Dude, 100% right. When I got mine, I was kinda disappointed but couldn't really tell why. You just shaped my feelings into perfect sentences. Thank you!
I knew its super late but I've worked for Funcom and I have the source images of those artworks. Most of them that are printed super small are printed so small, because they were painted digitally in a very low resolution. Additionally the guy who made the book did it in between traveling the world, promoting the hell out of the game and there are many artworks he didn't have time to find higher resolution version of it. Some artists only put the low res versions on the public server we could all access and kept the high res ones on their own PC etc.pp. The 3d models were higher res, because he could open them up in the model viewer and take high res screenshots. He was neither a graphic artists, nor a designer. He was super pressed on time and there was no committee designing or deciding. He just cobbled it together, because no one else had the time to make it in time for production of the boxes. Sounds weird, but Funcom was basically a Indie studio back then. Understaffed, under financed but with a heart of gold and a love for Conan that still holds true today.
Oh wonderful, marvellous Bard, how I do enjoy your antics crammed with the most memorable of references... Whether you want to or not, you will live forever!
I haven’t played the game but I have listened to the soundtrack. And I must concur, it is excellent. It made for perfect background music while reading and playing dnd.
Holy hell the OST for this game is amazing. It and the wonderful art style kept me coming back to the game for years longer than it deserved. I think you put it perfectly when you said that "someone loved it", for it totally shows. It's a shame that the production was so broken and, even worse, that Funcom was not able to sort out its mess in the years after launch (remember the memory leak bug?), or that they made Khitai a confusing grindy mess. Seems to me that eventually Funcom admitted defeat and left it to die, which really sucks. But... that land.. and that music..
I can honestly say that I would not be here today if it weren't for the loving people I met in that game. Thanks for brining those good memories back. Also bloody good insight on just about everything, real shame about that artbook.
BardicBroadcasts But tbh. Funcom is a special company in many ways. They are really small, indie (yeah hard to believe) and in many situations the output of the company was not because of ill intent, or evil corporate thinking, but simply not having someone to do the job at the point in time. In this case there simply was no money and no time to have a professional layout the book, because everyone was scrambling to get the game out of the door and people were in crunch time for 6 months with 14-16 hours a day, 7 days a week. Not to say that makes the result better, but it wasn't a case of power struggle, design-by-committee or corporate interests... everyone was in it with their full heart, all the time, to a fault.
I remember the marketing guy on youtube for this MMO years ago, I was a sucker and bought the MMO video game on release, gawd was it a disappointing car crash of a game.
Dear Mr Bard, By Crom you are magnificent to behold. Mine eyes and ears do swim with your mellifluity! We should totally be friends. Here's a question for you: how do you feel about Fafhrd & The Gray Mouser? Just about my favouritest swordsmen in all of the myriad many worlds! Your humble servant, P
The way you explained how the Art Book was made and decided upon was the SAME way that a game company I worked dealt with, us, the artist’s work and the upper management’s own “art” and how prevalent it was in the game. Upper management ruin games and have no business running games.
It's in contention for best mmo representation of a fictional setting in my book. Challenged only by Lord of the Rings online which boasts some lovely atmosphere and environments.
I'm pretty sure I recognise that theme music you elegantly mimicked in your intro as the commodore 64 game .... BAR....barian =D. Barbarian, it was amazing. Lots of decapitation. I have very fond memories of fights and rage quits and other intensely enjoyable stuff.
This was an awesome game for its time. I remember fighting alongside two other players in a massive fight with savage Picts or Ice Giants on top of a fiery or snowy mountaintop. It was awesome!
I was hoping you’d be as ImPressed with the soundtrack as I was. It stands to this day as my absolute favorite standing equal to Conan the barbarians soundtrack. I was lucky enough to snag it on iTunes during the brief period it was available. Along with my physical copy I’m prepared for adventure at any time!
Special credit to Helene Bøksle for 'The Dreaming: 'ere the World Crumbles'. Brilliant piece that. The game used to take so long to load that I would get through the whole thing between zones. ua-cam.com/video/ex_nVDL5g-k/v-deo.html
Now what I would really like to see is an unbox followed by and immediate rebox followed by a reaction to above said box related shenanigans. Maybe followed by you sat in a bath of orbiz because the floor is lava?
have you played the MONOLITH Conan Board game? I heard it's great. The kickstarter campaign pledge manager is still up for a few days. It's going to be so great!!
