Fans of the Age of Empires franchise will want to head to the Age of Empires Online site to check out the just-released information about the closed beta. Both the PC and XB360 versions of the online realtime strategy game from Microsoft. Devs have provided the system specs for PC users and a handy FAQ to answer burning questions about the beta.

In this approachable online real-time strategy game, you will create, command, and control your own constantly evolving empire as you gather forces to either conquer or cooperate with neighboring civilizations. Whether you're conquering enemy civilizations, teaming up with your neighbors to beat back the barbarian hordes, or building a thriving economy where your citizens live in the lap of luxury, you’ll be the guiding spirit in the evolution of an ancient civilization.

Read more here.

Thanks for the tip, Piasek!

I've been in the beta for nearly a week now, and the beta is running for months,  so its kinda old news :P

So how is the game compared to the older PC versions?  What does bringing it online offer or change about the game?

Gameplay trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Psx4lsYMAU

Ugh, that gameplay looks worse than the original. That cartoony quality needs to go. Also, is it going to be FTP because I sure wouldn't pay to play that.

Since I'm too lazy to read about this let me ask the following:

1)Is it using a persistant world that keeps going when you're offline. So basically you set things to build etc and it keeps going while you're not logged in and someone can attack during that time?

2)If it is being marketted as an online game instead of a multiplayer game, is it just doing a "it takes a month on average for someone or some group to win and then it is all reset and people go again" approach?

3)Or is it just a non ongoing multiplayer like it always has been?

I've been in the closed beta for months already. Get better tipsters.

NOT AN MMO <<<<<<<<<

Jesus Christ almighty, you people need to get better "reporters" who can think critically for themselves as to whether or NOT it belongs on an MMO site. For God's sake people, READ the game's description & implementation before you leap. Just because they tack "online" to the end of their title DOES NOT MEAN it belongs on an MMO site. Too many companies nowadays see this as an additional PR ploy in order to "attach" itself to other genres in order to garner a larger audiance.

OH MY GOD my favorite game is online  ( home alone face )

You know I love these kinds of sims/nation building games but...I don't think I can get past those graphics. I hate to be mean but it looks like a Saturday morning cartoon (from 1989).

Originally posted by Fadedbomb

NOT AN MMO <<<<<<<<<

Jesus Christ almighty, you people need to get better "reporters" who can think critically for themselves as to whether or NOT it belongs on an MMO site. For God's sake people, READ the game's description & implementation before you leap. Just because they tack "online" to the end of their title DOES NOT MEAN it belongs on an MMO site. Too many companies nowadays see this as an additional PR ploy in order to "attach" itself to other genres in order to garner a larger audiance.

Hey now, simmer down. it'd be embarassing to end up in whatever afterlife you believe in having to tell them you had a massive heart attack over something so utterly trivial.

no one said it was an MMO. It's not listed on our Game List. It's a piece of news that our news manager thought might be of interest to this site's audeince.

If you hadn't insisted in overblowing the entire thing, it would have taken you less than two seconds to dismiss the news item as something that you weren't interested in and moved on. Instead, you had to light yourself on fire and jump up and down over it. The time wasted was your own, and now a little bit of mine.

Originally posted by Stradden

Instead, you had to light yourself on fire and jump up and down over it.

Stradden +1. Said what I was thinking but better. Heh! :>

I don't trust these "take a former popular title and slap 'online' next to it" games anymore. HoMM Online was such a huuuuuuuuge disappointment...

if you can see the trailer it says it has a persistent world ;)

since i'm under NDA i'll say it like this:

It's i like AoE2

I hope the betas are quick and painless. I want to give this a playthru!

Lol they did a new story on this 3 months ago, and its news again???   How?

Originally posted by Stradden

Originally posted by Fadedbomb

NOT AN MMO <<<<<<<<<

Jesus Christ almighty, you people need to get better "reporters" who can think critically for themselves as to whether or NOT it belongs on an MMO site. For God's sake people, READ the game's description & implementation before you leap. Just because they tack "online" to the end of their title DOES NOT MEAN it belongs on an MMO site. Too many companies nowadays see this as an additional PR ploy in order to "attach" itself to other genres in order to garner a larger audiance.

Hey now, simmer down. it'd be embarassing to end up in whatever afterlife you believe in having to tell them you had a massive heart attack over something so utterly trivial.

no one said it was an MMO. It's not listed on our Game List. It's a piece of news that our news manager thought might be of interest to this site's audeince.

If you hadn't insisted in overblowing the entire thing, it would have taken you less than two seconds to dismiss the news item as something that you weren't interested in and moved on. Instead, you had to light yourself on fire and jump up and down over it. The time wasted was your own, and now a little bit of mine.

Stradden +10. Take that mmorpg.com haters. This site is officially awesome.

I do like it when the person behind the corporate persona comes out.  That's one of the reasons I hang out here.  There are people behind those MMORPG.com avatars and titles and they are allowed to be human.

Thanks. I appreciate that. Sometimes being a news manager is tricky. But being human happens as much as we try not to let it. :D

Apologies for what is 'old news' to some of you but still relevant news, IMO, if it takes more people to the site to join the beta. *shrugs*

First time I'd heard about this, so yeah, thanks for the heads up.  :)