Ten Ton Hammer continues the series of Age of Conan class interviews with a chat about the Bear shaman with Evan Michaels, Game Designer for Funcom:

Ten Ton Hammer: In a recent interview, you stated that the Bear Shaman will probably be a more melee-oriented class compared to its priestly brethren. In the current form, how will Bear Shaman’s heals work, and what sort of healing ability will he have compared to the other priest classes?

Evan Michaels: All of the Priests have comparable healing abilities, even though their method of bestowing those abilities on their group differs quite dramatically. Bear Shaman are, as you stated, very melee-oriented and both facilitate and boost their healing capacity by dealing damage via melee attacks and combos.

You can red the whole interview HereSource: Ten Ton Hammer

Lots of new stuff in the latest Clan of Conan newsletter including a profile of
The Malicious Shadows:

Cloaked in the rags of Acheron, the Shadows are zealous protectors of the relics of that ancient empire. Amorphous faces leer from beneath ancient helmets, while skeletal hands wield wicked weapons in the complete evisceration of Acheron’s foes. Recently, Shadows have been sighted in the Border Ranges, congregating around a strange hill.

Read it all online HereSource: Age of Conan

GameSpot also visited the Funcom offices in Oslo for the recent Age of Conan press event:

We saw many aspects of the game under development. The sound designers showed off just one of the 20,000 sound effects, along with a sample of the more than three hours of music in the game. The motion-capture team demonstrated how they record the hundreds of different types of fight animations you’ll see. Meanwhile, the programmers showed off some of the lavish graphics and other neat features, such as the dynamic weather system and the dynamic day-night cycle. This all adds up to Age of Conan shaping up to be an impressive game. The fact that it’s getting an M rating helps reinforce the idea that this is an MMO for grown-ups. The world of Conan is a brutal place, and Funcom says that it’s not holding back. We’ll all find out when the game launches on May 20 for the PC. The Xbox 360 version will arrive at a later date.

Read the whole preview report
HereSource: GameSpot

Voodoo Extreme has the new tech demo trailer for Age of Conan, Funcom’s upcoming fantasy MMORPG.

Joel Bylos, Quest Designer for Funcom’s recently-delayed Age of Conan spoke to Ten Ton Hammer about the quest system and branching quests:

Will there be any quests where you have to pray or show your religion in any way?

Joel: During one part of the game you actually get a quest to go to the Speaker’s Corner in Old Tarantia, which is actually mentioned in The Hour of the Dragon, and a priest of Set is actually preaching to a bunch of people. He talks about how great Set is and how Mitra and Conan are terrible for the world. As a player, you basically can get up and debate this guy. There’s actually a priest of Mitra in the crowd that asks you to get up and debate this guy. This is one of the places in our game where the quests are unique, because you can roleplay these quests however you’d like.

If you’re a Priest of Mitra, you’re obviously going to defend Mitra and Conan, and if you’re neutral, you can just choose the middle ground between the two. If you’re a worshipper of Set, you’re more than welcome to join the guy and start saying bad things about Mitra. Based on the three options, you get a different reward.

Read the interview in full HereSource: Ten Ton Hammer

MMORPG.com went to visit Funcom and met a blue-tattooed lady,..,but is the game any good?:

We were shortly joined in the conference room by the Age of Conan Director, Gaute Godager and Jørgen Tharaldsen, the game`s Project Manager who introduced us to the game`s new official website. The new site, which you can see for yourself at www.ageofconan.com , we were told, “embodies what we try to do in how we present the game” and is built around three words that capture the tone for AoC: Live, Fight and Explore.

After checking out the new website and their most recently released video, Godager gave us a little bit of history on the game`s development:

Four and a half years ago, we were told, there was a discussion about what project should be tackled next. There were a number of candidates, but that Conan turned out to be the IP of choice. The Conan comic book series has always been popular in Norway, and the lore has a strong following. Combine that with the Norway`s viking history, and the dark and bloody world created by Robert E. Howard seems like a logical choice.

