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Microsoft announces Age of Empires Online

by Jef Reahard on Aug 17th 2010 1:30AM

The first bit of interesting MMO news from Gamescom 2010 belongs to Microsoft, as the software giant has announced the latest entry in the venerable Age of Empires franchise. Age of Empires Online will offer players the chance to take their city-building adventures to the next level via a persistent online capital that grows even when its owner is offline.

The new title also features co-op multiplayer questing, trading, and a leveling mechanic in addition to story-based gameplay. Age of Empires Online will also feature free online gameplay via the Games for Windows platform, as well as a new graphical style that represents something of a stylistic departure from past titles in the series.

Interested in what the new title looks like? Check out our gallery of gameplay screenshots below, and be sure to watch the trailer here!

Age of Empires Online

Tags: age-of-empires, age-of-empires-online, breaking, Games-for-Windows, gamescom-2010, microsoft, Real-Time-Strategy, rts, strategy

Reader Comments (33)

Age of Empires... such a classic.

Looks kinda cartoony...
In a bad way...
I liked the older style of it...
Well maybe thats just because that's how I remember it...
...

As a childish retard, I take great offense at your comment, Osmodius.

No no, you're right. The old way is the proper way.

Looks kinda cartoony, and stylized.

I LOVE it.

Less stylized, more choking the life out of one of my favorite games...

If graphics choke the life out of things perhaps you should go watch a HD movie.

Hmm, growing an online capital even when I'm logged off..

I think someone has been playing a bit too much Farmville.

This looks like Farmville with togas.

Any bets on how long it takes for Microsoft to inevitably cancel this MMO, just as they have with every other MMO attempted for them?

Asheron's Call would like to say, "Hello" after ten years of being active.

Turbine bought back Asheron's Call from Microsoft years ago...

This is just a free game that's probably going to be about as 'deep' and 'vast' as you can expect from a free game. It still looks like a promising distraction for the evening with your mates, though.

Keep in mind something like Battlefield: Heroes. Great IP, great idea to take the art form down to a cartoony, not-much-work-to-make form that still looks visually pleasing, and throw out something onto the market that's free and just 'fun'.

i actually like the look of the toon graphics as opposed to what AoE III had

plus looks like they were smart enough to go back to the swords and spears

as opposed to guns which leads to rather boring fights in the time period they were in last

AoE3 isn't part of the franchise, it's just pretending that it is. They should be building from AoE2.

that was basically my point :P

AoE 3 while it had some positives to it, it really had an issue of we advanced to the point in history where combat between races all came down to 2 lines of people shooting at each other with highly inaccurate weapons with insane reload times until one row fell down

The death of one of the greatest RTS franchises ever.

It was already dead when Ensemble Studios closed doors.

vaporware.

MS never finishes its mmo's.

Unless this one belongs in 1995 and passes MS qaulity standards.

I hope their standards are up to your level of qaulity.

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Microsoft announces Age of Empires Online

Age of Empires Online

Reader Comments (33)

Posted: Aug 17th 2010 1:46AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 17th 2010 1:56AM Joshua Przygocki said

Posted: Aug 17th 2010 3:14AM Mr Angry said

Posted: Aug 17th 2010 3:57AM blueimpact said

Posted: Aug 17th 2010 7:09AM Dril said

Posted: Aug 17th 2010 11:31AM Joshua Przygocki said

Posted: Aug 18th 2010 1:02PM Dril said

Posted: Aug 17th 2010 2:02AM Jade Effect said

Posted: Aug 17th 2010 2:15AM Its Utakata stupid said

Posted: Aug 17th 2010 2:20AM DevilSei said

Posted: Aug 17th 2010 2:30AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 17th 2010 3:30AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 17th 2010 2:28AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 17th 2010 2:41AM alinos said

Posted: Aug 17th 2010 5:19AM kasapina said

Posted: Aug 17th 2010 8:20AM alinos said

Posted: Aug 17th 2010 2:58AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 17th 2010 3:18AM Zaetal said

Posted: Aug 17th 2010 3:48AM Pan1 said

Posted: Aug 17th 2010 5:29AM Tsuyin said

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