A rash of hacks in the past two months has left the usernames, emails and passwords from at least twelve gaming forums compromised, including those of Unreal creator Epic Games and Secret World developer Funcom. Other breaches include a GTA fansite and, as previously reported, the official forums of Dota 2. All the attacks involved an exploit in the forum's software, which the hackers used to hoover up details of members. And while the passwords are encrypted, they can often be easily cracked. In total, over 9 million user accounts have had their details stolen.
]]>Cats and babies share a thought pattern. Whatever situation they're currently in, they assume will be the basis for their existence forever. Whether hungry, or shut in a cupboard, they will wail because they believe this is what life is now, and everything they can't currently see or experience is gone for all eternity. (Everyone puts babies in a cupboard sometimes.) This also describes me, in almost all my thinking, including with MMOs. If I'm not playing them, or constantly having their every cough and burp BELLOWED at me by the entire gaming press, then they might as well have been taken offline. In other news, there's a Conan update.
]]>Hand-me-downs are for the weak. Real fictional computerized barbarians use hand-me-ups, because they don't abide by tradition. They destroy it. Actually, no, they don't do that at all. Instead, if Age of Conan's any indication, they observe it closely and make a series of measured decisions based on heaps of empirical data - in this case, data collected by The Secret World and its recent successes. And then I guess that somehow leads to enemies being driven somewhere - in some variety of environmentally friendly automobile, presumably - to provide community service for lamenting women? Sounds about right anyway, but I should probably brush up on my barbarism.
]]>Age of Conan's free-to-play reshuffling, Age of Conan: Unchained, arrives tomorrow. How do we know? Well, it'd be pretty hard to do this job if we didn't know stuff like that. Also, a launch trailer just came out.
John's comprehensive detailing of the "freemium" business model and what changes to expect can be found in the above link (including new content that'll relate to the upcoming Conan movie), and you'll find the launch trailer after the jump. Beware! It's guarded by nine Cimmerian swordmaidens, each more beautiful and deadly than the last.
]]>It's all change in the Age Of Conan. First he was promoted to replace Leno, then Leno screwed him over and they tried to bump him back to midnight, but no, he cried, and now his show on TBS is going grea... Oh wait, I made a comedy mistake that about no one outside America will get! Of course I mean Funcom's MMO, Age Of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. Huge changes are afoot, including turning free-to-play, along with a name change.
]]>Funcom have announced that Age Of Conan's trial will, up to January 1st, allow anyone who signs in to play up to level 20 for free. That's the whole of Tortage Island, arguably one of the best bits of the game. Thanks to the dangers of gold-farming scum exploiting this system you won't be able to trade with other players or use public chat channels during that time, but there are some in-game bonuses if you do decide to sign up for full access.
]]>Aieee! Seems Age of Conan devs Funcom aren't in the rudest of health - they've just announced 20% of their workforce is being let go, and their hopefully-incredible MMO The Secret World has been delayed by "some months." Conan's upcoming expansion isn't affected, apparently. Best of luck to those who've lost their jobs, and, selfishly, let's hope The Secret World doesn't have to compromise itself as a result.
]]>To all good things, a sequel. To pretty much all things, an expansion pack. News breaks that Funcom are releasing an expansion for Age of Conan. GODSLAYER! Which is the sort of thing which demands capital letters. The add-on pack promises "more brutal, sexy and savage adventure" which is something that RPS is all very fond of, except Walker who prefers kindly, affectionate and sensitive staying-in. The game site is here and you'll find a screenshot gallery over at Blues. The press release follows...
Update: Added in trailer.
]]>Funcom send word that they are promoting the encroaching one year anniversary of Age Of Conan with a chance for lapsed subscribers to see how the game has changed in the past months. And it's expanded fairly extensively, with a region full of giants, a "cityscape", and loads of tech fiddling, including the DX10 stuff. The re-evaluation offer apparently contains no subs obligation, and will be entirely free for Age Of Conan owners for the next two weeks. Here's the link.
]]>The other big MMOs aren't taking Lich King fever lying down. Age Of Conan game director Craig Morrison has said that the latest free update for the MMO, which has just gone live, contains "one of the most epic and memorable monster encounters ever created for the game." The new expansion, Ymir's Pass, contains a new tract of land to explore, new quests, monsters and a storyline.
The dungeon Morrison is talking about is one of three high level dungeons due to be unveiled for folks who have stuck with the MMO and got past level 50. CVG have all the details and some spectacular screenshots. Trailer after the jump.
]]>Remember Age of Conan? That MMO everyone was dead excited about until it turned out to be just a less compelling and slightly broken version of mmmpmmmpphgggrraaamppphmmmle [gagged by his fellows to protect him from death at the hands of Angry Internet Men]?
]]>Want to try sword-swingin' MMO Age Of Conan for free? Then you need to poke someone who is already playing with a collector's edition of the game, and get them to send you one of their buddy program invites. Funcom have said that all retail copies will soon have the buddy program invites, which are free trials lasting seven days.
]]>"More than 700.000 gamers have registered an Age of Conan account so far," say the boys at Funcom. That means that it's in second place behind World Of Warcraft's twenty-nine-gajiloplex players. I have to admit that I've now lapsed and haven't touched Conan's glistening textures for over a week. I've no intention of going back any time soon. I do want to get to that whole fortress-building stage, but there's just too much else distracting me. There's so much good material in Conan, but I lack the time and the in-game chums to want to bother. Eve, TF2 and a host of other toys will keep me entertained.
]]>As well as announcing that Turbonegro (above) will be contributing exciting punk rock music to their MMO, Funcom have released some details about what to expect from the next few updates to Age Of Conan. Top of the list is changes to PvP to deal with the ganking of lower level players, as well as some specific PvP gear, in a patch which should appear towards the end of the month.
