MMORPG.com's Bill Murphy got his hands on the beta for the Age of Conan expansion, Rise of the Godslayer. Today, he brings us his very early impressions with a more detailed report to come later.

Age of Conan launched with a tidal wave of hype back in May of 2008. Churning up an image of a highly action-oriented PvP dominated universe with lots of blood and breasts, it's little wonder the title shipped over a million copies to store shelves and sold over 500,000 copies to consumers in its first two weeks of existence. But the celebratory period didn't last long as glaring holes in the titles content and functionality began to show through all of the pre-launch hubbub. Age of Conan was yet another title filled with promise that simply wasn't in development long enough.

With luck for the patient gamer however, Funcom never stopped trying to make AoC a game the studio could really and truly be proud of. As they did with Anarchy Online, in the time since launch Funcom has seemingly begun to turn things around for the land of Hyboria. Winning a slew of "Most Improved" awards from the gaming press, Age of Conan has slowly been revamping the negative image that it may have portrayed to consumers early on in its life. And with the forthcoming release of their first major expansion The Rise of the Godslayer, Funcom aims to solidify AoC as one of the top MMORPGs available today... or at the very least convince its detractors that the game is worth a second look. I've recently had the chance to delve into the beta for the expansion, and the following is my overview on just what all the added content will do for Age of Conan and what it means for players new and old.

Read Godslayer Beta: Early Impressions.