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- Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
- Release Date: Aug 16, 2011
User Score
Mixed or average reviews- based on 184 Ratings
User score distribution:
Positive: 82 out of 184
Mixed: 33 out of 184
Negative: 69 out of 184
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Aug 18, 2011Competitive player review incoming. First things first, let's get 'free' out of the way. This game is not free. The DEMO is free, that is, the two somewhat playable races are free, the two lowest level gear tiers are free (common/uncommon), and mind numbing PvE is free. This game does do what it sets out to do, however. It was designed to be casual, to be easy and thoughtless and to make a ton of money, and it will likely succeed in all areas. It's not a 'free' game for anyone who enjoys PvP or balance for that matter. It's not a game for anyone who LIKES MONEY, since each race costs what the price of the entire game should be, $20 dollars. Worse yet, unless I am missing something while I painstakingly searched all the controls and settings, they don't even provide hotkeys outside of opening up the settings and controls and digging around for them. No, that barracks you want to build, there is a hotkey but you're too stupid to be told what it is, just click on it. That is the tone of the entire game, a casual, boring, anti-competitive money sink. Cannot recommend this to like-minded tryhards like myself, or anyone who enjoys a challenge for that matter.… Expand
Aug 20, 2011AoE online is an okay RTS. The problem is, it's the most expensive okay RTS out there. Be warned if you're playing on an internet connection that isn't 100% stable too - as this game will boot you to the menu screen as soon as you experience even the slightest drop out.
Aug 21, 2011AOE: Online is one of those games that deserves 2 scores in a review. One for what it sets out to do, and one for what it does. At the core of the experience is a highly addictive, fun and competitive online RTS game. Mixed into it are RPG elements such as quests, loot, upgrades and epic items. These let you customize your army to your hearts extent. The upgrades are significant, able to buff the strength of a unit by more than 50%. It makes every match different as you'll encounter players with different items and units at their disposal. While there are still the expected balance issues, it's a fantastic experience.
But there are negatives to this game, unfortunately a lot of them. The main problem is it's payment model. It claims to be a micro-transaction game but nothing could be less true. The cheapest items you'll find are $7.50 each, and consist of a pack of trees or statues to place in your capital for decoration. Seems pricey? Wait until you see the rest. A premium Civilization will set you back $20 for each one you buy. If you want to purchase everything there is for the next six months, it'll cost you $100. But it's free to play right? No. Unlike other similar F2P Microtransaction titles, Age of Empires cripples its free players. If you don't pay, you have no Advisors (which buff your units), you cannot get equip rare or epic items, and some units will simply be locked out entirely. The power of the locked out units is far greater than the default ones, as demonstrated early on when the game gives you a few of them to mess around with in a PvE scenario. Lacking units plus loot, a free player will NEVER be able to beat a paid subscriber who knows what he's doing. The advantage is just too big, meaning it's pay2win.
That set aside, there are plenty of issues with the game balance itself as well. For starters, matchmaking is downright broken. When you first set foot in PvP, you'll be level 6. Without hesitating, the game will match you against level 20+ players time and time again. Not only will their identical units be twice as powerful as yours, they'll be able to tech up to an age you don't have access to. You'll be pounding his Tier 3 reinforced stone fortress to no avail with your Tier 1 Spearman as you realize that no matter how many units you produce, you have no way of winning. The RTS games themselves are slowpaced. Your Town Hall, the village-producing default building, comes with a free turret inside it and a crapload of health. Rushing and harassing is impossible here as it chews up tier 1 units and puts the hurt on tier 2 as well. That means the first 5 minutes of every match are the same. Make villagers, get resources, tech up and build units. It becomes tedious fast. Unlock more modern RTSes, there's no constant back and forth here. You want a surefire way to win? Keep your army in 1 place, wait until your ready and storm the opposing army. Expanding beyond your main base is unneccessary and pointless the first 40 minutes and will rarely come into play.
The PvE factor, the only content available for free players, is downright boring. The first 4-5 hours consist of only tutorial missions. There's no story here, no voice acting or cutscenes. It's build your base and destroy the opposing base. It wouldn't be so bad if the AI gave you any resistance at all, but it doesn't. They send the same 4-5 men to your base every 5 minutes, and your town hall alone is usually sufficient to fend them off. These missions would be over in minutes were it not for the enemy towers placed everywhere that chew up your units. Again, boring, and repetitive.
It all adds up to a very flawed experience. There's some great fun here. The loot system is unique and addictive. The PvP can be very satisfying, and CooP PvE is still fun as always. The horde-like Crete addon you can purchase is engaging and challenging. But the payment model is unfair to freeloaders. Without those, your community will crumble due to the lack of players. Microsoft has overpriced their content by at least 50% here and made some very poor choices as to what to give to free players. Make no mistake, this game is not free to play. You get a stripped down demo as a free player and have no chance to win. It's a business model that leaves a very sour taste, and I hope that the game fails miserably because of it. So in what it tries to do, I'll give it a 9/10. It's addictive and can be great fun.
But for what it accomplishes, a 3/10 is generous, and I'm feeling generous today.… Expand
Aug 24, 2011First off, I'm pretty sure the concept of Free to Play and Micro-transaction games have been lost. Free to Play means exactly what it sounds like. FREE. Full content available to you for the low price of $0. Micro-transaction means the full game is available, but different things are available to individuals for a dollar or two. Different models and skins are available to buy along with experience boosters and cash to in-game money transactions are allowed as well for the more casual gamer who wants to be on equal footing as the more hardcore gamer without putting in equal time. In no way should this give someone a competitive advantage who would normally be on equal footing with someone else. Age of Empires Online misses this. The game is incomplete unless you start handing your paycheck over to Microsoft.
Now for the actual game (or at least what's available). There's nothing wrong with cartoony graphics on a "Free to Play" game. The missions are mind-numbingly repetitive and the MMO aspect is a far stretch. The idea to try to mix an RTS with the permanent aspect of an MMO is brilliant, but AoE:O only succeeds in adding items and a chat box.
To sum up my feelings on this game: Brilliantly incomplete. I'll give half the score they could have had for half the game they gave me minus a point for lying about it being F2P/Micro-transaction. (8/2)-1= 3… Expand
Aug 19, 2011The PvP in this AoE series is by far the best. The customizable tech tree means you essentially can make your own civ and it is the most fast paced AoE series out there (which imo is good thing). The two civs are also totally unique which is a nice take on the series (instead of having dozens of identical civs), and they have already confirmed 2 more civs this holiday + more to come after. Lastly, the fact this game is an evergreen model means it is just going to grow with more and more features being added - the game is still young at the moment with a development cycle of only 1-2 years. There is one negative however, which is that the "PvE" (single player) part of the game is rather boring (for me personally). However you only need to get to level 5 to PvP ,and then you can bypass that whole section. Give it a try
P.S - @Chapy, the guy who spent half the time complaining at how you cant change the hotkeys. If you go to options there is a huge button which is labelled hotkeys. You might want to click it.… Expand
Aug 16, 2011I'm really enjoying this new take on Age of Empires. The depth of each Civ is amazing and the fact that I can play all the way to level 40 - for free - is awesome. Can't wait for more Civs to come out. I'm likely going to buy the premium content since I really like the bonus items that come with owning more than one civ. My week is shot :-)
Sep 1, 2011This may just be the worst MMO I've ever seen in my life. $20 per civ, a pay-to-win system, and wonky gameplay compared to previous Age of Empires games are signs that this game won't survive long. I find it hard to believe this was even meant to be a serious game and not an attempt to just see how far you could take microtransactions, and how much you could charge for them. A season pass alone is $100.… Expand
Aug 16, 2011Age of Empires is a great RTS that I remember playing 10+ years ago. Age of Empires Online offers essentially a free game experience that users can test out and then decide if they like it and purchase components rather than the full box. I really like the RTS/MMO elements of gearing up your civilization and going to battle. Ranked PvP boards are nice as well. Graphics are very detailed and fun. Defense of Crete booster pack offers a different type of game play where people partner (or go solo) and defend their city for as long as possible through waves of enemies - lots of different levels. Pretty innovative for the RTS genre which is lacking lately.
Lots of future content coming and booster packs - should be interesting to see how it goes.… Expand
Aug 23, 2011what the **** was that b.s.no no no no .that bs is not ****ing age of empire.oh hell no . dose any one reminder the real age of empire. u know Age of Empires the Asian Dynasties of Age of Empires the War Chef the **** was the bs
Aug 17, 2011The best part of Age of Empires Online is that it feels like an Age of Empires game. Fans of the series know what I mean by that. There is just something about the overall feel when you start your very first quest, you know you're playing Age of Empires. I've played the beta and early release, and have been enjoying the game a great deal. Now that my friends have joined me, it's even better. While the art style first had me wondering what the hell the developers were thinking, it now seems like the obvious choice. I initially thought that graphics along the lines of Medieval II would have been better, but with the community of the MMO portion of the game, Iâ… Expand
Aug 18, 2011Microtransaction model ruins balance, and has changed the gameplay mechanics into something worse. It's supposed to be a strategy game, but this economic model seems to have greatly harmed that. Crappy AI, especially on water maps. Very generic quests. No MMO. It's a multiplayer game, with global chat possibilities, and other players can see your home town. That graphics themselves aren't that big of an issue. What I don't like though, is that combat lacks any sense of fierceness. It feels just as cartoonish as the graphics. It kinda sounds like they're fighting with training weapons.… Expand
Aug 21, 2011The Age of Empires series has been on a slope which peaked with the release of Age of Mythology. The Titans, Age of Empires 3 + Expansions have all been falling down that slippery slope. Unfortunately, the valley is nowhere in sight with Age of Empires online and the true fans of the game will find that this slope also comes with many toll stops. The game does present some new and enjoyable features, like a campaign with many missions, customizable units, well-balanced game-play and the online feature is also well instigated. However, even though the free version is free, you get a small amount of material (less than 5 hours of game-play). You are also blocked from many technologies, units, buildings, and civilizations. It would be more accurately defined as a generous demo than a game. The main flaw of this game is the huge price tag for the entire content, $100 for all the civs. There has been a recent trend of many games studios to release DLCs instead of an expansion or new game, the reason being that fans will pay $10 for a glittery new feature but will only pay $20 for an entire expansion. The cost of the entire version of AOE Online can reach $100 but even with all the premium content you are still looking at a game which feels incomplete. Then the realization appears that a huge amount of content has been withheld for the DLC goldmine. This is where the evil Microsoft monster rears its ugly head, squeezing every nickle and dime out of a game that who best be described as "family friendly". Thats right, all of the fans out there who have enjoyed the game since its humble beginnings do not even have a challenge worthy of their time, but at least there kids will be occupied with 10 hours of content at $10/hour. My prediction right now is that by the end of the year enough DLCs will be released to increase the full content price by 50%. My advice, go with Starcraft 2, even though Blizzard is raking in as much money as god with WoW they still had enough respect for their fans to release a complete game, and at half the cost of AOE Online.… Expand
Sep 1, 2011I have bought every Age of xx game there have been up to now. This is not one. This is a sad sad farmvillized clone perpetrated by the suits of Microsoft that tries to dime and nickle you into boredom. Don't bother, there are so much better RTSs out there. I just wish they hadn't pissed all over the name of this once great franchise.
