Rise of Nations: Extended Edition

Rise of Nations: Extended Edition is still an amazing game at its core. The blend of real-time strategy, empire building, and historical progression remains incredibly fun, and it's easy to see why so many people consider it a classic. Unfortunately, my experience with the Extended Edition was disappointing from a technical standpoint. Despite having a PC that should be more than capable of running a game of this age, I constantly encountered sudden FPS drops and crashes. The performance issues were severe enough to affect gameplay and made longer sessions frustrating. I spent quite a bit of time trying to fix the problem. I experimented with FPS caps, lowered graphics settings, adjusted various options, and searched for potential solutions online, but nothing provided a reliable fix. The game would still suffer from random performance drops and stability issues. It's especially disappointing because I genuinely wanted to play and enjoy this game. When it was running properly, I could see how great it still is. Sadly, the technical problems outweighed the enjoyment, and I ultimately had to request a refund. If the performance and crashing issues were addressed, I would gladly give it another chance. As it stands, I can't recommend the Extended Edition based on my experience, even though the underlying game itself remains fantastic.