While many modern fantasy tales draw inspiration from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings novel, those hallowed tales weren't the only classic works of fiction to emerge from the early 20th century. In the early 1930s, author and poet Robert E. Howard created Conan the Barbarian, a mighty warrior and cunning scoundrel who was later immortalized on the big screen by a certain California state governor, and whose likeness will grace the upcoming massively multiplayer game Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. This game from developer Funcom and publisher Eidos will draw upon the dark and violent world of Hyborea that Howard created, and will feature highly distinctive battles that more closely resemble an action game than that of the usual automatic combat you tend to see in games like this. Age of Conan will also offer a lengthy single-player component, three playable races from three different fantasy nations, and the ability to adventure with other like-minded players (or even clash with them in mounted or siege combat). Our recent time with the game was focused on diving into combat as both a melee character and a magic-using character.