Poll - Your favorite Real Time Strategy series?

[Kenryoku_Maxis]

GamingChartzFTW said:

Kenryoku_Maxis said:

GamingChartzFTW said:

Kenryoku_Maxis said:
Wow, I'm completely shocked to see Age of Empires winning.

And that's my vote as well. I've loved it ever since I stated back on AOE2. And I loved it even more when AOE3 came out, eventhough a lot of the 'hardcore' fans hated it and just stuck with AOE2. Which in my opinion, is why the series is on life support. AOE: The Asian Dynasties was probably the best point of the series in my opinion.

In what era should AoE 4 take place? World War 1?  Any good ideas?

 

I actually think AOE should start over.  Meaning, go back to a pre-colonial time setting.  Perhaps even pre-Roman time such as the Persian/Greco Wars or even redo the concept Age of Mythologies was going for, but with a more realistic setting with realistic units/world.  People seemed to be turned off by the move forward with AOE III and its late 17th Century pre-Industrialization setting, though it did give a lot more gameplay options (and a LOT more units/races to control).  Going back and starting the series over at an earlier time might just revive the series, as well as set it apart from nearly all the other RTS series out right now which are mostly set in modern/SciFI futuristic settings.

What if they went all "Alpha Centauri" and really innovated the RTS genre?

 

Personally I felt they already were starting to innovate the RTS genre with AOEIII.  The ideas of 'decks' and taking individual races and giving them each stronger units that were each balanced, but not overpowered (much like Heroes in Age of Mythology or WarCraft III, but much more balanced).  These ideas not only were much more evolved than other RTS in my opinion, but added a lot of variety to the game, allowing each game of AOEIII to have different outcomes and even if your initial strategy got thwarted, you could quickly build up a new line of defense/army to come back and win.

Sadly, most people didn't like AOEIII, because it was so different from AOEII.  If they tried to really change the game again, it probably would be a total rejuvination for the series and be praised by everyone...or put a further nail in the series coffin for being 'too different' from AOEII.

If you mean could they simply make a futuristic or 'SciFi' AOE, I don't really think that would be innovative in and of itself.  The 'Age' an AOE game takes place in doesn't make it innovative or even good.  Its the features they put into the game.  And its in my opinion the games got progressively better with more features.