Age of Conan

Well I am not going to go into alot of detail today, just some short simple points.  First off let me give my configuration so that people understand what I was looking at.

Intel Quad, 4GB of Ram, Vista X64, Nvidia 8800 GT 512MB, 10Mb Cable line

Settings for the game for video are 1280 x 1024, Highest settings

First off graphics - Wow not impressed at all, Cabal has just as good of graphics as AOC.  I realize the models are greater polys but come on this looks HORRIBLE, I prefer LOTRO graphics over this.

Gameplay - What is there to say about this, the game plays as a standard MMO, when I say that I am being sarcastic.  The "Standard" MMO is a cookie cutter path based system now a days that AOC takes to a new level.  There is no OPEN world to run around in, invisible walls everywhere to stop you from getting off the path to the next area.  Oh and lets not talk about the instancing, this is a MMO, not a single player game.  If I wanted this level of instancing I would go pick up Oblivion and play it by myself.  Games that surpass AOC for game play, EQ, EQ2, AC, AO, WOW, SWG, ... wow this could be a long list.

Combat - I will admit the showing of protection with the < on a side is kinda neat.  Is it revolutionary no, the ability to block more on one side then the other, ok that is a new thing and I will give it props there.  The ability to use your shield on angles to block has being around for awhile, but the ability to say, "I want to block right, left or middle more" is a new technique. Games with a similar gameplay but not exactly, AC, when fighting more then 1 monster you always lined up the mosters so the second one is attacking you on your shield side, you took alot less damage.

Sound - The voice acting is good, I like that, it makes it more personalized.

Load times - Pathetic, nothing better I can say about this, 4 minutes for some sections to load, and why so many load screens can't people make a large area with no load screens, SWG did it, AC did it, hell even AO did it.

Overall First impressions of this game are very poor for me, I can honestly say this game is nothing like the hype it was ment to be.

3/10