Rather more excitingly Funcom are now talking about a free update appear later in the year which features guild alliance warfare. This will allow the guilds to be able to team up and "erect unique-looking alliance battekeeps". This does sound intriguing, I just hope it doesn't lead to the over-the-top super alliance situation now faced by Eve Online. Needless to say, all this alliance stuff is just a part of attempts to improve and expand on AoC's endgame, the player-built villages and Battlekeeps. I'll try and pen something about that in a few weeks, once I've pushed my warrior woman up a few more levels.
After the jump: the excerpted relevant bits of the latest Age Of Conan press release, and why I'm not actually sexually excited by Conan updates.
]]>For people keeping score. Griefing: very funny. Benny Hill theme: makes me want to die.
]]>After Kotaku's highlighting of Age of Conan's Best NPC Of All Time (above) I was reminded to ask Tom Francis at PC Gamer UK to post his account of what is probably the Second Best NPC Of All Time, Thedret The Exaggerator. Possibly my favourite story of an in-game bug, ever.
]]>Age of Conan, with modest to decent coverage in the earliest days, continues to proclaim impressive numbers.
Not only did Funcom declare that a million signed up for the open beta, and indeed boast that the Collector's Edition sold out pre-launch, but now it appears to be one of the fastest selling PC games of all time.
]]>Blizzard appear to take a very approachable attitude toward rival MMOs. But then, I suppose if I were a 5000 foot mountain, I'd probably not make too big of a fuss about the surrounding hillocks spoiling my view. However, it's nice that they don't take the attitude of "DESTROY THEM! DESTROY THEM ALL!" In fact, they're humble enough to concede that their reign will one day come to an end. Speaking to Eurogamer, producer J. Allen Brack explained that he doesn't see Age of Conan or Warhammer Online as enemies.
"We don't make games in a vacuum, we don't just play World of Warcraft, I love online games, I play a lot of online games, and I'm really excited about those games coming out because I want to play them... I think there's room for all three of those games to be successful."
]]>Age of Conan's open beta should certainly provide a decent stress test of the servers. Eidos announced this morning that the game's had one million people sign up so far. Biggest ever? Funcom and Eidos (cautiously) think so. Funcom's VP of Sales and Marketing, Morten Larssen, says,
]]>Dear me, a few days ago the fine-feathered folks at PC Gamer put my preview of Age Of Conan on their website and I didn't notice. That's being remedied RIGHT NOW.
]]>At last we have some evidence of the mounts in Age of Conan, and they look pretty good. Using eyes, watch:
Parts 2 and 3 below.
]]>See, using the word "bonanza" implies something exciting, doesn't it? But does it ever amount to more than there being more than one of something? No. No it doesn't. Here's more than one video preview of forthcoming PC games! Below are clips of Age Of Conan, Conflict: Denied Ops, Faith And A .45, MTB Target and Marble Blast Online.
]]>Something I meant to write at the bottom of the Age Of Conan preview was that I fully expect the game to slip to the summer. Somehow I forgot to write it, and today it was announced that there'd be no sign of it until May. I'd have looked so knowledgable and astute. Pretend like I wrote it, eh? I'll extend that prediction and say we'll not be in Hyboria until July.
Anyhow, to keep us interested with the longer gap, a tech demo has been released by Funcom. No, there's no need to go looking for it - it's right here!
Thanks, Gametrailers. You can ride on the back of our rhino any time.
]]>An MMO in development is like a soufflé made to an improvised recipe. People know which ingredients to include, but what quantity of each, what temperature to cook it at, and how long for? So many come out heavy and inedible, or completely sunk in the middle. Others, well they’re delicious and we can’t stop going back for another bowl. The difficulty is, spotting which will be which before they’re out of the gaming… oh this metaphor has made me want to die.
Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures has so much potential. So much. Source material is key, and Robert Howard’s novels could almost have been written with a computer game in mind. Hardcore, stubby, violent. I’m going to write that Howard invented fantasy fiction, just so people get cross in the comments. Howard invented fantasy fiction. The madman mother’s boy demonstrated a vast amount of historical knowledge, working it into his intense novels, before offing himself in his 30s. So ignoring the utterly abysmal Arnie movie, Funcom – developers of the Longest Journey games, and previous MMO success, Anarchy Online – have a lot of material with which to work.
]]>I recently took a trip to visit Funcom - the creators of the game that means more to me than any other, The Longest Journey - and had a good poke around Age of Conan. The results of my findings will be appearing in magazines across the land come the new year, as well as the rather extensive results of chatting with TLJ's creator, Ragnar Tørnquist.
]]>Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Funcom's troubled Conan MMO is its proposed 50-aside sieges. These massed assaults are one end of its multi-tiered PvP (at the other end of which lies drunken bar brawling, where the more you drink, the more damage you can do) but we've not yet seen much in the way of details about how they'll work.
]]>I have to admit that the MMOs we can expect in the next year don't really excite me. The one that I hold a candle for is the mystic-barbarian romp Age Of Conan, which was beautiful-if-awkward when I played it earlier in the year. The developers at Funcom are keen to create a combat system which doesn't just have you press a button and wait for the turn-based hitting to occur. Their solution is the 'combat rose' which allows you to pick your melee swings for both attack and defence, via a small mouse and key graphical interface. It didn't really seem to work when I played it - one swing was much the same as another - and I understand that, after the closed beta, this was one of the systems that the team are reconsidering. The game has, it seems, been delayed until next year. Perhaps the beta did its job.
But there's more to this beast than a weird control system, as I'll report after the jump.
]]>
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