Aug 28, 2011"Meh" is the word that best summarises my experience with Age of Empires Online. The game essentially feels as if the developers took Age of Mythology (minus the Norse), took out all of the interesting differences within the civilisations, chopped the tech tree up into segments that require levels and talent points to unlock and "updated" the graphics style. The quests consist of playing small mission-based maps in lieu of an actual campaign which tend to be fairly droll and repetitive; especially since you'll have all of your tech limited due to level constraints. I've not touched the PvP but I do know it's limited to 1v1 and 2v2; fairly restrictive for an RTS. The biggest positive is that this is all, of course, free, but be prepared for constant bombardments of reminders to visit their RMT store, and unless you spend at least $20 for a Premium Civ unlock ($20 per, mind you) you'll be fairly limited in what units you can build or items you can use.… Expand
Aug 18, 2011I was very impressed with Age of Empires Online. I was skeptical when I first saw its visually cartoony style, but I'm glad to say that the core Age of Empires formula that I love dearly is still there. Seeing that it's for free at the start, I thought it was a deal too good to be true, and unfortunately it is. You only get two civilizations (Greece, Egypt) without paying, which is fine, but only a fraction of them is given if you choose not to pay (units, missions, buildings are missing). Again, fine, I wouldn't mind paying a little for the full experience, BUT, it's $20 a piece! Just to complete the other half of a civilization. That means to get both Egypt and Greece fully would be $40! That's almost the price of a full retail game, but only with 2 civilizations! Nothing compared to past AoE games. That's not including the Crete Booster Pack or the upcoming civilizations. There is an option to buy a full season1 pass, that includes all features and those upcoming for 30% off, but again, it's $99! Seriously, I could buy two brand new PC games for that price, and, only for 4 civilizations (Greece, Egypt, Persia, Celts). I would still recommend this game if the free version was outstanding, and while the mechanics of the game are great, the free part of the game is only a glorified 'demo', which doesn't allow one to initiate online matches or advance past a certain part of the main game. I'm highly disappointed, the Age of Empires series is my favorite on the PC.… Expand
Aug 16, 2011It's really easy, but I'm still in kind of tutorial part of the game, when it's foolish to expect a great deal of challenge. It's getting better and better though, especially now when I reached level 2 and unlocked the option to upgrade units. The system is pretty simple - you have 3 tabs: Economy Units (town center, villagers, storehouse etc.), Military units (Barracks, Spearman) and Utility units (Scouts, Houses). On the right side of the unit's icon, you have slots in which you can put upgrades that you get by doing quests. For example, next to the Barracks you have two slots: one for boosting the armor of the structure and one for boosting abilities of the structure (I'm guessing that is for boosting the building's efficiency). Also, you have another tab which displays all of your available units. This game is givinig me a great deal of satisfaction. I really like it so far but there is one problem and that is regarding PvP - lack of balance. Today I played against a guy that was level 7 while I was only level 4. I had better tactics, was faster and if this was Starcraft 2 I would had pwned the guy, but since he had higher level (therefore was better equipped), he dominated 10 of my soldiers with only a fist-ful of archers.… Expand
Aug 16, 2011I'm hooked! Age fans can breathe a sigh of relief now that Age Online has launched. The game stays true to the Age Franchise while delivering a free experience as well. Gameplay is similar with lots of quests and competitive matches. The capital city is a whole new element that you can customize to reflect your personal taste and game strategy. This game is going to keep me up for many nights to come...… Expand
Aug 29, 2011Well I was looking forward to this game. I downloaded it the first day and decided after the first day to get the $40 content DLC. Well I was fighting random game crash after game crash since i started. I decided to reinstall the game to hopefully fix the problem. And now I can't even start the game up. So the time I did get to play it was a good game but again the word is "get to play" Going to try and get a refund but i am not holding my breath and then wait until they fix the bugs (if they do) not really seeing a lot of info on Microsoft side on the forums. Good luck with the game.… Expand
Aug 19, 2011As some others have already said, there is nothing "free" about this game whatsoever. You can actually join the game and level all your way up to level 40, which is really boring as the quests are really repetitive. Nevertheless, you can do it if you want to.
On the other hand, the "PvP" which should be the main part of the game as any other AoE game is highly restricted to free players, you can't even play against a friend, nor choose your ally when playing 2v2 matches.
With the extremely abusive prices, $20 for one civ, and future features which should be in the game in the first place and for free were already announced, and they will charge for them.
I played through the beta so I know how the game is like, it is fun in "PvP" when you have all the implemented features (despite many bugs after public release), but again, you'll have to spend **** of money to actually get the full game.
In the end, it could be great. However, it is clearly targeted on MMO and RPG players, as people are treating those boring quests as the actual game, when the multiplayer ("PvP") should be everything the game is about. This should be a RTS game after all. I guess.… Expand
Aug 22, 2011MMO + RTS = AoE Online. I have been enjoying leveling and questing in the AoE RTS style. It has the great feel of the older AoE RTS games with the new added MMO elements. The graphics are fun and entertaining. The cartoon look reminds me of TF2. The game is free to play but there are options to pay which give more gear and content. For me since I have been enjoying the game the $20 was a no brainer. Overall a great game. Give it a try it is free.… Expand
Aug 26, 2011Fantastic and enjoyable MMO/RTS. I've been waiting for an MMORTS game like to come out for a very long time and it doesnt dissapoint. The game sticks true to the series and it very much feels like an age of empires game. Building up your capital city is also very enjoyable and definitely has an effect on questing (the traditional RTS side). My only gripe with the game is that its dependant on Games for Windows Live and has caused alot of confusion and network errors when trying to connect to my PC that took a while to fix. Otherwise, an excellent game.… Expand
Aug 18, 2011The gameplay is somewhat fun and do not mind the nice,low-poly-so-it-runs-on-everything artstyle that is now featured in so many games. The price structure on the otherhand is not okay. The free is content is nothing more then a demo which would be okay. But the cost to buy content is very overpriced. This doesn't even deserve the name "micro"transactions anymore, what they're asking for are macrotransactions. Yes, there's some free content, but to me personally, this feels like the biggest rip-off since the infamous horse armour, and I am not one to complain about game prices usually. If you want something that comes close in content to what an RTS gave you in the past, you'll pay a multiple. What's worse, they're testing the waters with this, obviously. It pains me to say so, but I hope this experiment - with its current pricing structure fails spectacularly.… Expand
Aug 24, 2011I have been enjoying AoE Online as a free player since launch and so far have been loving it. The free content alone is a similar experience to playing the old Age of Empires retail game, but with a huge graphical upgrade. One day I may upgrade to a Premium civ but for now my free civ is providing me with with hours of fun reminding me of my teenage years of AoE and AoE 2.
Sep 5, 2011It seems like a nice update on the originals but having to folk out well over £70 to unlock all the tribes is beyond a joke... no thanks, can buy all the originals and save £50
Oct 2, 2011I loved AoE 1 and AoE 2, and also i loved Microsoft for making one of the greatest RTS in history. No More. This game is a demo, because you can only play with 2 races. You must pay to gain access to the other races that are more OP than the free races. So basically this game is another attempt to gain money squeezing a good franchise. Don't even play it, please.
Aug 18, 2011This brings me back to the good ole days of RTS. Not overly complex with fluff and useless tools. As your progress the AI gets pissed and it will produce a challenge. PvP is pretty fun nothing great but sometimes that's can be the best. I normally hate ALL play for free games as they seem to always be play to win bull. This game however just lets you unlock things that you STILL have to earn/make which is nice. There is a lot to do and is quite fun to play. So far the only issue (no a big deal at all) is the price for the "season one" pack is a little ridiculous, but than again you DON'T have to get it. Try it out its FREE!… Expand
Aug 16, 2011Loved AoE 2 and definitely looking like I'm heading for lot and LOTs of sleepless nights playing Age of Empires Online. Beyond capturing a core Age2 gameplay I remember so fondly, it's like the devs put together a game where Age2 had a baby with WoW, and this AoEO is the resulting baby. Very much love the additions of leveling up by questing, working through the tech tree, crafting, and of course being able to share the experience with my son via playing co-op. Would type some more by have my eye on level 15 tonight, checking out the Defense of Crete addon.… Expand
Aug 20, 2011Brings back great memories. This game is sweet, will only get better with time. I can't wait for the new races. I was always a viking/celt kind of guy.
Anyway, glad its back and the gameplay is nice.
Aug 24, 2011Age of Empires Online, bottom line, is a fun and addicting game. I, like many, have played the AoE pantheon of games and enjoyed them. When I heard that this would be coming out I was pleased that one of the best franchises in gaming was getting a reboot. I played the beta and had a great time doing so. That's why I was amazed at some of the very negative reviews on here. I felt I needed to write my own review and clear up what I feel are some misconceptions. First off, the game is free to play. Those that say it is not don't understand the concept. Choosing to play either the Greeks or the Egyptians, you can level all the way to 40 without paying a dime. I love how people moan and groan "but I don't get any of the cool stuff!" That's like getting a brand new car for free and complaining that it doesn't have the latest gps or sound system. I have no problem having to pay some money to experience the premium content of the game. But the point is I don't have to if I don't want to.
