View Full Version : Age Of Empires 3 Demo
Hope its good as the first and second one.
http://www.ageofempires3.com/
age of empires is my ultimate favourite RTS for PC
Well it looks like almost everything in the game has been changed. You have your own town, which you could get more supplys from, graphics are looking great. I cant say much on gameplay since I havnt played no more then 10mins. I kept on losing because everthing has changed and im not used to the interface yet.
coltde420
09-10-2005, 19:39
Wow i never played an ages of empire game, but this game is great. I just played for 2 and half hours without even realizing it.
lol :lol:
I was playing the game all night. I beat the campaign mode. So far the game is looking to be another addictive game just like the first and second installments. :shock:
Cant wait for the real game to come out. Its going to be sweet!! :D
This looks awsome I am waiting for a console version perhaps an XBox live version. That would be fun. I love AOE because I am a big history guy and they try hard to preserve the realism. In my oppinion this game will pwn!
Yea I checked out this demo about two or three weeks ago. it's pretty good, but a complete change of gameplay. It really doesn't feel like AOE anymore. The industrial time frame and difference in gameplay make this one very different. it took me quite a while to get used to the game play and I’m still finding it quite tough. Despite this though I think the graphics are awesome and the missions much better structured than AOEI/II.
pacman326
09-24-2005, 18:07
It is interesting for sure, but I can't afford to buy it, because all my money is going toward a certain shiney spiderman 2 graphiced machine. :lol: Maybe someone will be nice, and give it to me for free. :lol:
Ok I have a question. See now that AOe 3 requires ateast 64 mb graphics card and I have a 32 mb and its in my motherboard so do I need to get a new motherboard???
Ok I have a question. See now that AOe 3 requires ateast 64 mb graphics card and I have a 32 mb and its in my motherboard so do I need to get a new motherboard???You could just get a PCI graphic card or if it supports agp get an AGP gpu.
Yeah um my ports are full, i used the last one for WIfi
Then I guess you need to buy a MB with more slots or one that supports AGP (if possible PCI-E). Or you could just open up a slot and get a gpu.
StrikeMaster Ice
10-18-2005, 18:23
interview with developer Ensemble's head Bruce Shelley on Age of empires III and future plan.
Age of Empires III is about entertainment. But it's also the story of a brutal conquest. Any story of Europe's discovery of the New World must deal with the role of the people who were already here.
Ensemble knew it would have to come up with a Native American role within the game that was sensible and sensitive.
The company decided to include the locals in the game as a resource, or strategic element. But they are not playable; nor can they be attacked. Was that a gameplay or a political decision? Shelley explains…
"It's a little bit of both. We felt that Native Americans had to be represented in the game but there was a political concern. What happened to Native Americans was the worst holocaust in human history. Upwards of 95% of the population was gone a short time after the arrival of Europeans. Clearly, there was incredible devastation.
"The descendants of survivors live here and are a political force and there is concern about how they are treated and depicted today. We worked with a Microsoft group of Native American employees and talked about what they expected to see.
"Our decision was to play the game from a European standpoint. The natives would be an important part of the landscape. If you ally with them and your enemies don't, that is a critical advantage. It gave the natives an important role in the game but they are not there to be devastated or wiped out. There's no point in playing them as an opponent because they wouldn't stand a chance. We did not think that was a good solution."
Historical realism
Shelley is often asked about the game's grip on actual historical events, even, on one occasion by Microsoft's super-boss. "We demonstrated Age II to Bill Gates and he wanted to know if it could be used for educational games. But we are about entertaining people. We borrow historical elements to make an entertaining game. We do a lot of work to pull this great stuff out of history and make it work, but it's just a resource where we get our ideas."
Planning the Project
Age of Empires II follows the enormous success of the first two games, and a spin-off. It's a much-loved series with a massive community of online players. The pressure to deliver is immense.
How difficult was this game to produce, compared with previous efforts? "It was the hardest game for us to make because we were torn by the desire to innovate and to hold onto what makes an Age game. Those two dynamics were pulling on us all the time," says Shelley.
