Game update: 30/12/15

We've reached the last weekly update of 2015, and we're finishing with a box.

Notification for Snowman Hat

The Snowman Hat is Storm8's final offering of the year. At 24 gems you get a shot at the numerous prizes hidden within, with only the fates deciding how rare an item you obtain.

It's always difficult to judge what we're going to get on the Wednesday between Christmas and New Year. A lot of players (myself included) had hoped for a New Year themed update full of glitz and glamour, but I'm actually okay with what we do have. This box is a sort of halfway house between Christmas and Winter, and provides a good transition from the holiday festivities to the cold and bitter months ahead.

Admittedly most of the Christmas content in recent weeks has been more geared towards Winter than usual anyway, with fewer references to Christmas itself. But this crate takes us yet further away from the festive side of things and focuses on the season of Winter.

This is the third box added in six weeks, making it the third time this year that this has happened. That's definitely too high a ratio of boxes - for me one a month was reasonable. After all Storm8 do need to pay their staff, and box updates are surely a major source of revenue. But going beyond the once a month rate risks alienating players who are less willing to part with real money. Some may say that such players are of no interest to the gamemakers, but I say that if they're not playing they can't ever spend money.

Let's put our Snowman Hats on then, and attempt some analysis of this crate. I say attempt because yet again there is no Tuesday teaser for us to dissect and glean information from. I'm willing to give Storm8 some leeway on this front since it is the holidays and they may be running a limited operation right now. But this can easily be countered with the posts that have been published on the Storm8 Blog, which summarise the company's Christmas party in worryingly great detail!

So without the teaser I was stumbling around in the snow. However thanks to steelersbabyyy, mii022 and pcabral03 over on the Storm8 Forum as well as mexispice and Erdmännchen, we have a hopefully complete distribution list:

First Prize

• Snow Fort

Second Prize

• Sledding
• Igloo

Third Prize

• Snow Dragon
• Snow Suit

Fourth Prize

• Snowball Pile
• Cocoa Time
• Snow Angel
• Snow Family

The first prize Snow Fort looks really cool. Being a first prize I assume it is 4x4 in size, and it is a classic action shot. Some may claim it plays into the childish format of much of the recent content, but for me it's a good fun decoration. It would definitely make a worthy centrepiece to any Winter scene.

A number of the other pieces also get my royal nod of approval. The Sledding appears to be another nice action shot which even includes a dog having a ride! Then there's the Igloo which is 3x3 and is a cute depiction of a ticklish (or drunk!) polar bear with its chums around the igloo.

Moving further down the prize ranks, the Snow Dragon is a stylish ice sculpture. If you have the Ice Sculpting from the Winter Wonderland box then their's scope for the perfect combination here. And the 'Snow Family' is a group of three snowmen looking delighted at the recent snowfall. The father is even clutching a flower!

Some of the lower prizes will have you questioning why you parted with 24 gems, and are of course the reason why these boxes are always a risk. The Snowball Pile is especially lacking in quality, while the Snow Suit is pretty disappointing for a third prize. Having said that, other than the Snowball Pile nothing is totally lacklustre, so that leaves us with quite a strong box overall.

And that's us kind of done! A box certainly wasn't what I was anticipating for the last update of the year but at least the decorations within are generally impressive. The fact that a few players have reported prizes they've obtained itself indicates that this is among the more popular crates.

Finally, apologies for the short post - I can assure you that will be made up for on Saturday when I release a monster year in review which will keep you occupied for hours! Have a great New Year everybody!