Age of Conan (Lots of Screenshots)

Actually I think I'm going to start playing looks nice!

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Original post by mittens Seriously, why are none of you playing it? I'd link a bunch of my screenshots but my host is being a dick right now.

It looks cool beyond belief and I'd love to play it (a colleague of mine was in the beta program and he loves it), but you know... I got too much stuff to do right now ;-)

For anyone that wants to play or is playing, I suggest Tyranny (US PvP server) because it's awesome. I'll update this thread with screenshots if my site ever gets back up.

How does it run on everybody's computers? I've heard its a big resource hog.

I was going to start a trial account but they want you to pay for it without even seeing what it's about and I can't seem to find a download link on there site so I think they want you to pay for the game then pay the mouthy fees to play it...

Also the mouthy fee cost more then WoW. So thats why I'm not going to be playing this...

Ah Conan, the game that has:
*A clunky combat system that gets real repetitive, which already has macros on the net to get around.
*Poor FPS ranger mechanics.
*Stock standard "kill #X pigs" PVE quests.
*Stock standard "Run around in an arena" PVP.
*Castle sieges that have to be planned ahead of time with the opposing team...

That game? Meh. From all accounts it's a pretty bland MMO which does nothing special. If it weren't for the graphics it would be another bargain bin MMO, which is no surprise considering it’s coming from the rich MMO pedigree of Funcom, makers of Midgard (cancelled) and Anarchy Online (free).

I wouldn't be so jaded against this game if at some point during the 500 times I've asked people over the last few years "Why are you interested in this game?" the response wasn't "errr...cause...it's got Conan..and boobs..and OMG THE GRAPHICS ARE SWEET". With most games people are looking forward too they can rattle of at least 10 awesome things that has them excited about it, but dang it, nobody over the past 3 years has given me one good answer to why they are looking forward to Conan. Is it just because it isn’t WoW? It seems so.

I think this game is going to be a flash in the pan. People are going to sign up, play to level 30, realize they are just playing the same old MMO they were playing 4 years ago and cancel. Given the luke warm response from the gaming press and the angry beta forums, I don’t see this MMO snagging any more of the MMO pie than LotR:O, which isn’t bad but certainly isn’t the WoW killer people are hyping this game up to be.

Am I being unfair? Maybe, but it does seem that this game is being put on a pedestal when so far it really hasn’t done anything special.

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Original post by boolean Am I being unfair? Maybe, but it does seem that this game is being put on a pedestal when so far it really hasn’t done anything special.

I quite like the combat; it's still a hotbar clickfest but the lack of a button to automatically attack keeps me feeling like I'm actually playing the game. It's a simple change to the MMO formula but it works well enough.

The pace of the game seems like the closest an MMO has gotten to an action/RPG; I love hack-and-slash games for their quick progression, speed of combat, and the item whoring and this game does a lot to capture that. I can take on three-five enemies at once, my attacks affect whoever they hit, and the healing period out of combat is quick.

My biggest complaint thus far is there aren't a whole lot of items or item variety. This is one thing that I applaud World of Warcraft for and is, at least at my paltry level 23, pretty barren in Conan. It's nowhere near as bad as Guild Wars for item variety but I wish that I would worthwhile items more frequently.

^^

I think this game is more suited to consoles. While the idea of playing this game on the PC makes my eyeballs glaze over with a boredom induced coma, it is something I could chill out on a couch with and play with a controller. The combat mechanics would work a lot better too (one of the criticisms I heard is that while you are spamming the combat buttons to fight with one hand, it makes it hard to manage your character as the other hand is busy moving your character around).

I should point out that my first post came off a bit more flamey than I intended. I just started writing and didn’t quite take the tone of it into account. While I feel this game is a bit of a one trick pony, I'm just taking a jab at the game, not those playing it [inlove]

Updated with a bunch of screenshots.

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Original post by soconne How does it run on everybody's computers? I've heard its a big resource hog.

It runs fairly poorly for me. Large outdoor scenes actually get a decent framerate (40-50), but towns drop down to an average of 10-20 and indoor areas (where the lighting is much more detailed) often drop to below 10. But at least the framerate seems to be proportional to how much combat will occur in the area (lots of combat outdoors; less in towns and indoors, although there is some).

I should mention my computer's a few years old, but I did put in a GeForce 8500 GT recently.

Anyway, I've had fun with the game so far, and I love the combat despite people saying it's clunky, etc., but the overall effect of this game has ultimately been to make me want to play WoW again. I played WoW for a month or two when it originally came out, and even far back then it felt much more polished than AoC. I loved the lack of loading screens in WoW for the most part, the artistic polish of the world (even if technologically it was a bit simplistic), the size and openness of the world at early levels (in AoC it takes a while for the world to really open up to you; the first 20 levels are spent in a well-designed but somewhat confined area called Tortage), etc.

Also, a lot of the AoC players (at least on the PvP server Bane that I'm on) are inexplicably cocky. One person was asking some basic questions about PvP (like why they can't match up people with others of similar level), but he just got flamed--people called him stupid, retarded, told him to go back to WoW, to stop whining, etc. And it seems that every time someone does anything even remotely silly or immature, he gets bombarded with messages saying, "This is an adult game; go back to WoW." That gets annoying very fast.

Anyway, .

Usually I just ask myself: Do I want to get addicted?

And usually I come up with the same answer: Nah.

BUT, my girlfriend will move out for 1-2 months during the summer.. So maybe I should allow myself to get "a little" addicted? :)

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Original post by boolean Stock standard "kill #X pigs" PVE quests.

Actually, the beginning of the game (the first 20 levels) on Tortage Island feels almost like it could be a good, stand-alone single-player RPG. I was quite impressed with it.

But after that the game's inspiration level starts dropping off I thought.

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Original post by mittens M means short hookers with big boobs

egad, that looks hideous.

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Original post by capn_midnight egad, that looks hideous.

That model isn't representative of the game's art quality on the whole. When I saw her she really stood out to me even though I had been playing for hours upon hours that particular day. It's just a terrible, terrible model.

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Original post by capn_midnight Quote: Original post by mittens M means short hookers with big boobs egad, that looks hideous.

id still hit it

Summer is here and I need some cool game to fill the void .. but I'm not sure my laptop will handle AoC. I don't suppose anybody on here bought the Collectors Edition and has a spare buddy key?

All else fails I might just pick up Guild Wars again..

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Original post by capn_midnight Quote: Original post by mittens M means short hookers with big boobs egad, that looks hideous.

Sweet! This game has transvestites?

I'm playing it :cool:

EU Server RP PVP :)


I like it, lots, so far. Give it a couple of months and it'll be amazing.

I really like it, although I do not like my server. I chose an rp-pvp server. I wish I had gone just pvp because so many people whine a lot about getting killed in pvp zones. I dont even spawn kill and they still whine.