do say so ourselves. In fact, we kind of wish we knew that for our second episode ReSubbed this week, as we could've mentioned it during our jaunty exploration of EverQuest's trial zone. Oh well, at least you know now!

One of the things that we love in EverQuest II is finding some really interesting out-of-the-way places as you adventure. Beyond that, the attention to little things like water breaking on the rocks really should be seen animated to be appreciated. Today we have a great screenshot sent in to us by Pedro A that - while it can't show us the waves breaking, sadly - does show us an interesting view he stumbled across. He writes in: This is the first pic [I've sent], I hope you like it. I was wandering along Antonica's north shore when I saw this beautiful sight. Sometimes I get surprised... So many awesome places in EverQuest II and we use[d] to ignore them, concentrated (sic) on leveling, hunting, grinding. MMO's are beautiful.

From big to small, we love 'em all! However, we need you to send those great screenshots in. It's easy to join the ever-growing crowd of our most awesome One Shots contributors! Just email us your screenshot along with your name, the name of the game, and a description of what we're seeing in the shot. We'll post it out here and give you the thumbs-up for sharing a great shot with us.

Landscapes have been a staple component of almost every MMO in recent memory. With the exception of some sci-fi titles, most MMOs take place on the land of some imagined island or continent. Some use stylised fantasy landscapes that run smoothly on even low-end computers while others have managed almost photo-realistic visuals at the cost of performance. But have you ever thought about what's going on behind the scenes in your favourite MMO? Most of us don't think about how the computer is actually drawing the terrain we run around on. We don't give much thought to the different ways each MMO renders the water in lakes, rivers and oceans. And just how does your computer render so many trees and plants without grinding to a halt? As part of my masters degree in computer science, I got to grips with a number of these techniques and found it a fascinating thing to learn about. Now when I play a new game or see MMO screenshots, I can't help but think about what the computer is doing in the background and how particular visual effects could have been achieved.

In this technical article, I talk about some of the components of an MMO landscape scene and a few of the techniques used in creating the graphics behind them.

The latest expansion for EverQuest II, EverQuest II: Sentinel's Fate, is slated for release in February both digitally and in retail, but why wait until then to pick up your copy? No, far better to pre-order the expansion and be ready for the day it launches -- which, not coincidentally, is now an option. There are both Regular and Collector editions available, as is the standard for MMOs these days, and each one comes with its own little bonuses as well as the usual little extras for ordering ahead of time.

Sentinel's Fate promises to be a broad expansion for everyone playing EverQuest II, offering a level cap of 90, several hundred new quests, new dungeons, and new alternate advancement systems for characters. If you're a dedicated player of the game, they probably had you at "EQII expansion," but the expansion also looks to be the perfect point for new players to jump in and start getting involved in the world of Norrath. Take a look at the full list of the expansion's features, go ahead and pre-order, and get ready for February to be booked solid.

Halloween is probably second only to Christmas in terms of holiday popularity. Ask just about anybody what their favorite holiday is, and they'll probably list one of those two (if it fits the culture). Naturally, as MMO players, we have fun celebrating it in our virtual worlds just like we do in the real world. And boy, this year, do we ever celebrate. Just about every active MMO out there had (or has) something going on. The 2009 lineup included:

• Final Fantasy XI - Harvest Festival
• City of Heroes - The Deadly Apocalypse
• EverQuest II - Nights of the Dead
• Fallen Earth - Days of the Dead
• Warhammer Online - Daemon Moon Rising
• Aion - Harvest Revel
• Guild Wars - The Mad King's Revelry
• Runes of Magic - Pumpkin Festival
• Lineage - Cavern of Chaos
• Lineage II - Spooks and Scarecrows
• Age of Conan - Nights of Lost Souls
• EverQuest - The Haunting of Norrath
• Legends of Norrath - Brraaaaaainss!
• Star Wars Galaxies - Galactic Moon Festival
• Exteel - Hey, sweet! Paint!
• Free Realms - Super Spooktacular
• Champions Online - Blood Moon

Most of these events last a few days into November, so if there's any one in particular you're dying to experience, you might still have a chance if you have a subscription laying around. If you're not able to visit any of these in person, we have screenshots from many of these events in the gallery below. Enjoy!

