Robot Entertainment at PAX (Part 2)
Following on from our first part of Robot’s PAX Panel review we now move on from looking at the studios history to present day to looking at some of the interesting prototypes they have been working on in-between OMD2 and OMDU. For the first time we get a glimpse at some of he games that could have been from the creative minds at Robot. Read more
Robot Entertainment at PAX (Part 1)
Some of the bots from Robot Entertainment have been hanging out at PAX Prime this weekend, hosting their very own PAX panel titled “An afternoon of fun with Robot Entertainment”. In our first part of our two part series we cover the first part of the panel which looks at Robot history including their time at Ensemble Studios and the games that lead up to Orcs Must Die! Unchained. For anyone who was in attendance there were plenty of free things being given out including a bag, poster, buttons, t-shirt, band and “Founders PAX” access to the Closed Beta. Read more
Microsoft closing Age Community
Age Community was the excellent online community started 8 years ago by Ensemble Studios back in 2005. The site was set up as the official community website for Age of Empires so that fans could enjoy all Age content in one single place. News, forums, statistics, ladders, account tools and patches were all available on one single website aptly named Age Community. So how did it all go wrong? Read more
Age of Empires Online no longer available from August 22nd after GFWL closure
Many gamers will have heard that for a while Microsoft has been aiming to replace their currency for Xbox Live and Games for Windows Live from Microsoft Points to real local currency. Ie. Dollars, Euros and Pounds Sterling, or what ever your local currency is. In doing this the Xbox Live and Games for Windows Live services will need to make the switch over. This is scheduled to be be kicking off on August 22nd.
However, the bad news is that Games for Windows Live will not be making the transition to local currency and as such, Microsoft is infact closing the GFWL service all together. Infact as of just August 22nd the Games for Windows Live Store will be closed to new purchases of any kind. This means that no additional copies of Age of Empires Online or any DLC will be available via this store from August 22nd. It would seem that any DLC purchased through Steam would also not be available based on a now removed article on the AOE-O support website as reported by Age of Empires Online Heaven. Although the Steam issue is still awaiting official confirmation. Read more
Development of Age of Empires Online draws to a close
Since its release in August 2011 a vast amount of content has been released for Age of Empires Online. Firstly the Greek and Egyptians civilisations were (along with the core game) largely developed by Robot Entertainment until production shifted to Gas Powered Games as part of a planned transition in February 2011. Post-release Gas Powered Games have released various content packs including Skirmish Hall, Defence of Crete along with 4 additional civilisations – Norse, Persians, Celts and Babylonians. However today it was announced on the official website that content production and development of the game is now ceasing. Read more
Age of Empires Online – 1 year later by Matt321
August 16th has marked the one year anniversary for Age of Empires Online which was originally developed by Robot Entertainment before handing over the reigns to Gas Powered Games. Much has changed since Robot handed off on the project included complete changes to the business model. Many Ensemble fans will be interested to know just how this Age franchise title has developed into what we see today. Matt321 over at Robot Fans has written up an excellent article which describes how the game has grown over the last year.
If you havent had a chance to play Age of Empires Online recently, check out the article below to get up to speed on the latest development and I encourage you to take another look at the game!
http://www.robotentertainmentfans.com/2012/08/19/age-of-empires-online-1-year-later/
News bite: Orcs Must Die! XBLA Sale + Skirmish Hall launches for AOE-O
Orcs Must Die! features on this weeks Xbox Live sale. Now is a great time to tell all your friends about the need to go Orc slashin’, from just 600 MS Points! Be sure to check it out and spread the word! http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-GB/Product/Orcs-Must-Die/
In other news Hero Academy is due to launch globally in the next few days. Your nickname for Hero Academy will be the same as that on your RobotEntertainment.com profile. Why not encourage your friends to sign up online so that they are ready to go into battle when the game launches for iOS devices in the next few days? Read more
Persian civilisation launches for Age of Empires Online today!
Great news for Age of Empires Online fans – Microsoft Studios and Gas Powered Games are today pushing out the brand new civilisations, the Persians! The Persians will be the first “pro” civilisation. This means players start straight away at level 20 allowing players to immediately tech up and start with gear already attached. Players will be able jump straight into the action with Persia with no worries about having to trudge through the early levels for experienced players. This does come at a cost though as there is no story driving campaign quests with the Persians. Microsoft Studios clarified on the reasons for this as follows:
Persia won’t have a story campaign, since our goal was to get players access to high level content quickly. We’d love to create some Persian story content later, since that culture has an amazing history, but for this launch, we wanted to focus on a way to accelerate advanced players into gameplay. Read more
AOE-O patch detailed, Dusty interviewed and first Orcs Must Die video blog!
Ian Vogel the design lead at Microsoft of Age of Empires Online has announced an overview of the upcoming patch to Age of Empires Online. This patch has been in great demand of the community and the pressure has been on to develop this patch quickly. There has been some dis-content with the Age Online community about how long this patch has taken to develop and how it has potentially impacted on player numbers. Age of Empires Online was pitched as an “evergreen” game with the possibility of regular updates, its been a shame that updates thus far havent been pushed out in speedy time. Hopefully in order to ensure community continuity patches will be smaller and faster to release rather than this first patch which appears to be pretty large. There is indeed alot coming in this patch, from gear changes to PvP and Crete. Also mentioned in Ian’s latest post is that the Persians will soon be on their way as a playable civilisation, they are currently on schedule for October, so look out for them soon!
Kenny Newell reviews Atomic City Adventures – Case of the Black Dragon
Avid Age of Empires Online players will no doubt recognise Kenny as radiokenny on the AOE-O forums. You may remember Kenny as the person behind the genius Rogan Knight project which will soon be coming to a conclusion. The Rogan Knight project involved sending a figurine of a knight to Age fans all over the world and then have the knight posted to Robot Entertainment HQ for a group picture. You can follow the journey of Rogan Knight here: http://mapvivo.com/journey/15239. Rogan is currently in the hands of Kristin “BatsyBatsy” Reilly at Microsoft Studios where he is pending a photo shoot. It wont be long until Rogan‘s journey is over!
Today however, Kenny is here to share his thoughts about Windstorm Studios’ Atomic City Adventures which was released last week. Kenny is a big Ensemble Studios fan and as such has been quick to check out Atomic City Adventures, an independent game by sole employee, Dusty Monk. Check out Kenny’s thoughts on the new game below! Read more
