GameSpy has a new Age of Empires 3 Q&A, asking designer Greg Street about the newest Ensemble Studios RTS game. Several new screenshots are included.

The (at the moment very slow) Ensemble Studios website has been updated with the press release officially announcing Age of Empires 3. IGN's Q&A from last night is much more informative than the press release, which does mention that the game will be shipping in the second half of this year. Here are some more screenshots of the game too

IGN has posted the first online Age of Empires 3 Q&A, asking Ensemble's Greg Street and Dave Pottinger about the strategy game sequel. Topics include the setting, the eight civilizations, the campaign mode, gameplay changes, game engine and multiplayer. Several fine looking screenshots are included as well.

We considered a lot of time periods for Age of Empires III but ultimately kept coming back to the one we chose. For starters, we knew the fan expectation was to move chronologically through time. We think it makes a good arc in the overall "Age of" franchise and leaves room for future titles without having to go backwards in time. The colonial time period is a good fit for an Age game. Although military technology has advanced, the fundamentals of combat haven't changed from the Age of Kings time period the way they would, say for WWI. That is, the game starts with a lot of units familiar from Age of Kings, like Pikemen and Crossbows. Even in the later part of the game, where there are lots of gunpowder units on the battlefield, cavalry still fight hand-to-hand with swords. Other aspects of the time period work well with our gameplay, such as exploring an unknown map, starting a new town, eventually coming into contact with other players, and having to resolve differences (usually by force). That is pretty much the story of colonization and conquest of the New World in a nutshell.

Planet Age of Mythology has some info about Age of Empires III: Age of Discovery, which is featured in the latest issue of PC Gamer. The game begins in 1500 A.D. and follows American history up through 1850. The game uses the Havocs physics engine and multiplayer will feature 8 civilizations. An official announcement by Ensemble Studios is expected soon.

The Ensemble Studios website has been updated with new teaser text, as we're getting closer to an announcement from the Age of Empires developer. Previously just saying "The Wait is Almost Over", the new line "2300 BC - Sargon 1 unifies Sumeria" seeminly indicates Age of Empires 3 will span several ages. Thanks badman.

The Wait Is Almost Over is a new splash screen on the Ensemble Studios website, seemingly indicating that the new Age of Empires game will be announced soon. The game was first mentioned by a Polish publisher back in October, and it's also featured in the latest issue of Computer Gaming World.

The Ensemble Studios website is now offering standalone patches updating Age of Mythology to version 1.09 and its expansion pack The Titans to version 1.02. These patches were available through the auto-updater before, but in case that didn't work for you, you can download the update this way. Thanks Blues News.

The Ensemble Studios website is now offering two bonus maps playable in Age of Mythology and Age of Mythology: The Titans, Black Sea & The River Styx. These maps were originally created for a Titans pre-order program, but now everyone can play them. Thanks Blues News.

This weekend the University of Texas at Dallas will host the third annual Computer Gaming Conference. There will be three days of speeches, workshops, and presentations, competitions and LAN tournaments. People from Atari, Ritual Entertainment, Ensemble Studios and Eidos among others will be attending. The event is free and open to everyone, and you can find more info here.

Ensemble has released a new patch for Age of Mythology, updating the game to version 1.07. The patches fixes "many exploits and crashes", offers some unit balancing changes, and allows people to communicate with those who have the Titans expansion pack installed.

GameSpy has posted a new Age of Mythology: The Titans diary. Ensemble's Paul Bettner writes about the new features of the Ensemble Studios Online multiplayer service.

Also on GameSpy this morning is this Age of Mythology expansion pack development diary. Ensemble Studios programmer Rob Fermier writes about all the improvements in The Titans.

Over at the Ensemble Studios website you can find several new screenshots from the Titans expansion pack for Age of Mythology, which will be shipping in October.

New on GameSpy today is this Q&A with Bruce Shelley of Ensemble Studios. Bruce is asked about the upcoming Titans expansion pack for Age of Mythology, and other things related to that game and the RTS genre.

New on HomeLAN Fed this morning is this Age of Mythology: The Titans Q&A with Ensemble Studios' Ian Fischer. The expansion pack will be released this fall.

Ensemble's Age of Mythology: The Titans webpage has been updated showing a new screenshot from this upcoming expansion pack. A new shot will be released every other Friday.

Following Saturday's teaser image on the Ensemble Studios website, Microsoft today announced the first Age of Mythology expansion pack, The Titans. In this expansion pack you will be able to control the powers of gods such as Atlas and Cronus

Age of Mythology: The Titans adds a fourth culture, the Atlanteans, to the existing Greek, Egyptian and Norse mythologies. A new single-player campaign will add yet another chapter to the franchise's expansive folklore with the addition of 12 new scenarios. Atlantean players will be able to call upon the might of the Titan gods multiple times throughout the game, and may also upgrade human units to heroes. The expansion pack will introduce 12 new god powers, 18 new human units and 10 formidable myth units to the game. ...

The expansion will be in stores this fall.

Planet Age of Mythology notes that the frontpage of the Ensemble Studios website is now offering a teaser screenshot from an Age of Mythology expansion pack. The screenshot shows a huge myth unit, like, bigger than Xbox.

Microsoft's Age of Mythology downloads page is offering a new campaign created by Ensemble Studios, The Golden Gift. This free addon campaign offers four scenarios where the player "follows the adventures of Brokk and Eitri, two dwarven brothers featured in the original Age of Mythology Fall of the Trident campaign". The 10mb download is mirrored on FileShack.

Ensemble Studios have released another patch for Age of Mythology, available through the auto updater. Patch 1.04 fixes an exploit, a scenario editor bug and a certain ESO issue.