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Age of Empires: Definitive Edition Beta
- JoshGlazebrook 9y agoCan we get a proper sequel or remake (again) to Age of Mythology? The extended edition "remake" on steam by Skybox Labs is a travesty. I honestly just pretend it doesn't exist because it's a better experience using the old version from the early 2000's with Voobly. So many great memories playing custom scenario maps on AOM back in 2005-2006. I still have some of the maps but I lost my own "Lobster Escape" creation. Also fun fact, around 2013 I discovered that the original ESO multiplayer servers were still online and hosted by Microsoft, the game didn't allow you to login because the SSL certificate was expired, but Fiddler2 actually got around that issue and I was able to login with my old ESO account details (these were originally created as live/hotmail accounts with a custom domain).
- marcrosoft 9y agoI never really played the campaigns but as far as multiplayer all sequels/expansions after RoR were crap. AoK was OK but still a big let down.
- aaronmacy 9y agostrongly agree about the multiplayer. not generally into re-playing video games from my younger days, but i'm really looking forward to this.
- tpeo 9y agoWhy do you say so? The original AoE always struck me as kind of clunky, specially because of the atrocious path-finding. But I never actually played it in multiplayer.
- blunte 9y agoThe pathfinding was quite good when you consider the constraints - target platform (Pentium 90 with 16 _MB_! of RAM), dozens of units moving independently, etc. And multiplayer was really where the fun was for many of us. This was pretty early in the multiplayer era, so being able to play with up to 8 players in the same game over the internet seemed amazing.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- b_ttercup 9y agoYeah AoM was the best. I was introduced to programming in their editor. Made it into a short turn based rpg.
- cpv 9y agoThe ESO servers are still online (at least till a couple of months ago). I had issues with AoE 3. In case you forget your password, you can't recover it because they don't send recover emails, sending emails to some support emails from their support page/faq doesn't work (getting "Message could not be delivered"). And each account is connected to one cdkey. A last option is to play with friends/other people on game ranger, or buy a new game, and create a new ESO acount.
- speleding 9y agoAoE 3 plays great on LAN, you only need a single copy to play with friends if you apply the latest patch (which removes the CD key dependence). I still play it regularly with my kids. If you're not all on the same LAN there's software around that will set up a tunnel to make it appear you are to AoE (forgot the name).
- peterburkimsher 9y agoI wish that history lessons could show videos of custom AoE maps with recreated player actions that correspond to real-life past events. Studying history is a combination of 1. Calendars, 2. Maps, 3. Contacts, and 4. Messages. I've been trying to figure out how to represent Calendar & Map data in a single user interface. (such a program would have other uses outside history, too). A video of a changing map, such as a screen recording of an AoE game, is one way I can think to show that data. Being able to then click on the characters and see what they're doing/saying would be helpful too. This idea is still quite vague in my head, but if anyone has any comments, I'd appreciate the discussion.
- wingerlang 9y agoPerhaps a timeline-scroller-calendar that acts like the ones in a movie player.
- rmccue 9y agoYou could potentially use something like a Minard diagram? https://robots.thoughtbot.com/analyzing-minards-visualization-of-napoleons-1812-march https://robots.thoughtbot.com/analyzing-minards-visualizatio...
- Zardoz84 9y agoSomething like this ? http://www.larramendi.es/es/timeline/autores.do http://www.larramendi.es/es/timeline/autores.do
- iaskwhy 9y agoIt's my current hobby to explore ways to do this. My goal is to create a library which I can then use for several purposes. I'm mostly inspired by Civilization V end game replay map[0]. My second goal is to use the library to create a few educational map-based history tools because I love reading that stuff but have a hard time visualising it. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KTQN5nW24U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KTQN5nW24U
- nanospeck 9y agoI'm very interested to know the details an perhaps help build it. Looks very promising. Can we connect akhil.karun [at] gmail.
- moron4hire 9y agoI'd actually be completely fine with the original graphics, so long as they scaled to my larger screen correctly. I enjoy having older games that run on some of the older hardware that I have around (or newer, but far cheaper), but they do tend to have only a short list of supported modes, rather than querying the hardware for capabilities.
- icecreammatt 9y agoYou should checkout the HD edition that is on Steam. It is exactly like the original but with higher resolution and multi monitor support. It was exactly what I wanted. Edit: I thought this was AOEII, after looking at the site more I realized this is AOE.
- bitxbitxbitcoin 9y agoI just want AOEIII.
- oneplane 9y agoAOE3 exists, so I u guess you can have it?
- bitxbitxbitcoin 9y agoI can has it :).
- theandrewbailey 9y agoIts been out for about 10 years. http://store.steampowered.com/app/105450/Age_of_Empires_III_Complete_Collection/ http://store.steampowered.com/app/105450/Age_of_Empires_III_...
