Age of Empires 3

[The Frenchman 0]

http://www.ensemblestudios.com/

(If you are like me, the new version of the AoE theme brought a tear to your eye )

Quote[/b] ]January 4, 2005  

Dawn of a New Age: Age of Empires III Announced for 2005 Release

Microsoft Game Studios and Ensemble Studios are proud to announce the return of the king of real-time strategy games: Age of Empires III is scheduled to ship in the second half of 2005. This will be the latest landmark release in the award-winning franchise that has sold a staggering 16 million units worldwide.

Age of Empires III will offer gamers the next level of realism, with advanced battle physics and unparalleled visual detail. The new game picks up where Age of Empires II: Age of Kings left off, placing gamers in the position of a European power determined to explore, colonize and conquer the New World. This time period features stunning scenes, from towering European cathedrals to courageous tribes of Native Americans, and spectacular combat with Industrial Age units like rifled infantry, cavalry and tall ships bristling with cannons.

Age of Empires III will once again demonstrate Ensemble Studios' reputation for excellence and innovation in the real-time strategy (RTS) genre. The game will set a new standard for visual quality and amaze players with detail never before seen in an RTS. Age of Empires III will excite strategy gamers with new game-play elements, including the concept of a “Home City,“ new civilizations, units, technologies and an immersive new single-player campaign that will span three generations.

Ensemble Studios is one of the world's premier entertainment software developers. Ensemble Studios is best known for its blockbuster Age of Empires game series. Ensemble's titles are distinguished by the highest-quality art and gameplay dynamics applied in familiar historical settings, and appeal to hard-core gamers and mass audiences. Ensemble Studios is based in Dallas, Texas.

Pics are too big to post, but they sure are a beauty.

[cozza 24]

I know. I got a gamespy e-mail about it and I nearly cried.

[shinRaiden 0]

Humbug. TA2, if and ever, would be a real RTS. TA already has a massive amount of modding, and a lo-impact UI. It also has intense 3d terrain simulated modeling, and advanced physics capabilities. Not to mention support for sick amounts of flash vs peewee hordes. Now that's a lag fest.

[-33ker 0]

Holy crap! That's awesome!

AOE finally returns!

Looks like they've taken some new features from Games like Cossacks. Man I can hardly wait to get my fingers on the new editor!

[berghoff 11]

pics are too big to post, but they sure are a beauty.

Are they un-edited in-game screenshots? Otherwise I need to save money for a new pc lol.

[JdB 151]

Age of Empires + expansion

Age of Empires 2: The Age of Kings + expansion

Age of Mythology + expansion

Then wouldn't this be the Fourth Age of Empires game?

[berghoff 11]

Age of Mythology is a different game, not Age of Empires.

[iNeo 0]

Lovely, mmm look at those pictures... wicked.

I wish they include vikings again.

I've got AoE 1 & II + Age of Kings expansion in my closet hehe.

Are they un-edited in-game screenshots? Otherwise I need to save money for a new pc lol.

It says they are actual in-game screenshots

[JdB 151]

Lovely, mmm look at those pictures... wicked.

I wish they include vikings again.

I've got AoE 1 & II + Age of Kings expansion in my closet hehe.

Are they un-edited in-game screenshots? Otherwise I need to save money for a new pc lol.

It says they are actual in-game screenshots

You haven't got the AoE1 expansion?

Alot of gamedevelopers say that

[iNeo 0]

Does anyone know if there will be vikings in the game? Else me = sad-sad.

You haven't got the AoE1 expansion?

Was there one? Took a look in the closet btw, noticed the AoE II expansion was called The Conquerors Expansion.

Alot of gamedevelopers say that

They say what? That the screenshots are unedited when they acutally are?

[sanctuary 19]

I liked Age of Empires and Age of Kings (AOE 2), but i don't knwo what to think about the 3rd opus , as it seems to copy a lot the Cossacks/American Conquest serie (when Cossacks 2 that i am waiting for , is coming soon) due to the selected theme.

And i am not really looking in buying similar themed games.

Well, like every game i am waiting for, the demo version of both the titles will help greatly to make my choice

[Billabong81 0]

The screenshots look good, but if I remember correctly, in AOE2 you built your own cities by hand. Some of the cities in those screenshots look HUGE. I hope they did not add like a simcity like thing to the game .

[Colossus 2]

Found this, more info and pics on what you will get in AoE3

PC.ING.com

This is what chached my eye in the 2 paged interview with Ensemble:

Quote[/b] ]The period we're covering is basically from the end of Age of Kings until the industrial age

Quote[/b] ]There will be eight civilizations in the game, but we are only announcing three for now: the French, British and Spanish. The British have a great economy and can get villagers more quickly. Their best unit is their Musketeer (the famed "Redcoats" of the Revolutionary War), but if a British player wants to change history by investing in Longbowmen well into the 1700s, they can do that as well. The French can ally with Native Americans more easily, and have a special villager, the Coureur, that can double as a light infantry. The Spanish get more support from the mother country back in Europe than other civilizations. They have several unique units, including the famous Redoleros (sword and buckler men).

