Age of Empires 3: Asian Dynasties demo out

[Fragamemnon]

http://www.agecommunity.com/all_downloads_tad.aspx

The trial version of Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties allows players to play as the new Japanese civilization, or as the imperialistic British. Players also have the opportunity to try out the new random map Honshu, and the King of the Hill game type!

Age of Empires 3 rocks so much. I can't wait to see what Big Huge Games (who made this, not Ensemble) has added to the series.

[Van Cruncheon]

oh yes. oh yes. oh yes. brian reynolds, cum on my tits and face.

[The Fake Shemp]

I never played an Age of Empires game!

[T234]

I never played an Age of Empires game!

Even I'VE played a damn Age of Empires game what the fuck

[Fragamemnon]

I played four skirmishes as the Japanese last night. Big Huge Games has hit this thing out of the fucking park. The Japanese are more diverse in base mechanics than any previous AOE3 nation by a huge margin, and the new interface is godly. GODLY. I was floored when I saw the new list of keybinds and features to the interface, and most importantly-everything is 100% consistent.

So awesome. Why must you not make Rise of Legends expansion and torment me so Big Huge Games.

[Van Cruncheon]

asian dynasties is FUCK AWESOME EotY

[MrAngryFace]

I better nab this then

[Fragamemnon]

Played a couple of more rounds. It's a shame Microsoft sort of let Big Huge Games go (they are doing a next-gen RPG with THQ)-I think they might make a better Age of Empires 4 than Ensemble would have made if they hadn't decided to make that lump of console faggotry known as Halo Wars.

[Oblivion]

Does one need to play any of the previous Civ games to get into Civ 3? My friend has this game, and I've been dying to steal it (though I'd have to wait til I buy my new computer).

[Oblivion]

Whoops. Reading my post again, I accidently wrote Civ 3 instead of AoE3 (I get these games confused quite often it seems )

[Van Cruncheon]

i have been playing this expansion demo compulsively at the 'rentz. the japanese are bhg has added such crazy diversity to the play -- the japanese age 1 and 2 strats are way different than the euro races, yet it seems totally appropriate. and omg omg omg omg samurai are BRUTAL -- they're expensive, but they eat through melee better than even doppelsoldners. FUCK AWESOME.

[Smooth Groove]

The presentation in the demo was beautiful.  I bet that even Japafag console gamers would give it a try.  I haven't played this game for too long though.  How do you recruit villagers to your side? 

[Fragamemnon]

The presentation in the demo was beautiful.  I bet that even Japafag console gamers would give it a try.  I haven't played this game for too long though.  How do you recruit villagers to your side? 

You order them up at a town center (for the Japanese/British) and you get a free one every time you build a Manor House as the British. You can also use cards (click on the flag when there is a non-zero number by it and it is blinking or hit 'h') to ship in villagers.

If you get a "not enough population cap" build shrines (near animals, perferably) or Manor Houses (anywhere) to raise you population cap.

Age of Empires 3 is a game of economy micromanagement first and sharp unit counter/micro second. I feel that the game plays great in single player, but prepare to get your ass handed to you for a while in multiplayer, even with ESO's great matchmaking.

Man, speaking of that-I was the Big Huge Games logo and "Ensemble Online" in the same page. Is there any doubt that Rise of Nations/Legends wouldn't have performed 100x better if they had been able to piggyback off of ESO instead of going with Gamespy?

[Smooth Groove]

Thanks, Frag.  I"ll give your tips a try.  I like the fact that AOE3 puts more emphasis on economy micromanagement.  It's a nice change from the usual battle heavy RTS games.  My uncle in his 40s, who wasn't a big gamer, became addicted to AOE3 mostly because it wasn't so focused on combat like the other big-name RTS games that he had tried.  Also, he couldn't stop staring at the purty graphics (they looked amazing to someone who had just started gaming). 

[TVC15]

I don't get why so many people give AoE3 hate for not changing up the RTS formula so much, but then they turn around and cum at the sight of Starcraft 2, a game that would view changing anything as failure.

[Smooth Groove]

Blizzard always seems to be above the criticism.  PC gamers are notorious for being graphics whores yet Blizzards' underwhelming visuals hardly ever get criticized.  I'm cool with Blizzard though since I get their games for free. 

[Fragamemnon]

Apparently Brian Reynolds himself went in and made some tweaks in the campaigns so that if you play on "Hard" difficulty, the scenarios played out a bit differently and they were indeed harder, but in very smart (and not cheap) ways. On Normal and Easy it plays out like the other Age of Empires campaigns do.

Sort of a neat touch. Not a lot of work is usually done to make "Hard" difficutly hard in RTS games' single-player mode.

[TVC15]

I still haven't played the AoE3 or the first expansion's campaigns.  Worth my time?

[Himu]

can i kick ass with nobunaga in this game