Age of Empires... Online?

PTED

Here are a few links before I get into things:

Official Website

FAQ

Trailer

 

...and a quick snippet.

• 
  
  
  What is the capital city? How does it work?
  
  

• 
  
  
  Your capital city serves as your home base and main source of your civilization. Because it lives online, your capital city continues to gather resources and create units even when you aren’t logged in. How you develop your capital city determines your capabilities throughout the rest of the game, and ultimately the direction of your civilization.
  
  

 

Having read through the FAQ and Feature List, I can't help but get the impression that Microsoft is developing something akin to a Browser-based-game. While their reasoning for it is sound...

 

• 
  When we looked at continuing this franchise, we looked at how people are playing games today, and the social and connected experiences that people increasingly crave. It’s about being able to connect to the entertainment we want, and share it with the people we care about—nearly anywhere.

 

...should they really be using the Age of Empires brand? I know there isn't enough to produce an informed opinion as it was only just announced; but I'm sure that those of you who have played an AoE game before can tell that something seems to be amiss here.

 

Opinions?

crunchyblack

Its AoE, only its live online, whats so confusing?

Oh and they decided to use the least modern textures they could make apparently.  I dont remember the RTS AoE's looking so saturday morning cartoonish.

Looks like a chinese F2P knockoff to be honest.

dinams

What the fuck Microsoft

Cavadus

LOL, why is it so lame and cartoony?

Wreckoniing

definately giving this a go.

JT

I've been testing it for awhile, but no need to comment here as it seems you've already made up your mind about the game.  I will admit that I was surprised when they finally came out with the name.  Alpha had a different name.

Amaranthar

I'll be watching it. If there's no cash shop, and no other problems, I think I'll give it a go. I like strategy games in the first place, just don't like the obvious online problems. They seem to have a clue about those problems. It isn't going to be the fantasy MMORPG I want, but it might be very entertaining as something different until the MMO market gets better.

Konner920

Why does it look like the RNA game engine that EA used for RA3..?

eyeswideopen

Originally posted by JT

I've been testing it for awhile, but no need to comment here as it seems you've already made up your mind about the game.  I will admit that I was surprised when they finally came out with the name.  Alpha had a different name.

Project S.