I wanted to love this game so much when it came out but it just didnt happen, the level scaling so you could co-op with players of any level was a visionary concept but almost everything was broken at launch, I had to request GM support for quest bugs and getting my character stuck in walls or falling through mountains 5 times in one day, it wasnt much longer after that I called it quits
A fine video, one point of accuracy to correct, The Sound Track to Conan the Barbarian is the Best Stand Alone Sound Track to any movie, ever, or ever will be. Not Arguably , it is. That is fact.
It's certainly my favourite but I would not begrudge a fellow who thought that there was better (say, Conan the Destroyer, Excalibur, Labyrinth, or even Dredd).
+BardicBroadcasts oooooooh those are some good choices. But for me, the only runner up to Poledouris' excellent work on Barbarian would be some of Trevor Jones' tracks (specifically the Dark Crystal and Last of the Mohicans).
Great opening! Great video, as always. I thought Age of Conan was a fantastic game for a Conan fan. It had many flaws but the love of the source material is evident everywhere. Not enough sword and sorcery games out there.
I think there is art work of the character nude because Playboy magazine used to run a section with 'babes from video games', which allowed a bit of covert marketing, and they submitted that female character as their entry for Age of Conan.
I remember getting this... release day we all franticly downloaded... and my potatoe pc wouldn't run it.. did get to hear the music just a blank screen . Sad times
I remember opening the art book when I got my collector's edition and I felt exactly the same thing at the time. It was really crammed in and disappointing because of it.
It was a fun game, but you could try out Conan Exiles coming start of next year, is a survival game in the World of Conan. Same creators. One of the games I'm looking forward to myself.
At 1:39 the Babarian game you said you played? Was it this this one? ua-cam.com/video/TJ_6v-IysSY/v-deo.html or this one? ua-cam.com/video/Ruylz-H41rU/v-deo.html. I suspect it was the former one, because they actualley used rotoscoping taken directly from the Conan movies to reproduce alot of the movement for the characters in that game. I always wanted that game, but could never find it on sale. I did manage to get the sequel (Barbarian: the Ultimate Warrior.) which wasn't as good despite how much more depth was made for it. Played it on the C64.
Ahh thank you. I had been trying to remember the title of that game recently. Back in the time of its release I could not get it working on my machine and ultimately never played it. I wonder if it would be worth visiting in these times.
I was going to commit to saying he was from Australia, but not necessarily. He seems too intelligent for an Ausi. Therefore by deduction he is a well rounded, well traveled New Zealander with the gift of the gab.
The art book. good gods, it is so wonky! They just...put things with unappealing size ratios together with uneven spacing or without an appealing ratio or consideration to colors and contrast in the images in relation to other shit on the page. BARF. Like a page with mostly dark warm tone images, spaced horribly, and then one random bright white background item illustration that doesn't make any sense.
MMPORGS were great in the time of Star Wars Galaxies, Everquest, City of Heroes and Age of Conan. There are no MMPORGS now, only cheap cash-grabbers and DLC pushers that only want your money and don’t care about creating true worlds for players to play in. PS....good looking graphics has NOTHING to do with a game being great.
Haha, your Mako impression is spot on! Too bad about the art book and the map though, that would've been the primary reason for me to ever get it.
God I wish you would continue to do vids! But I guess real life demands more time for the Bard :(
My friend, I shall continue as I am able. Fear not!
Still waiting to see that warhammer map.
Need more of these. They're cracking!
Conan is what got me into sword and sorcery. Back when I was a wee lad in the early 80's.
Dude, 100% right. When I got mine, I was kinda disappointed but couldn't really tell why. You just shaped my feelings into perfect sentences. Thank you!
You're welcome!
What a majestic introduction! I loved your rendition of Anvil of Crom!
I knew its super late but I've worked for Funcom and I have the source images of those artworks. Most of them that are printed super small are printed so small, because they were painted digitally in a very low resolution. Additionally the guy who made the book did it in between traveling the world, promoting the hell out of the game and there are many artworks he didn't have time to find higher resolution version of it. Some artists only put the low res versions on the public server we could all access and kept the high res ones on their own PC etc.pp. The 3d models were higher res, because he could open them up in the model viewer and take high res screenshots.
He was neither a graphic artists, nor a designer. He was super pressed on time and there was no committee designing or deciding. He just cobbled it together, because no one else had the time to make it in time for production of the boxes. Sounds weird, but Funcom was basically a Indie studio back then. Understaffed, under financed but with a heart of gold and a love for Conan that still holds true today.
