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 >
Upshift Beta! Play NOW in this worldwide exclusive, high-octane beta event of Upshift StrikeRacer.
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.
Thursday, 5 July, 2007 – Planet Age of Empires News
If you enjoy tinkering with random map scripts, or have ever had an interest in it, this is the contest for you. Players all over the world could end up battling on your random map in single player and in multiplayer matches! All you need to do is create a random map that is based on the theme "The Dakotas" and submit it to us. A panel of judges, including Ensemble Studios designers will choose the best entry and the winning map may end up being included in Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs in a future patch!
Tuesday, 3 July, 2007 – Planet Age of Empires News
New Developers Blog 22:37 PST | Xiphoid | Print News Bruce Shelley has penned another great Developers Blog that covers the Indian civilization in AOE3:The Asian Dynasties, AOE3 on the PBS show NOVA, Mexico's president playing AOE, and more.
Brian Reynolds on the Asian Dynasties-India: IGN has posted an interview with Brian Reynolds, studio head at Big Huge Games, discussing the Y pack for Age of Empires III. I had the Indian civilization in mind a while ago when I mentioned that I thought one would be a surprise to most of you. I am happy to see India make an appearance in one of our Age games. It has been considered before and was a reasonable candidate for inclusion in both the original Age of Empires and Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings. One reason we left them out in the past is that their architecture is so unique. We didn’t want to invest the resources to create a building set for just the Indians and they would have looked strange using buildings created for the Middle East or China/Japan/Korea. Our reading of history didn’t show them in conflict with neighbors in any way similar to how the Europeans have gone after each other for millennia, or the countries in the Middle East, or east Asia. So there wasn’t a natural enemy to present with them, although you could make a case for India being an empire in its own right, being made up of many smaller kingdoms. Big Huge was willing to invest in Indian buildings and they look very cool to me, so the Indians are in and so are their elephants.
Age Of Empires III is immediately captivating and engrossing. Add to that a superb single-player campaign and thorough multiplayer capabilities and you have a winner.
Nominees:
Aspyr Media Star Wars: Empire At War, Aspyr Media Prey, Asypr Media Call of Duty 2, Feral Interactive The Movies
Top 10 PC Games (over A$20)
1. The Sims 2: Fashion Stuff
2. World of Warcraft
3. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
4. Age of Empires III 5. Command and Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars
6. The Sims 2: Seasons
7. The Sims 2
8. Battlefield 2142
9. The Sims 2: Open for Business
10. Lord of the Rings: Shadows of Angmar
“We didn’t want the Native Americans to just feel like an obstacle in the game,” lead designer Greg Street explains when asked about their presence in Age of Empires III. “Instead, we wanted the Native Americans to feel more like a potential resource over which colonists could compete.” While that’s still the case in Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs, the expansion pack also brings with it three tribes — the Aztecs, Iroquois, and Sioux — whose fortunes you can now control."
Head on over to Apple.com for the article, or read on for more.
Tuesday, 26 June, 2007 – Planet Age of Empires News
The Gaming President 10:07 PST | hZSoul | Print News It looks as if Mexico's president Felipe Calderón says Age of Empires is his favorite game to play, among many others. His campaign site had quite a few flash games, however those no longer exist.
Interview with Brian Reynolds at IGN 7:55 PST | hZSoul | Print News IGN has just interviewed Brian Reynolds. This interview sheds some new light on the upcoming expansion to the Age series. The interview focuses specifically on the new Indian civilization that has been added.
IGNPC: What are some of the cool new units and buildings of the Indians? Do they have any particularly cool tricks up their sleeve?
Brian Reynolds: The Indians mark the triumphant return of the elephant to the Age of Empires series! And not just one kind of elephant either...there are Siege Elephants, Flail Elephants, and more, all in different and interesting combat roles. They're all big and scary though, and I think will make the Indians very very popular to play.
There are some rather significant changes being made that will be sure to make the gameplay more intresting.
IGNPC: What about their home city? Can we expect the same types of shipments that the European countries get?
Brian Reynolds: One of the interesting things about the Indian Home City is that it does not contain any "Settler" cards, such as the "2 Settler" or "3 Settler" cards that players often ship at the beginning of the game. Instead, almost every Indian card ships 1 Villager (the Asian civs have Villagers instead of Settlers) in addition to whatever else it ships. So I might ship myself 700 Wood...and one Villager, or six Sepoys...and one Villager. This not only helps the Indians build up a strong economy, it also opens up a lot of interesting early game strategies, since Indian players don't need to ship the Settler card in order to get started.
Thursday, 21 June, 2007 – Planet Age of Empires News
Here for the week 20:34 PST | hZSoul | Print News Since Xiphoid is on vacation I will be taking over his duties for the next week or so, adding in the Wololo's, and keeping you updated with news articles on the latest age happenings.
AOE3 for Mac 1.0.2 Patch Released 0:20 PST | Xiphoid | Print News If you're an Age of Empires III for the Mac owner, you'll definitely want to download the new 1.0.2 patch, which smooths out gameplay performance, improves networking support, and more. Here's the details:
Problems with Quicktime 7.1.5 and OS X 10.3.9
Apple has addressed the issues caused by the 7.1.5 Quicktime update. Please update to Quicktime 7.1.6 using Software Update on your Apple Menu or using the link below. This will allow you to play Age of Empires III as originally intended.
* The Mac version of Age of Empires III now contains the same codebase and balance changes as PC version 1.11
* Fixed a crash on the Client if a timeout occurs while trying to connect to the Host.
* Fixed a crash in the map data transfer system when the Host sends 3rd party map data to clients
* Smoother GameRanger Integration
* CMD-Q now displays a dialog asking if the user wants to quit the game.
* Increased the size of the MP3 decoding buffers to reduce music drop-outs.
Top 10 PC Games (over A$20)
1. The Sims 2: Fashion Stuff
2. World of Warcraft
3. Age of Empires III 4. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
5. Command and Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars
6. The Sims 2
7. The Sims 2: Open for Business
8. The Sims 2: Seasons
9. The Sims 2: Nightlife
10. Battlefield 2142
On Vacation Next Week 0:19 PST | Xiphoid | Print News This is just a heads up that news posting will be lighter next week as I go on my annual vacation. I'll still try to keep you as up to date as possible about happenings in the community. :)
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