Age of Conan at Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMOG Gamers to the Next Level!

Over 120 years ago there was a bearded dude by the name of Charles Darwin, or Chucky as he’s known around here. This guy had a theory that all life started from a single celled organism and evolved over millions of years to the people and animals you see today—everything from the axolotl to the Leeroy Jenkinses of this world. Well, I don’t know about all that, but if Chucky had been a gamer, he would have surely included Funcom’s Age of Conan in his book, Origins of the Species.

Age of Conan has been evolving since its launch in May of last year. Love it or hate it, Funcom has proven that they’re committed to the game and they continue to show that commitment by adding new content updates for players and evolving the game to its next stage. The not-so-distant phase of evolution that we’re looking at now comes in form of AoC’s full-blown expansion, Rise of the Godslayer.

Xfire hosted a Live Broadcast of the Rise of the Godslayer expansion today and Ten Ton Hammer was there to check it out. If you don’t have an hour to watch the video, we’ve put together some highlights for you that demonstrate Funcom’s drive to evolve the game through the expansion. The demo was hosted by Joel Bylos, Lead Designer and Craig Morrison, Game Director and Executive Producer.

We took a walk through the Chinese-inspired Khitai, and first things first, the game continues to wow with its graphical beauty and attention to detail. The region itself is quite vast and ranges from deep reds and an autumnish look to lush green hills to dimly lit caves. Cities have a very Asian feel, as do the loping plains and soft flowing rivers. Funcom has never had a problem with making the game look good, and the same holds true for the upcoming expansion.


To populate the lands the AI has been cleverly designed. A flock (or gaggle?) of firebirds will run away if you approach them. Should you want to kill them, you’ll have to be sneaky about it. You’ll need to find one who has its head buried in the sand, and then attack it from a distance. Once you’ve adequately peeved it off, its mates will join in to smack you around a bit. This intelligent behavior reaches beyond the ostrich-like creatures too. Wisps will quickly fly away when attacked in order to summon souls to defend them. Water buffalos may seem passive, but attacking one of their bison (that’s a baby buffalo for you city-slickers) will bring the wrath of angry buffalos upon your party. Wolves will attack on sight, but should you alert the alpha male, he’ll let out a howl that will cause the entire pack to swarm you.

Angry packs of vicious man-killing birds and wicked witch wannabe wisps aren’t the only new animals you’ll see in the expansion. Two new mounts are being introduced in the form of tigers and wolves. Don’t expect to just run up and buy one from your local merchant though. To get one of these fantastic creature mounts you’ll need to perform a quest which we were told has a deep story to it. The animals will be hostile to start, and you’ll need to raise them from infancy and earn their trust and loyalty. This sort of mechanic should have you feeling much more attached to your mount by the time you’re riding it.