GamesRadar - Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures

Age Of Conan Update 5.6 Live (News)

Oct 28, 2009

Funcom has announced that Update 5.6, the latest content patch for its MMO, Age of Conan, is now on live servers.

Players can now enjoy new features such as the Iron Tower instance, the Veteran System and the in-game event, Nights of the Lost Souls.

2010 MMO Calendar Goes On Sale (News)

Oct 26, 2009

The fourth annual MMO Calendar, which raises funds for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, is now on sale.

Developers of a wide range of Massively Multiplayer Online games have dedicated artwork from their games to the cause. This year, the list includes a mix of old and new games, some yet to come such as Funcom's The Secret World.

Anyone who purchases a calendar is also entered into a prize draw where they can win one of ten prizes for each game that features in the calendar.

Age Of Conan Subscription Fees Reduced (News)

Oct 24, 2009

To make new gamers more likely to try Age of Conan - or current players less likely to abandon it - Funcom is lowering the price of several long-term subscription plans for the sword-and-sorcery MMORPG.

AoC: The Veteran System Explained (News)

Oct 20, 2009

The Veteran system is coming. At last, players who have been long-term subscribers to Age of Conan will benefit from exclusive items and rewards in return for their loyalty.

IncGamers posts an exclusive article telling players exactly what they may be entitled to:

"The idea behind the veteran items is not to create items that make characters more powerful, but to offer convenience and social items for veteran players to enjoy, either to offer things like better travel options for their characters or to make things a little easier when they start a new alt character."

Funcom cuts won't affect Age of Conan expansion (News)

Sep 30, 2009

Yesterday a trading statement alerted eagle eyed gamers to the fact that Funcom was laying off some development staff, which led to some worry as to whether the company and its highly-anticipated MMO were in trouble. GamerZines spoke to Funcom to see if they could find out some more details.

Funcom Sign Enlighten for The Secret World & Age of Conan (News)

Sep 14, 2009

Funcom is the latest company to announce that it has adopted the market-leading lighting technology Enlighten from Geomerics. Enlighten will be used in the The Secret World as well as the highly anticipated expansion of Age of Conan. The new look of Age of Conan, with Enlighten technology incorporated, was first demonstrated publicly at GDC Europe and Gamescom in Cologne.

Examiner.com: PAX 2009 Rise of the Godslayer preview (News)

Sep 8, 2009

Rise of the Godslayer is the first planned expansion for Age of Conan. Craig Morrison, Executive Producer for Age of Conan, was on hand at PAX 2009 to divulge a little information about the game.

Learn about the history of Khitai, how to get a tiger or wolf as a mount or pet, and other details about Rise of the Godslayer.

Age of Conan Director Talks Update 6 (News)

Jul 25, 2009

GamingShogun.com writes: "Age of Conan director Craig Morrison has posted a letter to the fans covering the event's of July as well as the upcoming 'Update 6' for the MMO, which has seen a slight resurgence of late thanks to their 're-evaluation period'.

Morrison also says in the letter that veteran rewards as well as the guild renown system will be included in Update 6. Added as mere footnotes in the letter is that the update will include two new zones for players to explore..."

Funcom: Conan servers are 'booming' with activity (News)

Jul 24, 2009

Funcom director of communications Erling Ellingsen has told VideoGamer.com that the recent Age of Conan re-evaluation promotion, designed to bring previous players back to the game, has been a success.

Funcom Not Ruling Out Free To Play For AoC (News)

Jul 14, 2009

FunCom has indicated that it may follow in the footsteps of other successful MMOs and make Age of Conan free to play one day.

While speaking to IncGamers in an interview earlier, Funcom's director of communications Erling Ellingsen discussed going free to play with AoC, something that works well with Funcom's other MMO title, Anarchy Online.

Funcom: AoC will last longer than Anarchy Online (News)

Jul 10, 2009

Funcom has bullishly claimed that MMORPG Age of Conan will last longer than Anarchy Online, an MMO that recently celebrated its eight year anniversary.

Funcom: We've turned Age of Conan around (News)

Jul 10, 2009

Funcom's CEO Trond Arne Aas has told GamesIndustry.biz that the company has turned around the fortunes of its MMO Age of Conan, after a rocky first year.

Early adopters are returning to the game and server activity is increasing, following a series of technical and design improvements implemented by the developer aimed at fixing bugs and creating a better player experience.

"The problems for Age of Conan arose after the game had been live for a period of time, as players progressed into parts of the game where content turned out to be too thin and advanced features simply weren't good enough," admitted the CEO. "There were also performance issues on some machines, and the items and RPG system – even though it worked exactly as we designed it – did not engage players for as long as we had hoped for."

Funcom "Excited" About Revealing AoC Expansion (News)

Jul 9, 2009

While speaking to IncGamers about the recent events surrounding the MMO Age of Conan, Erling Ellingsen, director of communications at Funcom, described the feelings of the team at the prospect of unveiling AoC's first expansion at GamesCom next month.

Funcom Offers 14 Days Free to Former Age of Conan Players (News)

Jul 8, 2009

In an attempt to lure back players lost to a sloppy launch, Funcom is offering 14 days of free of free Age of Conan action to former players.

