Age of Empires

[Vuk]

I only played the demo, but I gotta say, I was not impressed by AoE III. In short, it sucked. AoE II was and is still the best in the series. I'd stick to that if I were you.

[Vuk]

Huh? AoEIII is just AoEII with better graphics and a new settings. If you like AoE2, you'll like AoE3. Just don't expect anything to be radically different.

Unfortunately, I have to disagree. AoE III felt so...miniature! Instead of feeling grander, your men, your buildings, everything just seemed so miniature and insignificant in their environment (the weakness of AoE II, only weaker), plus the gameplay felt cheap. To each their own, I guess. I have heard many good things about it from fans of the first two, but I gotta say, I was not impressed.

[Vuk]

Actually, you're right. The better graphics make the lack of scale much more apparent and bothersome. It was just as bad in AoE2, but the awful graphics gave it an excuse. It's a pretty big immersion breaker if you care about that sort of thing.

Yeah, it really did make it impossible for me to enjoy the game. I am not sure if the scale was bigger, smaller, or the same as AoE II, but it felt a lot smaller.

EDIT: Age of Mythology on the other hand I would recommend highly (the expansion pack was ok too, but I wasn't too impressed). While in many ways a big break from AoE, it was also very similar in many respects. If you liked AoE, you probably will love it.

[LeftEyeNine]

Same here. AoM is more of a contender than AoEIII when it comes to overall quality.

[rajpoot]

Agree about AOM if you don't have that get that first. It's the good old AOE formula wrapped up in mythology. Plus the campaign is quite fun.

I still stand by AOE3 though. If one is a fan of the series then it was a pretty good game.

[a completely inoffensive name]

Ensemble Studios how I miss you.... I have a theory that Microsoft dismantled this once great powerhouse of RTS in order to free up resources to invest in Kinect technology.

AOE 3 was pretty good, it just mixed things up too much from the technically perfect AOE2. There is a quote from someone from Ensemble admitting such. About 1/3 of the game was tinkering with new ideas such as the ship goodies coming from your homeland based off that odd card system.

Ensemble however was so good at RTS that they somehow managed to make a decent RTS for a console (Halo Wars) which is saying something considering almost all RTS on a console (AKA not on mouse and keyboard) are unplayable to begin with.

[Kekvit Irae]

O HAI THAR

Yes, it seems like a facebook game on the surface, but the missions are AoE we know and love.