Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition (AKA AoE2 HD HD)

[Infinitron]

https://www.ageofempires.com/games/aoeiide/

Spoiler

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Your userbase might be full of retards if you can print money by repeatedly re-releasing the same game with a slightly different title.

 

[LESS T_T]

 

[LESS T_T]

$5 discount for the existing owners on Steam: https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2019/06...edition-launching-fall-2019-beta-coming-soon/

E3 2019: Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition Launching Fall 2019, Beta Coming Soon

Today, we’re thrilled to share that Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition is coming to Xbox Game Pass for PC, the Microsoft Store and Steam fall 2019 and will support cross-play between Windows 10 and Steam players at launch. Age of Empires II is one of the most beloved strategy games over the past 20 years, and we were driven to to create an experience that will be loved by our most loyal PC players and those joining for the franchise for the first time.

Developed by Forgotten Empires, Tantalus, and Wicked Witch, Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition includes entirely new content and many exciting gameplay improvements. This edition contains all previously released Age of Empires II content, as well as brand new civilizations, additional campaign missions, new graphics that support up to 4K resolution and Xbox Live support for multiplayer, including all-new achievements. Not to mention, the edition features quality-of-life upgrades such as automatic farm reseeding to take the game you already know and love to the next level. Exciting new features include:

• The Last Khans campaign: Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition includes brand-new content, “The Last Khans” with three new campaigns and four new civilizations.
• New civilizations: Four new civilizations are being added exclusively to Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition: the Bulgarians, Cumans, Lithuanians and Tatars, bringing the total number of civilizations in the game to 35.
• New spectator mode and tournament features: Players will be able to spectate multiplayer games in real time and switch between each player’s view, with overlay UI on top to give spectators information on different players’ status.

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition will cost $19.99 USD for new players and $14.99 USD for existing Steam owners of Age of Empires II: HD Edition. Additionally, Xbox Game Pass for PC members will be able to purchase Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition to own on the Microsoft Store for a discounted price of $14.99 USD.

We’re so honored and grateful to the Age of Empires community for their valuable feedback and insights that have helped us bring the Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition to life. As part of our dedication to the community and the past, present and future of the Age franchise, we’re also happy to share that Age of Empires: Definitive Edition will be available on Steam this August and will support cross-play with Windows 10. We are excited to bring the community on our new journey and can’t wait to share more on what’s next with titles like Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition and Age of Empires IV.

Check out the trailer above for what’s to come in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, and sign up for the closed beta at www.ageofempires.com which starts soon! We hope you enjoy playing this new definitive remaster as much as we enjoyed creating it for you.

Also now they have dedicated Age of Empires studio under Xbox Game Studios:



Involvement of Relic and Forgotten Empires seems to be not changed for now:

 

[Shrimp]

Unless the cross-play also covers the existing HD edition on Steam I can only imagine this'll divide the online playerbase which is already split between Steam and Voobly. I know several people who have expressed interest in the DE solely due to the graphical improvement which, while admittedly being pretty, doesn't fix the HD version's biggest weakness: pathfinding. It's beyond my understanding how my original CD version of the game still manages to have better pathing than the HD version despite the latter having gone through iinnumerable patches and attempts to fix it.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

So I assume all the extra civs from the semi-official HD addons are not in for this, right?

 

[Black Angel]

• The Last Khans campaign: Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition includes brand-new content, “The Last Khans” with three new campaigns and four new civilizations.
• New civilizations: Four new civilizations are being added exclusively to Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition: the Bulgarians, Cumans, Lithuanians and Tatars, bringing the total number of civilizations in the game to 35.
• New spectator mode and tournament features: Players will be able to spectate multiplayer games in real time and switch between each player’s view, with overlay UI on top to give spectators information on different players’ status.

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition will cost $19.99 USD for new players and $14.99 USD for existing Steam owners of Age of Empires II: HD Edition. Additionally, Xbox Game Pass for PC members will be able to purchase Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition to own on the Microsoft Store for a discounted price of $14.99 USD.

Three new campaigns and four new civilizations, plus a spectate mode, for 15 bucks?

I don't know what's its price on release, but The Forgotten DLC for AoE2HD, which adds seven new campaigns and five new civilizations is now worth, what, 10 bucks? if I convert it back to USD from my regional pricing. Seems like a shitty deal to pay 15 bucks for an 'upgrade', especially since it's not clear that the semi-official HD addons will be in or not.

 

[d1r]

Will it have a working mp mode this time around?

 

[Shrimp]

So I assume all the extra civs from the semi-official HD addons are not in for this, right?

