You can now crush your enemies and hear the lamentations of their women without heading to your local brick-and-mortar computer games store! Funcom's successful Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures MMO is now available for digital download from AgeOfConan.com. Both European and US downloads are available."Get ready for Age of Conan, the most savage, sexy and brutal MMO ever created!" reads the website. "Purchasing this product will immediately activate Age of Conan on the account you are currently logged in to. Due to the time estimated for downloads, two additional days are given to your account for a total of 32 days included."Definitely expect said download to take quite a bit of time, as the game is 15GB in size. Fortunately, the download is governed by a manager that includes pause and resume functions....

Is it better to play as a male character or as a female character in games? In the case of Funcom's recently launched MMO Age of Conan, it seems being a man is something of an advantage as players have complained that female characters are slower than males in combo combat.As it turns out, the explanation was simple. According to a post on the game's official message boards (accessible only to the game's subscribers) it's an animation bug that's to blame for the issue. Because these kinds of bugs take some time to fix, Age of Conan players will have to wait a few weeks before it's addressed in a patch. ...

Funcom has announced the seventh year of operation for Anarchy Online, the company's successful science fiction-themed MMO. Over nearly a decade, Anarchy Online has amassed over six million player-created inhabitants and more than 200 million hours of play time, which equates to approximately eight million days of gaming.Gaute Godager, formerly game director of Anarchy Online and now game director for the company's newest hit, Age of Conan, couldn't be happier with Anarchy Online's success. "When we first set out to create Anarchy Online we had no true references, nothing to learn from, and this pioneer feeling is something we embraced and cherished. That Anarchy Online has lived for seven years is an astounding accomplishment, but it also proves that quality persists if it is nurtured and cared for in the right way."Current Anarchy Online game director Craig Morrison asserts that the game's thriving, ever-evolving community should be the ones credited with the game's success. "The community and development team has almost formed a very symbiotic relationship through the years, and being a part of this positive and constructive unity is something which I am incredibly proud of," he said.What does the future hold for Anarchy Online? "I hope the development of Anarchy Online will continue to grow," said Morrison. "Our goal now is to keep on evolving Anarchy Online for seven more years, at least, and I hope all of our players will join us for the ride."...

We had a feeling this might happen and now the latest list of the top 10 best selling PC games in the US (via the NPD Group) has confirmed it. The list, which covers the week ending June 21, has the $9.99 Spore Creature Creator as the number one PC "game" (and it's not really a game, its an editor for an upcoming game, Spore).The "game" is the only new entry in the top 10 list this week; the other titles on the list have appeared before and have basically shifted positions on the list. Funcom's MMO Age of Conan continues to sell very well, outselling the Blizzard World of Warcraft juggernaut for the past several weeks. 1. Spore Creature Creator - Electronic Arts 2. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe - Electronic Arts 3. Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures - Funcom/Eidos 4. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade - Blizzard 5. World Of Warcraft - Blizzard 6. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest - Blizzard 7. The Sims 2 FreeTime - Electronic Arts 8. The Sims 2 Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff - Electronic Arts 9. Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Activision 10. Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures - LucasArts [Via Voodoo Extreme]...

Age of Conan developer Funcom is still hyping its already-mega-hyped MMO. AoC has consistently topped PC sales charts in most Western markets for weeks now (it even beat Mass Effect in North America in the week that the latter hit the shelves), and Funcom is not afraid to boast of that achievement. Its latest press release claims that 700,000 users have registered for an AoC account. That makes it the most likely contender for the #2 spot behind World of Warcraft. The only subscription-based MMO that presumably comes close in Western markets is The Lord of the Rings Online, but no clear subscription numbers have been released for that title. ...

In an odd but fitting metaphorical comparison that resulted in a craving for cheeseburgers, Age of Conan developer Gaute Godager feels that World of WarCraft and other similar MMOs are nice, but Age of Conan is meatier."I enjoy playing WOW, I enjoy playing Lord of the Rings Online," Godager admitted in a recent interview with Eurogamer. "But you know... I'm going to be a bit cheeky now, but if you've been to McDonalds for four or five years, and had your burger and your coke, sometimes it's great to just have a great steak and a glass of good wine."Godager expounded, explaining that Age of Conan is "more expensive, it's not for everyone and perhaps it's not as easily accessible as WOW is. But it could be more meaty."Further speculation by Godager suggests that AoC might appeal more to Europeans than other MMOs due to different gaming tastes. "In Europe, a lot of people don't have consoles, and they use their PC for gaming to a bigger degree," said Godager. "Many European countries also have better internet connectivity than many parts of the US, and PC gaming has for many years promoted the consumption of high bandwidth, not only through legal means but also through piracy."...

