Lumpy Spacesuit Couture or not, Hello Games’ No Man’s Sky dropped a massive revamp-centric patch meant to enliven the MMO’s environments, among other things. We mentioned the buildings can walk, right?
Were you in Solisium this weekend too? Over in the beta scene, NCsoft’s Throne & Liberty is actually starting to pick up some positive hype thanks to its open beta test.
Plus, MOP’s MJ has been reporting back from TennoCon all weekend – with some juicy news on upcoming MMORPG Soulframe.
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
Throne & Liberty’s open beta wrestles with login issues and EU server problems, showcases early access bundles - The past day of open beta for Throne & Liberty has gone about as one might have expected, which is to say that the game's initial onrush of players has…
The No Man’s Sky Worlds ‘universe refresh’ is why you’re playing No Man’s Sky this weekend - You know that whenever Hello Games and Sean Murray start dropping cryptic teasers so they'll trend on Reddit, a new No Man's Sky update is on the way, and so…
Save the date for Warframe and Soulframe’s 10th TennoCon: July 18-19, 2025 - The Year of Tenno for the 10th anniversary of Warframe was a big thing for Digital Extremes, so how do you think the studio will treat the 10th TennoCon next…
Not So Massively: The problem with The First Descendant’s character unlock mechanics - The First Descendant has made quite a splash since it launched earlier this month. Nexon's looter shooter, dubbed "Warframe with waifus" by the greater internet, has done big numbers on…
Wisdom of Nym: Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail’s delightfully light role quests - Something that happens sometimes with Final Fantasy XIV is that it takes the team a couple of tries to get a new idea right. Not universally; sometimes things work out…
Throne & Liberty starts its open beta today – here’s the new trailer - Today is the day when players can start in on Throne & Liberty as actual players because the game's open beta begins today on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series…
Ultima Online previews New Legacy’s themepark stylings in its new gameplay video - I need to warn you before you click on this trailer: If you played original Ultima Online back in the day, the opening notes of Stones in this video are…
Perfect Ten: Why World of Warcraft’s Legion was a top-tier expansion - While a lot of long-time World of Warcraft players will point to Wrath of the Lich King as the high point of the MMO, I've gradually formed the opinion that…
Path of Exile’s Settlers of Kalguur tackles real-time mechanics with city building - The Grinding Gear rooster has crowed, signifying the dawn of a new expansion and league. And what might they be? Welcome to Path of Exile: Chickens of Doom! Just kidding.…
LOTRO Legendarium: Is LOTRO’s early game too big and unwieldy? - As I was making some personal plans for my future adventures on Lord of the Rings Online's new legendary servers, I was really struck by just how large and expansive…
WoW Factor: The mulligan problem in World of Warcraft’s narrative - In World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, Illidan Stormrage gets killed. This isn't actually a surprising end for the character. Illidan as a person was someone who was driven in…
PvPvE medieval extraction RPG Dungeonborne begins its free-to-play Steam early access - Last week we cast our eyes to Dungeonborne, a first-person multiplayer PvPvE extraction RPG that lets solo players or teams band together to delve dungeons, gather goodies, and get out…
Global Chat: Looking back at 15 years of World of Warcraft blogging - Fifteen years is a huge chunk of time to devote to both a video game and an ongoing blog covering it, but that's exactly what Priest with a Cause has…
WoW Classic Cataclysm launches the Rise of the Zandalari on July 30 - If you remember back when World of Warcraft: Cataclysm was a new thing, perhaps you remember the Rise of the Zandalari as a fun throwback to a couple of expansions…
Settlers of Kalguur brings a massive melee overhaul and more to Path of Exile - Given such a major change incoming with Path of Exile's Settlers of Kalguur league, you'd be forgiven for wondering whether the rest of the expansion is any less robust -…
Raph Koster’s Stars Reach will offer shorter play sessions specifically to boost stickiness - Playable Worlds' lengthy blog post on Stars Reach's middle quad of pillars earlier this week wasn't long enough, or so Raph Koster suggests, as he says he actually forgot to…
Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred introduces a franchise first class with the versatile Spiritborn - If you thought that Diablo IV would be content to coast on the traditions of the past for its class design, think again, for the upcoming expansion promises a brand-new…
Massively Overthinking: When I’m president of video games… - This week's Massively Overthinking is inspired directly by a positively delightful tweet that could totally happen. "When I'm President Of Video Games, all games will have an 'adults with busy…