Quote[/b] ]The campaign is a single tale of historical fiction with an emphasis on action and adventure (think Indiana Jones). As such, it has more in common with the character-driven story from Age of Mythology rather than the shorter, independent campaigns of Age of Kings. Players will still participate in historic events like the French and Indian War and even some of the South American revolutions, but they'll have a lot of adventures that aren't listed in the history books either.

Quote[/b] ]As you can see from the screenshots, the graphics of Age of Empires III have an amazing amount of detail, and we wanted to make sure combat met that high bar. We have musketeers who fire in volley formation. We have tall ships that punch holes in each other's sails. We have cannon shots that can literally throw infantry off the ground, and perhaps off a cliff, and down into the water. When buildings are destroyed, we model the physics of the falling pieces. This gives all the building destructions an unpredictable nature unlike the canned animations common to older RTS games. Don't be surprised if a collapsing tower squashes the villager working in the nearby fields.

Quote[/b] ]The Age of Empires III engine is a fully DX9, Shader 3.0 compliant engine with more technical bells and whistles than any other PC game to date. As you can see from the screenshots, we have a world that feels bright and sunny, but with a softness and depth that hasn't been seen before. From things like self-shadowing to HDR (high dynamic range) lighting to water that has proper Fresnel reflectance properties, this is a very high-end graphics engine.

Quote[/b] ]We've also integrated physics into the game in a big way. When units are blown up by cannon fire, we use ragdolls to bounce them around the world, off of rooftops, and down cliffs. As buildings take artillery damage, pieces of the building realistically break off and fall down with proper collision modeling. When you throw in hundreds of integrated animations per unit, the overall effect is quite impressive.

[iNeo 0]

Quote[/b] ]The period we're covering is basically from the end of Age of Kings until the industrial age

What's the Age of Kings?

[Gadger 0]

Age of kings is early 11th century to late 18th.

I really hope the gameplay is improved somewhat, the Total War series really made AoE reduntant in this aspect, hopefully there will be something in there that builds on this even more.

[Colossus 2]

Age of kings is early 11th century to late 18th.

I really hope the gameplay is improved somewhat, the Total War series really made AoE reduntant in this aspect, hopefully there will be something in there that builds on this even more.

Or in this case Age of Empires II: Age of kings

Take a look

[hardrock 1]

Can this be real??

[Colossus 2]

Can this be real??  

As real as the year 2005 is

I want a demo now!

[lee_h._oswald 0]

It looks fantastic.

http://www.ensemblestudios.com/age3images/Age3Screenshot0-1600.jpg

But I said the same about the Settlers V screenshots...

And in the final version you have no freecam and you can't see the sky, only view from above.

MfG Lee

[Colossus 2]

It looks fantastic.

http://www.ensemblestudios.com/age3images/Age3Screenshot0-1600.jpg

But I said the same about the Settlers V screenshots...

And in the final version you have no freecam and you can't see the sky, only view from above.

MfG Lee

I guess AoE3 has a freecam... or maybe it is a lockedcam,

that wouldn't surpise me either.

What I'm wondering most about, right now,

is that if it's possible to have units on the walls for once.

[raedor 8]

the only microsoft product i like... AoEII

and in some months... AoEIII

[hardrock 1]

The screenshots look good, but if I remember correctly, in AOE2 you built your own cities by hand. Some of the cities in those screenshots look HUGE. I hope they did not add like a simcity like thing to the game .

I think the cities on the screens are prebuilt cities of the campaign.

[JdB 151]

You haven't got the AoE1 expansion?

Was there one?

Age of Empires: The Rise Of Rome

And with ''gamedevelopers say that alot'' I mean that they claim to give unedited screens when they are infact edited.

[iNeo 0]

And with ''gamedevelopers say that alot'' I mean that they claim to give unedited screens when they are infact edited.

As long as they include vikings I'm happy I hope they will... anyone know if they will? Gotta know lol.

It'll probably be great even if these pics are edited a bit + they have at least 6 months to make it even better

[Colossus 2]

And with ''gamedevelopers say that alot'' I mean that they claim to give unedited screens when they are infact edited.

As long as they include vikings I'm happy I hope they will... anyone know if they will? Gotta know lol.

It'll probably be great even if these pics are edited a bit + they have at least 6 months to make it even better

No vikings, they would be in the wrong centuries then.

The game is from the time where they discovered/colonised America (the continent, not the country but the countinent)

to the Industrial age.