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Age of Empires II HD

WigglesWiggles Member Posts: 571
Looking for some people that want to play the new Age of Empires II re-release that just came out on Steam. (Or released soon that is). I haven't played in awhile and I've never played it multiplayer. Let me know on here and I'll message ya. Thanks.

Comments

  • ajwzajwz Member Posts: 4,122
    It doesn't look all that HD. The improved functionality, particularly in multiplayer should be good though.
  • State_LemmingState_Lemming Member Posts: 375
    It has been awhile since I played it but it doesn't look all that different than I remember. I'll pick it up when it goes on sale though.
  • KingGhidorahKingGhidorah Member Posts: 201
    Too bad its not AoE 1... Shang victory!
  • WigglesWiggles Member Posts: 571
    @KingGhidorah

    Too bad its not AoE 1... Shang victory!

    This.

    If that was the case, then it'd be close if the BG:EE trilogy or AoE 1 would hold my attention. XD
  • elminsterelminster Member, Developer Posts: 16,317
    Its alright. Nothing special. I like the fact that steam workshop works with it though. That is probably my favourite feature at the moment.

  • State_LemmingState_Lemming Member Posts: 375
    HD is probably an overstatement, it feels more like a version GOG would release, and not for $20.

    Maybe it'll get one of those -75% of sales, that would be very appealing.
  • elminsterelminster Member, Developer Posts: 16,317
    Apparently they are releasing an age of mythology "extended" edition.
  • Troodon80Troodon80 Member, Developer Posts: 4,110
    Eh, I still have lag (jumpiness/latency when scrolling) on Age of Empire II: HD when using a GTX690, which is utterly ridiculous, I think I'll skip this 'extended' Age of Mythology.
  • CrevsDaakCrevsDaak Member Posts: 7,155
    elminster said:

    Apparently they are releasing an age of mythology "extended" edition.

    I still have the original one for Mac and it runs very well, no reason to get it another time, it will probably require a better graphic card -which I don't have- and that makes me say no.
    What I should do is try if it runs in 1.7.5, I haven't tried it nice I updated and some games don't work anymore (Worms 3D for example).
  • elminsterelminster Member, Developer Posts: 16,317
    edited April 2014
    Actually it looks like the graphic improvements will be minor. Basically they aren't even adding a new campaign (the third campaign they advertise has been available as a seperate download since 2003). Pretty weak imo considering they are expecting a regular price of $30 for it (when you can buy the cd version online that works fine on windows 7/8).
  • elminsterelminster Member, Developer Posts: 16,317
    Personally I didn't have any problems with AOE2HD but I really only bought it because I found AOE2 had issues playing on a few of my modern systems. So between that and the mods it made some sense to purchase it. I even bought the DLC, only to find (in my opinion) that it was worse than a lot of the better user campaigns/scenarios (especially since it had no voiceover).
  • elminsterelminster Member, Developer Posts: 16,317
    edited April 2014
    But hey anyone looking at AOMEE should bask in the fact that it has trading cards and achievements!

    I'd be lying if I said that I didn't have a facepalm moment when I saw that being the two final improvements mentioned in the trailer. As if somehow this is improving the game.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMLOh_8Vlj4

    So I guess on a plus side AOE2HD was saved this feature?

    Nope, I'm wrong they added them in post-release. Sigh...
  • Troodon80Troodon80 Member, Developer Posts: 4,110
    bengoshi said:

    As soon as I saw the price of AoE2 HD and read about "improvements" I realized that the prices of BG:EE and BG2:EE are more than valid taking into account the number of enhancements.

    I made a comparison to this some months back. The only enhancement I like about AoE2 HD over BG:EE and BG2:EE is the water effects. Unfortunately, a similar thing is out of the reach of the Enhanced Editions.

