After some time Age of Conan is doing great!

I was truly great year for Age of Conan after becoming free to play game! According to latest news, since July Age of Conan has tried 600,000 adventure seeking players! Player base had grown by 300,000 new players with doubled monthly revenue.
Population seems to be very stable so Age of Conan rises from the grave and fight. As a fan I'm waiting now for numerous updates, more dungeons and endgame content. Maybe finally Funcom will raise experience cap which should be really awesome! As a player I'm looking also for more benefit if I'm older player (I'm playing right from the start!).

According to Funcom they “new business model will give players the opportunity to choose whether they want to play for free or become premium subscribers, and Funcom is also introducing an in-game store to the game where both free and premium players can purchase exclusive content such as weaponry and mounts.”

Even if on the one had Age of Conan free to play is more of a trial than freemium game, I guess Funcom should work more to turn model into something little bit similar to Turbine and Lord of the Rings Online: Shadow of Angmar, where we can play in truly free game with some premium options. Turbine has a lot more experience in free to play model, since they turn into free to play Dungeon and Dragons Online (spectacular success if we are talking about MMORPG). I’m familiar with both, Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeon and Dragons Online and I guess these games are amazing, very well planned if we are talking about free to play model. Both are keeping balance and have a lot to offer for free subscribers.

Hopefully Funcom will add more exciting content in the future, to get more players; more items and it surely keep more balance to the game when they change free to play/ premium model. As an Age of Conan fan and someone who enjoy all kind of MMORPG (of course high quality ones!). I’m truly happy anyway. A future shines beautifully for Age of Conan: Unchained, they really did something great and spectacular – it was splendid decision!

Age of Conan: Unchained

Age of Conan: Unchained focuses more than other MMO games on story, has just magnificent visuals and a fantasy MMORPG with a never seen anywhere before real-time battling system. It’s really difficult to discover another gaming production with such amazing atmosphere, graphics and music as AoC. And since some time everyone is able to play in this game for free! Although it’s not as free like other F2P titles, it may be played without larger problems.

When downloading the client, it’s good to be aware what character we would like to choose, because before it will complete, you will have to wait some time and creating your character process is really short. As you enter to vast universe of Conan, you start on-board a slave ship like every other player, who actually play in Age of Conan. Ship has bad luck it’s being destroyed by storm, leaving you to drown in the depths of the ocean. But you are surviving and are waking up on the beach of the island of Tortage totally without any memories. And your adventure is begun.
What will surprise you during the first minutes is just extremely fun to play and boosting up adrenaline combat system. It lets you take an active role during the fight. It varies from other games and you won’t find auto-attack button – in order to be victorious, you have to chop, thrust, and swing with equipped sword, axe, club or anything you are currently holding, by yourself using the keyboard. The battling system also gives you opportunity to control your defense rather than relying just on your statistics, adjusting your defenses as your opponents strike, lending an element of your skill to every encounter. Additionally, proper using of available combos rewards you with possibility of dealing just marvelous damage. Don’t forget about into game gore (cutting of limbs and decapitations) with bare-breasted women running around and numerous of players will surely agree that it’s just extremely fun. What’s interesting and good to idea to mention is AoC’s resting system when you desire to regenerate your lost health, mana and of course stamina.

But let’s talk about AoC being F2P. First of all, there's now a numerous of more content on offer than originally shipped with the title, and most of it is open to every game. All of the regions from the known title are free to enjoy, you can do plenty interesting quests and it’s not impossible to level all the way to the existing level cap which is 80. Obviously before even downloading and creating your account, you have to keep in mind that Age of Conan: Unchained is not like rest of F2P MMO, so don’t expect that you will have granted access whole content in-game. Free-to-play gamers of Age of Conan get choose of four character classes (like Barbarian) and just two character slots. Instances, adventure areas, space in your bank, raids and mount training are limited.

But what MMORPG would be Age of Conan without quests. Missions which you have to complete are not varying from other MMO games, where you have to visit and revisit four locations until you are mighty enough to defeat the current area’s final boss. It’s as you may expect about defeating zillions of mobs and collecting pelts from them, speaking generally.

