Video game series
Age of Empires is a series of historic real-time scheme video recording games, in the first place developed by ensemble Studios and published by Xbox Game Studios. The first game was Age of Empires, released in 1997. Nine sum games within the series have been released so far ( more specifically as of 28 October 2021 ).
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Age of Empires focused on events in Europe, Africa and Asia, spanning from the Stone Age to the Iron Age ; the expansion game explored the formation and expansion of the Roman Empire. The sequel, Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, was set in the Middle Ages, while its expansion focused partially on the spanish conquest of Mexico. The subsequent three games of Age of Empires III explored the early modern period, when Europe was colonizing the Americas and respective asian nations were on the decline. Another installment, Age of Empires Online, takes a different overture as a free-to-play on-line game use Games for Windows Live. A by-product game, Age of Mythology, was set in the lapp period as the original Age of Empires, but focused on fabulous elements of Greek, Egyptian, and Norse mythology. The fourth main episode in the series, Age of Empires IV, was released on October 28, 2021. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] The Age of Empires series has been a commercial success, selling over 25 million copies. Critics have credited part of the achiever of the series to its historical theme and fairly play ; the artificial intelligence ( AI ) players have fewer advantages than in many of the serial ‘ competitors .
Games [edit ]
The games in the series focus on diachronic events throughout time. Age of Empires covers the events between the Stone Age and the classical period, in Europe and Asia. Its expansion, The Rise of Rome, follows the constitution and lift of the Roman Empire. The Age of Kings and its Nintendo DS by-product follow Europe and Asia through the Middle Ages. The Age of Kings ‘ expansion pack, The Conquerors, is set during the like period, but besides includes scenarios about the spanish conquest of Mexico, El Cid, and Attila the Hun. Age of Empires III and its first expansion, The WarChiefs, take place during the european colonization of the Americas. Its second expansion, The Asian Dynasties, follows the wax of Asia in the same period. Age of Empires Online focuses on the Greek and egyptian civilizations. The series ‘ by-product, Age of Mythology, and its expansion pack, The Titans, are set during the Bronze Age, but focus on mythology as their themes, rather than history .
Main series [edit ]
Age of Empires [edit ]
Age of Empires, released on October 26, 1997, [ 3 ] was the first game in the series, a well as the first major release from ensemble Studios. [ 4 ] It was one of the first history-based real-time scheme games made, [ 5 ] utilizing the Genie crippled engine. GameSpot described it as a desegregate of Civilization and Warcraft. [ 6 ] The game gives players a choice of 12 civilizations to develop from the Stone Age to the Iron Age. The expansion backpack, The Rise of Rome, published by Microsoft on October 31, 1998, introduced newly features and four raw civilizations, including the Romans. Although the two games had contained many software bugs, patches resolved many of the problems. [ 7 ] [ 8 ] Age of Empires was broadly well received, despite some highly negative reviews. GameSpot criticized a confuse invention, while Computer and Video Games praised the game as hard in one and multiplayer. [ 9 ] The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences named Age of Empires the 1998 “ Computer Strategy Game of the year. ” [ 10 ] For several years, the game remained high on the sales charts, with over three million units sold by 2000. [ 11 ] The Rise of Rome sold one million units in 2000 [ 11 ] and attained 80 % as an aggregate score from GameRankings. [ 12 ] In June 2017, Adam Isgreen, creative director of Xbox Game Studios announced Age of Empires: Definitive Edition at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2017. It will feature pass graphics with hold for 4K resolution, a remastered soundtrack, and early gameplay improvements, and was planned to be released on October 19, 2017, but was delayed until February 20, 2018, when it was released on the Microsoft Store. [ 13 ] [ 14 ] [ 15 ] On May 30, 2019, Microsoft announced that the definitive Edition would be coming to Steam in the future, along with the definitive Editions of both Age of Empires II and Age of Empires III. [ 16 ] [ 17 ]
