Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer Previews and Videos

Quite a bit of new coverage for Funcom's forthcoming Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer expansion pack has reached the web, including a handful of previews (listed below), a four-minute video interview with Craig Morrison at GameReactor, and a video demonstration on Ten Ton Hammer.

IGN kicks off the preview round-up:
So what exactly do I mean by 'interesting content'? Think back, for those of you who have played World of Warcraft (and I know there are a lot of you) to the two warring factions introduced in The Burning Crusade. Players were posed with a choice between joining the Aldor or the Scryers, neither of which were necessarily good or evil. In Rise of the God Slayer, players are given many factions (ten in total), each with their own motivations, and allying yourself with one will likely make you an enemy of another. The social web between these factions is supposedly a great deal more complicated than that of WoW's 'this or that' scenario, and each faction's storyline will surface as you perform tasks for them. We're told that, sometimes, you may not entirely like the outcome; that the faction you thought was noble at first may turn out to be uglier than you ever imagined.

Then we have MMORPG.com:
One great thing about Rise of the God Slayer is that there are no new levels. The advancement system being brought in this time around for players is an alternate system which comes in on top of the other specs a character can have. Not only that, players will get a new race with the Khitans as a playable faction. The Khitans start out on Tortage like everyone else, but will go to their homeland to continue adventures and leveling. Characters will have access to new customizations with tattoos, piercings, and of course new gear.

Followed by Kotaku:
Visually, the pack offers up a stunning new selection of locations. Working with Korean company Neowiz, who are localizing the game for their market, Funcom developed a number of settings that pull from Korean and Chinese lore. The maps I caught a glimpse of included the Steppes leading up to the edge of the empire, bamboo forests, cherry blossom orchards, and ravaged and desolate terrain.

A little more at VGChartz:
Mounts are another welcome addition to the expansion. I really love what Funcom is doing with mounts. Instead of just buying a mount from a vendor, the player needs to earn it. For example, to catch a mount the player needs to go out into the field and choose a desired animal (either a young tiger or wolf). You can then raise the cub, train it, and have it fight alongside you in battle. Eventually, the player will have to decide whether the tiger or wolf becomes a combat pet or mount. This is an important decision because the player can only have one tiger and one wolf and both have different techniques and abilities as fighters.

Before concluding things at Eurogamer:
Each skill has ranks, and you can choose to spend your points - or offline training time - on acquiring more skills or ranking up the ones you have, advancing or diversifying your character. Given the sheer breadth of skills available and the number shared between classes, it's an extremely free-form system, intended to reward players with flexibility as much as power. There's no cap as such, and since skill points might run out but the offline skill training never will, with enough time you'll be able to collect and rank up the entire set.