All-in-all if you have never launched Age of Conan before, this is the most amazing time to try it out and see for yourself if it’s something you desire to play for a long time. That fact that the game is so action heavy and still a bit different to larger part of existing MMO's still makes it a somewhat unique, and combat is still really fun to play, really fast and challenging to play – especially during PvP - whether you have chosen to fight the world as a melee warrior or some fancy arcane spell user. And it’s good to play in game on some high-end PC, because surroundings look just totally amazing with the amazing DX10 water effect.

Howdy! Strategy games?

Ready for something cool? This time I would like to add something about free online strategy games. Bang! Howdy is a free to play browser based MMORPG set in a western theme. Constructed with loads of humor in a specific atmosphere, this game is sure to please numerous gamers. Published back in late 2006, Bang! Howdy still presents signs of growth and improvement and remains consistent in mentioned elements. The game is fairly easy; it uses elements from RPG and from RTS online strategy games, and combines them to develop something fairly special and fairly confusing.

Feature

* Fast-paced hybrid of turn-based and realtime strategy gameplay with a nicely stylized antics!

* Plenty of unique units, hundreds of unique playfields and over ten wild and crazy gameplay scenarios!

* Gather and customize Big Shot units that complement your gaming style whether you like to take your sweet time or go in guns ablazin'!

* Personalization-able avatars and collectable badges let you show them city folk that you know how to handle your servants!

* Multiplayer online tactical strategy game in a 3D Wild West setting – what do you need more?

The game is, strangely enough, set in the Wild West which is unique in free online strategy games. You have an opportunity to do everything from rustle steers to collect gold to combat over land. Once in a task the aim is fairly simple. Use the units you’ve got to defeat your foes at whatever the mission is, thus scoring more points than them.

Unit range from a Tactician to a Dirigible to a Sharpshooter; every with specific powers and weakness. Missions are played in semi-realtime. Once you give a soldier an order it will move or attack, but then some seconds need to pass before the unit can move again. You can give it an order in advance though, which is nice.

There are two towns at this moment available in the game — Frontier Town and Indian Trading Post — and a third — Boom Town — on the way. These towns offer vastly various missions, units and stuff.

A quite nice feature of the game is the card system which is typical in free online strategy games. You find, and can purchase, cards that offer boosts to units within a mission. For example, if you give to yourself a Repair card and use it on your Tactician when his health gets low this’ll put him back to total strength. This is the most fundamental aspect of the game. To go up in rank, thus unlocking nicer equipment and personalization features, you’ll require playing against other human foes. Not to worry, the game is popular so discovering matchups in the Saloon shouldn’t be a big deal.

Presenting a hybrid between turn-based and realtime strategy games gameplay, Bang! Howdy is played in short fast-paced rounds. The players use winnings acquired as they play, along with a micro-currency system, to buy and customize persistent Big Shot units, which influence their play-style and strategies in future gaming productions.

Technically the game is very sound. The graphics is brilliant, the music and sound effects are nice (you can actually even buy desired soundtracks from the General Store too) and there’s no discernable lag or bumps when enjoying the product. The game is totally free online strategy games too, but you are given the chance to pay for premium stuff. This ensures that they get some revenue-the game for sure does not pay for itself. Thee Rings, developers of Bang! Howdy makes the billing process totally simple.

10 Things you must know about Age of Conan

Welcome on my blog. Today few words about one of the best games i ever played - Age of Conan!

1. It's brutal, savage MMORPG designed especially for mature audience. Game is bloody but perfect for someone above 18 year old. Looking for great entertainment? Check out Aoc ;-)

2. Age of Conan is game based on Robert E. Howard novel, "Hour of the dragon", where appear- for the first time - Conan, brave adventurer and barbarian from Cimmeria. There are over one hundread books about his adventures!

3. Game has been developed and released on May 20, 2008 by Norwegian company Funcom.

4. Funcom created also Anarchy Online, few years ago. It was very successful MMO RPG. I played in Anarchy few months, but I prefer fantasy games more than science fiction stuff.

5. Game has most incredible and advanced game engine used in MMO RPG history. Well, after Aion Online, Age of Conan is on the second place ;-). Aion is now is best looking MMO, but probably until Final Fantasy XIV appears.

6. Game lost many players because game was really very bugged at premiere and later, players has left Age of Conan for World of Warcraft or Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, Lord of the Rings Online.

7. Conan appears in Age of Conan as powerful King of Aquilonia, one of the largest kingdoms in Hyboria. You can meet him at his palace at Capitol City.