That brings me to my next point, cost. I do feel that $20 to unlock all the content for one civilization is a bit pricey. I would have gone with 10-12 bucks for each one, but all in all it's not too bad. Considering if you went out and bought a traditional box game for $60 bucks, then paid 5-10 dollars for each dlc, $20 for all a civilization has to offer is probably a decent deal. Where MS really missed the boat however is the $100 Season Pass. Any and all content that is released in a 6 month period is yours to keep for $100. Whoever came up with this one at MS needs to take Econ 101 again. If MS wants to retain a good player base for years to come they need to rethink how they charge for blocks of content. When I saw that $100 dollar price tag, and for 6 months? Try again MS.
All in all, I feel AoEO is great fun and has a lot of potential to improve. I actually like the graphics, even though some people think they are too cartoony....I heard the same thing when WoW came out and look how that has done. There is a lot of stuff to collect, missions to do, as well as improvements to your home city and to your units you can do. Again, if you want to see ALL that the game as to offer you will have to open your wallet. My guess is it took 40-50 million dollars to make this game, in addition to the cost of continuously adding more content. But then again, you can play for free as well. It's up to you.
I recommend giving AoEO a try. If you are like me, you will find the game fun enough to want to spend some money to unlock all the goodies available with the civilization of choice, in my case the Greeks. But the beauty is you don't have to spend any money if you do not want to.… Expand
Aug 23, 2011Yes, this game is not *free*, but its cheaper than every other browser MMO. Game costs only 20$ for premium pack for one civ. It's cheaper then buying indefinite amount of buffs, items and other perks as it is in other FreeToPlay MMO games. This premium pack assure that in the PvP all players is equal. It is not possible to buy in-game items and other stuff to gain power in the PvP. Art style is pretty neat and overall gameplay isn't changed from previous series.… Expand
Sep 6, 201110/10. As an old AoE player I was skeptical about this release, but actually this is one of the best games I've played in a while. If you enjoyed AoM, you'll like this game. It's not overly ambitious with the MMO stuff, but there's enough to make it interesting. People complaining that the game isn't 100% free should stop trolling; you really thought they'd just give you a free game? There is lots of content available without spending a cent.
Are you telling me you think $20 for a civilization - (so... $20 + $20 + $10 + $10 = $60 for the two civs and the two bonus gameplay modes) is too expensive? Compared with the price of other MMO games this is cheap; and compared with Starcraft 2 it's a bargain.… Expand
Aug 23, 2011Honestly for $20, there is plenty of fun with this game, just because you could spend more doesn't mean you have to. I played during the beta as well, overall, I really like this game and have felt the $40 (bought both egypt and greek premium) were well worth the value. I've already played more hours here, than I did with SC2, which was $60!
The co-op missions during the campaign are great fun. I like this game better than AoE3, game balance feels more like AoE2. The crafting is a bit cumbersome as are always running out of inventory space for crafting materials, but I didn't really play this game for the crafting... The only real -1 I have is that skirmish mode should have been included at launch, so you can have more than 2 people in co-op. I don't like that it forces you to go through a number of single player quests (and being level 3) before you can co-op, but it's not that big of a deal to mark it down. I'd rather they had an option for advanced players to "skip the tutorial" quests and go right to co-op. Anyhow, I'd give it a thumbs up!… Expand
Oct 23, 2011I have been playing for free so far and I admit it has been fun. I don't know whether paying for things will be worth it or not. Time will tell I guess. Looking forward to the Celts. :)
Sep 7, 2011This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. age of empires feels s lot more as a limited demo then even close a f2p or even pay one or more time(s) for the first 10 levels you stuck with tutorial quests with can only get skipped if you have the done it with the same civilization. after that the quest get someting of interest and there after gets repeatable un till you reached a sertan lvl but then again some new quest with alot of repeatable and before you know if you held long enough . then you will already reached the max lvl of 40 shortly. and you will ask yourself how long am i going to play it? for f2p you will be on a very short least of wat you need like a good balance vs premium, store space, and resource gathering in you capital, and limited buildings for in your capital and a limits every were and a constant reminder to get premium *if* you decide to get premium (with it rather had needed at lvl 20 or higher) you find yourself rather scammed for wat you receive the price you paying for even the smallest things (its about 50-75% overpriced) f2p members risk getting items on quest witch the cant discard unless they go get premium wat is disturbing because you already far to limited on the storage space. you got. don't, expect *free* pvp or a sandbox game like you could at the previous age of empires. keep you 20 USD or euros in your pocket for something else, this game isn't worth it even for its f2p… Expand
Aug 27, 2011AoE Online is fun. I'm seeing reviews complaining about the pricing of the addons. You can play for free and get a good chunk of content. 20 bucks will get you a premium civ which gives you quite a few perks. They offer a Launch pack that's 50 and covers all release content (which is really just 2 civs, a mission pack, and some decorative stuff.) They also have a 100 dollar pack that gives you all coming content for the next 6 months.
"You only get two civilizations (Greece, Egypt) without paying" - those are the only 2 civs available right now, even if you pay.
I see a complaint about it being casual - know what? That's EXACTLY what I need. I have kids and a life. I'm not competive - I just want to log in here and there and play some light RTS.
It's like an mmo - you level up your civilization to get better items, units, buildings, etc. You can get by just fine if you only want to spend 20 for a single civ. It's not like the old AoE games where you pick your race for each round - you kind of WANT to stick to just one to get it leveled up.
Yes, the prices could be lower, but they're hardly worth complaining about IMO. As a standalone game I would say it's worth 30-40 bucks, so I'm willing to put that much into it. If they keep adding new content then I don't see why it's such a sin to chuck in a few bucks here and there. Anyone that's played a subscription mmo shouldn't have a problem with it.
I have not once been disconnected, the gameplay is good, graphics are good, prices could be a little lower. Overall, AoE is a solid game that has so far entertained me more than Starcraft 2 has.
Just be warned, do NOT tie it to the live account you may have for your xbox 360. Made that mistake in beta and I kept kicking my kids off Netflix when I logged into the game.… Expand
Aug 29, 2011I have spent several hours with this game and find it to be a wonderful "free" game. The basics are all there for all to play and the game teaches you how to be competitive and shows you units through a forced story mode. The leveling system is interesting and reminds me of the Total War series research, but over a long period of time.
Honestly the best part of this game is the pay system IMHO. It allows you to play for free vs other people in NON-ranked modes, but if you pay ~$20-$40 (in microsoft points... BLEH) you can play this game ranked against other people. As you play you get items you can equip onto your units that make them have bonus % to different areas of there game, this allows for variability other RTS games don't provide.
Overall this game is fun, I mean lets be honest here, its Age of Empires! But personally I don't see myself dropping money into this game with competition like the super well made Starcraft 2 already bought.… Expand
Sep 4, 2011Rip off for money. There is your another f2p / microtrransaction rip-off system that is widespread in mmorpg's and now it's coming for other genres. Sure you can try to play for free , but it is nothing more like a handicapped demo. People that had spend $ will roll over you with no problem, they just have advantage over free player. Like in all f2p games.
But maybe so want to pay? Then you will get 2 civilizations for 40$ + if you want to be competetive you need to spend another ~20$ for civilization booster packs + there are still separate items in item store for additional $. Then new civilization will come for and each is at least 20-30$. Remember item store is still offering more. Previous AoE games shipped with alot of content and with like 8-12 civilizations each for one time expense of 40-50$. Really AoE Online is a rip-off compared to it.
Add a graphics that resemble cartoons for 6 year old kids , bad AI , boring missions and that game give a feeling like go spend spend $ = win then you have full view.
Vote with your wallet and buy & play games that don't use microtransactions , item stores and things like that , which will cost you way more than your usual flat-rate game that you buy for 50$ or eventually 40-50$ + subscription.… Expand
Sep 29, 2011I am an RTS fan in general, and have fond memories of playing Age Of Empires and Age of Empires 2 as a kid. In my humble opinion, this is a good game. The in-game gameplay is what we have come to expect from an Age of Empires title, given a unique graphical update that I find fun and refreshing.
Sep 30, 2011The game started out poorly and has only gone downhill since. More then 6 weeks after launch we finally got the first patch. The patch did not fix a single issue people had been complaining about since launch. In fact the only thing it did was make game balance worse then prior.
Avoid this game at all costs, the developers are running this historical franchise into the ground.
Oct 21, 2011To be honest when the game came out back in August it seems that a lot of bad decisions were made and the game itself was incomplete but the modifications that are being made gave a breath of air. And the following patches will be crucial because they contain a mode that will please a lot of users.
Nov 17, 2011I have played all the AOE games and this one is uniquely different in that it is purely online, partly RTS and part MMMO. It can be F2P but I have not played it that way because I really beieve you get what you pay for in the end. I call this a flawed gem of a game. I have enjoyed the first 3 months but is has also been frustrating. The PvP experience at present has been poor but I have enjoyed the questing, trading and even haven't minded the grinding.
Today they patch the PvP side which will improve that experience. Each month they have been patching, adding new content and generally improving the game. If this continues and it should because the Celts and Skirmish mode have been promised for December, this game will start to reach its full potential and become as good (I believeit has the potential to be better than the previous games) as its predecessors.… Expand
Mar 31, 2012I have to give this game a zero. I downloaded the game through Steam as they had the All-In-Wonder Bundle for 66% off. But unlike other Steam games, I can't just simply download the game and play it. This "Games of Windows Live" App keeps popping up and I've tried several times to register, create a profile, download patches, etc.. and nothing I do seems to please it. So since Games of Windows Live won't let me log into the game, it's a fail. Too bad, because I absolutely loved the first three AoE games.… Expand
Nov 29, 2011As others have said, I was rather skeptical with the cartoon style of AoEO. However, I gave it a try and it was decent. But the more I played, I noticed a lot of aspects of the game were missing. How to get them? Paying. Unless you were expecting to get the whole game for free, it'll satisfy any AoE fan out there for a while.
