The Fallen Earth team has selected the winners of its Thanksgiving screenshot contest, and they are all the proud recipients of festive in-game food items like Fried Prairie Chicken, Gritty Pie Crust and Pumpkin Jam. You have to be thankful for what you can get in the wasteland.

The first prize winner will also recieve a Fallen Earth T-shirt. You can view all of the screenshots on the official contest gallery page. Which screenshot is your favorite?

Do you want to add a touch of style to your Fallen Earth character? Well, the team behind the post-apocalyptic MMO just announced that players who purchase a copy of the game through the online store will have the option to receive a Classy Feathered Top Hat that's made with real prairie chicken feathers.

In addition to looking classy, the hat gives you level 10 armor and adds three points to you scavenging, geology and social skills, as well as five points to your nature skill. If you don't like the hat, you'll still be able to select the all-terrain vehicle as your complimentary item.

Fallen Earth players who own iPhones will soon have the ability to keep track of their characters while they're away from their computers. The Fallen Earth team just announced that it is developing an iPhone application that will allow players to connect to the live game server to check on their characters, view maps, craft items, use the Auction House, chat with friends, and perform all sorts of other tasks.

The iPhone application is scheduled to launch in the first quarter of 2010. It's good to know iPhones have survived in the post-apocalyptic future. Honestly, the app sounds like a great way for players to stay connected to the game when they can't log in to Fallen Earth. What do you think? Will you be downloading the application?

Patch 1.1.3 goes live today in Fallen Earth, and the lengthy notes showcase a number of bug fixes and changes to the game. For example, the team has re-enabled the /sitchair command based on player feedback and added two new encounter areas to Sector Three.

Willoughby's Garage is a new encounter area composed of level 35 group content. According to the notes, "The Franklin's Riders sent out a Riders' Escort team to protect the area from bandit attacks, and bit off more than they could chew." The Banker’s Pre-Fall Relic Museum encounter area includes merchants, missions and group content.

The full patch notes can be found after the jump.

The Fallen Earth team is following up its second annual Halloween costume contest with a Thanksgiving screenshot contest. I suppose survivors in a post-apocalyptic world have at least a few things to be thankful for, and it's up to you and your Clanmates to show what an authentic wasteland Thanksgiving looks like.

All you need to do is submit a screenshot that features five players total by Nov. 13 at 5 p.m. EST. for your chance to win a Fallen Earth T-shirt and an in-game food item, including Fried Chicken and Granny's Strudel Surprise. Check out the full menu after the jump. Read the rules and regulations for information on how to submit your screenshot.

Players who subscribe to Fallen Earth by 11:59 p.m. EDT tonight will receive an exclusive in-game Trooper's Gask Mask to show the team's appreciation for the support it has received during the game's launch. The item will be delivered to all qualifying subscribers tomorrow, Oct. 31. It looks like the item will make a great Halloween accessory.

The Trooper's Gas Mask is a level 10 item that provides all sorts of armor modifiers, as well as +5 to Charisma and +6 to Body Save. You can read the full FAQ after the jump, but you better hurry if you want the item. You have less than eight hours to decide if you want to subscribe to Fallen Earth for a complimentary gas mask.

Halloween is only a couple days away, which makes it a perfect time to check out the winners of the second annual Fallen Earth costume contest. The team chose the best costumes in three separate categories: Most Original Setting, Most Accurate Game Costume and Best Inside Joke on Scavenging. Pictured above is Sinoth's costume, which won the Best Original Setting title.

The winners all received a T-shirt, messenger bag and poster autographed by the dev team. You can view all of the top costumes on the game's Web site. Are any of you dressing as a post-apocalyptic character for Halloween?

Today marks the launch of patch 1.1.0 in Fallen Earth, which introduces new player experience areas, upgrades for town events and eight pages of bug fixes. The new areas are an optional extension to the existing tutorial to provide a "kinder learning curve for players."

The Fallen Earth team wrote a letter to the community discussing the new player experience areas, which give players more details on crafting, scavenging and mounts while reinforcing basic combat and harvesting. "This isn't hand-holding, because we don't want to remove the challenge of the game — we're just making some of the early game choices more understandable," Project Manager Colin Dwan said.

The team also decided to take a closer look at town events in this patch and streamined missions in areas such as Boneclaw, Clinton Farm and the Embry Crossroads Monster Hunt following feedback from players. You can read the full patch notes after the jump, and don't forget the "Days of the Dead" zombie-killing event begins on Friday.

The post-apocalyptic genre lends itself perfectly to a zombie invasion, don't you think? The Fallen Earth team seems to agree and has announced that the "Days of the Dead" zombie-killing event will kick off on Oct. 23. The Halloween extravaganza will let players participate in reward-based repeatable missions that require you to kill as many of the infected as possible. Destroy 100 zombies and you'll get your choice of a signature shotgun, a sawed-off shotgun or a cricket bat. And just to demonstrate the game isn't all about killing, you can make scarecrows using pumpkins.

While this event should excite both Fallen Earth players and zombie fans alike, "Days of the Dead" is also noteworthy because the development team has released thousands of 15-day free trial keys to MMORPG.com, Ten Ton Hammer, Massively and Escapist Magazine to give prospective players the chance to explore Fallen Earth during the zombie invasion. More information can be found in the FAQ after the jump.

If you've been following Fallen Earth news since the alpha test, you may remember that the team held a Halloween costume contest last year and offered alpha keys to the winners. Considering the majority of the game's fans hadn't even played Fallen Earth at that time, the contestants basically had to follow a post-apocalyptic theme.

Well, Fallen Earth is now live and the second annual Halloween costume contest is under way, which means players can add much more detail to their faction-related costumes. You have until Oct. 21 to submit photos of your costume, so start putting together your outfit if you'd like to participate. All submissions will appear on the Fallen Earth Web site on Oct. 23.

As far as prizes are concerned, the top five submissions will receive a Fallen Earth T-shirt, messenger bag and poster autographed by the dev team. Check out the rules and regulations for information on how to enter the contest.