Age of Empires II [edit ]
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, released on September 30, 1999, used the Genie game engine, and had gameplay exchangeable to its predecessor. [ 18 ] Age of Kings is set in the Middle Ages, from the Dark Ages to the Imperial Age. It allows players to choose one of 13 civilizations, from Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. [ 19 ] On August 24, 2000, Microsoft published the expansion, The Conquerors. It added raw units and five modern civilizations, including two mesoamerican civilizations : the Maya and the Aztec. [ 20 ] The Age of Kings was a bigger critical achiever than the first two games, with Game Rankings and Metacritic scores of 92 %. [ 21 ] [ 22 ] Microsoft shipped out more than two million copies to retailers, and the game received numerous awards and accolades. [ 23 ] Critics agreed that The Conquerors expanded well on The Age of Kings, though issues of unbalance gameplay were raised. [ 24 ] The Age of Kings and The Conquerors won the 2000 and 2001 “ Computer Strategy Game of the year ” awards from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, respectively. [ 25 ] [ 26 ] In April 2013, Age of Empires II: HD Edition was released on the Steam digital distribution platform for Windows operating systems. The HD Edition includes both the original bet on and the expansion The Conquerors, vitamin a well as updated graphics for high-resolution displays. [ 27 ] in the first place a fan-made modpack made for The Conquerors, Age of Empires II: The Forgotten was an unofficial expansion that added a new campaign, playable civilizations, maps, and choice of servicing updates. The Forgotten was later developed into an official expansion with SkyBox Labs and Forgotten Studios, and in November 2013 The Forgotten HD was released by Microsoft entirely for the HD Edition on Steam. [ 28 ] A third expansion named The African Kingdoms was released by Microsoft in November 2015, besides entirely for the HD Edition. [ 29 ] A fourthly expansion entitled Rise of the Rajas was released on 19 December 2016. [ 30 ] On August 21, 2017, Microsoft announced Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. [ 31 ] In June 2019, Adam Isgreen, now the Franchise Creative Director for Age of Empires, shared more information regarding the Age of Empires II : definitive edition at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2019. He confirmed that the Definitive Edition was being developed by Forgotten Empires, Tantalus Media, and Wicked Witch Software. He announced that the game would feature new 4K graphics, Xbox Live digest for multiplayer, exclusive achievements, four new civilizations ( Bulgarians, Cumans, Lithuanians, Tatars [ 32 ] ), three new campaigns, a modern spectator mode and tournament features, and extra quality of life sentence improvements. It was released on November 14, 2019. [ 33 ] [ 34 ] Bert Beeckman, co-founder of Forgotten Empires, confirmed on June 12 that Age of Empires II: HD Edition would not be removed from sale after the secrete of Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. [ 35 ]
Age of Empires III [edit ]
Age of Empires III, released on October 18, 2005, was built on an improved version of the Age of Mythology game engine with the most significant changes being the updated graphics engine and the inclusion of the Havok physics middleware engine. [ 36 ] [ 37 ] The game is set in the menstruation between 1421 and 1850, and players can choose one of eight european nations. The game introduced a big number of features, such as base cities. Described by ensemble Studios as “ an significant subscribe system to your efforts in the New World, ” home cities help provide the musician with resources, equipment, troops, and upgrades. They can be used across multiple games, and upgraded after each battle ; the feature was compared to a role-playing game character by ensemble Studios. [ 