Age of Conan to Unveil New Expansion at GamesCom (News)

Jul 7, 2009

Massively.com:

The first proper expansion for Age of Conan will be unveiled this August at GamesCom in Cologne, Germany. Funcom's Erling Ellingsen confirmed the news:

"Yes, we will be revealing the first expansion for Age of Conan at the GamesCom show in August. We have lots of exciting stuff to reveal and Conan players and gamers in general are in for a real treat, but for now, our lips are sealed until then!"

The unveil will feature in-game footage and a preview of the quests, monsters, new environments and other additions that will make up the expansion. This news comes not long after the release of a major content patch for AoC, and should help keep that positive momentum going.

Age of Conan with difficult conversion for 360 (News)

Jul 7, 2009

Craig Morrison, the producer of the MMO Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures:

"A small team is working to make our technology to work on Xbox 360. I think we can say that the technical challenge of the conversion of our technology and our engine was more difficult than we initially expected"

'Age of Conan' adds purchasable character slots (News)

Jun 30, 2009

Those few who are still playing Age of Conan can now purchase an extra character slot for the equivalent price of $15.

This raises the number of characters any player can have from nine to ten.

AoC: "Hindsight Is An Amazing Thing" (News)

Jun 29, 2009

Craig Morrison, game director on Age of Conan, has spoken to IncGamers about the new game mechanics that were introduced in last week's update, and explained why the game wasn't shipped this way.

AoC 360 Version "Still Being Worked On" (News)

Jun 29, 2009

The Xbox 360 version of Age of Conan is still being developed despite delays, the game director revealed earlier.

While speaking to IncGamers, Craig Morrison explained that the console version of the popular MMO is still in the works, but has taken a little longer than first anticipated.

AoC Director: Why Launch Failed (News)

Jun 29, 2009

While speaking to IncGamers, Game Director of Age of Conan, Craig Morrison, has spoken about the poor performance of the game after the launch, what Funcom did wrong and how they are resolving the issues.

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures - Tarantia Commons developer walkthrough (Video)

Jun 26, 2009

Age of Conan combines both an MMO and a single-player experience, based on the works of author Robert E. Howard.

'Gangs of Tarantia' Update Goes Live on Age of Conan (News)

Jun 24, 2009

Funcom has announced that the "biggest and most influential update for Age of Conan" has gone live. The Gangs of Tarantia update adds a new area to the game world, the Tarantia Commons district, new enemies and new loot.

Steam Drops MMO Prices This Weekend (News)

Jun 12, 2009

Steam has marked down MMORPGs from 20-75% off. Not only that, but they still come with a free month of play, meaning trying out games like Age of Conan and Everquest II will only cost about $10.

Age of Conan Turns One Year Young (News)

May 18, 2009

GamingShogun.com writes: "Age of Conan has officially turned one year old. The MMO, set in the land of Hyboria, has shipped more than 1.2 million units worldwide. No official word on subscriber numbers, though Funcom does state 'activity levels have risen significantly'.

In celebration of the mileston, Funcom has announced it will give all players free fireworks this week. Also, active players with accounts older than six months will receive an..."

Create new level 50 in Age of Conan News (News)

May 1, 2009

The next update for Funcom's Age of Conan MMO will allow players to create one brand-new character of any class at level 50, over halfway through the game's levelling curve.

That's according to the latest letter from game director Craig Morrison. Morrison says the new option is intended to give players a chance to experiment with other classes and the new RPG system that is the focus of the 1.05 update.

No New Faces for Age of Conan (News)

Apr 21, 2009

Reports that Funcom would soon be implementing technology that would allow players to import their own faces into the game have been refuted by the company.

AoC: Face Technology Confusion (News)

Apr 21, 2009

Big Stage Entertainment recently teamed up with Funcom's Age of Conan to offer fans a chance to see their face on an AoC character.

In a competition hosted by Big Stage, players are being encouraged to use the 3D software provided, and share images and videos featuring their own faces on AoC characters. Those who manage to share their images the most may win a share of $1,000 USD worth of AoC subscriptions and in-game bonus items such as a War Mammoth, a Drinking Cape or a Killer Rhino.

However, this has led to numerous inaccurate reports that Funcom intends to introduce real face technology into AoC, but there are no plans to integrate this into the game at present. In a press release, a Big Stage spokesman states the nature of the contest, but it's possible to see where the confusion arose.

Age of Conan Getting Face Import Tech 'Soon' (News)

Apr 21, 2009

Shacknews writes;

Players of Funcom's Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures will soon be able to bring their own faces and voices into the mature PC MMO thanks to a three-way collaboration between Big Stage Entertainment, GGL Global Gaming, and developer Funcom.

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures - Trial trailer (Video)

Apr 15, 2009

Age of Conan combines both an MMO and a single-player experience, based on the works of author Robert E. Howard.

