14 DAY TRIAL // Just as the game went live and Funcom released data showing that the Collector's Edition of Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures was sold out, it seems that there's some bad news in store for those gamers who wanted to experience the MMO in full DirectX 10 glory on their tricked out Vista systems.
The developer has announced that it's only in August, during the German Games Convention in Leipzig, that the Age of Conan edition featuring full DirectX 10 support will be revealed.
Apparently, gaming on a Vista system just isn't all it's claimed to be, even with DirectX 10 being a Vista exclusive feature and promising to bring games to a whole new level when it comes to graphic features. The fact that Funcom is not in a hurry to get a DirectX 10 compatible version of its MMO out is again proof that there are not that many gamers that are prepared to make the most of its features, hardware and software-wise.
The official line is that "Microsoft's DirectX 10 is undoubtedly the future of PC gaming" and that the delay is just needed so that "the team [has] more time to focus on building a DirectX 10 version worthy of Microsoft's great vision for the future of PC gaming". But, were we to look beyond what is being said directly and read a bit in between the lines, this is just an admission of the fact that DirectX 10 features are rather resource-intensive to implement and not important enough to warrant the extra work before the official launch of the game.
With Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures shaping up to be one of the most serious contenders to current MMO frontrunner orld of Warcraft, we'll be waiting to see if the improved graphics of the game with full DirectX 10 support give it an edge over other MMO games, like Lord of the Rings Online.