38 ] The first expansion to Age of Empires III, The WarChiefs, was released October 17, 2006. Most gameplay changes in the expansion pack were small, but it introduced three fresh civilizations, with a focus on native Americans. [ 39 ] Most noteworthy was the presentation of the WarChief unit. [ 40 ] The second expansion, The Asian Dynasties, went on sale October 23, 2007. It was a jointly build up product ; Big Huge Games helped Ensemble Studios develop the plot, with Brian Reynolds joining Bruce Shelley as precede interior designer. [ 41 ] The game expanded the Age of Empires III universe into Asia, and introduced three raw civilizations. [ 42 ] Reception towards Age of Empires III was assorted ; Game Revolution described it as “ about deoxyadenosine monophosphate much fun ” as a history textbook, while GameZone argued it was “ one of the best looking games, much less an RTS game, that is out on the market presently ”. [ 43 ] It sold more than two million copies, and won the GameSpy “ real-time scheme plot of the year ” award. [ 44 ] [ 45 ] The WarChiefs failed to equal the achiever of its predecessor, with a lower mark on both Game Rankings and Metacritic, and The Asian Dynasties’ score was lower still with 80 %. [ 46 ] [ 47 ] [ 48 ] [ 49 ] several collectors ‘ editions of Age of Empires III included a hardback artbook. The last page of the artbook has a pictorial depiction of the series ; the Roman numerals below each panel range from I to V, indicating the series would include an Age of Empires IV and Age of Empires V. ensemble Studios employee Sandy Petersen said that the effigy “ was total meditation on [ their ] depart. ” [ 50 ] In 2008, Microsoft announced they were closing devour Ensemble Studios following the completion of Halo Wars. Some of its employees would form a new team as region of Microsoft Studios. [ 51 ] Kevin Unangst, film director of Games for Windows, denied it was the end of the Age of Empires series, telling The San Francisco Chronicle “ we ‘re very excited about the future electric potential for Age of Empires “. [ 52 ] Edge confirmed, in an consultation with Microsoft ‘s corporate frailty president of synergistic entertainment, Shane Kim, that Microsoft continued to own Age of Empires and that they had plans to continue the series. [ 53 ] however, Bruce Shelley wrote in his blog that he would not be share of any fresh studios formed. [ 54 ] [ 55 ] Following the announcement of remastered editions of previous games, Microsoft announced Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition on August 21, 2017. [ 31 ] On May 30, 2019, the party revealed that the Definitive Edition would come to Steam in the future, along with the authoritative Editions of both Age of Empires and Age of Empires II. [ 16 ] [ 17 ] On August 28, 2020 Microsoft announced at Gamescom 2020 that Age of Empires III : definitive edition would release formally on October 15, 2020. [ 56 ] On January 23, 2020, Microsoft announced a conclude beta for early February of that year. Betas ran on Steam and the Microsoft Store, with each beta session including a little patch of the bet on. [ 57 ] The foremost closed beta school term began on February 11, 2020 and ended on February 19, 2020. [ 58 ] [ 59 ] The second closed multiplayer session began on March 31 and ran until April 7. [ 60 ] The bet on was released on October 15, 2020 .
Age of Empires IV [edit ]
On August 21, 2017, Microsoft announced Age of Empires IV, developed by Relic Entertainment. [ 61 ] Microsoft ‘s Executive Vice-President of Gaming, Phil Spencer, confirmed on June 11, 2019, that Age of Empires IV is calm in exploitation, with more information coming late in 2019. [ 62 ] On November 14, 2019, gameplay footage of Age of Empires IV was shown at the X019 event. [ 63 ] It showed medieval war between English and Mongol forces. [ 64 ] [ 65 ] Age of Empires IV was officially released on October 28, 2021, [ 1 ] with eight civilizations available at launch : the Abbasid Dynasty, the Chinese, the Delhi Sultanate, the English, the french, the Holy Roman Empire, the Mongols, and the Rus. [ 66 ] This title revisits the Middle Ages and incorporates several features and mechanics of Age of Empires II that were changed or removed in Age of Empires III .
