Weekly Recap #482 January 28th – FFXIV Sales Resume, New World Mutates Expeditions & More!

JamesBl0nde recaps the MMO gaming news for the week of January 28, 2022! Transcript follows.

The latest news in Hearthstone deals in buddies and mercenaries, Star Wars the Old Republic teases the upcoming Legacy of the Sith expansion, League and Fortnite are in for another crossover, and out of the blue, an entirely new continent was dropped into PlanetSide 2!

What’s good everyone, JamesBl0nde here with the weekly recap for gaming news and announcements for the week of January 28th, 2022. Sorry about the missed recap last week, I’ve been out sick for a little while and just now starting to feel better. Kicking off the news this week…

Netmarble has announced its first Battle Royale third person shooter – Squad Battle. This game will pit 20 squads of 3 players each in a team-based survival and close-quarters combat fight to victory. Unlike some battle royales, Squad battle will feature a cast of characters with stories, melee, and ranged options to discover. Players can find upgrades and items on the battlefield, plus interactive objects like ziplines and jump pads. Netmarble is recruiting Pre-Alpha testers now for US-based players, with the first test scheduled from February 16th to February 20th. To start, find Squad Battle on Steam and request access!

Speaking of new games, NetEase wants more players to experience its expansive martial arts MMORPG, Justice Online, and this week has released a new extended trailer showcasing the game for the western audiences. Initially only available in China, Justice Online features a seamless world covering over 2400 square kilometers, tameable creatures, nine explorable regions, and more. For the first time, the game is now also available through cloud-based gaming on a web client, allowing any international player to enjoy the game – though currently it is still only available in Chinese. Even so, Netease is also planning to offer a full Western release of the game late in 2022, so keep an eye out for this gorgeous MMO.

Meanwhile  Star Wars the Old Republic has released a new teaser trailer for its upcoming expansion, Legacy of the Sith. In this expansion players will seek to uncover the plan of the renegade Sith, Darth Malgus. Legacy of the Sith will also introduce the new Combat Styles feature to let you further customize your weapons and abilities. All this is coming around the 10th anniversary of the game, and the expansion is set to launch on February 15th.

Star Trek Online has just pushed out its latest content update on PC! Titled Shadow’s Advance, this update debuts Captain Janeway from Star Trek: Voyager, voiced by Kate Mulgrew herself, in a brand new episode called “Red Shift”. The update also features a new five-captain Task Force Operation , and the game’s 12th anniversary celebration, including the Omega Molecule Stabilization mission and rewarding the T6 Jarok Alliance Carrier.

New World has also rolled out a new update for January, and the star of this patch is the Expedition Mutators feature. This allows players to increase the challenge of Expeditions, changing the enemies found in them to increase the danger and the rewards. Each week will feature new combinations of Expeditions and Mutations, with a ladder of difficulty for those who wish to challenge themselves. Other updates to New World this month include the introduction of Umbral Shards for gear enhancement, the reduced cost of Fast Travel, and additional balance changes.

In other news, Elsword has dropped a new patch this week, introducing the 4th job path for Raven. Players can continue on building this dark and moody character as a Venom Taker, Mutant Reaper, and Revenant. To celebrate there are several new events giving boosters, experience, and more for players who log in and play as Raven. There are also winter events ongoing to help you get Rosa Lethe Ice Burners and other Enhancement goodies.

The latest update for Blizzard’s Hearthstone is now live, bringing a host of new content through mid-February. First up, the patch introduces the new Battlegrounds Buddy system, which gives each Hero a unique minion that synergizes with the Hero’s gameplay, playable as the Buddy Meter fills up during combat and granting up to three copies of the Buddy per match. Meanwhile in Hearthstone Mercenaries, players can now send their Mercenaries to gain passive EXP in the Training Grounds. There are new Mercenaries to recruit too, along with new heroes for the main game. Finally, Lunar New Year events will begin on February 2nd and run through February 16th, granting all players a free Dancing Lion Card Back, plus offering limited edition quests and a special Tavern Brawl.

This week marked a special milestone for SMITE, as the game launched its season 9 update! This is a giant update so make sure you check out the links below for more information. To start off with, Season 9 introduces a brand new mode, Slash, which aims to offer gameplay somewhere between Conquest and Arena, and features a unique map inspired by the Maya and Egyptian pantheons. Meanwhile a new season also means a brand new Conquest Map, called the Dharmic Era, themed after the Hindu pantheon. This map features the new Obelisk gameplay feature that grants a unique reward to the team that charges theirs first. The update also introduces new glyph items to upgrade Tier 3 items, a remodel for Apollo, a new season pass and battle pass, and much more.

SMITE isn’t the only one getting a new season, as Hi Rez has also rolled out Season 5 for its fantasy shooter Paladins! Season 5 brings with it the new champion VII (that’s roman numeral Seven, not Vii or Vee!), who is capable of grappling onto walls, dodge-roll from danger, and swap the style of his weapon to destroy his prey as a Flanker. The update also features the first of three upcoming boosts to Siege mode, starting with Siege: Beyond, which introduces a new item shop that’s easier to learn and use. Of course there’s also a new season pass and event pass to start collecting epic rewards.

League of Legends landed its newest patch this week. Update 12.2 features a brand new champion, Zeri, who was designed by the same team that created Neon for Valorant! Zeri is a Marksman that uses a gun on the battlefield to do electrical damage to her opponents. She can also gain move speed when she’s shielded, and can even steal enemy shields when damaging them. The update also includes this year’s Lunar Revel event, and plenty of new skins and champion balance changes.

Speaking of League, remember the League of Legends and Fortnite crossover a few months ago? Well, Epic and Riot are at it again with another crossover, this time featuring Jinx’s sister Vi from Arcane! Arcane Vi will be available in the Fortnite item shop, along additional items in the League of Legends set. The Arcane Jinx set is also making a limited rerun during this time, so if you want to show your League pride in Fortnite, now’s your chance.

In other news, there’s some important changes for Final Fantasy XIV players! Major news for the global community as the game  has finally launched an Oceania Data center for Australia and New Zealand players, bringing five new worlds with localized service to the southern hemisphere. Alongside this, Final Fantasy XIV has confidence in the game’s congestion issues after the launch of Endwalker, and has resumed sales, so if you wanted to play but haven’t been able to buy the game the past few weeks, you can now! Finally the game also launched its 6.08 patch, mostly designed for some minor battle updates including a number of DPS buffs for multiple classes in the game. Find out all the details at the links in the description below.

It’s been a while since PlanetSide 2 has had a major update, but 2022 is all about new beginnings and this is no different! The game has just launched Expedition: Oshur, introducing a brand new water-based continent to the game that includes tropical, savannah, and coral reef biomes, two new base archetypes, and new campaign missions. Of course one of the coolest things about this PlanetSide 2 update is that it introduces water-based warfare, including underwater infantry weapons, and everything has been re-engineered in the game to adjust for this new level of gameplay.

Finally, we come to the Epic Games Store Free Game of the week.  On the ticket is Daemon X Machina, a third person mech battler that put you in the cockpit of an exosuit to battle against giant robots and corrupted machines.  With tons of customization options for mech and player character, co-op missions, and small skirmish PvP options, it’s sure to scratch that itch of anyone looking for some robotic destruction.

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!