Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures

By Rob Fahey Published 14 October, 2008

The waiting game.

"In the next six to twelve months, Age of Conan will live or die on how successfully Funcom can address these issues." That's how we closed off our initial review of Age of Conan - acknowledging grave flaws, but with immense optimism thanks to an early flurry of patches which steadily improved the game, week on week.

Let's not beat around the bush - our optimism was misplaced. Re-reading the initial review caused a number of heartfelt sighs and shaken heads this week. In almost every place where we fretted that Funcom might slip up, the company went and did exactly that.

Four months after launch, the game is best summed up as disappointing. It still has potential and even flair, but for all that it could be, it's failing to live up even to what it should be.

So what's changed so much since June? A few major things have upset the apple-cart. Firstly, Funcom has consistently disappointed its players in terms of content delivery. A rush of patches after launch, which greatly improved the game's performance and polished its content, was followed by week after week of broken promises.

Major overhauls were coming, we were told. Really soon - any day now, in fact. New zones, a new player-versus-player system, class updates. If these had been new things, we would have grumbled a little about how long they were taking to arrive - but for the most part, these were things that should have been in the game at launch.

We confidently expected Funcom to patch them in within a matter of weeks. That time can now be measured in months, and some big content updates are still missing entirely - others, like the PVP system, are half-implemented, and probably won't appear in full until midwinter.

'Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures' Screenshot 2

Boss encounters are a lot more scrappy and chaotic than we'd like, although the use of collision detection still feels fresh and interesting.

That's not to say that the updates which Funcom has trickled out haven't been welcome. The most recent major patch is arguably the biggest update to Age of Conan since launch, and it fixes a slew of problems with the game. We were fairly impressed with the game engine at the outset, but many players reported instability and it certainly had its share of visual glitches. In the wake of the latest patch, Conan's engine is now up there with the best of them.

It's hard to find a bad word to say about the game from a technical standpoint these days, and it's telling that what used to be a flood of technical complaints about Conan on various forums has dried into a trickle (usually focused on asking when the DirectX 10 support, another feature promised for launch and still absent, will arrive).

So, that's positive. Also positive are the numerous tweaks we've recently seen to the rest of the game's content. A great many quests and encounters have been tightened up, streamlined or bug-fixed, whole new quest chains have been added. The actual process of levelling a character now flows much more smoothly from start to finish - rather than sputtering to a premature halt and wallowing in boring grind from the mid-fifties onwards.

There's a "but". Actually, there are a few Buts, but the most prominent one is this - but this is a game that's been out for four months. What we're describing here is how the game should have been at launch, and even at that, Funcom still hasn't patched in everything they promised at the outset. MMORPGs do get a grace period that other games don't get, but not a four-month grace period, and especially not a four-month grace period where the Holy Grail patch, the patch which will fix it all and make it all better, is always frustratingly coming "soon".

'Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures' Screenshot 3

The game's dungeons can often be quite impressive - assuming you can find anyone else to play them with you.

Perhaps the biggest and best example of Age of Conan's tardy delivery of changes is its PVP system. Funcom was talking about a complex, level-based PVP system before the game even shipped. Within a month of launch, we had been given the outlines of a system which would give players PVP experience for their kills, opening up PVP-specific gear - and of a corresponding system which would turn regular gankers into fugitives, placing a bounty on their criminal heads for other players to collect.

Here at Eurogamer, we talked about doing a feature on Age of Conan's PVP system way back then - fully expecting a patch within weeks. We waited, and we waited, and we rescheduled, and we delayed - each delay from Funcom driving our own schedule back. A quarter of a year later, the last big patch finally, finally brought with it this system... Except that it didn't. We got half the system, PVP levelling and gear, but no consequences, no fugitives and hunters. The second half, the half that justifies the entire existence of the first half? We'll be happy if we see it before the New Year. (I guess we'll do that feature then.)

You might have spotted the obvious problem in this. Rewards, but no consequences - in a game without factions, so anybody can kill anyone else. Yes, as you might expect, the game's higher level zones became a bloodbath, as bored top-level players run around mindlessly ganking those trying to level their characters through the last few stages. Think of your worst night in Stranglethorn Vale, World of Warcraft players, and then think how much worse it would have been if it were a free-for-all where everyone could gank each other - no safety in numbers, no friendly green-named pals to keep the bad guys at bay.

It's calmed down significantly now, thankfully, as players recognise that they can level PVP faster by taking part in mini-games rather than open-world PVP. However, it still serves as an illustration of just how detrimental Funcom's inability to deliver the content it's promised can be. For many players, half a PVP system ended up being even worse than no PVP system at all.

PVE servers, of course, were largely immune to this problem - and actually, it wasn't just them. It's worth mentioning that plenty of other servers suffered from no noticeable ganking, largely because there was nobody there to gank you. Age of Conan's server populations have collapsed since launch, leaving many servers so empty that it's hard to find anyone to play with in certain zones.

'Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures' Screenshot 4

Never let it be said that priests of dark religions don't have any sense of style. A little overbearing, perhaps, but it's certainly striking.

Much of this exodus came early, when bugs and technical problems stopped being patched quickly enough to address serious concerns. There has been steady attrition since then, as even players who have reached high levels find that the end-game - merely competent raid encounters, and vast swathes of content which are really only accessible to those in large, well-organised guilds - simply isn't diverse or satisfying enough to hold their interest at present.

Funcom is presently in the process of merging servers to keep the populations up, which should improve matters, although we're a little "once bitten, twice shy" about optimism over promised changes.

And yet... Despite all of this, Age of Conan remains, somehow, a compelling game. Its world is undeniably beautiful, albeit somewhat small and restrictive compared to many of its rivals'. The combat system is still hugely entertaining - fast, visceral and immediate, in a way which no other MMOG has quite managed - and some of the classes, like the Herald of Xotli and the Demonologist, are genuinely innovative hybrids that are great fun to play and master. Moreover, Conan's lore is appealing - his world a fascinating one to explore.

'Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures' Screenshot 6

The lack of distinctive items and gear remains a huge, glaring problem - although we'll grant that the game's gear does have its moments...

For all that we're cautious of optimism, we're keen to see what the game's new director Craig Morrison can do. There's talk of an overhauled crafting system, and with it far greater variety in how characters look (still a problem, especially for those levelling up, who tend to look basically the same for level after interminable level). If it takes as long to arrive as the PVP changes are taking, though, it's hard to tell how many players will be around to see it.

Age of Conan remains one of the most innovative and interesting additions to the MMORPG family in recent years - but for now, it's a tough game to recommend. In absolute terms, the game you'd play now is a better game than the one we played at launch - but an MMORPG is as much a service as a game, and Funcom's service has fallen down badly when it was needed most. With that in mind, we have little choice but to mark it down - all the while holding on dearly to the hope that the team still have it in them to turn Conan's fortunes around.

6 / 10

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About Rob Fahey

Read more articles from Rob by visiting the Rob Fahey archive page.

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Comments (96) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • mingster #1 3 years ago

    So its better than it was but scores less.. hmm strange

  • 4thVariety #2 3 years ago

    So based on the final paragraph the game is better than back when it got a 8/10 therefore it receives a 6/10. Assuming you really mean it, that could be interpreted as the original review being a 5/10 with an applied +3 for advertisement and promises.

  • Gazza_UK #3 3 years ago

    get Schwarzenegger to do a few adverts, that'll get a couple ..people

  • Pirotic #4 3 years ago

    Why on earth did you score it so high to begin with? Maybe if it got a 6/10 originally the developers would of pulled their socks up quicker :p

  • iokthemonkey #5 3 years ago

    Funnily enough, I was just re-reading the old review and was about to ask when we could expect to see the re-review...

    This review is much closer to what the original should have been, but one thing AoC does very well is bamboozle you in its early stages. It IS an incredible game when you start - visually it's stunning, the quests are interesting, the lore is all present and you really do feel like you're in for a treat. But once you leave Tortage, you realise the game is all front-loaded in terms of content. Outside of the Pirate Haven, it's a dull, lifeless world with lots of wandering around, channelled zones, a small game world and a host of glitches and frustrations. There's no feeling of advancement, for example. You'll look the same at Level 38 as you did at Level 21. You'll be in the same damned zones for most of your play time and you'll be fighting the same tired bad-guys using the same moves.

    I can understand why the original review was so over-zealous but - as this one points out - once the shine wears off, you realise that there's actually very little here in terms of actual gaming.

