Funcom is gearing up to release a major update to its hit MMORPG, Age of Conan. In a press release today, the company announced that “numerous expansive additions” are underway for the game. Today they lifted the veil on some of the upcoming features for the game.

“While we have enjoyed the initial success for Age of Conan, we know that a solid launch is but the start when it comes to the MMO genre,” said Gaute Godager, Game Director on Age of Conan. ”As we look ahead we are preparing a huge amount of new content, and what we are presenting today will evolve Age of Conan even further. It’s naturally an incredibly ambitious update plan for a live MMO game, but we are certain our players would want nothing less.”

So for those anxious to find out what’s in store for us, here go the list of goodies you can expect soon:

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It’s been only three weeks since launch, but Funcom’s MMORPG game Age of Conan has just reached a major milestone. The game has already shipped its one millionth copy, and according to Funcom’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing that makes Age of Conan the biggest MMO since World of Warcraft.

The MMO launched on May 20th in North America and May 23rd in Europe and has received glowing reviews across the board. Gamespot has even called it “one of the finest online RPGs available.”

I’ve been playing Age of Conan since open beta and I can testify that it’s a game with what I would call a lot of potential. Like any MMO upon release AoC is not without its issues. Many players have complained of instability and bugs. Content for level 55 and up has been found to be thin to non-existent. Funcom has since released a public statement saying that all of these issues are being worked on and new content is underway. Daily patches have fixed a lot of issues, though there’s still a few bugs to iron out.

I’m confident that AoC will be topping MMO sales charts for a while – perhaps until Wrath of the Lich King and WAR launch.

More information on Age of Conan is available at their official site: www.ageofconan.com

Via | MMO Site

Image courtesy of Funcom.

Spellweaving, the caster’s uber attack system, hasn’t made it into Age of Conan yet, but will hopefully be there by official release. A lot of people have deemed it “pointless” as the character that’s spellweaving is vulnerable to attack while casting, however, spellweaving does grant said caster the ability to cast while spellweaving. Spellweaving increases the damage made by the caster and I’m sure that this will be put to use in amazing ways once it is made available.

In the meantime, check out the pretty animations. Oooh and aaah.

Spellweaving is only available to thefollowing classes: Tempest of Set, Demonologist, Necromancer, and Priest of Mitra. Each class has a different animation.

Can’t wait to do this on my ToS.

For those of you flailing around for the latest information about Age of Conan, fear not. There’s plenty of resources out there in the Internets to keep you from drowning. Here are a few resources I’ve managed to scrounge up:

• Name Generator – If you’d like to name your character something lore-appropriate, this name generator will help you on your way. You can select female/male, Stygian/Cimmerian/Aquilonian, and click to see what happens.
• Conan Kave Feat Calculator – Conan Kave has an excellent feat generator for those of you who love to play with builds. The calculator has now been updated to include all classes.
• Emote videos – If you’re dying to see what the emotes in Age of Conan look like, check them out at Ten Ton Hammer.
• Ten Ton Hammer – Speaking of TTH, they are one of the leading sources of AoC news and information. Be sure to drop them into your bookmarks if you haven’t already.
• Massively/AoC – Massively has an Age of Conan section that’s worth checking out
• AoC at Curse – Curse, infamous home of WoW addons, now houses their very own Age of Conan section. This is a site to check daily!

I’m sure a lot more sites will be popping up in the near future (and be sure to link me if I’ve missed any!) Hopefully these will provide some insight and assistance should you find yourself lost in Hyboria.

Image courtesy of Eidos/Funcom.

Last night, the gates to Hyboria opened to the Early Access masses and I was among the lucky players to get inside. For those unfamiliar, Age of Conan is an MMORPG five years in the making. The game boasts an exciting and revolutionary combat system and jaw-dropping graphics. Blood and gore and partial nudity have earned the game a Mature (18+) rating.

Pre-ordering the game granted players the chance to purchase a limited spot in the Early Access event. For the US players, the Early Access grants them three extra days in Hyboria, while for the European players it grants them six. The game will be launching May 20th and May 23rd respectively.

I participated in the Age of Conan Open Beta, an event that many players criticized for its awful playability and stability. Funcom promised a smoother launch and as far as I’m concerned, they delivered.

The Early Access event got off to a rocky start, as Funcom promised players a 5pm GMT launch time and ended up with a four hour delay. I’m glad for whatever Funcom did in those four hours, though, as the gaming experience was particularly wonderful.

The game ran smooth as silk for me, save for a couple of spots when my FPS dropped down into single-digits. I merely waited it out for a few seconds and it climbed back up. There were no server/client crashes whatsoever. I was suprised by this given the amount of people trying to access the game at the same time.

The loading screens loaded quickly and the opacity effect toward the end of the load gave it a very smooth, transitional look.

I will note, however, that was I on the EU side of things and that there was at least one server that had to be brought down for emergency maintenance. So I’m certain that the experience was different across the board.

