Age of Empires 4 Announced (Relic Entertainment)

RandV

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Anyways, I'd be pretty happy if they just took a page out of Starcraft 2's book (not the 3 separate games thing). What struck me when playing both AoEII and Starcraft remastered, after playing Starcraft 2, is just how bad the pathfinding used to be. Especially in Starcraft, where you could only select 12 units at a time.

AoE2 didn't have that limitations, you could select your whole army and they'd march smartly matching the slowest units speed, but once battle got underway it became an uncontrollable mess. I'd be happy with a mostly similar game with good pathfinding where units don't get stuck on another, with additional battle controls similar to a Total War game.
 

Seedtype

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Looks like ancient to colonial?

Hmm, I thought the trailer was just showing all the previous stuff that the Age of Empires series has covered, and the final narrator line meant we were looking at a different era/region of civilization.

It doesn't really matter. I just hope it's good.
 

Knave

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I'm hopeful. Age of Empires 3 was pretty decent with some obvious flaws. Age of Empires Online was another step backwards into MMO grind territory but the core of the game was still there and was still good.

I'm an original fan though - Age of Empires 1 and Rise of Rome and playing that stuff on The Zone into the late night, skipping out on some sleep.

Hmm, I thought the trailer was just showing all the previous stuff that the Age of Empires series has covered, and the final narrator line meant we were looking at a different era/region of civilization.

It doesn't really matter. I just hope it's good.

That was my thoughts as well. I wonder if they'll go with modern or futuristic... personally I hope they keep it pre-industrial.
 

Bjorn Le

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Hmm, I thought the trailer was just showing all the previous stuff that the Age of Empires series has covered, and the final narrator line meant we were looking at a different era/region of civilization.

It doesn't really matter. I just hope it's good.

Well there was this:
aoe3.jpg


It was released as a teaser back when III came out. Now that was Ensemble, but I think there's a few Ensemble people at Relic.

Personally, I'd bet it's Classical/Medieval because Relic already has a "modern" game in Company of Heroes, and since Microsoft will be publishing this, I doubt they'll go for space either because that's too close to Halo Wars 2. I'd double down on Classical/Medieval given all that's been invested into the AoE1 remaster and the expansions to AoE2 a decade later.
 

Knave

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Personally, I'd bet it's Classical/Medieval because Relic already has a "modern" game in Company of Heroes, and since Microsoft will be publishing this, I doubt they'll go for space either because that's too close to Halo Wars 2. I'd double down on Classical/Medieval given all that's been invested into the AoE1 remaster and the expansions to AoE2 a decade later.

I think the issue is they've already claimed Age of Empires II and III are going to get a full on re-mastering which makes me think they might follow that book art (which coincidentally I still have somewhere around the house).

http://www.pcgamer.com/age-of-empir...october-aoe-2-and-3-remasters-are-coming-too/

It also revealed that Age of Empires: Definitive Edition, with 4K graphics, a remastered soundtrack, and improved gameplay, will be released on October 19. Even better: Age of Empires 2 and 3 will be getting the same treatment.

The re-masters that they put on Steam were... lets say cheap and didn't change much because the studios were under obvious limitations.
This AOE: DE looks like a much more serious update to graphics, sound, interface and gameplay... and they're going to move down the line of games.

I have already signed up for a chance to get in the beta and have preordered a copy for myself because the original was my favorite and it's coming out in October.
 

TootooTrain

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Was a huge fan of 1 and 2.
3 didn't really float my boat. Just found the mechanics/animations to be a little weird.

I appreciate games that are more oldschool melee combat aswell as range weapons that top out at cannons/catapults. Looking forward to the new one without a doubt though.
 

Retrocity

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Can't wait to see more details. Used to play huge online matches of AOE II. Have the remake with new expansions, but haven't played a ton of it.
 

Oogie Boogie

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I'll see how it looks whenever we get some gameplay footage.
Played the hell out of 2 when it was on Zone.com and GameSpy Arcade
 

Osprey

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http://www.pcgamer.com/age-of-empir...october-aoe-2-and-3-remasters-are-coming-too/

The re-masters that they put on Steam were... lets say cheap and didn't change much because the studios were under obvious limitations.
This AOE: DE looks like a much more serious update to graphics, sound, interface and gameplay... and they're going to move down the line of games.

I have already signed up for a chance to get in the beta and have preordered a copy for myself because the original was my favorite and it's coming out in October.

How did I miss this news for 3 days? I'm more excited about the AoE1 remaster than AoE4. I've been waiting for something like this for 20 years. I couldn't figure why they made an HD version of AoE2 5 years ago and didn't also do one for AoE1. Having this in the pipeline for the 20th anniversary could be the reason.



I'm absolutely thrilled that Microsoft is finally giving this series love again. AoE1 is one of my favorite games. AoE2 was very good, but I've always been more partial to the ancient setting of the original.
 

