Trinimc finally got his new power supply , so his machine can finally play games at full power ...
AOE 3 holds true to the spirit of the series , similar gameplay and a storyline revolving around historical events , with lots of fighting and shooting of course.. The graphics are the first thing you notice , complete with shader effects , soft shadows and highly detailed models , it will make older FPS games envious . The gameplay hasn't really changed.. more affected by new technology in the game than by polish.. But it will keep fans of the series happy , but anyone who didn't like the original game probably won't like this one either .
New technology eg. guns , trade routes run by trains providing regular resource drops , cannons and rockets etc. give the game a new feel, even if you can lock down an enemy inside his base and deprive him of resources , unless you can destroy his trading post ( which a smart player will build IN his base for defence) he will still get enough resources to build up and go on the offensive .
Demo was nice.. full version should be better
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Hardware wise its more of a CPU hog than a graphics hog on my 6600gt , game runs at a comfortable frame rate till you build a massive army and start raiding enemy bases , even when not looking at the fight the frame rate is in the 10-15 area.... Demo may have a few bugs that will be sorted out in the full version , but i doubt many cpus will handle calculating fairly detailed physics and AI of hundreds of soldieres battling it out , but as long as you have a 9800 pro or better you should be able to crank up the settings pretty high, but even a lowly 5200 or 9200 will play it acceptable at medium settings .