Feb 25, 2012The destruction of a once mighty franchise, this game defecates on its predecessors. The Games for Windows LIVE client will also try its best to prevent your play. This franchise deserved better, if you want to play Age of Empires stick to the original trilogy or Cossacks.
Oct 10, 2011Terrible. complete waste of time. Quests are repetitive, and usually amount to "go here and destroy a Hut" I got to level five and cant say anything has been the least bit satisfying. Almost no strategy like in previous AOE.The game actually wont let you build certain unit types unless you purchase premium content. This was marketed as a FREE GAME, the premium content should have some perks yes, but PERKS, not core game play elements. Its like giving a FPS away for free but you have to pay 60$ to use anything bigger than a pistol. It even goes as far as to "reward" you with gear that you cannot utilize unless you pay Microsoft real money. This game is a pure Cash-grab, they don't care how fun it is. but i guess there are those who will actually pay.… Expand
Oct 2, 2011"Worst Age of Empires game in the franchise" is a bit of an understatement. "Worst RTS release of the past 5 years" is more suitable.
I waited until after the first patch was released before posting any sort of review anywhere online, and wow, I'm glad I waited. The "Patch" that was supposed to fix major bugs and add new 'Legendary' content to the game didn't do much more than introduce game-crushing lag, 2 new Dupe exploits, and recycled end-game Quests with the difficulty dialed up to 11. No new content, just new bugs and new reasons to never play this game ever again.
To make matters worse, the GPG/MS team has decided to take the ever-popular stance of banning players who are critical of the game on their forums.
Adding to all of this is the ridiculous pricing model which has the stink of Microsoft all over it.
Stay very far away from this game.… Expand
Oct 12, 2011Lets start with the obvious. This game is not good. You can get a very small amount of enjoyment in a few missions, which is why I gave it a 2 instead of a 0.
Okay now for the reasons for my score.
1. RTS = Real Time STRATEGY but there is no strategy in the missions. You simply attack some random target with a mass of troops.
2. The campaign is not really a true campaign but a bunch of random missions where you do unimportant attacks in order to gain levels (in a killing boars in WoW kind of way).
3. The story is quite bad. In previous AOE games, the stories were great, for instance I remember the Ghengis Kahn mission being excellent. The story in this game is quite thin.
4. The PvP (unranked) is quite bad. You can be level 8 or 10 and play someone that's any level at all. They have no level comparison. This means that you could potentially have 3 or 4 units TOTAL and you're playing against folks that have everything. Why bother doing PvP? The previous AOE games were significantly better with multiplayer.
5. I understand that they are trying to sell premium civs but seriously, do they have to mention it every 10 seconds?
I could go on but I've probably already lost 75% of the readers. Suffice it to say, this game is pretty bad but the single player campaign is (believe it or not) more boring than bad. This game literally makes me want to go to bed in the middle of a mission. The only actual good thing about AOEO is that if you care about achievements, you can get some in this game after just a few short hours of gameplay and not pay for the game to get them.… Expand
Oct 15, 2011I gave AoE:O a try, but sadly technical glitches stopped me getting over the first hurdle. I can start the game, sign into GFWL, but after choosing my civ the game dies with a BND022 error. No help from the forums. Epic fail. There's hundreds of games on Steam that work - go there instead.
Jun 4, 2012This is a clone of AoE 2, adapted in a way to earn the developers tons of cash. You gain every upgrade, and by upgrade I mean the sames as AoE 2, and very few, for your civilization one by one through endless quests giving you endless missions which are all really easy and pointless. Through this you gain a sense of progression and get brainwashed to play more. when you get a good item, you need to pay real cash to unlock the ability to use it. Despite the fact that the item is useless in a gameplay stand point if you want to play multiplayer you'll have to unlock it or else get raped by those who have it. To gain full access to most civilizations, you have to once again pay. Do yourself a favor and buy Age of Empires 2 for 5$, if it's even sold anymore, and get a better experience than this. The actual gameplay and game itself is equally good than AoE 2, so therefore it's good..I can't deny it. But it's still the same game adapted to be a money vortex.… Expand
Aug 28, 2012Avoid this game, avoid this game at all costs. it requires games for windows live to work. its a free game that requires a cd key, so to get it working you have to go to "buy" it from xbox.com because games for windows live doesn't exist anymore and have to put in billing information to secure your 0$ purchase. This problem has been around since March 2012 and nobody(not least the developers or Microsoft) wants to fix it. so after you install the game you have to search through forums in order to make it work at all. and after all that if you bought dlc on steam you are fresh out of luck because nobody has an answer as to how to redeem that dlc.
Nobody will help you with the fundamentally broken GFWL. They have your money they don't care what you think of them. I cannot comment on the game itself because after two hours of trying to get it working I've pretty much given up on any hope that it actually exists.… Expand
Nov 8, 2012Giving this game a zero is just wrong. Yes maybe it is more fun against the computer than competitively but it is a much better experience than Starcraft 2. I play Starcraft 2 until the end and yes that was fun but then thats it. I don't like to play against Koreans online so in one month the game is over. Age of Empires is fun for the whole family and various difficulties. It needs two things. Heroes like Warcraft 3. And a better level 40 experience. It is very hard to get the gear that is strong enough for the legendary and level 40 missions. Other than that it is my favorite RTS since Warcraft 3. In ways it is much better. You feel a connection to each empire.… Expand
Nov 25, 2012having played all the AOE series
il say this is the best
top graphics , quests ,pvp all in one
there are some issues for few peeps with online pvp connections etc but
thats to be expected
Feb 15, 2013I decided to wait a while to play this game after reading the initial reviews. I wanted to wait until the DLC stuff became cheaper.
Been playing it now for a month and it is actually really fun. It's no worse or better than SC2 or any other RTS out there.
On steam right now, you can purchase your race upgrade for $10.00 and the skirmish pack for $5.00. And with those two options you have tones of quests and skirmish games ahead. So basically you can have hours of fun for just $15.00.
The game combines city building, mmo style level/gearing and of course, RTS. It doesn't take itself so seriously and is really amusing to play.
I understand the low scores at initial release, but right now I would recommend it.
Oh, and some people complain about the Games for Window login. I just don't get it. It took a whole of "count to thirty" to figure out I had to make an GWFL account and figure out how to log in.… Expand
Mar 1, 2013Absolute awesomeness! The only drawback is that to unlock everything you must spend a little bit of money. Other than that this game is amazing! That's all I have to say about this game.
Jul 27, 2013Yes, this game requires payment to fully unlock civs ($10 per civ), thus allowing better gears to be equipped. However, if you play this game patiently, you could do many daily repeatable quests and non-combat quests to get to level 40. Then join the alliance wars, and just either donate materials or do some of the easy alliance quests to get alliance points. It will convert into Empire Points every 24hours, as well as accumilative 7 days and 30 days. Within a month, you would be able buy premium content with the "farmed" Empire Points. After I bought my first premium civ using EP, I was able to create a lot more materials at a time, and from then on, all i did was collect the mats and donate them for points everyday. Sometimes I cbf, but either way, I've "farmed" at least $50 of EP just by doing that. Then yes, unlock more premium civs more mats more donation to npc more EP. It's like a business, starting out small and becoming successful. Isn't that the most satisfying thing in any game?
Now, I don't know what to do with my over-abundance of EP... awks.. lol i started buying vanity :/
P.S On average, it should only take about 1.5 to 2 months to farm that 900 EP to unlock a civ. From then on, it takes far less and so on.
Gameplay wise, the sound effects are great, combat is pretty okay, love the versatility of the skirmish room, but i wish there could be more than just 4v4. Defence of Crete is BEAST. And yes, gotta unlock all that with EP ^.^
This game gets an 8 because of the "long" initial phase of getting a premium civ. Everything else is awesome … Expand
Apr 3, 2012I made my original review of this game back in August 2011. I scored it as a 5. The score was based on Gameplay vs. Cost. At the time it would have cost somewhere in the region of £90 to play this game with the premium DLC's I felt were an integral part of the game, and after playing a few missions with the free but severely limited content I felt the score was justified and 9/11 people who read my original review seemed to agree......... So, now the game has had a big revamp in Spring '12. A big patch to address some major issues, a reduction in the price of the premium DLC packs, but most important of all, a release on Steam with a special "Wonder" bundle for just £9.99 - a 10th of the original cost....... Needless to say, I immediately bought the wonder bundle and began to play the game with all the premium content installed. I even went to the GFWL marketplace and bought a couple of the aesthetic DLC packs (which will work on the steam version once you have updated your downloads via the GFWL application).......... I have already ploughed 25+ hours into the game in less than a week and I'm enjoying every minute of it. The game lets you play it at your own pace, so should you find it difficult to beat some of the missions, you can create your own skirmishes vs the AI at a difficulty level you like until you eventually level up enough to take on the missions you were failing at....... The online aspect of the game is quite good with being able to trade and play vs or co-op with others in your server, giving it a slight MMO feel. It could do with a fully functioning Auction House to add to the economic side of things, but at the moment it seems ok. Graphically the game is nice, and everything loads in really fast and doesn't seem to tax my slightly ageing PC................ Overall I now score the game as a 9/10 and I feel it now justifies the score. Sure it is quite different to its predecessors, and there will no doubt be a proportion of the AoE fanbase who won't like this version. If you are new to the series, or even new to RTS, this game is one that you should give a lot of consideration to.… Expand
Jul 5, 2012This is an Age of Empires MMO in 2D graphics. Not really good game. You can't do a lot of things, without paying for it. I hate that game, where u need to pay to be much better. I know that this is a F2P game, but its not cool.
