Funcom won’t let Dune Awakening lie fallow for the month of May; the studio announced a massive NDA-free beta test coming May 9th to make up for the title’s delay to June. MOP’s own Larry got his hands on the game ahead of the announcement, finding it a mixed bag for both MMORPG and survivalbox fans.
Meanwhile, Equinox Homecoming is launching its early access bid on May 8th, the Russian government has apparently seized the assets of Russian World of Tanks studio Lesta Games, another Lineage MMORPG is happening, LOTRO officially turned 18 years old, and MapleStory Worlds rolled out its global launch.
Read on to catch up with the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions today as every Sunday (since 2010!) in Massively Overpowered’s Week in Review!THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
First impressions: Dune Awakening is an MMORPG pretending to be a survival game - With Dune Awakening just a few weeks away from launch, I've finally taken a deep-dive into the game to see whether it's worth the hype - and worth the price…
The assets of Russian World of Tanks developer Lesta have apparently been seized by the Russian government - The studio responsible for the Russian version of World of Tanks and World of Warships has had its assets seized by the Russian government. According to Russian news agency RBC,…
Horse mystery MMO Equinox Homecoming confirms Steam early access May 8, subscription and DLC monetization - "Surprise: our game is coming a lot sooner than you may have expected!" declares Equinox: Homecoming, and indeed early access is arriving a whole lot earlier than many may have…
Not So Massively: The redonkulous state of The First Descendant’s balance - Recently, The First Descendant pushed out a big hotfix full of massive balance changes. If you don't know the game, these changes might have looked absolutely insane. Ines' ultimate cooldown…
Second Wind: Back in LOTRO for the first time in a decade - [AL:LOTRO]Lord of the Rings Online is a game that is near and dear to me. It was my first MMO. It is still my all-time favorite MMO. And while many…
LOTRO Legendarium: The reward of exploring off the beaten path in Middle-earth - People are creatures of habit and routine. It's not necessarily a bad thing because it's what anchors us, keeps the chaos at bay, and helps us get regular tasks done.…
Roblox is cracking down on players who recreate infamous mass shooting events in-game - As a general rule of thumb, you do not want to have any sort of story about your video game wherein your title is being railed against by the ADL.…
Storyboard: Dealing with the things your MMOs characters can’t do (but still can) - In the middle of Final Fantasy XIV's post-Stormblood patches, there's a scene where the characters need to purchase a specific katana. An exact price for the katana is not given…
Ashes of Creation releases the Turquoise Sea zone full of monsters, ‘pocket dungeons,’ and naval PvP - If your idea of a tropical paradise is one where you can face the threats of various monsters, pirates, and swarms of PvP players, then you're invited to the Turquoise…
The Crew 2’s hybrid offline mode will begin player testing April 30 on PC - Remember last year when Ubisoft followed up a year of pissing people off over the unnecessary demise of The Crew 1 by announcing a proper offline mode for The Crew…
Dune Awakening will run a large-scale beta from May 9 to 12 – with no NDA this time - When Funcom delayed the launch of its survival MMORPG Dune Awakening from May 20th to June 10th, it casually mentioned that it'd be opening a large-scale open beta weekend at…
MapleStory Worlds expands its reach to the entire world with this week’s global launch - While Nexon's MapleStory Worlds fully launched this past January, that was only in North America and Europe. Now the Roblox challenger has its sights set a little higher: the entire…
Massively Overthinking: The eternal granular squabbles in our pet MMORPGs - So if you don't play a Star Wars Galaxies rogue server - and chances are that you don't - you probably have no idea what the endless player fights on…
Elder Scrolls Online’s player response options upgrade re-injects roleplaying into quest convos - ZeniMax Online Studios has a new dev blog up this afternoon all about Elder Scrolls Online's new player response options system. In fact, if you've dipped into the MMO's Seasons…
The Division 2 outlines Year 7’s plan for better onboarding, broader endgame, and May 27 Battle for Brooklyn DLC - Ubisoft's multiplayer looter shooter The Division 2 is nearing the start of its Year 7 series of seasonal content updates, which means that the studio is ready to show off…
Throne and Liberty previews the Illusion Workshop – tmog – functionality arriving in the game on May 1 - For fans of particular gear appearances in Throne and Liberty, the good news is that the upcoming Illusion Workshop arriving on May 1st will let you preserve the cosmetic appearances…
The Soapbox: I love that MMOs allow me to live in the past - I used to think that the notion of a "mid-life crisis" was somewhat ridiculous... until I found myself deep in one. It kind of crept up on me over the…
Vague Patch Notes: Not every MMO mechanic you dislike is a bad one - There is a category of responses to any column about mechanics, and it came up with the recent couple of columns about level scaling, but it comes up with every…
Original flavor Path of Exile is plotting a May full of wacky league template mash-ups - Does it seem as of the Legacy of Phrecia event in Path of Exile only just arrived? Well, it's already ending - today, in fact. The stop-gap Phrecia content was…
NCsoft is hiring for another next-generation UE5 Lineage MMORPG project - So let's start with a history lesson. NCsoft originally hit the MMO world with Lineage in South Korea, which was a huge hit there. The game then got a follow-up…