What's makes beating raids in Ruins of Kunark and The Shadow Odyssey even better? Achievements, of course. That's why SOE is adding brand new achievements to several heroic zones and raids to those two expansions. Players will be challenged by several new goals, such as Flawless Victory, which requires finishing an encounter without losing a single party member. Other achievements involve winning a raid encounter with three or more people less than the maximum and clearing a raid or heroic zone within a set time limit.

Obviously, these challenging new achievements wouldn't be worthwhile without a reward. The form of said reward comes as three new titles: the Dragonslayer, the Urgent and the Flawless. We'd point out which titles go with which rewards, but we're pretty sure you've got it figured out. In our opinion, the Dragonslayer title is probably the coolest sounding, what with the dragon murdering and all that. Being "Urgent" sounds kind of cool but in a confusing way, like when your friends tell you they blew up a car, until they reveal it was, in fact, your car.

[via WarCry]

The problem with getting players into a new game after a couple years is that, well, the game has moved on. It has a couple expansions under its belt, it has a whole lot of new concepts, and new players aren't going to be on board for it. A new player is hard enough to rope into an MMO as it is, much less when you tell them they have to buy three expansions and hit level 30 in a month to see some of the cool stuff. Everquest II knows how much of a struggle it can be, which is why they're releasing the Everquest II Complete Collection just in time for both the holiday season and before the upcoming expansion pack The Sentinel's Fate (due out in February).

What does it contain? The initial Everquest II, obviously, along with all five of the game's extant expansion packs. If that's not enough, it also offers sixty free days of play (up from the usual thirty) and 500 Station Cash to help buy things from the game's microtransaction system. At the risk of sounding like a marketing press release, it's an ideal way to get a friend into the game over the holiday season, and presumably get them ready in time for the new expansion to hit.

Sony Online Entertainment might just take the prize this Halloween for the best transformation item in an MMO this year. EverQuest and EverQuest II players can purchase a Transmogrification Scroll or a Race Change Potion for a change of race. If you've been dying to try out a new race but hate the thought of starting all over and losing your progress, you need to get to the marketplace.

The change is permanent, but you can always purchase another scroll or potion to change back or try a different race on for size. EverQuest players have even more fun items to check out while they're shopping. A couple of different auras will surround you with floating jack-o-lanterns or candles, a Collar of the Cursed Lupine will net you one werewolf companion, and a Bat on a String will summon a bat to follow your every move.

Halloween's coming up fast, so grab your bat, your floating jack-o-lanterns and pick your shiny new race in time for trick-or-treating!

We are well into that time of year - Halloween is almost here and a quick look into nearly any MMO out there will show it. We've been talking about quite a few games out there and how they're celebrating, but they're certainly not the only ones putting jack-o-lanterns in their windows. Follow after the jump for a look at how some of our other favorite MMOs are celebrating.

Trying to hit up every possible MMO Halloween celebration? Add yet another one to your list, as EverQuest II brings back its Nights of the Dead for this year. Between October 16th and November 9th, all sorts of spook-related activities will be covering the surface of Norrath. Like last year's event, there will be trick-or-treating and decorations in Freeport and Qeynos and goblins to cast costume illusions, not to mention candy drops from monsters and several "clandestine (and smashable!) decorations." If you're a seasoned verteran of EverQuest II and think you've seen all of this before, however, this year also boasts a number of new additions to the holiday.

