Age of Empires
"Age of Empires", released on October 26, 1997, was the first game in the series, as well as the first major release from Ensemble Studios. It was one of the first history-based real-time strategy games made, utilizing the Genie game engine. GameSpot described it as a mix of "Civilization" and "". The game gives players a choice of 12 civilizations to develop from the Stone Age to the Iron Age. The expansion pack, "The Rise of Rome", published by Microsoft on October 31, 1998, introduced new features and four new civilizations, including the Romans. Although the two games had contained many software bugs, patches resolved many of the problems.
Age of Empires II
"The Age of Kings" won GameSpot's Strategy Game of the Year in 1999, and was a nominee for Game of the Year. GamePower also named it Strategy Game of the Year, while "PC Gamer" and "Computer Gaming World" gave it Editor's Choice awards. The editors of "PC Gamer US" named it their 1999 "Best Real-Time Strategy Game", and wrote that it "takes everything we know about the real-time strategy genre and polishes it, and polishes it, and then polishes it some more." "The Age of Kings" won Strategy Game of the Year and Computer Game of the Year at the 2000 Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences awards. It was also nominated for Game of the Year, Outstanding Achievement in Animation, Outstanding Achievement in Game Design, and Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering. IGN ranked "The Age of Kings" the 53rd best game of all time in 2005, and the 10th best PC game of all time in 2007. GameFAQs users placed it 56th in a poll of the best games ever.