MMORPG News: ArcheAge 2, Blade & Soul: Revolution, Dragon Hound, Project Gorgon & More!

Let’s start this off with KurtzPel.
A couple weeks ago I did a video on KurtzPel – and other than some bugs and balance issues, the game was quite a bit of fun. One thing worth noting was that the game’s voice overs – and there’s a lot of voice acting in the game, trust me, were still in Korean.
While not a huge issue, KOG Games have announced that they will be completely dubbing the game into English. Now, I love English dubs.
I’m a fan of some dubbed Anime like Code Geass, Death Note and all that goodness but when it comes to Korean MMO dubs.. if you’ve ever heard Aion or Black Desert.. yeah, I still barf a little in my mouth.
After hearing the dub myself, I can safely say.. it isn’t much better. But at least it’ll be much more immersive and make things a lot easier to understand.
The English dubs will be in-game when KurtzPel launches into Early Access later this year.

For people still actively playing Aion, Erehkigal’s Wrath – the games latest patch is hitting the live servers on March 27th.
This means players will be getting a new 18-player alliance encounter called Veilenthrone, a new arena and a new dungeon. Accompanying the patch are the usual class adjustments, bugfixes, and… you know.
Do note that this is for the North American version of Aion, not the European version published by Gameforge.

For those of you under the impression that Age of Conan was dead.. well, you wouldn’t be wrong.
The game’s been in quite a stagnant state for years now, however, Funcom have addressed this by releasing a large new update containing a variety of features worth noting.
Most importantly is the new Unconquered mode – a game mode that has you level up a new character with the goal of getting as far as you can in-game without dying. The further you get, the more content you get through, the better the reward you receive.
If you end up succumbing to the sweet release of death, however, then fret not as your character doesn’t die – instead, you just forfeit any additional rewards.
This is a unique form of permadeath that is found in various games – and a fun little feature that could provide the low level areas a lot of new players.
Additionally, Funcom is allowing several new class and race combinations for players to play as. So, if you’ve ever been interested in Age of Conan – then I highly doubt there’s a better time to jump in and try the game out!

After spending its life as a buy to play title averaging roughly 400 concurrent players per day, Albion Online is finally transitioning to a free to play model on April 10th.
After their conversion, the game will be fully playable by anyone and everyone, imposing no restrictions onto free players.
Sandbox Interactive, the team behind Albion Online elaborated on the swap to a free model by stating that “Overall, the game is doing very well. We have a fully staffed development team of 35 people, just released our sixth major post-release update, and have a stable and growing player population.”
While I’m a little cautious of believing they have a “stable and growing player population,” the change to a free to play model will no doubt assist with that.
The cash shop and premium subscription will remain available, with current founders of the game, AKA, players who purchase before it goes free to play, receiving some special goodies.

Yes, we’re still getting Skyforge content! I honestly don’t know why since the playerbase for the game is.. well, to say there is one would be an overexaggeration.
Nevertheless, My.com announced that the game would be receiving another expansion called New Horizons. The expansion in question will mark a first for the game – with the introduction of a new, explorable planet called “Terra.”
New Horizons will be available for PC on April 9th, April 10th for PS4, and April 11th for Xbox One.

For those of you interested in a first impressions look at Era of Legends – head on over to my mobile channel as I’ll have one up soon.
Era of Legends, for those of you unaware, is a recently released Mobile MMO that.. is pretty much like every other Mobile MMO, really, from first glance.
There isn’t much to really say about it as it doesn’t seem to bring anything innovative to the table but it’s worth noting that the game is available right now.. y’know, for those of you interested.

For players that don’t want to pay to play World of Warcraft – this is your chance! Blizzard are opening its gates, allowing any and all players to partake of the game and everything it has to offer over a free-weekend.
Every account, new and old will be able to log into the game, regardless of your level, and begin playing.
So if you’re a new player that has had reservations about purchasing it, or you’re an old player capped off at Legion content and want to experience Battle for Azeroth.. now’s your opportunity.
Every single player can play through Battle for Azeorth without the need to purchase the expansion!

Yes, I’m not leaving this until the end for a change! At the GPU Technology Conference this year, Nexon announced Dragon Hound, their new MMO will support real-time DirectX Raytracing effects.
Since then, Nvidia has posted a trailer for the game on their channel that actually showcases the various in-game reflections and shadows.
I’ll be the first to admit that it looks pretty sweet. While no confirmation has been given on whether this will be used in-game or merely for cinematics, we can be sure that it’s going to require a hell of a computer.
For those unaware of what Dragon Hound is, it’s an MMO being developed by DevCat, the team behind Mabinogi and Vindictus.
I’ve covered it in the past, but the game will feature huge battles on horseback, decked out with giant cannons that would cause PETA to.. Ahem.

Guardians of Ember just went into Open Beta earlier this week. I had the opportunity to play it just as it launched, and I even did a video on it a couple days ago – you should check that out for my first impressions on it.
Regardless, it’s worth noting that this isn’t the first time the game has released, but hopefully it is the last. Guardians of Ember is an isometric action MMO like MU Legends and Path of Exile.. but much more open. So. Yeah, it’s actually pretty fun.

Interestingly, Project Gorgon has avoided microtransactions up until this point.
However, fans of the game have been asking the team to release a cash shop – albeit a cash shop that doesn’t offer blatant pay to win.
Ask and ye shall receive – as the very first iteration of the Project Gorgon cash shop has been set up and it offers 3 different packages offering various goodies for players, which are actually very happy with the results.
The cash shop is filled with kickstarter-esque items that don’t grant any clear advantages and were actually asked for by players, so. Yeah. Awesome.
The only thing I’m puzzled by is the fact that they offer a mount and the riding skill, when you’re not capable of riding a mount yet. Iunno. I guess it’ll be in soon though?
Regardless, good job thus far!

XLGAMES, the studio behind ArcheAge recently announced that they have begun recruiting for 2 new projects. P3, which is an upcoming Korean Action MMORPG, and P4, which is a normal Action RPG.
Both games will be built on Unreal Engine 4 and both will be released simultaneously on PC and consoles. They have yet to reveal anything additional on either game other than people applying need knowledge in RPG, FPS and MMORPGs.
So does this mean a potential sequel to ArcheAge? ArcheAge 2? Or rather, something completely new? We will definitely keep everyone updated!

If you want to know whether or not Blade & Soul: Revolution will be worth playing as a game and how it compares to the PC Blade & Soul, make sure to subscribe to my mobile channel as I’ll have a first impressions of it up shortly after it releases!
Now, earlier this week, Netmarble revealed that Blade & Soul: Revolution – the upcoming Mobile MMORPG adaptation of Blade & Soul will be taking advantage of the power Unreal Engine 4 allows them.
Not only will they be adapting the game for mobile devices, but it’ll feature the same classes, costumes, and PvE and PvP features found in the PC title. To end things, they went ahead and revealed the official English logo for Blade & Soul: Revolution.