MMO Weekly Recap #424 Sept 18th – Rocket League F2P, PSO2 Episode 5, Final Fantasy XVI, DFO & More!

JamesBl0nde recaps the MMO gaming news for the week of September 18, 2020! Transcript and timestamps follow.

Blade & Soul is on the edge of the Cosmic Horizon update, Phantasy Star Online 2 gears up for a major update in episode 5, Dungeon Fighter Online’s female fighters get their Neo Awakening and Rocket League has finally decided to crash through its paywall and go free to play.

What’s good everyone, JamesBl0nde here with the weekly recap for gaming news and announcements for the week of September 18th 2020 and

0:21 Rocket League Going Free to Play, New Season Begins

Our first major piece of news this week is Rocket League’s announcement that it will be going free to play on September 23rd. Yes, the mash up of demolition derby and soccer is still going strong and is ready to tear down its paywall. In preparation for this, Rocket League is partnering up with Epic Games to add cross-platform progression and to join the Support-a-Creator program. The free to play launch will also include a new competitive season, game wide challenges, and a Llama-Rama event, plus If you add Rocket League to your epic games library between September 23rd and October 23rd you will receive a $10 Epic Games Store coupon that is redeemable on games and add-ons $14.99 and up. Plus, once you download and launch the game, you’ll instantly get two new items in your inventory: Sun Ray Boost and Hot Rocks Trail!  so if you’re eager to try out Rocket League perhaps even for the first time ever mark the date on your calendar, that’s September 23rd.

1:23 Dungeon Fighter Online : Act 5 Ultimate Will

Meanwhile in Dungeon Fighter Online, the female fighter is ready to grace the ring once again with the launch of Season 6 Act 5. This update features the Neo Awakening for female fighters, and to help players level up and achieve these new levels of power, Neople is hosting a series of events. Female Fighter exclusive missions will grant level up tickets, weapons, equipment, and more. Female fighters will also get a buff to their attack, casting, and movement speeds along with MP recovery rates. And for high level players, there’s a new Yggdrasil Chronicles dungeon event to challenge!

1:55 Blade & Soul Astromancer

Next up Blade & Soul is preparing to launch its newest update, Cosmic Horizon, next week. This update introduces a new playable class for Lyn only – the Astromancer. Featuring the Way of the Starcaster and the Way of the Stormcaster this class will bring some powerful spells to the battlefield. Just, you know, don’t count on your FPS if you leave the particle effects on… you were warned! The update also offers a rework for the Naryu Sanctum, a new talisman, and new seasonal events.

2:24 Dauntless: Untamed Wilds

In other news, Dauntless has unleashed The Untamed Wilds, an update which welcomes a new Behemoth: Agarus. This is no fun guy – Agarus is the toughest behemoth to date. But defeating him can net you schematics for its legendary weapons, each of which has two prismatic cell slots and the ability to revive and heal all slayers nearby even when downed! There’s also an Agarus armor set which grants lifesteal and can delay damage received over time. Definitely worth getting this gear. The update also introduces Missions, a new type of hunt that offers more story and exploration to the world in lead up to reaching the new Behemoth.

3:00 Phantasy Star Online 2 – Episode 5 Announced

And Phantasy Star Online 2 has announced the upcoming release of Episode 5. Set to launch on September 30, Episode 5 continues the game’s main storyline, introduces Buster Quests, increases the level cap to 90, adds new Photon Art and Technique levels and much more. To lead up to this major release, PSO2 is hosting a Road to Episode 5 event ongoing until September 29th, giving players bonuses for logging in, including over 3.5 million experience, 300 SG, and an Augment Transfer Pass.

3:32 Neverwinter: The Redeemed Citadel, Episode 2

Also in the news Neverwinter is rolling out the next episode of its Redeemed Citadel campaign this past week, adding four new milestones for the community to achieve in rebuilding the citadel in Avernus. By completing Heroic Encounters, special Quests, and Weekly challenges, players can contribute to the citadel’s reconstruction and earn Zariel’s Favor. Discover the War Room, the Devil Assault Heroic Encounter, the Scathing Light artifact, mythic quality mount upgrades, and more.

