Weekly Recap #413 July 3rd – Bless Unleashed PC, GWENT, Neverwinter & More!

JamesBl0nde recaps the MMO gaming news for the week of July 3, 2020! Transcript and timestamps follow.

Bless is ready to go round 2 with PC players, Klingon’s get some love in the latest Star Trek Online update, the master mirror expansion brings 70 new cards to Gwent, and Call of Duty Warzone brings on the 200 player battle royale crazyness.

Whats up guys! JamesBl0nde here with the weekly recap for gaming news and announcements for the week of July 3rd 2020.

Trackmania: Launch Trailer: 0:19

Kicking us off this week is the launch of Ubisoft’s free to play Trackmania, available on its own platform uPlay along with the Epic Games Store. Okay, free to start might be a little more accurate – the game has two tiers of subscriptions in addition to a free option. The free option lets you race on 25 of the game’s pre-made tracks, but if you want to access daily competitions, player created tracks, the track editor, or the Trackmania official leagues, you’ll have to go for a subscription. Thankfully these subs are only $10 or $30 for an entire year which is really affordable. Anyway you can’t go wrong trying it out as there aren’t many free arcade style racing games out there.

Bless Unleashed PC Announcement Trailer: 1:05

This past week, Round8 Studio and Neowiz announced that Bless Unleashed is coming to PC. Bless Unleashed has been exclusive to Xbox One up until now but with Bless Online shutting down they must feel more confident in bringing the game to PC gamers. There’s a lot of mixed feelings on this one; it’s being run by a different team and does have some key differences from Bless Online, including a more action styled combat. Guess we’ll see when it hits PC sometime in early 2021.

Neverwinter: Avernus Official Launch Trailer: 1:37

As Cryptic Studios celebrates 20 years of game development, they’ve also unleashed two updates to their most popular MMOs: Neverwinter and Star Trek Online. Neverwinter’s update, Avernus, continues the hellish quest into the heart of the blighted wasteland of Avernus. You can now adventure deeper into the Nine Hells with an infernal war machine, complete the Path of the Fallen Campaign for new rewards, and face the newest Trial, Zariel’s Challenge.

Star Trek Online: House Divided Launch Trailer: 2:03

Meanwhile Star Trek Online gets the House Divided update, sending players back to 2411 and the Year of Klingon. This update introduces a new member to the stories cast, Robert O’Reily, who played Chancellor Gowron in the TV series. Meanwhile J.G. Hertzler returns to the cast in his role as Martok. Also in this update is a revamp to the Klingon tutorial experience, and new models for several Klingon characters and ships.

GWENT: Master Mirror Launch Trailer: 2:29

In other news, GWENT – the free to play Witcher card game – has launched its new Master Mirror expansion. Themed around the Master Mirror character from the series, there are over 70 new cards in this deck expansion, along with new keyword mechanics: Devotion, Echo, Veteran, Conspiracy, Symbiosis, Veil, and Rupture. Master Mirror also introduces a new type of card, the legendary evolving hero, which grows stronger each round in battle.

Twin Saga Patch 27 Is Live: 2:56

Not to be forgotten, gamigo’s MMORPG Twin Saga has launched a new update this past week as well. Patch 27 introduces the new Senshi Riyu, who seeks to return to the otherworld with the player’s help. There’s also a new high level dungeon, the Oracular Mausoleum, which of course has new loot and is open to solo and party mode. Finally Twin Saga is also running several new events, from the Astral Realm Anniversary to the Dragon Boat Festival, and the awakened class level cap has been raised to 40. Kinda out of nowhere but an update either way.

Shadow Arena: Lahn Hero Spotlight: 3:28

And Shadow Arena has released a new playable character, Lahn. Lahn is an average difficulty character that uses the Crescent Pendulum, a blade attached to a chain. Her skills allow her to knock back, stun, and pull in enemies – along with the ability to travel long distances.

Call of Duty: Warzone – Verdansk Air Trailer: 3:48

Finally, Call of Duty Warzone has reloaded its Season Four with an impressive update that has made the Verdansk battlefield temporarily a 200 player – yes 200! – battle royale zone. Thankfully that’s not a full 200 player free for all; instead players will be on one of four 50 player teams. The update also introduces new Supply Run contracts, the Spotter Scope, and the Juggernaut Royale mode. Some really fun stuff if you’re into this hot new battle royale.

Free Games On Epic & Twitch Prime: 4:21

But speaking of hot, As we head into a holiday weekend here in the States, let’s take a quick look at what’s free this week! Twitch Prime has just added a bunch of free games to their lineup, including many of the classic SNK fighters like The King of Fighters, Fatal Fury Special, and Samurai Shodown 2, plus Melbits World, Kunai, Mad Tracks, Dear Esther, and more! And this week’s free Epic Games Store game is Hue, a puzzle adventure game that looks pretty fun to try. If you remember seeing Conan Exiles as being free this week, you weren’t wrong – but unfortunately Epic pulled it from the free game line up, announcing on twitter it would be available to purchase in the store at a later date. No clue why, but if you were looking forward to checking that game out for free, it is a bit of a let down.

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!