Download Age of Conan Free Trial Now & New HD Video Trailer (News)

Apr 2, 2009

Today Funcom released the free Age of Conan trial. Ausgamers and Fileplanet will be providing the free trial of the Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. Download Age of Conan Free Trial Now & New HD Video Trailer

Free Age of Conan trial now LIVE (News)

Apr 2, 2009

Funcom announces that Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is now available as a free trial.

Age Of Conan: Free Trial Coming (News)

Apr 1, 2009

FunCom are working on a free trial campaign for the MMO Age of Conan.

In the hopes that the free trial will allow the game to reach a wider audience, FunCom are following in the footsteps of other successful MMOs. Mythic's Warhammer Online has recently introduced a free trial, and World of Warcraft also has a long-standing system which has resulted in many players taking up the game full-time.

Mirror's Edge Clashes with Conan at Nordic Awards (News)

Mar 30, 2009

Nominations for the 2009 Nordic Game Awards have been announced, with both Mirror's Edge and Age of Conan Hiborian Adventures leading the nominations in the same two categories.

EA DICE's divisive Parkour-ish FPS is nominated for Artistic Achievement and Best Nordic Game, the same two categories that Funcom's Age of Conan: Hiborian Adventures stands in.

As well as these two categories, the event will be offering an award for the Best Nordic Children's Game and the Best New Nordic Talent.

Funcom Age of Conan Hyborian Adventures is Dying (News)

Mar 29, 2009

Funcom Age of Conan is Dying: Subscribers Under 100K, $23 Million 4q Loss, CFO Resigns - Plus Combat Tutorial Video.

Age of Conan: Collector Edition (PC) $20, Standard (PC) $13 at NewEgg (News)

Mar 24, 2009

CheapyD of CheapAssGamer informs the masses of a discounted Age of Conan offered by NewEgg.

AoC Advocate Recruitment Ends (News)

Mar 10, 2009

FunCom has announced that is has ended the recruitment process for its Age of Conan Advocate program.

Glen 'Famine' Swan updated the community today on the recruitment drive, which set out to find AoC fans that could represent other players and help encourage feedback and bugs affecting the different classes within the AoC community.

Age of Conan In Russia And Poland (News)

Feb 23, 2009

Things are looking up for FunCom with an announcement today that its MMO 'Age of Conan' has launched in Russia and Poland.

1C and CD Projekt will make the game available in Polish and Russian respectively. AoC looks to be doing well now, not only are players spending more time in-game, the company has also seen a significant improvement in subscription retention, something that was severely lacking when the game first launched

Funcom CFO resigns following $23.3m loss (News)

Feb 23, 2009

Funcom has reported its financial results for the fourth quarter, revealing an operating loss of USD 23.3 million, caused by a depreciation of USD 22.8 million due to the lagging performance of Age of Conan.

The poor performance is compounded by the announcement that the company's chief financial officer, Olav Sandnes, has resigned from the position.

Age of Conan wins Best Original Score at IFMCA awards (News)

Feb 21, 2009

Via Massively: "The fantasy MMO Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is a game that's notable for its score, and this aspect of the title has drawn accolades from gamers and music critics alike. Composer Knut Avenstroup Haugen was even nominated for Best Original Score in a Video Game in the Hollywood Music Awards. While ultimately that honor went to Wataru Hokoyama for Afrika, Haugen now has cause to celebrate his big win at the International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) awards."

Age of Conan Patch 1.04 Today (News)

Feb 18, 2009

Age of Conan is being updated with patch 1.4 today, which is expected to include the long-awaited DX10 and some new instances.

Funcom have taken measures to ensure this patch goes smoothly by including code that corrects any corrupt data as it's installing. This may mean longer patching time for some players, but it will result in less down-time later due to client crashes.

Age of Conan closes more than half of their server (News)

Jan 24, 2009

One of the most hyped up games to come out in 2008 was Age of Conan. Sadly, the launch of the game was a different story. Stellar reviews and problems with the game itself caused a major downfall in popularity of the game.

MMO Weekly: AoC:HA server transfers, LotRO leveling guide, WoW patch problems, and Mythic layoffs (News)

Jan 23, 2009

AoC:HA server transfers, LotRO leveling guide, WoW patch problems, and Mythic layoffs

The RPG Observer : RPG Deals for 1/11 - 1/17 (News)

Jan 13, 2009

Russel Ritchey writes "Best Buy is the sole deliverer of deals this week. Again, the focus is on PC games: Fallout 3 is $40, staying strong as the most-often discounted 'new' title ever, while Age of Conan: Hyborian Online is $30. Both Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir and Mass Effect are $20 - the downloadable content for Mass Effect is free on the PC, by the way (Live users gotta pay for it). Best Buy actually has a decent selection of action games on sale as well.

The PSP remake Star Ocean: First Departure is $30 this week at Best Buy as well, and a good way to get prepared for a Star Ocean love-a-thon* starting this month and going through March"

Funcom to close over half of Conan servers (News)

Jan 12, 2009

Funcom has published the list of planned server mergers for its fantasy MMO Age of Conan, revealing that it will be cutting the total number of servers from 49 to just 18.

