Online Age of Empires Brings Other Humans Into the Fray

[Jared]

Thats an intresting idea, and something fresh for the francise too! Awesome

 

[The Amazing Tea Alligator]

Dude, why the fuck is it some cell shaded cartoony shit?

Lame

It's not that bad, but yeah, it does look like Settlers Online more than AoE online. Still, I guess it's for technical reasons, maybe it's easier to render and won't slow down people's machines so much?

Settles online has a sort of fairy tale fantasy style to it. All that Mockery of Empires Online's art syle tells us is that it's aimed at kids.

 

[SelectivelyEvil13]

It's like they're destroying everything precious to me...

Spoiler: My biggest gripe + swearing

WHAT THE FUCK. Is with that artstyle. WHAT THE FUCK. What, are you trying to make it accessable and 'friendly' or some shit? Goddamnit. Stop desecrating the already ridiculed corpse of Ensemble Studios.

Surely sprites are easier to make, run, and wouldn't make you feel like you're playing spore?

Your words ring true with me, that is just [expletive], [expletive], ARRRGGHHH!!!!
... [expletive]
It looks terrible in art alone, like Age of Nickelodeon with silly graphics and all this "curviness" that runs amok. Was the concept art drawn in crayon?!? The persistent online aspect is an interesting idea for maybe a portion of a true Age of... games, but to me it just screams "eh" for the main premise of a new game. Looks like I'll be sticking with Age of Kings and Mythology, so good day, Microsoft... [expletive]s.

 

[gonzo20]

looks good but what if you have some RTS master on your server who wipes the floor with everyone and practically rules every city?

 

[The Amazing Tea Alligator]

It's like they're destroying everything precious to me...

Spoiler: My biggest gripe + swearing

WHAT THE FUCK. Is with that artstyle. WHAT THE FUCK. What, are you trying to make it accessable and 'friendly' or some shit? Goddamnit. Stop desecrating the already ridiculed corpse of Ensemble Studios.

Surely sprites are easier to make, run, and wouldn't make you feel like you're playing spore?

Your words ring true with me, that is just [expletive], [expletive], ARRRGGHHH!!!!
... [expletive]
It looks terrible in art alone, like Age of Nickelodeon with silly graphics and all this "curviness" that runs amok. Was the concept art drawn in crayon?!? The persistent online aspect is an interesting idea for maybe a portion of a true Age of... games, but to me it just screams "eh" for the main premise of a new game. Looks like I'll be sticking with Age of Kings and Mythology, so good day, Microsoft... [expletive]s.

To be honest, a game that looks like it was drawn in crayon sounds pretty awesome. I could see it looking like a Firth animation:
Except crayon rather than just colour fill. I think it'd be pretty awesome. But yeah, Mockery of Empires needs to find a new art style or be shunned by all but the most forgiving.

looks good but what if you have some RTS master on your server who wipes the floor with everyone and practically rules every city?

I plan to, just that the art style turns me off. But think of all the incompetent kids that'd be playing...

 

[Dioxide20]

Cool, lets hope it gets the attention it deserves. I like the art style of the game.

 

[rohit9891]

Sounds like a great idea...more and more companies are coming with free-to-play model just like the recent nfs world...i actually think it's a good way for publishers to make a profit from pc games as the losses from piracy are minimized.

 

[maddog015]

For a second there, I thought AoE would be coming to Facebook!

Well, for all I know, maybe it will be...

 

[laryri]

GFWL Exclusive. They really think that people are going to go for that?

 

[Vhite]

Looks good, its experiment, lets hope it will work.

 

[Sebenko]

Yes, Warcraft II was popular. That doesn't mean you have to do everything as a cartoon.

Honestly, it seems like the two art "styles" at the moment are WoW/WCIII cartoon and gritty brown.

Also, GFWL? really? Why? Why? Why? Why?

No, there is no excuse. Anything you say will not make me think that GFWL is a bad choice. Bad being an understatement.

 

[DamienHell]

problem with games like these is you just find out when a player goes to sleep/school/work and attack then.

 

[cjackson92]

I miss AoE2.

 

[skorpion352]

my only gripe with this is the games for windows live thing. the vgraphics are pretty cartoony, but i think its refreshing to see a game that doesnt go all out on its graphics and is the norm these days

 

[Avayu]

The idea of a good MMORTS really intrigues me. I'm not sure if this is what I'd hope for, but it seems interesting enough to try and apply for the beta. The cartoon style doesn't bug me, although it does away with AoE's more traditional look, maybe it could make for a more distinctive look.

 

[Wadders]

*clears throat, adjusts tie*

WHAT THE FUCK!?

What on God's green earth possessed them do adopt that art style?! Now I'm not sugesting they go for Empire: Total War-like levels of visual realism, but fucking cartoon stlye? Are you shitting me? I would have settled for AoE3 levels of graphics. I mean sure the idea of the game itself is pretty cool (apart from the fact it uses GFWL, what a crock of shit that is) but the art style kills it stone dead for me. It looks like the bastard love child of Battlefield: Heroes and CIV4.

Bah, humbug.

What was wrong with the previos game's art style? Despite the graphicl improvements over the years, AoE has always has alwalys been recognisable as, well, AoE.

 

[Niccolo]

Huh..the concept makes it kind of seem like a better implemented Evony....in the fact that it is a MMO-RTS where your cities continue on even after you have logged out...for better or worse... :/

Heehee, that's the first thing I thought of too. As long as AoE's advertising campaign isn't a bunch of half-dressed busty women too... I might lose all faith in people at that point.

 

[cairocat]

I saw the description and was like

I saw the video and was like >:O

 

[cairocat]

Huh..the concept makes it kind of seem like a better implemented Evony....in the fact that it is a MMO-RTS where your cities continue on even after you have logged out...for better or worse... :/

Heehee, that's the first thing I thought of too. As long as AoE's advertising campaign isn't a bunch of half-dressed busty women too... I might lose all faith in people at that point.

I'd suicide if they started stealing the covers off bad 90s porn movies.

 

[QuiB25]

Christ is this depressing! The cartoony art style and the voice that sounds like a preschool teacher both completely tear the balls off what sounds like a cool idea for one of my favorite series. I get the cartoon graphics makes it easier on computers, but they could have at least used the beautiful graphics from AoE2 or Mythology's 3D graphics.

I guess I might keep on eye on this but it's just cynical to emasculate such a great series like AoE just to appeal to the casual crowd.