by-product games [edit ]
Age of Mythology shared many elements of gameplay with the main series, [ 67 ] and was considered a part of the series, despite its different focus. [ 68 ] [ 69 ] The campaign in Age of Mythology tells the report of an Atlantean, Arkantos, and his quest to find why his people are out of favor with Poseidon. [ 70 ] Microsoft published the game on October 30, 2002, [ 71 ] and its expansion, The Titans, on October 21, 2003. [ 72 ] The Titans featured the Atlanteans as a raw refinement. [ 73 ] Its campaign is shorter than previous expansions, and centers on Kastor, son of Arkantos, who falls for the lies of the titans and frees them from Tartarus. [ 74 ] Age of Mythology sold more than one million units in four months. [ 75 ] It scored 89 % on Game Rankings and Metacritic. [ 76 ] [ 77 ] The Titans failed to equal the sales achiever of Age of Mythology, although critics rated it highly. [ 78 ] [ 79 ] Backbone Entertainment developed Age of Empires: The Age of Kings as a turn-based crippled for the Nintendo DS. Majesco Entertainment published the game on February 14, 2006. It is similar to other turn-based games, such as Advance Wars, but with a gameplay based on its personal computer counterpart. [ 80 ] Age of Empires: The Age of Kings scored 80 % on Game Rankings and Metacritic. [ 81 ] [ 82 ] Konami brought a game of the like title to the PlayStation 2 around five years earlier than the DS version, but the game had little promotion, and sold ailing. [ 83 ] On August 16, 2010, Microsoft announced Age of Empires Online, which was a free-to-play Games for Windows Live on-line game, it developed in collaboration with Robot Entertainment. It featured Free-to-play experiences via Games for Windows LIVE ampere well as : A dogged on-line capital city that lives and grows flush when you ‘re offline, Cooperative multiplayer quests, trade and a level-based organization that lets you progress at your own pace. [ 84 ] Premium content could be earned or purchased, such as access to blueprints and special items, ampere well as more quests and features. In September 2013, it was announced that the game would remain functional until July 1, 2014, after which it would be shut down due to the content being excessively expensive to maintain. [ 85 ] On April 13, 2014, Age of Empires: World Domination was announced. It was developed by KLab Games for the io, Android and Windows Phone. [ 86 ] It was released on December 7, 2015, [ 87 ] with the military service terminated on 30 November 2016. [ 88 ] On August 25, 2014, Age of Empires: Castle Siege was announced. It is a touch-based crippled developed by Smoking Gun Interactive. It was released on September 17, 2014 for the Windows personal computer and Windows Phone 8. [ 89 ] [ 90 ]
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Development [edit ]
historical elements [edit ]
The development phases of the Age of Empires games were like in several ways. Due to the games being based on historic events, the team much had to do large amounts of research. [ 91 ] however, the research was not in depth, which, according to Age of Empires architect Bruce Shelley, is “ a good theme for most entertainment products. ” [ 91 ] Shelley besides said that Ensemble Studios took most of the address material from children ‘s sections at libraries. He pointed out the finish was for the players of the game to have fun, “ not [ its ] designers or researchers. ” [ 91 ] At the Games Convention Developers Conference in 2007, Shelley continued with this think and explained that the achiever of the serial put in “ making a game which appealed to both the casual and hard-core crippled. ” [ 92 ] Shelley besides remarked the Age of Empires games were not about history in itself, but rather “ about the human have ; ” [ 92 ] they focused not plainly on what humans had done but on what they could do in the future such as “ going into space. ” [ 92 ] Ensemble Studios developed Age of Mythology in a different room than the previous two games. The team had worried they “ could n’t get away ” with a third base historical-based game, and choose mythology as the determine after they had discussed respective options. [ 93 ]
artificial intelligence [edit ]
The artificial news ( AI ) used in the Age of Empires serial has been developed and improved regularly by designers. AI specialist Dave Pottinger noted the development team gave the AI in the original game a very eminent precedence, and spent over a year working on it. He said that the AI in the game relies on tactics and strategies to win, alternatively of “ cheating ” by giving bonus resources to itself, or tweaking its units to be stronger than normal. [ 94 ] Pottinger belated noted that the Age of Empires series team took big pride in their AI playing a “ bazaar game ” [ 95 ] and did n’t know what the player was doing and had to play by the same rules as its human opponents. [ 96 ] Age of Empires allows players to choose to play either along specialize, story-backed conditions or as individual battles against the AI ( and early players ). Choosing to struggle against the AI – preferably than following the storyline – allows the AI to adapt to players ‘ strategies and even remember which games it won and lost. The AI finally overcomes players ‘ strategies and well destroys their villages after several games. For exemplify, in Age of Empires III, this is referred to as playing a “ skirmish. ” however Age of Empires III allows players to refine their strategies further against the AI by “ Building a deck, ” which allows players to replace “ Home City ” shipments with better alternatives. In Age of Empires II: The Conquerors the AI was given a high priority, the consequence being the “ fresh villager ” feature of speech, which was included in subsequent games of the series. After building a structure that stores or produces resources, smart villagers would proceed to collect resources related to the structure, such as crops from farms or ore from exposed deposits. [ 97 ] Age of Mythology: The Titans lets players use an AI debugger when creating customs scenarios ; players can change the settings of computer players and make them act according to certain patterns. [ 98 ] More basic changes to the AI had previously been available in the series ‘ first two games .