  • SleepyMagpie #6 3 years ago

    That's the score I was giving it all along, EG, good for you.

    But SHAME ON YOU for bowing to corporate ties/pressures to award the game an unwarranted high score at release, and which ultimately led many to fork out hard-earned (or not so hard-earned) dough for a lesser product.

    Still. You came through in the end. Now let's keep it that way, please.

    They need you just as much as you need them by now.

  • Oli Verified Reviews Editor, Eurogamer.net #7 3 years ago

    4thVariety, SleepyMagpie: there honestly wasn't any outside pressure. Just, as Rob says in this piece, genuine confidence and optimism, which turned out to be sadly misplaced.

  • iokthemonkey #8 3 years ago

    genuine confidence and optimism, which turned out to be sadly misplaced.

    -----

    I felt exactly the same way. It IS a great game. For about a week. But play it for any longer and you start to see the holes in the game and realise that it's simply unfinished. Not in that "oh, the name is spelt wrong, we'd better fix it" sort of way. No, more in the "Well, I've got sod-all to do now in the game - where's the content?" kind of way.

  • Vistrix #9 3 years ago

    The game DID feel like it deserved a high score when it first came out.

    this review is SPOT ON. Well done EG.

    Im still waiting patiently for the features mentioned 2 years ago!

  • anomagnus #10 3 years ago

    whoops
    Edited by 1 at 14/10/08 @ 15:23

  • whizzedout #11 3 years ago

    I think it's shocking you have changed your score only 2 months after release, you gave WoW 3 years before a re-review, Funcom are in enough trouble as it is and this don't help, why the inflated score in the first place?

    You just trood in a pile of shit, this is a major blunder on your part Eurogamer, sort it.

  • Oli Verified Reviews Editor, Eurogamer.net #12 3 years ago

    whizzedout, we only brought in our re-review system for MMOs with the launch of the MMO channel in March this year. The WOW re-review was the first we ever published.

    We intend every major MMO to be re-reviewed at least once or twice a year from now on (including reviews of new expansion packs).

    And it's over four months since Conan's release, not two.
    Edited by 1 at 14/10/08 @ 15:31

  • miiiguel #13 3 years ago

    That was good, I guess. Now re-review Blue Dragon please, a 5 (five) ????!

    edit: I mean, now that you probably completed the game...
    Edited by 1 at 14/10/08 @ 15:36

  • MrCrun #14 3 years ago

    You just trood (sic) in a pile of shit, this is a major blunder on your part whizzedout, sort it.

    *Fixed

  • mikeck #15 3 years ago

    and then re-review Dead Space, LBP and Saint's Row 2 - hahaha, those comment threads make me chuckle :D

    It's only MMO's that will get re-reviewed miigs

  • miiiguel #16 3 years ago

    "those comment threads make me chuckle"
    That's the point, innit ?

  • TriggerHippie #17 3 years ago

    Conan looks like he's actually played this game in that picture.

  • trooper6 #18 3 years ago

    I wonder if the launch of the console version...which I imagine won't actually arrive until they are done with the Beta test...um, I mean...patches...will reenergize the game and bring more players into it?

  • Krelle #19 3 years ago

    Eurogamer is digging their own grave.
    Since the new management took over, things gone shit.

    Can we have the EG from ~3 years ago back, please? A time when a EU review was something to look forward to, and the scores meant something.

  • Darren #20 3 years ago

    I thought World of Warcraft was a great game but just couldn't get into LOTR Online at all. I thought Age of Conan looked interesting but thankfully stopped at buying it because I feel there's too many of these kinds of games on the PC and there's a tendency for them all to feel the same (of the ones I've tried), only they're dressed in a different skin.

    In a way MMORPGs, addictive as they are, are the worst kind of time wasters when you think about how many hundreds of hours you've spent playing them, the repetitive grinding and how many hours you've actually really honestly enjoyed it. It's the reason I can't return to World of Warcraft despite trying to earlier on this year. Life is too short and there are too many other games to spend hours and hours of my time playing MMORPGs. Loved World of Warcraft while it lasted (some six months) but it's not a genre I want to return to now.
    Edited by 1 at 14/10/08 @ 16:33

  • Krelle #21 3 years ago

    @Darren:
    What a random post!
    I hear you thou. But, if I had time to play games at all, id probably take up Wow again. I kind of miss the old community.

  • iokthemonkey #22 3 years ago

    I don't get this "ooh, MMOs - they're too addictive" thing at all.

    I mean, those people who spend hours chasing Xbox Achievements or have "must-see TV" they can't miss, they're not addicted at all, are they?

  • Krelle #23 3 years ago

    @iokthemonkey:
    Oh, they certainly are. But ive never seen anyone as hooked on achievements or TV as people get hooked at MMOs.
    The mix of raiding times, community (and some gameplay) makes for a wonderful drug.

  • shotgun44 #24 3 years ago

    except tv shows have an end that isn't controlled by the consumer...

  • justsomeone #25 3 years ago

    thanks for the re-review oli.

    clearly no one else got it, but it makes perfect sense to me that you review an MMO, on release, with an air of needful (if it's justified) optimism (because things will change, and it's an MMO, don't you see?) for the future in your score - hence 8/10.

    then you re-review and, even if the game has improved over its release state, if it's doesn't meet expectations and its initital promise then you score more harshly and realistically, hence the "lower" score.

    i can see it. it makes sense to me. perhaps i'm just the only one here who's actually played an MMO. anyway, keep up the good work.

  • iokthemonkey #26 3 years ago

    except tv shows have an end that isn't controlled by the consumer...

    ----

    Which IMO, makes them worse - you cannot choose when to complete your viewing experience.

    This isn't me rallying against the "evils" of TV, but I do find it ridiculous how these comments are levelled (heh!) against MMOs as being some kind of digital crack.

  • iokthemonkey #27 3 years ago

    But ive never seen anyone as hooked on achievements or TV as people get hooked at MMOs.

    ----

    I play a LOT of MMOs and have done for years, yet I get to bed on time, have a family life, hold down a job and still find time to go out to socialise. I must just be brilliant or something... ;)

  • Krelle #28 3 years ago

    @iokthemonkey:
    You must be a god or something, dude.

    When i played wow, I:
    Didnt meet my IRL friends.
    Lost a girlfriend.
    Took a week of work when Burning Crusade was released.
    Had horrible sleeping patterns.

    Not even Heroes season1 got me that fucked.
    And, this is laughable, I still loved playing the game, and wish I had time to play Wow as I write this.

  • viper_h #29 3 years ago

    I lost my girlfriend because I stopped playing WoW....

    Edit: Among other reasons.
    Edited by 1 at 14/10/08 @ 16:55

  • iokthemonkey #30 3 years ago

    Ouch, sorry to hear that Krelle.

    Might I suggest instead you try something called "crack?" It'll probably work out cheaper in the long-run.

  • iokthemonkey #31 3 years ago

    I lost my girlfriend because I stopped playing WoW....

    ------

    Those Night Elf ladies you watch dance in Stormwind in their underoos don't count as girlfriends!

  • Krelle #32 3 years ago

    @iokthemonkey:
    Crack! Yes, its on the shopping list.

    Ive got a new girlfriend, luckily. And heavy studies keep me from playing Wow = losing her aswell! God bless school.

    *peeks at the Jumpgate Beta signup*

  • iokthemonkey #33 3 years ago

    *peeks at the Jumpgate Beta signup*

    -----

    Yes, I noticed that too... :)

  • Darkjinxter #34 3 years ago

    I re-subbed about a month ago and continued levelling my lvl48 barbarian.
    I'd left AoC mainly because it was constanlty crashing with memory leaks and I was having trouble finding stuff to do in the 40-50 area 'Field of the Dead'.

    On restarting I found lots of new content and a far more stable client, so I stuck with it and me ol' barb is now a lvl65 with some crazy fatality moves which are almost always fun. The game is better now than it was at launch that's for sure, but just how much better is a matter of debate.
    Crafting is still rubbish with tier progression strictly boxed into every 10 lvls, ie- you can complete teir 1 at lvl 40, but you're then told to sod off until you hit lvl 50 before you can start learning tier 2.
    Grouping (PUG) for instances is fairly easy to achieve, though you find the whole thing is merely a thump the mobs and move along affair until you get to the boss, who you also thump.

    GMs are quick to resond and on the ball when they do. Funcom should be given credit for that, or perhpas it's only because there are 2 GMs for each paying player.

    AoC is getting there very slowly and I'm sticking with it for now.

