Vacation Week

Scott and Dominica are off on vacation this week. If you want to follow along with all that is happening, they have put together a blog, podcast, Flickrcast and vlog that you can check out. Get all of the details at:

http://sheepguardingllama.blogspot.com/2005/10/sgls-scott-and-dominica-vacation.html

Quake IV Released

The long awaited follow-up to Quake III has been officially released. While no one in "the game" has yet had a chance to review this game we are eagerly awaiting the opportunity. There is a very good chance that will become the first person shooter of choice for the next two years.

Age of Empires III Turned Down

I have uninstalled the trial of AoE3 from my computer today as we have decided that it is NOT going to be the successor to AoE2 at the Friday Night Game. We are still holding out hope that Empire Earth 2 will manage to rise to the top as the subsequent game of choice. At the moment it would appear to be the only serious contender to AoE3.

Why did AoE3 fail? There are many reasons. Big ones include too many features that are highly detrimental to fair pick-up game play. Support for only eight players. Incredibly slow game play with poor interface. A focus on graphics and not on gameplay. A dumbing down of the game from earlier versions which, IMHO, were all ready a little on the simple side. And the AoE series is really designed to be a quick game and not to be a good, series multiplayer experience. The EE games are really much more targetted at longer games that allow players to get more involved and actually have strategies. Not just learn a quick succession of moves that allow for unstoppable rushes. That is fine for people who enjoy short games. But since the FNG crew really likes to play fewer, more involved games the AoE series just isn't the best one for us.

So on to the next round of testing as we continue to search for the successor to AoE2 for the Friday Night Game.

Investigating AoE3 and EE2

For those who are not aware: Microsoft and Ensemble Studios are expecting to release Age of Empires III this month. In the meantime there is a free, downloadable demo that you can get from Ensemble's web site to try out the game. That is, if your computer is fast enough. This game requires some serious horsepower to run properly.

I have played a few games on AoE3 and the jury is still out. The graphics are truly amazing but it looks like the gameplay may be seriously limited compared to AoE2 which, if it truly is, will be a major mistake for Microsoft. What we are looking for is a game with MORE challenge, not less. We want to move forward, not backward. From what we have seen so far of this game, it is nothing special. It is built on the Age of Mythology engine and is visually impressive but not nearly as impressive as we had thought that it was going to be. From the looks of the demo, it would appear that Ensemble has made many of the Empire Earth series mistakes without adding any significant enhancements of their own.

It will take a bit of gameplay to determine how suitable AoE3 will be moving forward but currently it looks as though Empire Earth II may prove to be a better choice as it is less quirky and more dedicated to the genre. AoE3 relies on too many gimmicks and not enough on gameplay a la Age of Mythology. From the first moment you sit down to play to get the feeling that this game was geared more towards children than the two previous AoE titles.

As I said, the jury is still out. But don't be surprised to find that AoE3 doesn't make the grade.