Everyone has a fighting chance
Yep, it’s Friday and that means it’s time for the latest edition of the Star Citizen: Around the Verse video series. In this week’s self-titled “Dude, It’s the July 12th Update”, the team takes a look at big improvements to “environmental storytelling” and much more.
The wait for the next World of Warcraft expansion, Battle for Azeroth, is coming to a close. With launch day on August 14th, the time has come for the pre-patch events to go live starting July 17th. The pre-patch comes with a number of changes briefly outlined in this video and on the game’s official site.
ArtCraft’s latest Crowfall blog is all about chatting it up. The post announces a partnership with third-party chat system developer, Vivox, and what it brings to the game. According to the blog, “it brings the scalability and features we’re looking for along with seamless integration”.
Closed Beta 2 is officially a go in Legends of Aria. Servers have been wiped and everyone is off to a new start as they explore new territory, the new map system, the updated graphics and much more. Testers will be integral in providing feedback “to prioritize [developers’] efforts in Open Beta”. The goal is to bring about Open Beta testing towards the end of August or in early September. In the meantime, “thousands of trial keys” will be provided to help stress test servers.
The Fractured site has been updated with a new roadmap that includes the team’s plans for taking the game from pre-alpha to launch. The map shows that pre-alpha would take place in October of this year, with a year’s worth of alpha testing throughout 2019. 2020 and into 2021 would be devoted to beta testing with full launch targeting a Q3 2021 release. “Yes, it takes time to build an MMO” the accompanying post reads.
If you’ve been missing your Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire crew and ship, you’re in luck! The first DLC, Beast of Winter, will be heading to the high seas on August 2nd. According to a PCGamesN preview, developers have taken a more darkly comedic turn in Beast of Winter as players head into The Beyond, “a supernatural dimension filled with ancient things”.
TERA has been updated with the Phantom’s Keep content patch that brings a revamped Dreadspire into the game as well as dragon hunting Guardian Missions and marks the return of the Manglemire dungeon.
From 6:00 pm Pacific on July 12th to 6:00 am Pacific on July 14th, Star Trek Online players can take on the Hearts and Minds mini-mission “that explores the consequences of some unconventional research gone awry”. According to the official site, the mission is a “story in one act” that can be completed in a single short game session. It is considered a horror story, hence its arrival just in time for Friday the 13th.
BioWare’s James Ohlen has retired from the company after 22 years. In a brief Twitter post, Ohlen wrote, “After 22 years, I have retired from BioWare. I’ve loved my time with Anthem, Star Wars, Dragon Age and Dungeons & Dragons. But I need to take a break from the industry and work on something a little smaller and more personal.”
If you’ve been looking forward to The Bard’s Tale 4: Barrows Deep, your wait is almost over! inXile has announced that the PC version of the game will be released on September 18th, with PlayStation 4, XBox One, Mac and Linux versions coming later in 2018.