    Edited by 1 at 14/10/08 @ 17:08

  • Benno #35 3 years ago

    WHERE IS GAOL!

  • butler` #36 3 years ago

    Haha.

    Most sites reviewed it properly the first time, though. NOW i see why EG have the re-review system!

  • makeamazing #37 3 years ago

    I agree with the re-review of MMO's, its not like playing a classic game etc, MMOs are evolving beasts and the more you play the more you finds things you dont like or do like. It is surprising that a MMO can lose 2 points in such short time, but then I dont know what gamers would want, a review site to play an MMO for weeks and weeks before giving a review.. not going to happen.

    So Im all for it, and pretty much not going to stop playing WAR for AOC :D

  • Deadflag #38 3 years ago

    So when do I get my money back Eurogamer? I bought Age of Conan alot because of your first review. But after I played the game for 5 minutes I knew it sucked. So lame Eurogamer.

  • Trane #39 3 years ago

    "So when do I get my money back Eurogamer? I bought Age of Conan alot because of your first review. But after I played the game for 5 minutes I knew it sucked. So lame Eurogamer."


    Grow and take responsibility for your own actions maybe?

    EG hardly MADE you part with your money did they.

    Jeez.

  • vane101 #40 3 years ago

    I've only just done Tortage. I think that was very strong, especially the single player quests. Will be seeing what it's like after lvl 20. The game can be fun but it's a bit of a button masher. It certainly doesn't feel like the step step on from WoW though. But then neither did Vanguard, which feels like a deeper game but still sucks performance wise in many areas.

  • Gaol #41 3 years ago

    I have to applaud the EG staff for having the balls and honesty to put this piece up even if I disagree on a couple of the opinions expressed.

    I don't believe mmorpgs deserve a 'grace period', especially not subscription based ones. Yes, they are 'service' based, but we are paying more in month one than any other month. Yes, financially they may need to launch sooner than is ideal, but there has been too many cases of publishers recouping costs from box sales then quickly slimming down staff - Tabula Rasa, Age of Conan and Auto Assault to name a few.

    If anything, the increased expenditure heightens the need for a clear roadmap and 'endgame' readiness. My opinion is that it was apparent from the outset that Funcom had left themselves too much to do. If you are waiting on a 'miracle patch' after launch it's pretty much game-over in my experience.

    I'd also argue that the central AoC combat system was (and is) fundamentally incompatible with long term mmorpg play. While it might be fun for a very short while, I think it simplifies things too much to have any staying power. Basic combat systems are fine for story driven stuff like The Witcher, but if you're going to hold folks attention in an mmorpg then you need to have distinct classes, roles, weaknesses, strength, gear and so on.

    The new producer has a real mountain to climb, good luck to him.

  • Orange #42 3 years ago

    Good review.

    I would not argue with either the 8/10 original review or this 6/10. AoC really was a very promising game, the melee combat system and the lack of factions was a welcome breath of fresh air. It had quite a few good ideas and I had some fun with it. I didn't find it particularly buggy either and the launch was very smooth. It was the total lack of content in the latter part of the game, the lack of pvp system and the totally broken economy which killed it. The Keep system was a big selling point and yet it was also broken.

    A shame they also kept watering down the combat and spellcasting to try to appease the mainstream players, as well as wasting time on raid content. They should have made it a pvp focused game and concentrated on dominating that market in the fantasy mmo genre, especially now Guild Wars is effectively in hibernation until GW2 and WoW's pvp has burnt most people out. They tried to make a Conan does Azeroth and failed miserably in every area.

  • miiiguel #43 3 years ago

    "So when do I get my compensation Eurogamer? I didn't buy Blue Dragon on release day alot because of your review. But after I played the game for 500 minutes I knew it rocked oh so much. So lame Eurogamer."
    Edited by 2 at 14/10/08 @ 22:14

  • Shinji #44 3 years ago

    Bang that drum all you like, miiiguel, but Blue Dragon is still fucking awful :)

  • manveruppd #45 3 years ago

    -----------------
    A shame they also kept watering down the combat and spellcasting to try to appease the mainstream players, as well as wasting time on raid content. They should have made it a pvp focused game and concentrated on dominating that market in the fantasy mmo genre, especially now Guild Wars is effectively in hibernation until GW2 and WoW's pvp has burnt most people out.
    -----------------
    I agree with the second part of what you said, but I can't recall any instances of them watering down the combat. I stopped playing about 6 weeks ago, have they changed anything since then?

    I have to say that while I liked the story, the writing, the setting and the way it integrated the "lore" from Howard's fiction (stuff that no other MMO does as well), the game felt a lot like an empty shell mechanics-wise. Things like a normal sword swing being able to score anything from 70 to 700 damage on a shielded side really made me feel like there was no depth to the rules and that I was playing craps rather than an RPG - this huge gap between min and max damage was even bigger with combos. The rock/paper/scissors class balance was so absolute that you needed a huge disparity in playerskill to kill someone who was your "counter" class. Granted, the game is balanced around group pvp, but with 90% of the pve content balanced for soloing, the siege system broken, and queues for minigames stretching out into infinity because there were only 4 people on your entire server in the queue, there WAS no group pvp anywhere! My server had a few guild wars going on, but eventually some of the big guilds involved fell apart after the mass exodus at the end of the inclusive 30 days.

    The game still has a tactile solidity that gives it a much more satisfying feel than any other MMO (at least when you're playing a melee class), and even though deep down I know it's just surface gloss and there isn't any deep underlying rules mechanics I'd be tempted to take it up again if I wasn't pessimistic about whether the end-game pvp content is working yet. If there was some fun sieging going on then I'd go for it, but my guess is that even if they've fixed it the server populations won't support it.

    I have my ideas of what went wrong with it (apart from the premature launch) but they mostly involve features which had been cut from the game months before launch, and I doubt they'll resurrect them now.

  • Bleh #46 3 years ago

    "the game is best summed up as disappointing. It still has potential and even flair, but for all that it could be, it's failing to live up even to what it should be."

    So true
    Edited by 1 at 15/10/08 @ 07:23

  • Clive_Dunn #47 3 years ago

    Does really force you to ask why MMOG's alone get reviewed on potential.

    So bored of these games coming out and day one customers are effectively extended beta testers.

  • curtlikesmeat #48 3 years ago

    It seems to be going down the same route as Anarchy Online in that it's had a terrible start but still (hopefully) has the potential to be a slow burner and hold a dedicated fan base over time. I guess this isn't what they had in mind but I expect it to be successful over time, in a moderate sort of way. I'll look back in 12 months.

  • AOFanboi #49 3 years ago

    Apart from the insane install size and crappy crafting, what annoyed me most with AoC was Funcom's old habits of over-promising. The never-present DX10 support (for promising that, it must hurt that LotRO already got DX10 support), the absent XBox 360 port (but since I do not have one it's more because of the principle) - DC Online, Champions Online and The Agency will all be out before the Funcom's console version.

    Oh, and the "realistic" graphics and "physics-based" gameplay is rendered moot when the game is full of static animation sequences and unrealistic transitions, like the "instant transportation" to and from climbing mode.

    The combat "innovation" just consists of turning off auto-attack, introducing damage cones for three basic attacks and using "QTE" sequences as triggers for abilities. You still have the same aspects like facing and queueable abilities (including for the QTE sequence) like every other MMO out there, but they appear to have left out the "triggered"/status activated abilities like WoW and LotRO is full of and which make combat more interesting.

    Ah, I wish I had kept a link to that Anarcy Online interview which talked about underwater cities and large-scale Omnitek versus Clan battles... Funcom over-promising from day one. Warhammer Online is so much better a MMO than AoC can hope to become, now, anyway, especially for PvP but also explorer-type PvE due to the tome unlocks.

  • iokthemonkey #50 3 years ago

    The combat "innovation" just consists of turning off auto-attack, introducing damage cones for three basic attacks and using "QTE" sequences as triggers for abilities.

    ----

    Which is the same way City of Heroes has handled its combat for years...