- bitxbitxbitcoin 9y agoHoly moly! Thanks - I've actually never played this - In 2009/2010 I was very engrossed in a different RTS... I'm sure you can guess which.
- sengork 9y agoThis needs to be done for Empire Earth series as well which seem to have been forgotten and obstacled by Civ, AoE, AoM franchises.
- Aeolun 9y agoYou can always play Rise of Nations? True, it doesn't go into the far future, but it's in all ways a more polished experience than Empire Earth.
- sengork 9y agoThanks for reminding me, a series I completely missed out on. Time to revisit them.
- rcarrigan87 9y agoYeah, RoN is my preferred RTS throwback game. Such a good game. I think the later ages are poorly done though. I usually limit the game to 2-3 age advancements. Super fun.
- maguirre 9y agoagreed.... age of empires was a nice intro but empire earth is where so many hours of my youth were spent
- bitxbitxbitcoin 9y agoSomewhat tangential... Would someone like to challenge me to 0 A.D.?
- plumeria 9y agoBut how? VPN?
- bitxbitxbitcoin 9y agoIt's been a minute for me, admittedly. Are the multiplayer servers not online anymore :(?
- plumeria 9y agoDunno, I just play over VPN.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- SwellJoe 9y agoI guess a Linux version would be too much to ask for, this being from Microsoft and all.
- roobunya 9y agoOpen Age: http://openage.sft.mx/ http://openage.sft.mx/
- Houshalter 9y agoThe HD edition on steam used to run under wine. Now it doesn't, but you can roll back to a previous version for now.
- filomeno 9y agoWell, they say they now love Linux, so I expect a Linux version soon
- ygra 9y agoI wouldn't. Games aren't written by DevDiv or the Azure team.
- xrisk 9y agoThe current versions of AOE1 and 2 play well on Wine. Maybe this new edition will too, I hope.
- koolba 9y agoI hope not. I lost too many hours to the original. If this runs on Wine bad things will happen...
- mcappleton 9y agoSome people love games no matter the graphics. For me I can't stand games with bad graphics. I think all these reboots are money grabs that add little given today's standards. They need to do a 3D remake of aoe otherwise it's just pointless if you ask me. I know a lot of people think graphics don't matter. If that's you, I respect that. But for me personally, I would actually consider starting a team to do a 3D remake that is fully compatible with the original.
- the_af 9y agoWhy are 3D graphics automatically better than 2D? Beauty and aesthetics have nothing to do with 3D vs 2D.
- kirrent 9y agoThe example of this closest to my heart has always been Pharaoh, an amazing game from 2000, which looks a huge amount better than it's spiritual successor, released in 2004, Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile. http://image.buildinggame.net/screenshot-cleopatra-game-building-game.jpg http://image.buildinggame.net/screenshot-cleopatra-game-buil... http://cf.shacknews.com/shack_images/sshots/immortalcities/111404_immortalcities_06.jpg http://cf.shacknews.com/shack_images/sshots/immortalcities/1...
- maneesh 9y agoLoved that game
- bitxbitxbitcoin 9y agoAgreed a million times. 2D art is a big part of a lot of the living generations' gaming history and it shouldn't be discounte just for missing a D.
- sotojuan 9y ago2D ages better too. So many PSOne/N64 games have aged badly in terms of looks (especially now with HDTVs) but SNES and sprite-based PSOne games still hold up.
- madez 9y agoThis reminds that we need more open source games. There are old games I would love to play again, especially after the community has fixed the biggest pain points. Why can't we have open and free games? Why not atleast after commercialization has ended? The current situation feels like stealing from mankinds heritage.
- roobunya 9y agoCheck this out: http://openage.sft.mx/ http://openage.sft.mx/
- madez 9y agoThanks for pointing this out. I like projects of this sort, but imagine they could start with the original source code.
- Trundle 9y agoMicrosoft tried that with aoe2hd, start with the original source code, and it's been worse than the original since release.
- yukinon 9y agoCould you elaborate on things you found worse in AoE2 HD vs the original? I've never played the original, but I'm a huge fan of the HD release and all of it expansions.
- Trundle 9y agoIt's laggier and has desync issues. Not just me but commonly experienced by streamers I watch and frequently discussed on /r/aoe2. Voobly has a much better experience. Worth checking out, particularly if you're any good.
- danbolt 9y agoEspecially when the source code isn't exactly an asset at that point. The code behind most old games is probably too brittle/clunky/coupled to be reused in new works, but enthusiastic fans would gladly breathe life into them, even non-commercially. The sources for big things like Starcraft and Age of Empires II gives you a monopoly on the new content though, so I understand why publishers keep those hits close to their chest. It's a shame they're not more liberal about the ones they aren't actively keeping up.
