Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures Previews

Two new previews on Age of Conan show a few more tidbits on FunCom’s upcoming bloody MMO. MMO Gamer has a “refresher course” preview, as well as an interview.

Among the mounts shown were the war horse, the war mammoth, and the war rhino (which they said they had to include, because they just loved 300). War camels were in the works as well, apparently, but not yet ready for primetime.

All of the mounts had different rates of acceleration, top speed, and handling characteristics, which Gaute compared to Grand Theft Auto: (If you think of the horse as the sports car, then the mammoth is the garbage truck.)

They also possessed different attacks and special abilities. Though, the only one shown in the demo was the horse’s ability to buck, knocking down anyone standing behind it.

And, of course, the whole point of mounted combat is that your character can attack from the saddle, which they demonstrated in fine fashion by literally mowing down a group of NPCs who had been set up specifically for that purpose, their heads popping off along the way like champaign corks (much to the delight of dog-in-purse).

PC Gamer’s preview ends with that “open beta starts any moment now”.

While Funcom’s previous MMO, Anarchy Online, might not have won a giant audience, it does seem to have taught them the value of details. Conversations, for instance, are far more involved than in previous MMO offerings.

Rather than clicking through the cutscene, or choosing “yes” or “no” to a quest, in Conan you’ll have BioWare-style conversation options, so you can choose the attitude with which you approach situations. In fact, be rude enough and you can talk your way out of a quest.

It won’t dramatically change the progression of the game, and there’s no shifting between ‘dark’ and ‘light’ or anything similar, but it’s a nice touch that lets you feel far more involved in proceedings.