Quick Look: Age of Empires Online

This game made me respect Microsoft a lot less. The way they are implementing the "micro"transactions seems way overpriced...reminds me of horse armor DLC on an even bigger scale.

@Curufinwe: Nope. The horse armor comparison is about overpriced DLC...I would called $20 a civ or $100 for all clearly in the lines of "overpriced".

You're just trying to be snarky.

@Corvak said:

biggest complaint, is having to use miscrosoft points, since they overcharge for them in canada, compared to the cost of points in the US.

biggest complaint is that a free downloaded games need a production key that is way to anouying to get. allso it aparently cant remember my login. i will admit i have not used it for what 4 years but still, so had to create a new login wich i allso could not login with so before i even had a chance to find the product key i had to do a ton of stuff just to get there and ended up trying to recover my password, and it was send to my e-mail account but since i e-mail account is allso a msn (ergo microsoft live included) it allso reset that so now i had to create one more oh and aparently my windows live and e-mail account have the same password but not my live and windows marketplace. and thats just the short story

hmm i'm interested in this game but i don't know if this is worth playing or if i should reinstall my civilization 5 and play that instead. could someone who has played both give me an opinion.

@cowgod said:

@gbrading: I don't find that to be true. I have played extensively and had many fond memories in StarCraft, AoE2 and C&C Generals.

Similarly, I played a lot of AoE2 and 3 and then stopped liking RTS games period.

Pretty alike old AoE it seems. Other than quest givers and stuff. The buildings look like the buildings from Age of Mythology. They should remake that.

No Assyrians and a more cartoony Blizzardized graphics style?  How far AoE has fallen since 97.

@Sammo21 said:

@Curufinwe: Nope. The horse armor comparison is about overpriced DLC...I would called $20 a civ or $100 for all clearly in the lines of "overpriced".

You're just trying to be snarky.

The civilizations add a lot more than a few cosmetic items though. They're not only a completely new faction to play as, complete with unique buildings and units, but actually come with completely new campaigns. Blizzard are currently doing much the same thing with their campaigns for Starcraft 2 and those won't even include new factions.

The horse armour was an incredibly overpriced piece of DLC that added nothing to the gameplay, and was actually supposed to be in the game, before it was cut to be sold separately. Many of the earlier previews had mentioned it.

Like I said, I think the civ's still should have been cheaper, for a "F2P game" it's a very high barrier.. but it's a completely different situation to the horse armour and most of the complaining about the pricing is coming from complete ignorance.

wait... does this game look amazing? i think...i think this looks amazing. But can you play this like any single player RTS? thats all i care about...

I hate f2p games :/

I think I'll keep playing age of kings

@Rhaknar: Yeah, the multiplayer can pretty much be totally ignored. The basic free version of the game is basically a demo, but if you download it and give it a try, that should give you a pretty good idea of how the game works.

There are parts of this quicklook that sound like they're playing AoE2.

"What's a market?"

"They give you a scout at the beginning, that's nice of them."

"It's cool because you can hunt for food, but the boars fight back so you might want to use a soldier to kill them".

The progression seems kinda slow. I'd gladly pay for a new AoE game but buying a civ and going through MMO mode sounds... wait it sounds awesome. I think. Quests seem repetitive but gear rewards are so good for the lizard brain.

AoE2 was great game. This doesn't look too bad either, well except for the on your take your money stuff.

@Rhaknar: Yeah, the multiplayer can pretty much be totally ignored. The basic free version of the game is basically a demo, but if you download it and give it a try, that should give you a pretty good idea of how the game works.

I loved this series so much that i even wrote like a 50 page guide for just the AOE3 multiplayer mode, but this one is just an absolute snooze. The single player is like one very very long bland tutorial and the multiplayer feels too MMO like where people with better loot have the advantage.

Still I have a few pro tips for brad or anyone else who wants to get in this game.

1. The fundies for Starcraft is the same as the fundies for AOE, so always be building villagers, always keep your money low, never miss houses and never use the queue. This means you will need to pretty much every villager on food to start.

2. Hunting is faster then gathering berries is faster then farms so obviously prioritize hunting and use farms as last resort. This also makes map control important PvP if you decide to do that.

3. The priest doesn't just make things build faster but also increases gathering rates so always have one on your town center and resource dropoff buildings.

4. Why not use the waypoint on your town center? Seems like a waste of time to select every villager that pops out and tell him where to go.

