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Weekly Recap #392 Jan. 17th – Darwin Project Launches, Elder Scrolls Online Goes to Skyrim, & More!

Transcript and timestamps follows.


Even more teasers of Magic Legends gameplay: MOBA’s and Battle Royale games are now working together to take over the world! Spacelords overhauls its weapons system: and Todd Howard trolled us again with Skyrim themed Elder Scrolls Online content.

Welcome gamers, I am Grace, James Blonde’s personal AI assistant.  James Blonde has programmed me to deliver this week’s gaming news recap. James’s voice has taken heavy damage and needs repair. Regardless he feels the news must continue… So here is your weekly recap for gaming news and announcements for the week of January 17 2020.

Darwin Project Launches on PC, Xbox, and PS4: 0:19

We’re kicking off this week by celebrating another MMO that actually made it to a launch day – Darwin Project has officially launched out of beta this week on PC, Xbox, and for the first time, PS4! This ends a 20 month long early access period for the free to play Battle Royale. Along with the launch came an update that introduces a new class system. Players can now choose their class specialization by choosing one of three pieces of gear: the Jet Wings, granting the power of flight; the Grapple Gauntlet, granting a quick gap closer; and the Headhunter Drone, which actually tracks targets and obeys commands. The game’s also updated its shop with new cosmetics and made it easier to buy what you want… if you’re buying that is.

Magic Legends: Gameplay & Beta Reveal: 1:20

Well last week we got a teaser of Magic Legends gameplay, but this week we’ve gotten more info about the game and its upcoming beta. The game will offer five Planes walker classes to start, including the Geomancer and the Mind Mage. The Geomancer uses the Earth to force enemies into submission with stone and lava, and can use a rock shield to defend themselves. The Mind Mage on the other hand uses psychic attacks, telekinesis, and crowd control to manage the battle from afar. Those two classes are the first that will be available to play in the game’s upcoming beta. Magic Legends has also revealed that spells will draw from a player made deck at random during real-time combat, that you can choose what path you’ll take in the game, and that you can use spell fragments to improve a variety of spells. It’s also confirmed that gameplay will either be solo or with up to two other players, making a total party size of three. Magic Legends will debut this year on PC and Xbox One, with PlayStation 4 getting in on the action in 2021, so make sure you sign up for beta – all the details are in the link in the description below.

The Elder Scrolls Online: The Dark Heart of Skyrim Announcement Cinematic Trailer: 2:23

Speaking of well known fantasy franchises, Todd Howard got us again. The Elder Scrolls Online announced its next year of content will be Skyrim themed, with “The Dark Heart of Skyrim.” This new chapter, called Grey more, is set to launch in May and June, and introduces two new zones: the famous frozen lands of Western Skyrim, and the dark caverns of Blackreach. They will offer a year’s worth of content over four updates that will span over 30 hours worth of content, including a new 12-player trial and new world events called Harrowstorms. E S O is also getting a new Antiquities system which sends players across Tamriel to recover lost artifacts. Of course there’s going to be a lot more to uncover so stay tuned for further updates.

Last Oasis: Build, Scavenge, Survive Trailer: 3:08

From tundra to desert – Last Oasis showed off a new trailer this week. If you don’t remember, Last Oasis calls itself a nomadic survival MMO, where players are outracing the sun after the earth’s rotation stops. This trailer focuses on three of the core gameplay themes: build, scavenge, and survive. There’s still little new details beyond this footage but even though I am a simple AI, its impossible to deny this game looks amazing!

Hunter’s Arena: Legends In-Game Trailer (4K): 3:33

Also showing off a new trailer this week is Hunter’s Arena: Legends, a MOBA mashup with battle Royale and action RPG flavors thrown in. The game says it will offer MOBA-inspired character classes, solo and team play, combat that features parrying, combos, and counters, and sixty player battlefields. The game will even have dungeon areas with computer controlled bosses for those willing to team up and try their fate. Hunter’s Arena is going to open closed beta signups on Steam later this month. 

League of Legends Season 2020 Dev Videos: 4:02

Speaking of MOBAs, Riot continued its promised week of reveals for League of Legends and there’s certainly a lot of stuff to unpack. The team showed off the amazing ree works for Fiddlesticks and Voli bear, plus introduced a new Champion, Sett, who’s all about using his fists and apparently goes Super Saiyan when his grit’s over 90%. Mekka Kingdoms was revealed as the new event and skin theme, with tons of skins planned – in fact the devs said they want to make it so that champion mains can count the time since they last got a skin in: “months: not years.” That’s a tall order for their art team! There’s talk about changes to the rank system in the next season, development around autofill parity, and the promised release of Clash mode. The reveals also discussed new universe expansions, including Tellstones, a tabletop bluffing game set in the universe, plus new details on Teamfight Tactics. Seriously there’s a lot to cover so make sure you check the description below for all the news.

