f13.net forums - Age of Empires Online

I've been getting back into strat games lately and thought I'd give this one a shot since it is F2P and all. Wow, was that a good decision for me. I'm really enjoying it. They've done a really nice job with combining the RTS with online/persistent elements. I'd recommend a try on this for anyone interested in RTS. Did I say it was free?

I played for probably 10 hours on free-mode and that was enough for me to plunk down $16 to get all the DLC they have currently (sale this weekend on Steam.) Man, did Steam make this easy. I did my one click purchase as normal. Waited maybe 2 minutes. Then, logged back in to find I had everything set up and ready to use. I did have some initial Games for Windows Live problems for the full game install, so I was concerned I'd have some problems with this, but it was a snap. (Turns out my issue was that Microsoft was a bit delayed in registering I had installed a F2P game and kept asking for my "key." Give them about 5-10 minutes if you run into this.)

I'm mainly doing quests right now in the Celtic empire. I've tried the skirmish quests and they are quite fun. Soon I'll try my hand at PvP, but I'm only expecting to get my ass handed to me. That's fine. I'm pretty happy with the choices, details, extra fluff for your home city, etc. in the PvE space. I'll get my $16 worth within a few weeks regardless. I'm planning to do some co-op with my son this week. This should be interesting.