Comparisons with RoN and AOE II Gold

[Metropolis Man]

Hello fellow Mac Civers —

I love Civ III and will continue to play, but like anyone, look for other options sometimes. Of the two other games mentioned in the title — Rise of Nations and Age of Empires II Gold (with the expansion included) which game do you prefer? I know RoN just came out (for Mac) so perhaps many of you have not even played it yet. Thanks.

 

[dojoboy]

RON is not available for the mac yet. And, since MacSoft signed a deal w/ Microsoft to port the expansion for RON (Thrones & Patriots), it will not be out until the holiday season. It will be the RON Gold Edition.

Now, to your question. RON is much, much better than AOE2. Obviously, the graphics are better, but the game-play is far more immersive (units, techs, strategies, etc.) than in AOE2. RON is not a click-fest in relation to AOE2 (you'll still do your shar of clicking). Resource production is streamlined. Also, RON has 2 game-types to play: Conquer the World (a TBS/RTS blend) and Quick Game (approx. one hour).

 

[Hellfire]

AOE2 is a great game. Unfortunately I've never touched RoN.

AoE2 is akin more to Warcraft or starcraft in that it's primarily about unit tactics (which unit to attack and counter attack with) and resources. RoN sounds like its more like Civ3 (long turn based game where you find yourself saying "just one more turn, one more turn!" at 4 AM )

Also AoE2 should be pretty inexpensive. Unfortunately its also a little older and was created during that "transitional" time between OS 9 and X where some games that tried to run well on both platforms didn't always. I found AoE a lot buggy in classic and a little buggy in X.

Something else to think about is Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds, if you like sci-fi. It uses the AoE2 engine and is roughly the same type of game. It continues to build on the tactics of the game even further.