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.

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".

Final Fantasy XIV and TheHiveLeader haven't always seen eye to eye. But sometimes things change. In an effort to see everything Final Fantasy XIV has to offer, TheHiveLeader is devoting an entire month to one of the best MMOs out there that he's never really gotten into. Will this time be different? Hopefully.

Sea of Thieves Executive Producer Joe Neate is back with the latest Developer Update for the game. Neate begins with a discussion of the latest build that was deployed earlier today and contains some stability fixes, eliminated a cannonball knockback that could injure a player's own crew and more. In addition, a new Bilgerat Adventure called the Sunken Curse has been added that "is intended to get you to explore underwater".

Hello Games' Sean Murray is ramping up the excitement to the NEXT content update to No Man's Sky that is coming later this month. In a new video, Murray details 11 things that have changed with the game since launch. It is, of course, not an exhaustive list, but it consists of the development team's favorite few.

The Crowfall team has posted the newest ACE Q&A for July, this time answering questions across a number of topics including procedural world generation, new monsters, Hunger contagion and much more. See what Creative Director J. Todd Coleman and Design Lead Thomas Blair have to say.

The Ashes of Creation team has posted a nifty new video to show off some of the environments that will be featured in Alpha One. Over the coming weeks, Intrepid plans to show off even more of the game, including the combat that has been a key focus of development over the last several months.

The latest Forgotten Gods preview has been posted on the Grim Dawn forum. This time, a new game mode is introduced called the Shattered Realm. When players take part, they are sent through the veil into a world beyond that is familiar...yet different and packed with increasingly difficult foes the further one explores.

Do you remember...what they did to you? The next chapter in Warframe's cinematic quests - The New War.

Welcome to the open Landscape of Venus, coming in the Fortuna update later in 2018!

The latest Star Citizen: Around the Verse has been published, this time pithily called "5 Minutes or Less" that is indicative of the length of the video. But it's an informative, if brief, video where Sandi Gardiner and Chris Roberts look at Alpha 3.2 and what is in the release pipeline going forward.

EA and BioWare have released the 20 minute gameplay demo for Anthem that was shown at E3 2018 in early June. The video features Lead Producer Ben Irving narrating the action that was shown during the E3 showcase. "Discover more about the transversal, combat, and teamwork on display as a team of four Freelancers complete the mission "Scars & Villainy".

The latest Crowfall concept art creation video has been published, this time centered on the Wood-Elf. Art Lead Dave Greco shows off how she was created and provides an inside look at the creative process "from start to finish".

Sandbox Interactive has published a new video developer diary that reveals the first details of the forthcoming Albion Online Merlyn Update with specific regard to Faction Warfare. This is Part 1 of a multipart series that will reveal more about the Merlyn update.

Today's Closers update, Season of Wolves, brings both the playable character Violet and removes the fatigue system. In addition, players can look for big quality of life improvements, UI tweaks, gameplay balance adjustments and much more.

As part of this week's Fortnite update, the Playground limited time mode has made a return after briefly appearing and disappearing late last week. In Playground mode, up to four players can practice building and game tactics. One intrepid group even built a city in just over an hour.

Several new legendary cosmetics are coming next week when the next update launches in Heroes of the Storm. Called "Raiders of Warchrome", new content will include a new legendary mount, legendary skins for Nazeebo & Azmodan, and a new epic skin for Raynor. All have a very mech-oriented "Mad Max" vibe going on.

Launch day for the the From the Ashes DLC for Kingdom Come: Deliverance is literally right around the corner on July 5th. To get players primed for "a new type of adventure", the DLC launch trailer has arrived.

If you find yourself wistfully pining for the days of heady RPG adventures in Mass Effect and dejectedly remembering that it's been tabled for the foreseeable future, you may want to check out the latest offering from Outside Xtra. These fine folks take a look at the upcoming Assassin's Creed: Odyssey and how it may just fill that empty space in your heart that used to be filled by Mass Effect.