Yay! RON in Brazil!

[Alex]

One of the most important Brazilian newspapers, "Folha de São Paulo", published in its March 12th edition the following note:

Manage the life of Nations in the game "Rise of Nations"

from Folha de S.Paulo

Rise of Nations is a real-time strategy game that roughly spans six thousand years of History, from the Stone Age to modern times. The game will be released in Brazil in May, with a suggested price of R$ 99,00 (~ US$ 28,00), but Folha managed to play a (beta) test version of the game.

You'll not only have to worry about the military preparations, you'll also have to manage resource gathering and, more often than not, the technology research. Science, commerce and religion are some of the available fields.

Each one of the 18 nations has specific features which decisively influence one player's strategy.

Obviously, the above text was translated by me ( ), and I know it is horrible, but...

They say that the game will be released in May and that its suggested price will be of R$ 99 (approximately US$ 28), which is the standard price for the most recent releases.

Link to the original story:

http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/informatica/ult124u12455.shtml

[tniem]

$28? Damn, a little better price than what I am used to paying here in the States.

[Bridger]

yeah wtf we pay $50 for new games here....

[Alex]

That's for sure, but you have to remember that you earn more than we do...

Edit: And R$ 99 (99 reais) is a lot of money for us...

[Alex]

Another article about RoN, also published in March 12th in the "Games" section of Terra (an internet provider and portal in Brazil). I roughly translated it and there is nothing especially new in the article, but I thought it would be worth to post it here.

Mixing Civilization and Age of Empires

MACIEL COLLI

Rise of Nations is a strategy game which mixes two classic games: Civilization (turn-based) and Age of Empires (real-time). It will be released by Microsoft's game division, which is the publisher - the game is actually being developed by Big Huge Games. The version we tested - beta 2 - still has a number of bugs and it lacks items that will be added before the game is released. Rise of Nations will probably be on American store shelves in April - on Brazil, it will be available probably in May.
In Rise of Nations, the player chooses the nation he wants to command among 18 options. Each one of them has exclusive features and units, on top of those which are available to all nations. By means of resource exploitation (food, wood, iron and knowledge), it is possible to build cities that, when grouped in a good number, occupy a large portion of the map and constitute a nation. Resources also allow the player to invest in research fields: financial, military, civic, commercial and others. The more advanced the technology is, greater is the nation's power and territorial influence.
Gameplay is similar to that in Age of Mythology - actually, it is almost the same. Units and buildings are individually managed by the player, who may build huge armies to defend his/her nation. A striking difference in this game is the possibility of expanding the territorial influence by means of building new cities, something akin to Dune II.
The 3D engine in the game is awesome. We can clearly see particles [sic] and individual shadows in most of the scenery. The player can control the zoom levels, having a grand view of the terrain or seeing details of the combat between enemies. Sure, if you want to enjoy all this, you better have a powerful videocard. Rise of Nations runs smoothly with a Geforce 4 TI 4200, with few stuttering.
Rise of Nations' musical score is great. The music is related to the nation with which you are playing, and this produces a very realistic mood. The sound effects are also good, fading in and out according to the game view position (eg., the closer you get to a battle, the louder the sound will be).
The intro movie is like the one in Age of Mythology, with a 3D cutscene that shows how civilization evolved from its beginnings to a distant future for us. It is impressive.
Despite the fact that we tested only a beta version of what is coming near, it is possible to assure now that Rise of Nations will be a hit for the real-time strategy lovers. The amazing graphic interface and sound effects plus a great story guarantees that Rise of Nations will be fun for lots of people.

Here is the link for the original article:

http://games.terra.com.br/fichas/2003/03/12/000.htm

[erz87]

And we Israel we will probably pay 250 shekels, and 100 shekels is already too much in israel... I wander how fast it will come to israel, this great game...