Curse

Funcom has announced the pre-order campaign for 'Rise of the Godslayer', the first expansion for the highly acclaimed massively multiplayer online role-playing game 'Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures'. The expansion, set in the eastern empire of Khitai, builds on an already extensive Conan universe and will let players travel to a unique part of Conan's world where an ancient traditional culture clashes with dark forces. 'Rise of the Godslayer' expands on an already massive game world, and will also introduce entirely new and exciting gameplay mechanics.

Here's a look at some of our AOC coverage from GDC 2010:

• There will be 5 new regions, each of the regions will have massive playable, open, areas. These areas will be far less linear than the original lands and will offer players much more room to explore.
• Players can start as a new playable race, the Khitai.
• New vendors allow players to change tattoos and hair color in game.
• 80 new armor sets for factions alone.
• Hundreds of new armor pieces and items.
• New abilities for players which includes changes to the skill tree that will change gameplay.
• Hard triggers in dungeons allow for players to choose the level difficulty in an instance by doing certain actions to anger a specific boss character, and make the instance harder.
• Two new mounts/pets: The wolf and tiger. (shown below)

Official Rise of the Godslayer Trailer:  

“We are now ready to publish the expansion and it feels great to sound the horn and let players into this great new world that we have created,” says Morten Larssen, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Funcom. “It is also very exciting to be re-engaging with retail together with our great distribution partners with an updated product that contains both the expansion and the original game, making this release relevant to both new players, previous players and our current playerbase.”

As a pre-order reward a new form of in-game pet that aids players in battle is premiered. This pet will immediately be given to all existing customers that pre-order before the launch date, as well as to all retail customers that register up until the 25th of May. Combined with this launch, Funcom is also introducing a digital Collector’s Edition optional upgrade, which among other things gives immediate access to a flying fighting pet. The upgrade to the digital Collector’s Edition is now available through the customer account page.

The soundtrack of the expansion content is simultaneously being made available in all major territories through Grappa records, including a bonus DVD with full 5.1 surround recording. The soundtrack will also include a key that will unlock a unique in-game bone flute.

Launching in May 2008 ‘Age of Conan’ quickly became a smash hit in retail, shipping over 1.2 million copies around the world. In North America, the most prominent online gaming market in the west, ‘Age of Conan’ became the third best-selling PC title of the year in 2008. In the weeks after launch ‘Age of Conan’ simultaneously topped the charts in 17 countries, and the game received critical acclaim from gaming press across the globe. ‘Age of Conan’ is now available in English, French, German, Spanish, Russian and Polish localized versions, and is being prepared for launch in Korea as well.

For more information visit: www.ageofconan.com