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.