Bukkit

I've been playing it ever since curse sent me an email they were giving beta keys for this. I'm a rather big fan of the AOE series and the one I've liked the most has been AOE2 AoK so far. Honestly got AOE3 and never even played the expansions cause it was terribly boring. At first when I saw this months ago I complained about the cartoony graphics (as I did with wind waker and the new zelda that looks like crap) but I gave it a chance and honestly think it's a pretty amazing game.

AOE3 was meant to be a little bit "faster" or so I thought because they made really bad decisions mainly on resource gathering that villagers didn't have to return the wood or stone or food, I mean wtf? Plus the reduction from 4 resources to 3... well, closely 1 because really there was no effort on gathering resources at all.

Now, on to AOEO, I'm really liking it quite a bit. I think the cartoony graphics give a REALLY good ambience and feeling to the game that you won't be able to comprehend unless you actually play it. It has the same setup of aoe2 with 4 resources and villagers have to return whatever they gather, the way it should be IMO. The're plenty quests and they're not terribly boring like aoe3 ones and overall the game seems to be a bit faster, I could even say that you could possibly micro units in this (microing in previous aoes wasn't really ever a big deal IMO). They've done a good job with the engine, graphics look closely the same on high settings or low, AOE 3 was kindof pretty in super omg ultra high settings but in other to run those ultra high omg pretty graphics you needed a god computer which, in my third world country, I don't have and my poor lappy would just get omgraped. Plus the aoe3 engine was just...really bad, it'd ALWAYS lag on ship battles, or battles involving cannons, and that was reported in many computers not just shitty laptops.

Overall, so far this game looks promising, like I said, I also said screw this cartoon graphics, but played it and found out it added "something" to the game, I just hope they don't screw it up on release, so far in the beta it's been okay but you know how this things turn out to be "free to play" but "pay to win". The way co-op missions works is just plain awesome and something I've never seen before as well.

AOE has never been a game in which one could map. That's all I'll say about this topic. Most one could do melee maps but not maps with entire new gameplays like in sc2 or sc1. The editors have always been so terrible, and aoeo being kind of mmoish I doubt you'll even be able to make maps to the public.

I don't know much about this, but from what I've seen of other games that got the 'online' all it ever means is 'it takes days to get anything done, also you cannot play this for more than a few minutes at a time.'

@Robbepop

robbie, i had "the same problem". if you're talking about the small 4 or 6MB file (depending on 32 or 64-bit version), that doesn't work. there is a direct link on the bottom of the page to the real Live ID thing. should be about 21MB. so, it's not that it will or won't install properly.

i think the game is insanely fun and is probably what they really wanted AOE3 to be but just couldn't do it.

the game has some issues. my biggest one is the built-in, unremoveable language filter. fucking gay if you ask me. and on top of that, it doesn't even filter properly. i can't say the word button, or bitch. but i can say the word bitches no problem. just stupid. language filters are for communists...

but it seems like this is a really neat first gen version of a MMORTS. been waiting for something like this for a long time.

and why do people keep saying SC2's graphix are cartoony?? just makes no sense. are sc2's gfx uber top-of-the-line? maybe not. but cartoony? not even close...

@RodrigoAlves

Since I have played the game extensivley (AOE 3 that is) I can say that there really is no popularity system at all. You make a map with the very basic editor, post it, and sometimes people join, other times not. The catch is that there is no just joining of games that are published. Someone that has played the map already (has downloaded it) is able to host it, anyone else, isn't because it isn't held server side. I don't know a darn thing about AOEO but I figure therer isn't much for custom maps there either because it's MMOish.

What is wrong with you people? How does this [b]not[/b] sound like fun? Its like Civ on a massive scale.. Or one of those browser strategy games, but with graphics!

I kinda agree Gnareffotsirk. Can't say about this game though since I haven't and probably won't play it.

. . . .

Is it me or the page to get the key is not working? _ Edit: Never mind, it's working now

See what they done with AOE ? Now imagine that done to Starcraft. Fear.

So is it only me who played it and think it looks like a decent game. Not anything you could spend 10 hours a day playing, but a decent medicore game. It feels much like age of empires 2 with a graphics rehaul and working interface for management of units.

-AOE2 > AOE3 so that is fine for me. -A bit silly graphics, cartoony and cute to watch, much like starcraft tbh. -Plenty of micromanagement when it comes to combat and economy donno why you guys says there isn't. -Coop multiplayer rts missions, why have no game used this in the past in a good way? :D -Able to customize your units in many different ways.

I don't see why it is a horrible bad game tbh. Can't say how good it is endgame though, havent reached quite that far in yet. And when it comes to pvp donno, never lost a fight, not exactly koreans playing the game :D

Seems Age of Empires has officially died.

The decline of the gaming industry is not because of the players, nor piracy, but rather developers making terrible decisions.

Consolidation of power, distribution, marketing, and cartoony graphics. All these brings desolation.

:D

Windows only? Screw that!

Also, shut up Rodrigo.

Can I map make for this Age of Empires? Do they have a better pop. sys?

Boring ADs... I hunger for map previews...

Yeah I was always a huge AoE fan before I ever picked up a Blizzard title. And this doesn't look even remotely appealing to me. The comment of "Farmville 2" below seems to sum it up nicely.

I've really been itching for a good RTS lately. Picked up Shogun 2 and I'm really underwhelmed by that also =(

I was a big fan of AoE when I was a kid, still am, it was what I grew up with. That was like the game I would play every day. Age of Empires 3 was a disappointment, compared to the others at least. It was still a good game overall. With this, I really hope they don't ruin what Age of Empires was like.

Anyone remember Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings?

Good times.

Sorry to burst your bubbles (if you had one) but this game is nothing compared to age of empires 3. I played AOE3 for around 2-3 years and it was amazing. AOE O is a cartoon and in my opinion a darn shame. If there was an AOE4 It would be amazing though. This game removes the entire skill set needed to like AOE. Micromanaging an economy's workers and saving single unit's lives aren't in this.

I should have curse premium because I won a contest a while back; but it never happened. Anyway, I really like the idea of MMORTS (if that's what this is)... but gas powered games ultimately fails on the 'small details' of their products, which is why they always die quickly or have never enjoyed the success that blizz/valve have had. So with that in mind, I will probably not bother.

It'll be interesting to see what Blizz's next gen MMO is...

This looks like what could be Farmville 2