Mitra's Method: Stephen "weezer" Spiteri's Age of Conan Column

Age of Conan Editorial: The Year That Was…

You know it's that time of the year when news programs on television and radio begin to do those "The year that was..." specials. Really, it's a paltry attempt in rousing people's sense of nostalgia in order to think back on the last 365 days since the last "The year that was..." special, and really, how much have things differed in those last 365 days to the 365 days before those? But despite what others might think of such things, I've decided to make this edition of Mitra's Method one of those said "The year that was..." specials, mainly because it's last regular edition for the year, I'm sentimental at heart and I'm positively sure we'd all like to see on some sort of contrived timeline of how 'Age of Conan' has come along this calendar year.

As 2007 rolled on it was business as usual over at Funcom, only very soon into the year hype was at its apex as 'Age of Conan' fans across the globe got a first glimpse of the game utilising Windows Vista and DX10 technology. At CES on January 8 of this year Funcom released a teaser-trailer of the game in its DX10 manifestation, and needless to say the game looked spectacular (you can download a copy of the video here - look for the files named "cesTRAILER" - if you haven't had the chance to look at the video already)!

"The groundbreaking new DirectX 10 technology brings a wide range of improvements for PC games, and it has highly positive implications on the performance and looks of 'Age of Conan'. It offers the opportunity to increase the overall performance of the game, as well as enabling better view distance, more realistic-looking characters, more special effects, more detailed environments and better lighting models. DirectX 10 delivers an incredible advancement in the evolution of computer gaming graphics." - 'Age of Conan' DirectX 10 version world premiering at CES

But as most of us were salivating at the mouth and relishing the opportunity to play 'Age of Conan' on plan-to-purchase Windows Vista and DX10 "beast" computers, a lot of us were left wondering if the game would make its tentative March/May 2007 release date. Surely bringing the game to Vista and DX10 would have implications on the game's development, and this is keeping in mind that the initial slated release date for 'Age of Conan' was a tentative September/October 2006. Of course, we had a right to be sceptical, but many were confident that even with 'Age of Conan' in development for Vista and DX10, a March/May release was still very plausible. I mean, a lot can happen in three to five months of development, right?

On January 25 sceptics were vindicated and many were left with a bitter taste in their mouth as Funcom announced a "final launch date" for 'Age of Conan'. The new launched date was set to October 30, 2007:

"'Age of Conan brings something brand new and highly innovative to the MMO genre' says CEO Trond Arne Aas. 'Age of Conan' today looks and plays fantastically, as countless press previews and industry feedback attest to. Even so, we believe that by spending even more time and effort into polishing and enhancing the game we will ensure that the game reaches its full potential in terms of quality and subscriber base. We are confident that our fan base will appreciate this commitment to quality. The prolonged development time reflects our ambition to meet and exceed the expectations of our fans for this game.'" - Final launch date set for 'Age of Conan'