UPDATE:  Amnerys just posted on the EQ2 Forums:

We are experiencing some technical issues with the GameStop promotion in Europe. The European sale will be delayed by one day. You can go ahead and purchase the card already but don’t redeem them too early. Players in Europe should redeem the cards between Saturday, February 25th 12:01am Pacific Time and Monday, February 28th 11:59pm Pacific Time.

Buy SOE Pre-Paid Game Cards at participating GameStop locations now and redeem between Feb 24th and Feb 26th to get Double Station Cash! Redeem in-game or at www.soe.com/gamecards

Game cards must be purchased at Game Stop and must be redeemed between 12:01am Pacific Time 2/24/2012 and 11:59pm Pacific Time 2/26/2012 to qualify for double Station Cash.

As you may well know, Pirates of the Burning Sea hit it's first launch anniversary in January and released a gigantic game update yesterday. Our very own Togikagi caught up with the CEO of Flying Labs, Russell Williams, to talk about game update v1.11, v1.12, and what players can expect from PotBS in 2009. Russell also makes mention of Flying Lab Software's second, soon to be announced MMO.

Togikagi : Pirates of the Burning Sea celebrated its one-year anniversary in January. Happy anniversary! How does it feel to hit that mark?

Russell : Great! The one year anniversary coincides with a switch in our development. The first year was essentially filled with tuning and revamping the game based on live feedback. It’s been extraordinarily useful watching the live game and seeing what players like and dislike, much of which is reflected in how we’ve evolved the game.

What’s exciting about the one year milestone is that our updates have now turned from polishing to new features and content. The recently released revamp of our sword fighting system was a gargantuan amount of work between all the teams, but now that it’s out, we’re turning our attention to big new features like Skirmish, Player Governed Ports, and the new mission storylines. We’re also doing the planning for our first expansion, which will take players out of the Caribbean into new parts of the world and introduce new features and content for those areas. In the meantime, we’ll still be adding new features on our regular update schedule.

It's about that time again for another weekly recap. We have a ton of exclusives to share with you, so let's jump right in! Keep reading after the jump for even more links to some of our most noteworthy news stories of the week, as well as editorials on casual MMOs, professional gaming and machinima by members of the Allakhazam staff.

Allakhazam Features

Interview with Mia Rose : Editor-in-Chief Andrew "Tamat" Beegle got the chance to meet up with Mia Rose at the Consumer Electronics Show this month and she discussed all things WoW, including her thoughts on WotLK.

'Free Expansion' on the Horizon : Tamat talks with Vanguard's lead designer, Salim "Silius" Grant, about all of the new expansion-like content coming soon to the game.

Fasaria World Beta Giveaway : The Fasaria World team gave us 500 beta keys to give out to Allakhazam members. If you'd like to participate, we suggest you hurry before they're gone!

TwelveSky 2: Our First Look : Our friends at MAYN sent us 10 exclusive screenshots of this upcoming MMO set in ancient China. Check them out to see the style of the game.

It's official: Pirates of the Burning Sea, released on January 22nd, 2008 is now a year old. Celebrations are occurring not only in the offices of game developer Flying Lab Software, but server-side as well.

"To celebrate our anniversary, we will be giving all of our players access to a new Anniversary Coat, which will be available in the tailor shop. Each nation’s coat is different!"

Additionally, tomorrow marks the occasion where the Dread Saints fill the Caribbean with their woe and despair. All of this gets topped-off with a promise of new content and features. A chest-full of features is coming out of Flying Lab, so let it be known that it is time to set sail and maybe even enjoy another year of excitement and piracy.

