MMORPGs are complex and evolving beasts. Even with over 100 hours played and a level 50+ character, I still haven't arrived at the endgame yet. Every MMORPG is different in terms of character activities for max-level characters as they continue to try to progress past the cap. Speaking with Amazon Games' game design manager Michael Willette, creative director David Verfaillie, and gameplay design manager David Hall, a picture of the core pillars of the endgame appears. While I'm not there just yet, I'm eager to continue plodding along through a world of blueberry farming, leather refinement, and chopping down cool-looking trees.
The first element that makes up endgame play is gear hunting. Not an uncommon endgame pursuit, because of how gear can roll in New World, finding a perfect piece with the exact modifiers you're looking for can take some serious time. For instance, even in the mid-to-late gear game chase, I'm attempting to use my Azoth resource to hypercharge bags that I make, aiming to get the Extra Pockets modifier that lets me carry significantly more on my character, making hauling back resources easier.
Tweaking mods, even more, I aim to get other weight reduction mods on carried goods like wood or ore in addition to Extra Pockets, making a new bag a powerful upgrade that allows me to make trips hyperefficient. Right now, I'm only rolling two mods per bag. In the endgame, most items can have three different modifiers and a gem slot that further allows customization options, so finding the perfect piece for each slot will likely take a while – especially since you probably want two different sets of gear at least, one for fighting and one for harvesting. In addition, you may want to forge different sets designed to tackle various types of enemies or encounters.
The second element of the game that I'm already heavily engaged in is territory faction control. While the war on my server is already raging between the three color factions, level 60 players can engage in Outpost Rush matches so they can PvP anytime in an organized fashion without waiting for a war to take off or for open-world PvP to be happening in a specific area in earnest. You can always head outside any city to fight some scrapping, but Outpost Rush lets players engage in team-based 20 vs. 20 PvP anytime once hitting the level cap.
The third is, again, something that players engage with very early but goes possibly the latest, and that's crafting. From becoming the best at crafting potions, keys, weapons, food, or just becoming the best fisherman on the server, that's an option. Level 60 is just one achievement to work on, as there are many crafting and gathering skills to master. These feed into another system players might not engage with until late in the game, depending on their financial situation, and that's housing.
Players can use housing for both function and flavor, loading them up with adorable pets, powerful trophies that augment your abilities out in the world, and oodles of decorative options. Housing also allows players additional travel options around the world and serious storage space, something that any player has certainly felt the value of as you tirelessly attempt to store your huge stacks of goods. Want to be the coolest person on the server? Enhance your house with various artifacts and styles to raise your peacock rating, making you likely to be the featured house that players see when they walk by.
Many of the other activities that players can jump into in the endgame can be experienced in some fashion on the way to the top, as well. These include dungeon experiences, portal farming (where players run around a zone and close portals with other players by fighting demonic forces), crafting, gathering, questing, and realm-vs-realm PvP.
A gang of British car thieves have been arrested after being caught using a device disguised as a Nintendo Game Boy, which was designed to bypass the security systems on modern cars.
This month's Humble Choice bundle doesn't have a big triple-A game to anchor the selection, but that doesn't mean there's a lack of quality games this time around. Indie label Devolver has brought one of its finest games to the bundle, alongside some major horror muscle and an excellent tactical take on John Wick.
As ever, the Humble Plan offers a selection of games, and you'll be able to choose a handful to keep depending on your subscription tier. Legacy subscribers have additional options, but the Premium plan ($19.99 USD) lets you keep nine games out of the 12 on offer, while the Basic plan ($14.99 USD) lets you keep three.
The full list of games includes Katana Zero, Amnesia: Rebirth, John Wick Hex, 112 Operator, Guts and Glory, Ring of Pain, Garage: Bad Trip, the Textorcist: The Story of Ray Bibbia, Tools Up, Hiveswap Friendsim, Black Future '88, and Syberia 3. All those games will redeem via Steam.
