AoE and Future AoE-esque games

[TehMac]

I miss the old Age of Empires, I wish ES had made AoE 4 instead of this Halo Wars bull shit, and that ES hadn't closed down, but it sounds like they didn't have any vision, so I am kind of glad they closed down, gives a chance for a fresh start for a new studio to form.

I'm waiting for news on Rick Goodman's project, hopefully he'll reveal it in 2009. Big Huge Games is working on an RPG we'll hear about in 2009 as well, so I doubt Rise of Nations 2 is coming anytime soon.


But jesus, to hear the music from that video...Age of Empires was something special, and it really sucks to see almost no RTS games from that era come out.

 

[Zenoth]

There's still AoE III plus both expansions. And our beloved AoE II as well. If there's another AoE game it'll be more of the same really, with prettier graphics and physics, but it'll come down to resource-gathering mechanics which we've known since C&C more than a decade ago. There is potential for good RTS'es out there coming from Petroglyph, but so far their support for Universe at War makes me wonder if they'll end up like Ensemble Studios.

 

[TehMac]

What I'd like to see is a City Building RTS. You build a city and then you raise an army, and then you capture more cities and then you build an empire! Basically, I'd like to see Stardock make an RTS featured in the ancient era.

 

[Flammable]

Originally posted by: TehMac
What I'd like to see is a City Building RTS. You build a city and then you raise an army, and then you capture more cities and then you build an empire! Basically, I'd like to see Stardock make an RTS featured in the ancient era.

Rome?

 

[TehMac]

Originally posted by: Flammable

Originally posted by: TehMac
What I'd like to see is a City Building RTS. You build a city and then you raise an army, and then you capture more cities and then you build an empire! Basically, I'd like to see Stardock make an RTS featured in the ancient era.

Rome?

Kinda, but a more intimate city building experience.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: TehMac

Originally posted by: Flammable

Originally posted by: TehMac
What I'd like to see is a City Building RTS. You build a city and then you raise an army, and then you capture more cities and then you build an empire! Basically, I'd like to see Stardock make an RTS featured in the ancient era.

Rome?

Kinda, but a more intimate city building experience.

Caesar 3&4? The military aspect wasn't exactly 3's highlight though, and I never bothered doing anything with the military in Caesar 4.

 

[TehMac]

Originally posted by: Bateluer


Caesar 3&4? The military aspect wasn't exactly 3's highlight though, and I never bothered doing anything with the military in Caesar 4.

Caesar 3 was kinda cool, but what I'm really thinking guys is Age of Empires multiplied by 10, plus a little Supreme Commander sauce.

I am excited for Imperium Romanum 2, I think.

 

[Auryg]

Someone really needs to remake Age of Empires I and II. III just didn't have the same charm/tactics.

 

[TehMac]

Yes! I agree with you, Auryg. Problem is, ES shut down, I kind of think that's a good thing, it means that a new company can develop and have better ideas.

But definitely we need some spiritual successors to AoE 1 and 2.

 

[Piuc2020]

I can't believe Microsoft decided to make an RTS for a platform that only has 8 buttons (counting triggers and bumpers) and no mouse, the situation is even worse considering Microsoft owns the platform where the game would truly shine (Windows).

I guess quality doesn't move games anymore, people will pretty much just play anything. Halo Wars could be made by God, it's an RTS, on a console, it WILL suck.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: Piuc2020
I can't believe Microsoft decided to make an RTS for a platform that only has 8 buttons (counting triggers and bumpers) and no mouse, the situation is even worse considering Microsoft owns the platform where the game would truly shine (Windows).

I guess quality doesn't move games anymore, people will pretty much just play anything. Halo Wars could be made by God, it's an RTS, on a console, it WILL suck.

Everyone knew Halo Wars was going to blow, its one of those given facts of the universe.

Personally, I think MS too greedy to let the Age of Empires franchise sit idle for long. It may not come from ES, but I think we'll see an AOE4 before too many years roll by. The question isn't If, but when, and whether or not it will be worth playing.

The historical RTS genre has been fairly flat recently. Empire Earth 3 was atrociously bad. The only good one seems to be the Total War series.

 

[TehMac]

Yeah, it has been bad, for quite some time. I wonder what Rick Goodman is up to.

 

[acheron]

I was just thinking this yesterday too. I may install Rise of Nations again, I really liked that one.

I love the Caesar games (even IV, which a lot of people didn't like apparently), but the military parts are pretty weak. I would love to see a "City Building RTS"/"TW + better cities" too.

Haven't tried Imperium Romanum, was that good?

