'Most influential' Age of Conan update launches

Funcom's Age of Conan has been on a bit of a roller coaster ride since its debut last year. After initial shipments of the game topped 1 million in May 2008, Age of Conan's player population took a decided turn for the worse. By August, Funcom said its subscriber base stood at 415,000. Soon thereafter, the Norwegian developer said that the massively multiplayer online game's director had resigned, layoffs had occurred, and servers would see significant consolidation.

Still, Age of Conan appears to have made some headway in regaining ground, with Funcom saying last month after turning a quarterly profit that the game's user base has seen significant stabilization. Catering to those players, Funcom today rolled out what it called the "biggest and most influential" update to Age of Conan yet. Titled Gangs of Tarantia, the update adds in a new area and implements fundamental changes to many of the MMOG's core systems.

According to Funcom, the fifth title update is designed to rectify all remaining issues associated with the game's launch, as identified by both players and developers. As such, the list of tweaks and changes is nothing short of ranging and can be found in full on the developer's Web site. The update also introduces the Tarantia Commons district, a high-level area that offers new content for both solo and cooperative play.

For more on Age of Conan, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.