It's almost the first anniversary of Age of Conan's release, and Funcom's Glen "Famine" Swan was reflecting on the past year when he found the "One Year Later" video. Although it's a fairly well-made piece, it doesn't come from Funcom; a community member called "CptHeatSink" is given the credit on Famine's MMORPG blog. The video encompasses a lot of the changes that have gone on in-game and quite a few guilds pitched in to help with the footage. There's a slow build for the first couple of minutes, but after that it's all about the combat.
Hit the jump to check out the video. Make sure to click the HD button in the bottom right corner after you've hit play for a higher quality version. This won't be the last you'll hear of AoC's birthday -- expect more soon as the actual date rolls around.
Beautiful? The scenery is nice but the character models are crude with only one equipment style per set no matter what the level, and I can never seem to get the colours right, seem to fade to white in certain places. Not uncommon from what other people tell me. Oh and the mounts are the most fugly things ever in motion.
BUT I really do recommend playing it. Have not had this much fun with a game since I first logged into a blue skinned elf on THAT game (And yes, that's an enjoyment comparison, the games are not similar) and I've played a lot of others before and since.
I could sit here and moan about the endless bugs and imbalances, the terrible PVP mini games that consist of some one in a nasty shade of green robe throwing black badly animated blobs at you that seem to kill with one hit... next... And yet I can not recommend this game enough for sheer fun of game play, when it works at least.
For the money give it a go. I had a copy sitting around for ages - was put off as well by those gigs of updates that take forever to install :) - but it's worth it in the end. I can't recommend this enough and I'm not sure why. Weird huh. Maybe it's the 18+ community or something.
Not big, not clever, but fun. And it brings back button combo bashing back into gaming in a good way. Try healing or tanking as well as having to hit combos in the right order. Helps bring a bit of fresh air into the whole thing. Did for me at least.
Bit of a drain on the system resources though if you want to keep the FPS above 40.
If they would just do a "return for two weeks free thing" I would check it out again. I have a tempest at max level with some decent gear at the time i quit. Nothing like having a raid boss reset to full health mid battle....TWICE. That was it for me but maybe id look at it again if they gave me a couple weeks to try it out without spending my beer money first. And I hope they dont just do the whole LOTRO weekend thing. Every time they do that it seems to fall on a weekend when im camping or out shooting or something. Or the girlfriend has plans for us etc. Two weeks is a much better idea if not a full month.
The only thing I didn't like about this game was the lack of content after 40. You would have to travel through all the zones to do the quests that open for you at each level, and still have to grind mobs to top yourself up. It got boring. Probably going to give it a try in a few months to see if there is anything for my character to do. Also the limited equipment models and lack of tangible statistics on the weapons and armor were kind of annoying.
I have to say the atmosphere is unmatched by any other mmo. Walking along a path and seeing a bunch of bodies on poles and crows pecking at their body is somewhat unsettling. Its little touches like that that made the whole package come together.