The reduction is more dramatic in North America and the Oceanic regions, where 24 servers are being merged into just six. In the US, only one player-versus-player server and two player-versus-environment servers will remain, with each combining the populations of six or seven existing servers.

The MMO Report: January 9 (News)

Jan 9, 2009

Welcome to the very first MMO Report. This week on the report TGR talks about Age of Conan and EverQuest server mergers, soloing in Lord of the Rings Online to level 20, server lag fixes for World of Warcraft zones, and the announcement of a new Eve Online expansion.

The very best and worst of games merchandise (Feature)

Jan 8, 2009

We collect a lot of gaming merchandise at GamesRadar. While we buy some of it ourselves, one of the perks of working in the industry is that a week rarely goes by without some new item of promotional gaming paraphernalia finding its way to our desks. And generally it's a pretty even mix of awesome and crap ...

First Age of Conan server merge successful (News)

Jan 8, 2009

When news of impending server merges in Age of Conan broke in December, it caused a bit of a stir -- particularly in the post's comments. Age of Conan Producer Craig Morrison later said the merges would take place in stages, but then technical issues arose, postponing these changes for roughly a month before Funcom was confident it could go off without a hitch.

PC letdowns of 2008 (News)

Dec 26, 2008

TVGB: "I bet everyone is feeling pretty good during this holiday season, so I wanted to take some time to rain on the parade a bit by taking a look back at 2008 and revisit some of the major disappointments gamers had to deal with in the PC gaming world.."

Craig Morrison: Letter from the Game Director (News)

Dec 6, 2008

Age of Conan Community Site Director Craig Morrison said:

"With the announced start of the server merge process not quite having gone as planned I wanted to take the time today to speak to you all explain where we are at with the merge process and what the schedule looks like.

Basically, on Wednesday when we came to do the first live merges we encountered an issue with the structure of our data that we hadn't found or experienced during testing. This issue caused there to be a risk, on some servers, under specific circumstances, of items having non-unique identifiers in our database. This in turn might have lead to some cases of player's items not surviving the merge. It didn't happen at all during our testing, and may have been (in the scale of all players and all items in the game) a possibly rare occurrence. However this was not an area where the team and I were willing to take any risks with whatsoever.

This is also exactly why we decided not to announce all the merge schedules in advance and to ensure we could do them in a live environment first before we went ahead with all the merges. While it is never 'nice' to have your contingency plans called into action, this approach has meant we caught a potential issue before it could possibly affect people's actual game experience."

Age of Conan server merge information released (News)

Dec 2, 2008

Massively: "We've been following the efforts of Age of Conan director Craig Morrison to keep the player community more 'in the loop' since he took on the role a few months ago. Now the community team is laying out the details of one of the projects he headlined when he first stepped up: server merges. Community Manager Famine has put up a post in the official forums laying out details on the procedure. Which is good, because it's a little complicated."

Funcom Fires 70% of Their U.S. Staff This Morning (News)

Nov 22, 2008

Rumor has it that Funcom fired about 70% of their U.S. Workforce today. Sources say that they were released this morning, the cuts are mostly in the Customer Service and Quality Assurance departments. What this means for Age of Conan and the rest of Funcom is uncertain, but Ten Ton Hammer will keep you updated as this story unfolds.

DX10 for Age of Conan Finally Coming (...Soon) (News)

Nov 18, 2008

If you're one of the four people who still play Age of Conan and you've been anxiously awaiting the DX10 graphics (you know, the ones they say the game has on the back of the box since launch but never quite made the cut?) then good news! In the next major update you'll (probably) get DX10 graphics!

In his November letter to the community, Age of Conan Game Director Craig Morrison revealed that with the new PVP system and Ymir's Pass now in place, in the next major AoC update Funcom plans on adding the highly-desired DirectX 10 graphics.

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures - Ymir's Pass (Video)

Nov 14, 2008

Age of Conan combines both an MMO and a single-player experience, based on the works of author Robert E. Howard.

Largest Age of Conan Update Ever Goes Live! (News)

Nov 14, 2008

Hoping to resurrect Age of Conan in the hearts of the hordes of gamers leaving to play World of Warcraft or Warhammer Online, Funcom brings us the largest content update ever in Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures: new area, tons of quests, characters and monsters, as well as a new dungeon.

4000 Age of Conans nicked in Bradford (News)

Nov 4, 2008

CVG reports that police in Bradford are on the hunt for a gang of game thieves who made off with 4000 copies of Age of Conan on PC.

Two pallets of games went missing from the back of a lorry some time between 10pm on Tuesday, October 28, and 7am on Wednesday. With an RRP of £39.99 each, we make that out as £159,960 worth of goods. Ouch.

Striking new zone opened on Age of Conan Testlive (News)

Oct 17, 2008

Massively: "Players have been asking for new Age of Conan content for a while now, and one of the biggest content gaps had been the mid-50s. That's the levelling range the new Ymir's Pass zone (previewed some time ago) seeks to fill, and it's now opened on Testlive. The developers want to make it clear that Ymir's Pass is a work in progress, and as such is not complete. We're keen to see what it's like when it's done, because currently it's gorgeous. It's far from being the only new AoC content; we've still to see the Tarantia Commons and the House of Crom yet.