Even though you are doing unboxing, your videos are endlessly rewatchable for me. and seeing as this is a reboxing, boxingception....
Oh wonderful, marvellous Bard, how I do enjoy your antics crammed with the most memorable of references...
Whether you want to or not, you will live forever!
"I did it! With my spear!" I lost it right there
9 years hence and I still love the Mako impression intro
I recently found your channel. You're awesome. I am a Conan fan as well for over 35 years. Keep up the outstanding work.
More unboxings please the Bard. They are the best thing on you tube without doubt.
I haven’t played the game but I have listened to the soundtrack. And I must concur, it is excellent. It made for perfect background music while reading and playing dnd.
Holy hell the OST for this game is amazing. It and the wonderful art style kept me coming back to the game for years longer than it deserved. I think you put it perfectly when you said that "someone loved it", for it totally shows. It's a shame that the production was so broken and, even worse, that Funcom was not able to sort out its mess in the years after launch (remember the memory leak bug?), or that they made Khitai a confusing grindy mess. Seems to me that eventually Funcom admitted defeat and left it to die, which really sucks.
But... that land.. and that music..
I can honestly say that I would not be here today if it weren't for the loving people I met in that game.
Thanks for brining those good memories back.
Also bloody good insight on just about everything, real shame about that artbook.
The book was designed by the Marketing Lead. He is not a designer and not a typographer. It shows.
Not an artist either. This explains much. So much good art laid low by poor presentation.
BardicBroadcasts But tbh. Funcom is a special company in many ways. They are really small, indie (yeah hard to believe) and in many situations the output of the company was not because of ill intent, or evil corporate thinking, but simply not having someone to do the job at the point in time.
In this case there simply was no money and no time to have a professional layout the book, because everyone was scrambling to get the game out of the door and people were in crunch time for 6 months with 14-16 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Not to say that makes the result better, but it wasn't a case of power struggle, design-by-committee or corporate interests... everyone was in it with their full heart, all the time, to a fault.
I remember the marketing guy on youtube for this MMO years ago, I was a sucker and bought the MMO video game on release, gawd was it a disappointing car crash of a game.
Dear Mr Bard,
By Crom you are magnificent to behold. Mine eyes and ears do swim with your mellifluity! We should totally be friends.
Here's a question for you: how do you feel about Fafhrd & The Gray Mouser? Just about my favouritest swordsmen in all of the myriad many worlds!
Your humble servant,
P
This is the best intro to any video I have ever seen.
The opening made me miss Mako. QQ
I agree...
F
F
F
I can't believe I just found this video now. I was one of the developers on this game.
Not entirely sure if I should congratulate or curse you :-)
I'm only 30 seconds in and I already think this is amazing
Same. xD
The way you explained how the Art Book was made and decided upon was the SAME way that a game company I worked dealt with, us, the artist’s work and the upper management’s own “art” and how prevalent it was in the game. Upper management ruin games and have no business running games.
This was the only Collector's Edition that I've ever bought. God was it a good game if you gave it a little time. :) Now I feel all nostaldic.
It's in contention for best mmo representation of a fictional setting in my book. Challenged only by Lord of the Rings online which boasts some lovely atmosphere and environments.
@@BardicBroadcasts I see you got an impression of mskos voicd kver speech frommold conan the barbarian from 1982
@@zacharyjochumsen9677 Aye!
I was really hyped for this one but it took quite a while and went under the radar for me once it came out.
I'm pretty sure I recognise that theme music you elegantly mimicked in your intro as the commodore 64 game .... BAR....barian =D. Barbarian, it was amazing. Lots of decapitation. I have very fond memories of fights and rage quits and other intensely enjoyable stuff.
Brilliant as always!
I’d say Vallejo did a very good job as a sword and sorcery artist.
I fucking love this channel. How did i not know about it before. Thank you for this amazing content.
Oh man, you're almost to 100k subs!
This was an awesome game for its time. I remember fighting alongside two other players in a massive fight with savage Picts or Ice Giants on top of a fiery or snowy mountaintop. It was awesome!
I was hoping you’d be as ImPressed with the soundtrack as I was. It stands to this day as my absolute favorite standing equal to Conan the barbarians soundtrack. I was lucky enough to snag it on iTunes during the brief period it was available. Along with my physical copy I’m prepared for adventure at any time!
