On top of that, AoC's Siege Battles looks pumped up to offer epic battles on a grand scale unlike anything we've ever seen before. Think of Siege Battles as a massive real-time strategy match where you play a pawn in a giant force whose objective is to either crush the enemy or defend an area. Hardcore end game players can look forward to forming guilds and building villages and battle keeps. Imagine receiving a warning that your guild's town is under attack and rushing to join in to defend it against hordes of computer controlled enemies.
Similarly, other guilds can lay down a gauntlet and challenge your guild to a PvP Siege Battle. After deciding on a certain time to battle, the challenging guild will attempt to destroy your battle keep with various catapults and siege engines while the defenders do their best to hold their ground with their walls and towers.
It's refreshing to see how AoC refuses to settle for just slapping better graphics onto the traditional fantasy based MMO genre. That being said, the game looks amazing and its graphics are nothing to scoff at. With the engaging Real Combat and Spellweaving systems, the fun free for all nature of Drunken Brawls, and the diabolically huge Siege Battles, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures looks ready to drag the MMO genre into the next generation of gaming by its hair.