No sooner do you enter the zone than an inhuman bellow echoes through the air and the ground shakes. Something huge is making that sound, and the story of what it is (and why it's suffering) is played out through the zone. The first thing you'll probably be doing is looking for footprints. Colossal ones."

Gaming's Most Evil Pranks (Feature)

Oct 16, 2008

You’re not supposed to like griefers. You’re supposed to look down on their childish pranks designed to frustrate and humiliate. You’re supposed to frown at the way they ruin it for everyone else. But we don’t care as long as it’s funny. That’s why we’ve collected some of our favorite game-related pranks of all time. ...

Age of Conan conquers The Big Bang Theory (News)

Oct 9, 2008

This week's episode of the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory prominently featured Age of Conan, and its A-story dealt in a light-hearted way with online gaming addiction. If you're unfamiliar with the show, the premise is as follows: two extremely geeky twenty-something males -- both scientists at Caltech -- move in across the hall from a pretty but not-too-terribly sophisticated blonde woman. Commence unlikely friendship and all the humor that comes with it!

In this week's episode, one of the two geeks is playing Age of Conan when the girl comes over. She starts playing the game and becomes addicted, rejecting responsibilities and basic hygiene for the remainder of the episode. The premise sounds typical, but the episode has a certain wink-like-quality to it. It's all in good humor, and there are a lot of inside jokes that only players of the game could get.

Age of Conan: An Exclusive Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Soundtrack (News)

Oct 8, 2008

TTH: "The recently released Age of Conan soundtrack album contains two CDs: The first CD in the box is the original soundtrack CD. It's a selection of tracks with a total playing time of about 72 minutes. The bonus CD contains an additional 20 minutes of music from the game as well as three songs by rock group Turbonegro – one written specifically for this soundtrack album.

The game score has a total length of approximately 3 ½ hours, which means there's still a lot of music from the game that's not on the CD. Since there were so many varied musical pieces to pick between, a representative collection of songs could easily become too eclectic. Thus my main ambition for this soundtrack album has been to make it work as an independent musical entity outside the context of the game. The approach to this has been to organize the tracks in the analogy of a journey. An important criterium for choosing the songs has been that each one would constitute a meaningful part of this musical journey."

Funcom talks about the success of Warhammer Online (News)

Oct 7, 2008

Strategy Informer had the chance to ask Jørgen Tharaldsen, Product Director for Funcom, a few questions relating to the recently released MMO Age of Conan, which has been released on the PC, but is also expected for the Xbox 360.

We wanted to know how Funcom felt about the release of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, as its been hailed as the fastest-selling new MMO of all time. Jørgen Tharaldsen told us that he's happy for EA as the MMO genre needs success stories besides WoW.

Funcom: Xbox 360 Age of Conan won't release for another year, isn't our key priority right now (News)

Oct 7, 2008

Strategy Informer recently had the chance to ask Jorgen Tharaldsen, Product Director for Funcom, a few questions relating to the recently released MMO Age of Conan, which has been released on the PC, but is also expected for the Xbox 360.

Funcom has been quiet about the Xbox 360 version of Age of Conan, so we asked Jorgen Tharaldsen how development for this version is coming along, and he told us that the Xbox 360 version is not the companies key priority as there are a massive amount of PC gamers already playing the game.

Funcom: Age of Conan server merge was requested from the Playerbase (News)

Oct 6, 2008

Strategy Informer recently had the chance to ask Jorgen Tharaldsen, Product Director for Funcom, a few questions relating to the recently released MMO Age of Conan, which has been released on the PC, but is also expected for the Xbox 360.

We asked Jorgen about the recent server merges that had taken place, to see if he could enlighten some of the concerns that sparked from this announcement, because some people thought that this could be the beginning of the end for the MMO. Jorgen said that he was confident that people playing Age of Conan are happy about the news, and that it was requested from the playerbase.

Major revisions in Age of Conan crafting revealed (News)

Oct 2, 2008

Massively: "Okay, Funcom, we get it. You're deadly serious about fixing Age of Conan. First the beginnings of the PvP patch went live, 'Patch 2', giving players PvP XP and gear. Then we got to see the reworked notoriety system on Testlive, along with shady camps and six pages of patchnotes. And now we get a lengthy document about coming changes to the crafting system on the Testlive server. Good heavens, anyone would think that Craig Morrison bloke actually knew what he was doing.

Age of Conan crafting had been lacklustre. The new changes, which are scheduled to go live as part of Update 3 - the very same update that will polish off the PvP changes - add much more depth and complexity to the tradeskills. Weapons and armor will now have recipes that drop for city, base and culture versions, depending on whether they require a guild city or not. The 'base' pieces can be worn, and also used up in crafting to produce new pieces."

'Shady camps' and more in latest Age of Conan Testlive patch (News)

Oct 1, 2008

Just as players' patience was starting to fray again, 'Patch 3' has arrived on the Age of Conan testlive server, and it is a chunky one - Massively counted at least 594 meg. Feel like browsing the patch notes? Make a nice cup of something, put your feet up, take your time... there are six pages to wade through.

