HOLY **** !!!!!!!
Here is a little history about myself and experiences with MMOs:
My first MMO was Ultima Online back when it FIRST started. I played that for about 2 years and it was great; no levels, but raising skills; murdering; getting murdered; looting players' bodies for everything they have; etc.
Next, I started World of Warcraft and played that from release until about 2 months ago. My main character was a level 70 Mage with full Vindicator and close to full Season 3. Basically, full epic. I made a ton of friends and PvP'd my heart out on WoW. It was a great experience! The only problem with WoW is the NEVER-ENDING repetitious grind for new gear (because if you don't have really, really, reaaallly L337 gear, you don't stand a chance in either PvP or PvE). With Wrath of the Lich King coming out soon, I am totally not looking forward to yet ANOTHER grind! So, I chose to move on to "hopefully" newer things..
Next was DAOC, Guild Wars, and Lord of the Rings. All good games in their own right, but none captured me the way UO or WoW did.
With the release of Age of Conan, I sat around yesterday (5/20/08) saying to myself, "Just wait for a legit review from GameSpot, since they are usually pretty dead-on when it comes to scoring good vs. bad games!" Fortunately, my impatience prevailed and I headed to best-buy to pick up a newly released copy.
I was not involved in any Beta for this game and have only been playing for about 10 levels worth of time. I've found, in my experience, that the beginning levels of any game are crucial, but do not AT ALL reflect end game content..
With that being said, I can tell that this will be one of, if not, the BEST MMORPG ever made!
This game is so BAD-A$$, I can't even begin to describe it. Most importantly, it is FUN! I love the interactive combat system, as opposed to auto-attacking and pressing the same spell or special skill key over and over and over... screw it, GIVE ME BUTTON SMASHING!
The graphics are absolutely BREATHTAKING! Keep in mind that you need an up-to-date (as in hardware) system to run it.
For reference, here are my specs: Intel Core 2 Quad 2.6ghz, 3 gig DDR2 dual channel memory, 500 gig SATA II HD, nVidia GeForce 8800 gts 640mb pci-express video card, Windows Vista SP 1... etc.
So far I have not even scratched the surface of this game, with being level 10.. but I have a really good feeling about it and can tell it's going to be genre changing.
Pick it up as soon as you can.. you WILL NOT be disappointed!!