Age of Empires 3 thread (actual game, not demo)

[Sava]

I got this game yesterday.

Very good.

Although graphically, I wouldn't say it's a giant leap forward. It's about on par with Rise of Nations. Gameplay is about what you would expect from an AoE game. There are a lot of little things they added that are fun.

I haven't played the campaign or multiplayer yet, just skirmishes with the AI.

So far it's been fun.

I like how you can go to the "Home Country" screen. It brings back fond memories of "Colonization".

You can go to this screen and select any number of "shipments" to be made back to your colony. Usually it's just colonists, food, or military units. As you advance in ages there are other things you can send back. Some things are really useful, like one of the things it let me do as upgrade all my field cannons. Another thing was it let me upgrade all my outposts which increased the attack and range.

I just got done with a game against the Spanish (I played as English). There was an Iroquois AI also that I traded with. Early on, I sent my explorer out (one bad thing about this game, there is no "auto explore feature, like in RoN") and cornered the market on trading with the Iroquois. I built outposts and choked the Spanish so they could not trade with them. Also, I didn't allow the Spaniards to expand. So eventually, I was able to win the battle of attrition. I kept their attacks at bay while I upgraded to the Imperial age.

Then, I built a sizeable invasion force, and with one mortar artillery unit, just pounded their town into submission. I destroyed their town hall and it was "all she wrote" for them.

This game is good.

[DrSpike]

Let's face it, the game will live or die in the long term on MP anyway. Who plays AoM? No-one, because it sucks for competitive play and is no longer inlcuded in any major e-leagues or tourneys. For this game to really be the successor to AoE2 it has to own in multiplayer.

I hope it does. I haven't played a RTS with real potential since Warcraft3, and that's old now, albeit still great and going strong (along with the even older Starcraft). The competitive RTS scene needs another game to keep things fresh. I hope this is it.

[Sava]

there hasn't been a good RTS game in terms of MP since Starcraft...

Warcraft 3 was awful and Blizzard basically decided to ruin the Warcraft franchise... WoW just made it worse (though WoW is not RTS)...

I don't think AoE3 is going to even come close to Starcraft... not by a longshot.

I never was a fan of the AoE series to begin with. So I can't really compare it to previous AoE titles. Also, I have yet to try MP, so I don't know how popular it will be for MP.

But on it's own merits, AoE3 is a good game.

I have to play it more before giving a grade or rating. I'll provide a more in depth review later in the thread.

[DrSpike]

You wont be able to try MP on your cracked version.

[Nostromo]

Although graphically, I wouldn't say it's a giant leap forward. It's about on par with Rise of Nations.

Judging by the screenshots I've seen, I'd say it looks a lot better than RON. I tried the RON demo and it simply looked awful...

[Traianvs]

aom's just as fun in mp as aok:tc so...

well some games get the masses hooked, some don't. let's face it, CS is a crap game that's boring most of the time, but lots of ppl are addicted to it still

[Sava]

Originally posted by nostromo


Judging by the screenshots I've seen, I'd say it looks a lot better than RON. I tried the RON demo and it simply looked awful...

In what way?

I play RoN: Thrones and Patriots at 1600x1200 with highest settings and I play AoE 3 at 1600x1200 with highest settings... (just so I'd have a frame of reference, I loaded a game of RoN:TP, to see graphics)

I honestly don't see that much of a difference. I mean, how much better can you make little colonist/citizen units (or military units) look?

Are there some kind of smoke or explosion effects in AoE3 that are not in RoN?

What about the graphics are so profoundly better in AoE3 than RoN?

They both look very good graphically. But I don't see how AoE3 is leaps and bounds ahead of RoN in any way.

Maybe you can edumacate me.


DrSpike: if I do play MP with this game, it will probably be LAN with my friends

The last time I actively played an RTS game over the internet was with Starcraft... and most of the time, it was with friends when we couldn't be together at a LAN.

[Nostromo]

I tried the RON demo @ 1280x1024 and it looked awful, I don't know why. I tried it out like... five minutes, then uninstalled it. It sure as hell didn't look anything like this:

[Asher]

Originally posted by DrSpike
You wont be able to try MP on your cracked version.

Sure you can.

Those who know what they're doing use Hamachi to maintain a contact list of people on the internet, which then become part of your "LAN". I use it all the time to play games "over LAN" across the internet with people.

It works with AOE3, too.

[Sava]

Originally posted by nostromo
I tried the RON demo @ 1280x1024 and it looked awful, I don't know why. I tried it out like... five minutes, then uninstalled it. It sure as hell didn't look anything like this:

well try RoN: TP

it's unfair to compare a demo of one game to a full version release of another game

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Asher

Sure you can.

Those who know what they're doing use Hamachi to maintain a contact list of people on the internet, which then become part of your "LAN". I use it all the time to play games "over LAN" across the internet with people.

It works with AOE3, too.

Thanks. I remember looking into this possibility when AoM came out, but it was a bit flaky then IIRC. Nice to know the last remaining hurdle for those with cracked games is not really an issue any more.

[Adagio]

Originally posted by Sava
well try RoN: TP

it's unfair to compare a demo of one game to a full version release of another game

I have RoN: TP, but it looks nowhere as good as AoE3

[Sava]

then maybe you can explain to me what is the big difference between the two...

I am not seeing any real major differences...

the only thing graphically (that I can really tell) that is an improvement in AoE3 is when artillery hits buildings, they take damage in specific locations where they were hit...

[Sava]

oh man, I was playing skirmish mode (single player)...

apparantly, you get experience points even in single player and you can unlock "playing cards" for your home cities...

this is good... there is actually some incentive to play the single player skirmish mode!

the cards are basically more things you can send to your colony during the game (like military units or upgrades and stuff)...

there are 5 categories of cards to choose from, and I think 4 levels of cards... there's sort of a "tree", some have prereq's...

it's little intangibles like these that makes games have a higher replay value

[Koriand'r]

imho theres not enough cards to make it interesting.its a no brainer to get the +2\+4 colonist cards for example, and most of them are no question. there isnt hundreds and hundreds with special 'rares' to make things exotic. although it does increase replay value,i felt little desire to level up past 15 or so

i dunno if you have tried this,but you can setup LAN with 2 players and just XP whore to level 50 or whatever you want then go play multiplayer,with cards of your choosing(although ES said they added this)

not impressed much :/ i quit after 3 hours. it is fun but not enough for me to stop playing other games like KOTOR or ET etc long enough to play it