Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures Previews

Warcry and MMORPG.com are the latest websites to offer up hands-on GDC previews of Funcom’s Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. A snip from Warcry’s article:

Combat is where the revolution is in full swing for Age of Conan. This is not the click and eat combat of yesteryear. Traditional targeting is gone. Instead, it’s all about who gets in the way of the weapon’s arc. Players can swing their weapon in six different directions. If someone is in the way, they get hit, if they’re not, they don’t. It’s as simple as that. Players control their swing through the mouse, keyboard or gamepad, depending on their preference. On the keyboard, each direction has a corresponding button. With the mouse, there is a UI element to control each one. For Xbox 360 controller fans, it is likely that the right analogue stick does the work. If so, that should be the most intuitive way to play.

And a snip from MMORPG.com’s article:

In describing how players can attack different NPC camps, Funcom pointed out that they wanted to give players different options to solve the same problems. Perhaps a player will poison the camp’s water supply, attack with ranged weapons or magic, or simply charge right in and slaughter everyone. There are raids in the game with the highest group number up to twenty four members battling it out in dungeons. We also got to see several of the giant demon bosses that lay in wait for their victims. The game plans to launch with over four thousand different monsters in Hyboria. The AI on all of them was described by Funcom as smart, evil, and cunning.