Gamezone gives 9.4/10 to Age of Conan:Hyborian Adventures

Michael Lafferty reports:

''Every once in a while a game comes along that is bold enough to break the mold of the genre to which it is cast. The game takes some fresh approaches and gives players pause to re-think previous perceptions.

Age of Conan – Hyborian Adventures, from Funcom, is one of those titles. This massively multiplayer online subscription-based title does some amazing things in terms of combat, rethinks character classes, incorporates a strong story, dazzles visually and is a whole lot of fun to play as well.

In order to do justice to this title, GameZone will be running the review of the game in several parts, breaking it into the major areas of the game. This first review will target the first 20 levels of the game, which amounts to an introduction to the combat system, character classes and general game flow. The next review, which will be down the road a bit (after the next phase has been explored more thoroughly), will take on the next 20 levels of gameplay, and so on. These reviews are at milestone areas in the game. At level 20 the guild experience kicks in. At level 40, crafting comes into play. The game does have a level cap of 80.

[pwnmaster3000]

yes my game of the year for 360 lives up, well im buying

[Harry190]

to have garnered very good press reviews.
WOW beater?Tough,but maybe.....nah....very very tough,but you never know,
seeing the record sign ups the game had.

Anyways,should be getting it,because it's a good game.

And if ever POG is lurking around,please don't say anything about me being a PS3 fanboy submitting 360 news,That is ridiculous.

[pwnmaster3000]

i think it is a WoW beater for me because i was never intrested in WoW and WoW still looks gay to me, but this looks hella cool and more thing to do.

wen is this comming out dude

[power of Green]

I don't understand your comment?, you lurking around waiting for me to respond to you comments(more than once) due to you calling me out because I mentioned you have had an anti MSFT posting history doesn't make any sense. Throwing a few bones every once in a while doesn't really negate your over whelming Pro PS3 and anti MSFT posting habbits of the past months.

You claim the notion's ridiculous yet all you have to have is a good memory all you have to do is check your post history. lol

No big deal you post Pro Sony and when people start to ignor your posts you find a couple of positive 360 posts you're not tricking folks thats the oldest trick in the book. Some of the great ones did that like: Deep Brown, Drty Souf, Meus Renaissance etc. Let it go I called you on that days ago lol.

I'm not even sure how you posting a review of a PC title(version) even justifies you calling me out.

[Harry190]

I knew it,I knew you would answer.
Go ahead,look in my posting history,search all you want,I don't have anti-MFSt or anything you'd like to call it articles.I mostly post Wii and DS reviews if you look closely.
And,yeah,maybe i'll come back with my other account...you know...Breakfast and others to give you disagrees.But frankly,I don't know how it came to you that i was posting negative 360 news.

Links please,valid ones.

Also,if you are referring to Vista and other OS news,I do it because I compete for the top contributor awards and I must use everything I find.

But negative 360 news...nah.
Pro-Ps3 news?Can't find.

What you are saying is as good as saying the actual top contributor for this month is a hardcore 360 fanboy,which is not true.

[power of Green]

I'm not even sure how you posting a review of a PC title(version) even justifies you calling me out.

Let it go I didn't mean to hurt your feeling I was pointing out your posting habbits(days or even weeks ago lol). Let it go!.

[1stKnighT]

Looks like this is a must buy for 360/PC owners.

[2cents]

Been lookin forward to this.
The last conan on 360 was ok, but I expect much better things (titties,*jokes*) from this lol

[Greysturm]

But the requirememts mean ill wait for the console version as long as they dont dumb it down.

[canadianpatriot]

That was kind of unexpected

[Brian5247]

By starting off the review with this tired phrase, I've already lost all interest in what he had to say.

[Angelitos]

Who publishes this game?

[PoSTedUP]

is this like the first conan>?

[MK_Red]

It's not related to that aside from taking place in the world of Conan. That was a 3rd person action adventure while this game is an MMO with different dev, publisher and everything.