  • koji_m #51 3 years ago

    8/10

    as good as MGS4

  • Pur3nRg #52 3 years ago

    i can't belive ppl runing things in gaming "bussines" are still what i like to call newbies..
    How was Diablo taken when it appeared? better than broodwar? NEVER...
    How was WoW when it appeared?
    was better diablo 2 ? never!
    AoC has 4 times the potential other games have.. take a look at Warhammer - is obviouse is a WoW module.. maybe patched more than a little...
    The ppl "droped" the game beacouse:
    To many had bad pc specs and had to run game on low-medium settings.. wich is a bit "disapointing"
    To many of them are still at the "beggining" gaming time wich is 4-6 years of gaming.. they are not used to adapt that well to new games with it's complexity
    When i go back to wow now and than and help my wife do ZA or colect badges.. it seem like i am in back in the past.. back from driving a mercedez 2008 a .. 2003 one...
    Thouse who adapted and sticked with AoC :
    1) are mature players wich have knowledge of their tastes.. and know what they want...and in their subconstient their inerselfs adapted to this new generation mmorpg
    2) They where helped by good spec pc's - wich to be more exact are 2 years old max..
    Ex. my pc wich has 3 years.. can run WoW - at max ; warhammer at almost max... but runing AoC- failes about 80% of minimum req are satisfied
    So bottom line:
    Is not that players have great demands and AoC does not fullfill that demands; Age of Conan has huge demands and most of the players "still" can't step up to thouse demands at this time
    Time will come and i will bash this post at that time to c what some have to say then
    Please note, although no boardcode and smiley buttons are shown, they are still useable
    Edited by 1 at 18/10/08 @ 20:00

  • iokthemonkey #53 3 years ago

    Pur3nRg - I'm glad you're enjoying AoC. My brother still plays it and has a lot of fun.

    However, to claim that the game is all fine and good and it's the audience at fault? That's a silly comment to make. AoC is a terrible game, plain and simple. Funcom failed to deliver on their promises. It's an empty game with no content unless you happen to enjoy grinding. And to say it's more advanced that WoW is simply not true. Unless of course, hard instancing and zone borders are your idea of "advancing" the genre...

    AoC, quite simply, isn't a good game and any attempt to argue differently will only make you appear at best misguided.

  • Mooks #54 3 years ago

    Alot of my friends play MMO's on laptops due to portability and work/uni etc, most have off the shelf lappies for around £500 don't have the sort of hardware Aoc demands to get a decent framerate. WoW however is a different story entriely and thats why it has so many subscribers because of the excellent scalability of the engine. IMO most MMO players don't really give a shit about DX10 blah blah over other things. Aoc promised much but the engine refuses to scale well with low and mid range hardware this combined with a huge lack of content and genuine polish makes this a major fail for many.

  • Pur3nRg #55 3 years ago

    iokthemonkey
    i am sure that your opinion is a pro one since other but wow u ruled at solitaire and have great experience with microsoft paint
    i have 15 years of gaming on my back.. 4 years of profesional gaming..WCG qualified and tons of other acc that made me speak... instead u my friend i am sure u are a big guild wow slave wich hungers for the bone that some asshole officer may drop and let him get an epic....
    speak to your own class maybe after u will get out of the misery and slaveness u are in to and try diferent games after 10 years u will be allowed to speak ms jokethemonkey

  • Pur3nRg #56 3 years ago

    P.S. : when u submit your comment it says speak your brain.. hence all u are is a 2006 "new borned" Zombie that has 1337 friends that keep him as a loyal dog in wow... try not to use that button again - not ok that you give your opinion after you have no knowledge!
    or maybe u know better from your exp when i.. the time i started playing there where like 4 games on market to chose from... can't u understand that i am speaking after witnessing all gaming history in form as team and gamer.. since multiplayer games wheren't even invented... and Quake 1 was released... or Duke ...
    Edited by 1 at 15/10/08 @ 14:33

  • iokthemonkey #57 3 years ago

    okthemonkey
    i am sure that your opinion is a pro one since other but wow u ruled at solitaire and have great experience with microsoft paint
    i have 15 years of gaming on my back.. 4 years of profesional gaming..WCG qualified and tons of other acc that made me speak... instead u my friend i am sure u are a big guild wow slave wich hungers for the bone that some asshole officer may drop and let him get an epic....
    speak to your own class maybe after u will get out of the misery and slaveness u are in to and try diferent games after 10 years u will be allowed to speak ms jokethemonkey

    ----

    Wow, touchy aren't we?

    Okay, let' s address a few points here:

    1. I've been playing games for over 27 years.
    2. I'm a professional game designer and have been for over 15 years.
    3. I've been playing MMOs since EQ's earliest days and have played most of the major titles along the way. INCLUDING Age of Conan.
    4. I don't play WoW and haven't for close to a year.
    5. During my time in WoW, I didn't do any guild raiding or similar.
    6. For the record, my "Guild Officer" was female.
    7. To say AoC is a good example of the way MMOs should be done is a ridiculous statement. Instancing your non-raid zones was a bad idea in SWG. It still is. And hard zone lines? Yeah, that's really pushing the boundaries.
    8. AoC is an unplayable mess, a complete abortion of a game that offers nothing in terms of content, is shallow, is a retrogressive step in MMO development and is a very simple arcade-action game dressed up with a few stats.
    9. Tits and blood do not make for mature content unless you're 10 years old.
    10. You're clearly unable to even understand my point, so I suggest you go back to grinding Ymir or trying to convince "female" players to take off their tops for you.

  • Pur3nRg #58 3 years ago

    u are not for real... how can u state that u plaly games for 27 years.. when some of the 1st games on pc where the DOS aladin wich for what i remember is about 17 years old..??
    15 years of game dev? -
    and with all this u don't recognize a futuristc combat system?
    Let me aprofundate this for u
    In AoC combat system goes like this:
    No 1 healing from none-full hp spells
    Your body when u atack actually moves like IRL towards the target
    Reflexes are a must and make all the diference
    Knowing when to move in battle towards /far of your adversary can make all the diference
    Real battle not 1button press wille eating dinner -like 90% ppl saw that AoC was not about compared to any other mmorpg
    Some class (give conq for example) can/use 16 abbilities icons +4 combos /means 14 button presed in less than 20 seconds-> that gives a MICRO (i am sure u don't know what it is) that is uncoparable to any other strategy game (and consider that aoc is a mmorpg not strategy); This game puts in 1st plan skill which if u lack even if u poses "x" class with "end game" at curent lvl items a high skilled player can kill u and u wont even scratch him- even if he is a warior /non healing class...
    It's graphics is way beyond your understaning.. if u get close ups when u battle u can c how much the movements the equipments the figure of players the way they fight they do the damage (depending on where the sword/blunt actually hit u) differs to any other game... Is like actually i am fighting against 3 persons with a sword in my hands and when i am hiting my sword slashes all 3 of them damaging them depending on the zone i hited them and on the power on my sword.. the target wich is infornt takes full daamge.. the one who is to the other side of my atack direction gets less damage ..the one that stands in the way of my atack gets almost the full damage...
    I can give 2313213 undisputable arguments why AoC is the state of the art release but i can only give 1 reason why some still not seen it as it is:
    Couse every time a "new state of the art" game appeared the public was not used to it and found it's lacks.. like driving a high speed bike... the 1st 2-3 months it seems crappy when u tremble at 80km/hours and u can't lean on a side... but after get the hang of it and are able to run with +200 km /h you won't even look back at the 50cc "Vespa" u once had...

  • Lemming81 #59 3 years ago

    Pur3nRg:

    15 years 'experience' in gaming and you couldn't take the time to learn basic English spelling and grammar? Your posts are fucking unreadable.

  • iokthemonkey #60 3 years ago

    how can u state that u plaly games for 27 years..
    -----

    Because gaming didn't begin with the PC. You might want to look at something called "8-bit gaming."

    15 years of game dev? -
    and with all this u don't recognize a futuristc combat system?

    -----

    Yes, 15 years of game development experience. And yes, I recognise a futuristic combat system when I see it. Unfortunately, AoC's combat is "borrowed" from a number of games. City of Heroes uses the same "no auto attack" system. The "combo" system is borrowed from, among other things, virtually every Beat 'Em Up on the market and Shen Mue's "Quick Time "events (or going back even further,"Dragon's Den" and "Space Ace.";)

    Please don't waste your time explaining how the combat works. Re-read my post and you'll see I HAVE PLAYED AGE OF CONAN QUITE EXTENSIVELY. As a Conqueror, as it happens. So I know all about how it works, thank you. And I believe you mean a "MACRO" not a "MICRO" unless there's some other point you're trying to make... I won't insult your command of English as I'm assuming it's a second language and that would be cheap.

    Did I say anywhere AoC wasn't a good looking game? No, I didn't. But that's neither here nor there when it comes to CONTENT. You clearly don't understand what CONTENT is in an MMO. It's not naked tits. It's not 10000 pieces of armour that all look the same. It's not swishy nice graphics.