Oh, sure, there are new costumes, but that's the least of the new material added for this year's celebration. A new haunted hedgemaze in Nektulos Forest should attract those looking to get lost for a while, assuming that the new headless horseman doesn't get you first. There's also a new holiday collection, a new holiday recipie book, and some new rewards for some old Nights of the Dead events -- so even if you've taken part in the celebration before this year, you might still be able to find some new items from the mix. Enjoy the celebration starting at the end of the week, and be careful about the headless horseman -- those guys are always trouble.

Along with the strange harpoon and being allowed to play a dragon, we've also been sent an image of unusual travel from EverQuest II. Today's One Shots shows off a Kerra flying along well above ground, and was sent in to us by Darth Hoob. He writes in: An oldie from EverQuest II. My main toon Kalako taking a cloud ride thru the Kingdom of Sky. We suspect the original question of "how do you steer that thing" applies to this particular method of transport. That - and has anyone ever gotten stuck on a raincloud?

If you've got an unusual method of getting around, we'd love to see it! Every MMO is welcome, too! Just email those to us at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game, and a quick description. Please make sure your images are at least 1024px across and have no UI in them. We'll post them out here and give you credit.

Well, okay, it's not called that, but it's going to look awfully similar. EverQuest II is calling for players to create a brand new, level 1 Ratonga character for the Rat Race, a scavenger hunt of sorts being run on 21 different servers. The race will begin in Hate's Envy on all servers, where the horde of new Ratonga will be given a list of items to gather as they race through Norrath. The fastest finishers will win special in-game prizes, but there are also gifts for everyone who participates.

Kiara and Amnerys from the SOE Community Relations team will be your hosts for this event, so it's sure to be lots of fun. This is an ongoing event, with the first race set for next Tuesday, the 13th, and races scheduled nearly every day until November 6th. Check the list on the official site for starting dates and times for each server, and good luck in the Rat Race!

Sony Online Entertainment's long running MMO Everquest is preparing to launch its sixteenth expansion, Underfoot. Fans who have been looking forward to this expansion since its reveal at Fan Faire in June now have something more to look forward to. SOE announced today that they are accepting signups for the beta, which is expected to run from October 20th until December 1st.

SOE made an effort last year to streamline the signup process and make it easier on everyone involved, so you only need to sign up once. Your original signup will place you in the beta pool for every invite stage. The beta signup page will remain open until the end of beta testing as well, meaning you have plenty of time to join the beta pool.

2009 Fan Faire attendees still need to sign up, but will be included in the beta, as well as receiving a free copy of the expansion. 2009 Dragon*Con EQ Panel attendees who filled in the sign-up sheet will also be included in the early beta.

While the Shards of Destiny game update for EverQuest II has gone live recently, there are still gorgeous, unexplored corners of the last big expansion - The Shadow Odyssey - that we haven't seen yet here on One Shots. Thankfully, we have Ratwarlock, blogger and adventurer extraordinaire looking out for images we haven't seen, like this... well, we'll let Rat explain it. [This screenshot] is a great look at one of the "void anchors" that descended upon Norrath with the release of The Shadow Odyssey. This is the Anchor of Bazzul, in the Firmroot Moot area of the Moors of Ykesha.

Do you have a lovely, peaceful vista from your favorite game? If you've got a PRT SCRN button, 15 minutes, an MMO and email, there's no excuse! Snag a cool screenshot and send it to us at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game, and a brief description. We'll post it up here and let everyone know you sent it in.

A few weeks ago, over the Labor Day weekend, players of EverQuest enjoyed a massive double experience bonus. Some folks wondered why EverQuest II wasn't included in the bonus celebration. Well, this weekend it's their turn, as all players of EverQuest II should be receiving a bonus to adventuring, tradeskill, and alternate advancement xp as of 1:00PM PDT today. It doesn't sound like it's a full 2x bonus like it was in EverQuest, but every little bit helps.

The bonus weekend is a good opportunity for players to get into the brand new game update that was just pushed live this week -- although, the new Chronomagic system is all about going back in levels, not speeding forward. Players have until 10:00AM PDT on Monday to make use of the bonus, so if you've got some leveling to do, get cracking.