But how much of the game is decided at the beginning the project, and how much gets tagged on along the way? He explains, "It's organic and iterative. We started off with a plan and a mandate to really innovate. We had a lot of really innovate ideas that we liked, but whenever our studio people said, 'well, this is not an Age of Empires game' we decided to go back and make a game that was more like an Age of Empires game."
Innovations and Rejections
One success has been the much-vaunted concept of the Home City; an off-screen resource that grows as the player gains experience from one game to the next. Shelley believes it's the single biggest innovation in the game, and may well be added to the pantheon of RTS catalysts.
One rejected idea was the concept of Victory Points. "As you went along you scored points for doing various things in the game. The first team to a certain number of points would win. A lot of people liked it, but a lot of people didn't. We worked on it again and again until we had a big meeting. The team split 60% in favor and 40% against. We felt that a 40% dissent was too big a number. If that was reflected in the marketplace it would be a disaster for us, so we snuffed it out all together."
How difficult is it to reject work that has taken up so many resources and emotional energy? "We are paid to be designers and to make those calls. We have to be business people as well."
Other RTS games
What about rivals RTS games? Does Ensemble make subtle changes to its games as rivals appear on the market?
"We play them all," says Shelley. "But it's hard to translate a good idea from someone else's game to your own. I know that my friends at Big Huge Games have got their ideas of boundaries and a lot of us liked that idea but we thought it was too proprietary and we couldn't just take that idea and use it in our game."
He adds, "I thought Dawn of War did some good things with their units, and how you could upgrade individual units and groups instead of the whole group. We loved it but we didn't borrow it. We are aware of that stuff, and sometimes we see stuff that we've done show up in other games, but it may be that they have come up with them independently.
How well will it sell?
Such was the success of Age II, that even internally, few believe Age III can repeat those numbers, "We would be incredibly happy if Age III sold as well as Age II. That was a perfect storm of a game. It's one of the best selling PC games of all time. At the time, in 1999, you could play it on any PC in the world. Age III won't play on any PC in the world, because the technology has moved on. Also, 1999 was the peak of PC games interest in the world. PC games were more popular then than any year previous or since."
Age of Empires MMOG?
What other plans are there for Age of Empires franchise? I ask about next generation consoles and the potential for an MMOG.
"I don't think there is a plan for Age III on any console machines. There is a DS Age II game, but that isn't a port. It's the idea transferred to a different platform. The only option would be Xbox but we're not working on that.
We'd consider [an MMOG] but we're not making any announcements right now. We're not a big studio, just 80 people. We take on smaller things…But we could do that…"
At this point I get very excited and press for more details. Alas, my forces are repelled. "The next thing we publish will be quite different from Age of Empires III but what it is I can't really say right now. We're trying some new concepts. We want to do different types of games. Nothing has been turned into a real game. Anything is possible right now.
"We'll look at the possibility of an expansion pack. If it's a real success we'll do that but we'll probably let Age rest for a while. Some of our guys have been working on the series for a decade. However, we get new people coming to us because they love the series so much so if we get critical mass, we may look at it again."
Mac version?
The final word is about the potential for a Mac version…"We don't know that yet. It's up to the Mac port people. They usually approach us if there's a business case for it. But there's nothing I know of right now."
Age of Empires III is on sale today. Tomorrow, we'll be hearing from an educational company using AoE III to teach history in High School.
http://www.next-gen.biz/
Sypher57
11-01-2005, 07:32
I can't wait to get this game... I know it's already out ive seen it in bestbuy It's just I don't wana buy ti right now because Im trying to save up for a 4-wheeler but I'm probley going to give in and buy it when I get my pay check lol
Ultima X
10-02-2007, 00:16
Cryptic messaging abound as Guerrilla Games hit towards Killzone 2 and Home interactivity.
In the recent issue of Official PlayStation Magazine, a hands-on with the highly anticipated game was detailed. When questioning Steven Ter Heide, producer of the game, about the multiplayer, he had this to say: “[There’s] a lot of interesting things we're going to be able to do. But we can't talk about it yet. Home is also very interesting. There's a lot of opportunity there, and it’s all part of our multiplayer strategy.â€
The_Only
10-02-2007, 08:44
Edited & Live.