- raymondgh 9y agoIsn't it ironic to release a beta for a "definitive edition" of something?
- alain_gilbert 9y agoI'll save you some time. They remade the game, but it's not available yet. You can register for the beta IF you accept the NDA. And you need an xbox live account. I got stuck at "need an xbox live account".
- BayesStreet 9y agoI used a microsoft account, never had an xbox live subscription/game and it worked.
- alain_gilbert 9y agoI used a @hotmail.com email address, here is what it says: There is a problem with your login. Please be sure you are using a Microsoft account with an XBox Live account associated and that you have authorized access to your profile information if prompted. Maybe "@hotmail.com" is not considered a microsoft account ? What are you using (@outlook.com) ?
- BayesStreet 9y agoMy old university email that was linked to microsoft when I signed up for visual studio i think? Not sure if this will still work, was a few years ago. https://login.live.com/login.srf?lw=1 https://login.live.com/login.srf?lw=1
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- beyti 9y agoSame here. Resolved by: 1. logging in through https://account.xbox.com/ https://account.xbox.com/ 2. click profile picture top right corner and click profile 3. Privacy settings 4. Privacy and Online Safety > Privacy 5. Allow all "Microsoft Can" options (possibly not all needed but don't know which ones required so..)
- vinayan3 9y agoAnyone who signed up for the Beta know if there will be Mac Build?
- bearton 9y agoI'm super excited about this. Which civilization did you all play with? I remember I liked the Byzantines and the Persians. The Turks also had those knights which were pretty cool.
- LaMarseillaise 9y agoYou are thinking of Age of Empires 2. There is actually already an HD remake of that game, with new (optional) civilizations and various gameplay improvements. You can find it on Steam. As regards civilization, I have been playing AoE2HD with the Mongols. I always used to play the Romans for AoE, though I think I will switch to Greeks or Assyrians if I pick up this one.
- bearton 9y agoYou're right. I'm thinking of AeE2. Will definitely have to check out the remake! Thanks for the rec. Ah, I remember the Mongols too! Nice!
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- everdev 9y agoFor AoE players, check out 0AD http://play0ad.com http://play0ad.com It's free, open source and very similar but in my opinion a better game.
- deanclatworthy 9y ago0ad is great. I play it quite often with colleagues after work. That said, the pace of development is very slow, path-finding is pretty broke for the majority of formations and it can get very slow when dealing with the formation animations. Some of the core maps are fundamentally broken also (siege weapons and elephants can't fit through the mountains on one map making it almost impossible to win).
- yskchu 9y agoSigned up more than a month ago (24 June), did the survey, but still no reply. Don't think they're giving out any more beta keys... :(
- frik 9y agoNo interest in UWP. Period. Release it Steam, or it never happened.
- terrywang 9y agoStarCraft Remastered and Age of Empires: Definitive Edition, wow. Feast for classic game players. I played both when they were released, I prefer StarCraft due to its perfect gameplay (multiplayer), competitiveness/balance, it's the real king of RTS. However, Age of Empires is also great with different flavours. BTW: I've already pre-purchased StarCraft Remastered and can't wait to see it released on 14 August ;-)
- brooksbp 9y agowoot!
- erikb 9y agoThe work is very impressive and the following statement should in no way diminish that. Maybe because I grew up with it, but I love the 2D pixelated version of most old school RTS and grand strategy games. I can't explain why but it feels like how RTS ought to be. Bird view with 3D HD rendered bodies always feels like wasting electricity and meaningless graphics card deterioration.
- theon144 9y agoHonestly, it also looks a lot better in my opinion. The 3D version is for lack of a better word more "computer-y" and cheap, its shortcomings are visually jarring and it doesn't really fail gracefully at all. It almost looks like those shitty games from banner ads. The 2D version in comparison is much more pleasing to look at, it has the feel of old-school hand-drawn animated movies. I know they said its not the final version of the art, but I think my gripes are not just about models and lightning or what have you. It's AoE, I don't need or want photorealism!
- erikb 9y agoMaybe, however let me disagree a little with that. It's not the same level of pain as Warcraft 3 and games from this timeframe where they started to do 3D without actually having the power to do it right yet. I'd say this AoE 3D version looks a lot more pleasing to the eye.
- torrent-of-ions 9y agoFunny thing is the version of AoE that I have in my memory from the 90s actually looks like the new version show here. Back then it was super HD (and did waste electricity and meaninglessly burn CPU cycles). I don't understand people who go back and play the original games from their childhood. The version of those games in my memory is so much greater and if I actually see the originals again I'm thoroughly disappointed.