Couldn't agree more about the soundtrack. Still put it on for old AOC guildies when we play DND
Special credit to Helene Bøksle for 'The Dreaming: 'ere the World Crumbles'. Brilliant piece that. The game used to take so long to load that I would get through the whole thing between zones.
ua-cam.com/video/ex_nVDL5g-k/v-deo.html
Now what I would really like to see is an unbox followed by and immediate rebox followed by a reaction to above said box related shenanigans. Maybe followed by you sat in a bath of orbiz because the floor is lava?
It's so strange hearing the Bard speak in a regular civilian voice lol
have you played the MONOLITH Conan Board game? I heard it's great. The kickstarter campaign pledge manager is still up for a few days. It's going to be so great!!
I've watched this at least 10 times in my life...
I wanted to love this game so much when it came out but it just didnt happen, the level scaling so you could co-op with players of any level was a visionary concept but almost everything was broken at launch, I had to request GM support for quest bugs and getting my character stuck in walls or falling through mountains 5 times in one day, it wasnt much longer after that I called it quits
also that art book REALLY looks like an old Warhammer fantasy rulebook
I think you may actually be a wizard
Krshwunk a pinball wizard?
a dwarven wizard
i would enjoy Sword and Sworcery to unapologetically re appear.
A fine video, one point of accuracy to correct, The Sound Track to Conan the Barbarian is the Best Stand Alone Sound Track to any movie, ever, or ever will be. Not Arguably , it is. That is fact.
It's certainly my favourite but I would not begrudge a fellow who thought that there was better (say, Conan the Destroyer, Excalibur, Labyrinth, or even Dredd).
+BardicBroadcasts oooooooh those are some good choices. But for me, the only runner up to Poledouris' excellent work on Barbarian would be some of Trevor Jones' tracks (specifically the Dark Crystal and Last of the Mohicans).
Conan the barbarian soundtrack is like the castlevania soundtrack to games. One of the best ever made
@@BardicBroadcasts
I love all of those musical scores as well.
Especially Dredd.
Paul Leonard Morgan's music is incredible!
Great opening! Great video, as always. I thought Age of Conan was a fantastic game for a Conan fan. It had many flaws but the love of the source material is evident everywhere. Not enough sword and sorcery games out there.
I thought this game was dead. Did a quick google search and was pleasantly surprised. XD
it's weird how the older the Bard video the more like just a regular Australian dude he sounds
BAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRDDDDDDDD!!!!!!! WHERE AAAAAAAAAARE YOOOOOOOUUUUU????????
The game was not perfect but I enjoyed it. The soundtrack really was quite good, and obviously inspired by Poledouris’ masterwork.
Have you played Conan exiles? If so maybe you could do a video and give us your thoughts!
The voices are soooo good.
These are the two biggest books in this book... Lol great vid
... That collectors edition is less than a regular edition PC game of the 90s, jeez.
CRACKING!
I think there is art work of the character nude because Playboy magazine used to run a section with 'babes from video games', which allowed a bit of covert marketing, and they submitted that female character as their entry for Age of Conan.
I think I remember something about that.
please revisit this re-boxing also.
I surprised you haven't done any unboxings or reviews on the few Conan board games that are out there.......... Never to late.
i would love to hang out with you for a day!
Cónán's shear girth is well represented.
How did you get Mako to appear on your video?
I remember getting this... release day we all franticly downloaded... and my potatoe pc wouldn't run it.. did get to hear the music just a blank screen . Sad times
A grim tale.
Still one of the best games and the design work funcom did is used by several other companies with conan licences.
I wish they made a conan game as good as the witcher 3 and w npc character interactivity like rdr 2. “Now that, is Powa”
I loved this game. I'd play it right now if i could. Oh well. better go play some Golden Axe...
Never knew of this game, but I enjoy Conan: Exiles.
Best opening ever
have you read Conan the Cimmerian comic illustrated by Cary Nord?
*Hahahaha, thank you from quarantine in 2020*
I remember opening the art book when I got my collector's edition and I felt exactly the same thing at the time. It was really crammed in and disappointing because of it.
@5:00 how funny, he looks to be holding a mouse. as if connected to some unseen 3d headset. as he scans across the world with his internet.
"Conan mark"? might I hazard a guess that you are a wrestling fan? If so, huzzah!
R.I.P. Frazetta :(
I completely agree. They wasted the art in the book. It's like the designer didn't care at all. Almost insulting to the artists.
