Xbox 360 Fanboy

Eurogamer has posted a rather lengthy preview of Age of Conan from Funcom. AOC looks to be shaping up nicely, adding some new spice to the MMOG genre. First and foremost, is the combat system. Rather than opting for the single click system used in most MMOG games, AOC utilizes a real time combat system. Players have access to several different kinds of sword strokes, each with different arcs and effectiveness. These strokes can be chained into different combos, adding a level of skill to combat. Of course, damage is still determined by dice rolls, so it's not entirely real time, but still a welcome change of pace. The game is host to many other great concepts, like in-game cities actually built by player guilds. These cities, of course, can be sieged by other guilds, too, so you'll want to beef up defenses. The game also adds many story-driven single player elements to the MMOG genre. All in all, it's looking like Age of Conan will bring some interesting new ideas to the MMOG genre without straying too far from the path set by those before it. Hit the "read" link for the full preview.

A new video of Age of Conan has appeared at GamersInfo, taken from a recent Funcom press event in San Francisco. The video -- at least for us -- appears to have no sound, so the action is missing a little flavor. Still, we do get a glimpse at some of the game's detailed environments and the combat system. We've mentioned the combo-driven combat system before, but this is the first time we've seen it in use. Honestly, it looks like it could use some work. Either that, or the person playing had no idea what he was doing (a likely possibility at a press event). We can't complain about the environments though (especially the cities). They look great. Hit the "read" link for the video.

[Via Evil Avatar]

Not to be confused with the recently announced Conan, a new video of Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures has been released. The video features a city known as Khemi, the capitol of Stygia. Age of Conan is an MMORPG with a twist. The game offers a robust single player campaign. Upon completion of the single player campaign, the MMO world opens up to players. The Games for Windows version is expected late this year, with the 360 version following (possibly in 2008). Expect to hear more about Age of Conan from GDC next week.

[Thanks, Darksaviour69]

In an interview with CVG, Funcom's Erling Ellingsen revealed plans to make Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures cross-platform compatible. In other words, Funcom plans to allow PC players to play with Xbox 360 players of AOC. The developer admits that there will be issues that must be ironed out before this can be accomplished, but they do intend to include cross-platform functionality in the game. One considered method for cross-platform play is to have both shared servers and servers that are exclusive either to 360 players or PC players. This way, players could decide whether or not they'd care to play with other platform users or keep it restricted to one.

The PC version of Age of Conan is expected in October, with the 360 version following afterwards.

Funcom has announced that they will soon begin developing a 360 version of the PC MMO Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. Many will be quick to point out that the game received nods from several publications as the best MMO of E3 2006. Our sister site, Joystiq, reports that Age of Conan begins as a single-player adventure. Upon completion of the single-player portion, it becomes a persistent world MMO. It sounds like a great idea, as users will be acquainted with the game's intricacies when they finally venture online. Also interesting for an MMO, the game features a combo based combat system, which should make the game very accessible on a gamepad.

Hopefully, development will wrap up quickly, so Funcom can get started on the sequel, Age of Conan: Late Night Adventures.

[Via Joystiq]