Read more about how the day went HereSource: MMORPG.com

In a new Press Release, Funcom have announced that Age of Conan will be pushed back two more months until May:

Funcom today announces a new release date for the
highly anticipated Massively Multiplayer Online
Game (MMO)Age of Conan - Hyborian Adventures. The
MMO will be given 8 more weeks of development
time, with a new launch date set to May 20, 2008.

In the last few weeks, Age of Conan has received
very positive feedback from press across the
world, as press has been invited to play the
newest versions of the game. Age of Conan has been
listed as one of the most anticipated PC games of
2008 in gaming publications across the world. The
Management of Funcom believes that the changes
done to the accessibility and entry barriers of
the game during the fall of 2007 have contributed
significantly to this positive feedback. The
company believes that the game play risk of the
project has been significantly reduced by these
changes.

However, the Management of Funcom has concluded
that more time needs to be allocated to stress the
game systems and sort out bugs in the game before
launch in order to feel comfortable with the level
of risk at launch and to capture as much as
possible of the games sales potential. The Age of
Conan launch date is therefore set to May 20,
2008.

Stress testing and game play testing of Age of
Conan has been conducted on the large server parks
that are already deployed and operational in
Europe and North America. These tests will be
continued and extended moving forward to launch.
Funcom expects the Gold master of the retail DVDs
to be delivered by mid April and expects box
production shortly after. A significant part of
the marketing material for the game, including the
retail box designs, pre-order programs, a new
marketing web site and campaign materials have
already been prepared and are ready for the
upcoming launch.

The decision to set a new launch date is supported
by Eidos, Funcom`s distribution partner for `Age
of Conan`. The last few days have seen significant
changes to the board of Eidos parent company, SCi
Entertainment PLC (SCi). Funcom notes the
changes and the positive response from the capital
markets. Funcom has an established and good
working relationship with Phil Rogers, the new CEO
of SCi. The companies have so far had a strong
partnership, and both parties have contributed
significantly to making Age of Conan one of the
most anticipated PC games of 2008. Funcom has
received assurances from the new SCi board and the
management at Eidos that they are fully committed
to the success of the Age of Conan game and that
Age of Conan continues to be one of their most
important titles of 2008.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun turn to upcoming MMO Age of Conan in their ongoing look at the games of 2008:

A nice use of instancing will let guilds build their own private empires, based on wealth accrued by members. 800 quests will be in place for launch, which should offer a sizeable 350 hours of play. The team expects players to stick with the game for 900 hours, so that’s their target for content. Each of the four classes (mage, rogue, priest and soldier) will have unique dialogue, giving further incentive to roll another class and experience the world differently.

Should the combat be balanced correctly, I have hopes that Conan should be a distinct MMO, with a refreshing focus on narrative. But that’s a big “should”. If it’s not, it could be in trouble. We shall see.

Read the rest HereSource: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

MMORPG.com have posted some CES impressions of Funcom’s Age of Conan inclucing a chat with Funcom Designer Jason Stone and Product Director Jorgen Tharaldsen:

I am happy to report though, that female avatars are definitely in the game. The GM tool Jason ran me through is what they call a “play field” where I saw literally, hundreds upon hundreds of male and female avatars dressed and undressed in hundreds of different outfits and armor. “We’ve got more than just the chain mail bikini,” he said. “We’ve got some actual armor in game.”

“We learned a lot from Anarchy Online,” said Jorgen as he asked Jason to show me the social clothing choices. “We know that players enjoy having more than one set of clothing, more than just wearing armor.” They are coordinating the pieces however, and unlike Anarchy Online, we won’t be seeing white wedding dresses on hulking male bodies - or in the context of Age of Conan, itty-bitty chain mail bikinis on hulking Cimmerians.

Read it all
HereSource: MMORPG.com