In a time before World of Warcraft, there once was a game called EverQuest, and it was good tolerable. Sony Online Entertainment would like to invite players back to EverQuest and the land of Norrath to celebrate the MMORPG's ninth anniversary.

The online game will hold various events throughout the year to celebrate being one year away from an actual milestone. Beginning March 16, there'll be a scavenger hunt and a month-long event tied to the divinities and servants of the Planes of Power. SOE states that EverQuest, after fourteen expansions, still has a flourishing community and will "stay active into the foreseeable future." There is more information about the anniversary events and special downloadable items (like an EverQuest timeline poster) at Station.com.

By today's lofty standards Ultima Online seems terribly archaic, yet when first released back in 1997, the game, which celebrated its tenth anniversary earlier this week, was the bee's knees. Along with other early MMOs such as 3D0's Meridian 59, Ultima Online helped shape what we now know as the MMO genre, and laid the foundation for more modern efforts like EverQuest and World of Warcraft.

To commemorate this milestone, Electronic Arts is trying to win back former residents of Britannia who since have moved on to bigger and better things to retry Ultima Online using the game's recently launched "Kingdom Reborn" update, which will be free to download for past subscribers through October 9 by way of their old, most likely misplaced username and password.

Calling the event its "Return to Brittania" campaign, EA will welcome players with a monster hunt and prizes including an ankh pendant necklace, map of Brittania, Ultima Online commemorative sculpture and virtue armor set. Characters will also be given a wand of fireworks and 10 décor tokens, though we haven't a clue what those might be. Happy Birthday, UO. Try not to break your hip fighting ogres.

Next week sees the release of Tomb Raider: Anniversary, where Lady Croft goes to the salon and fixes her roots. The video above shows the transformation of the original Tomb Raider into Anniversary. Tomb Raider: Legend (now playable for free on GameTap) reawakened the joy for many in Tomb Raider and reinvigorated the franchise. We're hoping that Anniversary is a fitting tribute to the original but, and this was part of the design behind Anniversary, puts some modern concepts into the gameplay for gamers who are just joining the series post Legend.

We're definitely looking forward to E3 and seeing how far along the Tomb Raider: Legend sequel is. Although not half as painful of a cliffhanger as Halo 2, the ending to Legend (which came about 8 hours too early) was excellent and we were ready to put down the cash for the sequel right there. If Anniversary continues the solid gameplay trend of the new Lara Croft, the future looks bright again for the series.

Lara's throwing her big Anniversary bash and it looks like every conceivable outlet who can sell or run the game is invited to the party. We've got typical retail, GameTap and now Steam is in there too. Everyone into the pool on June 5 for Tomb Raider: Anniversary. Just make sure you take a buddy, because you might drown from all the people crowded in there.

We can't help but wonder if this is the nature of things to come. This is the first explicit moment of a trifecta release. Retail, digital distribution (Steam) and subscription service distribution (GameTap). That's just for PC. The PS2 and PSP editions come in their standard box at retail format. We still find it strange that the game still hasn't been announced for the Xbox 360. If it gets announced for XBLA, that's it, we'll have officially entered a new era of game distribution.

[Via Press Release]

Some of us have been jonseing for each successive Tomb Raider adventure ever since Lara Croft decided that messing up archaeological sites wasn't just for Indy. (Where were the interns and study? No, Kurtis Trent and Short Round don't count.) The June 5 launch of the original, remade with updated graphics (and we can only hope controls), as Tomb Raider: Anniversary is just around the corner.

The tombs aren't going to just raid themselves; our video pick is the latest trailer for the back-to-her roots game. We don't see much that we didn't already know -- surprise, the game has "mild suggestive themes" -- but we're sure fans will appreciate the latest look at Lara. See the video after the break.

As Capcom prepares to usher in the next-generation, the company has elected to do some last-minute house cleaning, shoeing a pile of its prized current-gen titles out the door. In celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Resident Evil franchise and the 5th anniversary of the Devil May Cry franchise, Capcom has prepared two budget-priced collections:

• For GameCube: Resident Evil, Resident Evil Zero & Resident Evil 4 ($40, exclusively at EB Games/GameStop)
• For PlayStation 2: Devil May Cry, Devil May Cry 2 & Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening Special Edition ($30)

The two gems of these collections are Resident Evil 4 and the original Devil May Cry. That said, unless you're looking to round out your archives, there are better ways to invest in Capcom product. You tried Okami yet?

[Via press releases]

It's that time of month again -- the Carnival of Gamers has made its fourteenth stop, coincidentally marking its first anniversary (there were two last June). This regular collection of game writing from around the blogosphere is a delightful way to get some alternate opinions aired and always seems to be worth the reading time.

This month's edition covers casual vs hardcore gaming; the Wii; violence and politics; modern MMO issues; and a few other juicy topics from co-op gaming to the ESRB. There's plenty of thought-provoking material in true Carnival style.

See also:
Carnival of Gamers gets n3rfed
Carnival of Gamers rolls on to Virgin Worlds
Carnival of Gamers gathers under Slashdot's tent