Obviously Massively can't detail all of them here, but they range from the silly-but-desired 'Party people rejoice - proper drunkenness has been implemented!' to the necessary 'Fixed several causes of crashes and assert errors' to the trivial 'For decency's sake, Old Finn now has pants!'

AoC Letter from the Game Director (News)

Sep 29, 2008

Age of Conan players have been curious to see what new Game Director Craig Morrison will bring to the table. He's already proven willing to wade in to the forums and give players clear answers to their questions, and today he's provided a lengthy and frank letter about what will be coming to AoC in the future. There's a lot of information to digest.

Age of Conan PvP gear list (News)

Sep 24, 2008

It took a while getting there, but PvP gear finally made it to Age of Conan. Was it worth the wait? Apparently, yes. The PvP patch has caused a marked increase in enthusiasm for the game, and players are killing each other like never before in their haste to earn PvP levels. Unfortunately, the AoC PvP notoriety patch didn't go live yet, so nobody is being branded as a murderer or criminal no matter how many lower level passers-by they ambush and massacre.

Martuk at Ten Ton Hammer has put together the first part of an exhaustive catalog of all the PvP gear that's made it into the game so far, complete with requirements and bonuses.

Don't expect any "more" Adult Content (News)

Sep 23, 2008

New game director Craig Morrison, who has taken on the role following the resignation of Guate Godager, has addressed the players directly on the game's (missing) mature content.

Craig confirms that AoC was never going to be 'adults only', just as senior dialog writer Aaron Dembski-Bowden stated several months ago, but that 'the themes that come out through the quests and dialog that the team have written is very adult and does tackle some mature subjects really well'. This is how it's going to continue, and there is no question of Age of Conan 'toning down' its approach.

Godager Exit Could Bring Positive Results For Age Of Conan Players (News)

Sep 22, 2008

Funcom product manager Jørgen Tharaldsen has commented on the surprise departure of company founder Gaute Godager stating it may bring a positive result for the gamer

Massively: Age of Conan players get to grips with new PvP mechanics (News)

Sep 19, 2008

By a startling coincidence that probably has something to do with a planetary alignment in Capricorn or some such, the first big PvP patch went to the Age of Conan servers at about the same time a certain other game was gearing up for final launch. Massively has no idea how or why this could possibly have happened, and are frankly amazed at the synchronicity.

At any rate, the players have been getting busy killing each other; there are even reports that some servers are now 'booming'. We're seeing quotes like 'This is the most fun I have ever had on AoC.' Of course, we're also seeing posts that report tumbleweeds and lone and level sands stretching far away.

Long awaited PvP patch goes live in Age of Conan (News)

Sep 18, 2008

Massively: It's a red-letter day in Hyboria - red with the arterial spray of fellow players. After many iterations, tweaks and adjustments, the huge patch to introduce the beginnings of the new PvP system in Age of Conan is finally coming to Live. Of the major PvP changes, only PvP XP and gear are in so far. The notoriety system is yet to come, but shouldn't be too far away.

Funcom Moves Anarchy Online Director to Age of Conan (News)

Sep 18, 2008

GamingShogun writes, "Funcom has announced today that it has moved the Producer and Game Director of Anarchy Online, Craig Morrison, to the same role in Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures.

Craig had this to say: "Taking on the position as Producer and Game Director on Age of Conan is a great challenge but also one I welcome. I have a clear conviction I can lead the further development in a good way, evolving Age of Conan into something even better..."

Funcom: Godager stepped down as "consequence" of Conan problems (News)

Sep 17, 2008

Gaute Godager, co-founder of Funcom, stepped down as a "consequence" of failures in Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, according to the company's European product manager, Erling Ellingsen.

Earlier today, it was announced that the producer and game director of Age of Conan decided to quit the developer after 16 years, saying he was "dissatisfied" with the title.

"We don't want to go into all the specifics on what he was dissatisfied with - it's sufficient to say that there were elements in the game that he was not happy with and he wanted to take the consequence of that," Ellingsen told GamesIndustry.biz. "The consequence was him leaving the company and allowing someone else to take over the project."

Age of Conan declares rules for RP (News)

Sep 16, 2008

Better late than never? The graphically intense, atmospheric slashfest Age of Conan has had designated roleplaying servers since day one, but it doesn't seem to have occurred to Funcom to give that status any kind of binding definition, let alone a formal code of conduct. Now, though, the exhaustive rules for what players can and can't do on a roleplay server have been laid out.

Big Iron: Quad-core Conan coming (News)

Sep 11, 2008

Big Iron had the opportunity to catch up with Funcom's Jørgen Tharaldsen (JT) at Dragon*Con, and was able to ask him some questions about what's in store for the hardware freaks as far as Age of Conan is concerned. Their willingness to speak frankly about what the player base has brought up as points of concern is great to see, and the fact that they're so up-front about what they're doing to address these items is laudable.

