Age of Empires III

[Five_X]

I recently decided to start playing this game again. I was surprised; even today, six years after it came out, it's got very pretty graphics.

Anyhow, let's discuss! Or, is there anyone here who would be interested in online play?

[Kratosirving]

I've never really been that good in Online play. I've always been the noob who sits back and techs up before building an army and going to demolish an enemy, even if that means getting all the 5k resource upgrades for shit or w/e at the Capitol building (even when there would be little to no point in getting them)

Still, it was always fun to play. Despite the majority of the reviews I saw of it back in the day, I actually liked the Campaign for AoEIII Classic. Warchiefs one was pretty...meh. Asian Dynasties was fun though. Chinese Campaign (and their civilization as a whole with the hire packs of units instead of training specific ones) was more "wut" than anything else, but the Japanesen and Indian ones were well done, imo.

[I3uster]

AoE 3 classic campaign was fun but the plot was a bit retarded.
AoE Warchiefs campaign was fun and the plot oddly felt slightly less retarded, probably only because I got used to it.

Asian Dynasties is something I still have to play.

[Five_X]

Don't worry, Kratos! I wouldn't let my Streletsky rush stomp you too hard. :P

And yeah, Asian Dynasties is pretty awesome. I like the Consulate mechanic for the Asian civs.

[Ivan The Mouse]

I still long for it! ;_;

[alfheimwanderer]

It was only 10 cents a couple of years ago at thanksgiving sale. xD

[Five_X]

I bought the Collector's Edition of AoE3 the very morning it came out. I still look at the big box occasionally, with great nostalgia. I certainly wouldn't be the person I am today if it wasn't for me deciding to play Age of Empires II all those years ago...

[I3uster]

I bought the Collector's Edition of AoE3 the very morning it came out. I still look at the big box occasionally, with great nostalgia. I certainly wouldn't be the person I am today if it wasn't for me deciding to play Age of Empires II all those years ago...

When I open the artbook and see the artworks for AoE4 and 5 I get sad.

WHY ENSEMBLE STUDIOS? WHHHYYYYY?

Why isn't MS continuing the series? RTS market had quite the revival with SC2.

[Five_X]

Eh, you have to remember that Ensemble shut down right when MS was completely obsessed with the Halo series to the point where they weren't focusing on anything else. Halo Wars is probably what broke Ensemble, since I don't recall it selling well and the "Golden Age of RTS Games" had already ended.

I'm not even sure if anything but really big-name RTS games made by famous companies can sell anymore. Microsoft might manage it, but even if they start it up it really won't be the same as Ensemble making it. I think the whole Ensemble Studios team is really what made Age of Empires what it was. The most that could happen, I guess, is if one of the companies that was started up by the ex-ES members will get the rights to a new Age of Empires game. Of course, there's that shitty one out there that's using the IP, but I don't even know what's going on with AoE and Microsoft anymore.

[I3uster]

Well, Halo Wars not selling well can be attributed to it being...well, a console RTS and thus doomed to fail from the start.
(Though I quite liked it, it lacked depth but it had this cool arcade-y feeling to it)

[Five_X]

And we all know what happened with the Command and Conquer games... :|

[I3uster]

CRAAAAAWLERS AS MY BAAAASE
THIS FRAAAAAANCHISE WILL NOT HEEEEEAAAAAAL