Age of Conan

[KingCreeper]

So I finally got a new computer and my long awaited new love, Age of Conan - let me tell you a story of HIGH ADVENTURE!

For the first 20 levels of my character on an island under the tyrannical rule of some bastard, surrounded by picts, beasts, and worse - (as well as water, duh), I've absolutely come to love the game. The graphics make me want to reach out and touch the unique not-at-all generic faces of my enemies before decapitation. The game is designed to make gameplay exciting and less mediocre than the usual "click and wait until it dies" method of the usual MMO, where your skill in game barely matters so long as you've skilled up your hotkeys. Not so with AoC! You have to physically move your character into the tactical position to do proper damage, as the enemy will have shields protecting it's self in one, two, or all directions. The idea is to hit the un-protected areas (which sounds easier than it is) - if you score a critical or use a skill on one of these areas, regardless of the enemy HP - there is a chance you will score a fatality, which is always brutal. I won't give too much away on this but decapitation is a given, for all you sword-lovers out there, it's not uncommon for the fatality to involve impaling the bastard and laughing as he dies, which is epic fun. Bows are incredibly gruesome too when you score a fatality, incredibly gruesome...

Another point with attacking is that you attack in a basic cone infront of your character, instead of hitting just one (although you will target and do more damage to a specific target) you hit those around him also. Barbarians specialize in this, and since I play one I can tell you how much of an e-peen you get when you've just crushed a mighty horde of enemies alone atop some ancient temple, melee, archers, spell-casters - they all perish as one before the might of Cimmeria (or Aquilonia or Stygia or whoever you choose to go...).

Spellcasting is amazing also, I tried out a Necromancer for myself and the emotes for ressurrection of corpses/binding their souls to the souls of devils is just pure gold. You see the still mortal flesh of your victim being chained by the hells and dragged away, as your new minion is revealed. It's fun to watch.

The island its self is beautiful to look at from anywhere you are, the taverns are pretty and the people are decent. Your character modification tools are pretty good but there are some things that do bug me, like not being able to change tattoo colours and such - but that's just realism since I guess Cimmerians would use regional colours and whatnot, still, I was never into sky blue or blood red (unless it's actually blood).

Gameplay is inspirational, WoW and LoTRO, and all the other big nasties out there could learn a thing or two. Not just for the combat system whichI've been through already, but the scale of things that your character is able/unable to do - any character can build skills in things like 'climbing' or 'regeneration', and a lot more. These seriously impact your experience. I have a Barbarian with 110 points in run speed, and it makes a difference! Climbing plays a role in the 20 level introduction to the game, so if you find yourself playing try to have at least 60.

The clothing of your character, the styles of hair and appearance, even the weapons are all graphically stunning to a degree that has even Oblivion on it's knees. Everything flows real-time, the waves crash at the right times and thunder sends chills down your spine as though you're right there. And that's with vanilla sound card!

Some classes are race specific, but none are gender specific. Women as well as men can be great hulking tanks, or petite little casters if they wish. And clothing is pretty general, if it's revealing on a female character then it's just as bad on male - it doesn't just magically manipulate it's self into a metal thong for the ladies like in WoW.


On there I'm in a RP guild called Might and Magic, I've roleplayed once in my whole experience in the game. But since it's new I'm just going to assume people are still trying to get a feel for the game before doing anything interesting. I'd be happy to be a Seeker there too haha.

[Richard Talbot]

Well this old fellow bought himself AoC as well.
Pluses-

The combat. I love it. Throwing a couple of feints at the enemy on one side so he concentrates all his defence there just as you smash him on the now-undefended side.
The spells. Visceral, challenging to aim against moving oppenents (if you're using one of the aoe cone ones) and some really nasty things in there as well. Not to mention running round with your own bodyguard of bloody zombies. Or just turning into a big ol' evil demon and ripping into some tribals.
The character customisation, although I remain waiting for the chance to make a big lumbering tub of lard.
The size and variety of the cities, complete with slums and areas where you'll get mugged if you don't tread carefully (found that out the hard way), and by mugged I mean murdered.
The atmosphere is great as well.

The minuses-

I'm too dumb to figure out how to fit my shiny new video card.
All the WoWugees going on about how much they hate WoW.
The people who are blatantly kids or virgins making female characters so they can run around topless. I don't mind topless () if it fits the scene. I mean, whenever there's famine in africa on the news all the women tend to be topless. But they don't run around saying "lol chek out my b00biez lollolololl1111", at least not when I'm watching. Now, I'm not saying that's common, because it isn't, and it's great to have a more sensible bunch of people talking in ooc or wherever.
The game's apparent inability to save my video settings.

I had a blast trying all these new classes that I knew nothing about, but I've settled into the role of a Dark Templar. Cimmerian.

Level 6.



Oh, and to the fat girl in GAME who ID'd me when I tried to buy it on my 24th birthday- FUCK YOU, FATTY.

But, apologies, I don't carry around my ID for the very reason that it's been 7 years since I was actually under 18. The fact that I had three weeks worth of beard growth and I was wearing a suit OBVIOUSLY means I'm under 18.
Dumb bitch.

That is all.

I had to go to another shop where they didn't have mammoths. And where they didn't give away free mounts with the game, either.

[KingCreeper]

Cool I didn't know you played. Level six huh? Did you just buy it today or something?

[Richard Talbot]

Cool I didn't know you played. Level six huh? Did you just buy it today or something?

Hehe no, a couple weeks ago, I just stopped while I waited for my new card which, as I said, I can't work out how to put in

[KingCreeper]

Surely in all your years you've learned how to put such simple things in. Go to your account page via the website and try from there pumpkin.

[Richard Talbot]

Surely in all your years you've learned how to put such simple things in. Go to your account page via the website and try from there pumpkin.

Har Har.

My video card.

[KingCreeper]

Surely in all your years you've learned how to put such simple things in. Go to your account page via the website and try from there pumpkin.

Har Har.

My video card.

That's even worse.

[Richard Talbot]

Surely in all your years you've learned how to put such simple things in. Go to your account page via the website and try from there pumpkin.

Har Har.

My video card.

That's even worse.

Your face is worse.

[KingCreeper]

Surely in all your years you've learned how to put such simple things in. Go to your account page via the website and try from there pumpkin.

Har Har.

My video card.

That's even worse.

Your face is worse.

Yeaaaaaaaaaaah you're just yella'. Man up and put your stuff in your own damn computer!

[Richard Talbot]

I tried, I swear. I got the whole thing on it's side and open, but there was some kind of blue plastic bar that was rivetted in holding all the PCI cards in place. So I have to find a way to remove that before the new card can be put in.
I'm not technically minded when it comes to computers. Simply opening the case up was hard enough.

[Sponsored content]