|
|
|
|
Planet Age of Empires Featured Pic
AOE3: The Asian Dynasties
|
Archive / Submit
|
New WarChiefs Content!
You'll find a slew of new sections here on PlanetAOE covering the recently-released WarChiefs expansion and there's a lot more to come. We want to see your recorded games, campaigns, scenarios and strategies, so submit them today! More >
WarChiefs Expansion Released
The Aztecs, Iroquois and Sioux are upon us and EnsembleOnline is stirring with thousands of Agers trying to master the new civs as well as the old ones. Be sure to check out our content on the expansion and non-stop news coverage. More >
|
|
GoGoRacer Beta
Put your pedal to the metal in GoGoRacer. | 
Add Your Clan Profile
Are you a member of a clan? Add your clan's profile in our new clan listings section. | 
Recorded Games Section
Download games of your favorite expert player or upload your own to show to the community. Watching recorded games is the best way to improve your game and start winning on ESO. |
|
 |
Sunday, 14 December, 2008 � Planet Age of Empires News |
 |
Asian Dynasties Fan Patch
18:07 PST | Xiphoid | Print NewsA group of ambitious AOE3 players and programmers got together to create a fan patch for The Asian Dynasties, which adds new maps and does a lot of unit/civ rebalancing. Many of the top players on EnsembleOnline worked on the patch, so it looks like a promising patch. Here's why the patch was made and why, upon installation, you can only play with other players using the new patch:
Why a fan patch? And why should I download it?
We developed this fan patch because of the fact that Ensemble Studios is closing down in February 2009, and will no longer be making any patches. Without any fan patch, we'd be left with the game as it is, permanently. Japan and India would perpetually be too strong, bugs will go unchecked, and the community will suffer as a result. That is why it is important for everyone to download this patch - ensuring that the community continues to enjoy the Asian Dynasties for the future.
I logged onto ESO and saw CRC Mismatch for heaps of games!
The fan patch is only playable with people who also have the fan patch. Yes, the number of games with the fan patch may be sparse to begin with. However, with your help we can help promote the use of the fan patch, and in so doing bring more of the community over to a more balanced and enjoyable game.
If you can't find a game on the fan patch, then no problem. Close the game, then bring up the patch launcher and switch back to the 1.01a patch. You can switch between the patches as much as you like, so you will always be able to get a game. Read More...
|
|
Friday, 12 December, 2008 � Planet Age of Empires News |
|
Top Selling PC Games for November
22:32 PST | Xiphoid | Print NewsWe gave you the top games for the week of November 23-29 a few days ago, so here's the list of the top games for all of November, courtesy of Kotaku:
1. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
2. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Collector's Ed.
3. Call Of Duty: World At War
4. Spore
5. Fallout 3
6. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest
7. The Sims 2 Deluxe
8. Left 4 Dead
9. The Sims 2 Apartment Life
10. Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
11. World Of Warcraft
12. The Sims 2 Mansion & Garden Stuff
13. Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy
14. EverQuest II: The Shadow Odyssey
15. Far Cry 2
16. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade
17. BioShock
18. Spore Creepty & Cute Parts Pack
19. IGT Slots: Little Green Men
20. Assassin's Creed Read More...
|
|
Wednesday, 10 December, 2008 � Planet Age of Empires News |
|
Top US PC Games for Nov 23-29
21:26 PST | Xiphoid | Print NewsKotaku has US PC game sales figures for November 23-29 and the mighty Lich King maintains its grip on the top spot. Sadly, we're unlikely to see an Age of Empires title in this list for a while, if ever, but we're sure games in the series are still selling well in countries around the world. Here's the top ten:
NPD Sales Charts November 23-29
1. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
2. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
3. Spore
4. BioShock
5. The Sims 2 Deluxe
6. Left 4 Dead
7. Call Of Duty: World At War
8. Assassin's Creed
9. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest
10. The Sims 2 Apartment Life Read More...
|
|
Monday, 8 December, 2008 � Planet Age of Empires News |
|
ES' Halo Wars Delayed Until March
21:52 PST | Xiphoid | Print NewsIt's going to take Ensemble Studios one more month to get Halo Wars ready, according to 1UP.com:
Last month we were given a preliminary release date of February for Microsoft's upcoming turn at real-time strategy on consoles with Halo Wars. It turns out that was a little bit off (for North America, anyway) but not by much, as Microsoft has now provided us an exact official release date: March 3. Halo fans in Asia will get the game a little earlier on February 26, while Europe, the Middle East, and Africa will see it on February 27.
