Official Robot Entertainment blogs go live!
The Robots at the spacepod like office in Plano have launched their official company blogs with Dave Pottinger and David Kubalak. Dave Pottinger shares with us his dream of having the Robot Entertainment logo in Lego form much like the Google logo shown below:
![00-Google2[2]](http://remember-ensemblestudios.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/00-Google22.jpg "00-Google2[2]")
It is infact a deadly serious project and Mr Pottinger has been spending his free time experimenting with Lego base boards to get them a suitable size for the Lego Robot logo – here he is, in action!
One might wonder if Mr Pottinger spent too much of his childhood playing with Lego! It does seem like a fun project though and if Google can do it why not Robot? You can stand by for updates on this by following this website or by subscribing to the Robot Blog RSS feed.
In other non Lego news..
David Kubalak lifts the curtain on the faces behind Robot’s art team:
![Art-Team-final[1]](http://remember-ensemblestudios.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/Art-Team-final1.jpg "Art-Team-final[1]")
Please note: The above picture may not accurately represent entire appearance!
You can click the image to enlarge and from left to right you will find:
Bryan Hehmann – Environment Artist, Nathan Stefan – Concept Artist, Gene Kohler (bottom) – Character Artist, Dion Hopkins – Visual Effects Artist, David Kubalak- Art Director, Charles Tinney (bottom) – Animator, Rob Walden – Hard Surface Modeler, Juan Martinez Technical Artist and Animator, Brad Crow (bottom) – Art Director, Paul Slusser – Environment Artist, Duane Santos – Hard Surface Modeler, Won Choi (bottom) – Concept Artist, Chris Moffitt – Character Artist, and Bart Tiongson – Concept Artist.
All of those people are Ex-Ensemblites! Its interesting to read about the individual roles each artists has. David Kubalak is the Art Director and has his own blog where you can find some of his artwork at: http://www.davidkubalak.blogspot.com/
Clearer Robot Art picture discovered!
You may remember a previous post where I mentioned Age Community were studying Robot Entertainment pictures closely for any hints on a new Age of Empires game. David Kubalak’s blog contains an image extract from a news article which shows a picture of Gene Kohler working on some textures. Check out the image below and be sure to enlarge!
Discussion on this can be found on the Age Community forums.
Further reading..
I encourage all fans to check out the Robot website to read the full blog posts from the two Robot Daves! Looking forward to seeing more posts from them soon!
Lets see how this Lego logo develops!!
Remember: Never share your ESO account details with anyone
The ESO team at Robot Entertainment ban hundreds of players at a time for account stealing and people logging into shared accounts. Make sure you NEVER log into any account other than your own or you will be banned and you will lose your rank.
The number of threads on the Age Community website about account stealing has increased recently and I encourage readers to be vigilant about thier ESO account usage.
Dont get caught out, play by the rules and enjoy the ESO expierence.
Age 3 Patches have been released!
Quick heads up to Age of Empires players who have been awaiting the latest round of patches this time from Robot Entertainment, the patch is now available for auto download and manual download on the AgeCommunity website. Information can be found below:
Patch Notes:
Age of Empires III: 1.13
Age of Empires III: The War Chiefs 1.05
Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties 1.02
Download:
Click here and choose your game from the list
Age is not forgotten! – New patches for Age of Empires 3
Robot Entertainment has today demonstrated its continued support for the Age of Empires 3 series by releasing a new patch for all three Age 3 games and expansions. I have included a link to the patch notes. The patch should be auto downloaded by your Age client in the next few days. One of the most important things is that the almost rampant double decking glitch has now been fixed – Age players can now rejoice!
Feel free to discuss more in the community forum.
And heres the links to the patch notes:
http://agecommunity.com/downloads/patch_-_1_13.rtf
http://agecommunity.com/downloads/xpatch_-_1_05.rtf
http://agecommunity.com/downloads/ypatch_-_1_02.rtf
Over and out!
Big Huge Games is not closing, picked up by 38 studios
A few months ago I posted that Big Huge Games who co-developed the Age of Empires 3 Asian Dynasties with Ensemble Studios was at risk of being shut down by its parent THQ. Good news now however is that the studio will live on under a new parent company 38 Studios. BHG will not be moving its offices although its not confirmed if there will be employee changes.
I wish them the best of luck under thier new parent. You can find more details here:
Play Age of Empires 2 and Age of Mythology via Gametap
A new agreement online games download company “Gametap” has signed a new deal with Microsoft Game Studios to offer classics such as Ensemble Studios’ Age of Empires 2 and Age of Mythology. The GameTap model allows users to pay $10 a month to access a library of classic games. You can find out more details on the website.
If you havnt played Age2 or Mythology then what are you waiting for? Head on over to GameTap!
Problems with the ESO population count
Age of Empires 3 players may be aware that the counter on the ESO population is currently not reporting accurate figures. Aloysius, community manager at Robot Entertainment has confirmed that it is being looked into.
In the meanwhile you can find the true number of people playing using the link below which will also be available on the menu to the left.
http://www.ensemblestudios.com/query/esocounts.xml
Asian Dynasties co-developer Big Huge Games may shut down
More sad news for RTS fans as today Shacknews reports that THQ has put Big Huge Games up for sale. BHG has previously worked with Ensemble titles Age of Empires where they brought the expansion pack for Age 3 “The Asian Dynasties” in collaboration with Ensemble. As BHG were friends of Ensemble its sad to hear that they too are falling on troubled times and wish them the best of luck.
Updated: addtional sources:
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/57708
http://www.crispygamer.com/news/index.php/2009-03-17/big-huge-games-for-sale/
UPDATED: Robot to support Age Community come March
Robot is poised to resume Age Community moderation in March following the transition period from Ensemble Studios into Robot Entertainment. It is expected a moderator from Robot will make a post to the community informing everyone what the plans are. Robot has reported that the support for Age will be no less than it was when under the Ensemble Studios moderation.
Good news for fans!
UPDATE:
Aloysius, community manager at Robot Entertainment has now confirmed that Robot is offcially taking over the Age of Empires 3 community and that support will be the same as that under Ensemble Studios. You can read the announcement below along with a direct link:
Hi everyone,
I’m Aloysius and I’m the Community Manager at Robot Entertainment.
We’ll be taking the baton from Ensemble Studios for Age3 community and customer support.
We’ll be providing the same level of support that Ensemble always has, so expect a bigger presence on the forums.
A couple questions that I know a lot of people are asking:
Q: Are you taking the ESO servers down?
A: There are no plans to, and in fact we have been doing hardware and software upgrades to the servers so that they are even more stable, so you guys can keep on playing.
Q: Can you make a fan-made patch official?
A: Unfortunately that cannot take place due to legal reasons. A Robot made patch may eventually come out, but there is no date set for that yet.
Source: http://forum.agecommunity.com/forums/thread/796060.aspx