    Age of Conan is simply unplayable. Not because of any technical issues. But because it's a flawed, badly designed, empty game.





  • UncleLou #61 3 years ago

    "u are not for real... how can u state that u plaly games for 27 years.. when some of the 1st games on pc where the DOS aladin wich for what i remember is about 17 years old..??"


    :D

    Christ, what an amateur.

  • SleepyMagpie #62 3 years ago

    Amateur indeed.

    Despite all their Ipods, Myspaces, Flickrs and Facebooks, despite all their connectedness - youth of today are becoming more and more ignorant of media technology's history.

    Brings to mind a rather brilliant line from a Rush lyric I keep repeating to myself these days:

    "...Living in their pools they soon forget about the Sea."

    Consider going to autist mode now and then and becoming a Stand Alone Complex. You might learn something.

  • Pur3nRg #63 3 years ago

    i ment micro and micro is what calculates the moves u make in 1 game.. it was used in strategy games.. and made the difference betwen player abbilities; AoC content is low-minimum couse it has 5 months since it was released... how was WoW or lineage or.. other mmorpg when it was released? it had all t instances opened? all zones opened? take a look at the leather map they gaved with collectors edition and c what % of the map is instanced atm.. about 20% top...
    no mattter what u guys say... just the way u are atm i was.. the way i am atm u will still need to experience gaming to be.. and only by playing it and moving to another game and c what that game really meant... don't tell me u played AoC and then u started playing.."x" game and u didn't noticed the difference betwen them u didn't felt that something was lacking.. u didn't felt like ... u where back from driving a car to driving the bicicle... yes any car has it's faults... and a bike it's +ses but u will never dare to compare them only if u are a 15 year old kido....
    Period

  • SentientNr6 #64 3 years ago

    I had more fun in my first month of AoC than WAR. If it wasn't for Scenarios I'd had cancelled my account.

  • SleepyMagpie #65 3 years ago

    Leaving Age of Conan was the least painless gaming "divorce" I've ever gone through.

    With all other games I've left - however flawed - there was always one or two things I enjoyed, and thought nostalgically about later, occasionally.

    I have never looked back one moment at Age of Conan, except for in these threads, where we are criticizing EG for being shabby reviewers. Which you were, no-matter the "High Hopes" modus, Oli. Sobriety and perception is what you should be aiming at, and why we read you.

    I understand you REALLY REALLY want to like AoC though, mr. young energetic type. You'll probably grow out of it (@ Pur3nRg).

    Edited by 1 at 16/10/08 @ 07:45

  • SleepyMagpie #66 3 years ago

    I had more fun in my first month of AoC than WAR. If it wasn't for Scenarios I'd had cancelled my account.

    What a strange person.

  • iokthemonkey #67 3 years ago

    Leaving Age of Conan was the least painless gaming "divorce" I've ever gone through.

    ---

    I think you mean "least painful" :) but still...

    The only pain I had was the fact that I had to patch the entire thing before I could cancel it. I'd forgotten my login name and so had to sit an hour or so of updates until I could fire it up and see what name I'd used...

    And Pur3nRg (haha, I just managed to decipher your name!) if you're having fun with AoC, fine. More power to you. But the rest of us, who actually KNOW games, see it for what it is: an empty husk of a "game" with no content, no playability and no future.

  • Pur3nRg #68 3 years ago

    iok one last thing
    1st - that is what i heard when Counterstrike appeared on the market and we where all still playing Half life;
    2nd that is what i heard when DOTA appeared;
    3rd that is what i heard when WoW appeared;

    1) now CS is a industry.. there are world competitions - like WCG that from many years host it and ESWCG.. and many others with Profesional player with transfers like in a real sport;
    2) DOTA is played to at european phase contest and has a ligue here in romania like footbal has; who would have thought
    3) Seriouse.. u don't wanna hear the critics that where brought when wow appeared and all where still playing Diablo 2.. i mean i don't know what content had at the start wow... maybe a bit biger than AoC's... and the combat system and graphics.. where less satisfying...

    Btw i know that in europe gaming is reduce to a home - 2 friends "network" that share their experience togheder and are isolated at 1-2 thoughts not considering the forums wich is only a flmaing meeting or a "kiss ass" party
    I am speaking hence my position for the past 8 years was in a close gamer comunity.. with several teams that both participated and won many conteest had great prestation in gaming comunity.. a "internet coffe" with over 100 pc's with european & world prizes that i do not exagerate but i am sure they are more than 10... with almost 200 "active" players that u saw every day and that everyone of us in gaming where competing at close lvl with players like thouse from SK; Mousesports; TeG.
    Allways we played top of the art games and we never lost our time with other than best that eventually was on the market..
    So as we forthseen CS as a great game and we played it "for seriouse" with years and years before it become what it is..
    As we forthseen DOTA- and FIFA and.. u name it 80% of the games that where played even at profesional lvl (with payed/month players by sponsors and cash transfers of players). I am telling u that whatever u say in a review whatever your scores are.. (not calculating that is obviouse u are crappy reviewers.. giving a 8 than a 6 at a game that deserves for it's actual "prestation a 9.. i know u all nubs want end game gear but is simply not posible... from 1st release..and i also bet u never did every instance in game like i did .. even several times 1 - starting from all 6 man party to all raid ones) it wont influence this game future.. and this page i will save and bash it in your faces... (hope u wont let "gaming" or that u get out of your caves at that time";) and c what u have to say

    What did u saied when 1st CS 1.4 or 1.3 a beta version appeared?? u would have thought that will be a game that among Starcraft will make gaming history?
    What did u sayed when DOTA appeared? i bet none was ever thinking that will reach a european status for a WoW module a "game" that has 4mb .. a map actually... i played it since patch 1 now it's been patched over 150 times.. it has more than 4 years...
    And x;y;z i don't have to explian myself in front of u... the games u speak about even if they are played.. by "gamers like u" the gaming WORLD had never heard of them..
    All the game that i speak about consider your kind your genre.. a joke that after us - THE GAMERS bring a game to his actual potential than u jump in and give your reviews and comments... WE ARE THE GAMES not u! where u wanna see profs we see potential when after tons of hours played that bring us to be name on boards of european and world competitions u jump in and c what we made of that game is up to us to c it's potential not up to you.. you are like paparazzi that eat only what they have infront of their eyes.. we are living the gaming worl d u DON'T and get along with it !
    Edited by 2 at 16/10/08 @ 10:13

  • iokthemonkey #69 3 years ago

    You think *I* reviewed AoC here? Buddy, you're even more insane than I thought.

    For the record, WoW didn't have "a little more content" than AoC when it was launched. It had WAY more content than AoC.

    Okay, how about I put it into terms you MIGHT understand, using CS as a basis (although why you're talking about CS is beyond me...)

    Imagine if you BOUGHT CS and the box claimed it had 8 weapons and 132 maps to play, all in fantastic 3D. You got it home, installed it then discovered the game actually was a 2D game with 1 weapon, 2 maps and whenever you played for any longer than 30 minutes, it would crash your computer. Would you say that was a good experience?

    Or if you can't follow THAT explanation, I'll try some of your logic and point out that bananas are better than shoes because dogs like to wear hats. You can't follow that argument? Well, welcome to our world when we read your drivel.

    Now I'd suggest you scuttle off back to whatever dingy hole you exist in, where the world of gaming doesn't exist before 1998 and MMOs are somehow supposed to play the same way as first-person shooters and get back to whatever it was before you came here. That is unless you want to keep posting your insane rantings here and make an even bigger fool of yourself. As for me, I'm done wasting my time with you, as you're clearly too stupid, too immature and too far up Funcom's metaphorical arse to understand a reasoned, proper and CORRECT point when you read it.

  • 1simen1 #70 3 years ago

    iokthemonkey : There you go again. You will not win arguments by calling the other party "stupid", "immature" or "up Funcom's arse". Neither does it help calling his posts "insane ranting".

    It really makes you come off ,well kinda like the words you use on others when not agreeing.

    You call your points valid. Your points are :

    1: AOC has not content.
    Thats a matter of opinion

    2: AOC is flawed, broken, lacking ,a design catastrophy and what not.
    Thats a matter of gameplay taste. Most bugs are out ,quests fixed and added. Raid zones rewamped and fixed for the most part. Siegeing rewamped and fixed for the most part.

    If you don't like instanceing, or the combat system, or the fact that AOC is less dependant on gear in order to win than the competition, well that is a matter of taste. Not a matter of good or bad game design. As a designer you of all should know that. If you read the AOC forums you will see that one thing has been praised from releace until now , and that is indeed the combat system.