Your daily wrap-up of the hottest stories in PC gaming in the last 24 hours. Big Download Interview: Alone In The DarkIt's taken a long time but today is finally the day for the reimagining of the Alone in the Dark franchise to finally head to store shelves for the PC and other platforms. Developer Eden Studios and publisher Atari/Infogrames have a lot riding on the success of this huge survival horror title. Indeed the publisher is hoping to sell between two to three million copies of the game this year. Spore Galactic Edition evolves into online retailA special edition of Spore has appeared at online retailers for pre-ordering. It's called the "Galactic Edition," and it comes with a making-of DVD, a DVD by National Geographic called "The Human Toolkit," a hardback book of concept art, a fold-out poster, and a "premium 100-page Galactic Handbook." We're not sure what the handbook will entail, but the rest sounds pretty cool. Should BioShock have failed?It was one of the most anticipated games of 2007 and the final release of 2K Games' first person shooter BioShock was one of the most critically acclaimed games of the year. But should the game have failed? That was the premise of the chat made by 2K Boston lead programmer Chris Kline at this week's Paris GDC event. Gamasutra has a report on the speech where Kline admitted, " . . . it did fail a lot, over the course of time. A series of big mistakes and corrections and slipped ship dates, but all of these helped make it a good game." Guide to TF2 Pyro Achievements, Part 2Glorious fire! You just love to burn things! We can't blame you, though. Nobody knows who you are, where you come from, or what your real gender even is, pyro, but we know that you sure love to set things on fire. Don't worry, though. We want to help you. We love your work. That's why we have crafted for you this very guide to ease your attempts to fulfill the strange objectives given to you. You have read the first part, so here is the second. Soon you'll be back on the road, setting fire to all the wildlife as you pass by. ...

Age of Conan is a beast of a game, and it requires a beast of a system. In the open beta test, players faced serious performance problems. There was much gnashing of teeth. Now that the game has hit retail, have things improved? More importantly, can your system run the game?Gamespot set out to answer those questions in a recent feature. Its staff tested the game with nearly 20 video cards, several processors, and two different RAM configurations. The result: a five page lowdown with all you need to know if you're you're thinking about buying the game, but are afraid to take the plunge because your system isn't quite ideal.It turns out that the game is playable on most 7, 8 or 9 series Nvidia GPUs or their ATI equivalents, but at least two gigabytes of RAM and a dual core processor are pretty much non-optional. Check out the article for more details. ...

Funcom hasn't let us forget that Age of Conan is selling well and now the NPD Group has offered up the latest evidence on that success. The fantasy MMO has topped the top 20 best selling PC games list in the US for the entire month of May with the now sold out Collector's Edition coming in at number three. The rest of the list is pretty familiar stuff, namly lots of games with Sims and Warcraft in their titles. 1. Age of Conan - Funcom/Eidos 2. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe - Electronic Arts 3. Age of Conan Collector's Edition - Funcom/Eidos 4. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest - Blizzard 5. The Sims 2 Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff - Electronic Arts 6. World Of Warcraft - Blizzard 7. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade - Blizzard 8. The Sims 2 FreeTime - Electronic Arts 9. Sim City 4 Deluxe - Electronic Arts 10. 15000 Games - Viva Media 11. Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Activision 12. Mass Effect - BioWare/Electronic Arts 13. Crysis - Crytek/Electronic Arts 14. Sins Of A Solar Empire - Ironclad Games/Stardock 15. Warcraft III Battle Chest - Blizzard 16. Diner Dash JC - Cosmi 17. The Orange Box - Valve/Electronic Arts 18. Sim City Societies - Tilted Mill/Electronic Arts 19. Starcraft: Battle Chest - Blizzard 20. Age Of Empires III - Microsoft [Via Voodoo Extreme]...

