MMO Weekly Recap #454 June 11th – Lost Ark Release, VtM Bloodhunt, SMITE + Stranger Things & More!

JamesBl0nde recaps the MMO gaming news for the week of June 11, 2021! Transcript follows.

MapleStory serves up it’s largest content drop in 2021 so far, Lost Ark looks like its finally making its way over to the west, things are about to get a little bit stranger in Smite pretty soon, and this new Vampire battle royale just kinda makes me miss Nosgoth.

What’s good everyone, JamesBl0nde here with the weekly recap for gaming news and announcements for the week of June 11th 2021

A couple of weeks ago we talked about GWENT: Price of Power was coming soon with three separate expansions.  Well, the first part of the set, Once Upon a Pyre is now live!  With 26 brand new cards to add to your deck, all new strategies awake, not to mention starting the Price of Power storyline in full.  There’s also several limited time offers going on to celebrate the launch, including a faction and a combo pack, offering premium cards in addition to faction avatars and a new game board, respectively. Players can also purchase The Price of Power expansion pass, which grants a unique, exclusive coin and instant access to all of the current and future Price of Power expansions as they release.  More information will be made available on the second and third packs as they near their own release.

Speaking of expansions, Neverwinter’s Sharandar module has been raging for the past couple of months, and it’s about to come to a stunning conclusion in its third and final episode: The Odious Court.  Adventurers will travel to the Dark Fey Mire to seek out and stop the machinations of the Green Hag Velma the Bonegrinder and her wicked sisters once and for all. This will lead into an ultimate encounter against all three hags. Other encounters such as aggressive dryads and strange frog-like creatures called the Grung also await players as they seek to rid the lands of the Odious Court once and for all. This module is available now on PC, and will launch on XBox One and Playstation 4 on July 6.

Pearl Abyss has announced an interesting collaboration with Bugatti in Black Desert Online.  Yeah, yeah you heard me right; the luxury supercar manufacturer and BDO are working together. Why? Uhhh why not I guess? PC and console players will find special collab quests outside of Polly’s Forrest, and can complete them for rare items, which unsurprisingly include speed bonuses for your mounts. Mobile players, don’t worry: the quests are available through a long chain with plenty of story to see you through. In addition to the quests, players can pick up Bugatti branded items in the Pearl Store.  This collaboration is live now, and runs until the first week of July. I guess if you have a Bugatti… Veyron… well you might as well get the matching stuff.

Aliens have landed in Fortnite!… Again.  Season 7 of chapter 2 has seen the invasion force hit the island with an explosive introduction, and now it’s up to you to repel them!  Take aim and shoot down their flying saucers, or jump in and take control of one if you want. The Imagined Order has developed weapons to help you fight back, too, with the recon scanner to help survey, the rail gun to bust through structures, and the flexible pulse rifle to lay waste to your enemies.  Of course, the aliens come with some impressive tech of their own too, and more of it will be revealed as the season progresses.  With it raining nuts and bolts due to the invasion, you can also craft and upgrade various weapons to turn them into something much more powerful!  Would you rather be an alien instead?  Don’t worry, the very first unlock you’ll receive in the battle pass is a customizable Kymera outfit for you to develop the perfect alien overlord!

If you’ve had enough of aliens. Star Conflict has decided you deserve a break.  Why not take a tour of the fringes of the most isolated sectors of the galaxy, away from everyone and everything?  The first part of the Galactic Tour update has launched, and participating in battles will earn you a new type of currency called xenochips. These chips can be used to purchase a wide variety of rewards, but keep in mind they’ll only be around for the event, so spend them while they’re available. Of course, progressing through the event pass will grant you parts to a brand new ship, the destroyer Emperor.  This powerful ship enhances the weaponry of its allies and can turn into quite the juggernaut in the hands of a skilled captain. With this update also comes a new PvP map rotation, ship enhancements for mole and destroyers, and plenty of balance fixes overall.  Galactic Tour is expected to run for the next three months, so get your vacation on and blow up some ships!