Graphics and visuals [edit ]
The graphics and visuals of Age of Empires improved with each consecutive acquittance. From the original handout to the second, Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, noteworthy improvements gained praise from respective critics. [ 100 ] [ 101 ] [ 102 ] With the spill of Age of Mythology the praise continued, [ 100 ] [ 103 ] [ 104 ] [ 105 ] and the fourth publish, Age of Empires III, garnered even more. [ 106 ] [ 107 ] [ 108 ] GameSpot praised the better graphics [ 100 ] in the second release, Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings. Eurogamer welcomed its initiation of female villagers [ 109 ] as compared with the original male only version. Allgame praised the promote group and path-finding systems in the second free. [ 101 ] Despite the better graphics, Allgame complained that units in Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings were at times difficult to distinguish from one another, [ 101 ] a point numerous reviewers agreed on. [ 100 ] [ 110 ] Nevertheless, Game Revolution wrote that the second publish was “ the best looking of the 2D RTS games out there right now. ” [ 102 ] The graphics continued to improve in Age of Mythology and was praised by a majority of reviewers. IGN ranked the graphics in this third spill, “ a joy to watch … amazing. ” [ 103 ] GameSpot assented, besides rat the graphics a 9 out of 10. [ 100 ] Game Revolution agreed, [ 104 ] and personal computer Gamer stated that the graphics in the third release “ are packed with contingent. ” [ 105 ] The tendency in better graphics continued well into the following liberation, Age of Empires III, much to the delight of reviewers. IGN stated, “ After seeing the screenshots, our jaw hit the floor at the total of contingent. ” [ 106 ] 1UP.com described Age of Empires III as “ one of the most beautiful games you will put on your calculator for the foreseeable future. ” [ 107 ] GameSpy agreed, stating, “ Age III ‘s graphics are unmatched in the scheme writing style. ” [ 108 ] Age of Empires III builds on and introduces new features to the anterior release, Age of Mythology, such as the inclusion of the award-winning [ 111 ] Havok physics pretense middleware [ 112 ] game engine for the Windows interpretation and PhysX for the Mac OS X. The innovative resultant role is that pre-created animations are avoided ; rather events are calculated according to the physics engine. consequently, views of events like building destruction and corner fly are not pre-recorded. GameSpot besides admired the graphics in the fourth release but complained about “ the awkward unit behavior. ” [ 113 ] early graphic features of the game include blooming ignite and support for pixel shader 3.0. [ 114 ] GameSpy awarded Age of Empires III the “ Best Graphics ” award at GameSpy ‘s “ Game of the year 2005. ” [ 115 ]
music [edit ]
Stephen Rippy has been the series ‘ music conductor since the first game. He has had occasional help from his brother, David Rippy, vitamin a well as Kevin McMullan. [ 116 ] He created the original music in Age of Empires with sounds of instruments from the periods in the bet on. [ 117 ] These sounds came from actual instruments, and their digital samples. [ 117 ] The tunes were the resultant role of extensive inquiry on the cultures, styles, and instruments used. [ 117 ] Rippy said that sound development on The Age of Kings was easy, since there was cognition of the instruments used in the Middle Ages. consequently, they were able to reproduce the tunes for the soundtrack of the game. [ 118 ] In Age of Mythology, an orchestral orchestration was used, rather. According to McMullan, the team besides collected large numbers of audio recordings from menagerie, and created “ a massive sound library of [ their ] own fabric. ” [ 119 ] The music of Age of Empires III was exchangeable to The Age of Kings, in which the team used more historical instruments ; Rippy noted the team used instruments such as “ bagpipes and field drums ” to give it a realistic feel. [ 116 ]
collaboration [edit ]