Age of Conan Now Available on Steam (News)

Sep 5, 2008

WorthPlaying writes: Age of Conan is an Online Action RPG, mixing a deep, story-driven single-player experience and a massive and brutal multiplayer end-game that brings forth the ultimate representation of the Age of Conan.

Conan 360 "still very much set to happen" - In 2009, but PC still dominant focus (News)

Sep 3, 2008

Funcom has told Eurogamer that an Xbox 360 version of Age of Conan will definitely be released.

"The Xbox 360 version is still very much set to happen and we are working on it," said Erling Ellingsen, chief horn-blower for Funcom.

"However, there are no dates set, even though we aim for a 2009 release. Our big priority now is, of course, the PC version and fixing the issues with it and improving it for our current players."

Work began on the console MMO in December 2006, but was put to one side during the run up to the PC launch in May this year.

Mythic VP Explains What Went Wrong With 'Hellgate,' Why He Wanted 'Age of Conan' To Succeed (News)

Sep 2, 2008

Mythic VP and lead "Warhammer Online" designer Mark Jacobs told MTV some of the things needed to make a successful MMO. But he also said if you're looking to make an online game nowadays, the odds are against you.

Age of Conan Expansion Coming In 2009 (News)

Aug 24, 2008

At the recent Leipzig Games Conference, Funcom developers announced that the first expansion to Age of Conan is planned for a 2009 release. Details about the expansion are sparse, but a significant amount of new areas appear to be in development for that and a free upcoming content patch. Massively points out a video which showcases some of the new content. 1Up has a piece of concept art for the expansion.

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures gets first expansion (News)

Aug 21, 2008

Eidos Interactive has revealed that it's working on the first expansion for Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. The expansion will be released on pc, but further details were not given.

Age of Conan will tie in with new film (News)

Aug 20, 2008

Speaking at the Leipzig Games Convention, Funcom's Erling Ellingsen confirmed that the company's Age of Conan MMO will tie in with the new Conan film being produced by Lionsgate.

Age Of Conan Invades GC (News)

Aug 16, 2008

Don your loincloth, polish your bastard sword, and get ready to invade Germany as Funcom announces their plans for Age of Conan at next week's Games Convention in Leipzig. They'll be showing off new locations, new content, and new features of their massively-multiplayer swords & sorcery title during live stage shows at the convention, with Blue Orb on hand to show players how to work the game with a gamepad and the TripleHead2Go guys granting hands-on time with the game on a three-screen setup. There's also loot to be had in the form of free game trials, limited edition game DVDs, and inflatable swords - because giving out real swords would have been pricey, and things would have gotten ugly rather quickly.

Age of Conan: 415K Customers (News)

Aug 16, 2008

Edge writes: The Netherlands-based Funcom says its recently released MMO Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures currently boasts over 415,000 customers.

Age of Conan DX10 Features And New Content at Games Convention (News)

Aug 15, 2008

Behind the tall walls of the King's fortress press and gamers alike can play the game, meet and chat with the developers, collect amazing give-aways and observe live stage shows where Funcom will reveal and demonstrate brand new and never-before-seen locations, content and features that will be put into the recently launched massively multiplayer online game 'Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures' in the months ahead.

"We are very pleased with the tremendously successful launch that we had," says Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Funcom, Morten Larssen. "But this is where the real journey starts for 'Age of Conan'. In the months ahead we will be putting a lot of effort into expanding and improving on the game, and we look forward to using the Games Convention to unveil some of the locations, content and features we have in the pipeline."

During the live stage shows Funcom will present new locations, content and features coming to 'Age of Conan'. Blue Orb Inc. will also be present to demonstrate how you can use their software to play 'Age of Conan' with a gamepad, while the guys behind 'TripleHead2Go' have prepared a machine with a three screen setup so that gamers can come and play 'Age of Conan' in all its unprecedented visual glory using cutting-edge technology. Funcom will also be giving away exciting loot such as the legendary inflatable swords and free trial accounts together with limited edition DVDs containing the entire game. This is the first time Funcom hands out free trials and the supply is limited, so we encourage you to make your way to Conan's outpost as soon as possible!

Funcom employee fired for cybersex with player in Age of Conan (News)

Aug 10, 2008

It seems that somebody has been sticking their sword into the wrong dungeon. The story goes that an Age of Conan player summoned a GM and convinced them to engage in a little "role-playing". The GM then took the player to a more secluded portion of the game world and (after a bit of hemming and hawing) proceeded to describe a sexual scenario in graphic detail.

Best of all? The whole thing is a setup.

More adjustments to Age of Conan's new PvP system (News)

Aug 9, 2008

Massively reports: Last night a new patch went to Age of Conan's Testlive server. As well as making the usual slew of fixes and changes, including addressing memory leak and crash problems, and introducing a revamped version of the Catacombs in Old Tarantia, there were some tweaks to the PvP consequence system.

Hotfix quashes ludicrous purple loot drops in Age of Conan (News)

Aug 6, 2008

Via Massively: As of this morning's small patch, a fix has been put in place: 'Altered the loot table of the Beguiler Demons in Potain so they are now dropping more appropriate loot.' Several days' worth of wanton purple looting has already taken place, so this is a bit like shutting the stable door after the horse has... well, not so much bolted as seduced your wife, stolen the family silver, drunk all your cognac, smoked your cigars, lost interest and ambled off.

