Bless Unleashed is a free-to-play 3D fantasy MMORPG reboot of the now-defunct Bless Online. The game features fast-paced action combat and a massive open world with a variety of regions and treacherous dungeons to explore.
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Publisher: Valofe Playerbase: Low Type: F2P MMORPG Release Date: August 6, 2021 Pros: +Great graphics and beautifully-rendered environments. +Good storyline, if a bit cliché. +Good combo-based combat. Cons: -Pay to win. -Class-locked races. -Clunky UI and controls designed for consoles. -Lack of endgame content. -Forced PvP.
In addition to new building pieces and house décor, the upcoming Valheim Hearth & Home update will also feature a major update to the game’s food system which includes several interesting changes.
In the current version, different foods offer slightly different effects but all of them simultaneously increase HP, healing rate, and maximum stamina to some degree. As you progress through the game, you’ll eventually narrow down your menu to three or four food items that give you the boosts you need depending on your playstyle.
The new system shakes things up a bit by breaking food items down into three categories depending on whether they give a bigger boost to health, stamina, or both. A specific food item’s category will be indicated by a colored fork icon, another improvement coming with the update. Food that primarily boosts health will show a red fork icon, those that boost stamina will show a yellow fork, while balanced food that increases both attributes will show a white fork icon.
As part of the new food system, some Viking-favorite foods will also be getting nerfed. The Blood Pudding, for example, will give a 14 health and 70 stamina bonus instead of 90 and 50, respectively. The Turnip Stew’s bonus will be toned down to 11/55 instead of 50/60 while Cooked Lox Meat will be rebalanced from 70/40 to 50/10. New food items will also be added into the game such as boar jerky, wolf jerky, and black soup.
Developer Iron Gate Studios offers a preview of the food system update in the first video of their Hearth & Home Spotlight series below. Stay tuned for more spotlight videos in the months leading up to the update’s release later this year.
As promised, PUBG: Battlegrounds, the battle royale formerly known as PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, is now free-to-play on Steam until August 16. During the Free Play Week, players will be able to experience the full game, including all maps, the zombie survival mode, as well as the upcoming Blackpink collaboration event.
Players can also earn the exclusive Traditional Glasses-Round accessory by simply creating a Global Account and linking it to Steam during Free Play Week. Aside from getting a shiny new in-game item, creating a Global Account will also allow trial players to keep their progress along with any in-game items they’ve earned by the end of the week.
Rumor has it that the trial week is Krafton’s way of gauging the community’s reaction to a possible free-to-play shift. The Free Play Week also comes with a shiny new trailer for you to enjoy. You can check that out right down below.
If inter-dimensional trains are your thing, then you might want to keep an eye out for Voidtrain, an indie multiplayer sandbox game that’s coming to the Epic Games Store later this week. In Voidtrain, players take on the role of mechanics trapped in a topsy-turvy world with a train, of all things, as the main mode of transportation. Definitely one of the more unique additions to the survival sandbox genre.
“You play as mechanics who have fallen into a new world for them with their own rules and laws. Discover it, learn to survive in it, explore it. Immerse yourself in a new amazing adventure. On the way you will meet outlandish creatures, many secrets, puzzles and challenges. Gather resources for crafting useful items and structures that help in your survival. Customize the train the way you want to, as you adventure between the amazing worlds of Voidtrain.”
The game can be played alone or with up to three other friends in four-player online co-op. Randomly generated environments and player-dependent events ensure that no two game experiences are the same.
Voidtrain launches into Early Access on the Epic Games Store on August 12. You’ll find the official Early Access trailer below.
Over the past year or so, we’ve been keeping tabs on the still ongoing Epic Games vs. Apple antitrust lawsuit. But if you’ll remember, Epic Games also filed a similar lawsuit against Google for the same reason: pulling Fortnite from their storefront after Epic Games surreptitiously introduced a direct payment button within the mobile app.
We haven’t covered this lawsuit as much as the one against Apple frankly because of Apple’s willingness to trade legal blows with Epic. Also, there’s not really much happening with the case except for Judge James Donato denying Google’s motion to dismiss the case in September last year and a motion to delay the proceedings to October 2022, which was also denied by the presiding judge.
In more recent news, Epic Games updated and re-filed their anti-trust complaint with additional details on Google’s alleged monopoly, including sealed documents detailing Google’s deals with Apple, phone manufacturers, and third-party app stores. The amendments to the complaint were added soon after the original lawsuit was linked to a similar antitrust lawsuit filed by 36 states.
Apart from the redacted documents, Epic Games also submitted an unsealed document revealing Google’s plans to buy up the company to prevent them from adding an alternate payment system in the Android version of Fortnite.
