Only these seven countries have released official sales charts since Age of Conan's release last week, although Funcom expects to see similar results when more sales data from other territories are reported -- including in North America, where they expect AoC to be one of the biggest PC launches this year.
Funcom's response to glaring balance issues has so far been rapid and reasonable. Contrary the immediate post-patch shrieking of angry forum users, no classes have been ruined for either PVE or PVP duties -- and for an MMO, that's high praise.
Server stability has been very good as well during my play sessions. I've seen many people complaining about lag but I think they're confusing lag caused by server latency with lag caused by their hardware chewing on hi-res textures.
This review will head itself under five main criteria: Graphics (the look, mood, complexity vs. simplicity, and performance); Sound (music, sound effects, quality, etc.); Gameplay (learning curve, risk vs. reward, variety of gameplay experiences, player control, combat, soloing vs. group play, etc.); Design (GUI, world design, game mechanics); and Story (quest design, variety of quest types, plot, and player/character immersion).
Funcom Systems Designer "Jayde" has posted a preview of the upcoming first wave of balance changes to Age of Conan. The first two underperformers to get the 'dev love' will be the mage classes Demonologist and Necromancer.
Added Kevin Higgins, CEO of PayByCash,"We are excited to be a part of the Age of Conan release. We have seen the excitement generated by the million beta subscribers and phenomenally successful early access programs. We know that PayByCash increases the ability of Funcom to reach more premium subscribers worldwide through our partnership.
Like most massive games of this sort, it's hard to evaluate everything the game has to offer shortly after launch. But overall, Hyborian Adventures is in good shape and selling very briskly. The community already feels far more mature than your average game of this type, and hopefully the focus on adult players will continue to offer an alternative to the more kid-friendly games on the market.
There have been games recently that have been hailed as a good a reason as any to upgrade your PCs and they have not lived up to expectations on the game play side. AoC is one I believe to be different. This is loooooong term fun.
What's more, Age of Conan's combat system, which combines real-time responses and proper proximity detection with the traditional skills-based attacks of regular MMOs, is innovative, deep and highly engaging. Despite the handicap of having no non-human races to play with, the selection of characters offers some genuinely rich and interesting choices, and anyone who has ever wanted to play as an axe-wielding Barbarian or eldritch sorcerer will find something to scratch that itch. Best of all, the game feels imbued with the essense of the Conan stories. The action is fast and furious and the atmosphere frequently potent.
More than 500,000 of those sales are from the United States alone, although the game has proven to be extremely popular across Europe as well. In fact, nearly 800,000 gamers have also signed up to the 'Clan of Conan' fan club worldwide.