As for the review and score, I think GameZone is being a bit too generious. But at least the game has boobs and blood :D

[anh_duong]

"The developer revealed that they are working on the Xbox 360 version “for a long time” but that they are still a year behind the PC version. “Next year… We’re trailing about a year. No longer than a year. But we’re pretty much Guinea pigging our way into the Xbox, just like Microsoft is,” said the developer. “We are exploring frontiers on how to deal with the consoles and online games.”

Speaking about the PS3 version, the developer revealed that when they started work the PS3 had no clear online environment but that Microsoft had a very clear strategy, so they chose the Xbox 360. However, they haven’t ruled out a PS3 version, noting that they will consider any platform except for the Wii, which is clearly not powerful enough for such a game."

http://www.digitalbattle.co...

might come to ps3 might not.. but if it did it won't happen for at least a very long time since the xbox version is, according to the developers, "still a year behind the PC version".

[Angelitos]

I could see this eventually going to the PS3

[NegativeCreepWA]

The last article I read about it. They said, after the 360 vesion they may consider makeing it for ps3.

[Bolts]

They really should've made the 360 the lead platform for Conan. I'm playing the PC version right now, it rocks, but the game itself is too PC centric. The 30 gigs install of the base client is going to be an issue on the console. Thats the base client folks, and MMOs get bigger as they mature. Then there is the little issue of the chat interface. How are 360 users going to handle all the chat channels, the guild chat, the group chat, the tells, the zone chat, the shout, lets not forget the custom chat channels. Thats just the minor stuff, there are larger gameplay issues thats going to be hella hard to bring over to the console.

A year behind? I don't think so. Assuming the tech issues can be solved the gameplay will probably be completely different. Without a mouse and keyboard you'll be hard pressed to play this game the way it's intended.

[NegativeCreepWA]

It was designed with the 360 controller in mind. You can use one the pc. 360 users can also use keyboards for chat. Plus the developers already said they would take advantage lives features. Including voice chat, invites and achievements.

[adalwolfe]

They have been demoing the game being played with the xbox 360 controller since 2005

[Percy]

I don't think the pc version was made with a controller in mind. That's not to say that it is not possible but this is a point and click or hotkey mmo. FFXI was made for a controller it uses menus to do everything. I will have to plug a controller in and try it that would be awesome if i could sit back in the recliner and play with my wireless keyboard.

[Bolts]

People who think they can just plug in the 360 controler and play Conan obviously don't own the game, the very suggestion indicate they have no clue WTF they're talking about. This is a point and click game. The interface is mouse and hotkey heavy, as your character gain levels and skills you'll rely more on those hotkeys.

There is a difference between the dev demoing Conan with the 360 control pad than using one to play the actual game. He was interacting with the singleplayer NPC and fighting one on one against noob mobs. For those tasks you can use the Atari controler and it'll still be fine. But to play the game, to really play it...using your skills, interacting with your friends, guildies, and other players is going to be near impossible without a mouse and keyboard.

There are so many issues with not only the interface but class and gameplay as well if you're going to play Conan without a KB+mouse combo. I'll leave it at this, good luck healing your raid without a mouse and keyboard.

[adalwolfe]

Oh my god, I cannot believe some of you pc gamers are soo arrogant. You just want to completely deny the fact that the game has been played on the 360 controller.. what do you think they just put the code in just to demo it fighting some ai, and for the last 3 years they just left it out completely.

Here is a developer commentary on the game that was made in 2005, 3 friggin years ago:
http://pc.ign.com/dor/objec...

At exactly 5:09 the lead designer shows the xbox 360 controller he is using to control his character. And whats up with this comment that the 360 can't compete with a mouse keyboard? You do know you can use a keyboard on the 360, so your basically saying the 20 button (or so))combination on the 360 controller cannot compete vs the 2 button mouse input.. really.. do you have no creativity or is that just blind arrogance? Not to mention the fact that voice chat is most likely going to integrated (as it is for every other 360 game). Anyone that says different obviously does not know WTF they are talking about, and has no clue of the capabilities of current gen consoles.