 

[Skott]

Ceasar was more about city building and less on military and that was its problem. RTW was more about the military than city building and I think thats what made it popular. At least thats how I see it. RTW is the better game because of it. Get too deep into city developement/management then you might as well play Sim City. Too much city developement gets tedious after a while especially if you have an empire with many cities and towns.

 

[nakedfrog]

I remember back in the day you could install Caesar, and then if you had Phalanx, you could link them it would fire up the Phalanx engine for battles rather than use Caesar's built-in stuff.

 

[imported_Imp]

After Total War, I can't go back to old RTS games. Not only did I suck at them (always turtled my way into an offense), but having 4000 corpses litter the battlefield can't be beat.

I remember when AoE 1 came out though. My POS computer couldn't run it cause it couldn't display 800x600 (omfg?), but when I finally got to play it at a cousin's, I was blown away. Then AoE 2 came along, pretty cool. I almost avoided AoE 3, but the introduction of cards and cannons won me over.

 

[TehMac]

Originally posted by: Imp
After Total War, I can't go back to old RTS games. Not only did I suck at them (always turtled my way into an offense), but having 4000 corpses litter the battlefield can't be beat.

I remember when AoE 1 came out though. My POS computer couldn't run it cause it couldn't display 800x600 (omfg?), but when I finally got to play it at a cousin's, I was blown away. Then AoE 2 came along, pretty cool. I almost avoided AoE 3, but the introduction of cards and cannons won me over.

Yeah, I hear you, AoE, I was playing the demo, and wow, it struck me that this was amazing, the whole thing...very epic.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: Imp
I remember when AoE 1 came out though. My POS computer couldn't run it cause it couldn't display 800x600 (omfg?), but when I finally got to play it at a cousin's, I was blown away. Then AoE 2 came along, pretty cool. I almost avoided AoE 3, but the introduction of cards and cannons won me over.

I enjoyed all the AOE games, including 3, but I never played the SP campaign after AOE2. When AOE1 came out, I was stuck with a Pentium 75 and AOE1 required a 90Mhz Pentium to run. It an on the 75, but sluggish as hell.

I'm tempted to buy Rise of Nations Gold, I see Gogamer has it for 12.90. I wonder if I should pick it up with HOMM5 for 7.90? Decent games at bargain prices.

 

[TehMac]

Originally posted by: Bateluer
I enjoyed all the AOE games, including 3, but I never played the SP campaign after AOE2. When AOE1 came out, I was stuck with a Pentium 75 and AOE1 required a 90Mhz Pentium to run. It an on the 75, but sluggish as hell.

I'm tempted to buy Rise of Nations Gold, I see Gogamer has it for 12.90. I wonder if I should pick it up with HOMM5 for 7.90? Decent games at bargain prices.

Rise of Nations was great, I kinda took RTS games like that for granted back then, shouldn't have.

I edited the title because I also want to point out some games that are strategy titles, and are historically based, but are not necessarily full on Real Time Strat games:


Imperium Romanum 2: This is the recently announced sequeal to Imperium Romanum, as you might have guessed. The big thing here is a revamped economics and military system; there's more of a focus on military combat, I know total war takes the cake, but it'd be cool to build cities AND have a military emphasis as well. I'm eagerly eyeballing this one, but so far only preliminary screens have been released, and so it's somewhat shrouded.

Anno 1404: Basically, the successor to other Anno games, but instead, it's gone medieval, and you'll be making two main colonial cities, one in the West, and one in the East.
It also has revamped combat mechanics, which should be interesting, considering it is a medieval based game.

Tbh, that's all I know of, I wish there were more, but nothing I know of right now.

We'll have to wait and see what Rickie unveils, who knows when he'll do that.

 

[Bateluer]

Imperium Romanum has two value packs, 5.99 each.

Dang, time to expand my game collection and help the economy.

 

[TehMac]

Yeah, it does, but I'm waiting for the second one.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/39020.html

There's some Anno 1404 footage, btw.

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

My first exposure to AoE was AoK. Still the best RTS I've ever played by a WIDE margin. RTW is the only thing that comes close but it really was not as skill-based.....battles were usually over before thay began.

 

[TehMac]

Absolutely agree; Age of Empires 1 demo blowed me away; then I purchased Age 2, OMFG. It was fucking amazing. Blew me away multiplied by 100.

I just wish it'd come back. I dunno what it is, but games nowadays dont really capture that spirit and atmosphere. Rome Total War was another revelation I had with pc games. But so far, only Age of Empires stole my heart. Not least because of its cool setting.