If you ever wanted to check out the game without having to whip out plastic, now’s your chance. Just head over to the game’s official trial page and download the client. Careful: According to the press release, the length of the trial varies depending on your choice of Web site to download the client from. As of right now, I can only find the seven-day trials.

Still, seven days are enough, right? I read that it takes at least fourteen days to sauce up a GM enough to cyber with you, so if that’s your jam, then you might want to wait. If you’re interested in checking out the game, then, you should be fine.

Durham, USA – April 2nd, 2009 – Funcom is proud to announce that ‘Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures’ is now available as a free trial. Funcom, Fileplanet and Ausgamers have teamed up to provide gamers everywhere with the opportunity to download and play ‘Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures’ for free for a period of seven to fourteen days. This is the chance to experience the brutal, savage and sexy world of Conan where you can live, fight and explore in the world of Hyboria together with thousands of people from across the globe.

“The time has finally come for us to open the flood gates,” says Morten Larssen, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Funcom. “There is a world of gamers out there who have never played ‘Age of Conan’ and we want them to experience what hundreds of thousands of gamers have before them. The game has matured tremendously since launch, and we feel confident that this is the time to launch a trial. ‘Age of Conan’ is simply bigger and better than it ever was, and we want both new and previous players alike to experience that!”

All you have to do to start playing ‘Age of Conan’ today is visit the www.ageofconan.com/trial website, download the game and off you go. Funcom has also teamed up with Fileplanet and Ausgamers, and depending on which source you download from you will receive between seven to fourteen days free play time and a host of special rewards. Various websites across the world will also be doing exclusive give-aways where gamers can receive a special key that will unlock rare virtual items in addition to the free trial play time.

Since launching last year, the development team has made significant updates to the game. Too many to list at once, here are a few highlights of what has been done in the past few months:

• NEW CONTENT! Experience countless hours of more content and adventure through new areas such as the expansive Ymir's Pass and the massive Xibaluku dungeon. Embark on new quests, face new challenges and experience entirely revamped dungeons and gameplay!

• ENHANCED PVP! The world of Conan is now more brutal than ever before. Increase your player vs. player level and reap the exclusive rewards as you slaughter enemy players, but be ready to face the violent consequences should you engage in criminal activities!

• BETTER SIEGES! The entire siege warfare experience has been improved, making sieges more fun and easier to get into. Warfare between guilds is now even more dramatic with specific resources that must be fought over in order to build and maintain battlekeeps!

• ENHANCED PERFORMANCE! Major updates have been made to technical stability and performance, allowing for a much smoother gameplay experience across a wider range of computer systems - even with higher levels of graphical detail enabled!

• ... AND MORE! Many more improvements and additions have been made to Age of Conan since launch. More voice overs, more travel options, a new friend interface, new GUI options, easier access to PvP mini-games, better tradeskills and much, much more!

Launching in May last year ‘Age of Conan’ quickly became a smash hit in retail, shipping over 1.2 million copies around the world. In North America, the most prominent online gaming market in the west, ‘Age of Conan’ became the third best-selling PC title of the year only beaten by ‘Spore’ and ‘World of Warcraft’. In the weeks after launch ‘Age of Conan’ simultaneously topped the charts in 17 countries, and the game received critical acclaim from gaming press across the globe. ‘Age of Conan’ is now available in English, French, German, Spanish, Russian and Polish, and is being prepared for launch in Korea as well.

With a constant stream of new updates and improvements, Funcom continues to push the game forward and the development team is now working on a new expansion as well as a series of free updates that will take the game to even greater heights in the months ahead.

For more information on the trial campaign, please visit http://www.ageofconan.com/trial