8. World where game is set it's called Hyboria and is based on Robert E. Howard's books. It’s fictional world but similar to ours.

9. Age of Conan has very interesting “Real Combat” system which is something new in MMORPG genre. You can use special combos to beat any opponents on your way. If you are skilled enough you can beat almost everyone.

10. Many gamers (like me) are saying that Age of Conan is one of the best MMORPG, maybe with bugs but still with great potential to became better then World of Warcraft or Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning or Lord of the Rings Online (Lotro).

See you again

EvE Online

Welcome on my blog! Did you heard about great game created by CCP Games - EvE Online? Well, if you don't know much about this fantasting online game, check out some basic information. First of all game is set in space..yeah deep space with moons, planets, space stations or even wormholes or asteroid belts (there are around 7.500 star systems in EvE). As a player, you are creating your in-game character - space pilot and you can participate in stuff like manufacturing, trading, or exploration (you can even become space pirate! Oh yeah argghhh!) + fight with other players or versus environment.

Game was first released in North America and Europe around May 2003. Story is set around 21000 years in the future, when people are so bored, fighting with each other, discovered natural way to explore galaxy (resources and stuff like that) by large wormhole. Well, as usual, people hunger for more, drive all humanity far away from home and then..worhmole collapsed - DOH! “Cut off from Earth and its much-needed supplies, the colonists of New Eden starved".

After that colonies make up the five major empires in Eve: the Amarr Empire, the Jove Empire, the Caldari State, the Gallente Federation and the Minmatar Republic.

We can pick on of the few races in EvE Online, and each is very specific. Each race have its own starship design and combat philosophy - Amarrr ships are usually slow, but very heavy armored and use powerful lasers, or Caldari ships - poor armor, but very powerful shields + missiles and railguns.

What can I say more? If you like space games, you like economic games and you like to enter huge world of EvE Online – try it, its really fantastic game.

See you again

Maple Story

Welcome on my blog! Because I'm having nice and long break from AoC, I would like to write more about other online games, not only pay-for-play, but also games like Maple Story, created by Nexon. This game is one of the best game ever created and in my opinion one of the best pick from all free games!
There are many games, there is game like RuneScape (RS), but Story is unique, because it's created in super deformed – Manga style (you know, big heads, big eyes – like somekinda freakin mutants ;-)) anyway.
Game is free, but has - like in other "free" games - special item shop with additional stuff. Anyway your in game goal is to explore large world, fight with monsters and earn some Maple mesos, special in-game currency.
Of course you can also, try out other things like hanging with other online gamers, and farming! Well, like other Korean games, Maple Story is farming game, so don't be very surprised when you spend around 100 h farming weird looking monsters like jellies or musjavascript:void(0)hrooms (yeah it's favorite enemy in Maple Story).

We can even participate in in-game marriages at the town of Amoria. Guests may be invited to the wedding, and the marrying couple will receive wedding ring items. Of course, before that, you need to complete some stuff - wedding "ceremony" requires the completion of various quests.
Game has currently around 100 million accounts, just like RuneScape, so it's one of the top popular free online game.

What can I say more? World of Maple Story is really huge! After chewing gum, created for Maple fan, they also created unique Trading Card Game with guys from Wizards of the Coast – they are also responsible for Magic the Gathering Card Game.

And there is also very cool anime created in Maple world :) anyway if you like this kinda game, just download it from the web!

See you again and check out Maple Story!

Age of Conan money tips

First of all if you want to make cash in Age of Conan you should grind alone. It’s best way to obtain wealth and gold. Of course this type of playing can be really boring and frustrating, but HEY I WANT TO TALK ABOUT BEST WAY TO BE RICH! That’s all :-). Well, of course you can play in a group, but the reality is that most gold making activities are done solo. Of course in party you can kill more monsters, but party is never so fast to kill 5 x more monster in the same time as you can solo. If you’ve got doubts, just test it.

he can cast powerful AoE (area of effects) spells. Other classes are ok, but they are not-so-good-like-good-ol-Demonologist. Second place has Necromancer with his undead minions. Playing solo, you get every drop. In a group, you need to roll for every item, so in fact, if you are unlucky you can get NOTHING.

