MMO Weekly Recap #443 Feb 26th – BlizzConline, 4 MMOs Shutting Down, Tiamat Arrives in SMITE & More

JamesBl0nde recaps the MMO gaming news for the week of February 26, 2021! Transcript follows.

Diablo IV is looking better and better as it shows off the Rogue class, Dungeon Fighter Online dumps a ton of content in season six act ten, Old School RuneScape makes its debut on Steam and unfortunately its once again time to say good bye to some decent MMOs.

What’s good everyone, JamesBl0nde here with the weekly recap for gaming news and announcements for the week of February 26th 2021 and starting out the news this week

BlizzConline – Blizzard Entertainment’s annual convention, held this time digitally – took place last weekend, and had a few good announcements. If you’re a fan of Diablo, the big news here was the announcement of Diablo II Resurrected, a remaster of the classic D2 and its expansion Lord of Destruction. And if you’re looking forward to Diablo IV, I know I am, Blizzard revealed the class trailer for the Rogue, which utilizes traps, poisons, and shadow magics to defeat their foes. Can’t get over how much Diablo IV looks like Path of Exile, its going to be amazing and luckily I have room in my heart for both games.

World of Warcraft players might be happy with one of two announcements. For players of the modern WoW, Blizzard announced the Chains of Domination, the next major content update, which will send players deeper into the Jailer’s domain, with a new raid, instances, and the ability to unlock flying in the Shadowlands. And for Classic WoW players, prepare to head into familiar territory as WoW classic goes beyond vanilla into the Burning Crusade. But don’t worry – if you want to stick to the vanilla experience, you’ll be able to choose – for each character – whether they’ll progress to Classic Burning Crusade or not.

Year of the Ox?  No thank you, says Hearthstone, announcing the Year of the Gryphon with its first expansion: Forged in the Barrens.  This expansion promises 135 brand new cards and features new keywords and mechanics, too.  Legendary Mercenary minions, one of each class, have also been released, and will have their stories told throughout the year. Expansions aside, the Hearthstone team also plans to launch a Classic mode, which allows players to construct decks from the original set of 2014 cards.  Also in the works is Hearthstone Mercenaries, a single-player experience where you’ll collect heroes new and old from the Warcraft universe and level them up in tactical combat.  More information on these modes will be revealed closer to their release.

So in a nutshell, that wraps up Blizzcon, but before we move on to regular weekly news, let’s take a minute to talk about some upcoming shutdowns. Yep, it seems like Gameforge is finally downsizing its MMO acquisitions from Trion Worlds and Aeria Games, as this week it’s announced Defiance, Defiance 2050, Twin Saga, and Eden Eternal are all being shut down in a couple of months. Apparently the games could not sustain themselves, which makes sense given their age and player populations, but we still never like seeing games get shut down. Sad news.

In better news, SMITE has unleashed the Goddess of Babylon with its newest update that went live this past week. Tiamat joins the playable roster of gods, and she’s here to slay as a dual-stance mage capable of summoning creatures to the battlefield and going in for a deadly brawl. She can even duplicate jungle buffs to stack them or leave one behind for an ally. Also live with this update is the Season 8 Viewer Pass, which includes the exclusive Voodoo Rock skin for Baron Samedi. Definitely has a Jimi Hendrix vibe going on with that one.

And Ubisoft just revealed a teaser for Hyper Scape Season 3, set to start on March 11th. The theme for this new season is speed, offering a fast new map and a brand new hack in Neo Arcadia. Other than that though details are pretty scarce and Redditors have been piecing them together. Apparently we should expect a revamped map, new story elements, a 2D Hub Flow in the main menu, five new champions, and a 60 player mode called Crown Rush which comes in an unranked and ranked version. We’ll report back once this update is actually live.

Meanwhile Dungeon Fighter Online’s new update, Season Six Act 10, looks to deliver a LOT of content.  Story-wise, you’re looking at five new areas, a whole new story arc, and new NPCs to interact with.  That’s not all though!  There’s a new 4 person instance to tackle, complete with talisman, rune, and monster card rewards!  Yes, this also means there are all new talismans and runes added, complete with upgrades to make your character more powerful.  In to PvP?  DFO’s Arena also received some balancing adjustments in hopes to make things fair for all participants.  This update is live right now, so go forth and conquer!

The classic MMO Old School RuneScape is thriving, and is out now this past week on Steam. If you didn’t want to download it individually, or wanted it synced to a Steam account with the added bonus of achievements, badges, and trading cards,, now’s the time to grab the game. The launch coincides with the eight anniversary of Old School RuneScape as a live service, which includes new events and a free cosmetic banana cape to celebrate the occasion.

Speaking of anniversaries, Dungeons and Dragons Online is celebrating its 15th anniversary this month. The anniversary event is ongoing through March 23rd, and offers new challenges to earn Party Favors, which can be exchanged for multiple prizes, from the new Red Crystal Crown to House-specific Eberron Cloaks. Meanwhile a special code, HAPPY15DDO, can be redeemed in the DDO Store until December 31st, and offers a special Anniversary cloak and token that can unlock a named raid item for your character.

Finally let’s talk about this week’s free game on the Epic Games Store – Sunless Sea. This is a gothic horror RPG, which means it has total Lovecraftian vibes. There’s over 350 thousand words of content in the game, so if you love the idea of sailing uncharted waters haunted by unspeakable creatures, grab this game for free!

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!