AoC

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Interviews, MMO industry, Virtual worldsAge of Conan's Game Director Gaute Godager has definitely made an effort to reach out to the fans, involving himself in promotional videos pre-release and often weighing in on the forums in the last few weeks to discuss current game issues. Despite this, most people probably don't know much about the man himself -- that is, until now, as MMORPG.com has conducted an interview to find out more about AoC's visionary.The mighty Commodore 64 is responsible for breeding Godager's love of gaming, and Pool of Radiance and The Bard's Tale brought him to the world of RPGs. Of course, his fondness for sci-fi and fantasy books (in particular from Asimov and Tolkien) were what made him seek out games in the first place, to further the escapism that he had experienced in reading. This led to him dreaming about creating these worlds himself, and becoming a founding member of Funcom -- and eventually, to bringing us AoC. Check out the whole interview for more on Godager's past and a tiny bit on how he thinks his latest game is going. Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Age of Conan, One Shots
There's something to be said for turning a corner and sizing something like this up as it looms into view. This particularly impressive (and doomy) One Shots vista from Age of Conan comes to us courtesy of David L. We haven't run into this area just yet (well, okay, a couple of us have, but we're trying to not spoil the game for others) but David says: [this is] the Sanctum in Age of Conan. It has a great Indiana Jones feel. Just so long as that Indiana Jones feel involves us getting away with the loot and our lives, we're cool with that! Do you have a screenshot of an area we haven't seen yet? Perhaps you've found the den of All Things Evil in your favorite game and you'd like to show us? All screenshots are welcome, no matter how serious or silly. Just pack those up along with a description of what we're looking at and send it to us at oneshots AT massively.com. Yours could be featured in an upcoming One Shots!Gallery: One Shots
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Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Game mechanics, Patches, Server downtimeCurse.com has posted a list of patch notes from Age of Conan's test server, which will likely go live in one of this coming week's scheduled downtime slots. You will notice that stat gains from equipment will finally be functioning correctly, and it's going to be interesting to see just how much of a difference this will make to the strength of each class.The patch notes also feature another round of class tweaks, notably some buffs for Dark Templars and damage changes for Priests of Mitra. Confusingly, Bear Shamans will be getting improved Wreck Armor combo visuals and sounds -- however, this is a Barbarian combo, so is this change actually for Barbs or did they mean the BS combo Crush Armor? Other really good things: lower level mobs will knock you off your mount a lot less (although higher mobs will do it more) and attackers at your sides will have half the chance of knocking you off -- attackers from the front will never knock you off. Finally, player cities will be able to get their Trader NPC at last. Take a look through the full patch notes for some other changes, including quest and item fixes, and perhaps start speculating on what changes will be left off the list this time. Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Source : KillTenRats.com

As many of you know I was in the AoC beta where I only managed to get to lev 15 or so with my barbarian, but since last Thursday, when I finally managed to get a copy of the game, I’ve been battling it out in Hyborian and currently have a lev 20 Demonologist. So I thought I’d give you guys my thoughts on the game so far.

Good evening, Hyboria, are you ready to rock!

To the delight of the Age of Conan development and community support team, a German metal band by the name of Linkin Purpz has produced a song all about, well, how much they love playing Age of Conan. Entitled Gods of War, it appears to be a melodic rant about the three principal deities of AoC, namely Mitra, Crom and Set, and how each of them is (or isn't) willing to aid their worshippers. The growling lyrics probably lose something in the translation from the original German:

Too much gods to choose
How will they help you out

Late into the US holiday weekend, I was finally able to register/activate my game code so that I could play Age of Conan (AoC). I quickly found out that my inability to register wasn’t going to be

my only problem.

Like a damsel in distress, MMO players have been held captive by game openings that have relied heavily, much too heavily, on bounty quests of the "Kill twenty of these and then come back to me" variety.

Trapped in chains of tedium, experienced players blitz through early levels to get to the point where something interesting starts to happen while gamers new to the genre often wonder why anyone bothers to play these games

before they quit from boredom. At least that's the way it used to be.

According to Michael Zenke from Massively, Age of Conan has sold 400,000 copies, out of 700,000 boxes they put on the shelves. Not bad for the first week. And, kudos to Funcom, the release launch went a lot smoother than the beta or early access. The reception of AoC in the blogosphere was a mixed. Keen and Graev already cancelled their accounts again. Tipa from West Karana sees AoC challenging WoW. The Ancient Gaming Noob correctly points out that "MMOs are a long haul proposition" and reserves judgement until having played it more.

It is time, once again, to poll the minds and hearts of our readership and answer their most burning questions.

First up, a mysterious crate marked "Courtesy of Our Friends At Mongoose Publishing" washed up on the beach at Kalanthes' feet. Inside, he found three books:

* Conan: Hyboria's Fallen: Pirates, Thieves, And Temptresses
* Conan: Tales of the Black Kingdoms

The next Clan of Conan newsletter is finally here, and as promised by Jřrgen Tharaldsen in a recent forum post, it goes a long way towards clearing up some Age of Conan pre-order confusion.

First things first, the 3-day early access: the newsletter confirms that this is exclusively for pre-orders, and that your retailer should provide you with an early-access key. However, to actually get that head start, you'll

- Pre-order programs now available in all Western territories - Get three day head-start in Hyboria -

15,000 gamers get exclusive Age of Conan access from April 18th to April 20th –

Age of Conan developers took a video while working on the in-game character select screen. Figuring that it was pretty cool to look at, they have released the video for viewing pleasure.
Here's what they have to say about it:

Every now and then, we rummage around and find some cool stuff on the way, and we just can't resist sharing it.

More and more details about Age of Conan are beginning to see the light of

day as its release date draws ever closer.
In the latest FAQ update on the game's official site, the developers revealed that—while they won't be as ridiculous as, say, Crysis—Conan's system requirements are definitely going to require some beefy

hardware. According to information provided, players will need a computer able to match the following specs: