Casual gamers and Volleyball fans will be glad to hear that Bleach Volleyball, the first volleyball-based MMORPG has now entered closed beta. But that doesn’t mean it’s limited to playing volleyball – you can also swim, explore, visit a nightclub, make friends, and all that other stuff you dream about while playing World of WarCraft. The game looks to be shaping up nice, nothing to scream about but nothing to be scared of, either. More information is available here.

True Games have announced plans to release Mytheon: Assault of Gaia, a spin-off to its upcoming MMORPG. The price of this application will be 2.99$ and will be released in North America first and Europe, China and Korea afterwards. The iPhone version of Mytheon is a tower-defense styled adventure where players have to protect the temple of Gaia from Skeletons, Cyclops, Minotaurs and all other kinds of mythological creatures. The game offers three settings: Kraken, which is set within temple ruins; Hades, a lava-filled underworld; and the Greek Parthenon. Thumbs up for True Games!

Earlier this week, we told you that Earthrise is delayed and will not appear on its initial release date. Now we have the new Earthrise release date – Q3 2010. Ever since the announcement about the game being delayed there have been numerous speculations about the reason the game was pushed back. Some people jumped to quick conclusions such as the key people of the Earthrise team being fired, the quality of the game not meeting to their expectations and many more. We still have to hear an official explanation on why the game is being delayed, so stay tuned.

IGG have announced that the Tales of Fantasy Closed Beta has officially kicked off. The closed beta will feature a number of additions to the game, including maps, instances, the most notable of which being “The Lone Knight,” a five stage level 40 instance, with each stage guarded by a particular boss. The level cap has also been removed, meaning players are free to grind as much as they want. The closed beta will also feature an event known as “Horse Racing event” where players can earn themselves a free level 25 mount.

A few days ago 2K games announced a X-Com reboot, resulting in players worldwide dropping a tear or two. But that’s not all, according to Destructiod‘s mysterious sources, there is a BioShock MMO in the works. I’ll give you a minute to think about it.

Done? That was fast. Now, 2K have always shown interest in an MMO based on the universe created by Irrational Games(seriously, why did they have to give it up, BioShock 2 is just a slighty upgraded BioShock) and this may come as no surprise for hardcore fans. What’s your take on this? Would you play a BioShock MMO?

Even though it is nearly six years old, City of Heroes is still going strong and getting updates. The latest one, Issue 17, is now in open beta! This brand new update is adding animated tails, ultra mode to make the game prettier for players with higher end graphic cards, and a change to epic archetypes. You can now create one at level 20, instead of level 50. Boy, this sounds great.

“For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” – City of Heroes Issue 17: Dark Mirror

The latest dungeon in World of WarCraft: Cataclysm was unveiled and boy is it a big one. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you - Mount Hyjal. This otherwise gorgeous slice of WarCraft lore was cut off from previous WoW expansions, but a W.I.P. version of it was present since the launch of the official game, all those years ago. The new elite raid dungeon is meant for players around level 80 and will give us all a much needed lesson in WarCraft lore. More information about the new dungeon – here.

Kalicanthus Entertainment have announced the release date for Craft of Gods, the brand new 3D Fantasy MMORPG – May 27th. In the meantime, you can pre-order the game here. The official servers will be open from 2.30 PM CET on launch day. The languages available at launch will be English, Russian, German and Italian.

The dev team have also planned two more open beta events: one from April 29th to May 6th and a second one from May 20th to May 26th. Great news, since Craft of Gods looks like a great MMORPG with a classic RPG feel to it. Anyways, you can read more about it here.

Masthead Studios have announced that their debut game – Earthrise is delayed once again. The folks over at Masthead have decided to present this to us in the form of some sort of joke.. It seems the Earthrise team was completely eradicated by some sort of evil machine, or “Jaberwokie” as they refer to it. Whatever the true reason behind all this is the fact is – Earthrise is delayed once again, and will presumably be released way after the official release date(Q2 2010). Nice work, Masthead, now try to act like a proper developer. You can read the whole thing here.

As some of you may know, there was a Halo MMO in the works, developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft. We all know how that ended up – canceled. But now Dusty Monk, ex-programmer in the Ensemble team, decided to shed some light on why it was canceled(the decision, of course, was made by Microsoft) – the publisher decided that the project was too expensive and it still had a long way to go before it could be considered a serious MMORPG. The estimated cost of project “Titan”(i.e. the Halo MMO) was around 90 Million dollars. Sad really – Ensemble was the perfect developer for such a project.