STEPARU News, Reviews, Previews & Information for Foreign Games

The upcoming blockbuster online game Kingdom Under Fire II is scheduled to launch this year! According to BlueSide they are planning on releasing Kingdom Under Fire II in Southeast Asia first mainly because they are seeing good results in the online gaming market there. Thus BlueSide wants to prove their games stability issues and hope it becomes more popular there during its' debut. Personally, I don't really mind where the game comes out first, I just want it to come out. I have been anticipating this title for quite some time now.

Since there was a lot of people that took interest in the ArcheAge scandal, I decided to give you guys a  follow up on the outcome of the event. The office manager of that ArcheAge branch was temporary suspended until further notice. Also the manager of the Human Resources department received a downgrade in his salary. They haven't said anything about the guy cussing out the player, I am assuming he got fired, I hope.  At least North America doesn't have to worry about these kind of things when ArcheAge hits the West, because I always hear positive reviews from Trion Worlds customer support.

Bluehole Studios are now preparing for their next title led by a couple well known directors and producers. Their current team setup consists of Executive Producer of Tera Online Hwang Cheolung, Art Designer of Mabinogi Heroes (Vindictus) Lee Sanggyun, and other premium producers and developers. They are now recruiting well known art team members and planning on recruiting more people in the future. I wonder what kind of game can they come up with if they mix Tera and Mabinogi Heroes (Vindictus) together? Now only if they can recruit the Hyung-tae Kim the Blade & Soul art director, they will have an orgasmic game. Now the big question remains, are we looking at a whole new title or Tera 2?

I was going about my day until I read a very interesting article featured on a lot of South Korean gaming websites. Apparently, an XLGAMES staff member cussed out a player telling them that they can not have their account back. The player came prepared and recorded the whole conversation which is split into part1 and part2 which my South Korean followers may find very amusing. Long story short, an ArcheAge player was hacked about 150$+ worth of stuff and was trying to get his account back. He phoned XLGAMES and went to their office but said they couldn't help him. Eventually, the whole thing blew up and they ended up cussing each other out, incoming DRAMA!!! While the debate goes on the article now has over 400+ comments and is going up fast. Interested in knowing more about this crazy drama? No problem, I am bored and got some free time to translate.

China recently released a Blade & Soul VR App for the iOS device. Not really related to gaming news, but one of the perks about running my own website is that I can post random stuff now and then! Anyway, click this Blade & Soul AR Application Link for the download page. Go on ahead and check out the official video at their support page, a bit useful for those of you who want to see the cute little Lyn dance around and in action before downloading. Have fun and enjoy! I've also added the Blade & Soul logo below just incase you want to play with it. Now you can have your portable Lyn anywhere with you!

The Dungeon Striker stress test seems to be progressing very smoothly. Hangame Korea added a cash shop preview yesterday and I decided to make a short mini video of it. If you thought characters in this game were cute, then you'll be in for a real treat because you can pimp out characters to make her/him look even cuter than before. I actually did some leveling during the stress test and the EXP rates is still the same as the previous Closed Betas. Which is a good thing for players who want to fully take advantage of Dungeon Striker's unique job system.

Netmarble Korea just disbanded LADA Studio due to a dispute between the company and the team. LADA Studio which is Netmarbles MMORPG gaming studio was founded last year around November 2012 and it was one of the hottest topics in South Korea, mainly because they scouted Park Yonghyeon who was the developer of Lineage 2 and Tera Online. According to Netmarble, they want to postpone on developing MMORPG's and focus more on the mobile gaming market. Netmarble Korea asked LADA Studio to work on mobile titles instead, but they refused.

LivePlex Korea officially announced that they are planning on releasing a mobile version of Queen's Blade aka Scarlet Blade Online. The mobile version titled Queen's Blade Prelude of War is a turn-based RPG. The game will feature nine different areas, three unique dungeons, transformation system, and three playable characters. With the mobile version coming out some time this month, players can take their Scarlet Blade experience everywhere on the go, even their bed.