Age of Empires III

:FI:TacticalS! · Post by **:FI:TacticalS!** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 2:31 am

Has anyone picked this game up yet? If so, could you provide a review.

:FI:Macca · Post by **:FI:Macca** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 11:55 pm

I got only the demo, I find it not good enough to get the full version.

Previos AOEs were much better.

My 51 cents.

S!

Macca

:FI:TacticalS! · Post by **:FI:TacticalS!** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 1:58 am

It certainly looks pretty. I hear it is the same gameplay as before, which isn't a bad thing but not sure if I want to chop down trees and hunt wild game. Certainly the actual combat is very limited as compared to the tactics of R:TW (which I understand are a step back from MTW but still . . .).

Man those videos look good nonetheless. Might wait then until they patch to see if they can improve the AI and combat.

TS!

:FI:TacticalS! · Post by **:FI:TacticalS!** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 2:05 pm

Despite your advice mate I traded some games in for Age of Empires III. While I knew the gameplay was basically the same as II, with some nice tweaks though, I wasn't ready for the shock of the WONDERFUL eye-candy.

The water is the best looking rendition I have ever seen. And the boat reflections breathtaking. The whole map is alive with wildlife - birds flying overhead, and ducks, turtles, swans and various types of fish in the water. Buildings are very detailed.

The Campaign system looks nice. Cutscenes well done. As usually, a top notch production IMO. Of course the combat will be simple (compared to tactical giants like R:TW), but still I like the streamlined resource gathering/upgrading this time around.

Happy with my aging Dell. Playing the game with High AA, Vsync with most of the other settings maxed-out or nearly so (auto-detected). So far I have had smooth fps.

TS!

Deadly107 · Post by **Deadly107** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 7:35 pm

I have Empire Earth 2 and Age of Empires 3. I didnt like either one at first because they are a bit different than the versions before and my old GeForce4 video card could'nt handle them very well. I recently purchased the GeForce 6200 which runs both games a lot better. I have reinstalled both games and am enjoying both alot more now. You are right about the graphics they both look very nice!

Deadly
VFA-107 Sea Dragons

:FI:TacticalS! · Post by **:FI:TacticalS!** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 8:25 pm

Are you a strategy gamer too Deadly107? Presently enjoying the single-player campaign for Age of Empires III. Nice variety of missions and a good challenge on Moderate. I also enjoyed I & II of this series.

I intend to enjoy some more factions in Rome Total War - Barbarian Invasion afterwards. This is probably my favourite strategy game. I'm new to this series.

Played some other older RTS games in previous years including Praetorians, Warcraft I, II & III (a little).

I also like sims starting with IL-2 of course! I also have enjoyed Silent Hunter III (but realized that naval combat wasn't for me), and even city-building in the SimCity series (which is sad as I'm involved in municipal planning in RL, so it was kind of like taking work home

).

Enjoy sports gaming a bit on the XBox 360, and some FPS such as Call of Duty and Battlefield.

Anyway are you interested in gaming with the Fightin' Irish mate or just visiting our forums? What time zone are you from Deadly107? I host online campaigns weekly starting at 10:00 p.m. Atlantic Time Zone (-4 GMT). And you said over at UBI there were no/little online campaigns.

We use Paul Lowengrin's Dynamic Campaign Generator (DCG) to produce our missions. Interested mate?

Regards,
TS!

Deadly107 · Post by **Deadly107** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 7:42 am

I havent played to many strategy games (except fleet command) before the Age of Empire series. A friend got me hooked on AOE and my daughter play the earlier version on my LAN network. I found Empire Earth on my own and realy liked it too, so I became a big fan of those two titles.
I am in the Central Time Zone (KC, Missouri area). I would be happy to fly with you guys but I cant abandon my squadron since we are trying to recover from the death of Jane's Combat Simulations. We used to fill the house with Jane's F/A-18 players every Saturday night and have upto 15 others in our Roger Wilco sessions listening in but those days are long gone. I am trying to rebuild our squad as a WW2 squadron so me and a couple of others are having to start from scratch again and are having fun doing it.
You guys seem like a great bunch so Im just visiting the forum and enjoying the company.

Have a great day!
Deadly
VFA-107 Sea Dragons

:FI:TacticalS! · Post by **:FI:TacticalS!** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 1:52 pm

Why abandon anyone mate? We enjoyed a great session late last year with a small squad (Danger Dogz along with some folks from two other groups). Their desire was to mix themselves and :FI: into two teams (opposed to them versus us) and enjoy a bunch of missions in Libya 1943. Everyone really enjoyed the session.

Sound interesting? Why not discuss it with your squad and see if there would be an interest for some Friday session. How many would there potential be from your group Deadly107? Depending on the number, we could all fly on the same side, mix folks up into two teams, or enjoy dogfighting :FI: versus your squad - whatever tickles your fancy mate!

TS!

Deadly107 · Post by **Deadly107** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 3:28 pm

Now that sounds like fun. There would be only 3 or 4 of us and we are mostly cooperative flyers but mixing it up a bit might be fun too.
Most of us work 2nd shift so we would not be able to fly until around midnight central standard time on friday nights. Also we use different coms than you do. We use Roger Wilco (the older free version Mk1C) because I can keep a running server active from our websight. The different coms would prob. be ok for team verses team but it might cause a bit of a problem for co-op missions.

Deadly
VFA-107 Sea Dragons
http://www.vfa107.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

:FI:TacticalS! · Post by **:FI:TacticalS!** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 4:46 pm

Indeed mate it sounds like it would be fun but I worry that the small things may make this endeavour impossible.

We start at 10:00 p.m. Atlantic Time, which would be 8:00 p.m. CST (if I'm not mistaken). In order to meet on Friday I would have to begin the session at 2:00 a.m. in the morning.

Are you guys available earlier on Wednesdays? We could have a session on that day (again at 10:00 p.m. ATL).

Given the number I think flying together on the same side would be more appropriate. Assuming we can find a time that works, I think we really should be on the same comms. Can we talk you guys into installing TeamSpeak (free program)? You will likely find most IL-2 squadrons use TS.

Finally, I assume you guys have the complete IL-2 series (Forgotten Battles & Aces) right? Your website wasn't clear whether you just have Pacific Fighters or that you prefer the Pacific theatre. We (:FI:) have the complete series and need folks with the same setup in order to join the session.

Let me know if we can resolve these items. Whether we can fly together sometime soon or in the future the invitation will be there waiting for your group. And good luck mate rebuilding your squad's numbers in the IL-2 virtual world. It is a great flight sim with plenty of depth to explore!

Regards,
TS!

Deadly107 · Post by **Deadly107** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 8:07 pm

Yes, we have the whole IL2 series and have done the merged install. Send me a link for the team speak program and I will give it a look.
Since Friday nights dont look compatable for our groups the only other night that will work is Saturday night. One of my regular pilots works the 3rd shift so Sunday night is out as is monday - thursday because of work and family.
I know we are not giving a lot of options for flying but we are weekend flyers. Anymore than that and we would all be sleeping in the dog house.

Deadly
VFA-107 Sea Dragons

Deadly107 · Post by **Deadly107** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 8:25 pm

I found the Team Seak client on your downloads page, I guess I should have looked there before the last post...LOL

Deadly
VFA-107 Sea Dragons