Why do all of the games like AOE suck by comparison?!
Maybe I just need to play Rise Of Nations some more to get used to it, but so far I'm not impressed. Nothing compares to Age of Empires. Even Age of Kings and Age of Mythologies lack the play value that AOE had. My coworkers and I used to play AOE at lunchtime and it was great. You actually could play through a death match in an hour with out having had to invest an entire lifetime learning the game. We've all but given up on it now though because it seems to crash all the time under Windows XP. I've tried to get it working under WINE on Linux, but so far I haven't had any luck.
RON is far more complicated. You have to manipulate a lot more things to get to the point where you can defend yourself from the computer, never mind actually gathering resources and expanding your territory. Dave and I just lost to two computer opponents via a "territory conquest!" What kind of game lets one win like that? In AOE conquest meant you wiped them out or you didn't win. Grabbing the most land seems weak.
Oh, well enough complaining for tonight ...
RON is far more complicated. You have to manipulate a lot more things to get to the point where you can defend yourself from the computer, never mind actually gathering resources and expanding your territory. Dave and I just lost to two computer opponents via a "territory conquest!" What kind of game lets one win like that? In AOE conquest meant you wiped them out or you didn't win. Grabbing the most land seems weak.
Oh, well enough complaining for tonight ...