Hey gang, want to get into World of Tanks for the New Year? How about a sweet, sweet starter package to kick off your adventures? From now until January 1st, 2012 @ 11:59 PST, ZAM is giving away some World of Tanks codes for any newly registered account, giving you a T2 Light Tank, 1 Day of Premium Status and 300 Gold! That's not a bad start to 2012 if I do say so myself!

To grab your starter pack, all you need to do is fire us a tweet @ZAMOfficial with the hashtag #TankyNewYears and we'll message you with a code to be used when registering for the game! Remember, these bonuses are good exclusively for new players, so if you already have an account, consider making an alt! Or better yet, get a friend in the game with an awesome T2 Light Tank, 1 Day of Premium Status and 300 Gold! See you all in World of Tanks!

Oh boy catchy headlines! In their latest development blog, the people over at World of Tanks are outlining their plans for v.7.0, which will include camouflage paint customizations, some new tank company levels, clan emblems, and a complaint system for players to report other players for negative behaviour. To clarify on that stealth addition, while every tank will be able to purchase certain camouflage patterns for set periods of time, a special adaptive camo will be available for gold purchase, which will "repaint" the tank to fit its surroundings. As well, tanks with this special camouflage will get a bonus to in-game invisibility (as opposed to out of game invisibility?)

As for the complaint system, well, does anyone else find it odd that it's named "complain" as opposed to the more traditional labels, like "report"? Maybe the irrationally angry players will see that they're complaining as opposed to reporting, and they'll think otherwise.

Wargaming.net recently released its World of Tanks plans for the next year. Today they're giving players a sneak peek of the new Life Ox map that will be released in the first or second quarter of 2012. Here are the details:

"The terrain of the map is plain, filled with marshes: and some of them are unpassable. Nevertheless, a tanker would easily find the right way by the colour of the soil and presence of trees on it. Eventually, this map is a real paradise for players. It has splendid landscapes, a typical American town, a factory area, a rail way station with the bridges. Although the map has no hills or rocks to cover behind them, there are multiple roughs and coombs. It is better to play at high settings to see all the beauties of the map as it even has a marvelous cotton field on it."

Wargaming.net just published an article that explains the main features coming in World of Tanks v.7.0 in November. Here's the rundown:

• New divisions of tank company battles will be introduced for players with lower tier vehicles. The divisions will be Junior (tier 8 maximum), Medium (tier 6 maximum) and Champion (tier 4 maximum).
• At the beginning of a battle, the team won't see the number and names of enemy vehicles. The enemy tanks will appear only when detected by teammates.
• Any tank destroyed on the Global Map will be detained from Ultimate Conquest battles for a certain period of time, depending on the tank type and tier.

In addition to these main features, Wargaming.net has outlined even more plans for v.7.0, including the introduction of the new Marsh and Fjords maps, camo and horns customization options, a complaint system and more.

World of Tanks v.6.7 is now live, bringing with it the new Fishing Bay map and a bunch of tanks. Here's the list of new tanks at your disposal:

• German light tank VK2801 (tier 5)
• USSR light tanks: T-50 (tier 4) and T-50-2 (tier 5)
• USA tanks: light tank M24 Chafee (tier 5) and medium tank M4A3E2 Sherman Jumbo (tier 6)
• Premium Chinese tank Type 59 (tier 8)

For more details on Wargaming.net's future plans, check out their World of Tanks roadmap for 2011-2012.

With most MMOs, you're lucky to learn about an upcoming patch a couple of months before it launches. Rather than take the common route, Wargaming.net has decided to use some heavy artillery and blast its own path by releasing its World of Tanks plans for the next year.

While all dates are subject to change, Wargaming.net definitely has a lot planned for World of Tanks. Maps featuring regions like Africa, South America and Japan are in development, and the list of upcoming tanks is quit long. New game modes like an historical battle are in the works, and you can expect to see new features like mini-map customization and realistic vehicle physics.

You can view the tentative World of Tanks roadmap after the jump. Did we mention that all dates are subject to change?

Do you want to be an alpha tester for World of Warplanes? Wargaming.net is asking possibly testers to download the Overwolf and Xfire social applications and try them out in World of Tanks. Once you've used them for a few days, fill out a questionnaire and you could be invited into the World of Warplanes alpha test. UPDATE: The deadline is September 16.

Overwolf is a software client that integrates social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, Skype and MSN Messenger into your game. Xfire is an instant messaging service for gamers that contains various other features, such as the ability to record videos and screenshots.

Wargaming.net has released a batch of new screenshots that showcase the Fishing Bay map that's coming to World of Tanks in patch 0.6.7 this month. You can view the Fishing Bay images in our galley, or simply click on the above screenshot.

According to the "In Development" blog, here are some other features you can expect to see in this patch:

• New map Fishing Bay will be added;
• New top light tanks of tier 4-5 will be added: Т-50, Т-50-2, VK2801, M24 Chaffee;
• Tier 6 American tank M4A3E2 will be added.

World of Tanks has officially blasted its way into retail stores across North America. For $19.99 you'll get a game DVD, a T2 Light Tank, a one-week premium account, 1,050,000 Credits and 1,800 Gold. If this was an infomercial, I'd mention that the retail box contains $30 worth of content, which means you're actually saving $10!

Here's where you can pick up your retail copy of World of Tanks:

United States: GameStop, Walmart, Best Buy (coming in two weeks), BestBuy.com, Amazon, New Egg, Frys, Microcenter, Eurpac-military commissaries, Fingerhut, Fred Meyers, J and R.

Canada: Walmart Canada, EB Games-GameStop, London Drugs, Future Shop.

UPDATE, 9/1: We've already given out a bunch of swag, but we still have more! We'll be giving out more prizes next week after Labor Day Weekend. Be sure to check your Twitter messages! While we have only a limited amount of physical things we can ship, we have tons of codes to give away, so keep your eyes peeled.

Gamescom may have come to an end, but the summer convention season isn't over just yet! PAX Prime will be held in downtown Seattle from August 26-28 and we'll have members of the ZAM team on the floor, including Director of Content Cody "Micajah" Bye. He'd love to give out PAX swag to some lucky readers, and all he wants in return is more followers on Twitter!

We'll be giving away PAX gear to people who follow @ZAMOfficial and @CodyBye on Twitter. The more followers the pages get before PAX, the more chances you'll have to win prizes. Check out the constantly updated prize list after the jump to see what you could get simply by clicking the "follow" button!