Commander Clueless

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Awesome to see Age of Empires come back. I was a huge fan of 1 & 2, although I never played 3.


I enjoyed the AoE2 HD edition, so I'm mostly stoked for AoE1 remastered.



I really hope Relic puts out a gem after the bumpy road that was Dawn of War III
 

Knave

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I'm absolutely thrilled that Microsoft is finally giving this series love again. AoE1 is one of my favorite games. AoE2 was very good, but I've always been more partial to the ancient setting of the original.

Me too, I'm super excited. I can't wait for October 19. I was also really surprised they didn't remake Age of Empires 1 around the time they did AOE2HD and all that. I know AOE2 was probably a little more popular but AOE1 was hardly a flop. It was a huge success that allowed for the sequel and whole series.

I definitely prefer the ancient setting too. The series is basically responsible for my interest in that historical period and I did take a few courses on classical Roman history because of it.
 

Jasper

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The only RTS better than AOE2 (Age of Kings) was Rise of Nations. A sequel to RON would be the only RTS news better than this. Obviously some people here like to stay in a certain age, I prefer going from cavemen to stealth bombers.
 
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SniperHF

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I know AOE2 was probably a little more popular but AOE1

Probably underestimating how much more popular 2 is. While I wouldn't describe it as thriving, 2 still had an active MP community before they got around to patching it again and finally the "HD" version.

Not too many games from the 90's can say that.


Oh and the people who said they never played 3, you really should. It's a good game that got unfairly dumped on because it followed up a legend.
 

Osprey

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I definitely prefer the ancient setting too. The series is basically responsible for my interest in that historical period and I did take a few courses on classical Roman history because of it.

I took a number of courses on ancient history, as well. I remember a few times when I was so excited during class to get home and play the civilization in AoE that we were covering in class. I also devoured all of the ancient-era programming on The History Channel, and there was a lot of it in the late 90s. It could be a little hard to relate to warfare in that era, which made AoE so fascinating, since you could pretend that you were re-enacting confrontations that were only described with narration and crude map graphics in the documentaries.

The only RTS better than AOE2 (Age of Kings) was Rise of Nations. A sequel to RON would be the only RTS news better than this. Obviously some people here like to stay in a certain age, I prefer going from cavemen to stealth bombers.

I love the idea of going from the beginning of history to the end, but I figure that it better suits games like Civilization that can get away with very shallow coverage of every era. If they were to make AoE4 span all of history, it would probably feel remarkably shallow because the amount of detail and authenticity to the eras would seem well below the series' standard. I would be very interested in an AoE that could pull it off, but it'd be a monumental task that could easily fail, IMO. It's likely why, to my knowledge, Creative Assembly hasn't attempted a Total War that spans all of history. They're probably wise to stick to doing each era as well as they can.

Oh and the people who said they never played 3, you really should. It's a good game that got unfairly dumped on because it followed up a legend.

It also came out too long after AoE2 (6 years) and after RTSes had started to lose popularity. It really should've come out in 2002, 3 years earlier and 3 years after AoE2, IMO.
 

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Is October 19 the same release date across all platforms? ie, will I be able to download it off steam and play it immediately assuming my computer can handle it? My laptop plays AoEII just fine, so hopefully the remake of AOEI isn't too much more taxing.
 

Osprey

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For anyone who loves AoE2, I highly recommend Stronghold (the 2001 game, though 2012's Stronghold HD is probably the version that you want to play today). The period is the same, the graphics are nearly identical and the gameplay is very similar, though it focuses on attacking or defending bases (castles, in this case), rather than building them. For some reason, I overlooked it in the 2000s and didn't try it until a few years ago, and I loved it. Any fans of AoE2 should love it, IMO. Make sure to play the original (or its HD version), not Stronghold 2 or 3, which I've heard aren't even close to the classic that the original is.

Is October 19 the same release date across all platforms? ie, will I be able to download it off steam and play it immediately assuming my computer can handle it? My laptop plays AoEII just fine, so hopefully the remake of AOEI isn't too much more taxing.

It appears that it's only for Windows and I doubt that different stores (Steam, GOG, etc.) would have it available on different days. As for performance, it looks like it's a full 3D engine, rather than a 2D engine like AoE2 (including AoE2 HD), so I expect it to be a lot more taxing. Also, since it's only for Windows and has the "Windows 10" logo at the end, it's probably built on DirectX 12, so it may be most optimized for newer GPUs. Performance might be iffy, at least at high resolutions, if your GPU is from the DirectX 10 era. That's just my speculation, though.
 
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Vegeta

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The only RTS better than AOE2 (Age of Kings) was Rise of Nations. A sequel to RON would be the only RTS news better than this. Obviously some people here like to stay in a certain age, I prefer going from cavemen to stealth bombers.

AOE and RoN are dear to my heart. For whatever reason, I love setting the Enlightenment age as my age cap in RoN.
 

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