Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures

Before there was Conan the Barbarian, there was Robert E. Howard. The prolific author practically invented the sword-and-sorcery genre of pulp fiction in the early 20th century, and Conan was his most famous creation. In 1932, inspired by the lush hill country of central Texas, Howard envisioned the ancient land of Cimmeria and its champion, a brave and headstrong warrior named Conan. » Read Full Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures preview

Like a medieval NCAA tournament, raiding in Age of Conan is about gradually making your way to the big showdown. Dungeons raids will be handled by groups of 24 (though 16 highly skilled players may get the job done) in three stages; completing each tier gets you access to the skills and equipment you’ll need to tackle those that follow. Above: Guilds need to divide and conquer if they're going to beat back multiple bosses per » Read Full Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures preview

Tortage Island is "the jewel of the Barachan Isles," but it's a gem with some sharp edges. You'll spend all of Age of Conan's first 20 levels in, around, and in some cases under the island's many and varied environments, all of which are populated by flora, fauna, and folks who'd like to see you six feet under. As in any MMO, travel time is also a factor - expect to do a fair bit of running between points - so the better you know your » Read Full Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures preview

Even the most solitary pre­-level 20 young warrior will eventually have to dive into Age of Conan’s multiplayer mode in order to earn enough experience to progress in the main story line. Luckily, diehard soloists shouldn’t fear Age of Conan’s multiplayer side. Once you tell your trainer at the Thirsty Dog Inn that you’d like to adventure with others, the game will transition to daytime, bringing you together with all the other “day questers” on your server. » Read Full Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures preview

There’s been no shortage of confidence from the Age of Conan camp, perhaps befitting the game’s namesake: the last press release we received from developer Funcom heralds the game as “one of the most highly anticipated MMO games in history” - and announces that the PC version’s gone gold, despite much Internet buzz among beta testers that it needs more polish than the remaining weeks to launch can possibly » Read Full Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures preview

The good news is that Conan’s still different enough from every other MMO to be interesting. The better news is that it’s very easy to play. Perhaps even too easy. Every enemy in the Robert E. Howard-inspired game has three points where they can be attacked: left, right and above. These are shown by semi-circles floating about them when targeted. If you hit them on the left, they’ll defend that side, maybe leaving the right » Read Full Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures preview

Based on our latest look at Age of Conan, we can safely say its looking pretty damn great. The combat system has been changed in a number of very definite, deliberate ways, and it improves the feel of the game immensely. The number of directions in which you can attack has been reduced, combos must now be activated instead of memorised and hopelessly recited, and enemies now display shield icons on either their front, left or right sides - a seemingly trivial inclusion but one that gives » Read Full Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures preview

As we played Age of Conan in a darkened room somewhere in developer Eidos HQ, lead designer Jason Allen Stone suggested the magnificently ugly face of our barbarian might be corrected by limiting the range of his facial customization. We do hope not: our frog-faced, beady-eyed, pseudo-Egyptian machete-wielding murderer was a glorious sight to behold. Few games allow you so much character in a single human face. You might only be able to play humans in Age of Conans online fantasy world, but » Read Full Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures preview

Funcom have been doubly blessed while working on what were calling the 360s first, proper MMORPG. Firstly, Warner Bros announced a brand new movie based on Robert E Howards mighty Cimmerian meathead, which would take away the taste of Governor Schwarzeneggers 1982 B-Movie, and make Conan a far cooler character. But even better than that, Microsoft has given them the go-ahead to adapt their PC game for the truly mighty Xbox 360, taking away the taste of being a PC-only niche title… and » Read Full Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures preview