AoE III review at IGN...

[VictimOfScience]

So IGN gives Age of Empires 3 an 8.8. Not too bad at all. I can't wait for this one next week! The demo has been loads of fun to play and mod, so I can just imagine what the final build will have in store. It still looks like the interface is a bit too big for my liking, but I don't think I will care while I am playing.

Here's the review.

 

[AmishSlayer]

I didn't really care for the game apart from ripping apart enemy buildings with artillery. That was satisfying. The rest felt unoriginal to me.

EDIT: From what I played in the demo that is.

 

[Icarusintel]

doesn't really matter what score it was getting, i was still gonna get it, based on the fact that the Age of Empires series has yet to let me down and this game not only felt like the old ones, it looked absolutely gorgeous

 

[Asuka]

I hate everything about this game. Played the demo. I hate the style, gameplay, setting, everything. :/

 

[Icarusintel]

I hate everything about this game. Played the demo. I hate the style, gameplay, setting, everything. :/

you also have the doom poster as your background....

 

[Warbie]

I loved AoE and AoE 2, played them to death for years.

I played AoE 3 demo for just an hour before getting very bored. It looks good, and has the same great gameplay, but is exactly the same as the others.

This is what the pc does best - gives us exactly the same games we've all been playing for years with better graphics.

 

[Septih]

This is what the pc does best - gives us exactly the same games we've all been playing for years with better graphics.

you could argue the same for the majority of the games industry...

 

[Warbie]

you could argue the same for the majority of the games industry...

I could, it's just easier on the pc.

AoE 3 does look very nice, though, and great for anyone who never really experienced the originals.

 

[MiccyNarc]

I loved AoE and AoE 2, played them to death for years.

I played AoE 3 demo for just an hour before getting very bored. It looks good, and has the same great gameplay, but is exactly the same as the others.

This is what the pc does best - gives us exactly the same games we've all been playing for years with better graphics.

The previous 2 were much more entertaining. AOE III tries and fails.

Rise and Fall looks great though.

 

[VictimOfScience]

I loved AoE and AoE 2, played them to death for years.

I played AoE 3 demo for just an hour before getting very bored. It looks good, and has the same great gameplay, but is exactly the same as the others.

What in the world were you doing in the demo that you didn't experience any of the new gameplay? Because if you did get to level-up your homecity and build a good deck of cards and build trade routes that had trains delivering goods to you and made deals with the Indians also, I would say that maybe you got a taste of what the game has in store. But I guess you didn't read the full review then either. Here's part that you might be interested in:

Age of Empires III also introduces some new elements -- home cities, native tribes, trade routes and such. Taken individually none of these are profound innovations but their cumulative effect makes the game feel fresh and strengthens the appeal of the core design.

If you played so much AoE and AoE 2, what made AoE 2 so innovative that it kept you coming back? I would beg to differ with you if you try to say that AoE 2 did more to add new gameplay than AoE3. The demo gave us a quick glimpse of some of the new elements we can expect, but there's a lot more to be done with them.

This is what the pc does best - gives us exactly the same games we've all been playing for years with better graphics.

I would actually argue that the PC has more innovation than the consoles certainly. Don't get me wrong, I love both types of gaming, but every new console launch has to have sequels to popular franchises and no one ever goes out on a limb with launch titles because its all about money/markert share. Its usually not til rather long in a console's lifecycle that you start to see a lot of creativity and innovation. PCs have been around for a long time and whats great about them is even very small developers can create really imaginative and artistic games that push other bigger developers to take notice of their creativity and innovation and ideally add it to their titles. Development costs for consoles are usually just too high to give smaller devs a chance to experiement and push any boundaries, so the support goes to big publishers and well-known developers with a track-record of selling hundreds of thousands or even millions of games.

I hope this all changes with this next-generation of consoles. Smaller devs are being treated much more cordially by the PS3 than they were with the PS2, so hopefully some interesting new talent will emerge from that pool. 360 development is apparently extremely close to PC development (NOT a coincidence), so hopefully the same folks who wanted to innovate on the PC or the console can spread their smaller message to a larger audience. Time will tell, but I am very confident in the future of gaming to deliver exciting new games as well as the next chapter of my favorite franchises.

 

[Frank]

8.8 at GameSpot

 

[Cole]

Personally the Demo really didn't do it for me. They simplified the resource system, not entirley a bad thing from AOE2. They used more of a modified gathering system from RON. Basically your resources don't have to be taken back to anything. What I think would have been best is use the resource system from RoN, and keep all the old resources from AoE2.
Overall, it adds some new things but.... none that really...push it to a new level of gaming. What I mean is, they don't really add to the fun factor, they do add alot to the learning curve though.

I would personally rather play EE2, where you have to find resources, take over more pre-setup territories, build an army, upgrade that army, use the nice diplomacy options, and most of all....let my civilization rise from the Stone Age.

Development costs for consoles are usually just too high to give smaller devs a chance to experiement and push any boundaries, so the support goes to big publishers and well-known developers with a track-record of selling hundreds of thousands or even millions of games.

This is going to **** over alot of innovative and new developers with Idea's.
Hell to get the Ps3's Development Kit. $17.1 million upfront.

Take yourself as a new developer. Development costs are going to skyrocket from the Xbox to the Xbox 360. The teams are also going to go about from 20-50 to about 100+ people. Now lets say you approach a publisher for funding on this new really cool idea you have for a game. Now to fund this game you will need 25 - 50 million. Do you really think publishers are going to take that much of a chance for a new studio? Probably not.

While on the Pc they can use steam or well...any other digitial distrubution program. For smaller just coming out developers that want to try something really new the Pc is going to be the place for them.

 

[wolvesrdogs]

judgeing from the demo it kicks ass

 

[63]

judgeing from the demo it kicks ass

I came to the opposite conclusion.

 

[bam23]

I thought it was pretty boring.

I liked Warhammer 40k: DOW more.

 

[TheSomeone]

The descrutible buildings were awesome.

 

[Spectre01]

I hate everything about this game. Played the demo. I hate the style, gameplay, setting, everything. :/

I agree. AOE3 showed me that a game can be crap while having excellent graphics which I have never encountered in any other game so strongly. DoW FTW.

 

[63]

I agree. AOE3 showed me that a game can be crap while having excellent graphics which I have never encountered in any other game so strongly. DoW FTW.

*cough* doom 3 *cough*

 

[dfc05]

I was a bit disappointed from the demo. For some reason it didn't feel quite as nice as the old Age of Empires. And from the IGN review it sounds like the only campaign they have just follows one group (or maybe I read it wrong, just skimmed through it)... which is kind of sad since I liked playing all the different civilizations in the first two.

I'll probably wait until it gets down to $20 and buy it then.

 

[wolvesrdogs]

I came to the opposite conclusion.

How so?

 

[wolvesrdogs]

I thought it was pretty boring.

I liked Warhammer 40k: DOW more.

Yeh Dawn of War is mad i either getting Winter Assualt or Age of Empires 3.
DoW is more for Bloodthirsty players, like me, but i also dont mind been patient like in AoE 3, if only AoE had some blood. They got destruction of buildings... o yay:| :| :rolling: . Destruction of human Torsos... YEH :thumbs: :thumbs: :thumbs:

:cheers: :cheers: :cheers:

 

[Cole]

DoW is more for Bloodthirsty players, like me, but i also dont mind been patient like in AoE 3, if only AoE had some blood. They got destruction of buildings... o yay . Destruction of human Torsos... YEH

You sound rather....you just care about the graphics and physics when it comes to AoE 3.