Spacelords Epic Forge Update Trailer: 4:57

Moving on – SpaceLords has launched its “Epic Forge” update this week, which completes a major overhaul to the game’s weapon system. Twelve new “Epic” Weapon Properties have been introduced, along with a brand new weapon Mod system that has over 40 mods to combine, which can modify any Epic weapon property on a weapon. Mods can be bought with a new currency called “Kill Points” which are earned based on the type of enemy players eliminate. May lay has also been rebalanced, with grabs being changed from lethal hits to throw techniques that will cause damage if the enemy hits a wall, and damage from enemies being lowered to account for the changes. There’s also a full overhaul of weapon VFX! This is a pretty big update overall so if you haven’t tried out the game in a while it might be worth taking a look again.

World of Warships Update 0.9.0: British Cruisers: 5:40

World of Warships dropped a new update this week too, adding British Heavy Cruisers. The new ships have a short firing range but bring heavy damage, and can even use high-explosive ammo and tube-by-tube torpedos. They’re also more survivable than other cruisers. Right now these heavy ships are in early access if you are lucky enough to win one from a random bundle from the event shop, but they’ll be available via the tech tree come the next patch for everyone.  The current event has 36 missions to complete, which also include signals, camouflages, and credit rewards. There’s also upcoming Lunar New Year and Arpeggio of Blue Steel events so you’ll be kept plenty busy on the seas.

Black Desert Online: Guardian Awakening: 6:17

If you need more fantasy in your life, Black Desert Online is getting ready to introduce its newest class, the Guardian. But this week they also teased the Guardian’s Awakening, which gives the Guardian a massive flaming polearm to smite her enemies! The Awakening skills will grant her higher AoE damage and control over her standard axe and shield combo. The Guardian arrives in B D O on January 22 and her Awakening will hit servers two weeks later on February 5.

KurtzPel – Fallen Light Trailer: 6:43

KurtzPel is also hitting the new year with a big patch that introduces a brand new weapon, the karma: Fallen Light. This is a long-range magic cannon that doesn’t have auto-targeting, meaning that it will shoot exactly where players aim, and it has a “Magic Bullet” resource that can be used to power up its skills and attacks. Another set of major changes in KurtzPel comes with its PvP Season 2; there’s five new maps, and many balance changes have taken place to ensure players can’t cheat the queue, but best of all the game will now reward you based on your highest rank obtained, so you don’t have to stress as much over losing rank. The new update also improves the Karma system, weapon enhancement, inventory and much more so make sure to get all the details in the link below.

Elsword Master Class Trailer: Ara & Laby: 7:26

K O G Games has also launched a major update for Elsword, beginning a series of updates that introduces the Master Class system. This is a new progression system which lets players gain new looks and skills for their characters, plus a special artifact that can also be leveled and grow alongside the player. This week Ah Ra and Laa bee are unlocked for this special quest, but all characters will be getting theirs unlocked in the months to come. Even if you’re not after the Master Class there’s boosted experience every weekend until April 5th so it’s a good time to work up your favorite character.

World of Warcraft: Visions of N’Zoth Trailer: 7:56

If you’re still a fan of WoW, or just like eldritch horror, you’re in luck as World of Warcraft launched a new major update, the Vision of Nzoth. The Old God has awoken and is throwing things into chaos, with assault events ongoing in Uldum and the Vale of Eternal Blossoms that lets players participate in dynamic battles against enemies for rewards. There’s a new 12-man raid unlocked, new instanced challenges known as Horrific Visions, two new Allied Races (Vulpera and Mechagnomes), an in-game arcade, and lots more. I guess there’s some bright side to awakening ancient horrors.

Albion Online: Hideouts Reveal: 8:29

Next up in the news, Albion Online’s preparing for its new Queens update, and this week offered a developer insight video into its upcoming Hideouts system. This feature will let guilds establish bases out in the wilderness, away from the city, making useful hubs for crafting and other gameplay. These bases take 24 hours to complete and have to be started during battle times, so they are vulnerable to attack during certain times, but have many methods to defend themselves as well. If you’re interested in that kind of open world sandbox PvP, go check out the video linked  below.
Pandemic Express Now Free To Play: 9:01

And finally if you’re looking for something new to try this weekend, check out Pandemic Express! As publisher tinyBuild describes it so eloquently, “it’s like Left 4 Dead: if zombie swarms were player controlled: on a large map with trains.” Yeah that’s definitely a thing! Anyway it went free to play on Thursday and all cosmetics can be earned by playing in game, so head on over to Steam and check out this zany shooter.

That concludes all the major news and announcements for this week, for more information on the news topics, check the links provided 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, hit the bell icon to get notifications and share this video! But until next time humans that’s going to be it for me… I am Grace, James Blonde’s AI assistant… see you out there gamers.
 

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