Weekly Recap #488 March 18th – Tower of Fantasy & V Rising Beta, Lost Ark’s March Update & More!

JamesBl0nde recaps the MMO gaming news for the week of March 18, 2022! Transcript follows.

Lost Ark’s latest update calls for a dev letter to the players, Warframe gives us a tease at it’s next expansion, Brawlhalla drops in their 55th playable legend and if you’ve been waiting for an open world vampire survival game, wait no longer.

What’s good everyone, JamesBl0nde here with the weekly recap for gaming news and announcements for the week of March 18th, 2022 and starting out the news this week…

Level Infinite and Hotta Studio have announced that Tower of Fantasy, their self-described “shared open world RPG,” will be launching on PC and mobile this year. Tower of Fantasy has been compared a bit to Genshin Impact, but with more of anime sci-fi feel to it, so you might want to keep your eye on this one! In fact they just opened closed beta sign-ups this week through March 29th, with plans for testing to begin this April. Make sure you hit the link below so you don’t miss out.

It’s happening! V Rising, the open world vampire survival game, has announced that it will start closed beta on March 23rd. This one week long test will let players build castles, explore the world of Vardoran, and play solo or co-op. The test is invite-only and will offer about 3000 gamers the chance to check the game out ahead of its Early Access launch. Unfortunately this is all under NDA right now so don’t expect to see much revealed just yet – but another test is planned for April so keep an eye out on your email!

In other news, Lost Ark released its March update this past week, titled Hunt for the Guardian Slayer. This update offers a brand new storyline, focused on the legendary Guardian Slayer Kadan, for players around item level 1100. In addition, there’s a brand new eight player raid, fighting the Guardian Argos, designed for players at item level 1370 and higher. Of course no update would be complete without bug fixes and tweaks, and there’s also a special grand prix event ongoing for a limited time. Now since this update’s release the community has responded with some mixed feelings, many feeling rushed to get to end game so soon after the game’s launch. To address this Amazon Games and Smilegate have released a letter to the community, which I linked below, that essentially says “Hey we hear you, we want you to enjoy the game at your own pace, and we’ll try to pay better attention to the content level most players are at.” Nice way to respond so quickly to player feedback.

Last Friday, Warframe’s developer, Digital Extremes, hosted a special devstream to showcase what was coming soon to the game – and that included a sneak peek at the game’s next expansion, Angels of the Zariman! A follow-up to The New War expansion, the storyline will continue in a single-player quest, with over 30 hours of gameplay. The update will also include a new Warframe, called Gyre, that utilizes electricity, plus new playable mission types, customizable apartments, new customizations, void shell skins, evolving weapons, a rework of Eximus enemies and Focus, and much more. Meanwhile Warframe is celebrating its 9th anniversary starting on the 28th of this month with free gear giveaways, a new Dex skin, Garuda Prime access, and more.

Hearthstone has announced its first expansion for 2022: Voyage to the Sunken City. Launching on April 12, the expansion will add 135 new cards to the game, themed around the lost city of Zin-Azshari and the Naga. These cards include the new Naga minion type, and the new keywords Dredge – which lets you look at the bottom three cards of your deck – and Colossal – creatures that are too big to fit on a single card. Pre-purchase is available now and includes the Queen Azshara Mage hero skin once the update goes live.

Swords of Legends online has rolled out a new 10-20 player raid this week: the Langquan Bridge. This place bears a long history of wars between demons and immortals, and it’s no different today as the demon army takes its place on the bridge to try to block the Qin League. There are four bosses to defeat here, so bring your best teammates, equip your best gear, and go after that loot!

La Tale has rewarded its players this week with a feature-packed new update. The key feature of this update is Knossos, a brand new area for high level players with new dungeons to conquer, dozens of new quests, new titles to earn and more. But also in this new update is a beauty collection system, a rework of the auction house, new music skills, and much more in terms of improvements and balance changes. Hit the patch notes linked below if you want to see everything new.

Star Trek Online’s 25th season update, Shadow’s Advance, has now made its way to console! PlayStation and Xbox players can now experience a new storyline in the Mirror Universe, featuring Marshall Janeway , Captain Killy, and Admiral Leeta. A new challenging Task Force Operation, designed for a team of five, also awaits. The update also includes the game’s anniversary event, which rewards the T6 Jarok Alliance Carrier.

But speaking of anniversaries, EverQuest is celebrating its 23rd anniversary this month, and that means special events for its loyal players. This year, the game will feature three new quests, a new mission, and even a new raid – the Mad Emperor. Of course, there are also returning events for players, bringing back previous anniversary quests, the Platinum Anniversary Cake, and more. Just visit the Mechanical Fortune Teller in Plane of Knowledge to find out more about these, and enjoy the celebrations until May 10th.

Arcadia the Faerie Queen has just made her debut as Brawlhalla’s 55th playable Legend! Equipped with Greatsword or Spear, this Beetle Girl made Queen has high strength and dexterity for those who love to dish out damage. The update also features the annual Luck o’ the Brawl event, the new handicap Test Feature, and more. Make sure to check it all out before the next ranked season starts on March 30th.

Conqueror’s Blade has launched its latest season. Called Paragons, the seasonal update takes its inspiration from Medieval France, the Hundred Years’ War, and Joan of Arc. Three new units can be found on the battlefield this season with the alchemists – who can heal their allies and deploy explosives – Banner Guards – who carry flags to boost other units on the field – and Chevaliers, powerful cavalry knights. There’s also a new map, La Grande Gloire, and of course, a seasonal battle pass to earn those limited time awards.

And finally let’s have a look at this week’s free game on the Epic Games Store – it’s In Sound Mind! This is a first person psychological horror that has you exploring the darkest part of yourself, while completing puzzles, battling bosses, and thinking about mental health issues. Definitely good for fans of horror!

and 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!