I still remember playing the first two versions of Age of Empires, it was one of my favorites in my collection of Civilization, Doom, and Duke Nukem, and others.  But, then somewhere along the way it fell by the wayside.

Between then and now Microsoft closed down Ensemble Studios, the team behind AOE, and it seemed that the game was destined to vanish to the great bit bucket in the sky.  However, that was not to be its destiny as Microsoft decided thatit could re-image the game to suit the new tastes of on-line multi-player, and social (if in style only) gaming.

I had a chance to play the game in early beta, and while it definitely isn’t anything like the Age of Empires that I remember, and played, it was still fun. The graphics are similar to those you find in a lot of the social games that are really popular, meaning they are on the cartoony side instead of the type used in the original game.

The latest incarnation unveiled by Microsoft is strictly a downloadable on-line only game that comes in both free and premium versions. The premium will let you unlock rare gear and new player units, so the idea obviously is to get people’s feet wet with the free version and then entice them to cough up the cash for the premium offering.

Here is Microsoft’s announcement about the game’s availability and followed with an interview with Chris Taylor, the lead developer for the game:

[Cross-posted at Winextra]