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Wisdom of Nym: Final Fantasy XIV’s beast tribes ranked, the top ranks

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The fun thing about ranking the beast tribes of Final Fantasy XIV is that before I started in on this, I actually had no idea who would wind up where. I knew there were some tribes I liked more than others, but the actual final rankings surprised even me. Mostly toward the top; some entries, like the Lupine, were always going to be low on the list. But who would have thought that the top spot would go to…

Well, you’ll have to read for that. For now, let’s just make sure you’re caught up with the bottom ranks and the middle ranks. We’ve got five tribes left to go, and so by process of elimination you no doubt have a relatively clear picture of what tribes have to be here in some order, but let’s count them down. Starting with number five, just past the break. (The other four are further past the break.)

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Defiance 2050 performs better than its predecessor but hasn’t won the community over

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With last week’s launch of the revamped and rebooted Defiance 2050, Trion Worlds was betting on players flocking back to the sci-fi MMO shooter now that it’s seen improvements and adopted a free-to-play model. However, it doesn’t seem as though the community is giving its approval for the latest version of this game, at least according to Steam, where Defiance 2050 is weathering “mostly negative” reviews.

One common complaint is that the relaunched MMO isn’t really that much different or better than the old game — yet players have to start over from scratch (in an eerily similar situation to last year’s Secret World Legends reboot). Other frequent criticisms include the proliferation of lockboxes, server instability, old bugs that haven’t been fixed, and not enough recognition or extras for players coming from the original game.

Site Kitguru ran Defiance 2050 through a series of benchmarks and compared it to the original game, stating that it “improves upon its predecessor with a more detailed experience.” It was also noted that there was a choppier frame rate on larger resoutions, better AI, and no apparent reason for the reboot on PC.

Source: Steam, Kitguru

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The Daily Grind: Which online game has suffered the most from its own hype?

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I’ve still got hype on the brain. We’ve talked about the length of hype cycles and under-hyped MMOs. Now I want to talk about games that have actually suffered from their own hype specifically.

No Man’s Sky and WildStar pop to mind immediately for me as games we cover that were grievously wounded by hype. Both games effectively promised and teased far more features and more interesting features that they actually delivered, causing hype for the game to turn into venom post-launch. And in both cases, the game studios have made considerable effort to turn it around, but the grudges linger.

PUBG strikes me as another game that was heavily hyped last year but quickly succumbed to a prettier, cheaper, more accessible, and more polished game.

And howsabout Destiny 2? A contender, right?

Which online game has suffered the most from its own hype?

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Destiny 2’s upcoming patch tweaks Quickplay, Rumble, and bounties as Bungie preps for Forsaken

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Destiny 2’s 1.2.3 patch (yay soothing numbers) drops on Tuesday, and if you’re thinking it may be a good time for re-entry, you’re gonna wanna know what’s in it. Several things! Quickplay is now 6v6, Rumble is back on the table, and bounties are back – and they won’t be as “gotta do them or else” as they were in their first iteration.

“The bounties returning to Destiny 2 in Update 1.2.3 are a return to most of the properties of bounties in The Taken King. They will be obtained from a variety of vendors, they will generally award XP and faction reputation (though some will offer even better rewards), and can be redeemed “in the field” to immediately claim your rewards. In Forsaken, you may also see some bounties drop in the wild. There are two new mechanics. Bounties will expire if left uncompleted, and acquiring them will cost a small amount of Glimmer. We wanted to avoid the ‘grab every bounty you see until your inventory is packed and sort them out later’ experience without constraining players to the tiny inventory they found in previous iterations of the game.”

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The Stream Team: Conquering KOTET’s Chapter IX in SWTOR

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Once Massively OP’s Larry and MJ the final scene, Chapter VIII of SWTOR’s Knights of the Eternal Throne will be wrapped up, letting the duo move on to Chapter IX, The Eternal Throne. Will MJ’s Chiss Agent seize it as her destiny, as Darth Jar-Jar — er, Valkorian — keeps telling her to? Of course, that is completely up to the audience as it decides all the major alignment choices. Tune in live at 2:00 p.m. to decide the fate of the Eternal Empire.

What: Star Wars: The Old Republic
Who: Larry Everett & MJ Guthrie
When: 2:00 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, July 10th, 2018

Enjoy the show!

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Defiance 2050 officially launches as a free-to-play reboot on PC and console today

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Trion has a big launch on its hands today as it pushes Defiance 2050 out of beta into a live state on PC and both core consoles. As we’ve been covering, Defiance 2050 is set to be a “completely from-the-ground-up recreation” of Trion’s original Defiance that “overhauls the exciting story and groundbreaking gameplay of the original, reimagining the San Francisco-based sci-fi shooter experience for current gaming hardware.” Classic Defiance, which sparked widespread use of the term “transmedia synergy” buzzword across the MMO genre when it launched alongside a SyFy TV series of the same name, will continue on for those who prefer it as well.

If you’ve previously picked up a founder pack, you’ve already been in the beta, but as of today, the game is free-to-play and everyone can hop on in. Launch time is technically 1 p.m. EDT this afternoon, so if you’re reading this in the morning, you’ve got just a few more hours to wait. Why not check out some of our coverage while you do? We recommend our hands-on experiences from E3 and GDC!