5. Gates are built like an upgrade and can be found by clicking on the section of wall you want to build it. Harass is super easy in AoE compared to SC because the chokes are so numerous and wide, so walls are pretty necessary pvp

Am I wrong in thinking that this seems like AoE3 with expanded home city and new graphics.

Am I wrong in thinking that this seems like AoE3 with expanded home city and new graphics.

I'd say there's less incentive to get gear if "your character" cant wear it.

@NarcolepticBat said:

@lumberingjackal said:

Am I wrong in thinking that this seems like AoE3 with expanded home city and new graphics.

Yeah, cuz its AoE2 with expanded home city, new graphics and 30 more hours of single player content.

it also looks like it's got some Age of Mythology in there too

Lame you have to pay separately for each civilization, when they seem to just be skins.

Ok lets cut to the chase.. is there a "All Units" button?

I was waiting for Jeff to go, "No, Brad. I do not have advisers. For the fifth damn time!"

It looks well designed but the cost of the content is obscene. 20 dollars per race? 5 dollars for shrubs?

@thebigJ_A said:

Lame you have to pay separately for each civilization, when they seem to just be skins.

If they are anything like the previous AoE games, they are most definitely NOT just skins.

$20 for a premium civ seems reasonable to me, when you consider that most people will probably just main as one civilization.

And once you've dropped that $20, the entire game is pretty much open to you.

- Scott

LOL paid missions.  I don't know look O.K., maybe even worth $20.

@Sammo21 said:

@Curufinwe: Nope. The horse armor comparison is about overpriced DLC...I would called $20 a civ or $100 for all clearly in the lines of "overpriced".

You're just trying to be snarky.

Yes, this is pretty much exactly like previous AOE games (although it reminds me more of Age of Mythology), and to make gates you simply click on a wall segment and select the option that appears in the bottom right corner.

Ugh. It was frustrating to watch two guys who haven't even touched an AoE game. Why didn't they get Vinny, Drew or Dave?

This game is a lot like Age of Mythology, but without the mythology to the greeks and egyptians 

Hah, I played the beta. Pretty fun

New AoE game? Cool. It looks like the basic formula still holds up.

I find their lack of AoE knowledge amusing. Jeff being impressed by mechanics that were in AoE2 and AoE3 in particular.
 
Also I found how Brad was furiously hitting all sorts of buttons and clicking everywhere for no reason really bothersome, though I know I'm being petty. This isn't Starcraft, dude. You're not impressing the AI by how many buttons you can click in a number of seconds.
 
Aside from that, I find the game neat, it's just a shame that it actually costs a shit-ton to actually play. There's no way in hell I'm paying 20 dollars for each individual civ. Especially for someone like myself that enjoys playing different things. I find it frightening how microtransaction games are actually insanely more expensive to play than a normal game if you want to play the whole thing.

WOLOLO!

@Eqtriz: ROGAN?

I gotta say I really like the way who's doing / sitting in on the quick look changes the feel of it.

Ryan and Vinny usually makes for funnier more humour QLs, while Jeff and Brads QLs usually are more informative and in a slightly more serious tone.

And then ofc you have the QLs that mixes them together, or throws a Drew or Dave in there.

tldr: I like giantbomb QLs =)

Truly, this is the age of empires.

Egypt aint the far East.

@JoeyRavn: I agree, a lot of games could be fun as FTP but this shouldn't have been one of them.

hahaha the pricing is so messed up ( shareware crap ) , so glad i play eveonlne ...

Age of Mythologies is still on of my favorite games. This could be a good LoL break game.

Color me surprised, this actually looks great

So the Egyptians are Zerg...

GFWL is a lost cause unless microsoft invests some serious time to overhaul it

This makes me want to play...Starcraft...

No but seriously I always looooooved the age of empires games and I was kinda sad when the third one was a letdown and then the company basically got canned. I've been waiting to see what this is for a while and it actually seems really cool and makes me excited to play it. I am still in the tutorial missions but after watching this quicklook im pretty excited for whats to come.

I would check this out if it was playable on a Mac. Oh well, I can't complain, I have SC2 and Civ5.

oh fergodsakes Bradley you can read two lines of text to figure out what you're supposed to be doing.   xD
 
About that 100 smackers season pass thing they're peddling:  that's a bad price point.  They would have done better with something closer to, say, the regular retail price of a full game.  People will pay $60 a whole lot faster and easier than $100.