Throne & Liberty is cracking down on cheaters (again) – and rewarding gamers who play fair - You know, if MMO studios didn't have to spend so much of their time and money and energy on addressing cheaters, we'd all be a lot richer for it. That's…
Lord of the Rings Online’s Update 44 arrives today, followed by the 18th anniversary tomorrow - While Bilbo may not have admitted anyone to his abode except on party business, Lord of the Rings Online is welcoming one and all to its latest patch and anniversary…
World of Warcraft’s staggered Update 11.1.5 lands with catch-up buffs and the Nightfall scenario - A very odd and scattershot patch landed on World of Warcraft's retail servers last night, with Update 11.1.5 offering time-gated new content and a few nice quality-of-life improvements. What will…
Some Final Fantasy XIV servers have already chewed through much of the new Cosmic Exploration content - Sure, players of Final Fantasy XIV can gather and craft anywhere, but the latest patch to the MMORPG now lets them gather and craft on the moon. This week saw…
New World’s PvP-centric Season of the Divide arrives May 13 with the Hardcore seasonal world - Hallelujah, we're finally getting a huge blast of info out of New World this afternoon. Let's start with the big news: Season 8 is coming, it's called Season of the…
Elder Scrolls Online talks console mods and sub deal bugs as Bethsoft announces Oblivion remaster - We're guessing everyone has long since forgotten the news that Elder Scrolls Online is opening up modding supprt on console, but it is indeed still happening with the release of…
Choose My Adventure: A bit of realmwalking and a whole lot of house building in Nightingale - I have the rather unique challenge this week: I'm trying to make hours' of game time in Nightingale spent building a house interesting to read. Obviously this means that the…
Hardcore PvP MMO Warborne Above Ashes begins predownloading for its month-long playtest - If you signed up for Warborne Above Ashes' large-scale PvP playtest earlier this month, you woke up to a happy surprise: a steam invite for that very test, which officially…
Defiance confirms that live player counts vastly outnumber earlier stress testing - Having too many players wanting to get in to your MMO would normally be a good problem to have, but in the case of Defiance's re-release, it's an actual problem…
Lord of the Rings Online updates players on its PvP zone progress, saying player interest is ‘refreshing - Lord of the Rings Online's decidedly niche PvP mode best thank its lucky stars that it has a developer that cares passionately about this, because it's translated into ongoing improvements…
Wild Terra 2 asks players to pony up $1800 per month for server costs - Have you ever thought about the actual cost of operating an MMO server -- and what would happen if the studio weren't making enough money to cover those costs? Wild…
RuneScape Dragonwilds sees high Steam numbers as Jagex tells its devs to touch grass - The release week for RuneScape: Dragonwilds, the survival sandbox from Jagex that surprise launched into early access, has been an understandably busy one as multitudes of gamers arrive to try…
OG Guild Wars sees an all-new Steam concurrency high during its anniversary celebration - It would seem like this month is all about bringing back the classics: Readers will no doubt recall that ArenaNet was holding a 20th anniversary for the original Guild Wars…
Wisdom of Nym: Things I want out of Final Fantasy XIV’s upcoming Occult Crescent - It is a fact almost universally acknowledged that human beings are never happy with where they are currently located; instead, we almost constantly wish to be where we are not.…
Defiance’s return is marked with multiple server crashes, restarts, and high lag - To say that people were pretty excited for the relaunch of Defiance over the weekend by Fawkes Games would be an understatement, particularly since the past several days of live…
PvPvE extraction RPG Velev sunsetted after just six days in early access - We support speedrunning, but we're not sure the "multiplayer game sunset any%" speedrun category needs to be a thing. But if it was, then it would appear that Velev, the…
Piratical survival MMO Crosswind showcases a boss fight in latest pre-alpha gameplay video - At the middle point of March we were introduced to Crosswind, an in-development free-to-play survival MMO set in an "alternative age of piracy" that's "driven by real-world characters and supernatural…
Pantheon Rise of the Fallen devs mark the passing of Brad McQuaid with memorial messages - Regular readers and fans of MMORPGs are likely more than familiar with Brad McQuaid, the genre luminary who helped steward the original EverQuest and Vanguard and also founded Visionary Realms…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 515: Palia’s purple paradise
The Stream Team: The continuing adventures of a pair of gremlins in Mother Machine co-op
The Stream Team: Into Dungeons & Dragons Online’s House of Pain
The Stream Team: An anniversary romp on LOTRO’s new servers
The Stream Team: Shapeshifting the way through Split Fiction
The Stream Team: Bounty hunting for fun and profit in Elite Dangerous
The Stream Team: Guild Wars 2’s Super Adventure Box and the Super Ooze Kitchen
The Stream Team: Elder Scrolls Online adventures with Scruut
The Stream Team: Experiencing Subterror for the first time
The Stream Team: Going green in Planet Crafter
The Stream Team: Dancing with the blossoms and the monsters in Monster Hunter Wilds
Every week, get caught up on the MMO genre’s latest news and Massively OP’s best content in our MMO Week in Review! Want more roundups of content? Try Friday’s Betawatch for MMO testing highlights, Saturday’s Make My MMO for MMO crowdfunding updates, and Sunday’s The MOP Up, which mops up all the bits of news we didn’t cover anywhere else.