This game was the last time I ever bought a collectors edition. I don't believe in buying games until at least a month after they have been out now.
Great video chief! Im wondering what do you say about the current state of the game?
I'd love to see what you think of Exiles.
I think it's alright. I don't like survival games much but the Conan theme gives me something to latch onto at least. I did not play it much overall.
Did you get the collectors edition? Would make a cracking reboxing! This is my first survival game. As a huge REH Conan fan I have been enjoying it.
Mine was not numbered when I got it.
In terms of a good collector's edition i think you should definitely check out dishonored 2's collector's edition.
I love you man
It was a fun game, but you could try out Conan Exiles coming start of next year, is a survival game in the World of Conan. Same creators. One of the games I'm looking forward to myself.
Aye, I have an interest due to its theme but I have a pretty strong dislike for these so-called survival games. I'll keep an eye on it, mind you.
True the survival genre is pretty much a thing now but let's hope this one will be something better as it is funcom making this.
At 1:39 the Babarian game you said you played? Was it this this one? ua-cam.com/video/TJ_6v-IysSY/v-deo.html or this one? ua-cam.com/video/Ruylz-H41rU/v-deo.html. I suspect it was the former one, because they actualley used rotoscoping taken directly from the Conan movies to reproduce alot of the movement for the characters in that game. I always wanted that game, but could never find it on sale. I did manage to get the sequel (Barbarian: the Ultimate Warrior.) which wasn't as good despite how much more depth was made for it. Played it on the C64.
I was thinking specifically of the latter but my uncle did have - and I played - both. I recall my time with Psygnosis Barbarian more clearly, though.
You have quickly become my go to channel, when i want to feel better. You, my new found youtuber fella, are quality material.
I laughed my ass off at that 18:01 take on the Eastern Shaman in Conan 2. Mako.
Ahoy! Do you happen to have any social media one could follow you? If not, that is more than alright!
Ahoy! Nay, I do not. I have a twitch channel, if that counts.
@@BardicBroadcasts it does! Well at least to this guy, does it go by the same name?
@@drewslater6790 Aye, the same name indeed.
@@BardicBroadcasts fantastic! Consider it liked, followed, appreciated and such
what is the name of the artbook with the original CONAN art ?
Icon, one of Frank Frazetta's books.
+BardicBroadcasts
Thankyou my good Axe Wielding Dwarvin Bard !
I love your videos, please post more.
Genius
where did you get that shirt?
I think it might have been a shirt from welovefine or somesuch place, I'm not really sure.
Wow this is your voice!
Aye!
BardicBroadcasts Crrrrrracking!
ua-cam.com/video/xdJa0XHoX0c/v-deo.html
here the sound track and yes its good il use it in a vid
ruins of kunark came with a nice map. not even collector ed.
I love you so fucking much.
Lots of artbooks does this its a shame really.
conan and the dark axe on ps2 has a very very good sound track, it sounds like the movies, i wonder why? ;)
Ahh thank you. I had been trying to remember the title of that game recently. Back in the time of its release I could not get it working on my machine and ultimately never played it. I wonder if it would be worth visiting in these times.
“That’s a little on the far-side of bigness” that’s what she said
out of curiosity, naturally. What country do you come from? I cant quite place the accent?
As a kiwi he sounds like he is from my part of the world.
I was going to commit to saying he was from Australia, but not necessarily. He seems too intelligent for an Ausi. Therefore by deduction he is a well rounded, well traveled New Zealander with the gift of the gab.
ugh, man...a softcover artbook in a collector's edition? That's a bad sign from the get-go.
It's not necessarily so bad. I have some fine softcover art books dotted about my house.
The art book. good gods, it is so wonky! They just...put things with unappealing size ratios together with uneven spacing or without an appealing ratio or consideration to colors and contrast in the images in relation to other shit on the page. BARF. Like a page with mostly dark warm tone images, spaced horribly, and then one random bright white background item illustration that doesn't make any sense.
AYe, its not great. I especially don't like the horrible vanity pages.
mate mate. no one deslike! Congratulations!
everquest Project1999!
MMPORGS were great in the time of Star Wars Galaxies, Everquest, City of Heroes and Age of Conan. There are no MMPORGS now, only cheap cash-grabbers and DLC pushers that only want your money and don’t care about creating true worlds for players to play in. PS....good looking graphics has NOTHING to do with a game being great.