I wish this one was more popular.

[coffeemm8]

I love AOE3. Great RTS

[Myrkul]

yep. underrated af IMO.

[Bovril Brigadier]

Careful now, otherwise you'll get ravenous hordes of AOE2 fans complaining again!

[ThunderClap]

We all do

[KingofGames]

Wish it had more players than AOE4. AOE4 would have been better received if it had been trying to remaster AOE1 instead of trying to outdo what AOE2 does better.

[FloosWorld]

Originally posted by Strayed:

Careful now, otherwise you'll get ravenous hordes of AOE2 fans complaining again!

Well, I'm an AoE 2 fan but never got the "hate" some of its players did to AoE 3. On the other hand I also don't understand AoE 3 players not giving AoE 2 a try for weird reasons such as all civs looking the same. Due to its design, AoE 2 is practically chess.

Originally posted by KingofGames:

Wish it had more players than AOE4. AOE4 would have been better received if it had been trying to remaster AOE1 instead of trying to outdo what AOE2 does better.

This so much. Imo there's a lot of missed potential for AoE 4, simply because of choosing the same setting than AoE 2.

[Krosis Priest]

At least it means the game is in genuinely good shape, and it seems that so is the fanbase. I've always loved AoE2 the most, but the devs are trying very hard to make it the new esports thing, and as a result it has the worst AI of all three DEs (for real, I've played all three recently), more and more bugs because pandering takes higher priority than quality, and the playerbase has become genuinely awful. (Just look at the forums.)

Having a lot of fun with AoE3 now and it just feels like the best version of itself, rather than trying to make the game something it is not.

[[deleted]]

Originally posted by FloosWorld:

On the other hand I also don't understand AoE 3 players not giving AoE 2 a try for weird reasons such as all civs looking the same. Due to its design, AoE 2 is practically chess.

Wtf are you on?

AOE3 players have tried AOE2 and it's incredibly boring by design, that's why we play AOE3.

[FloosWorld]

The AoE 2 AI always had its fair share of problems, that's not something that came with DE. The old Conquerors (and Age of Kings) AI for example never attempted to land on your island on the map with the same name. I'm saying that as someone who religiously played that map as a child. :D

Originally posted by Krosis:

but the devs are trying very hard to make it the new esports thing, and as a result it has the worst AI of all three DEs

Sorry to say, but the Age games always somewhat had an MP focus which shows in the early days when Microsoft sponsored a 95k tournament for AoE 2 back in 2001 or pro players like Daut or Capoch being active for almost 20 years now (I think I've mentioned that several times before).
If there's an RTS that's specifically known for it's single player, it has to be Command and Conquer.
This doesn't mean btw that Microsoft didn't take SP seriously as with AoE 2 onwards, they put a lot of thought into the campaigns to make sure that EVERY part of their game, from SP to MP, is at its best. Many rightfully fondly remember the AoM campaign (which I still have to play through as my childhood PC was too weak to run AoM ....)

Not sure about the AoE 3 AI, but the 1 DE AI is just the original cheating AI carried over from the original game.

Originally posted by Krosis:

more and more bugs because pandering takes higher priority than quality

That's not true at all. If you look at the news posts on the official site, they're putting out two hotfixes and a patch and are tackling the AI difficulties. You can also read the latest upcoming patchnotes on AoE 2's PUP forum which surely has some changes you will appreciate.
Also, Forgotten Empires is looking for new QA Testers, so why not applying to them? :)

Originally posted by Krosis:

(Just look at the forums.)

You mean the forums where someone and their alt account constantly created new threads """complaining""" about RoR, even threatening the devs that they belong into a prison and whatnot? Ik, that's a strong example, but apart from that, the 2 forum much like the others is okay.
There are way worse community places like AoEZone which is like the 4chan of the AoE 2 community. xD

Originally posted by Krosis:

Having a lot of fun with AoE3 now and it just feels like the best version of itself, rather than trying to make the game something it is not.

Not gonna lie, I'm really happy for you that you finally have fun with something! :) Despite all out past disagreements I also hope to see you some day back on AoE 2, I'm also down to play Coop vs AI with you. :)

I however hope that you're aware that without ESOC, which is an MP focused community, AoE 3 wouldn't be where it is today as the game was pretty much kept alive by them before 3 DE came out.

[FloosWorld]

Originally posted by ya:

Originally posted by FloosWorld:

On the other hand I also don't understand AoE 3 players not giving AoE 2 a try for weird reasons such as all civs looking the same. Due to its design, AoE 2 is practically chess.

Wtf are you on?

AOE3 players have tried AOE2 and it's incredibly boring by design, that's why we play AOE3.

Nah, it isn't boring, that's personal preference. :) I see the appeal in AoE 3 and started appreciating it with DE (which is what I also wrote in my review) but due to the "simpler" design, 2 can create some great games.

I btw know AoE 3 players who vice versa started appreciating AoE 2 after playing a bit with some guidance. It's all about tolerance and respect :P

Edit: An important factor in appreciating and playing different games within the same franchise is not to play them with the mindset and expectation from the game you mainly play.
That's something I had to learn when I played AoE 3 and 4 for the first time as someone who grew up on AoE 1 and 2. I hated AoE 3 at first because its design was too different for me from what I've knew from AoE 2. Once I gave it another go with DE, I appreciated it and loved the unique ideas such as natives and treasures. It's probably my 2nd favourite game in the series.

[Lysistratus Chrysanthos]

Age of Empires III was my favourite growing up as a kid, played a lot of skirmishes with that (admittedly the monster truck also added to my fun). Did enjoy Age of Empires II too with the campaigns, though did not get too far into them (mainly replayed Joan of Arc and Genghis Khan Mission 1 over).

I think I liked AoE 3 better, partly for the graphics/physics and because the Home City made it easier for me to get upgrades, income generation, big military etc. whereas AoE 2 you have to do it all yourself. Also not having drop off points for resources is handy in AoE3. S

On the previous comment, I think you can definitely enjoy all the games in the series. I went back through AoE 1 and AoE 2 for the campaigns (recently doing AoE 2 over again on hard) and have been enjoying them quite a lot. Probably have been spending more time on them recently because their campaigns are more interesting and immersive to me as an adult compared to AoE3 campaigns.

But overall I love Age of Empires 3 and all the new content is a dream come true to my childish self (6 new civs, new maps, new graphics too).