Forum Overview :: Gamerasutra
 
Purchased, Installed, Played by jeep 10/26/2005, 8:08pm PDT
Ray of Light wrote:

jeep wrote:

AoE, after Excel, is my favorite MS program. I don't want "inspired," I want "doesn't email my address book to Nigeria."


Right, I think that attracted a lot of people to the franchise -- me included -- because an RTS that ran well, had good controls and looked nice was the exception (not the sole exception, just an exception to the rule, mind).

Your Excel analogy is perfect: When Office apps had competition, in the early 90s, they were polished and functional. Their success begat complacency and feature creep. AoE3 can't be near so bad as the bloated, baffling corpse named Office 2003, but it feels like a first iteration of the same downward-spiralling process.


I liked Word 6, but I don't think Excel hit its peak until later. It always seemed Word was a step ahead of Excel, which was a step quicker than Access, and then Powerpoint was the little brother that Word had hit with a two-by-four with nails in it, and they're all trying to cover it up before Uncle Bill gets home.

This new game is like playing Civ for years and then playing Colonization. I like Colonization, it has some cool stuff in it, but it's very narrow compared to Civ, even though the controls are almost identical (same company, same devs I think). Maybe that's because AoE3 and Colonization were the same time period. I figure it's about the same game as old AoE2, but the graphics are wrong. Some things look better, some worse, it has "new" elements that are right from Colonization, but aren't all that special. Also, Age of Kings with the Conquerors pack just loaned AoE3 its baseball hat to cover the nail wounds in its skull.

I played one game for four hours to get through the tech tree. I think if you'd never played AoE before it would be OK, if you were a big fan it would be OK to get it knowing it was no AoK. There's nothing technically lacking or buggy, it just isn't any kind of miracle GOTY.

/jeep/
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Best Strategy Games by Kabuke 10/20/2005, 10:19pm PDT NEW
    Re: Best Strategy Games by FABIO 10/20/2005, 11:10pm PDT NEW
        link by FABIO 10/20/2005, 11:11pm PDT NEW
        Re: Best Strategy Games by MM 10/21/2005, 10:53am PDT NEW
            Re: Best Strategy Games by FABIO 10/21/2005, 12:18pm PDT NEW
    Re: Best Strategy Games by Motherhead 10/20/2005, 11:42pm PDT NEW
        Thank you both. Some questions. by Kabuke 10/21/2005, 10:42am PDT NEW
            Re: Thank you both. Some questions. by FABIO 10/21/2005, 12:04pm PDT NEW
            AoE3 by is Ray of Light 10/21/2005, 12:15pm PDT NEW
                Re: AoE3 by Mysterio 10/21/2005, 2:21pm PDT NEW
                for an AoE fix, pick up the superior (and cheaper) rise of nations instead NT by FABIO 10/21/2005, 3:18pm PDT NEW
                    OK, I will by Ray of Light 10/27/2005, 4:13am PDT NEW
                        Re: OK, I will by FABIO 10/27/2005, 5:33am PDT NEW
                Re: AoE3 by jeep 10/22/2005, 2:25pm PDT NEW
                    Re: AoE3 by Ray of Light 10/22/2005, 4:34pm PDT NEW
                        Purchased, Installed, Played by jeep 10/26/2005, 8:08pm PDT NEW
            Re: Thank you both. Some questions. by Mr. Kool 10/31/2005, 12:58pm PST NEW
                Re: Thank you both. Some questions. by Mischief Shai-hulud 10/31/2005, 5:34pm PST NEW
                    Independence War by FABIO 11/01/2005, 1:14pm PST NEW
            X3 and Rome : Total War. by Oom Shnibble 11/01/2005, 2:06am PST NEW
                Re: X3 and Rome : Total War. by Gib 11/01/2005, 9:27pm PST NEW
                    Re: X3 and Rome : Total War. by Oom Shnibble 11/02/2005, 11:20am PST NEW
    Borrowed 2160 by Kabuke 11/12/2005, 7:49pm PST NEW
 
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