corps de ballet Studios worked together with Big Huge Games to develop The Asian Dynasties, Age of Empires III ‘s second expansion. This was the first base joint venture for both teams. The reason for them doing thus was compatible schedules : ensemble Studios was busy with other projects—particularly Halo Wars —while big Huge Games ‘ real-time strategy team had few projects at that prison term. big huge Games did most of the work, but Ensemble Studios designers Greg Street and Sandy Petersen joined in the brainstorming, and had control over the final intersection. [ 120 ] Both studios had roles in testing the game before its release. [ 121 ]
reception and bequest [edit ]
The Age of Empires series has been a commercial achiever. As of 2008, five of its games have each sold more than one million copies. According to Gamasutra, Age of Empires had sold more than three million copies, and The Rise of Rome sold one million copies as of 2000. [ 11 ] Around the same meter, Microsoft announced that they shipped over two million copies of The Age of Kings. [ 23 ] In 2003, Microsoft announced the sales of one million copies for Age of Mythology. [ 75 ] By 2004—prior to the spill of Age of Empires III —the Age of Empires franchise had sold over 15 million copies. [ 138 ] On May 18, 2007, Ensemble Studios announced that two million copies of Age of Empires III had been sold. [ 44 ] Games in the series have systematically scored highly on video recording game review collector websites GameRankings and Metacritic, which collect data from numerous review websites. As noted in the adjacent table, the highest evaluation game is Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, receiving a 92 % seduce from both sites. [ 21 ] [ 22 ] Critics have credited Age of Empires for influencing real-time scheme ( RTS ) games such as Rise of Nations, Empire Earth, and Cossacks. [ 139 ] [ 140 ] Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds was besides influenced by the series : it utilized the Genie game engine, as Age of Empires and Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings had, and was considered by critics to be a very close replica to the games ; IGN began their review with the statement “ I love Age of Star Wars, I mean Star Empires. Whatever it ‘s called, I dig it. ” [ 141 ] and GameSpot wrote that “ fundamentals of the Age of Empires II engine are thus entire in Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds that veterans of that game can jump right in. ” [ 142 ] In October 2005, Shelley commented on the impact of the series. In a GameSpy interview, he explained that parents would “ tell Ensemble Studios that their kid is reading books about ancient Greece because they enjoy playing with the triremes thus much, or that they want to check out books about medieval history because [ the ] game taught them what a catapult was. ” [ 143 ] Shelley has said that the key to the success of the games was its initiation, preferably than fake of its peers. He besides claimed the unique elements in the games “ helped establish the reputation of ensemble Studios as masters of the real-time scheme genre. ” [ 144 ] Mark Bozon of IGN wrote in his review of The Age of Kings, “ The Age of Empires series has been one of the most advanced real-time strategy games for personal computer in the final ten or therefore. ” [ 145 ] Gamenikki called Ensemble Studios “ the developer that started it all ” when they talked about how much Age of Empires III had done to advance the real-time strategy genre. [ 146 ] Shelley has acknowledged the success and initiation of Age of Empires helped to ensure ensemble survive its early periods since inauguration. [ 147 ] In 2005, Shelley complained of critics holding an “ invention bias ” against the serial ; citing the 60 % score from Computer Gaming World, he said that despite Age of Empires III being “ possibly the best sell personal computer game in the global ”, reviewers expected “ something actually new ”, and rated it harshly. [ 148 ] Bungie chose ensemble Studios to develop Halo Wars, an RTS game based on their Halo series. They said that one of the reasons they chose to work with Ensemble was because of the Age of Empires series. [ 149 ] They besides noted that Ensemble was the perfect choice “ to realize the original imagination of Halo “, which started life as an RTS. [ 149 ]
References [edit ]
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