Anyone try out the new Age of Empires Online yet?

[CPA]

Looks like it was just added to Steam today, without much fanfare. Comes with 40 hours of free game time, but apparently your options are limited.

 

[KaOTiK]

From what I've heard about the game, it is almost purely pay to win. Nearly impossible to do much of anything without spending money.

 

[llee]

Some franchises just need to die.

 

[Dankk]

I have some coworkers who were huge into AoEII a while back, one day during lunch they decided to try out this new F2P version of it.

Basically: It's shit. If I understand correctly, you can't even play with your friends unless you pay some kind of fee. It's been watered down and whored out to a terrible pay2win gameplay model. A bit tragic.

 

[Cyco]

I played it once. Don't regret it staying at once.

 

[Craig234]

I tried it, thought it wasn't bad, but wasn't crazy about the money setup; it was easy in the intor part and quickly pretty hard I thought. I wouldn't mind trying it again.

This was Chris Taylor's most recent game, the guy who did Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander.

 

[RavenSEAL]

If you're a fan of the classic AoE games, you'll be disappointed. If you like FarmVille, hack away.

 

[KMFJD]

Tried it and it was very underwhelming

There's a expansion on the way for AOE2 though called Forgotten Empires

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-ZBLB8L_xk

Anyone else tried Gameranger to play AOE2?

 

[Barfo]

Some franchises just need worthy sequels.

fixed

 

[jacktesterson]

Age of Empires : Rise of Rome and Age of Empires II are still my top 2 games of all time.

I sunk more hours into those games then any other game made.

I was really disappointed with Age of Empires Online. Wish they made it not Free to play, or Buy everything you need to win, to play.

 

[Pandora's Box]

Its not that bad but its not what most of us are looking for in the next age of empires game. Personally I would love to see an Age of Empires 4 where they took the game to the 1800's early 1900's. Or even better would be to just remake Age of Empires 2 with a modern graphics engine.

 

[Genx87]

I played it in the Fall. It was ok. Just a bunch of missions where you kill or destroy things. Not that compelling to me. Maybe the PVP would be good but from what I hear. If you arent paying you will get destroyed.

 

[TehMac]

There's a expansion on the way for AOE2 though called Forgotten Empires

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-ZBLB8L_xk

This looks more like a mod (a very good one) than a commercial enterprise. Oddly, most of Ensemble's employees now work for Zynga branches, while Bruce Shelley was an adviser for the settler games.

And Rick Goodman has dropped off the radar for the last 5 years!

 

[Craig234]

Steam has a hidden sale on the content - 50% off, and a $50 package for $16.99.

 

[MWink]

I've been trying to like this game since it came out but I just can't do it. It's utterly miserable even with some of the paid content. I loved every other Age of game but this one is just horrible. It's painfully repetitive. You may get 40 hours of content for free but most of it is going to be replaying the same level over and over and over. I find the difficulty all over the place. Some levels seem way to easy while others seem brutally hard.

It's probably a good thing it's on Steam now because the regular installer/updater is the absolute worst I've EVER used. It puts files wherever it feels like (not where you tell it). Half the time it says the game is installed when it is not and just throws errors when you try to run it.

I just find this game a generally disgusting experience. I know I'll never trust another Microsoft Free to Play game again.

 

[Maximilian]

If they will pay me to play this crap then i will, otherwise nah

 

[Bateluer]

I see a crap load of DLC for it, thus confirming my stance that its a steaming pile of crud.

 

[Throckmorton]

It's $17 on Steam. Worth it?

 

[Craig234]

It's $17 on Steam. Worth it?

For some yes others no, I think the free version gives a good taste. I got it.

 

[Throckmorton]

UGH. It requires a key which Steam doesn't have. So you have to sign into GFWL in your browser and obtain a key. Why? It's freaking free to play.

And now it won't even accept my Windows Live sign in info.

 

[Throckmorton]

I logged into GFWL but the server is apparently down and I can't get a key.

For a free game.

That I might have ended up buying DLC for.

Why the hell is it so difficult to play games these days? You know it's bad when a FREE game has a KEY that you can't even get.

 

[Craig234]

I logged into GFWL but the server is apparently down and I can't get a key.

For a free game.

That I might have ended up buying DLC for.

Why the hell is it so difficult to play games these days? You know it's bad when a FREE game has a KEY that you can't even get.

Don't know... but all online games seem to have downtime, including ones you pay for.

Not sure why, either - they could keep them online I'd think, with swapping.

 

[Craig234]

I need to uninstall the game and then install it in Steam to use the DLC.

There's no menu uninstall option - why not, much less in a Microsoft game?

Edit: more annoying, I found you're supposed to uninstall though the GFWL client. I did, it was almost immediate, it's off the list in the client - but still taking up 4GB.

It's also gone from the Windows control panel uninstaller. That leaves a manual deletion? That's not supposed to be required...

 

[MWink]

A few more things I forgot to mention. The uninstaller is just as bad as the installer/updater. As some of you have mentioned, it doesn't seem to uninstall much of anything. I had to manually delete all the files (~4GB) it left scattered everywhere. I think most of it was in Appdata but I'm not sure.

As for the key issue. I'm pretty sure this game does NOT require a key. I think it only asks for a key when you screw up logging into GFWL. I figured they would have fixed this glaring issue by now but apparently not. I think if you get signed into GWFL properly (which can be an ordeal in itself) it will stop asking for a key.

I really think this game could have been programmed better if written by monkeys.

 

[Barfo]

lol seems pretty bad. I won't even bother trying.