Live Service Roundup - Late May 2021

The world of live service truly does not wait for anyone, and despite it only being two weeks since the last Live Service Roundup, there are already tons of new additions and content available in your favourite games. With tons to explore, here are six of the biggest updates that have made it to live service games or will be arriving within the next two weeks.

Overwatch - Anniversary

It's not exactly the most exciting news to hear that Overwatch's Anniversary event is back. But alas, it is back again and has now officially started, bringing three weeks worth of seasonal activities, until it ends on June 8.

This year, as with every other year, a whole list of new cosmetics have made their way to the Blizzard-developed shooter, including a disco-themed Baptiste skin called Funky, giving the support character an 80s-looking afro hairstyle and a belt buckle that fittingly reads "GRVY".

Across the duration of the event, players can also look to net a skin and some new cosmetics each week just for playing matches in the game. Week One that is currently available is offering a player icon and a spray, both themed around the new Cybermedic Ana skin that marks the final reward for the week. Week Two will be themed around the Bird of Paradise Echo skin and the final week will be based around the 8 Ball Wrecking Ball skin, so make sure to dive in and celebrate five years of this beloved shooter.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Mobile and Warzone - 80s Action Heroes

Today, Activision further built on the hype of its current 1980's themed Call of Duty world that spans Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Call of Duty: Warzone and Call of Duty: Mobile by bringing two classic 80s action stars to the game in its 80s Action Heroes event.

First teased a few weeks ago, Sylvester Stallone's John Rambo and Bruce Willis' John McClane will be making their way to the immensely popular series as two playable Operators. And, as you would hope, this crossover is also bringing a whole range of other cosmetic and usable items such as a finisher that sees your character escape a sticky situation with a gun taped to their back. Then if all that isn't enough, Nakatomi Plaza has become an actual location in Verdansk, replacing the broadcast tower, and there will be some new action hero-specific game modes coming to multiplayer, for example Rambo's version of Gun Game.

Destiny 2 - Vault of Glass

Bungie kicked off the latest season of Destiny 2 just a few days ago, bringing a massive range of new content themed around its Vex-centric Season of the Splicer. But, with the next endgame activity opening very soon, the race to achieve World's First in the returning Vault of Glass raid is starting to take shape.

This Saturday, May 22, the Vault of Glass will in fact return, bringing the iconic activity back for you and your raiding party to test your mettle against. Unlike previous raids however, as this is a returning activity, Vault of Glass will not be featuring the same World's First race concept as before. Instead it will see teams have to complete the raid and a bunch of special Triumphs (challenges) specific to the Vault of Glass to earn the elusive raid belt and World's First title.

Gears 5: Operation 7

The Coalition is ensuring that Gears 5 players don't become bored of its third-person shooter anytime soon, by launching Season 7 of the title. This season has brought two new characters, the talented biochemist Hana Cole and the Locust scientist Ukkon, alongside a new map, Ephyra and a host of balance changes and bug fixes.

One of the most interesting changes is in the competitive mode, which is seeing a pretty significant overhaul. The former ranked system will get the axe and instead Gear Points are being introduced as a way of showing just how well you have been performing, where the general design can be condensed to: the more you have, the better you are playing. Gear Points span each of the modes in competitive, which now includes more game types than before and even features leaderboards to see how you stack up against the rest of the world.

The patch notes for Season 7 of Gears 5 are quite long, and you can be sure to read further about each of the new changes, tweaks, features, and fixes over here. But, if you'd rather just see the changes in-game, you can do so right now.

Pokémon Go: Luminous Legends Y

The Luminous Legends X event has now come to an end, but Niantic is taking no time in filling its place. Available now in Pokémon Go, the Luminous Legends Y event is bringing the legendary creature Yveltal to the title as part of five-star raids.

Then on top of that, dark type Pokémon will be spawning more frequently in the wild, and certain dark-types, such as Pancham, Larvitar, and Absol will hatch from strange eggs.

As the Luminous Legends Y event continues, the focus will shift away from dark-types to fairy types, as the Eeveeloution, Sylveon will be making its Pokémon Go debut. And, in the spirit of Sylveon's appearance, fairy types will become more common in the wild, and certain other Eeveeloutions will be popping up in three-star raids.

The Luminous Legends Y event is available in-game today and will take place until May 31, with the Sylveon-themed second-part planned to start on May 25.