Overall, I was incredibly impressed with the improvements Funcom managed to drop into the game the past week. I noted a lot of people praising Funcom in the general chat, so I’m confident that I wasn’t the only one having a smooth time of things.

Today is a new day in Hyboria, so I’m uncertain what it will bring, but I’ll be sure to keep you guys updated from news on the other side.

Feel free to share your tales of adventure or frustration!

Image courtesy of Eidos/Funcom.

I admit, I’ve been a bit preoccupied with Age of Conan for the past week or so, but that doesn’t mean that I’ve got any intention of cancelling my WoW subscription - no matter how good AoC turns out to be. Though, admittedly, I’ve grown rather bored of the current WoW content, I’m still ridiculously excited about the release of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. I’m also really lookig forward to seeing what Blizzard might reveal at the World Wide Invitational in June.

Eurogamer recently posted a detailed article about their hands on experience with WotLK, and it’s all sounding pretty positive so far. This bit in particular has me really intrigued:

Quest designers, however, got carried away with other ideas, introducing crazy vehicle quests that are an exponential evolution of Burning Crusade’s bombing runs - throwing flaming oil at Worgen from horseback, airlifting supplies in a gyrocoptor, and yes, mammoth wrangling. We also see tanks and parachutes, and there’s even talk of allowing players to take a passenger on regular ground or flying mounts. All of which is conventional stuff in regular gaming, but a huge dose of wish-fulfilment in an MMO, and all the more impressive for being retro-fitted into an older game engine.

The landscapes in WotLK also look spectacular. Though WoW is often criticized for its subpar, “cartoonish” look, I still vividly recall being blown away when I entered Darnassus for the first time back in Open Beta. I don’t doubt that AoC (and other next-gen MMOs) will blow WoW away in terms of quality graphics. I played around in the AoC OB and was stunned by the level of detail in the animation. I don’t feel, however, that this necessarily takes anything away from WoW. The two are very different games.

Another thing about WotLK that pleased me is the fact that <i>all</i> raids will be available for both 10-man and 25-man groups, making the content accessible to smaller guilds. Naturally, the quality of the loot will be superior in the 25-man versions, making them worthwhile to the hardcore players. Heroic and non-heroic modes will also be available for dungeons, much as they are in Outland.

For more hands on details about WotLK, head over here to read Eurogamer’s inside look at the expansion. No matter what, I’ll be right there to experience Northrend in all of its glory come release day.

In the meantime, there’s AoC.

(Thanks for the link, Matt)

Image courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment.

The official launch date for FunCom’s MMO, Age of Conan, is fast approaching, and the MMO players of the world are trying to answer the ultimate questions: Is AoC better than WoW? Should I leave WoW for AoC?

I’m not exactly sure what people expect others to answer, as if this game were somehow so magical, so incredibly beyond anything that ever came before that it would compel every single person that’s ever tried it to proclaim: YES! IT IS OFFICIALLY THE BEST GAME EVER. IT IS THE MARY POPPINS OF MMOS - PERFECT IN EVERY WAY.

Let’s get real. Making two gamers happy is difficult. Making every gamer in the world happy is delusional thinking. Is AoC better than WoW? Who’s to say that it is and who’s to say that it isn’t? There’s no real answer to the question: is x better than y.

I love MMOs and I usually try as many of them as I can only to find that the vast majority of them are a huge disappointment. But that’s not to say that they suck or that I can’t see why others might find enjoyment in them. In the end, it all boils down to personal preference.

If you’re trying to figure out whether AoC (or any other game) is “better” than WoW (or any other game), I suggest the following:

- Figure out what you like about WoW and figure out what you don’t

- Read as much as you can about the game you’re thinking of buying

- Read the forums but don’t take all comments to heart. People will always have different opinions/experiences.

- Find out if your computer can play the game (otherwise you’re just wasting your time if you’re not willing/able to upgrade)

- Sign up for the betas or do your best to get into the open betas

- Ask specific questions. People tend to be a lot more helpful when they feel they can be.

- Understand that MMOs are never truly “complete” and that comparing a game that hasn’t even launched to a game that’s been out for four years is terribly unfair and a little crazy. I was there for WoW’s open beta/launch and played it for several months before quitting. I came back a year and a half later and it was honestly an entirely different game and an entirely different experience. I expect the same will be true of AoC, WAR or any other MMO that’s launching. That’s not to say that these games won’t be enjoyable at the beginning, they’re just obviously not going to have the same amount of content.

- And of course, the ultimate way to find the answer to the ultimate question is… try the game. Wait for free trials to spring up, or see if any of your friends will let you play on their accounts. If you’ve got the funds, buy it and try it. No one says you have to keep your subscription and in the end it’s not any more expensive than any console game you buy, beat, and stick on a shelf to collect dust.

Image courtesy of FunCom/Eidos and AgeofConan.com