My Ticket To Khitai
May 4, 2010Sigh…I envy our neighbors to the south sometimes. Why can’t EB Games be more like Gamestop? Or amazon.ca be more like amazon.com?
I tried calling my local game store and of course, they had no idea what I was talking about when I asked if they would be getting Age of Conan’s Rise of the Godslayer expansion on May 11. In fact, the only place I’ve found where I can pre-order the retail box in Canada is amazon.ca. Unfortunately, they’re not like in the US where you can have the option of release-date delivery. And I’ve been burned by their pre-order system once before, so I’m loathe to order from them again.
I’d still rather have the retail-box, but it’s not worth the trouble. Shame, because I’m sure the puma pet will be super cute…
But now I’m stuck with this hideous rock frog-monkey-turtle thingy instead (and boy, does Breawyn look pissed about that!):
I bet you it's not even house-trained.
Something else piqued my interest while I was at the AoC site pre-ordering the RotGs digital download. Did you know that in addition to the expansion, they’re also offering a handful of upgrades? An overview of them was posted a few days ago. One of them, the Might of Crom pack, carries a hefty price-tag at $59.99 but it does come with 60 days of free game time, which would soften the blow. It also includes the Tortage Survival pack along with a ton of other great stuff like experience potions and gear, not to mention several mounts like the War Mammoth and the Killer Rhino.
And I’ve seen some of the mammoth mounts in AoC — they’re really awesome and really HUGE. The ones in World of Warcraft have got nothing on AoC’s prehistoric pachyderms. I’ve also heard that they’re sturdy as hell when it comes to mounted combat.
Dammit, I think I have mount envy.
Arg, tempting. Very, very tempting.
I’m a little surprised at how much I’m looking forward to this expansion. Funcom has been relatively quiet when it comes to information about it, leaving me to wonder what it has in store for us. There’s also a reason why I didn’t just start over with a new character when I re-subbed a few months ago — I’m saving the Tortage experience for the Khitan I’m planning to roll. It’s been a long time since I’ve been through the early game, and I can’t wait to see it again. Patience, Casilda, soon I’ll rescue you again and you can cheer me on once more.
Just one more week.
MMO Gamer Chick 
Your monkey frog looks awesome. it’s a lot better than having some lame wolf/tiger/same damn pet every other game on earth has.
runes of magic has a wide range of mounts too, giant brontosaurus like ones, mammoths, rhinos, horses, ostrichs, warthogs, tigers, flying weasels, and others. I really like that kind of variety.
oh and are eb games and gamestop all that different? i believe gamestop owns eb games anyway.
Oh wow, I want to ride a brontosaurus! I’d love to ride an AoC mammoth or rhino, but I’m also really looking forward to the tiger/wolf system in the expansion. I believe you get a quest to capture a tiger or wolf cub, depending on which faction you choose, and then you can raise that wolf or tiger to become a combat pet or a mount. This is what I’ve read anyway.
And yes, Gamestop owns EB games, but I’ve found that the American site usually has more up-to-date information as well as more service options. They also seem to be better stocked. For example gamestop.com = ebgames.com and they have the AoC expansion listed along with preorder and release date delivery, it seems. gamestop.ca = ebgames.ca and as of this writing it is still not listed. So I guess it wasn’t all that surprising when I called EB today and they told me they didn’t have it in their database for May 11. I’m pretty sure they’ll eventually end up carrying it, but I have no idea when that might be.
I got sick of wondering if my local store was going to have the x-pac and the pre-order date for Gamestop was May 10th. What good is running to pre-order the day before release?
So that leaves me with the rock turtle thing too. It actually has good buffs, so its worth keeping out. I don’t notice its there most of the time.
I also am waiting to to Tortage again with my new Khitan character. Although after doing it several times at release from trying classes and hopping servers its safe to say I’m not looking forward to it nearly as much as you. I had gotten it down to a mere 4-5 hours of play though, so thats not too bad. I still am conflicted on what class I want my Khitan character to be though. I really wish we had more lore and art so i could inform my decision better.
Funcom might have overdone it with keeping things low key. Very few retailers seem to know anything about the expansion, and e-tailers are a bit better, but not by much.
I guess rock turtle does have good buffs, but unlike you, I notice it there ALL the time LOL. It’s actually sort of distracting, I get creeped out by it staring at me while I fight. It’s actually quite a relief when it curls up and goes to sleep.
And I agree with you about the lore and art. I want to know more but there’s like barely anything out there. I don’t think there are new classes, and I’m hearing speculation that the Khitan classes are just going to be renamed versions of existing ones. I’ll probably roll a soldier or a DPS class, I have enough healers I think 🙂
Yes, there are no new classes and they are just the same as the old ones. I still like to know how they fit in with the world and have an image of what they will kind of look like though.
I also like it when the Kappa naps.
I just watched the launch trailer on gametrailers.com. Looked really good, but one thing I noticed was there as a short snippet of a female khitan character twirling a staff. Whatever class that was, I think I want to play it 😛
If ever they have Tyranosaurs you can ride I’m so back into AoC.
As for EB game I agree they are Evil. I wanted to get a pre order for StarCraft 2 and the guys weren’t sure if they would even carry the game. God I hate EB.
I don’t expect much from EB, but they don’t even have pre-order for StarCraft 2 and aren’t sure they’re going to carry the game? FOR STARCRAFT 2?! Wow, for shame, EB.
That “rock frog-monkey-turtle thingy” is not as hideous as I thought it’ be… it’s almost, uh, cute. DECISIONS DECISIONS
I admit it might possibly grow on me as time passes, but cute? I don’t think I’ll ever go there…
[…] to the matter at hand – getting the expansion. As GeeCee has pointed out, the ‘Loyal Kappa’ preorder bonus is fugly as all fugliness. The Puma – sight […]
Oh, hey, I’d totally restart my Herald of Xotli – she’s like level 15 right now – and play with you! It’d be fun! I could use my new starter weapons!
Yay, let’s all roll new Khitans!
I’m rolling a new Khitan as well!
I’ll need to see what classes can be Khitan before I jump on this boat, but I’ll definitely be making a new character.