“Google has gone so far as to share its monopoly profits with business partners to secure their agreement to fence out competition, has developed a series of internal projects to address the ‘contagion’ it perceived from efforts by Epic and others to offer consumers and developers competitive alternatives, and has even contemplated buying some or all of Epic to squelch this threat,” Epic claimed.
Google’s alleged discussions with its business partners and when they occurred remain sealed. According to Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, Google’s plans to buy them out only came to light recently because of the protective order surrounding case documents. Google, in turn, responded with a statement arguing the merits of the case and the conversations in question.
“Epic’s lawsuit is baseless and mischaracterizes our business conversations. Android provides more choices in mobile devices for developers and consumers,” a Google spokesperson told The Verge.
Epic Games’ update complaint also details Google’s alleged attempts to make side-loading, or direct downloads, more difficult in order to force users to download apps from the Play Store instead. The same argument that can be found in the multi-state antitrust lawsuit that Epic’s complaint has now been linked to.
In addition to adding a new planet, the Star Wars The Old Republic class system will also be getting a major revamp with the much-awaited Legacy of the Sith expansion. BioWare will be doing away with Classes and Advanced classes and will be replacing them with Origin Stories and Combat Styles, respectively, to better separate a character’s story from his/her gameplay style and give players more options to create their own personal Star Wars character. The team explains in a new dev blog:
“While the current array of Class and Advanced Class options allows you to create characters resembling many of your favorite characters, they don’t cover all of the most popular character/combat combinations from other Star Wars media. Boba Fett is a bounty hunter who primarily uses a rifle, Captain Rex is a soldier who fights with two pistols, and so on. Wouldn’t it be great if SWTOR let you create and customize these awesome characters, and more?”
There are still limitations on how far you can customize your character though, especially when it comes to the Force, so you can forget about creating that lightsaber-wielding lone wolf smuggler with ties to the Dark Side that you’ve always pictured in your head.
Blaster-wielding Origin Stories will only be able to choose tech-based Combat Styles while Force-based origins will only have access to Force-based Combat Styles. Additionally, Force users are also limited to Light Side or Dark Side Combat Styles. They can, however, unlock the opposing faction’s Combat Styles and choose on in addition to their own should they change their alignment down the line.
The new class system will become part of the character creation process once Legacy of the Sith goes live. New and boosted characters will be able to choose both an Origin Story and Combat Style while existing characters will only get to choose a Combat Style.
“If you have an existing character when Legacy of the Sith launches, when you log into the game, you will be able to choose a Combat Style immediately,” said BioWare. “You can choose a Combat Style similar to your previous Advanced Class or choose something new. The choice is yours!”
Dimensional Ink Games will be moving away from the traditional episode format in this month’s upcoming DC Universe Online update. Instead of adding new story quests and instances, the massive Episode 41: House of Legends will be focused on adding new features and improving the game.
“In HOUSE OF LEGENDS, The Monitor has sent out a request for assistance - to Super Heroes and to Super-Villains - to gather together in his House of Legends to prepare for an imminent threat to the multiverse.
While the looming threat is unclear, The Monitor's directions are not: train day and night, find new allies, and lift each other up. Everyone will be needed when the time comes.”
One of the new features coming to the superhero MMORPG is a new shared social hub that will be available to both heroes and villains called the House of Legends. “This hub will be like the Watchtower or Hall of Doom except conveniently smaller, packed with functionality, not confusing, and for both factions,” explains Dimensional Ink. Don’t worry, both the Hall of Doom and the Watchtower will remain exactly as they are.
The House of Legends update will also introduce the new Allies system which will allow players to recruit iconic DC characters from all over the multiverse and summon them to assist in battles. On release, the new system will feature Cyborg, Flashpoint Wonder Woman, The Flash, Zoom, and more as recruitable heroes.
“Collect your favorites and level up your multiversal connection with them to unlock powerful abilities and passive buffs. Leveling up will take Ally XP and other specific items, but please note this leveling or so-called breakthrough cannot fail.
Each ally will have their own strengths that can make them especially suited to specific situations, types of content, and more. Make sure you know who to call!”
The upcoming update will bring an entirely new way of playing previously-released content, which the team defines as any content aside from the last three episodes or anything older than a year. Essentially, these are instances or missions that reward Source Masks instead of unique episode currency.
As part of the changes, Combat Rating Relevancy will be removed entirely from the game while loot lockouts will be removed from past content. “Period. Paragraph. Full stop. Mic drop. Panderus out,” stressed the studio.
