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MMO bloggers Keen and Graev have published the first episode of their Age of Conan podcast. Well, it's the first if you don't count the open beta special they did earlier this month, anyway.

In this episode, they talk about their impressions of the game during its Early Access period, from Tortage to the Wilds. They also describe the performance and stability improvements Funcom has managed to make since the rather troubled open beta event. It sounds like the duo generally has positive feelings about AoC's post-launch existence so far, but a few criticisms are raised about things like the user interface and the way the game's world is pieced together.

The conversation is an honest intro to the state of Hyboria at the moment; it's worth a listen whether you're already playing AoC or still sitting on the fence.

We say 'kinda' launch, because the actual launch isn't for another day in the US, and a handful of days elsewhere, but the quick ones who managed to secure their Early Access spot will have been able to log in to Age of Conan for the last day and a half. The launch of the Early Access had a delay of around 3 hours from the expected 5PM GMT on the 17th, but since then, the servers have mostly been quite stable, and many people have been expressing their thanks for a successful launch at the official AoC forums (requires login).

The other thing you'll see at the forums is people upset about the Early Access debacle, and those wanting some form of compensation. Those issues and the small delay aside, how has your head start in Hyboria been thus far?

Are you excited yet? Age of Conan's Early Access Weekend is soon upon us, and the forums -- both official and unofficial -- are ablaze with information, speculation and anticipation as that final retail launch date closes in on us.

The good people over at Ten Ton Hammer have gathered a wonderful compilation of the best of the best when it comes to AoC forum posts, fan site info and all the general information you'll need to get started on the right foot this coming May 20th. If you were lucky enough to get into the Early Access Weekend, feel free to leave some comments to this post as to your impressions of the game outside of beta.

Yesterday we discussed some surprising news: the Age of Conan early-access program you could pay to enter along with your box pre-order was "full". Funcom was, effectively, turning people away at the door. Today the official forums have a statement from the AoC team explaining why the program was shut down. It all has to do with server capacity, essentially. They're working right now to migrate their Beta servers to a live server footing, and they've only got a handful working right now.

The Open Beta closed up shop on Sunday, and since then they've been working to get their hardware setup squared away. The problem, and the reason the early access problem was shut down, is that registrations for the program spiked hard on Tuesday of this week. According to the statement: "Early on Wednesday the capacity limit was reached and automatically shut off. The entire program is now mostly sold out globally, with some local variation. We had no way of anticipating the spike we saw at the end."

What's interesting is that Closed Beta is apparently still running - they're milking that resource for data all the way to the end, evidently patching and fixing right up until launch day. In the meantime, disappointed early-access hopefuls are just going to have to wait for their chance at Hyborian glory.

The official Age of Conan site has a bit of information we're sure you're going to want to read: server names for early access players! Despite the issues they've had with interest outstripping server capacity, it's great to see the company responding to a pressing community concern. At the moment there are a total of 31 servers slated for early access, spread across three server types, four languages, and five regions. There are sure to be more servers launched for the game's proper release, but at the moment these are what you've got to choose from.

US Servers (Early Access 17th of May)

PvE Servers

• Set
• Dagoth
• Zug
• Omm
• Derketo
• Thog
• Wiccana
• Gwahlur (recommended Oceanic)
• Anu

PvP Servers

• Tyranny
• Bane
• Deathwisper
• Bloodspire (recommended Oceanic)
• Doomsayer

RP-PvP Server

• Cimmeria

Read on below the cut for the EU English-language servers, as well as servers for French, German, and Spanish-speaking players. So, quick: which server are you playing on?

So it seems that a lot of people want to play Age of Conan a few days early. The Early Access program that was offered to those who pre-ordered the game has sold out for all English versions of the game, with limited spots left for Germany and France. If you have a pre-order code for your in-game items, that will still work, but if you didn't actually register and buy your early access by this point, you're out of luck.

This has obviously left many players upset and angry, and the forum thread that broke the news is filled with people lamenting their ruined weekend. Some direct their anger towards retailers who failed to provide their codes in time, others point the finger at Funcom. Regardless of Funcom's reason for restricting early access places, a number of forum posters have highlighted the community site's earlier mention of the limited availability: "Hurry though, because the Early Access is only available while supply lasts!". That won't help ease the pain though for those who had their hearts set on lopping heads off on the 17th.

[Thanks, ScytheNoire!]

Funcom has opened up Age of Conan account registration for customers who pre-ordered the game. This includes the Early Access service. For a $5 or €5 fee, all those who pre-ordered the game may gain access to the servers on May 17th, three days ahead of the North American launch and six days ahead of the European launch.

Previously, Europeans who paid for Early Access could jump into the game on the 20th, but Funcom has announced that those folks may now begin play at the same time as Americans, so the 17th is the day for everyone now! Hopefully some of the performance issues will be resolved by then. It looks like they might be.

[Via Ten Ton Hammer]

The next Clan of Conan newsletter is finally here, and as promised by Jørgen Tharaldsen in a recent forum post, it goes a long way towards clearing up some Age of Conan pre-order confusion. First things first, the 3-day early access: the newsletter confirms that this is exclusively for pre-orders, and that your retailer should provide you with an early-access key. However, to actually get that head start, you'll need to take that key to the Funcom website, and pay $5 / €5 (depending on region) to activate it on your account. This was already known by some, but it's important to really get it out there in a fashion like this so that people aren't disappointed later.

As well as this, the dates for access vary around the world. North Americans will be able to download the client early on May 13th, and start playing early from the 17th. For Europeans the early download will be May 16th, and the early access itself starts on the 20th. This is because the North American release date is also 3 days earlier, with the rest of the Europeans joining the head-starters on the 23rd of May.

We've caught wind of a rumor regarding certain retail chains that give out unique Age of Conan pre-order keys. It seems that if you've pre-ordered at any chain that does give you a unique key, then a three-day early start is in your Hyborian future. The rumor started in this thread on the official forums, which was then supported by a secondary post with a copy-paste of an email that seemingly confirms the rumor. What is most interesting is that an official post has since been made concerning said rumor, which doesn't actually deny the three-day head start.

So it certainly seems this rumor has some legs. This definitely wouldn't be the first time pre-order customers got an early start, as it's quite common for massively games to do something of this nature. Call us fairly convinced on this one, but of course until there's an official announcement it'll have to go into the rumor bin.

[Thanks, autonomous]