dead-mans-hand
Latest
The Anvil of Crom: An exclusive preview of Dead Man's Hand
Welcome to a special edition of The Anvil of Crom. It's not often that I give up the captain's chair on this here column (in fact, today is the first time, if you want to get technical about it). In the interests of bringing you fine folk an exclusive Savage Coast of Turan content preview, though, it seemed like the prudent thing to do. Today's installment will give you a first look at Dead Man's Hand, and no, I'm not talking about the unfortunate Xbox title that I once purchased in the hopes of playing Red Dead Redemption six years prior to Red Dead Redemption. No, this Dead Man's Hand is a new single-player instance in Age of Conan, and it's debuting shortly with all the rest of AoC's movie tie-in adventure pack content. Head past the cut to join me in discovering what Funcom has to say about its latest dungeon endeavor (and oh yeah, I've got some exclusive screens and concept art for you as well). %Gallery-9836%
Funcom talks inspiration and AoC's massive Savage Coast of Turan adventure pack
Age of Conan faithful, enjoy yourselves. There's simply never been a better time to be a fan of the great barbarian and Funcom's blood-drenched MMORPG based on his Hyborian stomping grounds. The year has already seen the fantasy title adopt a free-to-play business model and push out a ton of new content, and that's really the tip of the proverbial iceberg. With the new Conan film reboot arriving in theaters this month, Funcom is gearing up to launch a huge amount of tie-in content. Dubbed The Savage Coast of Turan, the upcoming adventure pack adds a large outdoor playfield and over 50 new quests to the gameworld, not to mention two solo instances, a team instance, a new raid, and plenty of new gear. Join us after the cut as we present Funcom's internally produced look at the inspiration behind all the new content, and stay tuned to Massively this weekend for some exclusive Savage Coast news as well as an Anvil of Crom interview with game director Craig Morrison.
Age of Conan's Morrison talks Savage Coast dungeons and gear
Interested in learning more about Age of Conan's newly minted Savage Coast of Turan adventure pack? Eurogamer recently talked to Funcom game director Craig "Silirrion" Morrison about everything from the marketing opportunities represented by the upcoming Conan film to specifics on the new tie-in content. Morrison riffs on new instances, both the solo and group variety, including an encounter with pirates called Dead Man's Hand and another tryst based on the Island of Iron Statues from the original Robert E. Howard lore. There's also a new raid in the Temple of Elric that features Ela-Shan, a master thief whom Jason Momoa's Conan encounters in the new film. Still want more? How about a new epic quest line and various loot upgrades? The drops from the team instances will be "slightly more powerful than the rewards we give for max-level content in Godslayer," Morrison explains. He also drops a hint about the adventure pack's new armor. "You can't go into an area like Turan and have that magnificent Persian theme without bringing in new armor sets." Despite the high-level nature of some of the drops, it appears that much of the Savage Coast content is aimed at players around level 50. Head to Eurogamer for more.