    The problem has been balance between the classes.

    Are the different classes well enough balanced now a few months after releace?
    Not yet, but after the next patch it will be close. MMO's will never be perfectly balanced in my opinion, but i think a game is close to perfect balancewise when all classes complain equally.

    Included in the current patch now on testlive, is the rest of the pvp update (Notority system). Items, gems and crafting will be more meaningfull.
    The new zone Ymirs Pass is currently beeing tested on testlive aswell.

    3: AOC crashes all the time.
    Since the patch on sept 17 'th this is wrong. The game is now very stable for almost all players.

    If you don't like the game fine.But why the giant urge to bring down anyone that do like it?

    And as a sidenote to Eurogamer. If you score a MMO as an 8 when it lauches. And give it a 6 a few months down the road when most bigger issues have been adressed, is beyond me.

    Have they been reviewing the development process after launch, or the game as it stands today in mid october for existing or new players?
    I think most will agree that a review of Funcoms handeling of the game in this period (launch until now) is not better than a 6, perhaps even worse.

    Is the game in itself worse now than when it lauched? Defenently not!! Eurogamer seem to have rereviewed Funcom as a developer, not the game AOC!!

    According to those that stuck by it and those that returned to try again (read the official forums) AOC has improved alot.

    So" iokthemonkey" the morale is. People that like something you don't aren't stupid , they just have different tastes. Respect that!!

    For instance i personally hate the graphical design of WOW, and it's normal MMO click -wait-watch result-hit/miss, or macro go to the kitchen ,including the if you don't have uber gear don't bother compeating , you will not be able to win unless you raid ,raid,raid to kingdom come combat design.
    However i have no problem accepting that fact that WOW is a very good MMO and have exellent entertainment value for players that like this kind of gameplay.
    Edited by 1 at 16/10/08 @ 19:33

  • SleepyMagpie #71 3 years ago

    Re: Leaving Age of Conan was the least painless gaming "divorce" I've ever gone through.

    ---

    iokthemonkey wrote: I think you mean "least painful" :) but still...

    THE PAIN!!! Yeah, I was kinda tired this morning, you're right. *grins wryly*



  • Pur3nRg #72 3 years ago

    i just went played 10 hours of pvp minigames and i have the same fealing in my body like i had every time after 30 minutes of high speed track back with my honda...Going back from AoC to any other game is like getting of the plane and grabing a cab....i didn't felt that way untill i got used to the game.. the huge number of ppl that "left" at the begining are just ppl that found it very dificult to play.. but numbers are starting to grow and lots of ex players come back couse they... they feal the "thing" the + that makes AoC the next generation mmorpg
    last night i did about 12 hours of ZA raid (a wow instance) and even if it's for the 231312 time i do it.. even if is me playing on 1 of my 7 char lvl 70... the difference is fealt beyond magination... as i stated... u can c a game (not speaking about my taste) after u play it... do all ppl that played AoC long enough and now are astonished when trying to play other games that atm for ALL seem "out of date" stupid? none of the AoC players can say that they don';t feal a HUGE HUGE diference betwen AoC and other games that other games feal like going back to play diablo 2 or something... and to conclude this once and for all .. that is what it makes me 100% sure that AoC
    WILL BE THE MOST PLAYED GAME IN THE WORLD WILL MAKE HISTORY IN GAMING (thouse who think that diablo3 will say something are plain stupid.. i was a 100% fan of diablo 2 - but blizzard makes games for kids.. unfortunately i am not a kid anymore...)
    Edited by 1 at 16/10/08 @ 21:01

  • Retroid #73 3 years ago

    Christ, I own quite a few games which're at least 20 years old.

    Bloody idiot.

  • iokthemonkey #74 3 years ago

    So" iokthemonkey" the morale is. People that like something you don't aren't stupid , they just have different tastes. Respect that!!

    ---

    1simen1 - You're right: people who have different tastes aren't stupid. But what is stupid is when somebody (i.e. you) who hasn't actually even PLAYED AoC tries to tell somebody else (i.e. me) who HAS played AoC that it's a good game.

    Go play it, see what a mess it is, then we can have a conversation about it, okay?

    Edited by 2 at 17/10/08 @ 09:15

  • iokthemonkey #75 3 years ago

    I know what you mean PuR3 - I felt the same way when I saw AoC's crappy instancing, use of zone lines, linear progression and lack of content. It was like playing a piss-poor version of EverQuest all over again...

  • Pur3nRg #76 3 years ago

    tell me u ever done lvl 80 instances? u ever got to have good equip that giveu decent hp and ever played minigames to c how real the batle feals like...
    at the begining all where nobs at pvp... now most of players are grouped.. is a real challlange the pvp no ta chaotic use abb-atacks atacking anyone who was closest in the target anymore..
    the PVE instance are the same in every game.. tactics.. heal.. 1-2-3 tanks and dps
    The thing that change is :
    Make close ups in AoC and c the movement of your character, of the boses or elites u are atacking of the armour they are having the details on everone gear..and go play another game and make close ups and c what u'v got there...
    maybe u played but not long enough to "reach to the pretentions of this game" is not easy to raid a bike with +200 km at hour .. as i before saied... but if u go up a bike and can only do 90-110 km /hour it doesn't mean that raiding a bike is crappy.. yea it is at thouse speeds.. and would be useles to pilot a bike toping only thouse speeds... but when u an all others c that more and more ppl leave their 50cc behind and try on real speed bikes and get the hang of it..... u will all rush in and :) reminding how... u where...
    and is not about MY tastes is about THIS game.. wich myself rewieved and also the ppl that left it.. and is the same as it happend to "the most played mmorpg" - wow .. at the begining ppl left wow couse of it's graphics.. later they camed back and played understanting that the "cartoon" graphics where a "strategy" of Blizz wich wanted to go "easy" on the backgrounds... puting "nice things- ilumitated like sparkling gear-mobs-doodles everywhere" so that after u get used to them u skip it and focus only on lvl-ing tailoring mining at 375- wich is like lvl-ing here all mining resources to t3... but when u get to profesions at this point the diference is made by the req.. to be able to get t6 u have to be not just in a guild.. u have to be in a guild that works 10 times or 100 times more than a individual in wow or any other game that have to lvl at max a profesion. And less u can compare other games with AoC... AoC is a mamoth game comparing to lineage 2- wow generation.. they reached to a high lvl of content due to years and years of patching and adding the content... but as i saied if u take a look at the hyborian map u can c that not even 20% of it's content is "instanced" and opened.. so is useles to speak about it content wich yes is poor couse is only at the very begining .. and not even 40% of the players made at least all t1 instances... is about this game futuristic aproach and if - taking any other game in consideration AoC reaches a astonishing 15% imitation of Real Life - and the rest is a step forward to acomplishing real life status.. the ideeas and the graphics and if ex games go at about 1-5% not more of imitating real life .. AoC made at least a 10% step forward...
    The future in MMORPG won't be after AoC, going the same direction as wow tooked.. the future in MMORPG history will be getting closer to reality and yes in the far away future.. that maybe my grandchildrens will embrace will be a Gam (MMORPG- Action - strategy) wich will be closer to reality than we could posibly imageine nowadays... regardles if U or any other agree with this or not !
    Edited by 3 at 17/10/08 @ 10:48

  • iokthemonkey #77 3 years ago

    You're still not getting the point: Age of Conan is a backward step in MMOs. The combat is pure arcade button-bashing, the hard zone walls are something I'd expect from a game ten years old, the zones are narrow, the character progression paths are poor, the developers make promises they don't keep, every bug the live team fixes creates another three and the content is lacking.

    How many starting zones does AoC have? One. WoW launched with six. Everquest had about six. LOTRO has four. SWG had about five. Getting the picture yet? How many other play zones does AoC have? About eight? WoW had more than that in a single race AT launch. LOTRO has a lot more than AoC too and has SINCE LAUNCH. How many quests does AoC have? Not enough outside Tortage. And of them, how many are bug-free? Not enough. Then there's the promised PvP, DirectX 10 support, crafting, etc, etc. None of which has appeared. So yeah, if your idea of a great MMO of tomorrow is based around the idea of waiting until tomorrow for the content to appear, then you've picked the right game.

    But hey, you go right ahead and keep playing if you're having fun. But nobody can take you seriously when you keep claiming it's in some way a step-forward in MMO design. It's not. It's a badly executed, empty, gimmick-ridden game with no future, nothing to recommend and nothing to make it even remotely fun to play.