Nov 26, 2012Graphics are OK and gameplay is very straightforward, but unless you're prepared to either grind or pay up there's nothing you can really do here. You can only get around 5 achievements at most without paying in a reasonable amount of time and the rest you have to pay. It's not a bad idea but there's no real motive to play the game. Sure, there are a lot of quests, trading to be done, ranking up, building stuff, getting achivements etc. and the co-op is pretty good. However, the lack of anything innovative and the unpolished nature of the game mean it's not something which is worth playing unless you're prepared to pay something. It may be free to play but there's nothing to do. It's pretty much pointless this game but at least it's free to download and try out and if you're still interested you can start buying stuff. Otherwise there's nothing to see here.Just an MMORTS which most certainly IS NOT FREE.… Expand
Jan 14, 2012I do not know where to start. I love Age of Empires series, I have played all of them for countless hours, because they were and still are, one of the best series of real time strategy. But THIS game is not Age of Empires! Developers just took the name of the famous series to make more money. I am writing this review in January 2012. The game has been released 6 months age. Majority of the features that every AoE had in day 1, AoEO does not have, they just now released option to play a skirmish. Which is still incomplete. You cannot play ranked 2v2 with your friend, there is no campaign, only the same boring missions again and again, every new civilization is priced 20 dollars, and actually the skirmish will be paid too.....I could continue, but I think you got the picture. I give this game 1/10. You may ask why? Well, I do not know, maybe it is a spark of hope, that after one year, we will get a proper AoE game, but not this, not this.… Expand
Sep 4, 2012An RTS game with elements of RGP, and I must admit its a great idea and could be put to good use, however, its not what happens. They build a mode called pvp champion where pure RTS players can play against another players without any element of RPG, it means all civs and players should have the same chance to win, but unfortunately it doesn't happen because the new civs (Pros) are much stronger than the free civs, which makes the game totally unbalanced to play. The funy thing here is that they have a entire "balance team" working to make this game balanced, but the game is becoming to be the opposed of it... About the RPG elements, it also is exploited poorly, there is not a ranked or reward for players that wants to play against another players in this mode making it borring, the only think that can be done here is to play against computers. To get it worse, the game appears to be in development, and all new updates make the game less fun. Its a shame they have only bad ideas, and the only thing that works is what they copy from another games...… Expand
Apr 19, 2012This game is an interesting blend of MMO and RTS. The graphics are cartoony without being too silly, the RTS part of the game is solid (which can be expected of a game that comes from a rich RTS background). However, the pieces that make it an MMO don't necessarily add to the experience. And the fact that the 'levelling' still takes quite a bit of time makes the game become a bit boring quickly. The missions try to be varied, but due to how slow you progress between the ages it's a bit redundant: how many times can we go and build boats to destroy the other side's fishing vessels? On the flip side, when you do get to the next age, you get a boatload of new features that you may or may not use; perhaps introducing them gradually would have been a better approach. It's an interesting concept, but perhaps one that isn't as good in practice. I wound up playing for about 10 hours, and buying the whole version due to the sale. I didn't experience a big difference and quit shortly thereafter - I should have stayed free-to-play.… Expand
Jan 1, 2013Obligatory 0 for using Games for Windows Live. An unforgivable offence, as GfWL is Microsoft's attempt to kill PC gaming in favor of the Xbox. And this being an MMO-style game, I can't even pirate it, so I have no way of playing it at all. Then again, looking at the other reviews, that's probably a good thing.
Mar 28, 2012I know it's hard to complain about a free game, but in this case I felt I had to. I would have much rather paid $50 to have a full version age of empires IV that stayed true to the first three. (I still to this day play age of empires III all the time.) After playing this game with several other friends for 2 days we all grew tired of it and quit playing.
Aug 21, 2012This game was really bad! It didn't look like an Age of Empires game at all! Bad cartoony graphics, pay to win system and only 2 civilizations which were basically the same. They wanted to make a casual game,but a good Age of Empires will never be a casual game! The game was, in one word-CRAP!! Then Gas Powered Games took over and game started to become better but it was too late. They can't change the graphics from cartoony and crappy (like other kids and indie games) to amazing and realistic (like every other Age of Empires and every other good game with high budget), they can't change the whole game!! The best thing to do is to throw this game in the trash and start a new project like Age of Empires 1 HD or Age of Empires 4 but not in the next age (world wars) because we all know what happened to Age of Empires III with rifles, they need to make a game in Medieval times like Age of Empires II , or like Age of Empires I in Ancient times.… Expand
Sep 4, 2012One of the worst games I have ever seen. It claims to be free to play, yet is incredibly difficult to even start, and then once you start it you find out that it's just a demo, and then a game that costs upwards of 200$. The "micro"transactions range from 7.50 all the way to 100$, and if you don't buy anything, then the main element of the game (PvP) is just you getting beaten by everyone who pays for the game. Even if it was the best RTS player in the world playing against one of the worst, if the worst paid for everything and the best paid for nothing, the worst player would easily be able to win, as the game is pay-to-win rather than pay-to-have-nicer-looking-things like normal f2p games.… Expand
Mar 6, 2013I played it 2 years ago and it was not a F2P game at all. It was totally a Pay 2 Win game, playing free unbalanced game. So disappointing game, made me lose a lot of time to give him a chance (did like 15 first missions). I would give it a 3 in case someone enjoys playing a game with 0 chances as a free player.
Mar 23, 2013From what I've played of it, I find that Age of Empires Online has 3 huge flaws. Number 1 is that buildings are incredibly weak. In previous age of empires games, you could wall of your villagers/economy so it doesn't get decimated. In this game, walls and buildings are destroyed really fast by pretty much any unit. Number two on my list is that siege is very overpowered. Catapults and ballistas do no friendly fire, but they do massive damage to enemy units. You can just spam cavalry or infantry to defend them, and they'll tear through foes. Also, they'll demolish buildings in practically seconds, so any attempt to build defensive towers and fortresses is useless. Finally, there are way too many microtransactions. Do you want to play a different civilization? That will be $10 more dollars if you want to do anything with it. Do you want to give yourself free resources instantly in quests and unranked matches? More cash down the drain. Besides these flaws, it is a solid game if you don't mind the cartoon graphics, which is why I'm giving it a 5/10.… Expand
Feb 23, 2013Don't know what the point of the game is, as I was unable to create units, power up, do anything. Even though it's 'free', it's still a ripoff because it cost me time to figure out that this is a total dud. If you're a fan of the Age of Empires franchise, you'll be deeply disappointed
May 9, 2013I'll keep this short as I really do not have much to talk about here...
While it may seem colourful and good-looking and "oh, it's the age of empires"...
This game in uninspiring and straight-forward boring.
May 21, 2013OMFG This is NOT a free game. I was looking for a good construction game in the category "don't hustle me for my money", this wasn't it. If you want a half descent game you will have to buy the "starter pack" and the "booster bundle" which comes to 37,98 EURO!!!
Jun 2, 2013One of the best RTS games ever. Best game in the AOE series. Some say that the graphics look cartoonish. But it enables you to quickly identify the buildings units and allows the game to load on older machines. (I ran the game in 2007-sih old laptop with reduced resolutions.)
1. Microsoft stopped developing the game any further. What was implemented so far is all that one got.
2. Had to buy one premius civ to make my time worth it. ($10 during promotion.) Even then it needs lot of time in PvE to raise to level 40. Now on hindsight I would have skipped PvE and just would've gone for PvP.
1. Very fast paced game. You should check the vidoes provided in youtube streams of community manager IamPrezSteve and in twitch.
2. Still active PvP gamers. And if you read the official forums, lot of experienced gamers still discuss balancing the civilizations.
3. Each civ is unique and differs quite "substantially" from other civs. They have unique gameplay and are enjoyable if you perform the same quest but with different civ.… Expand
Jun 5, 2013I will try and make this short and sweet this game will lure you in with very easy starting missions and tries to show it is actually playable for free. After you play for a couple hours however you realize THIS IS THE MOST SATANIC FTP GAME EVER! i have never seen a game be so cruel to the FTP player in my life. Heres a quick rundown of why. After those first couple hours the enemies will greatly outpower your own with gear you cannot beat because you cannot get any gear better than common/uncommon which is absolutely and instead of having to pay once to get the premium civilizations you HAVE to buy them all separate and if you dont you have the choice of 3 civilizations which are free, instead of 6 which you have to pay for. Even after all of that and you get the premium unless your absolutely amazing at strategy games and i mean REALLY REALLY amazing your gonna have to buy instant spawn units from the real money shop to stop your base from being immediately zurg rushed by enemy units. i unfortunately cannot tell you how the pvp is you'll have to look at another review to see that but if your not a hardcore pvp player and want a nice cheap good strategy game just buy the others in the age of empires franchise.… Expand
Aug 14, 2013I have to say that the concept of MMO+RTS becomes highly enjoyable in this game. In early game, you can do simple tasks to learn the basis, upgrade and loot some start-up gear. While reaching lv15, you'd get access to all the four ages and many useful upgrades in the tech tree. Slowly after lv30, challenging tasks are out there for you to conquer.
Now you're at lv40 and you'd realise the fun has just begun. You could choose to join any of the three alliance to do even more interesting and challenging quests with other online players, earn large amount of gold and empire points, and loot amazing gears to power up your civ. The legendary gears sold in stores are very useful too as long as you earn sufficient golds. The late game never ends so long as you are still anxious to improve your gear to the ultimate.
Yes you may need to pay at least 10 bucks to your first civ, but after fully upgrade it to lv40 and start the alliance war, reward can be fairly satisfactory. After some while you can totally afford the other contents that need purchase. Believe me there's tons of fun in this game, skirmish, legendary quests, defend of Crete, interaction with other players, etc. You can't find them all in any of the other existing games.… Expand
Sep 26, 2013First of all I would like to state that this game does not live up to the standards that the original series laid out. The graphics are not up to par with any strategy game of 2011; the smooth cartoon theme is to blame for this. Additionally after extensive play, and conversing with several long time AoE fans, along with other RTS/MMO communities, I've discovered that the MMORPG communities look down on this games repetitious quests, while the RTS communities look down on the lack of detail, realism, and strategy involved in this childrens game. Additionally the free to play aspect of this game is a complete lie, it is not free to play, it is similar to a demo because of the LIMITED CONTENT PROVIDED TO ADVERTISE AND INFLUENCE THE SALE OF THE FULL PRODUCT. Hence the meaning of "Demo". I would not recommend this game to serious RTS or MMORPG players, however I would recommend this game for younger individuals, or non-serious gamers.… Expand
Oct 5, 2013I actually expected Microsoft to do things right, but I was wrong. They turned the AOE franchise into a Pay2Win game with confusing mechanics, bugs and lots of problems....