"This edition contains all previously released Age of Empires II content"
I'm assuming it'll have the three expansions released for AOE2: HD

 

[Maggot]

 

[Shrimp]

Did they change the music as well?

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Shrimp]

New gameplay footage:


List of new features according to a thread on Reddit:

• All new features are toggleable if you want the old school experience.
• No "old school graphics mode", but you can disable a lot of the new features (can even play with the old original AoK AI if you want to)
• Tutorial scenarios for multiplayer techniques and strategies, boar luring and fast castle given as examples.
• Global queue that's visible on the UI. When selecting a building (or several) that's creating something you can see the progress as a second "health bar" kind of thing.
• Command queueing (villager shown to first build then mine gold when he's done).
• Cuman UU is called Keshik.
• Camel was renamed Camel Rider.
• Fourth trainable unit in stable (for Cumans at least). Not sure if icon was the same as Keshik but don't think so. Possibly shared between the Central Asian civs or a second UU?
• Auto renew farms
• When selecting your army, if you include villagers/sheeps by mistake, the game understands that and will only select the army, excluding the vills/sheeps.
• When selecting a building, you can see the progress bar above it showing the unit creation progress.
• You can also see what buildings are creating units right on the top of the screen (it shows the unit icon + a progress bar, clicking on it goes to the building that is creating the unit)
• You can zoom in and zoom out, however they didn't show how much they could zoom out.

 

[Maggot]

Command queueing (villager shown to first build then mine gold when he's done).

FINALLY after all these years they will match blizzard functionality.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Dunno what the point of an old-school graphics feature would be here since it's the same sprites but in higher resolution.

You know what would be a kick-ass feature tho? Something like the various mods that increase the number of civilization (or well, civilization group really) sprite variants. One of those mods on the HD edition really added to the aesthetic when it gave Asians more appropriate pikemen et al. This is also something where a bigger remaster could help too, since apparently the one unit where this can't be done is the villagers, and I'd love me some more varied villagers.

 

[Shrimp]

I doubt they'd want to modify the sprites aside from giving them a HD repaint, but as long as there's even a basic level of mod support it should be easy for the community to go nuts with new unit and building models. I know there's a building pack that features unique buildings for all of the civilisations while still making them immediately identifiable. It's pretty well made tbh

 

[Young_Hollow]

lol more watering down of micro is what this is. I'm looking forward to it though because they might finally get it right after 15 years. It'll include all 30 something civs for $15/20 so pricing at least is a win. Now if they fixed the lagging, dropping, synch issues, lack of dedicated servers, sound bugs, campaign bugs and balance, they'll finally be able to get their hands off of it, which is what is needed for it to grow properly in modding and competitive.

 

[Maggot]

not having to constantly babysit villagers with basic shit added in almost every RTS since the '90s = dumbing down
ok retard
i do agree that if they don't fix the game's shitty netcode it's not worth buying

 

[fantadomat]

It seems that there will be Bulgarian nation in it,it could even be campaign.

 

[Shrimp]

It seems that there will be Bulgarian nation in it,it could even be campaign.

We already know the DE will contain four new civilisations: the Bulgarians, Cumans, Lithuanians and Tatars. Given that there's supposed to be a 'The Last Khans' campaign, I'm guessing there will be four separate campaigns for each of the four new civs as well.

 

[fantadomat]

Fuck it will be win10 exclusive,thus won't touch it till it gets changed for win7 or there is a new windows that is not shit.....maybe in a few decades.

 

[L'ennui]

I didn't know anti-Windows 10 autists were still a thing. Huh.

 

[Tiger]

I didn't know anti-Windows 10 autists were still a thing. Huh.

There will always be dumbfucks in the world.

 

[fantadomat]

I didn't know anti-Windows 10 autists were still a thing. Huh.

There will always be dumbfucks in the world.

Eat shit you sheeple retards. You are free to you use what ever shitty spyware you want,when you try to push it on to me we have a big problem. W10 is inferior in times compared to W7,you must be truly retarded to not know that shit,most likely some boxed wage slaves using what ever the corp tells them to. Ahhh can't stand slimes like you,begone from mi sight.!.

 

[Mustawd]

I didn't know anti-Windows 10 autists were still a thing. Huh.

There will always be dumbfucks in the world.

Eat shit you sheeple retards. You are free to you use what ever shitty spyware you want,when you try to push it on to me we have a big problem. W10 is inferior in times compared to W7,you must be truly retarded to not know that shit,most likely some boxed wage slaves using what ever the corp tells them to. Ahhh can't stand slimes like you,begone from mi sight.!.

Win10 is great. What are you even REEEEing about?