Senior Assistant Community Manager Glen 'Famine' Swan announced today on the official European Age of Conan forums that patch 1.05.6 should hit the live servers next week of all goes according to schedule. The update will include the "Nights of Lost Souls" Halloween event, which puts a Hyborian spin on the holiday.

According to the event's description, players will be able to participate in two new solo quests and an additional team quest to track down and defeat three Lost Souls. "The quests will take you to places you thought you knew, but this time of year casts a shadow over things you once found familiar."

As far as rewards are concerned, keep an eye out for "the Fermented Brain Juice that causes you to vomit and become drunk, or the Void Essence that changes your skin." More details about the event can be found after the jump.

Funcom announced today that seven-day free trials have returned to the Age of Conan Web site. If you've been wanting to try out this MMO but have been hesitant to purchase the game, now's your chance to enter the Hyborian Age with no strings attached . Trial accounts do have some restrictions on them, and "the most noticeable are inability to trade with others, restrictions to use public channels, inability to post on forums and inability to send in-game mail."

The Age of Conan team has implemented numerous changes to the game since it launched, and you can view them all on the updates page. Also, check out our recent interview with Executive Producer Craig Morrison and Lead Expansion Designer Joel Bylos for information on Rise of the Godslayer, the game's upcoming first expansion.

Senior Community Manager Oliver 'Tarib' Kunz has posted an update on Funcom's Age of Conan testing plans on the official European forums. "1.05.6 is on the test server at the moment and we are going through the testing for the veterans system and the new Iron Tower instance. The current plan is for the update to most likely have another two weeks on the test servers before launching on the live servers (testing permitting of course!)," he said.

After that, the 1.06 update will be up on the the test servers. The first phase's focus should be on the Guild Renown system and the Tier three raids. The testing will then move onto the other features that will be a part of 1.06.

According to Norwegian business site E24, Funcom plans to cut 20 percent of its workforce in order to cut costs, which will delay the release of The Secret World by several months. GameIndustry.biz spotted the story and reported that Funcom is attempting to shift the bulk of its 300 workers to Canada to take advantage of lower salaries and "a 37.5 percent salary reimbursement from the state of Quebec."

It's no secret (har har) that we're fans of The Secret World. We recently awarded the game the title of "Most Original Setting" in our first PAX Awards. While we wait to see what the future holds for the MMO, check out our summary of what we know so far about The Secret World.

Age of Conan Game Director Craig Morrison has published his monthly letter to the community for September, and it gives details on the new veteran reward system that's going live in the next update. Basically, players will earn veteran points for each month they've paid for through their subscription or game cards. The points will be added retroactively, so you'll get a bunch if you've stuck with the game since it launched.

The points will be available on each of your characters, and the rewards you purchase will be bound to each character. The rewards will include convenience and social items, such as mounts and fireworks. You can find a list of some of the rewards in the letter after the jump.

Morrison also discusses a new level 80 team instance that will be released with the new update. The Iron Tower in Tarantia Commons "functions as climax of the questing experience and story of Tarantia Common District. Players will have the chance to pit their wits against four boss and five mini boss encounters. There is also the possibility to encounter one of the five rare bosses on each visit."

Direct2Drive is celebrating its fifth anniversary by selling more than 50 games for only $5 each over five weeks. This week's offer is filled with RPGs and MMOs, which means you have until Sept. 28 to pick up EVE Online, Age of Conan or PlanetSide for only $5. And yes, this low price includes 30 free days of gameplay for each MMO.

While you're at it, you can grab titles like Neverwinter Nights 2, Assassin's Creed and BioShock for $5. So do you think you'll take advantage of these offers? With new expansions on the way for both EVE Online and Age of Conan, now seems like a good time to try out either of these MMOs for such a low price.

Also, SOE President John Smedley recently hinted on his Twitter page that PlanetSide Next may be in the works, so it might be worthwhile to hone your PlanetSide skills in anticipation. It's important to keep in mind, however, that SOE has made no official announcements regarding PlanetSide Next.

Funcom has signed a deal with Geomerics to use the company's Enlighten lighting techology in both The Secret World and Rise of the Godslayer, the first Age of Conan expansion. According to Geomerics' Web site, "Enlighten is the only truly real-time radiosity lighting product for games. It allows you the freedom to create dramatic and interactive worlds with fully dynamic lighting."

A demo was shown at GamesCom last month demonstrating how Enlighten will be used in Rise of the Godslayer. "It’s truly exciting to use Enlighten and keep on pushing the envelope of graphical immersion in MMO-gaming by creating heart-pounding and stunningly realistic experiences for our gamers," Funcom CTO Rui Caisas said. You can read the full announcement after the jump.

This year we decided to cover PAX more aggressively than we have in the past and one of the by-products of that choice is our first annual PAX Awards. Even though the convention focuses on tabletop, PC and console games, MMOs were featured extensively, demonstrating they continue to become more and more popular in the gaming world. As such, due to our MMO focus we had to be extremely selective about what kind of awards we gave out and who we gave them to; however, we’re happy with the end result and we hope that you, our readers and the recipients of these awards will be as well. So without further ado, the Nominees!

In a press release issued earlier today, Age of Conan developer Funcom announced it's expanding its offices to Montréal, Canada. The new Montréal location will serve as a new development studio, aimed at working on both existing and in-development Funcom properties. Several of the company's current employees will be moving to work at the new location.

"Montréal has established itself as one of the world’s most important locations for video game production, and we are looking forward to taking part in that success,” says Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas, in the press release. “In addition to strengthening our North American presence, the new studio will take advantage of the great incentive programs offered by the Québec region, incentives that makes Montréal one of the most cost effective locations in the world for developing MMO games. This will in turn allow us to better balance our costs, making it possible for us to continue to expand our investments into the MMO segment.”

Although it's not a move that warrants too much speculation about the game developer's current industry strength, it does lead the casual observer to believe that Funcom is still going strong and looking towards the future. Recently, Funcom announced the first expansion for its Age of Conan MMO, Rise of the Godslayer, at GamesCom. Check out our interview from the expo here, and click past the jump to read the full press release.

Craig Morrison has written his newest Letter from the Game Director, and this one looks back at how hectic August has been for the team between the unveiling of the first Age of Conan expansion and the work being put into the next set of content updates for the game.

We got the chance to talk with Morrison and Lead Expansion Designer Joel Bylos about Rise of the Godslayer during GamesCom, and Morrison continues his discussion about the expansion in his letter. He explains how player feedback influenced the team's design choices, from maximizing playable areas to increasing the diversity in armor.

Morrison also explains that the team is currently working on three separate live updates: an imminent one for the Conquerors, a significant one with the Iron Tower level 80 instance, and the 1.06 update that includes features like Guild renown and the House of Crom instance. You can read his full letter after the jump.