    And I also got the Forgotten (something something, I can't remember what it's called and can't be bothered to even investigate), and, sure enough, it is sub-par when compared to the actual core game or user created content. In a way, similar to what people say about Beamdog's new NPCs for BG[2]:EE. The comparison falls a bit short there since the extras in BG:EE and BG2:EE were included in the price, whereas the AoE2 HD DLC was extra, and I'm honestly regretting paying the pittance for it. Apart from the new content, improved water visuals, and a new farm texture, I haven't noticed the new 'HD' textures that everyone else is talking about so I must be looking in all the wrong places. To my knowledge, they didn't even add the ability to build 'water walls' and 'water gates' as seen in the Huns' campaign. Unlike 'The Conquerors' expansion way back, the DLC for AoE2 HD doesn't merge nearly as well, and I think it only detracts from its playability. I'm sure there's probably a multiplayer reason for not allowing content to interact with the core game (those who don't own it shouldn't be able to play against people who do have the DLC content, because locally the content will not exist and may cause instability).

    The thing is, because the original AoE2 supports a higher resolution than Baldur's Gate did, I can use that much better than the remake. No mods are required, the same cannot be said for BG. If mods were required for AoE2 in order to make it run with some form of stability and with a better resolution, I would probably change over to AoE2 HD.

    Quoted from a single metacritic critic review rating of 1, from Games.cz:
    For youngsters it's oddly out of date, for the old stickers it's far from the original. This is how the HD edition of the legendary strategy game Age of Empires II has turned out. From one golden legacy to just broken pieces. Hopefully, its community will put it together.
    I agree that it was broken just after release and, with a similar time-scale to Beamdog, the game has improved since then. Unfortunately, for me, it's just not enough that the game will not run smoothly on a machine that had an irresponsibly large amount of money thrown into it. It's unfathomable. But I do respect that there are those who didn't have any issues with it. I didn't have many issues with BG:EE while others had major issues. Hopefully, with time, AoE2 HD will become a bit better.
    elminster said:

    But hey anyone looking at AOMEE should bask in the fact that it has trading cards and achievements!

    I'd be lying if I said that I didn't have a facepalm moment when I saw that being the two final improvements mentioned in the trailer. As if somehow this is improving the game.

    So I guess on a plus side AOE2HD was saved this feature?

    Nope, I'm wrong they added them in post-release. Sigh...

    I utterly abhor the fact that this is a selling point. It's a bonus for some people, I'm sure, but it being a key selling point worthy of being included in a list of improvements is ridiculous. An achievement for what? Beating each of the main campaigns?

    The main achievement should be looking at the completion screen and seeing the timeline looking like a wedge shape.
  • elminsterelminster Member, Developer Posts: 16,317
    edited April 2014
    Man you have to really work for the AoE2HD achievements. Why, one of them is starting a random map. I'm not even kidding (which I suppose isn't surprising given the game has 259 of them).

    Its not even that I'm disappointed to see achievements because I dislike them entirely. But having looked over them for AOE2HD I just can't see microsoft coming out with good achievements. After all, you set the bar pretty low when you can earn an achievement just by starting a game!

    Defeating x enemies on x difficulty in x minutes, that to me is at least an achievement that pushes you to be better at the game (at least if its done as to create a challenge).

    "You've constructed 100 castles" or "you've constructed 1000 castles" (which are actual achievements) are not good achievements to me.
  • WigglesWiggles Member Posts: 571
    I still play it occasionally, but not like what I used to.

    AoM is better than AoE2:HD in my opinion even without the upgrade.
  • elminsterelminster Member, Developer Posts: 16,317
    Looks like they've also come out with a rise of nations EE. Same sort of thing. Some improved graphics, access to steamworks, achievements and trading cards.
  • CaloNordCaloNord Member Posts: 1,809
    I dunno, I was really sad it didn't have the old school LAN. My uncle, myself and our friends all got together on weekends for years to play AoE and AoE 2 on LAN. Just throw a copy on everyone's computer and your off, easy quick and a ton of fun. Everything's getting so expensive and complicated these days. So not a fan of Steam.
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