In addition, players will have their stats limited when playing past content to make it more challenging. Source Masks will also always be offered as rewards for past content and will be removed from endgame content. “You will not feel weak when you return to not-end-game content [and] you will not be hurting for Source Marks,” assured the devs.
Leveled up versions of past content favorites with endgame combat ratings and rewards will also be available to play in the new House of Legends social hub, including Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman content.
The update will also introduce several quality-of-life improvements, such as the addition of a “Quick Play” option in the On-Duty Menu, along with balance changes to Artifacts, Skill Points, Augments, the early endgame, and a whole lot more.
House of Legends is now live on the public test server if you want to give it a go. You can also check out the latest PTS patch notes or watch the preview stream below to learn more about the upcoming episode.
Bless Unleashed has seen a surge of players over the weekend following the highly-anticipated MMORPG’s launch last Friday. Player numbers peaked at nearly 73,800 concurrent players on Monday morning with over 50,000 active players online as of this writing, shooting the Bless Online reboot to the eighth spot on Steam’s Most-Played Games list. In comparison, the original game set an all-time high of 34,392 players on launch day before everything went downhill.
But as we all know, immense popularity can wreak havoc on a game’s servers in the few days and weeks after its launch and Bless Unleashed is no different. While most free-to-play users haven’t run into any major problems yet, there are still issues with lag spikes and congestion in some of the servers which have forced some players to relocate to less populated servers.
Founder’s Pack owners, however, quickly found out that they couldn’t claim their exclusive items and rewards upon moving to a different region or server. The studio promptly apologized for the confusion and have promised to fix the issue as soon as possible.
“To provide a better gaming experience and service, as an apology, adjustments to the Founder's Packs properties will be made for users who purchased either of the Deluxe, Exalted, and or Ultimate Founder's Pack,” said Neowiz. “These users can receive the DLC components in all regions/servers aside from the initial region/server in which they received the rewards. (Lumena and Premium Benefits not included.)”
The patch will be applied during a maintenance downtime in the near future. An exact date has yet to be announced.
Fiesta Online, Gamigo’s long-standing anime-style MMORPG, has just received its biggest expansion to date called Realm of the Gods. The expansion opens up three new divine realms: Teva, Cypian, and Apoline, which offer over a hundred new quests, new monsters, and challenging new bosses.
“In Isya, everyone is in turmoil. A new portal to the unknown has been discovered on the Island of Eya. Pagel was underestimated again and it's time to start a new adventure. Sharpen your blades, polish your shield and gather your friends to defeat the evil in the ‘Realm of the Gods’.”
The expansion also introduces the new Corruption Event that offers additional rewards for players who complete dynamic zone-wide challenges. Successfully completing the event will also result in a zone-wide buff for other players to enjoy.
“You can quickly find out if a Corruption event is currently taking place on the zone by looking at a new Corruption bar.” explains Gamigo. “When the Corruption Bar reaches the first, second, and third stages, a Corruption Spike spawns in a location on the map. It gives a buff to the monsters in its area, boosting their damage and health. Work with other players and kill the spike, as well as the subsequent waves of monsters, to successfully complete the event.”
“Should the Corruption Bar be completed then, a nasty surprise awaits you. Several Corruption Spikes will spawn on the map along with the mini-boss ’Cyral’,” the studio continued. “The mini-boss will be boosted by all the spikes on the map. Once the mini-boss is defeated, the event will end and a buff will be granted to players in the zone. However, if the mini-boss is not defeated, then it gets bored and moves on after some time.”
The level cap has also been bumped up by five levels to level 140 and adds new Prestige Skills for each of the game’s Prestige classes including the Templar.
The full release notes can be found on the Fiesta Online official site. if you want to browse through the full list of new features and changes. You can also check out the Realm of the Gods official trailer below for a visual overview of the expansion’s contents.
Take Two Interactive has announced the official release date for the standalone version of Grand Theft Auto Online announced back in March. Rockstar Games’ standalone MMO will be launching on November 11 alongside Grand Theft Auto V: Expanded and Enhanced for next-gen consoles.
Take Two’s latest investor report also revealed that they’re currently working on three “iterations of previously released titles. It’s still unclear whether these are remasters, remakes, reboots, or simply updates to older games but there are rumors of a possible Grand Theft Auto 3 remake floating around fueled by the company’s recent crackdown on Grand Theft Auto 3 mods.
The investor report also revealed Take Two’s ambitious release schedule of over 62 games by the year 2024, including a new IP that subsidiary 2K Games will be announcing “very soon.” Next year’s releases will include 10 free-to-play mobile games, NBA 2K22, Olliolli World, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, and an unannounced title.
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