GamesRadar - PC News

Buy Crappy Uwe Boll Movie, Get...Advent Rising? (Advent Rising)

Sep 25, 2008

You may not have heard of Uwe Boll's 2007 film Seed. Mostly because it wasn't based on a game, and as such, would have received absolutely zero press (as opposed to the slight amounts of press he gets from a strangely-obsessed gaming media).

Capcom announces Plunder for Xbox Live Arcade, PSNetwork and PC (Age of Booty)

Mar 13, 2008

Capcom announced today that its developing Plunder for the Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and PC. Developed by Certain Affinity, known for their previous work on the Halo series, Plunder is a real-time multiplayer strategy game that puts players in command of a pirate ship with the goal of destroying your enemies and capturing towns for your pirate faction. Plunder is currently scheduled for release this summer.

Age of Conan conquers The Big Bang Theory (Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures)

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 (Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures)

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 (Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures)

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 (Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures)

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 (Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures)

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 (Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures)

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 (Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures)

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 (Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures)

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 (Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures)

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 (Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures)

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 (Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures)

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 (Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures)

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 (Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures)

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 (Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures)

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 (Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures)

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 (Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures)

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 (Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures)

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 (Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures)

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.