Nov 9, 2013Way to ruin a fantastic RTS series Microsoft! Coming from an Age of Empires 3 competitive player and a great fan of the series, this game was garbage. Cartoon graphics, micro transaction, buying civs? Half mmo/half rts, what kind of a concept is that? And now that Games for Windows Live is shutting down in 2014. the game will end anyway, great way to treat loyal fans, if the game had any. I still hope that some day, someone will make a true successor to the series, a real Age of Empires IV, the kind that we all love. We can only hope.… Expand
Mar 9, 2012In the end, Age of Empires Online works well as a demo rather than a F2P game. There just doesn't seem to have been enough thought about what each element from the MMO and RTS genres bring to the party. Instead, they've just been thrown together.
Jan 20, 2012Online sequel to the legendary strategic series focuses on a different target group than its predecessors and promises to become a global phenomenon. [Dec 2011]
Nov 9, 2011To use its whole potential you have to dig deep into your pockets to unlock premium content. The only thing left for the fans of the series is to hope for Age of Empires IV. [November 2011, p.80]


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Hey greatme -
I am having trouble with low fps while recording 25 man raids. I have tried several solutions, more RAM, better video card, and nothing is working. I am using SnapZPro2, and wondering what capture software you use? If you could let me know, I sure would appreciate it.
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text:
Elegy for Iris
By John Bayley
Iris Murdoch's husband guides us through the contemporary writer's early life, her brilliant career, and her battle with Alzheimer's disease. This is truly a poignant love story as well as a biography of a remarkable woman. This book was also made into a film starring Judi Dench and Kate Winslet.


text:
Vanilla Ice is Hip-Hop's (Secret) Style Icon
Robert Van Winkle: 1990's worst-dressed human or just twenty-three years ahead of his time? You decide
April 2013
3 of 4
Wiz Khalifa
The Iceman put black and yellow in his coif years before Wiz put it on the airwaves.
- Tags
- Style,
- Fashion,
- GQ Style Bible 2013,
- Vanilla Ice,
- hip hop
Food + Travel
- David Chang's Kitchen: Don't Get All "Fresh" with Me
- David Chang's Kitchen: Your Idea of Bologna is Total Baloney
- Chart: The Family Tree of Bourbon Whiskey
- Recipe: Semi-Summer Salad - Chef Jeff Taibe of Oak + Almond
- The Great Franco-Italian Pasta Experiment
- How to Pick from an Overpriced Restaurant Wine List


text:
WOT Services
|Internet safety
|July 2006
|Helsinki, Finland
WOT Services, Ltd is a Finnish company that runs the partly crowdsourced Internet website reputation rating tool Web of Trust (WOT). The installed WOT browser add-on shows its users the reputations of websites, which are calculated through a combination of user ratings and data from other sources.
WOT was founded in 2006 by Sami Tolvanen and Timo Ala-Kleemola, who wrote the WOT software as post-graduates at the Tampere University of Technology in Finland. They launched the service officially in 2007, with serial entrepreneur and angel investor Esa Suurio as CEO. In November 2009 Suurio moved on to his next endeavor.
The company has partnered with Facebook, hpHosts, LegitScript, Mail.ru, Panda Security, Phishtank, GlobalSign and TRUSTe.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]
WOT's services[edit]
The WOT browser add-on does two things: (1) it sends user ratings to the WOT site, and (2) it displays the computed results via color-coded icons in the user's browser tool-bar and next to external links on the pages of leading search engines, email services and social network sites. The add-on source code is public.
The program software at WOT headquarters is not public. According to the company information it is designed to compute the measure of trust the rating users have in websites, enhanced with data from a number of third-party sources. The user rating system claims to be meritocratic; the weight of ratings are algorithmically calculated for each user individually.
To generate revenue WOT licenses the use of its reputation database to other businesses.
The rating tool has received several reviews in the press.[8][9][10]
On December 7, 2010, ten companies all associated to Ayman El-Difrawi aka Alec Difrawi filed a lawsuit in Florida against WOT Services for defamation, violating rights, conspiracy and manipulating algorithms, among other claims, demanding WOT to remove ratings and comments for their numerous websites.[11] On December 8, 2011, the case was dismissed with prejudice. [12][13]
See also[edit]
- ^ "Facebook Security - Keeping You Safe from Scams and Spam". 12 May 2011. Retrieved 31 May 2014.
- ^ "Donna's SecurityFlash - Web of Trust (WOT) is now using hpHOSTS database". 6 July 2008. Retrieved 31 May 2014.
- ^ "LegitScript Blog - LegitScript, Web of Trust announce partnership". 13 May 2010. Retrieved 31 May 2014.
- ^ "Reuters - Mail.Ru Group Launches New Browser Featuring Web of Trust Safe-Surfing Technology". 8 August 2012. Retrieved 31 May 2014.
- ^ Schaffhauser, Dian (11 August 2009). "The Journal - Panda Security, Against Intuition Offer Free 'Web of Trust' Browser Addon". Retrieved 31 May 2014.
- ^ "Friends of PhishTank". Retrieved 31 May 2014.
- ^ "GlobalSign - GlobalSign Partners with Web of Trust to Provide Reputation Data in the Website Passport". 15 March 2012. Retrieved 31 May 2014.
- ^ Rubenking, Neil J. "PC Magazine - Web of Trust Review and Rating". Retrieved 17 May 2011.
- ^ "Gizmo's freeware - Best Free Internet Safety Check". 6 May 2011. Retrieved 17 May 2011.
- ^ "Mashable - Web of Trust is the Robert De Niro of Reputation Sites". Retrieved 4 December 2007.
- ^ "WOT blog - Safe Surfing Tool Web of Trust Sued over Community Warnings". Retrieved 22 December 2011.
- ^ Orange County court records search Case No. 2010-CA-022724-O, Career Network, Inc. et al v. WOT Services, Ltd. et al
- ^ "ArcticStartup - WOT Wins Lawsuit In The US". ArcticStartup. Retrieved 22 December 2011.


text: Unfortunately for us, it was the only open restaurant for July 4 dinner. We celebrated my daughter's Birthday with my elderly parents, who are locals and are not able to travel too far. Service was beyond horrible. We asked for the water twice, bottle was placed, but water not poured in the glasses. There was no change of the dirty... More


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VENICE, Fla. (AP) - Authorities say a 14-year-old southwest Florida boy accidentally shot a 12-year-old boy in the leg.
Venice police the older boy was showing off a .22-caliber gun Monday morning when he accidentally shot his friend.
The Herald-Tribune in Sarasota (http://bit.ly/LqgWFW ) reports that the younger boy was taken to a nearby hospital with injuries that were not considered life-threatening.
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)


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Online Reservations
To browse events:
1. Click the Online Reservation Link Below.
2. Select View
3. Set Filter
4. Apply Filter
To make reservation:
1. Click the Online Reservation Link Below.
2. Create an Account
3. Log in
4. Select Room Request
5. Set Date, Time and Attendance
6. Search for Available Space
7. Select Available Space
8. Complete your request
9. Confirmation of space is returned by email
Theatre, ballroom, and outside green spaces are not reservable online. Wireless internet access is available to all LSU Faculty, Staff, and Students by myLSU login on the LSUSECURE wireless network. For connection instructions, please click here. Guests of LSU may acquire temporary wireless access through the LSUGUEST wireless network from their LSU event sponsor in advance. For more information about the LSUGUEST wireless network requirements, please click here. For information about connecting to the LSUGUEST network with a guest account created by the event's sponsor, please click here.
Click here to make an online reservation.
Filling out this request form does not constitute an official room reservation. The Event Management office will send an official confirmation to the email provided once your space has been reserved. Note that Event Management will make every effort to accommodate your request in the room you request, however, we reserve the right to substitute rooms at our discretion.


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It is a common task to obtain the last inserted identity value for a SQL Server table for the current connection, with @@IDENTITY, or for the current scope, with SCOPE_IDENTITY. However, it is also possible to find the latest identity inserted by any session.
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Tactical Aircraft:
Recapitalization Goals Are Not Supported by Knowledge-Based F-22A and JSF Business Cases
GAO-06-487T: Published: Mar 16, 2006. Publicly Released: Mar 16, 2006.
Additional Materials:
- Highlights Page:
- Full Report:
- Accessible Text:
(937) 258-7915
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The Department of Defense's (DOD) F-22A and Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) programs aim to replace many of the Department's aging tactical fighter aircraft--many of which have been in DOD's inventory for more than 20 years. Together, the F-22A and JSF programs represent a significant investment for DOD--currently estimated at almost $320 billion. GAO has reported on the poor outcomes in DOD's acquisitions of tactical aircraft and other major weapon systems. Cost and schedule overruns have diminished DOD's buying power and delayed the delivery of needed capabilities to the warfighter. Last year, GAO testified that weaknesses in the F-22A and JSF programs raised questions as to whether DOD's overarching tactical aircraft recapitalization goals were achievable. At the request of this Subcommittee, GAO is providing updated testimony on (1) the extent to which the current F-22A and JSF business cases are executable, (2) the current status of DOD's tactical aircraft recapitalization efforts, and (3) potential options for recapitalizing the air forces as DOD moves forward with its tactical aircraft recapitalization efforts.