Earlier this month we reported on some of Funcom's plans to update their best selling fantasy MMO Age of Conan. Today the company and the game's publisher Eidos issued a press release making some of those updates more official along with some new info about the future plans for the game.The updates include an overall of the game's PvP features which will add a new mode called To the Death which wlll add " . . . more consequence and rewards to PvP." Ten new PvP levels will also be added among other new features. Later this year an update will be added called "Kingship". According to the press release, " . . . large clusters of guilds will be able to form alliances, and rule and conquer on a massive scale." Powerpoints will be added this fall that will give more depth and rewards for characters. Of course, new areas and dungeons are also planned along with new quests (complete with full voice acting) and lots of other new addittions. Check out the press release for all of the info....

Funcom's fantasy MMO Age of Conan is a full-fledged sales hit and now the developer has announced that it has released the game's music soundtrack as a two disk CD product. Composed by Knut Avenstroup Haugen, the first disk in the site has mostly in-game instrumental music. The second disk has more of the game's soundtrack but also has three songs by the rock band Turbonegro. The band played at the Age of Conan launch event and apparently was a big hit. The band decided to compose and record an all new song based on the game called Destroy All Monsters. The first CD is already available via iTunes with the second CD due on Apple's music download service later this month. The physical CD set will be made available for sale in Europe this month with a release in the US sometime later....

When last we reported on this matter, Funcom's two versions (regular and Collector's) of their MMO Age of Conan were number one and three on the top 10 list of the best selling PC games in the US (as always the list is provided by the NPD Group). This time the list is for the week ending May 31 and it looks like the regular edition of Age of Conan managed to stay on top for the second straight week. It held off a strong showing from the PC version of BioWare's sci-fi RPG Mass Effect who managed to debut in the number two slot last week (the Collector's version of Age of Conan is not in the top 10 list, most likely because it sold out last week).The rest of the list mostly has games that have been on board for the past several months. Indeed, Ironclad Games and Stardock's space strategy title Sins of a Solar Empire returns to the top 10 this week after dropping off the list last week for the first time since it was first released last February. 1. Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures - Funcom/Eidos 2. Mass Effect - BioWare/Demiurge/EA 3. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe - Electronic Arts 4. World of Warcraft: Battle Chest - Blizzard 5. The Sims 2 Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff - Electronic Arts 6. World of Warcraft - Blizzard 7. The Sims 2 FreeTime - Electronic Arts 8. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Activision 9. Sins of a Solar Empire - Ironclad Games/Stardock 10. World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade -Blizzard [Via IGN]...

Inno-Wear, a French company that specializes in creating textile products, announced that they have acquired the rights to produce a real-world clothing line based on Funcom's adult-themed MMO Age of Conan. Details were vague, but the company stated that they have the full marketing "support of the publisher." Garments should be available to consumers later this year. North American distribution rights for the AoC-branded clothing line is also a mystery. Can you imagine something like this on a rack at Target?Inno-wear does have a track record of making gaming related clothing items, having already produced "urban streetwear" for Trackmania, Gears of War 2, and Devil May Cry.We imagine this will be a big hit with the Ren-fair folks. And revelers looking for a naughty Halloween costume....

It's the latest bit of hype from developer Funcom about their recently launched fantasy MMO Age of Conan and we are here to give it to you. This time Funcom states that it has shipped one million copies of the game to stores since its launch on May 20. The US is the biggest market for the game so far; over 500,000 copies of the game had shipped to our shores.Of course, "shipped" is not the same thing as "sold" but Funcom states that the game has also been selling well in the US and other countries and is now re-supplying retail stores with new copies and opening up the game in new markets. Funcom states that Age of Conan is the biggest MMO launch since Blizzard's World of Warcraft back in 2004 and it's hard to argue that point. The key is if Funcom can keep this momentum going and make the game a perpetual best seller. That is the hard part....

Developer Funcom has been celebrating the sales success of their fantasy MMO Age of Conan but that doesn't mean the company is resting on its laurels. On the game's official community web site, the game's director Gaute Godager revealed Funcom's inital plans to improve and expand the game for its customers.The list is quite extensive but in summary Funcom intends to add some new content to the game for levels in the mid to late 30s and mid to late 50s along with an overhaul of Age of Conan's PvP features. There will also be a new outdoor area added this summer for players in the 55-60 level range and of course they will be fixing bugs.Godager also promised to reveal even more plans for new Age of Conan content later this month...