Massively Overpowered

Welp, it definitely wasn't a boring week over here in the world of online games. It all kicked off on Monday, when Microsoft announced it had bought ZeniMax, Bethsoft, and Elder Scrolls Online's ZeniMax Online Studios. Plus, we covered Ultima Online New Legacy, new afrofantasy MMO The Wagadu Chronicles, LOTRO's upcoming DLC and rumored new class, and No Man's...

EVE Online has put out yet another Pulse video newsletter, scooping together the most recent updates to the spaceship sandbox in one condensed bite of information. And this time around, it doesn't feature the running "gag" of one of the devs being blown up by a random enemy. The video draws together the most recent happenings including the zenith of...

Life Beyond's recent patch is a spot of good news for budding builders: "With this release, buildings get free energy so you don't have to add fuel to the AI Core. Additionally, constructions don’t need to be finalized manually!" And this is just the beginning of the rest of the news! Read on for a roundup of other smaller MMO news stories...

While we still don't have my beloved gyroids with a release date, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is bringing a September 30 update with features we haven't seen in previous main series games: growing pumpkins year-round and body paint. You'll also have the usual seasonal DIYs to find and create, seasonal clothing/costumes, candy-giving for Jack during the Halloween night event in exchange for more...

Piggy-backing on our column on World of Warcraft's lack of housing, MMO blog GamingSF argued that the game actually has a lot of the components for housing in place already. "WoW has so much lavish detail in its interiors and so many different architectural styles across all these years; art assets that are already in game and that could be...

Fallout 76 has kicked out yet another Inside the Vault jam with a little bundle of updates coming for the title, especially for those who are eager to see the game's test server open up once more. Yes, the game's PTS opens next week and will fixate on the C.A.M.P. Shelters feature. Shelters are instanced underground building locations that have...

Utakata's shot of a "quiet earth" in Blade and Soul here is not from the starting area (I'm assuming!), but it definitely makes me think of all of the MMOs that seem to think that the only way to start your character out on a journey is to shipwreck them and give them a good amnesic bonk on the...

The complete non-starter of Pathfinder Online did not surprise me. It was about what I expected, and it always struck me as one of those ideas people seemed to believe for reasons that never made a ton of sense to me. But I did back the project, because there was supposed to be a fun book that I got out of...

So here's an impossible task that lies before me right now: picking one musical genre that defines Granado Espada's score. I can't. It simply cannot be done. I've listened to a lot of soundtracks, my friends, and this game's score is literally all over the place. I don't know how or why the composers chose to toss opera, techno,...

Latch your rods and cones onto this one, boys and girls, because Phantasy Star Online 2 is showing how it's going to get a whole lot more pretty come next year. At the Tokyo Game Show this week, SEGA demoed gameplay from the sweeping New Genesis update -- and it's all the eye candy you could ask for. New Genesis...