More news has come out from the recent Age of Conan: Hyborean Adventures press event held by Funcom. Ten Ton Hammer is reporting that the ESRB rating for AoC has been confirmed to be an M. What this means is that the game will be able to be distributed state-side in pretty well all mass-market retailers. For many of us who have been following the game for some time, we weren't quite sure how the rating wound wind up landing due to some of the fairly graphic gameplay and the adult sexual themes contained in the game. The question now is just how much of that will make it into the M-rated release versus some of the demos we've seen. Will we, in fact, "see titties" as Jorgen claimed -- or will we simply be taken to a screen blackout/time passes while our barbarians get their freak on? (For that matter, will the game wind up freak-on-free?)
Another thing noted at the press event was the potential exclusion of the Prestige classes in AoC. However, as TTH notes, we shouldn't panic about that just yet. The thought is that if Funcom do decide to remove Prestige classes, they will instead make the talents and abilities widespread so that you can more fully customize your character. While the potential loss of a class is always kind of a bummer once you've gotten your sights set on it, the flip side is that more personal customization of a character is generally a lot of fun. That lets the theorycrafters get down and dirty with the numbers and figure out just what builds with which gear make for some truly creative mechanics. When you combine it with different combo attacks like AoC has, this could be just the ticket to becoming a truly epic hero of Hyborea.
Reader Comments (4)
Posted: Jan 20th 2008 1:00PM Grizz said
I'm glad they will keep the bare breasts in. This is not Leisure Suit Larry, if you read any of Robert E. Howards novels you would agree with me wholly. The hypnotizing way he describes scantly dressed amazon beauties is beautiful, artistic, and respectful.
But on the other side this IS an adult game, and it is the responsibility of stores to check ID's and parents to...well...parent.
But on the other side this IS an adult game, and it is the responsibility of stores to check ID's and parents to...well...parent.
Posted: Jan 20th 2008 2:01PM GRT said
Didn't Funcom say that they were going to tailor the content based on IP address? So if you have an IP address out of N.A. you get tamed down content, but European's will get the full monty, so to speak.
I have to agree with Gr1zz... if you read Conan, you'll find a gritty world full of violence and sex, and to "cleanse" that really washes out the IP... why do a Conan game if you're going to make it 'safe' (and thus not really Conan)? May as well say on the licensing and do something new.
I have to agree with Gr1zz... if you read Conan, you'll find a gritty world full of violence and sex, and to "cleanse" that really washes out the IP... why do a Conan game if you're going to make it 'safe' (and thus not really Conan)? May as well say on the licensing and do something new.
Posted: Jan 20th 2008 3:39PM Durinthal said
If you like widespread character customization for skills and the like, why not do away with classes altogether? That's what I'd like to see.
Posted: Jan 20th 2008 6:32PM GRT said
Most of the arguments I've seen against classless systems is the fear that every character ends up the same once the min/maxers figure out what the 'best' selection of skills are.
I'm not saying I personally agree with that argument, but that's the one I've seen most often used against the idea.
I'm not saying I personally agree with that argument, but that's the one I've seen most often used against the idea.
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