Along with the news, Microsoft reiterated the previously detailed bonuses contained in the special edition of Halo Wars for the special price of $79.99. For more on the game, you can listen to an interview with Ensemble Studios' Graeme Devine and Dave Pottinger in the November 18 episode of 1UP FM. For the more text-inclined, hit up our recent hands-on preview, and stay tuned for more 1UP coverage as March approaches. Read More...
|
|
Sunday, 7 December, 2008 � Planet Age of Empires News |
|
Top 10 Asian Dynasties Supremacy Players
16:00 PST | Xiphoid | Print NewsThe official Asian Dynasties Supremacy Ladder looks a lot different than it did last month:
1 SkWzZ_Phoenix Field Marshal 50 49.06789
2 _H2O General 49 48.19292
3 NaturePhoenix General 48 47.32470
4 Flooky General 47 46.55532
5 SkWzZ_Luigi General 47 46.15513
6 Braidon Lieutenant General 46 45.48926
7 iamgrunt Lieutenant General 45 44.81961
8 Mayh3M Lieutenant General 45 44.11205
9 The_Demon Lieutenant General 44 43.96522
10 nemuke Lieutenant General 44 43.75519 Read More...
|
|
Saturday, 6 December, 2008 � Planet Age of Empires News |
|
PocketGamer.co.uk Gives AOE:Mythologies 8/10
19:46 PST | Xiphoid | Print NewsIn its review of Age of Empires: Mythologies for the Nintendo DS, PocketGamer.co.uk has given the game an 8/10 rating and its "Silver Award":
In the end, then, it's the vibrant strategic options available to you that mark out Age of Empires: Mythologies' success. Just like Jason's use of the Golden Fleece, this is one refreshed classic, although some old trappings remain. So while the game adds new tricks, thanks to its online multiplayer and a wealth of features, it still holds onto a few outdated conventions in terms of its design. Then again, mythology always invokes a bit of ancient history, doesn't it? Read More...
|
|
Friday, 5 December, 2008 � Planet Age of Empires News |
|
Bruce Shelley to Be Inducted Into The AIAS Hall of Fame
0:09 PST | Xiphoid | Print NewsA huge congratulations to Ensemble Studios' Bruce Shelley who will soon be inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame. There are only 11 others in the hall of fame that are part of the interactive entertainment industry. Congrats, Bruce! I bet a certain large company feels really foolish right now about closing a gaming studio that has such talent.
Tony Goodman states, "Bruce has always been at the center of the gaming universe. He sprang onto the scene at Avalon Hill and SPI designing board games that would become the models for modern video games. He was a central figure at Microprose working on one of the most defining products of the industry's early years, and he was the Godfather of Ensemble Studios presiding over the Age of Empires, which is one of the most influential franchises of today's mature videogame industry."
Ensemble Studios is a Microsoft owned development studio, and has Halo Wars coming out in 2009.
Shelley will join an elite group of 11 other interactive entertainment industry luminaries in the AIAS Hall of Fame: Trip Hawkins (Electronic Arts), Peter Molyneux (Lionhead Studios), Yu Suzuki (Sega), Will Wright (Maxis), John Carmack (id Software), Hironobu Sakaguchi (Square Enix), Sid Meier (Firaxis Games), Shigeru Miyamoto (Nintendo), Richard Garriott (origin Systems), Dan/Danielle Bunten Berry (Ozark Landscape), and Michael Morhaime (Blizzard Entertainment).
Mr. Shelley humbly states, "I am deeply honored to receive this award. I believe it also honors my colleagues over the years at Microprose and especially Ensemble Studios, from whom I have learned so much. I am very grateful for the opportunities that have come my way and hope that in return I have given something back to this great industry." Read More...