4:00 Scavengers Technical Playtest Weekend

And in our final free to play news this week, Scavengers, a new action shooter with squad-based gameplay, has announced its first technical alpha runs this weekend from Friday September 18th, which is today at 6pm Pacific until Sunday September 20th at 8pm Pacific. While this is an open test, the game is still in pre-alpha and still under NDA, so don’t plan on streaming it or watching any streams to see what’s in store. The test will have all characters unlocked and playable but remember that everything will be wiped after the test. If you want to check it out hit the link below.

Since it’s a quiet news week this recap when it comes to free to play games, let’s take some time to highlight some exciting game announcements this week in the buy to play sphere.

4:41 FFXVI Announced

First up is the huge announcement of Final Fantasy XVI (16) – it’s always a special occasion when a new game in the main Final Fantasy series is revealed. The trailer is a hefty four minutes long and it’s a bit surprising for some as it looks like the game may be leaning toward a real-time Souls-style combat! The team behind the game includes some of the key talent behind Final Fantasy 14 so there’s some expectation that 16 will have a great storyline too. No telling for sure yet, but the game is planned for PS5 only with some rumors that it may come to PC at a later time.

5:17 Hogwarts Legacy Revealed

And if you’d like a lighter or more family-friendly fantasy game, WB Games has announced Hogwarts Legacy – a new open world action RPG set at the famous Hogwart’s of Harry Potter, but in the 1800s. It actually looks a lot more realistic and dark than I’d expect for something based on a series written for younger people but that’s not a bad thing! Sounds like there will be some ancient magic involved so if you’re still invested in the Harry Potter universe it’s definitely worth keeping an eye on.

5:44 Resident Evil Village 2nd Trailer

For fans of horror, a new trailer has been showcased for Resident Evil Village, the next installment in the series designed for next-gen consoles of course. The trailer gives a little more backstory to the setting but also showcases the game’s high fidelity graphics and dark atmosphere and it’s safe to say this could be a positive direction for survival horror even after we all get through 2020 alive.

6:07 Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Open Alpha

Oh and if you’re keeping an eye on Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and have a PS4, you can participate in this weekend’s open alpha. It’s available for all PlayStation 4 owners and features three 6v6 multiplayer modes: Team Deathmatch, Kill Confirmed, and Domination. There’s a few maps available along with a preview of Create-a-Class, Gunsmith, and Scorestreak features. This only runs from the 18th through the 20th and it’s a 25 gig download so if you haven’t already preloaded it, might get to downloading it now.

6:39 Crysis Remastered Launches

And Crysis Remastered launches this today or Friday September 18th depending on when you’re watching, so if you’re wondering if it can run Crysis, well, it’s now the time to figure that out. Sadly my rig needs an update and probably can’t. While I was watching Nvidia event revealing the 30 series cards I think I heard my PC let out a big sigh.

7:04 Epic Games: Football Manager 2020, Stick It To the Man, Watch Dogs 2
7:35 Epic Games: Total War Troy Amazons DLC Free to Claim on Sept 24th

Finally let’s touch on our Epic Games free deals this week –

The Epic Games Store has three games available for you to claim for free this week. Leading off is Football Manager 2020, a tactical sports simulation game for all you soccer – I mean football – fans out there. Next up is Stick it to the Man, a quirky 2D puzzle platformer that takes place in a world of paper and stickers. And finally there’s Watch Dogs 2, Ubisoft’s open world action slash hacker game set in the San Francisco Bay Area. It’s also worth noting that A Total War Saga: TROY – which I hope you claimed for free when it was first available! – is going to be offering its Amazons DLC for free from September 24th through October 8th. If you picked up the original game for free on EGS it’s totally worth getting the DLC to match.

But with that 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!