Over the last 20 years, these epoch-spanning games have starred more than 50 historical civilizations, sales have surpassed more than 20 million units, and a core fanbase of hundreds of thousands has put hours upon hours into playing one series entry or another on a weekly basis. Age of Empires is one of the most influential strategy games of all time. And far from fading into obscurity, as history is wont to do, Empires is now squarely back in the (games-playing) public consciousness.
[...] I spoke to several of the two dozen or so people who worked on the original Age of Empires about how it was made. I asked them to reflect on the series' triumphs, successes, failures, and legacy. This is a compressed retelling of their many stories, focusing on the early days—the building of the foundations that are so central to both the Age story and each of the Age games—but spanning the full breadth of the series' life
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/01/the-age-of-age-of-empires-as-told-by-the-devs-who-built-it/
Long read.
Related: Age of Empires: Definitive Edition adds 4K Resolution, Zoom Levels, Remastered Soundtrack
Microsoft Announces Age of Empires IV
Related Stories
A remastered version of Age of Empires is being released for the game's 20th anniversary:
Microsoft is updating the game for 2017 with a modernized interface and gameplay refinements. In addition, said Isgreen, "We've re-orchestrated and re-recorded the entire soundtrack to the game" with a symphony. Multiplayer will be available via Xbox Live. Microsoft previously remastered 1999's Age of Empires 2 — that upgrade, Age of Empires 2 HD, was released in 2013 on Steam. Forgotten Empires, the studio that developed Age of Empires 2 HD, is also making the Definitive Edition of Age of Empires.
Also at VentureBeat and PC Gamer.
Microsoft has announced a new title in the Age of Empires series, as well as "Definitive" editions for some of the existing games:
A new of Age of Empires is in the works. Microsoft introduced a teaser trailer for the game, and announced that Relic Entertainment was tasked with developing the next installment in the real-time strategy series.
The short announcement trailer didn't reveal any gameplay, with the studio opting instead to show artwork, but it did provide us with some information. Whereas previous games in the series focused on a small portion in history, Age of Empires IV seems to encompass multiple time periods. We saw the pinnacle of the Roman Empire, Native Americans charging toward battle, the banners of multiple Japanese clans during the Warring States period, and British redcoats ready to fire at a target.
[...] Microsoft also announced that its previously revealed Age of Empires: Definitive Edition has a release date of October 19, and it didn't stop there. The company also said that it will give the "Definitive Edition" treatment to Age of Empires II and III, and more news on those titles is coming in the future.
Age of Empires II (the best one) needs a "Definitive Edition" to fix more bugs.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by nitehawk214 on Tuesday January 09 2018, @07:07PM
Change site from red to green.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 1, Troll) by Crash on Tuesday January 09 2018, @07:40PM (9 children)
AoE was shit. WarCraft defined the genre, with unique units and easily discernible buildings. AoE was muddled browns with crap graphics that required clicking on every building again and again just to figure out what it was.
WarCraft: 1994
AoE: 1997
StarCraft: 1998
At some point AoE became half-decent, maybe by the time WarCraft 3 came out.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by DECbot on Tuesday January 09 2018, @09:36PM (3 children)
AoE distinguished itself by having multiple factions, broader resource selection, troop formations, espionage/sabotage, age development mechanics, and the world wonders. To me, it felt like a RTS of Civilization. As for RTS mechanics, yes, it was an iterative advancement over WarCraft 2 and yes, the graphics are not a strong point of AoE, but what games do you replay solely because the graphics were awesome?
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 1) by Crash on Tuesday January 09 2018, @10:42PM (2 children)
Even Dune 2000 played better than AoE -- as you could tell apart the various units and buildings at a glance. YMMV.
I don't replay any game because the graphics were awesome. My favorites being,
CIV IV, Dune 2000, Dark Sun: Shattered Lands, Dungeon Siege I & II, Final Fantasy Tactics, Hexen, King of Dragon Pass, Pool of Radiance, Rise of Nations, Saints Row 3, Titan Quest, Tropico 3|4, Warlords 2 & 3, WarCraft II, StarCraft, plus a couple I've likely forgotten - cuz I'm old.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday January 09 2018, @11:03PM
I'm pretty sure an experienced AOE player can tell the units apart. Playing many hours of LAN multiplayer certainly helped.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 10 2018, @02:51AM
Damn, now I feel like replaying Dungeon siege 1..and 2.
Pity I don't run Windows at all anymore
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 09 2018, @09:55PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_2 [wikipedia.org] is where all the excitement is at!
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday January 09 2018, @10:00PM (1 child)
The article is mostly about AOE1, but also discusses AOE2, Age of Mythology, and AOE3.
AOE2 has aged really well and been improved by 3 modern expansions. Age of Mythology has a new expansion I haven't played yet that adds Chinese Gods. But I did like the game and its graphics hold up. I played AOE3 but didn't really get into it. And now an AOE4 has been announced as well as more definitive editions.
It's hard to beat Starcraft though.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Crash on Tuesday January 09 2018, @10:51PM
I picked up AoE II HD, AoE III Complete, and Age of Mythology, on July.04th 2016... haven't found the time nor inclination to play them yet though heh. Such as it goes with huge swaths of one's Steam and GOG libraries.
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Wednesday January 10 2018, @08:59AM (1 child)
Another one for your list:
Total Annihilation: 1997
I haven't had much experience with WarCraft et.al, but TA definitely beats the AoE series in my book.
(Score: 1) by Crash on Wednesday January 10 2018, @05:33PM
Total Annihilation (by CaveDog) was why I even heard about Dungeon Siege (by Gas Powered Games),
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Annihilation [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 09 2018, @09:02PM
There's maybe one ok story in the 4-pagelet-chunked article.
Basically: they had everyone including artists playtest every single day once, with a suitable 'watcher'.
Vote: bad, would have preferred a one line 'hey cool story bro, did you know one of the AoEs they had every single person from artist to dev to managers playtest every single day? What a way to collaborate!'
(Score: 4, Interesting) by richtopia on Tuesday January 09 2018, @09:05PM (1 child)
I cannot find the specific article I remember, but the development of the Forgotten mod and the evolution to the re-release of Age of Empires II on steam is really inspirational. The quick version is that modders struggled to add new content to the game and found some clever tricks to make it happen. The mod they were working on was just finishing when Microsoft was moving to launch AOE2HD on Steam, and the modders contacted Microsoft to implement the mod. Now this content is modern expansion packs for a game made in 1999, and the community has really had a renaissance.
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/12/28/age-of-empires-2-forgotten-empires/ [rockpapershotgun.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Tuesday January 09 2018, @09:51PM
AOE2 multiplayer was fun back in the day and the game was about as good as it never needed to be (in terms of subtle improvements over AOE1, like the ability to walk over farms).
The new expansions are pretty good but there are some bad bugs remaining. The late game performance is too slow on my 2011 machine and the AI makes some dumb choices in the late game that seem to have lowered their difficulty. Land units can get stuck on the edge of water and vice versa. Little annoyances. These could be addressed with a "Definitive Edition" though [soylentnews.org].
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]