|
|
Tuesday, 2 December, 2008 � Planet Age of Empires News |
|
Top Ten US PC Games for Nov. 16-22
23:26 PST | Xiphoid | Print NewsKotaku has a list of the top PC games in the US for the week of November 16-22. It was reported that World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King was the fastest selling PC game in history, so there's no surprise that it sits atop the list:
1. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
2. Left 4 Dead
3. Call Of Duty: World At War
4. The Sims 2: Mansion & Garden Stuff
5. EverQuest II: The Shadow Odyssey
6. Spore
7. Fallout 3
8. The Sims 2: Double Deluxe
9. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Collectors Ed
10. The Sims 2: Apartment Life Read More...
|
|
Saturday, 29 November, 2008 � Planet Age of Empires News |
|
Top Ten Asian Dynasties Supremacy Players
19:16 PST | Xiphoid | Print NewsThe Asian Dynasties Supremacy Ladder has seen a lot of shake-up recently:
1 SkWzZ_Phoenix Field Marshal 50 49.11550
2 _H2O General 49 48.38814
3 NaturePhoenix General 49 48.16030
4 Flooky General 48 47.01570
5 SkWzZ_Luigi General 47 46.20291
6 Braidon Lieutenant General 46 45.76376
7 iamgrunt Lieutenant General 46 45.62931
8 The_Demon Lieutenant General 45 44.74993
9 DAMNIT Lieutenant General 45 44.37913
10 Mayh3M Lieutenant General 45 44.10592 Read More...
|
|
Thursday, 27 November, 2008 � Planet Age of Empires News |
|
Happy Thanksgiving to our US Visitors
17:46 PST | Xiphoid | Print NewsTo all those in the United States, Planet Age of Empires would like to wish you a happy Thanksgiving. Be sure to get some Age games in today. :)Read More...
|
|
Tuesday, 25 November, 2008 � Planet Age of Empires News |
|
IGN Gives AOE:Mythologies for Nintendo DS 8.6/10
19:48 PST | Xiphoid | Print NewsAge of Empires: Mythologies for the Nintendo DS has gotten its first big positive review. IGN gave the game an 8.6, stating that the game is "one of the deepest and most rewarding strategy games on DS". Here's the closing paragraph of the review:
Age of Empires: Age of Kings released two years ago, and it has since been an unsung hero on DS. Now we�ve got the sequel out, complete with a new publisher, new developer, and expanded design. The end result? A game that rivals that of Advance Wars, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2, and Disgaea. Age of Empires has returned to DS, and with it comes more units, more strategy, just as strong of an economy system, and even more to explore within the package. Multi-card multiplayer, single card multiplayer, hot seat play, Wi-Fi, three campaigns, achievements, over 40 unlockables, and 24 maps. The battle animations are stronger this year, the overall visuals have received a significant bump, there�s more VO, and far more to see and do within the game. Age of Empires: Mythologies is indisputably one of the most robust, rewarding, and entertaining strategy games on DS. It needs to be supported, and it deserves to succeed. We hope to see the series back again on DS, complete with more than three playable cultures, more customization (map editor?) and even more of what has made this series great. Until then, we�ve got more than enough to see and do in Mythologies. Read More...
|
|
Monday, 24 November, 2008 � Planet Age of Empires News |
|
Gamasutra Interview With ES' Graeme Devine and Bill Jackson
23:23 PST | Xiphoid | Print NewsGamasutra has a nice interview on Halo Wars with Ensemble Studios' Graeme Devine and Bill Jackson. The interview questions center on the challenge of bringing RTS games to the console. Here's Graeme talking about when ES tried porting Age of Mythology to the Xbox as a test:
You you actually took an Age of Mythology game, and hacked it to use as a prototype?
GD: Yup. Yeah, basically the first year of the project. And then about six or seven months in, Justin -- one of the balance testers at that point, and he's now a game designer -- he's a real big RTS player, and he came up after one of the games, which he'd tested every single day. He said, "I think it's now easier to play this game with the controller than it is with the mouse and keyboard." And at that point we thought, "Well, okay, we're on the right track." Read More...
|
|
Thursday, 20 November, 2008 � Planet Age of Empires News |
|
Halo Wars Interview on ShackNews
16:04 PST | Xiphoid | Print NewsShackNews has another good interview with Ensemble Studios members Dave Pottinger and Graeme Devine. This one focuses on the upcoming Halo Wars, the last game ES will ever put out:
Dave Pottinger: For the first time we really took the campaign needs and made them equal to skirmish. Age has always been more of a PVP game. Campaign was always there, but it's never really been the thing that we designed around. We designed around the campaign first this time.