Here’s how to sign up for Path of Exile 2’s impending closed beta test - If you are saddened by the fact that the preview and today's big livestream reveal focused only on Path of Exile 's new Settlers of Kalguur league and expansion and…
Fractured has overhauled its PvP to reduce griefing ahead of next week’s formal launch - We're just a week away from Fractured Online's official launch out of early access, which means Dynamight Studios has officially rolled out its last big patch before the release. This…
Vague Patch Notes: How widespread free-to-play impacted MMORPGs - In 2009, Dungeons & Dragons Online went free-to-play, which was a pretty big deal at the time. It was especially important to me, since it was one of the big…
Raph Koster aims to make Stars Reach complex but not overcomplicated – and focused on retention - You didn't think Playable Worlds' Raph Koster was going to stop at just two pillars of design for his new sandbox MMORPG Stars Reach, did you? Because Koster seldom does…
SSG’s Rob Ciccolini laments aging hardware and long downtimes as DDO delays Update 68.1 - As both Dungeons and Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online players noticed yesterday as both MMOs were unavailable for 15 hours, SSG's game downtime seems to have gotten…
Former Blizzard and Funcom dev Craig Morrison is working on a cozy true crime MMORPG backed by NetEase - Cast your mind back to summer 2021, and you might recall that was when World of Warcraft's Craig Morrison - best known to MMORPG players for his key role at…
PSA: New World is planning to expire your character names after six months of inactivity - So New World has some good news and some bad news for everyone today, and really it's just one bit of news that'll strike you one way or the other…
Enlisted makes its return to Steam, and this time it’s completely free-to-play - Gaijin Entertainment's multiplayer WWII FPS Enlisted was meant to make a big early access launch on Steam, but instead the shooter stumbled out of the gate, with account linking technical…
Wayfinder releases massive quality-of-life patch as devs celebrate newly positive reviews - As promised, Airship Syndicate has buffed the heck out of Wayfinder today with its new patch live on Steam. The update is loaded with quality-of-life tweaks, most specifically a server…
Spellfarers is a new Palia-esque indie cozy MMO, headed to early access July 29 - It's not every day that a new MMO or pseudo-MMO drops in our inboxes and becomes a game I stick on my wishlist and not just in our newsroom, but…
Lost Ark’s solo raids and summer festival go live in today’s Cool Retreat update - Lost Ark has arrived to punctuate your July with its Cool Retreat update, going live this morning - by 11 a.m. EDT, if Amazon can stick to its plan. "The…
Choose My Adventure: Slipping back in to the simple pleasures of Elite Dangerous - Last week's original Choose My Adventure plans took a backseat to my Soapbox on Dawntrail, so thank you for bearing with me on that, but I would also be lying…
Neverness to Everness is Hotta Studios’ next gacha RPG set in a ‘supernatural urban open world’ - If that other studio can make a sci-fantasy urban RPG, then what's stopping Hotta Studio and Perfect World Entertainment from doing the same thing? Enter Neverness to Everness, a mouthful…
Neverwinter’s Mount Hotenow-revamping Mountain of Flame module is live on all platforms today - As promised, Neverwinter is getting a fiery new update today in the form of Mountain of Flame, officially live simultaneously on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox as of this afternoon. "This…
Final Fantasy XIV introduces the Arcadion and addresses job balance in patch 7.01 - It's time to get ready to rumble, Final Fantasy XIV fans, because The Arcadion is here and ready for new entrants. The new raid series for the expansion kicks off…
Massively on the Go: Pokemon Go Fest 2024 aimed straight at the wallet - If functional is the bar for Pokemon Go players, Niantic almost cleared it for Go Fest 2024, but damn if that isn't a depressing sentence to write for the umpteenth…
Devs from multiple Bethesda offices formally create a ‘wall to wall’ union of over 200 workers - The unionization movement among video game developers has taken yet another large step forward this weekend, as workers from Bethesda Game Studios offices located in Austin and Dallas (Texas) and…
THIS WEEK’S CASTS & STREAMS
Massively OP Podcast Episode 476: Corepunk and Pantheon race to early access
The Stream Team: Hopping in to the open beta of Throne & Liberty
The Stream Team: Checking out the extremely weird battle royale of Knightfall
The Stream Team: Frantically trying to eat everything in Pizza Possum
The Stream Team: Hunting the Nuhoch hunting mastery in Guild Wars 2
The Stream Team: Aiding Scruut in Elder Scrolls Online
The Stream Team: Three friends walk into the horrors of Content Warning together
The Stream Team: Entering the battle arena of Final Fantasy XIV’s Arcadion raid
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.
