I think we can see here a prime example of a Publisher who did learn its lesson, and Microsoft.
SEGA did see its mistakes by a DoW3, so CoH3 is from start on focused on story, single-player and get in touché with the player base, by simply let them test the product as early as possible.
Yeah, but why didn’t they do a similar thing for AOE4. A council is usually not enough, as Dawn of War 3 has shown.
Microsoft in general is not good at managing games and apparently don’t learn their lesson.
-Rise of Legends year 2006 , not available on any store to buy
-Age of Empires Online year 2011, was shut down
-Age of Empires: Castle Siege year 2014 , was shut down
-Halo Wars 2 from 2017 (is still not on steam and completely forgotten)
As I’m currently downloading the pre-alpha for CoH3, I find it odd that even though AoE IV’s release date is closer, there’s still no beta.
Company of Heroes 3 used some unrealistic flags for one of the factions 
Tastefulness, but the setting of the Second World War is hackneyed and boring, there is nothing to come up with especially new, I don’t want to. Here DoW 4 would be interesting to see, the universe is rich and interesting.
Alright, I have played the CoH3 alpha for about an hour as well and I have to say I am not impressed at all. Nothing works as it should, it’s not smooth at all, it doesnt really feel like a return to the roots (CoH1), graphic details are lacking, unit readability is a mess, and I am not convinced at all by their turn based TW style campaign which seems like a clunky miniature to what actual 4x games offer. Might extend on this on a separate topic, but boy I am happy with my AoE4 after I tasted CoH3.
For anyone saying CoH3 looks so much better, just go and play it (the free alpha) and see if you still feel that way, I doubt you will.
you didnt play it did you? it deosnt look better than age 4.
but it loos well.
to be fair though, the alpha is there exactly to gather feedback like that, especially regarding their gameplay ideas.
And while it could look better, for more than a year before release, the game already seems to look and work quite well. Please be fair to it in the feedback
Also bugs etc are expected in a pre alpha build. if age 4 beta was anything like that, i would be worried.
But yes, age 4 does look better now in the previews than CoH 3 pre alpha plays - which is fine
Yeah, the Total War style thing is something hard to gulp for me too. But I think the gameplay is better than 2, maybe slightly better. Note that I still haven’t played more than 30-40 mins, so my opinion is based on that. Anyways, I think whatever Relic has touched and made, their first entry is always the best lol. Homeworld 1 is better (for me 2 was better for the gameplay reasons, but after remaster collection, 1 is better because its story and immersion were uplifted), Dawn of War 1 is better and same can be said about CoH 1.
I am still betting on AoE 4 being the best RTS of this generation. Let’s see what happens. But I just wish we had a little better community engagement and a ■■■■■■■■ some type of beta to see what they have been cooking. More constructive feedback will always be better. I think CoH 3 is headed in a right route by opening up their game to everybody. Their end product will be better for sure.
I will eat pigs poop the day I see a good WW 1 based RTS game. As far as I know, WW 1 is pretty hard to recreate. I think that’s why even Relic runs away from it. Only if Ensemble Studios was around…smh…
Yeah, lol. Just show Nazi flags. Why actively go out of your way and seek controversy?! Germany lifted the ban already…I think 3 years ago.
Are hotkeys customizable?
Could be still a thing in Austria, Switzerland, and other countries with German-speaking populations. I have no idea but I know here in the UK this was never really an issue and swastikas and the like were shown in video games until fairly recently. Nowadays even here, games typically use the Iron Cross as a replacement. It’s probably related to avoid raising the age rating but then again… if you’re making a WW2 game, you might as well include the basics, it’d be like replacing the Soviet hammer & sickle with a simple red star.
But yeah, I haven’t tried the game yet so I’ll probably post back here and write what I think. It’s possible that those screens might just the initial ‘wow factor’ kicking.
Now, can we get the AoE4 beta going? 
I will support the words a little higher. I looked at the COH 3 alpha in delay, it looks disappointing, and apart from the fact that I do not like the WWII setting, this strategy is doubtfully suitable for playing on the network, and it certainly will not become sports.
Actually, I join the bet, I bet that AoE 4 will become the largest original RTS in recent years, and most importantly, a competitive RTS with a large community and tournaments and athletes, as well as official sports teams, and this is already cooler than anything. And I also want to say that this is kind of like a forum about the AoE series, and COH has its own website and forum.
No, they are not. I heard in the IGN stream how they said it would finally be a feature, but it’s not part of the options at all in the playable alpha.
No, they are not. The options menu is pretty bare bones. In fact non-existant.
Thanks, both of you. I hope you are enjoying the game otherwise.
You’re welcome. I personally think the game has potential. It’s about 70%, however by the time it has a release window it will improve with player feedback.
Hyped for COH 3, so sad for AOE4, we are waiting so long for beta, and i am testing pre-alpha COH3 right now.