What happens when you combine SMITE with Stranger Things?  That’s right, a collaboration of epic proportions! Through the all new battle pass, players will be able to unlock an Eleven skin for Scylla, Hopper for Apollo, the Demogorgon for Basakura, and a Mind Flayer for Sylvanus.  Each of these skins is functionally a new character with new models, animations, and visuals, plus prestige skins will be available for Eleven and Hopper featuring some iconic looks in the series.  The Arena will also be receiving some dramatic looks as the series’ iconic Upside Down will be replacing it for the duration of the event.  Of course, the battle pass will feature tons of other items such as an avatar, a global emote, and much more.  The Stranger Things collaboration begins on July 13.

In this heatwave of a summer, Armored Warfare’s third major update of its Apocalypse season has launched.  Players who’ve completed the two prior special operations “Plague” and “War” have access to an all new operation “Famine” in keeping with the Harbingers theme. Of course, this comes with brand new achievements which include a new camouflage and a player avatar. The update has also brought improvements to the Ghost Field map, new mechanics such as car bomb AI, brand new engine sounds, and plenty of other balance and bug fixes.  Plenty more updates are promised throughout the season, which is expected to last until at least September.

Rogue Company is also celebrating summer vacation in style!  The “Hot Rogue Summer” update went live on June 8, and features four new summer-themed rogue outfits.  Of course, dozens of thematic items have also been made available in game, including weapon wraps, emotes, wingsuits, and a whole lot more. This is in addition to an all new limited time mode made especially for summer: Skirmish Deathmatch!  Jump into a small scale 4v4 skirmish with all the speed and skill deathmatch battles bring to the table, and push your team to victory — while rocking those sweet summer styles.

Speaking of summer, MapleStory has launched Neo: Darkness Rising as part of its summer update, which is the largest content drop for the game in 2021 so far. This update adds a whole new area — Cernium — and increases the max level players can attain to 300. You can take part in various special limited time events, all leading up to June 23 when a brand new class is released: Nova Archer Kain! Using his one-handed bow Whispershot, and a variety of melee weapons, this archer and weapons master fights to recover his past from the group that deceived him.  The new Neo Castle will also be available to players as of this update, featuring a space for players to encounter new events and a variety of shops selling boosts for your character.  Finally, the Better Maple Project brings a whole host of improvements to the game, featuring a variety of balance updates and UI changes to make the game far more accessible to all.

In other news, console versions of Warface are officially crossplay across all platforms!  That’s right, Playstation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch players of the game will be able to play and compete against one another, including the ability to communicate via text and voice chat. This new feature comes hot on the heels of the recently launched ‘The Swarm’ season, featuring a new battle pass, biomechanical weapon skins, and more. Also, if you don’t feel like playing cross-platform, however, you can adjust settings to disable the feature if you so desire.  Please note: the PC version of Warface is unavailable for crossplay due to technical issues, and because its probably the best way to play Warface, but console players will enjoy having a whole lot of fresh faces to fight against.

Did you ever think there was something missing from Vampire: The Masquerade?  If you said a battle royale game, well, you’re in luck!  Sharkmob recently announced its upcoming Vampire: The Masquerade title, Bloodhunt, set to release later this year.  This free-to-play offering pits clan versus clan in the streets of Prague to determine once and for all who the most powerful vampires really are.  You’ll need to use all of your supernatural powers, along with plenty of guns and strategy to come out on top, all while keeping your actions hidden from the mortals who are oblivious to your presence.  Closed beta will begin on July 2, with full release slated for launch later this year.

Looking for another upcoming game? A lot of people have wondered if the action-packed MMO Lost Ark would even make it to the West.  Wonder no more, as the game has officially been slated for release this fall in North America and Europe!  Lost Ark is an ARPG featuring five unique classes, each with their own skills and style of play.  You’ll face off against hordes of enemies as you travel the world, delving into ancient dungeons to uncover mysteries and secret treasures galore.  The game boasts incredible graphics while staying true to action RPG elements such as powerful skills and unique equipment.  An alpha test will be happening this weekend, starting June 11 and running through June 16, and sign-ups can be found on the Lost Ark website.

Finally, we come to our Epic Game Store game of the week.  This week features Control, an action adventure game with a decidedly supernatural twist.  When otherworldly beings invade New York, it’s up to Jesse Faden to master various abilities such as telekinesis to find out the truth behind the invasion and the secrets that allowed them to enter our world. Now this is another game that I’m really surprised is going free on the epic game store, last week it was Frost Punk, this week, oh my gosh, its Control. Definitely worth picking it up.

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!