- lawless123 9y agoI think that has something to do with them originally being played on CRTs, the colour just looked better to me.
- baalimago 9y agohttp://imagizer.imageshack.com/img922/4633/VVWcoQ.png http://imagizer.imageshack.com/img922/4633/VVWcoQ.png Bullies..!
- puranjay 9y agoI've waited for this game for a long, long time. AoE was one of the first PC games I played. I've lost hundreds of hours on it. I attribute all my love of history to Ensemble Studios.
- regularfry 9y agoAoE2 was where I picked up the "turn up where they don't expect" tactic: you can just drop a town center anywhere, so slowly building to a crushing blow from an unexpected direction, while simultaneously not dying when your opponent thinks you should, works spectacularly well. Turns out this is an extremely valuable life lesson. This tactic was totally broken in AoM, where they forced town center locations (I presume intentionally, for this reason). I hated it.
- paulmd 9y agoSpeaking of dropping a town center anywhere... the Persians get a civ advantage of a double-HP town center, which makes it a viable strategy to use your town center in a tower rush (aka the "Persian Douche" strategy). It's very aggressive and can put an opponent off-balance because they don't expect you to be up in their face in the Dark Ages, but the downside is that if it doesn't work you're stuck with a massive research and economic disadvantage. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4DF099-DNo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4DF099-DNo (and here it is defended successfully: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcVTHFBeXM4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcVTHFBeXM4 ) Apropos of nothing: I am not really into the whole "watching people stream video gamess" thing for the most part but I recently discovered that I do enjoy a lot of this guy's AOE2 videos. There's a lot going on in high-level AOE2 play and it's really nice to have someone who knows what they're doing breaking it down for you. Also, shameless plug for youtube-dl, it's really nice to pull them down and watch them in a local video player instead of streaming them directly.
- _kyran 9y agoI received my copy in a packet of Nutri-Grain (a breakfast cereal). In hindsight it must have been a freemium/demo version but it didn't stop me playing it for hours on end.
- dewey 9y agoNot exactly related to the definitive edition but that's a really nice podcast episode about how the reviving of the old Age of Empires games started, how it was to work with the original developers at Microsoft and why 2D still looks so much better than 3D games from that time. I really recommend it! https://www.hanselminutes.com/568/forgotten-empires-amazing-games-age-of-empires-is-back-with-bert-beeckman https://www.hanselminutes.com/568/forgotten-empires-amazing-...
- jelv 9y agoIt's a great episode, thanks for the link. However the podcast is from before the AoE1 remake announcement. It's about the AoE2 remake. Forgotten Empires were a bunch of fan modders that made an unofficial expansion in 2012. In 2013 Microsoft relaunched AoE2 HD and Forgotten Empires got to release there fan expansion into an official expansion. Forgotten Empires, now LLC, hired Matt Pritchard and Rich Geldreich from Ensemble Studios fame and they are now the developers of the AoE1 remake. Such a great story :) http://www.forgottenempires.net/former-ensemble-studios-lead-engineers-join-fe-team http://www.forgottenempires.net/former-ensemble-studios-lead...
- keerthiko 9y agoWhile the nostalgia is nice with the BW remaster, Homeworld remaster, AOE 2 HD, and now AOE Definitive, I wish there were more AAA RTS titles coming out at the same rate MOBAs or FPSs come out. It's often considered a dying genre, and we're not inducting new players into it because there aren't enough modern options out there for people to branch out and explore. It's all stuff that 25+ year old gamers remember playing as kids, and get a kick out of being pretty elitist about one of the hardest genres of games. It makes me quite sad, not only as a long-time gamer fan of RTS, but as a game developer who believes it's a genre with a lot of room for innovative and exciting mechanics which aren't being explored because the player-base is shrinking. At least we got Deserts of Kharak recently which was a really good title. I still play StarCraft 2 because it's the only RTS with an active online multiplayer community, but I would love for there to be regular and more RTS titles coming onto the scene.
- nol13 9y agoopenra servers are decently active
- retromario 9y agoCheck out Tooth and Tail (http://www.toothandtailgame.com/ http://www.toothandtailgame.com/), it's an indie-made RTS with high production values.
- Zeustastic 9y agoAfter a long period of no gaming, I bought a gaming pc last year and the only thing I have played so far is AoE 2 (: Looking forward to this edition!
- mschuster91 9y agoThe most important question: will it carry Big Daddy and the other cheat units?! (see e.g. http://www.mogelpower.de/cheats/Age-of-Empires_PC_32.html http://www.mogelpower.de/cheats/Age-of-Empires_PC_32.html)
- B1narySunset 9y agoI really wish they would make a proper remaster of Age of Empires II. The HD edition doesn't cut it.