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The Stream Team: Heading into Defiance 2050’s headstart

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In her first foray into Defiance 2050 during its closed beta, Massively OP’s MJ peeked in to try and see what what was different. The audience didn’t see much change. Could that be different this time around as she dives into the headstart of the open beta? Tune in live at 3:00 p.m. as OPTV‘s infamous Stream Team brings you a second first look at…

What: Defiance 2050
Who: MJ Guthrie
When: 3:00 p.m. EDT on Monday, July 9th, 2018

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Trion Worlds offers free MMO goodies for Marvel Heroes refugees

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Ever since Trion Worlds announced that it had snapped up all of the remaining assets from Gazillion and Marvel Heroes, we have wondered what the studio was planning to do with them. Now we know at least in part, as Trion is handing out free MMO promotional packs to Marvel Heroes refugees as a way to welcome them to the fold.

This promotion is a “limited-time offer” and only applies to former Gazillion players who register to Trion Worlds with the same email address that they used for Marvel Heroes. If this applies to you, you can pick up a promo pack to one of the five games that Trion is running.

Pick Trove and you’ll get both a super starter pack and a square necessities pack. Go with ArcheAge, and you’ll enjoy 30 days of patron time, a mount, and other goodies. RIFT’s deal is pretty good, with a month of subscription time, all of the game’s souls, two more bag slots, and a mount. Alternatively, you may choose Atlas Reactor (and get all freelancers the game has and ever will make) or Defiance (which includes a legendary shield and chip).

Source: Trion Worlds

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TennoCon 2018: Warframe expands into open-world Venus plus space

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Eidolon expanded the scope of Warframe immensely, but that doesn’t hold a candle to the content coming. The playable universe is growing by open-world leaps and bounds… and rocket thrusts!

Digital Extremes announced the next two major updates coming to the game at this year’s TennoCon 2108. First up this fall is Fortuna, a massive open-world environment on the surface of Venus. How big is it? Game Director Steve Sinclair said that the entirety of Eidolon would fit just on the first base in The Orb Vallis. That was the one folks had surmised parts of thanks to datamining. However, no one expected the second announcement: to play in space!

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Final Fantasy XI adds new tiers of gear with an all-mount login campaign

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The latest patch for Final Fantasy XI has gear you might not be able to wear yet. That might sound surprising, what with the game having established a rather firm equipment cap for several years now, but it’s the truth. Players can acquire new Superior 4 and Superior 5 gear, both of which require new job gifts to equip; the latter requires the Mastery gift, so you shan’t be able to unlock it until you’ve reached the highest tier of job progress.

The new gear is acquired by lasting through even more difficult waves in Dynamis, so it’s not going to be found just lying about on the ground. If you’re not up to that level of play, though, don’t worry; you can still take part in the game’s login campaign, which among other things is adding back more or less every single mount added through previous logins to give you a plethora of options for what to ride around. Good news for anyone who wants more ornate riding choices.

Curious about how the game is to play right now? We just wrapped up our Choose My Adventure series in the game, so you can check that out.

Source: Patch Notes, Login Campaign

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Headstart begins today for Defiance 2050

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The time has come for Defiance 2050 to enter the wild… in a limited sense. Head start access begins today, although the general “anyone can jump in” of the full launch won’t kick off until July 10th. But if you’re a founder, you can start playing this updated rebuild of the game right now on your platform of choice.

To go along with this particular event, players who are only passingly familiar with the title might want to take a gander at the rundown of the classes available on the PlayStation Blog, which covers all of the various ways you can shoot things in the game. (It’s a game about shooting things, you knew each class was going to have a focus on shooting.) The title is available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and of course the PC.

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Choose My Adventure: Final Fantasy XI in review and choosing our next MMO

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Here’s the weird part about this week’s column: I’m going to tell you, in short, that Final Fantasy XI is still a good game once you get past the initial hurdles involved. I am also going to tell you that it is a game which has not aged well, in part because of those facts. Which no doubt is going to sound kind of weird, but that’s the situation we find ourselves in.

There are really two things you have to look at with this particular game. The first is whether or not the game is approachable by someone who hasn’t played the game in years or ever, whether or not you can make reasonable progress when you start playing. The other is whether or not the game gives you slightest idea about how to do so, or indeed about how to do anything in the game. Because all of the systems in the world don’t help if you don’t know what they are.

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Wisdom of Nym: Final Fantasy XIV’s beast tribes ranked, the middle rankings

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We’re continuing our tour through the beast tribes of Final Fantasy XIV, and as I move through these rankings I can’t help but notice certain themes. There are some sorts of tribe that I just find more interesting than others, obviously; this whole exercise wouldn’t work if that weren’t the case. Last week’s tribes had various reasons for earning my non-affection, but there was a fairly consistent thread of the tribes not having super distinctive hooks and also not having much done with them.

Most of the tribes this week, by contrast, have one or the other but not both. Either there’s not much compelling about a tribe but plenty of stuff done with that foundation, or there’s really interesting material there that just isn’t explored. So let’s start unpacking this middle of the pack, which are generally tribes that I feel are just shy of being really compelling and interesting for one reason or another.

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