MMO Weekly Recap #419 August 14th – Crowfall Beta Begins, FFXIV 5.3 Live, & More!

JamesBl0nde recaps the MMO gaming news for the week of August 14, 2020! Timestamps and transcript follows.

Crowfall officially entered closed beta testing, Final Fantasy XIV drops a major new update bringing the Shadowbringers story line to a close, SMITE delivers another assassin to the arena of the Gods and the dungeons in Albion Online just got a little more corrupted.

Whats up guys! JamesBl0nde here with the weekly recap for gaming news and announcements for the week of August 14th 2020. and the news is a bit on the lighter side this week but either way,

Crowfall Now In Beta: 0:20

Starting off the news this week – Crowfall has officially entered closed beta testing. Signing up for beta is free, and testers are being invited in waves – though if you backed Crowfall you can get in immediately. The latest build of Crowfall has added new strategy to the guild versus guild system, frame rate optimizations, and many new activities to do including castle building and divine sacrifice. It’s awesome to see the game finally get some polish after years of following it so make sure to sign up for beta at the link in the description.

Legends of Runeterra New Expansion Reveal: 1:00

Legends of Runeterra has revealed a new expansion this week: Call of the Mountain. The new expansion will be split into three separate monthly updates, each of which adds new champions and non-champions as part of a themed deck. Call of the Mountain will also introduce the new region, Targon. Now while the first part of the expansion launches on August 26th, the Runeterra team is revealing just a little information each day to keep up the suspense.

Magic Legends: Necromancer Reveal : 1:27

Magic Legends is back in the news with another starting class reveal – this time it’s the black-mana themed Necromancer. The necromancer is all about death and decay, and uses damage over time and healing over time spells along with summoned skeletons. Go figure. The gameplay is supposed to be all about trading off life for damage. So if that sort of thing is right up your alley make sure to check out our video which is linked below.

Bless Unleashed Announced For PS4: 1:53

Meanwhile Bandai Namco has announced that Bless Unleashed, its free to play MMORPG based on the original Bless Online, will be heading to PS4 later this year. An upcoming beta will run from August 20 through August 24 and we’re supposed to be getting some keys next week, so keep an eye on MMOHuts dot com if you’re interested.

SMITE: God of the Moon Update: 2:13

It’s time for a new god in SMITE, and the Japanese God of the Moon, Tsukuyomi, is now live! This new assassin uses dual weapons that can restore health and mana, shuriken that stick in an enemy until they are recalled, caltrops to damage and slow enemies, and an ultimate that gives crowd control immunity and 50% damage reduction. Wow! There’s a few new skins and cosmetics available in this patch as well, with a balance patch coming in a couple more weeks.

FFXIV: Update 5.3 Now Live: 2:40

This week Final Fantasy XIV has launched its long anticipated 5.3 update. This update adds new main scenario quests that bring a close to the Shadowbringers story line, plus a new raid, new dungeon, new trial, new beast tribe quests, and new unreal trials. Whew – that’s not all though. The biggest star of the update is that they’re completely reworking the original game’s questlines, known as “ARR”, condensing the questline, improving rewards, and adding flying mounts into the base game areas. Best of all they’ve extended the free trial limits to level 60 and including the game’s first expansion, Heavensward. Totally a good time to check out the game again!

TERA: Console Charity Drive, PC 64-Bit, & New Dungeons: 3:18

TERA has gotten a double update on both console and PC this week. On console, a new charity drive is raising proceeds for Heart to Heart International through selling limited-edition face mask items. Meanwhile, TERA on PC has upgraded to a 64-bit client. Both versions have also got new dungeons – console gets the Grotto of Lost Souls, while PC gets a weekend-only 20-man raid plus revamps for Rift’s Edge and RK-9 Kennel.

Crossout: Madness Circuit Update: 3:44

If you’re ready for some vehicular mayhem, Crossout has rolled out its latest update, the Madness Circuit. Two new tracks have been introduced for fast cars blasting through the Race mode: the Rocky Track and the Industrial track. Checkpoints on these tracks are also set to go across the entire track, not just at the gate, and new respawn points have also been put in. The update also introduces destructible objects in the garage along with the ability to set weather conditions in test drive.

Albion Online: Rise of Avalon Update: 4:13

In other news, Albion Online has just launched its Rise of Avalon update. This update introduces the Roads of Avalon, with constantly changing gateways that lead to other areas, offering new avenues to distant places and also offering new areas for Hideouts to be built. Also new in Rise of Avalon are Corrupted dungeons, new artifact weapons, and various improvements from the UI to PVE Progression.

Free Epic Games: 4:36

And finally let’s wrap up with this week’s Epic Games Store freebies. It’s a good week as Remnant: From the Ashes is available free to keep so long as you claim it before August 20th. Remnant is a dark and twisted survival shooter with dynamic content and co-op gameplay. This game is highly rated so don’t miss out! If you’re looking for something a little more chill, the Alto Collection is also free on Epic Games Store this week.

Speaking of chill, if you haven’t had the chance, show me some love and checkout my Blue Yeti X Overview video. I had a great time making that video so check it out and let me know what you think.

But with that being said, that’s about it for all the major news and announcements for this week. Be sure to stay safe, and keep your families healthy! Like always you can find more information on the news topics, linked in the description below, feel free to discuss the news or even more news in the comments below and don’t forget to like, subscribe, wash your hands a bunch, hit that little bell icon to get notifications and of course share this video! But until next time guys that’s going to be it for me… I’m JamesBl0nde… see ya out there gamers!