Age of Conan players are in for a few treats and many epic surprises as the game celebrates its 5th anniversary today, May 23rd. Grab your best hunting gear because you won't want to miss what this monstrous event has in store!

The Stygian Desert holds the newest content for Age of Conan players - the Dragon's Spine. It might sound familiar, and that's because it's actually a location that was present in the original Robert Howard stories. Now the question is, what dark power is at work down there? Is it the Emerald Lotus, trying to find the power of the Serpent Men? Or is it something darker and more sinister?

There's changes in store for Age of Conan, developers at Funcom said in a post today. The most significant one is the highly-demanded change to stamina, which drained through spellcasting, abilities, and sprinting. It was hard to balance, so a new sprinting bar - a completely separate one from stamina - will be introduced instead. This is only the beginning though, as they also talk plans for multiple feat specifications, updates for the Tempest of Set, and faction vendor changes. 

Fashionable, m'lord. A new sweep of capes is hitting Age of Conan, some for a limited time. Two at a time, they are available in the store for one week. But you can also spring for the entire cape collection and pick them all up at once, at any time, in the store. Check out all those cloaks on the Age of Conan website!

Capes are fashionable in spring, right?

The Paikang skyline and the Emperor are now open for business - 3.3 carries a new raid on the Jade Citadel. 

Thematically, they detail more about the Citadel, and the mysterious sargazer that's tampering with powerful forces. But what's important is the Senior AI Designer Matthew Bennett talking about the raids themselves, and how the fights scale through the plants in the garden, the Khitan zodiac, and finally to the Emperor himself.

It's well worth a read if you're in the land of Conan!

Some serious crafting changes are on their way to Age of Conan, and they sound fantastic! In a push for more crafting experimentation and exploration, Funcom is dropping their crafting progression quests, and whenever a player drops a craft, they will "save" or retain their skill level in that craft, so that they can pick up where they left off at a later time.

Additionally, Funcom also details some of the significant crafting changes coming to the game, as they want to pursue a crafting system that rewards players for remembering and utilizing recipes, as opposed to simply clicking an item and crafting fifteen of it. Items now have a base model that everyone learns to craft, but it becomes entirely dependent on the components you use to get the inherent strength you want. Additionally, players who combine the right components together will discover secret bonuses, which they can then keep a secret or share with the community, depending on how generous they feel.

Finally, Funcom does want to stress that not all of their work is tied up in crafting, as they do have new raid content on the way, in addition to three older instances getting reworked versions for 80+ players. 

You can read the full monthly developer update on the Age of Conan website.

Don't ask me about that header image, because it's totally the one they use in the news post, and I figured Funcom knows best. Regardless, we've got some sweet subscription packs and free bonus item packs coming for the month of February, so if you were considering checking out Age of Conan, I'd say that February is the month you should be doing it. Featured this month are several offers, including:

For Free Players:

• The Royal Court Access Pack - 60 days of premium game time, the "Rise of the Godslayer" expansion, and the "Savage Coast of Turan" for 3000 Funcom points.

For Premium Members:

• Turan Royal Cache - A three month upgrade with the "Savage Coast of Turan" adventure pack and a bevy of items.
• Khitan Royal Cache - A six month upgrade that gives all of the above while also including free acess to the "Rise of the Godslayer" expansion pack.
• Royal Aquilonian Cache - Includes all of the above in addition to a level 50 character option and an additional character slot.

Finally, all players will be eligible to claim a free bonus item pack in the in-game store during each week in February. Starting from the 5th of February, regardless if you're a free or premium player, just make sure to log in every week to grab your swag. Happy Age of... Conaning!

Kind of ridiculous to realize that it's been a full month since New Years, but if Age of Conan is already posting their Monthly Development Update for January 2012, well, that's about the best indication you'll get that we're nearing the end of the month.

In this month's development update, Funcom's Craig Morrison noted that the team was really happy with their big content pushes in 2011 (naturally), but that they really want to focus on systems for the first half of the year. What this means, for the most part, is that they really want to revamp the trade-skill system of Age of Conan, with the next big update hoping to offer "true depth, with an engaging and interesting system." Morrison notes that the team really wants to look "further back" for inspirations, meaning they want to recreate those old-school MMO crafting ecosystems as opposed to our modern day "point and click" crafting options. It all sounds very wonderful and ambitious, so let's hope the team can hit their stride going into 2012!

A big content update for Age of Conan fans has arrived with the launch of the House of Crom, a new dungeon hub that will have players revisiting the remains of an Atlantean temple. There will be two dungeons available in the House of Crom: one social dungeon that supports multiple groups, The Threshold of Divinity, and a new six man dungeon, The Vile Nativity.

There are some sweet, sweet items to be found in these two dungeons, and Funcom notes that these are the largest indoor dungeons they have created to date. As well, these dungeons feature some new polished gameplay mechanics, with players needing to take advantage of unexpected allies to solving cryptic Atlantean riddles. Now I'm pretty much just reading from the descriptions, but that's some pretty compelling writing right there.

Go explore Age of Conan's House of Crom!

Those Slaughter Steeds are looking reaaaal good. Age of Conan is ushering in the new year with a bombardment of time limited steeds that will only be in store for one week per steed. There are a grand total of four steeds to pick up, with a Bronzesteel Slaughter Steed (pictured above) for week one (Dec 14th - 20th), a Redfury War Wolf for week two (Dec 21st - 27th), a Redsteel Slaughter Steed for week three (Dec 28th - Jan 3rd) and, finally, a Bronzefury War Wolf for week four (Jan 4th - 10th).

Mind you, while there is no promise that these steeds will never make their return, limited time offers rarely stay on offer year round. Check 'em out on the official Age of Conan website!