Anyone trying this out, yet? Thoughts?
I’ve been kind of looking forward to it- I’m a bit tired of WoW, and I need a new game. They seem to do a lot of things right… for one, giving the game an M rating will (hopefully) weed out some of the teenage crowd. I’ve also always been a big fan of the Conan world.
That said, I’m a bit concerned about the PvP aspect of it. In my experience, PvP tends to bring out the worst in people.
It looks light on the PvP, though. Hell, it’s light on the whole MM aspect. From what I’ve read, the first 20 levels are very solo-heavy. Yeah, there are other people there, but very few, if any, of the missions will require you to team up.
Well, that’s good, because I basically don’t like other people.
I’m not really sure why I play MMOs, though.
Well, I managed to find the last unclaimed copy at the local game store on the way home. I’m in the process of installing it right now.
I say “process”, though, and mean it. First, it requires *32 gig *of hard drive space! I had to do a lot of drive cleaning before I started installing. The game itself is on two DVDs. The dialogue box I’m looking at right now says:
“Installing Resources”
“this might take a long time”
Been playing all afternoon, its surprisingly a lot better than i expected it to be. It looks incredible, the combat is fun and engaging (as opposed to the regular mmo combat of auto attack + periodic special moves), the voice acting is top notch and it actually has a very engaging story line. You WILL need a top of the line computer to get good results though.
How likely is it to work on a non-top of the line computer? I was hoping to check this game out, but I’m afraid my Athlon 2500+ and Radeon 9600 is going to be woefully inadequate, and a new computer is not in the budget.
Well this are the recomended requirements:
Recommended configuration (Up to 1280X960, most features on)
OS: Windows XP SP 2 or Windows Vista
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz or equivalent
RAM: 2048MB Dual Channel DDR2
Video card: NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX or equivalent
Video memory: 512MB
DVD-ROM: Quad-speed (4x) DVD-ROM drive
HARD DRIVE SPACE: 30GB
I got it yesterday and have played about 4 hours.
It’s actually pretty fun. Character creation is pretty good - you have a lot of control over your face, and some control over your body shape. The characters are really nicely done, it’s one of the few games I’ve played where you can customize your character face and not end up with some sort of spooky looking thing.
Play-wise, it’s pretty fun too. I think the first 20 levels are split into “nighttime” and “daytime” - you go to the inn and talk to an NPC to switch between them. Nighttime quests are solo, and have an ongoing storyline that’s pretty compelling. Daytime quests take place in a multiplayer world, and are still pretty good. I haven’t yet come upon the ubiquitous “go kill 10 rats for no good reason” type of quest yet. Keep in mind I’ve only played a few hours, but in those few hours I’ve been very impressed with the quest writing.
I also like the combat. If you’re playing a melee character, take the time to read the 2 pages or so in the manual about combat; critters can shield themselves, and you can do combos if you know what to look for on the screen. I figured that out last night, after spending an hour wondering what those funny symbols that popped up during a fight were. Overall, it’s a refreshing change from the typical MMO combat style. I’m having fun with it.
The only complaint I have is that the animation is very jerky on my machine, and my machine far from sucks. It’s well above the minimum requirements and meets or exceeds the recommended requirements but I’m still having to dial down the graphics in an attempt to get it to run smoothly. Maybe it’s time for a new video card…
I’m interested to know more. I’ve been waiting for release for awhile, but I’m so busy with my Wii right now - and Wii Fit’s coming out! - so I don’t know if I’d get my money’s worth out of a MMORPG again.
The comments regarding jerky performance make me think that I’ll sit out. I haven’t updated my graphics card in about 3 years, and while it was fantastic at the time, it’s definitely not so now.
What video card are you using now? Any chance that you could list your system specs and what settings you are running at? Thanks!
Sure!
I don’t know exactly the current setting in the game I’m using - like I said, I’m playing around with them. There’s buttons for “low”, “medium” and “high” graphics, then you can adjust specifics. I’ve dropped down to the second-highest widescreen resolution, which seems to be better than the highest.
For what it’s worth, the single-player bits seem to be faster than the multiplayer, which leads me to believe that at least some of the lag is on the server side and may get better as they optimize their code.
Here’s the important bits that www.systemrequirementslab.com tells me when I run my system for Age of Conan:
CPU Minimum: Pentium 4/Athlon XP or better
You Have: 2 processors running - AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+
PASS
CPU Speed Minimum: 3 GHz
You Have: 2.21 GHz Performance Rated at 6.60 GHz
PASS
System RAM Minimum: 1 GB
You Have: 2.0 GB
PASS
Operating System Minimum: Windows XP/Vista
You Have: Microsoft Windows XP Professional (Build Service Pack 22600)
PASS
Video Card Minimum: 128 MB DirectX 9.0c Graphics Card with Shader 2.0 support (NVIDIA GeForce 6800+ / ATI Radeon 9800+)
You Have: NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX (GeForce 7900 GTX)
PASS
Video Card Features - Minimum attributes of your Video Card
Video RAM: Required - 128 MB , You have - 512.0 MB
Video Card 3D Acceleration: Required - Yes , You have - Yes
Video HW Transform & Lighting: Required - Yes , You have - Yes
Vertex Shader Ver.: Required - 2.0 , You have - 3.0
Pixel Shader Ver.: Required - 2.0 , You have - 3.0
Sound Card
Minimum: Yes
You Have: SB X-Fi Audio [EC00]
PASS
I caved and went and bought it. So far, very enjoyable, and it plays just fine on my computer, although I have the graphics turned down pretty far. Character creation is a lot of fun, and the 1-20 quest is a pretty solid single player story. Having said that, I’m not sure the 1-20 quest will have a tremendous amount of enjoyable replayability.
I’ve yet to have much multiplayer interaction.
The main thing for me this game was over WoW, so far, is it’s “maturity”: i.e. it’s more realistic setting, as opposed to the cartoony WoW universe, which I enjoyed for a long time but got sick of. Also I like the diversity of classes in this game. Time will tell whether they’re “balanced” or not. Right now, I’m just trying different things.
The quest is different for every base class (soldier, caster, rogue) and each one fills in details for the other parts.
Sure, but it’s clear many of the specific steps of the main quest line are the same for everyone.
Well, I finally got a chance to play it this morning before work, and, for the most part, I like it. It’s very pretty (even with everything turned down), and I like the classes I’ve looked at. I also really like the character customization.
However, it runs like a dog on my machine. Clearly, it’s time for me to upgrade.
I’m not sure I like the combat system- having to hit the 1-3 keys while you’re in combat isn’t easy, if you’re also trying to move at the time.
Go to interphase options, HUD, and enable the combat rose. Eventually i think it turns into 5 directions so you don’t want to be stuck using the number keys.
Thanks for listing your system specs, Athena!
I caved in and picked it up at lunch. I’ll see if I can find time to install it and roll a toon tonight. I hope everyone keeps posting their experiences and any tips they learn.
Btw, should we pick a SD server? Now would be the best time… other than yesterday, of course.
I’m on Zug, if anyone cares. PM me for char name, it’s one I’ve used a lot in various games, trying to keep the whole world from being able to track me down with one Google search.
Right now I’m on Derketo with a few WoW friends in a guild. Lvl 12 Bear shaman, with this name 