Probably knee-deep in work preparing for E3, Microsoft and the devs from Big Huge Games won't be releasing their Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends strategy until late next month, even though the game has reached Gold status yesterday and, at least in theory, would be just ripe for shipping off to stores. On the North-American continent this operation should commence on May 23rd, while the release date announced for Great Britain is May 26th.

As cleary suggested by its name, Rise of Legends marks a new chapter in the Rise of Nations franchise, but without having any connection with the original title - cosidered by many to be the best strategy (and even overall PC game) of 2003. Following is a short official presentation of the game:

"'Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends' morphs the real-time strategy (RTS) genre into the fantasy space, allowing gamers to rampage through towering cities, flame-swept deserts and brutal ice plains in battles filled with mystic creatures, fantastic machines and stunning acts of magic. (...) As the second installment of the 'Rise of Nations' franchise, 'Rise of Legends' also extends the gaming experience using a 3-D engine with dynamic lighting, deformable terrain, destructible buildings, ground-rattling earthquakes and massive armies locked in enormous strategic battles. 'Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends' combines cutting-edge, industry-leading technology with awe-inspiring art design to create environments unlike anything ever seen."

We also remind you that a Rise of Legends demo version is available for almost a month now, in case you missed it or upgraded your bandwidth in the meanwhile - as the download "only" weighs around 620 MB.

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)