Metal legends to rock out in Sacred 2 (News)

Aug 6, 2008

From gameplayer, news that German 'Fantasy Metal' band Blind Guardian will perform in Sacred 2: "This whole farrago sounds like something Spinal Tap would get up to!"

Age of Conan's "rhythm, longevity, gameplay and style" may not work: WAR boss (News)

Aug 4, 2008

Warhammer Online creative director Paul Barnett has said that it will be "very sad" if Funcom's Age of Conan collapses, saying that the game's "rhythm, longevity, gameplay and style" may not connect with the market in general.

Russian version of Age of Conan coming in Q4 (News)

Aug 1, 2008

Funcom and 1C Company announces the signing of a Service Partnership Agreement for a Russian version of Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. According to the agreement 1C will fully localize voice and text and operate local customer service, communities, websites and in-game support for Age of Conan in Russian, while Funcom takes care of back-end technology, server infrastructure and continuous development of the game. A dedicated Russian realm is to be created, giving the Russian community an opportunity to stay together and communicate with each other in their native language.

Blizzard: Conan Stole Our WoW Players (News)

Aug 1, 2008

Edge Online writes: "You might say that it's an accomplishment in itself to pry a few World of Warcraft players away to try a different MMO.

So Funcom should be commended for apparently drawing some of those WoW players away to play Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, which launched in late May.

Blizzard president Mike Morhaime said during an Activision Blizzard earnings call on Thursday, "Age of Conan released with some initial success a couple of months ago, and we did see some of our players leave to try the game. However, we've seen about 40 percent of those players return to World of Warcraft."

In about a month's worth of time, Funcom's Age of Conan garnered 700,000 subscribers, according to the developer."

Age of Conan: July 31st Update Notes (News)

Jul 31, 2008

Patch Notes for the July 31st update to Age of Conan are now available.

Age of Conan Buddy Key System Goes Live (News)

Jul 24, 2008

Funcom have green lighted the Buddy system for the MMORPG Age of Conan.

Age of Conan Available on Direct2Drive (News)

Jul 15, 2008

GamingShogun writes, "Direct2Drive, IGN Entertainment's digital retail store, today announced that Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is now available for digital download via Direct2Drive. Starting today, users can go directly to Direct2Drive to immediately download and begin playing..."

Gaming's most repellent anti-babes (Feature)

Jul 11, 2008

After a week of eye-popping sexy lady types, we thought it was only fair that we should give some exposure to a few of God's burnt cookies. ...

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures preliminary July 10 patch notes (News)

Jul 9, 2008

Everyone who plays Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures has been on the lookout for what improvements Funcom will be making to the game.

Well, we're not going to have to wait till tomorrow to get a glimpse of what the July 10 patch will contain because the preliminary update notes for the upcoming update have been posted on the AoC test live forums.

While going over the notes for yourself, be advised that the developers put in a disclaimer saying that the notes may not necessarily reflect the final version that will be released on the liver servers.

Anyway, enough talk. Here are the patch notes. Enjoy!

Electronic Arts, Vivendi dominate US PC charts (News)

Jul 8, 2008

GamesIndustry.biz reports that Electronic Arts and Vivendi are dominating sales of PC games in the US, according to the latest data from NPD.

EA's budget title Spore Creature Creator is the top seller for the week ended June 28, with two other EA titles Â¿ The Sims 2 IKEA Home Stuff Expansion and The Sims 2 Double Deluxe Â¿ at two and three in the charts.

Vivendi's World of Warcraft Battle Chest is at four, with the original World of Warcraft at six. Sandwiched between the two is Eidos' plucky upstart MMO Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures.

Female characters are disadvantaged in Age of Conan (News)

Jul 2, 2008

Funcom admits that female characters do less damage in Age of Conan. According to Funcom's game designer Svein Erik Jenset, this is because of the different animations. Funcom is already working on the problem but it will take some time to adjust all of 1,000 animations that have to be altered.

The Male/Female Attack Speed Issue Clarified, Will Take Weeks to Correct (News)

Jul 1, 2008

Svein Erik "Sharum" Jenset of Funcom today let loose a lengthy explanation of the Male versus Female attack speed issue that players have noticed in recent weeks, and just how soon players can expect a fix. TenTonHammer has the entire post.

Age of Conan #2 MMO in Western Hemisphere (News)

Jun 30, 2008

According to Eidos and Funcom, Age of Conan is now the #2 MMO in the Western World with a subscriber base of 700,000 users.

AoC dev discusses Necro patch changes and future updates (News)

Jun 26, 2008

Monday's Age of Conan patch saw some hefty nerfs to area effect spells for both the Tempest of Set and the Necromancer. System designer Jayde elaborated on the Necro changes and also discusses the future updates to the class, which may give some hope to those that were thinking of ditching their mains.

Half of the upcoming changes that Jayde lists nearly made it into Monday's patch, but seeing as they missed that one, they should almost certainly be included this Thursday.