Source: Pirates of the Burning Sea Online

Pirates of the Burning Sea celebrates its one-year anniversary this month and there's going to be an in-game event held on Saturday, Jan. 24 as part of the festivities. It looks like William Kidd tried to negotiate peace with the Dread Saints and was shot for his actions. Kidd is now calling on all factions to join forces against the Dread Saints to promote prosperity and commerce. Here's when you should log in (and keep and eye on your chat window):

• Roberts: 12:00 – 1:00pm PST / 8:00pm – 9:00pm GMT
• Antigua: 1:30pm – 2:30pm PST / 9:30pm – 10:30pm GMT
• Rackham: 3:00pm – 4:00pm PST / 11:00pm – 12:00am GMT
• Blackbeard: 4:30pm – 5:30pm PST / 12:30am – 1:30am GMT
• Defiant: 6:00pm – 7:00pm PST / 1:00pm – 2:00pm Australian Eastern (Sunday)

If you're like me you might enjoy playing non MMO titles such as Left 4 Dead, Bioshock and Team Fortress 2. I find it extremely convienent to buy said games through Steam, which I can then download, and play through the Steam client. Well, imagine my surprise when I loaded Steam this morning to find some new products available for purchase: EverQuest, EverQuest II, Pirates of the Burning Sea and Vanguard! This is great news for existing players because you can most certainly count on an influx of players giving your favorite MMO a try!

"We are always looking for additional ways to introduce our great catalog of games to new audiences. It's hard to think of a larger group of PC gamers interested in multiplayer games than those connecting to Steam," said John Smedley, president of SOE. "We've long been a leader in MMOs and this agreement will help bring our exciting content to millions of additional online gamers around the world."

While Sony left out a title that I think would do great on Steam *cough* Planetside *cough*, I'm sure they will add more titles down the road. For now, the products available on Steam are listed below.

• EverQuest
• EverQuest: Seeds of Destruction
• EverQuest II
• EverQuest II: The Shadow Odyssey
• Pirates of the Burning Sea
• Vanguard: Saga of Heroes

For more details, visit the Steam Store.

Even though Build 1.11 completely changed the Avatar Combat system, the Pirates of the Burning Sea team is far from done with new updates and content. In fact, Build 1.12: Rebel Apostles will add the first chapter of a serial story that unfolds over many milestones. According to the latest dev blog, "We will spin this tale over six milestones and many missions, making it the biggest addition of new content since launch."

Chapter 1 is called "Black Flags and Dread Saints" and is about the rise of a new pirate faction called the Dread Saints in the Caribbean. The missions in this update will revolve around the mysteries of this faction and how it will upset the balance of power. Also, this new content will have opportunities for players of all levels to participate.

The beginning of the serial story isn't the only update coming in 1.12. There will also be changes to career skills, which you can read about here. If you'd rather read more about "Black Flags and Dread Saints," the full dev blog can be found below.

As we previously reported, Build 1.11: The Clash of Steel is now live, and it brought with to the game the massive revision to avatar combat.

To celebrate, The Pirates of the Burning Sea team is hosting a screenshot contest throughout the month. All you have to do is post your best images in this thread and you could win a unique forum title and three free months of game time. Two runners up will also get PotBS T-shirts.

Winners will be selected every Friday in January, so start amassing your screenshot collection so you have a lot to choose from for your weekly submissions.

Build 1.11: The Clash of Steel went live this morning, and it's a big one! This update includes the Avatar Combat revision, which completely changes how you fight with enemies. As the developers put it, "Avatar Combat is now flashier and more exciting-looking as well as easier to learn and more fun to play." If you're unfamiliar with the AvCom upgrades, Lead Game Designer Kevin "Isildur" Maginn wrote a developer's blog on the topic in October, and it's a good place to start.

Once you're caught up, check out this page of guides and notes to help you through the change. The AvCom revamp has completely overhauled all skills, so there's numerous links to help you plan your character's fighting styles. There's also a Swashbuckling overview that summarizes all of the changes.

Of course, Build 1.11 contains other updates, too, including new Swashbuckling dailies. You can read the full patch notes here or below.

NPCs have received a massive overhaul as part of the revision to avatar combat. Basically, almost all NPCs in the game now belong to one of six archetype groups: Defenders, damagers, duelists, supporters, brutes and gunners.

In the previous avatar combat system, most NPCs didn’t really do anything interesting. They just attacked you with a basic strike skill over and over. That was something we really wanted to change with the new system; now, NPCs will debuff you, combo you, set up big finishers, support their allies, and do a lot of other cool stuff as well.

The main archetype groups, which focus on things like parrying, damage and ranged attacks, are also divided into a number of sub-archetypes to further differentiate NPCs from one another. You can read all about it here or below.