Age of Empires III Gone Gold

[Evil Avatar]

Microsoft and Ensemble Studios send along word that Age of Empires III has Gone Gold and will be on store shelves on October 18th!

Prepare for Battle as Age of Empires III Goes Gold

Armies of the Third Age Prepare to March on October 18

Ready your troops! Age of Empires III, the stunning real-time strategy (RTS) landmark from Microsoft and Ensemble Studios, is complete and poised to invade retail on October 18. Available in two versions – standard and Collector’s Edition – Age of Empires III will fire up gamers with groundbreaking new features like the persistent Home City and jaw-dropping graphics never before seen in an RTS. Gamers can now experience the game first-hand with a recently released playable demo that offers hours of exciting combat challenges, as well as the ability to upgrade the player’s Home City.

The third game in the illustrious Age of Empires series that has sold more than 16 million copies and defined the historical RTS, Age of Empires III is being hailed by critics as a new benchmark for real-time strategy games. The minimum system requirements for Age of Empires III are: 1.4GHz processor, 256 MB RAM, 64 MB video card that supports hardware transform and lighting, Windows XP, 56k modem for online play, and 2GB hard drive space.

In Age of Empires III, players assume the role of a European power between 1500 and 1850 A.D. as they struggle to explore, colonize and conquer North and South America. Find out more about Age of Empires III by visiting http://www.ageofempires3.com. (http://www.ageofempires3.com./)

[ÜberJumper]

I was playing the demo a bit more last night, and I found it quite addictive.

Still wondering though, I couldn't find the population count and limit :-(

[Magnanimous Gnome]

The demo felt too much like Rise of Nations to me. I'll just stick with Age 2, since I already have Rise of Nations, Dawn of War, etc.

Also, did anyone else encounter several bugs in that demo? My priest floated sideways, and the demo crashed on me. It crashed on a friend of mine as well when he downloaded it.

I also want to add that I don't like the change that they made to the priest's healing abilities. Having to now cast the spell, especially over such a tiny area, and then having to wait for it to recharge just felt silly. This isn't Warcraft.

[Jeff]

Still wondering though, I couldn't find the population count and limit

The display is disabled by default. I believe it's somewhere in the game-play or video options. Also, be sure to turn up the rest of the model detail and display settings so you can see the awesome building demolition effects as they are attacked, which was also disabled by default.
I can't wait for this to ship. Only game coming out for a while that I'm interested in.

[ÜberJumper]

Thanks Jeff, I'll check that out tonight if I can't find Winter Assault at my local EB.

[KNOTE]

God i wish there was an "idle villager" button. Someone please tell me i just missed it...

[thecrazyd]

The demo for this game was awesome. So awesome, in fact, that it satiated my every need for the game. Maybe I'll buy it when it gets cheap.

[Jeff]

God i wish there was an "idle villager" button. Someone please tell me i just missed it...

When you toggle the population display mentioned above, it also displays the total count of villagers harvesting each resource or that are idle. Click it, and you cycle through them. Enjoy.

[KNOTE]

When you toggle the population display mentioned above, it also displays the total count of villagers harvesting each resource or that are idle. Click it, and you cycle through them. Enjoy.

Ah sweet! Why would they bury such a useful feature? I appreciate the heads up, going to try it later today.

[KarmaGhost]

There were a lot of very useful/necessary features that were disabled by default. I have no idea why they would do that. Anyway, I thought "gone gold" meant 2 weeks. Oct. 18 is almost a month away!

[Hg-203]

Going gold just means that the game is starting to be pressed. When we can get it depends on how large the order is, how fast they will press the game, number of pressers working on it, and the time it takes to ship to the reseller.

[Crabby]

Ah sweet! Why would they bury such a useful feature? I appreciate the heads up, going to try it later today.


Also, if you will look on the top left of the screen, any idle vilagers will show up like other hotgroups you normally make yourself.

[Jukey]

Link doesn't work. :)

[Magnanimous Gnome]

I missed a lot of those options that are turned off as well. I already deleted the demo, otherwise I'd head in and check them out. Can't understand why they would turn off so many features - my friend and I figured that the Pop. Display missing was a bug or something.

[TheBrainKills]

So is this more of a role playing game with the persistent city? I am getting kind of bored with the whole RTS formula.

[Crabby]

The persistent city can be easily described as a feature that adds a TCG flavor to the whole experience.

Literally, out of all of the "cards" you can choose to go into any single game with you will only be allowed to bring in 20. Build and create custom "decks" for whatever scenarios you feel need them.

A lot of the cards are broad and non-exclusive but each empire gets a few choice exclusives. Also worth noting is that there are around 124 cards total and only 109 (someone correct me on this) selections available to a player since max city level is 109. This means that even when you play with the same city long enough to max it out, there will be a few cards you would permanently have to do without as that specific city. If I am not mistaken I think I read some dev make the comment that players will be allowed somewhere around 12 cities to play with at one time? Maybe a PC Gamer quote.

Personally, I am not an AoE fan at all. Way back when, among the few RTS on the block, AoE had a monstorously long average game time when compared to faster games such as Command and Conquer. Never appealed to me much. But this entire dynamic of deck building completely entices me to try AoE3.

[Jimmay]

1. Yes, there were bugs in the demo, but they have been fixed.
2. I'm pretty sure (not 100% positive) that some of the advanced interface options (vill count, vill resource allocation, etc) have been turned on by default.
3. The hotkeys for idles are . (period) for villagers and , (comma) for military. / goes to the explorer, T goes to your town center, H goes to your homecity.
4. Priest healing was a non-decision before, you just built them and mixed them in. Some people wanted more interaction (a.k.a. micro) with them.
5. The UI has an option for a smaller size now (not in the demo).
6. It's true you can't get every card in every homecity.

[doyama]

The 'period' . button is used to find idle villagers, pretty standard key in most RTS gaems and works on AOE3

I was a bit annoyed at the UI interface options, the button in the menu isnt obviously translated to what you actaully see in the UI. I'm not sure either why it was necessary to disable most fo these features as they are pretty helpful to a new person who I assume the demo is geared to.

[Thenetcase]

Best.
Building.
Destruction.
EVAR!

[Sion]

The demo convinced me the game blows

[jwbxx]

The demo convinced me the game blowsI wouldn't just say it blows. But from the demo, even though its a demo, the game play felt really dated. I'll probably pass on this game.

[Ravana]

Can't wait for this, already maxed out the cities in the demo (well, up to their demo limits)

Anyone else having trouble with the website? Trying to register or send an e-card brings up an error page