[ArmrdChaos]

To defeat your enemies,
See them driven before you,
Hear the lamentations of the women.

Or the short answer...this freakin game. heh

Seems to kick ass so far and I'm not that far into it yet.

[Maverick_]

Sounds like a great game for PC/360 owners to scoop up. I hope it gets the same reviews on the Xbox 360.

[Drekken]

I need some more info on the 360 version pronto! I cant imagine how they will produce a pc like title with the 30gb install on pc and without mouse/kb support. This would be a major reason for me to grab a 360! More info plz!

[adalwolfe]

well you have to consider that 30gig install is 30gigs of uncompressed data, when compressed on the dvd it is most likely closer to 10gigs (which is how most 360 games are played). And also on top of that when installing a pc version they have multiple images of their textures, high res/mid res/low res versions.. on the 360 the graphic customisation options are optimized and limited and so a lot of these extra textures are removed, since the developers are not "guessing at what the installers hardware specs are".

What takes up the most data of the game are just texture files, all the developer really needs to do is have a seperate disk for the 3 seperate countries stygia/cimmeria/aquilonia.. everytime you change countries you switch disks.. no big issue there (keep in mind the countries in an mmo are huge).. if your really too finicky for that, buy the xbox elite for the 120 gigs of data..

But really space isn't an issue (anyone that says different is selling something, namely memory), there is always a work around for space issues. Neither is chat considering you can use a keyboard/chatpad/builtin headset.. the only issue i can possibly forsee is how aoc looks on direct x10 compared to direct x9 (which is on the 360).. of course currently aoc is just in direct x9 mode anyway as they have delayed the x10 for a later patch.. so what you see in videos is most likely how the 360 version will look, I expect though that later on (once patched) the pc version will look/run better.. of course there is a significant price difference between pc/360.

[BulletToothDave]

Any game can impliment a mouse and keyboard function on the 360...see those two USB ports in front of your 360?

[Fishy Fingers]

9.4, guess the videos don't paint the whole picture. This didn't look anything special to me.

[tatotiburon]

wow, i didn't expect this, a new AAA title for Xbox 360, a great review for a title exclusive since the HAZE FLOP!. A must buy....disagree all you want, i know is coming for PC too and PS3 version is consider, but this is a console exclusive right now.

[Close_Second]

...just when you picking this up for your 360?

Until its released its nothing but an exclusivity announcement. Don't get your jollies off until its been released and reviewed for the 360 as I dare say it will differ from the PC version.

[Maverick_]

lol. MGS4? lolol

[ngg12345]

Somehow when a PC MMO is released and gets a good score ps3, and xbox 360 wars has to go on? This game was always great, and most of the pc gamers were very eager to buy it. Age of Conan will most likely never come to the xbox 360, so why if you are interested bring that up. I'm playing it right now, and can't even see how this game will work on P2P servers because even on their servers this game is chugging at a very slow pace. Incredible lag, and tons of glitches is the only reason why I dislike the game. Best MMO though to ever come out.

[Percy]

I think that it is possible that it will come but they will have to use private servers. I just don't know how they are going to install the 30 gigs i think you will just have to have the 120 gig. But they might release the game already on a hard drive thats how ffxi was. Xbox 360 has a swappable hard drive you might just pop on the age of conan one and game away. You can not play a mmo from a disc though that is not gonna happen.

[cjp4eva]

I got 3 characters and the game is really good, anyone with an ok pc should pick it up, it comes with 30 day free play since its a pay to play monthly subscription.

[bootsielon]

aside of Xbox LIVE Gold fees, or do I just have to buy the game and I am all set?

[Baba1906]

it is pretty cool. i just cant decide what charakter to stick to. probably shaman bear or herald of xotli. anyway i would hope it comes to the ps3. my pc is kind of lame and the fps are way to low.

[pcgia]

as a PC gamer I'd love to get it, I just don't want to get sucked into 5 hours a day + playing it ;)