The future of DOD's tactical aircraft recapitalization depends largely on the outcomes of the F-22A and JSF programs--which represent about $245 billion in investments to be made in the future. Both programs continue to be burdened with risk. The F-22A business case is unexecutable in part because of a 198 aircraft gap between the Air Force requirement and what DOD estimates it can afford. The JSF program, which has 90 percent of its investments still in the future, plans to concurrently test and produce aircraft thus weakening DOD's business case and jeopardizing its recapitalization efforts. It plans to begin producing aircraft in 2007 with less than 1 percent of the flight test program completed. DOD's current plan to buy about 3,100 new major tactical systems to replace its legacy aircraft represents a 33-percent reduction in quantities from original plans. With reduced buys and delays in delivery of the new systems, costs to keep legacy aircraft operational and relevant have increased. While the Secretary of Defense maintains that continued U.S. air dominance depends on a recapitalized force, DOD has not presented an investment strategy for tactical aircraft systems that measures needs, capability gaps, alternatives, and affordability. Without such a strategy, DOD cannot reasonably ensure it will recapitalize the force and deliver needed capabilities to the warfighter within cost and schedule targets. As DOD moves forward with its efforts to recapitalize its tactical aircraft, it needs to rethink the current business cases for the F-22A and JSF programs. This means matching needs and resources before more F-22A aircraft are procured and ensuring the JSF program demonstrates acceptable aircraft performance before it enters initial production.
Nov 20, 2014
Building Partner Capacity:State and DOD Need to Define Time Frames to Guide and Track Global Security Contingency Fund ProjectsGAO-15-75: Published: Nov 20, 2014. Publicly Released: Nov 20, 2014.
Ford-Class Aircraft Carrier:Congress Should Consider Revising Cost Cap Legislation to Include All Construction CostsGAO-15-22: Published: Nov 20, 2014. Publicly Released: Nov 20, 2014.
Nov 19, 2014
Defense Contractors:Additional Actions Needed to Facilitate the Use of DOD's Inventory of Contracted ServicesGAO-15-88: Published: Nov 19, 2014. Publicly Released: Nov 19, 2014.
Nov 18, 2014
Overseas Military Construction:Observations on U.S. Contractor PreferenceGAO-15-45: Published: Nov 18, 2014. Publicly Released: Nov 18, 2014.
Oct 30, 2014
DOD Space Systems:Additional Knowledge Would Better Support Decisions about Disaggregating Large SatellitesGAO-15-7: Published: Oct 30, 2014. Publicly Released: Oct 30, 2014.
DOD Business Systems Modernization:Additional Enhancements Are Needed for Army Business System Schedule and Cost Estimates to Fully Meet Best PracticesGAO-14-470: Published: Sep 30, 2014. Publicly Released: Oct 30, 2014.
Oct 16, 2014
Specialty Metals:DOD Dissemination of National Security Waiver Information Could Enhance Awareness and Compliance with RestrictionsGAO-15-133: Published: Oct 16, 2014. Publicly Released: Oct 16, 2014.
Oct 10, 2014
Nuclear Weapons:Some Actions Have Been Taken to Address Challenges with the Uranium Processing Facility DesignGAO-15-126: Published: Oct 10, 2014. Publicly Released: Oct 10, 2014.
Oct 8, 2014
National Defense:Department of Defense's Waiver of Competitive Prototyping Requirement for the Navy's Fleet Replenishment Oiler ProgramGAO-15-57R: Published: Oct 8, 2014. Publicly Released: Oct 8, 2014.
Sep 30, 2014
Afghanistan Equipment Drawdown:Progress Made, but Improved Controls in Decision Making Could Reduce Risk of Unnecessary ExpendituresGAO-14-768: Published: Sep 30, 2014. Publicly Released: Sep 30, 2014.
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No matter how a drug is put in the body, it travels through the blood until it reaches the central nervous system. Psychoactive drugs affect the chemistry of the brain, especially that of neurotransmitters which transmit messages throughout the body. The drugs work by mimicking or modifying the effects of various neurotransmitters. This is what causes most of the effects on the mind and body. In addition to these direct effects, phenomena such as tolerance, tissue dependence, withdrawal, and metabolism determine a user's reaction to psychoactive drugs.
Up to date scientific information that is presented in an objective way can be found at the NIDA website under Trusted Sites. A variety of substances are covered, including alcohol, marijuana, ecstasy and other so-called 'Club Drugs'.
The acronym RAGS, a series of questions you can ask yourself to assess an on-going interaction with a substance, may be helpful in assessing a drinking or other drug problem:
Alcohol poisoning occurs when the body's functions (heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing) have been severely depressed by the effects of alcohol, enough to produce unconsciousness and in some cases death. Acute alcohol intoxication, or alcohol poisoning, can occur after the ingestion of a large amount of alcohol. Inexperienced drinkers or those sensitive to alcohol may become acutely intoxicated and suffer serious consequences after ingesting smaller amounts of alcohol. An acronym useful in emergency situations such as possible alcohol poisoning is CUSP:
Health Promotion staff and Wellness staff can review factual information with you in a non-judgmental manner and discuss possible options for changing your relationship with a substance. These options can range from self-education and review of behavior change strategies to pursuit of more formal treatment.
Being a student and being in recovery can definitely be a challenge at times, but it can also be an exciting and rewarding experience. Finding support is important, and NYU offers several different types of support for students in recovery. For information about 12-step and self-help meetings on or near campus, call Health Promotion at 212-443-1234.
Health Promotion staff are available at SHC to discuss strategies for navigating the course of recovery. Students in recovery can also join a listserv to communicate with other NYU students in recovery. To join, send a blank email message to firstname.lastname@example.com.
For information about Alcohol and Other Drug Emergencies, click here...


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25 Accessories That Will Become Your True Loves
Why wait for Mr. Right to buy you that gorgeous bracelet on Valentines Day when you can get it for yourself right now? Shop the best items that youll have longer than Whats His Name.
By Jennifer Hirshlag
The Bangle
Giles & Brother Personalized Skinny Railroad Spike Bracelet, $55; bergdorfgoodman.com
Courtesy of Bergdorf Goodman


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You must log in to access this feature. Sign in with Twellow or Facebook to get started.
By signing in to Twellow, you indicate your agreement to our terms of service.
Simply connect with Facebook and kiss those password blues away,
or go here to reset your password.
God, my amazing wife and our kids Sam and Sadie rule my world. Art, skating and fishing are my real passions but moto pays the mortgage sooo...


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Silk Deep Bahatti
This Hoe Bag is sleeping in my bed on new years eve.
ayon kay Garrett Giuffre WHAT! ika-31 ng Disyembre, 2008
A physical bag that a hoe will carry with them most of the time. The bag usually contains extra clothing, lube, condoms, tampons, pregnancy test...and other such items that allow her to sleep from place to place with guy to guy. Be aware that one might call this an "emergency bag", that would be bull shit.
Tonya carried a hoe bag the whole time I knew her. Fuckin hoe.
ayon kay JackClifto ika-06 ng Setyembre, 2007
a type of sac or bag, usually made of burlap that hoes and other gardening tools are placed in for travel by foot or bicycle
i put my stuff in that hoebag
ayon kay Sean "record holder" Eggel ika-14 ng Hulyo, 2003
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How to Identify Hickory Nuts
Hickory nuts are the fruit of the hickory tree. Hickory is a deciduous tree of the Carya genus and the Walnut family (Juglandaceae). There are over 16 species of hickory tree, and they share some similar characteristics, such as a compound leaf structure, a straight and narrow trunk, an average height of about 100 feet (30.48 m) and relatively large fruit. Each species of hickory nut has unique traits in regards to size, shape, color, shell thickness and taste. Therefore, it is important to examine each component of a hickory nut in order to correctly ascertain its species. Follow these guidelines for how to identify hickory nuts.
1Look for a woody outer shell, or husk. Hickory nut husks are light green throughout the younger stages of development, then change to a dark brown upon maturity, before falling from the hickory tree. Husks split open at the base once the fruit (nut) inside has fully ripened, although some species partially encapsulate the hickory nut even after splitting. Husks vary in thickness from 2 mm to 9 mm, depending on the hickory nut species.Ad
2Measure the shell with a ruler. When separate from the husk, hickory nuts may measure anywhere between 0.5 inch (13 mm) and 2.56 inches (6.5 cm) long and equally as wide, depending on the species.
3Look for circular, heart-shaped or oblong nuts that are either slightly flat or rounded.
4Taste the nut meat. Several hickory species yield a sweet, edible meat, while others yield bitter meat that one should not eat.
5Look for a densely veined inner chamber of the encasement, which lends to some difficulty in removing the nut meat.Ad
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product development?
- Use the information you gathered about the husk, shell and nut meat to determine the hickory nut species.
- Shagbark hickory (carya ovata). The shagbark hickory tree grows faster and more abundantly than most other types of hickory, and is therefore a commonly found species. You may find these nuts alone, or in a pair. They may be anywhere from 1.2 inches (3 cm) to 2 inches (5 cm) long, and slightly less wide. The brownish-black husk is a medium thickness, and easily splits open to reveal a light brown, heart-shaped, textured and thin-shelled fruit. The kernel of the shagbark is brown and sweet.
- Southern shagbark hickory (carya carolinae-septentrionalis). The husk of a southern shagbark is 0.12 inch (3mm) to 0.35 inch (9mm) thick, and the egg-shaped shell is smooth, relatively thin and easy to crack open. Southern shagbark nut meat is a light-brown color, and sweet to the taste.
- Bitternut hickory (carya cordiformis). The shell of a bitternut may be anywhere between 0.8 inch (2 cm) to 1.6 inches (4 cm) long. It is a rounded, light-brown nut, enclosed in a thin, yellow-scaled husk. The kernel of the bitternut is bitter, as the name suggests.
- Pignut hickory (carya glabra). Pignuts generally mature to be about 1 inch (2.5 cm) long and 0.8 inch (2 cm) wide. The husk is thin and dark brown, and must be split manually, as it rarely splits on its own. The pear-shaped pignut shell is thick, smooth and grayish brown. Pignut meat is bitter and slightly bland.
- Red hickory (carya ovalis). This nut measures approximately 1 inch (2.5 cm) to 1.2 inches (3 cm) long and 0.8 inch (2 cm) wide. The dark husk is about 0.08 inch (2 mm) thick and splits freely on its own to reveal a light brown, rounded and thin shell. The meat of the red hickory is small and sweet.
