Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures Previews
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Due to the single-player nature of the tutorial, you can conceivably hit the level 20 marker without seeing another human soul (though if you're rolling a new toon, you can probably get yourself to the massively-multiplayer part of the world faster). During our quick demo of the tutorial portion, Tharaldsen pointed out that for quest dialogue, at least in these early quests, cues have been taken from Funcom's single-player adventure title Dreamfall. Instead of just a block of text with an "accept or exit" button, you have close-ups, voiceover, and honest-to-god dialogue trees; all of which enhance the single-player feel of the early portion of the game.
The second is at GameSpot:
Tharaldsen showed off the character-customization options briefly, illustrating the power of the character editor. After that, he dived straight into the game with a high-level character. Enlisting the aid of employees at Funcom's US offices, he then showed off what a group of characters is capable of. With a flurry of sword strikes, the group mowed through waves of enemies easily. It's not just hack-and-slash gameplay, though, as the composition of the group highlighted how tactics can play a role in the game. The real-time combat system in Age of Conan means that each battle can be a tactical dance to the death. Multiply that further with group combat, and there's a rush as players race to aid one another.
The third is at FiringSquad:
As in CES, the build of Age of Conan we saw today was running on Vista in DirectX10 but this time the level of detail in the graphics was greatly improved with lush vegetation, detailed armor for your character to wear and more. While there are still bugs in the build (particularly a shadow bug), the visuals were a few steps above what we have seen previously.
The fourth is at GameZone:
As players level, they will acquire new abilities, but only eight may be carried into a zone at any one time. There will be player-versus-player combat, and blood money (earning money through killing other players) will be part of the game.
And the fifth is at IGN PC:
After seeing some of the combat, the gang at Funcom humored us by temporarily upping the fatality level on the combat system. The different death animations were spectacular. Not only did our guy seem to enjoy lopping heads off of dudes, but at one point he even stabbed some through the face. No in, you understand but through. There's plenty of blood though, even in the regular moves. It is Conan after all.
