Rise Of Nations Demo Released

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing out that the playable demo of Big Huge Games' epic RTS for PC, Rise Of Nations, is now available on the Microsoft homepage. There's also a BitTorrent mirror on Gametab for this 194mb file.

Civ + AOE

[Universal Nerd]

Great!

I love Sid Meyer (Civilization and Alpha Centauri) games and love the Age of Empires series, having them rolled into one is great.

Gotta get the demo.

Re:Civ + AOE

[Dreetje]

I love Sid Meyer

Me too, but I am bit anxious looking at this game. I wonder if they can keep a nice balance as Sid always seems to have in his games.

Guess I'll have to try it fast! Sure it looks interesting!

Re:Civ + AOE

[hymie3]

I wonder if they can keep a nice balance as Sid

What has Sid done recently? Civ3 was Jeff Briggs. Alpha Centauri was Brian Reynolds, as was Civ2. Gettysburgh! and Anteitam! were both Sid+Brian. The last thing that was pure sid was that golf game that everyone heard was good, but nobody seemed to play.

Re:Civ + AOE

[analog_line]

It isn't Civilization + Age of Empires. It's more like Age of Empires 3. I'm a Fileplanet subscriber so I was able to get it a few days ago, and it's pretty much an extension of Age of Empires gameplay, as far as I've been able to divine, with some finer grain technological research.

Re:Civ + AOE

[tfreport]

This is not a Sid Meier game. It is a Brian Reynolds game (the man that designed Civ II and SMAC). Got a lot of faith in him and this one is going to be good.

Not bad...

[Drakin]

After downloading it, upgrading to DX9.0a and playing throughthe one map, I can say it's a not bad game. I was entirely clueless of what to do... (The tutorial isn't the greatest help at times) It could grow in a person...

excellent!

[ugly colour scheme]

Microsoft is fast becoming the leader of strategy games. Looks like blizzard and firaxis might have some catching up to do!

I have enjoyed all the games of the Rise Of series.

Re:excellent!

[pythian]

er, this is the only game in the Rise Of series, unless the world suddenly did something very strange with time and space.

BHG, a startup from old Firaxis members put RoN together, which is why it has some excellent Civ stylings mixed in with the nice RTS portions.

Firaxis is never quick to push games through -- although I'm hoping that the eluded-to Pirates! sequel is mostly done and will ship this year (;

Re:excellent!

[Dean Sas]

you forgot about the first game in the series: rise of the robots

This game seems a bit over the top

[lechuck80]

Did anyone else actually play this demo? I wasted about 2 hours of my life in front of a computer... I could have been playing with my son. Microsoft, you took 2 hours of my life, and I want it back.

Seriously, this game seems WAY too involved. I really enjoy the Civ-Style game, where you can kick back with a brew and manage your cities without worrying about managing battles at the same time. Now I know that the hard-core RTS fans out there love this kind of stuff, but there has got to be a point whe

More Empire Earth or AOM than AOE

[Chivalry]

The gameplay definitely leads to more than most other RTS games on the market, as it seems to be a crossbreed of Age of Mythology and Empire Earth, with a few added features tossed in. The idea of national borders plays a significant role in the game, and while there can be alot to do at once, you don't have to keep yourself entirely maxed out on all traits to be successful. I'm sure that I read somewhere that the game can be won through a variety of different techniques beyond just killing of the enemy a