- Kingnut, or shellbark hickory (carya laciniosa). This is the largest of the hickory nut species, growing to between 1.8 inches (4.5 cm) and 2.6 inches (6.5 cm) long, and 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) wide. The oval-shaped shell of the kingnut is very thick, light brown and slightly furrowed. Because the shell is so thick, there is little room for the meat, which is sweet.
- Sand hickory (carya palida). This is the smallest of the hickory nuts, averaging between 0.5 inch (13 mm) and 1.45 inches (37 mm) long. The husk is light brown and thin, and splits only partially to reveal the shell, which is oval and slightly flattened, light in color, smooth, furry and relatively thin. The kernel of the sand hickory is sweet.
- Mockernut hickory (carya tomentosa). The mockernut is 1 of the larger hickory nut species, growing anywhere between 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) and 2 inches (5 cm) long, and with a thick husk, between 0.12 inch (3 mm) and 0.24 inch (6 mm) thick. The mockernut shell is rectangular in shape, reddish brown and smooth. The meat is edible and sweet, but difficult to remove because of the thickness of the shell.
- The texture of a hickory nut shell may be smooth, with minimal veining, or considerably irregular and furrowed.
Article Info
Categories: Nuts and Seeds
Recent edits by: Zareen, JKL1234
In other languages:
Español: Cómo identificar las nueces de nogal, Italiano: Come Riconoscere le Noci Americane, Português: Como Identificar Tipos de Nozes, Русский: определить по виду орехи гикори (грецкие орехи)
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This squirrel proof birdfeeder will keep the squirrels from raiding the feeder while allowing the birds to eat to their hearts' and stomachs' content!
The Perky-Pet® Fortress® Breakaway Squirrel Proof Bird Feeder features 4 feeding ports, a 3.5 lb. seed capacity and an easy-fill wide mouth top. The perches 'break away' under the weight of a squirrel and the seed ports shut simultaneously, as a result. This model is for hang mounting and features a quick release metal top. The clear plastic reservoir makes it easy to monitor seed levels. These innovations makes this squirrel proof birdfeeder one of the most economical and convenient on the market!
Remember to clean your squirrel proof birdfeeder at least twice a week with a mild soap and water solution.
Perky-Pet® is the leading supplier of Wild Bird Feeders and Accessories. Perky-Pet® Wild Bird Feeder models lure the bird in pursuit of seed—providing you with hours of joy as random wild birds flock to feed at your house.
Your satisfaction with our bird feeders and service is our top priority!
If you are anything less than completely satisfied with your bird feeder or bird accessory, you may return it within 30 days of receipt for a product replacement or money refund of your full merchandise cost. It's part of our worry-free shopping policy!
See entire return policy»
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I had a horrible problem with squirrels at my feeders! I bought 2 of these feeders and have now had the pleasure of watching squirrels fall off and not able to even access seed at all!! I have spent sooooo much money on seed and now thanks to this feeder, only the birds get to eat!! Thanks so much! RESPONSE FROM AVANT GARDEN DECOR June 03, 2012 Thank you for taking the time to submit an online review regarding the Perky-Pet® Fortress® The Breakaway Squirrel Proof Bird Feeder (model #5110PP). We are very happy to hear that you have seen such great results with the feeder that you purchased. I am sure that the birds are enjoying not having to share their food with the squirrels. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our Consumer Relations Team at (1-800-323-5800). SusanConsumer Relations RepresentativeWoodstream Corporation
June 03, 2012
SusanConsumer Relations RepresentativeWoodstream Corporation
This feeder is excellent. Best one I've ever had. It allows larger seeds and nuts into the feeding port and not get stuck, backing up the rest of the seeds as other feeders do. Seed stays dry even during the hardest rains. Birds love it. Squirrels hate it. Perfect.
Contact us via email or call 800-323-5800 with questions or comments concerning AvantGardenDecor.com products.
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Hawks Media
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Tag Archives: Patrick Kane
Blackhawks Drop Game One In 3OT
The Blackhawks started their second straight playoff series with a game that lasted into a third overtime. Unfortunately, the Blues escaped with a 4-3 victory. Tweet
2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs: Drafting A Winner
The NHL Draft is the door most of today's NHL superstars walk through to begin their careers, and since 2005 the Draft has introduced some of the biggest names in the game to fans in every market of the league. … Continue reading
Posted in 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs Tagged 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Jonathan Toews, NHL, NHL Draft, Patrick Kane 7 Comments
Bryan Bickell Returns, Blackhawks Bounce Back
For the first time since they joined the NHL roster, the Chicago Blackhawks played a game without Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews because of injury. The Hawks were also without Michal Rozsival and Johnny Oduya (lower-body) was scratched after warm-ups. … Continue reading
Posted in 2013-14 Blackhawks Tagged ben smith, Bryan Bickell, Chicago Blackhawks, johnny oduya, Jonathan Toews, Marian Hossa, NHL, Patrick Kane, patrick sharp 45 Comments
Injuries Impacting Western Conference Playoff Races
Blackhawks fans watched Jonathan Toews skate off the ice in pain on Sunday night in Pittsburgh, and a roster already missing Patrick Kane and Bryan Bickell had another hole to fill. Unfortunately for the NHL, the Hawks aren't the only … Continue reading
Blackhawks Can't Catch Predators
The Blackhawks were closer to finding a cure for insomnia than solving Pekka Rinne and the Preds on Sunday night, falling 2-0 at the United Center. Tweet
Posted in 2013-14 Blackhawks Tagged Brandon Bollig, Chicago Blackhawks, Corey Crawford, jeremy morin, Jonathan Toews, NHL, Patrick Kane, Teuvo Teravainen 53 Comments
Blackhawks Survive, Beat Canes
With a number of key players missing from the lineup, the Blackhawks handled their business and earned two points for a regulation victory at home on Friday night. Tweet
Posted in 2013-14 Blackhawks Tagged Chicago Blackhawks, Corey Crawford, Jonathan Toews, kris versteeg, NHL, Patrick Kane, patrick sharp, Teuvo Teravainen 53 Comments
Blackhawks Injuries Piling Up
During the Blackhawks' morning skate broadcast on Friday, coach Joel Quenneville indicated the team would be without a number of key players for tonight's game against Carolina. Patrick Kane's regular season is done, which we already knew. Quenneville also indicated … Continue reading
Blackhawks Place Kane on LTIR, Recall Morin, Teräväinen
Early Friday morning, the Blackhawks made three roster moves. Patrick Kane was placed on LTIR, effectively ending his regular season. He will miss 10 games and 24 days at minimum with the designation. To take his place, the Blackhawks officially … Continue reading
Posted in 2013-14 Blackhawks Tagged Chicago Blackhawks, jeremy morin, NHL, Patrick Kane, Teuvo Teravainen 40 Comments
Kane Concern: Are The Hawks In Trouble?
With news that Patrick Kane's ankle/knee injury could end his regular season, the concern becomes how well Kane will bounce back from the injury. Tweet
Posted in 2013-14 Blackhawks Tagged Chicago Blackhawks, NHL, Patrick Kane, Teuvo Teravainen 29 Comments
Blackhawks Lose Patrick Kane, Dominate Blues
Michal Handzus played in his 1,000th game in the NHL. Coach Joel Quenneville won his 700th in the NHL. Patrick Sharp collected his 300th assist. And the Blackhawks moved back into second place in the Central Division with a dominant … Continue reading


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Weekly Meal Plan – Labor Day Weekend Recipes and More!
Labor Day Weekend is upon us! Do you know what you're cooking yet? We want to make it easy for you to plan ahead. Here's this week's sample meal plan that's got you covered from Sunday to Saturday next week, including Labor Day!
Add your favorites to your recipe box and either use this meal plan or make one that's all your own. Don't forget to use the Notes Feature to add your own recipes and side dishes to the mix.
Click on the links to the right to view recipe details and then click the green "Plan" button to add these recipes to your own meal plan, or simply save them in your queue for later.
To add all these recipes to your meal plan queue and recipe box with just one click, go here.
Grilled Pork Chops with Fresh Nectarine Salsa – The Sweets Life
Deviled Egg Salad – Simply Recipes
Fried Fish Tacos - Epicurious
Bright Lentil Salad with Apples, Fennel and Herbs - Serious Eats
Crock Pot Beer Chicken - LaaLoosh
Slow Cooker Filipino Adobo Pulled Pork – Skinnytaste
Mustard Crusted Chicken over Quinoa & Roasted Pumpkin Salad - Farmgirl Gourmet
Spinach Queso – Plain Chicken
Buffalo Ranch Chicken Quesadillas - Pennies on a Platter
Cilantro Thai Chicken Skewers with Cucumber Yogurt Dipping Sauce - Favorite Family Recipes
What are you planning on making this Labor Day Weekend? Let us know in the comments below!


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This world, the near Now
A lone genius has made the breakthrough scientists have been working towards: he invented a new type of power plant, able to generate energy solely from waste, at top efficiency and without toxic by-products. But it has one fundamental flaw, it gives off enormous amounts of heat. So the first prototype had to be built into a floating building, located in a cold water stream in the Atlantic Ocean.
Predictably the invention have been met with public skepticism (also hate mail from oil companies). So the inventor has decided to prove his vision in the field: he has sold his family heritage and a few patents, taken a loan and started building the swimming platform of his prototype into the Ocean Tower, a gargantuan building, in fact an entire fully functioning city of its own.
But being a genius doesn't help when organizational skills are called for. So YOU have been hired to run the Tower.
Now it's your chance to show the World it can be done: create a gigantic sustainable eco-tech tower people like to live in.
Your challenge: build the future!
Developer's note: The cover of the fictional magazine "National Geologic" above is a friendly parody of the magazine "National Geographic". We're not implying that "National Geographic" has run a cover story on Ocean Tower. Yet, they have done covers in future livingspaces as the example below shows (german edition, January 2012). Our game is based mainly on fictional technology (the waste-burning main power plant is impossible as is a floating tower that resides in the ocean without tethering or protection against storms. But we have done research regarding efficient eco-technologies and feel we're on safe ground with our game, metaphorically.