Recently announced, Funcom showed an early build of their game Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. This game has been under development for nearly two years but still has some work to be done to be ready for release. Conan is an action MMORPG called Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. The term MMO, though, doesn’t fully fit this game for the first portion – the first 20 levels (out of a planned 80) will be single player. As time progresses, you’ll end up playing more with others until the game becomes more of a massively multiplayer RPG.
The first thing that jumped out at me about this game, though, was not the gameplay elements. It was the outstanding graphics. Using the latest technology, Funcom is able to create a game that includes incredibly vast landscapes; highly detailed textures for creatures, players and terrain; and also real time shadow creation. A very cool part of the demo involved the developer accelerating the movement of the sun – the shadows moved and scaled exceptionally well. This game is, by far, ahead of the MMO pack when it comes to graphics.
Also, the gameplay does not suffer from the time that the developers have spent on the graphics. This game uses a very engaging system for combat. Somewhat similar to the system used in other games where you can perform different strikes based on how you move your mouse, this game also includes six different areas where you can strike your enemy. Using these strikes in the right combination will allow you to perform combos where your attacks will end up being faster – you don’t have to completely stop swinging to take another hack at the monster.
As mentioned, this game will not be MMO from the start. You will progress through a single player portion of the story until you reach level 20 (though the level could be up for change in the future). After that, you’ll be grouping up with other players. Developers were not sure at this point what the targeted amount of time to reach level 20 would be. Conan is slated for a late release in 2006.
Hi. My name is Brian. I am a video game addict.
Of course, I actually do things other than game. Currently, I’m a full time college student at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke where I am majoring in Mass Communications with a Journalism focus.
I’ve served as Managing Editor on my school’s paper and also written various editorials. I pride myself on my academics and work hard towards earning good grades – a few years of hard work will be worth it in the long run.
I’ve been gaming ever since my parents bought me an NES in 1985 (I was born in 1981). My favorite game of all time is probably the original Legend of Zelda but my currently played favorite game is a tossup between Madden 2005 and MVP 2005.
While I play a lot of sports games (which happens when you live with two baseball players), I also enjoy RPGs and RTSes. The first I’m actually good at and the second I’m not. I am also known to play the occasional FPS but will rarely make it all the way through one.
I’m also not a competitive gamer. I definitely prefer games that include co-op modes along with the normal competitive modes. Some of my favorite games in that regard are Legend of Zelda: Four Swords for the Game Cube and Fianl Fantasy Crystal Chronicles.