And the idea that the first mission, you start with a unit, and the idea that you don't start building a base is, "Oh my god, how can you have an RTS game without building a base?" But we wanted to teach you selection, movement, simple attacking. If you're advanced enough to do Warthog ramming great, but you don't have to. The second mission is a light base-building mission. The third mission we're back at, "Here's tank, which gets countered by the thing you fight most." Now let's focus on special abilities. Then we're back on the fourth mission, where we pull it all back together a little bit. Read More...
|
|
Tuesday, 18 November, 2008 � Planet Age of Empires News |
|
ShackNews Interviews ES' Dave Pottinger on Studio Closure
13:48 PST | Xiphoid | Print NewsShackNews has posted a very interesting interview with Ensemble Studios' Dave Pottinger, who had this to say about Microsoft closing ES:
Shack: Did it catch you guys by surprise?
Dave Pottinger: Um, it's Microsoft's right to decide where they wanna put their money. Personally we all disagree with the decision.
Shack: As did, I think, most observers.
Dave Pottinger: Yeah, it honestly doesn't make a lot of sense. But that's their prerogative.
After they told us they were closing us, we tried to do some things that--there's at least one studio that's starting with a good chunk of the Ensemble people, about half. And that's the studio that's contracted for support for Halo Wars. So the cool thing about that is, from a buyer standpoint, Halo Wars isn't going to just be shoved out there. But it's also helped I think to really solidify people in terms of getting the game done in the first place.
We know that a good number of people are going to have to live with the cooking, so to speak, and so we've really been able to keep people focused on making it a great game. Losing your job is never good, but the best thing about the team's dedication is, we had a hundred full-time people when the announcement was made--we've lost three since then.
Those were three people that--you know, everyone at Ensemble is important, we don't want to lose anybody. But we had feared losing 30 or 40, and I think it's a testament to the strength of Ensemble--and I guess maybe the mistake that Microsoft is making, if you want to look at it that way--that so many people stuck around to see this game out, and kind of make Ensemble go out the right way. Pottinger also reveals that the Age series made a whopping $700 million... yeah.Read More...
|
|
Monday, 17 November, 2008 � Planet Age of Empires News |
|
New Developers Blog Post
15:28 PST | Xiphoid | Print NewsWe thought we had seen the last of Bruce Shelley's Developer Blog posts, but today he's graced us with another one. This time he focuses on the Halo Wars release date in February and its collectors edition, the harsh environment for the gaming industry, and more. Thanks for continuing it, Bruce!
Halo Wars Launch Date: Microsoft has announced that Halo Wars will be published in February of next year. That will give you a month or more to finish all the games you buy in the holiday season and be ready for something new. Our goal is to be finished with it this year if possible, with some leeway for the unexpected.
...Tough Times in the Game Industry: The conventional wisdom is that games do reasonably well in bad economic times since they are relatively cheap entertainment. That may be true but publishers seem to be aggressively cutting their costs on the creative side. We heard recently that Electronic Arts is riffing 600 developers and that THQ is cancelling a number of projects and closing 4-5 internal studios. One of the studios being closed is Paradigm, from which we have hired some really great people over the years. This is not a great time to be looking for work in the industry, but we are encouraged by the amount of interest shown by other studios in ES people. We believe that any of our people who want to continue making games will have that opportunity. Read More...
|
|
|
|
Most recent posts on the Planet Age of Empires
|
Help with playing AoE II Expans...Help with playing AoE II Expansion online
| - posted by Aragorn1215 on Dec 15, 2008 08:22 AM |
|
Age Of Empires 2 Expansion Game...Age Of Empires 2 Expansion Game, Online and ready for play!
| - last reply by FlamingShikaku on Dec 09, 2008 07:47 AM |
|
Age of Mythology Tribute Video
| - posted by Justincase85858 on Dec 08, 2008 12:15 PM |
|
Johns gay
| - posted by Jasper2428 on Dec 01, 2008 06:00 PM |
|
want to play internet directpla...want to play internet directplay multiplayer age of empires 2
| - last reply by Jasper2428 on Dec 01, 2008 05:51 PM |
|
Which AoE are you guys playin now?
| - last reply by Conjurator on Nov 30, 2008 08:53 AM |
|
I can't say I'm not e...I can't say I'm not excited...
| - last reply by TheDancingPanda on Nov 28, 2008 12:24 PM |
|
Blockade - War with Iran
| - last reply by hZ_Unhy on Nov 28, 2008 08:47 AM |
|
The place that once was....
| - last reply by hZ_Unhy on Nov 28, 2008 08:24 AM |
|
iamgrunt profile!
| - posted by wowlikeit on Nov 23, 2008 10:05 PM |
|
|
|
|
RSS Feeds
