Age of Empires...Online

[Rawwr]

http://www.ageofempiresonline.com/

Anyone had a chance to check this out yet? I just signed up for the beta. I used to love the old AoE games, this one looks like it could be fun as well.

Announcement Trailer
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxinW2IgHuY[/ame]


Stage Demo at GamesCon
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihbFPOvkc1M[/ame]

Some gameplay
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x2fTqQbA0M[/ame]

 

[Carmine]

If it is anything close to Age of Empires 2 or Age of Mythology they can just take my money.

All of it.

 

[Orange_Kun!!!]

I've read of problems with the balance between playing the game for free and paying money to play.

The article: http://pc.ign.com/articles/114/1145676p1.html

I've played the AoE series since it came out, but I'm a little wondering if there will be any point for someone to try and play this w/o paying any money.

 

[Rawwr]

I've read of problems with the balance between playing the game for free and paying money to play.

The article: http://pc.ign.com/articles/114/1145676p1.html

I've played the AoE series since it came out, but I'm a little wondering if there will be any point for someone to try and play this w/o paying any money.

I pulled the paragraphs from this article mentioning balancing between the free vs paid options for quick reference.

While the core gamplay hasn't been radically changed, the overall structure has. First off, Age of Empires Online is a free-to-play game, but not all the features are available if you elect to keep your wallet closed. You can play as Egyptian or Greek civilizations without spending any money, but you can't gain access to all their technology upgrades or bonus items. You also won't be able to enter into all the player versus player modes, take part in the crafting system, or skim in-game currency fees off players who purchase items from you.

What I'm a little concerned about is mixing paying and non-paying customers together within the community and how that could affect the fairness of competitive play. I do really like the idea of managing a persistent city. I'm a long time gamer and love collecting and customization, both of which factor in heavily to the process of building a capital city from a barren map dotted with only a handful of buildings to a bustling metropolis. The tech trees are huge and from the sounds of things there'll be a ton of items to collect and utilize, which hopefully provides more incentive to keep playing besides the traditional real-time strategy gameplay.

Kinda lame if you ask me, but if it's a fair price to buy, I totally am going to.

 

[Hidan]

If it is anything close to Age of Empires 2 or Age of Mythology they can just take my money.

All of it.

This. I just saw this thread, even though it's old I'm still eagerly awaiting Age of Empires online. I can easily say I blew more or less 3 years of my life playing Age of Mythology, and still find myself coming back to it every so often.

 

[RyanSoFire]

I can't even download and install it! Games for windows marketplace keeps crashing!!!

 

[ddily]

i love age of empires but the multiplayer aoe scares me a bit

 

[Novon]

I've been playing since launch, loving it. Classic AoE2 gameplay that keeps me glued to the screen, while not making me wish I was was playing the actual AoE2. The graphics are REALLY good (I've always had a thing for cartoony games though). I love that they made the civs much more different than before. AoE2 civs were more or less identical, save for a few bonuses and a couple of unique units. AoEO civs have much more different tech trees, which is great.

Consider the F2P portion as an extended trial though. This is not League of Legends, you HAVE to buy a premium civ if you're expecting to play the full game. The game becomes MUCH more fun once you pay those 20 bucks. What's great is that, once you're premium, you don't need to pay anymore, everything is unlocked forever, unless at some point you wanna try another civ.

 

[mdgrim]

If it is anything close to Age of Empires 2 or Age of Mythology they can just take my money.

All of it.

It is EXACTLY like aoe2 (during missions)... just with Tf2-ish graphics. Also pay to play = win, one time purchase of your amount. I only paid for the Egypt civ ($20 per civ) but that's because they are crazy fun to play and don't really plan on spending more. If anything I may get the premium Celt civ when they come out in December