  • 1simen1 #78 3 years ago

    "iokthemonkey", One question comes to mind.

    When was the last time you logged inn and got some deceant playtime with AOC?

    That is kinda essential considering the latest patches (especially the last one that fixed stability and OOM crashes) have added lot's of quests and fixed bugged ones, fixed siegeing, quick fixed gems (bringing better balance), revamping dungouns. Added first part of the pvp system to name a few.

    The next patch currently on test will add the rest of the pvp system, fix most crafting related issues, add more omph to items and much much more. For an update preview by the game director , go here :

    [link url=http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?p=2 049273#post2049273
    ]http://fo rums.ageofconan.com/showthread....[/link]

    And what is this new focus off yours regarding starting zones? The problem in AOC have never been in Tortage, which from what i have read , seem to be the best starting zone ever in a MMO.

    The problem was not enough quests later on towards level 80 forsing people to grind. Oh and guess what according to active players in the forums ....that has been fixed aswell.

    Have I played AOC? Nope. Will i ? maybe sometime after christmas. Have i read and followed the official forums since day one? yes.

    I can safely say that i have read all considered to be good and bad about AOC. And slowly what was considered bad (flaws and bugs, not gameplay tastes that is a different discussion) has been fixed. Or will be come next patch.

    If i pick it up will i like it? No idea but the lore, graphics and gameplay seems cool to me.

    Why do i "defend" AOC?.Well somone bloody should, considering all the WOW and WAR people dissing it out of fear,considering so many had a poor experience early on because their computers wern't up to snuff, bought it anyway and got angry when it didn't run well,considering FUNCOM took a long time fixing the OOM problems causing the game to crash, making it unplayable for a great number off players.

    All of these things combined casued lot's off negativity in gameing forums. Now that most of the bigger issues have been fixed, AOC should be evaluated as it stands today. Not by what it was 4 months ago ,2 months ago or1 month ago for that matter.

    So i just take it upon me to tell a different tale. The tale players in AOC are experiencing rigth now. According to them the game has started to shine.

    I have played games since the Spectrum 48, via Comodore 64,128, Amiga/Atari, Pc ,N64, Playstation, Cube , xbox and 360 and more pc.

    I am able to differenciate objectively between a good and a bad game.
    There are two measuremet factors to consider when judgeing a game.

    1 : Game quality (gameplay,story,graphics, innovation, polish and sofort)

    And 2 : Funfactor (which is highly individual. One games fun is another mans misery).

    To many mix up these factors and consider only what they personally like to be quality games, trashing games they don't like. Take a game like Mario Galaxy from Nintendo. Probably one of the best platformers ever, but i don't like it. Not my kind of gameplay. However i have no problem seeing how good the game is as a platformer....

    What eurogamer has done is to rereview the game developer FUNCOM, not the game as it stands in mid october. That is beeing unfair to the game AOC.

    Taste and quality are two different entities. It's the same thing in the MMO world. What i don't like about WOW is perfect for some other person......

    Thank God games are different! If they wern't gaming would stop evolving and we don't want that now do we?

    Edited by 2 at 17/10/08 @ 22:33

  • Pur3nRg #79 3 years ago

    i still can belive some are "flaming" AoC
    Is like comparing diablo 2 - wow
    Is like comparing red alert - broodwar
    Is like comparing broodwar - warcraft 3
    Is like comparing Half life - steam

    Warhammer is like a wow- 2003 game patched and edited with new graphics
    AoC to all games that are on the market are like the second row writen above:
    is like comparing WoW, Lineage 2, Everquest, Archlord, SWG - Age of Conan (u have to be really retarded to do that)
    Is like comparing a fucking Ford 2002-2003 with a Maybach 2008 ....
    Edited by 1 at 18/10/08 @ 14:47

  • AOFanboi #80 3 years ago

    <em>How was WoW when it appeared?
    Better than diablo 2 ? never! </em>

    See, this is where you show yourself to be a total dumb-ass. Of course WoW, at launch a full 3D third-person MMO, was better than an isometric, sprite-based clickfest running at 640x400 (upped to 800x600 with the expansion).

    AoC <em>should</em> have managed to be a better game than WoW, but has failed in countless ways. Meanwhile LotRO and WAR both have managed to add distinct features that give them a fighting chance to retain players who try a switch from WoW. AoC has... boobs. Including, apparently, in its fanbase...

  • Pur3nRg #81 3 years ago

    typic to wow fans.. from 3 pages of pure arguments in wich defending wow makes u a complete retard.. u pick on a mistake i made..
    what i wanted to say was how was diablo2 when wow appeared? better? No way
    Edited by 1 at 19/10/08 @ 03:32

  • iokthemonkey #82 3 years ago

    When was the last time you logged inn and got some deceant playtime with AOC?

    ----

    We've been through this before. You have NO experience of AoC. I do. Please stop making yourself into an even bigger idiot than you already are.

    And for the record, my brother still plays AoC. But you know what he told me his latest adventures had consisted of? Helping lower-level Guildmates because "there's f- all else to do in the game." I asked why he didn't start a new character and his reply? "I'm not going through Tortage again. I've done it four times now and I'm not doing it again." Then he said the PvP patch still didn't work properly and that most of his guildmates were leaving anyway, as they were pissed off due to the continual delay of content patches and undelivered promises.

    Now, as I say, perhaps one day when you've actually PLAYED the game, we can have a reasoned discussion. Until that time though, I'm not going to waste any more time arguing with you, as you're clearly either (A) retarded (B) on the payroll of Funcom or (C) all of the above.

    But yeah, if you want to take it as an EPIC WIN, go right ahead and claim my backing out of the discussion is a victory for you. I'm through discussing it with you. WELL DONE YOU! YOU WON AT THE INTERNET! AGAIN!

  • 1simen1 #83 3 years ago

    iokthemonkey : There you go again , resorting to namecalling when faced with arguments....

    You are sounding more and more like a craxed teen instead of a 30+ mature adult with 15 years behind you as a game developer was it?

    Since you fail to answer my question. The when was the last time you got some decent playtime with AOC one?
    I kind a find it ironic that you keep dissing me for not haveing played the game myself when you use your brothers experience instead of your own....

    I use the official forums as my source, perhaps you should aswell ,considering you probabaly havent played the game in a while?

    Oh and no, i am not retarded, i am not on Funcoms payroll.

    Why you continue to trash AOC every oppertunity you get is beyond me unless you have a hidden agenda. Unless you are:

    A : a die hard WOW or WAR fanboy.
    B : on Blizzard or Mythic's payroll.
    C: Both.

    I rest my case.......
    Edited by 1 at 20/10/08 @ 10:34

  • iokthemonkey #84 3 years ago

    Do I have recent experience of AoC first-hand? No.

    But I do have three months of experience and in that time I was able to realise - like many others - that it'll take a lot more than a few months of patches to fix this "game." It's fundamentally flawed, has a minimal amount of content, is a retrogressive step in terms of MMO development and is being run by a team completely out of their depth.

    Secondly, I speak regularly to my brother, who was an avid player of AoC and still plays actively. I trust his opinion because he has no axe to grind either way. He enjoys bits of it, sure, but he freely admits that he's spending less time playing AoC now because he finds it impossible to find anything meaningful to do.

    You, on the other hand, have zero experience of the game. You know NOTHING of the game except that which you've cribbed from the official forums, hardly the best place to get your info. Maybe you should, I don't know, try actually playing it for yourself before you make such ill-advised comments?

    Because until you do play AoC for yourself, your comments are meaningless.

    But yeah, fine, whatever, I've made my point. I'm done "discussing" this with you, as you're out of your depth and have been since the discussion began and will be until you actually play AoC for yourself. Just hurry up and get that upgraded PC, though, as the clock is ticking...

  • 1simen1 #85 3 years ago

    iokthemonkey : why should i trust you and only you regarding AOC's quality?

    Here is a recent thread from the US general discussion forum :

    [link url= http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=170662
    ]http://fo rums.ageofconan.com/showthread....[/link]

    This is balance. Some say Yay and others nei.

    What you and your brother think is just the opinion of 2 people. In the officiall forums you get the opinioin of, well many many more. Mind you these are players that still play the game or have active accounts.

    I'll take their opinions good or bad over yours any day.

    You are one. They are many. More opinons are always better in cases like this.