FIST: Forged In Shadow Torch might have one of the sillier backronyms we've seen in a bit, but after its launch on PlayStation platforms last month, it proved to be a solid take on the classic metroidvania formula. Now it's suddenly on PC, with a host of extra graphical features to make the wait worthwhile.
You may have already played FIST on PC in the past thanks to the demo available on Steam, but the PC version finally launched in full over the weekend, about a month removed from its PS4 and PS5 counterpart. The PC version features ray tracing, and Nvidia's DLSS and Reflex tech for improved performance and responsiveness.
If you haven't seen FIST in the past, it's a side-scrolling platformer with an emphasis on melee combat, set in a "dieselpunk" world populated by anthropomorphic animals. The PlayStation versions reviewed pretty well at launch, garnering an average 80 review score, as OpenCritic shows.
Everyone is aflutter from the Disney boy joining Smash Bros, but I've never played a Kingdom Hearts. I did, however, spend many hours as an early teen watching Hey Arnold! and CatDog. I am therefore more excited about today's release of Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, a Smash-like platform brawler starring Nickelodeon characters including Spongebob and Invader Zim.
Today sees the release of perhaps the only true contender to the platform fighter crown with Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl. The game is looking to give the reigning genre champ, Super Smash Bros., a run for its money. All-Star Brawl features rollback netcode, a functional lobby system, and slick gameplay provided by Ludosity — the creators of another Smash-like game, Slap City. Not only that, the game is available on all modern consoles, and also has a PC release. As these things tend to go, once a fighting game hits the PC, the leaks begin to drop as well. Some users on Reddit have found what could be the first season of Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl DLC characters. Now, as with all rumors, take everything said here with the appropriate grain of salt. Over on the game's Reddit page, voice lines from the game's announcer were found via datamining. It is worth nothing that the announcer is the only voice in the game, as all of the characters sadly do not have any voice li...
Publisher Skybound Games and developer ManaVoid Entertainment have readied a launch trailer for Rainbow Billy: The Curse of the Leviathan, their new 2.5D adventure puzzle platformer. The game made it to Switch earlier today. Here's an overview with more information: Rainbow Billy: The Curse of the Leviathan is a wholesome, creature capture, 2.5D Adventure-Puzzle-Platformer with RPG elements. It is a...
Publisher Humble Games and developer Witch Beam recently released a developer diary for Unpacking, their upcoming zen puzzle game. The behind-the-scenes video explores the game's origins and development. Here's an overview of Unpacking ahead of the game's release: Unpacking is a zen game about the familiar experience of pulling possessions out of boxes and fitting them into a new home....
There is no shortage of opinions on the recently launched New World — and no shortage of drama either. On top of all of the hot takes that you're getting here on Massively OP, we scouted around the MMO blogosphere to gather up impressions from various perspectives. We'll kick off with Unidentified Signal Source, who […]
Look at that, there's another survival shooter floating around out there! This one is called Lost Light and it comes to us from developer and publisher NetEase Games. The shooter is built on three core gameplay elements: survival, warfighting, and progression, and promises "high risk high return" as players will have to plan out how […]
A week ago, Amazon released New World, an online computer game where archers and ax wielders colonize a mythical land. Jassy said it's off to a "great ...
Today sees the release of perhaps the only true contender to the platform fighter crown with Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl. The game is looking to give the reigning genre champ, Super Smash Bros., a run for its money. All-Star Brawl features rollback netcode, a functional lobby system, and slick gameplay provided by Ludosity — the creators of another Smash-like game, Slap City. Not only that, the game is available on all modern consoles, and also has a PC release. As these things tend to go, once a fighting game hits the PC, the leaks begin to drop as well. Some users on Reddit have found what could be the first season of Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl DLC characters. Now, as with all rumors, take everything said here with the appropriate grain of salt. Over on the game's Reddit page, voice lines from the game's announcer were found via datamining. It is worth nothing that the announcer is the only voice in the game, as all of the characters sadly do not have any voice li... 
