Massively Overpowered

In the latest newsletter from Ultima Online, players are treated to a number of advance plans written by Broadsword's Bonnie Armstrong, chiefly looking forward to what's next now that Publish 109 fully released in July. One of the first talking points is regarding the treasure system as part of Treasures of Deceit, which lets players battle creatures in Deceit to...

Over the past few weeks we've been following along with Past Fate, the sandbox MMORPG that is having another go at getting crowdfunded. This week, the devs are talking about death. Or, more specifically, what happens to players when their characters die. Dead players are transported to the Underworld zone, an area where players can apparently interact with other fallen...

Electronic Arts is continuing its gradual return to Steam with a newly opened page talking up the arrival of the EA Access plan, as well as offering a button that users of Steam can press to be notified of when the service goes live. All of the benefits of the EA Access plan that was originally on EA's Origin platform...

Amazon is apparently retooling Twitch a bit today as it's just announced Prime Gaming, which is basically the same as the Twitch Prime, with its suite of free stuff and drops and access specific to gaming that comes along as part of the Amazon Prime membership. "With today’s launch of Prime Gaming, Amazon Prime members can now enjoy tons of...

Whether in a ship or on foot in FPS combat, players and NPCs in Star Citizen will get shot at with a variety of fascinating weapons. Handheld weaponry was the focus of the latest developer livestream, which brought on members of the game's weapons content team to talk about how they realize the variety of guns in the sandbox. The...

Developer Sumo Newcastle and publisher Focus Home Interactive offered up what it hopes is a unique spin on the team-based PvPvE game during the recent PS5 State of Play event. It's called Hood: Outlaws & Legends, a game set in a medieval time where thieves seek to take riches from an oppressive authority as well as one another. "Faced with...

Remember back in June when investment accountability group CtW was agitating against Activision-Blizzard's corporate finances, arguing that Bobby Kotick is grossly overpaid and urging shareholders to vote down the company management's Say-on-Pay policy? That vote wasn't successful by the numbers; 43.2% of shareholders voted against, a surprisingly large number but not quite enough to put Acti-Blizzard execs on notice. The...

City of Heroes-inspired superhero MMORPG Valiance Online surprised everyone when it announced a few weeks back that it'd be opening up its beta for a week in conjunction with the PlayNYC con in August. But now that time has arrived, as the con is expected to begin its online opening ceremonies this evening, and would-be testers are already champing...

Is it too late to hope this patch ends with a bunch of NPCs from the First watching everyone walk back to the Source before someone says, "Truly, they were... Shadowbringers" in what would no doubt be the stupidest possible ending to the quest line? Yes. It is both too late and a bad idea. But also a little...

At the tail end of July, Riot Games managed to piss off gamers, streamers, esports stars, and its own developers by unilaterally announcing a League of Legends esports partnership with Saudia Arabia and its controversial Neom project. The partnership was terminated within days of its announcement thanks to the uproar as Riot Games backed down and apologized. But if you...