    You do not have an active account. According to yourself you quit before the last patch. (sept 2 you said in another thread about AOC)
    This patch i speak of went live on sep. 17'th and fixed many issues including the OOM leaks (causeing the game to crash).
    If i have to chose between existing players opinons about the game and the opinions of those that quit, i'll listen to the ones that still play. They know what the game is like right now, good and bad. The officiall forums reflect their views.

    Oh and you seem to lacking in the short time memory department. Look above. You already finished discussing with me in your last reply he he ;-)

    Edited by 1 at 20/10/08 @ 23:56

  • Pur3nRg #86 3 years ago

    iokthemonkey

    I don't know how u can argue with me .. when i like still play after 5 months every day with my Conq that i don't fear anyone on my server, the pvp experience is far beyond your imagination, the skills required to be able to do pvp are more than either me or anyone that plays can raise in words...
    and i say that after having more than 7 cahracters lvl 70 back in wow.. and also puted togheder more than 40k - yes 40k honourable kills
    Every pvp 1 vs 1 here is what i used to call 1 time in wow Epic battle!
    I fell pity for u and for guys like u... is like c-ing a rich man that praises his new generation "pc" and in the same time watching kids on the other side "flaming" that pc with arguments like... having 2 procesors is crappy, better have 1 amd 1800+ from the time of christ couse u have less chances of 1 to get burned...
    i hear "not ppl" kids complained about the graphics.. i mean cmon u can't be seriouse....my pc runs wow at max .. beyond max... and almost failes at runing AoC.. -> u have to be really stupid to argue about AoC graphics... and as for the gameplay.. u can not say nothing since it hasn't entered your blood yet... but i am sure as fuck that u have to have strog fucking blood type to be competitive with this game!

  • Pur3nRg #87 3 years ago

    here is a proff that if u get bored in AoC doing lvl 50 instances can fill up your time with more fun than in any other game can be done... and helping others in instances is not like it was back in wow.... arcane blast - pew arcane blast pew
    And the pvp content was added from long time ago.. the gear is not overpowered still it makes a difference.. a slight diference and for u to understand what gear gives in AoC
    A fully equiped lvl 80 with blue items has somewhere between 5%-10 % max of better stats/ character bonus with pvp gear can gain 15% (pvp only! stats) than do not calculate in PVE

    http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=wJk-Ry6aPgM enjoy AoC grinding for fun lvl 50 instances

  • iokthemonkey #88 3 years ago

    Mind you these are players that still play the game or have active accounts.

    If i have to chose between existing players opinons about the game and the opinions of those that quit, i'll listen to the ones that still play. They know what the game is like right now, good and bad.

    ----

    Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding! We have a winner.

    If you can't work out why that's a very major negative point toward the impartiality of these people, then you're an even bigger fool than I gave you credit for... I mean, that's like going to, I don't know, Blizzcon and asking how many people think WoW is the best game ever...

    -----

    You do not have an active account. According to yourself you quit before the last patch. (sept 2 you said in another thread about AOC)
    This patch i speak of went live on sep. 17'th and fixed many issues including the OOM leaks (causeing the game to crash).

    -----

    Ever hear the expression, "You can't polish a turd?" That's what's happening here. They're patching holes in the game, not addressing fundemental issues such as the lack of content, the hideous design and the fact that it's piss-boring to play.

    Oh and the content they DID introduce wasn't properly finished (the PvP patch was a joke - go read up about THAT some time and then maybe you'll see why) and all this funky new stuff they're promising is still just that: a promise. No hard dates, no commitments, no assurances from Funcom. Just lots of carrotts on sticks.

    -----

    Oh and you seem to lacking in the short time memory department. Look above. You already finished discussing with me in your last reply he he ;-)

    -----

    Yup. And we also resolved the discussion much earlier. You reappeared after a gap of about a month, solely to comment on MY comments. Like I know you will again. I'm flattered, but you know, stalking somebody on the Internet is kind of creepy. I'm sure you'll find a nice girl - or boy if you swing that way - out there in the real world who'll be happy to hang-out with you and be your buddy, but sorry, I'm taken.

    But maybe you and Pur3, seeing as you both have such raging hard-ons for AoC could maybe hook-up and discuss how great it is. You're both about as stupid as each other, so I'm sure you'll get along like a house on fire...
    Edited by 1 at 21/10/08 @ 09:13

  • iokthemonkey #89 3 years ago

    i don't fear anyone on my server

    ----

    That's funny.

  • 1simen1 #90 3 years ago

    iokthemonkey : What is funny is your lack of social skills and maturety. Luckily your kind is rare and far apart.....

    I guess you never followed the forums while you where playing AOC. If you had you would have known that the participants were and are anything but silent about things they did not or do not like.

    Some of the games biggest critics can be found in the AOC official forums.

    I take it you didn't read the link i provided either. That thread is a good example. Some prais and others spank the game, hence the word balance. Both sides are represented.

    I'm not stalking you, if you are anything in real life like you appear in these forums i wouldn't wanna be within 10 miles of your general direction.

    I simply aim to bring balance. To provide other readers with a different view. There is people out there finding AOC to be a great game with exellent gameplay and combat system.

    Just because you didn't like it doesn't mean that others can't.


    Edited by 1 at 04/11/08 @ 22:28

  • Pur3nRg #91 3 years ago

    1smen1 let the pour dude be....he is the tyipical wow fan-boy that is the only clear thing we'v seen so far from his arguments... couse us discusing and explaining to him and others [that might just wanna hear about a game from someone that actually played it more than 1 month.. and still plays it.. (btw all the fucking community and i mean 90%+ of players agree that is not the case to discuss about AoC when they all felt/feal that AoC is way above anything u can find on the market nowadays!)] how good /(bad) is AoC.. is like ..
    Us defending Brazil beeing a better footbal squad infront of China...
    After 5 minutes of "gameplay" even a remediour notice the difference...
    And thouse who don't do it and still can't realize "HOW CAN BRAZIL BE BETTER THAN CHINA WHEN CHINA IS MORE POPULATED DOHHH"? are worse than remediours.... i honestly give up talking with retarded that i will c playing AoC couse they wont stick all their shitfull lives to that shitfull game... they have to go forward...LIKE SOME OF US DID... we'll see them as we see more and more nowadays... "hey guys who can help me with Sotbs..."
    Edited by 1 at 21/10/08 @ 18:51

  • juro123 #92 3 years ago

    I agree with No_Biggie

    Aditionally, I've bought this game one month ago. I didn't meet any problems so far. May be later, but now I am absolutely satisfied. I am not profi gamer (just for fun) and simply this game enjoys me a lot...
    So people, try it and you will see...

  • KlusterDT #93 3 years ago

    9/10, only thing missing is *community fun ingame*, bunch of senseless pricks with their noses turned up until they win a duel then they kick in the revenge laughter and flame tells til you kick their ass again then they go back on the "games shit" bandwagon


    aint that right monkeyboy :p

    its a lot better than it was, if you don't like the pvp-chaos migrate to pve like i did, if you don't like hanging around waiting for your mount to die re-roll pvp and if none of those are your problem buy a feckin console game and complete it in 4 hours and get your money back, gits....

  • Decap #94 3 years ago

    wow.. I dont care about any MMO at the moment. But I just had to come and say that Pur3nRg, you gave me a laugh. I mean seriously, your comments are so idiotic that I had a great laugh on fanboys stupidity once more.

    Oh.. and by the way: AOC = shit. Im one of those that actually feels sorry that I bough the damn thing and invested my time on it. Game was ok, but FC totally pissed on the players with this one. Thx and bye, its a dead game allready on MMO standards, and a total RIP in a years time when they close the servers. (thats what happens when there are no players).

    FC got what they deserved, I hope they didnt get any profits from this shit.

  • ExplodingClown #95 3 years ago

    I just bought this for £5.98 in Game clearout sale. I've had to sit through about 3.5 GB worth of patch downloads and now it won't log me in.

    I suspect this will be my first and last flirtation with MMOs. Maybe it's a generational thing, but admitting to people my own age that I play videogames always makes me feel like I've confessed to some mildly icky fetish. Being caught masturbating would probably give me less silent shame than I suspect this foray will leave me with...

    I'll give it a month. Hell, can't be any worse than Second Life. Less likely to be suffering some goddamn Furry pervert infestation.

  • kabukiman #96 3 years ago

    Started to play AoC last week. I never played WoW, I'm a player of LORO. For now I like Conan: the initial story is interesting (to discover who we are) and the background really remembers me the stories of Howard. The several menus are a bit confusing and still need to be polished.