Like in other MMORPG, like World of Warcraft, Warhammer Online or Lord of the Rings Online -You should gather all items, and sell most of them on Auction House. You can find Auction House in every big city in Age of Conan. Well, Auction House strategy in AoC is complicated thing, so I just write something next time, but you should know that Auction House can be 80% of your gold income. Most valuable items are blue and purple (epic) items, but you can also sell green ones. White items you should sold to vendors. I suggest to pick enormous price for these ones. If nobody buys it, you can always list it again, so you shouldn’t worry about that. You should be like guy without MERCY. Only gold and money ;-). If you are tough while doing business, you will be rich player.

See ya

Age of Conan patch 1.05

Welcome friends on Age of Conan News Blog! Well, I don't have much time to play in AoC, but I created my second character - called Desctructor. He is Conqueror and has 29 level. After playing as Barbarian is quite nice change :-) I also created Demonologist and Necromancer, because these classes are very easy to play. Anyway you can most important stuff related to this patch - 1.05 - down below:

General Changes

All raid members can see now all raid members using stealth mode.
Various improvements made to the Tarantia Commons play field.

Combat
Fixed the issue where players would disappear on your client, then reappear.

PvP - massive
Discovering and forgetting resurrection points during a siege should be more reliable.

Npc stuff
Sailor's Den: The dockworkers now chat at a more relaxed pace.

PvP
Removed double xp when killing murderers.

Quests
Treasury of the Ancient Ones : The Cask of Ale will now disappear from your quest inventory when you pick up the moss in the Lust of the Flesh quest.

World Quests
Fixed some collision issues in Black Ring Citadel Wing 2, including the Incubus/Succubus room.
Fixed collision issues in Ymir's Pass.

Other changes are related to classes.

Ranger
Traps no longer affect players with Shield of the Risen. Very nice change...

Necromancer
No Rest For the Dead has been changed. In addition to granting you the existing spell, the feat will permanently lower the casting time of your pets by 5/10/15%.
The effect of the Deathly Resilience and Unnatural Dexterity is greatly lowered. Deathly Resilience now gives the pets a 5/10/15% immunity increase.

Demonologist
Shockstrike has been changed to be a 2.5 second cast spell by default.

There are also other changes, but in my opinion, these ones are most important.

See you again!

Age of Conan's official developer blog resurrected

Welcome on Age of Conan News! I'm very pleased because I discovered that Age of Conan's official developer blog resurrected. It's been some time since Age of Conan had an active developer blog. Well was “out of order” since launch day back in May 2008. In all fairness, FunCom has been a little busy with bug fixing, balancing, content throughput and some fairly massive overhauls of game systems.

For the first post of the newly resurrected dev blog, FunCom's Glen "Famine" Swan sticks with discussing the newest update and touches on the itemization overhaul coming up next.In the future they should talk about their mistakes and how they resolved them. As a player I would like to know better situation :-)

See you soon

A.

Back for free?

Welcome friends! Well, a lot of updates and additional content have been coming down the pipe for Age of Conan in the last several months. That's why I'm wondering how many previously subscribed gamers would be interested in re-installing and patching the game to see how things have changed. I think that game is a lot better then before and Funcom should consider “come back for free” weekend (like Lord of the Rings Online producers - Turbine Inc.)...

See you next time!

Funcom CFO resigns in wake of $23.3M loss

Welcome. Well, dark clouds are gathering above Age of Conan. These are bad times all around in the massively multiplayer online game industry in terms of the economy. Mr James Lee from GamesIndustry.biz writes that Funcom has reported i'ts Q4 2008 financial results with "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."
Well, I hope Age of Conan will be alright and MMORPG industry will be ok nonetheless...

Console MMOs Destined To Fail?

IGN Xbox talks to developers to find out what's gone wrong, what's worked and what's ahead for console MMOs. Microsoft and Marvel teamed up to create a comic book universe for the Xbox 360, but two years later the Marvel MMO was dead. Other console MMOs have quietly been cancelled, and development houses closed. Developers are still hard at work on cross-platform titles such as The Agency and DC Universe Online. Ports of Age of Conan and Warhammer Online are in the works for consoles, but not without struggles. So why are all these companies still struggling to develop MMOs for game consoles when so many project have crashed and burned so dramatically in recent years?

Top 20 Best Selling PC Games of 2008

Welcome on Age of Conan News! NPD has released their list of the top best selling PC games in the US for 2008. Check it out!

1. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
2. Spore
3. World of Warcraft: Battle Chest
4. Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures
5. Warhammer Online: Age Of Reckoning
6. Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
7. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
8. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Collector's Ed
9. Fallout 3
10. World Of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
11. Call Of Duty: World At War
12. The Sims 2 FreeTime
13. World Of Warcraft
14. Sins Of A Solar Empire
15. Warcraft III Battle Chest
16. The Sims 2 Apartment Life
17. Crysis
18. Left 4 Dead
19. Diablo Battle Chest
20. The Orange Box

Happy New Year friends!

I wish you good luck in this new 2009! I hope you will find happiness and joy in every single moment, even if you are alone - you can always smile. Remember that :-)

Best Wishes and Happy New Year!

Age of Conan News admin - Andrew

Age of Conan News - Voodoo Extreme's 2008 Game of the Year

Voodoo Extreme's 2008 Game of the Year poll is now up, time to get in some reader's choice action and show those devs who's boss! Games included are:

-Call of Duty: World at War
-Far Cry 2
-Grand Theft Auto IV
-Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures
-Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
-Dead Space
-Fable II
-Fallout 3
-Sins of a Solar Empire
-Gears of War 2
-Left 4 Dead
-LittleBigPlanet
-King's Bounty: The Legend
-Mass Effect PC
-Mirror's Edge
-Super Smash Bros. Brawl

AoC server Merge

In preparation for attempt #2 of AoC server merging, an update will need to take place tomorrow (Thursday, December 11). The downtime is scheduled to last about 5 hours. US servers will hit the dirt at 7AM EDT and EU servers will go down at 05:00 GMT.

Funcom Staff Cuts Won't Affect Any FC Games

MTV Multiplayer follows up on Funcom's recent staff cuts to find out if they will affect Age of Conan PC or the Xbox 360 version of the game. Erling Ellingsen had the following to say:

“Our aim is for this to not affect development of ‘Age of Conan,’ or any of our other games, at all. We are sticking firmly to our plans. The Xbox 360 version of the game is still in production, but as before we are not committing to any specific dates. I wish I could give you more information, but I can’t at the time being.”

Age of Conan and players

According to one game news service, almost half of the subscribers that left World of Warcraft for Age of Conan returned to WoW. Blizzard als revealed that return rate from Mythic's Warhammer Online is around 47%.



Well it's mostly because Age of Conan has tons of bugs but i think AoC is game with very big potential. I played a lot in Warhammer Online and i spoke with many players that are really fascinated in Age of Conan more then in Warhammer Online.
Age of Conan is still game with largest potiential from all MMORPG. Check out my website dedicated new stuff like. Well i'm little bit busy but i hope i finish my work very fast. Visit once more my Age of Conan blog, i hope you will be satisfated by content.

Age of Conan Director Leaves Citing Dissatisfaction with Game

Known producer and game director Gaute Godager has left Funcom, on Sep 17.
In his statement, he wrote:
"I have done my very best maki this website is for gamers.
On his place Funcom willing this fabulous game, but I have concluded there are elements which I am dissatisfied with. I have decided to act on this, and as a result I have chosen to leave Funcom. It is time to get new, fresh eyes on Age of Conan," Check here, hire Craig Morrison, who served as producer and game director on Anarchy Online. Morrison said, "My main priority now is therefore to listen to, and act on, player concerns, while ensuring we add additional great content to the game."

I'm only simple player but I think, there is something bad in Funcom. Gaute Godager is one of it's original founders. Maybe Age of Conan is has bugs but Funcom and Godager created really good mmo game with great combat system, many new ideas in brutal, vicious world of Hyboria...

Bugs in AoC

Because of very high number of bugs Age of Conan full version, released in May is very criticize. Beta test is longest and most difficult part of production of every MMORPG, now it’s time for balancing skills and classes, repairing bugs and critical failures and many many more. Like expansion for World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, Age of Conan was delayed couple of times but Funcom is smaller company then powerful Blizzards, so Blizzard can delay expansion for a long time.

I think Age of Conan, must be repaired and around 6 months after premiere all most irritating bugs will be fixed. Game was big commercial success so probably there will be few expansions and free updates (i think this is cool in Lord of the Rings Online where was added 2 large areas for free :-) - Forochel and Evendim )..anyway Age of Conan is game with large potential so this game should have more players in the future. Cya