MS Announces AOE II HD

cherryghost

:eek::eek:

Did not see this coming!

Those epic battles between the Britons and Turks will now look better than ever with the announcement that Age of Empires II HD Edition will be coming to Steam on April 9th. The RTS classic has continued to have a strong following, even nearly 15 years after its initial release, so the announcement by Microsoft today is great to hear for many fans. With the original developer Ensemble Studios now defunct, Hidden Path Entertainment (Counter Strike: Global Offensive) has taken the helm on the remake.

Now go away, or I shall taunt you a second time!
According to Microsoft, Age of Empires II HD Edition has been remastered for high-resolution displays at 1080p, and includes an “enhanced visual engine” that improves textures for terrain, water and fire, and ambient lighting effects.
There are also Steamworks features for the remake, which adds achievements, leader-boards matchmaking, and cloud support. Gamers can also share user created content through the Steam Workshop.
Microsoft released minimum specs for the title as well:
Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 Pro
Steam Software Platform
900×600 minimum display resolution
Direct X 9 Capable GPU
1.2GHz CPU
1GB RAM
2GB HDD

Steam store page is here. Bit steep tbh. Might wait it out and see what people make of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_MEFt7KrxQ

TheChrisD

Too... much... nerdgasm...

This is an insta-buy from me (well, as insta as it takes me to top-up my PayPal to get Steam Wallet credit :P), I spent ages playing AoE2 on my old PC many years ago. Even better that it will be properly supported by modern computers, and all the additional benefits from Steam integration for multiplayer and Workshop mods are much appreciated. That's something EA never did with the C&C Ultimate Edition (as well as their crappy "Origin only" crap).

delta36

Hearing the initial music from the launch trailer brought me back to childhood. Very tempted to buy this, just for ease of playing and the multiplayer aspects.

MadYaker

Ooooh yeeesssssss. Will The Conquerors Expansion be available as well?? It better be.

delta36

MadYaker wrote: »

Ooooh yeeesssssss. Will The Conquerors Expansion be available as well?? It better be.

It's included in the package from what I've read.

I'm really hoping they've kept the voice chat messages that were in it originally. Won't be the same game otherwise.

cherryghost

No constant connection required for single player campaign. :rolleyes:

delta36

cherryghost wrote: »

No constant connection required for single player campaign. :rolleyes:

What?? That'll never catch on! :pac:

Angron

I'm getting this. There's no way I won't get this. I just really hope that Windows 7 issue of the grass being red for me doesn't show up again :pac:

Taylor365

The days on playing 4v4 death-matches via 56k because it timed out after 2 hours and normal games usually went longer

I used to play in the MSN Zone tournaments. Good old days

Risteard

Never used steam before but will definitely be getting this.

First got it when it came with our first computer. Spent hours/days at that game and I have never even played online!

RangeR

Lost half my life to this years ago. Insta Buy the II and III legacy bundle at lunch today on my android steam client. Downloading III now that I'm home.

cherryghost

Denny M wrote: »

I'm getting this. There's no way I won't get this. I just really hope that Windows 7 issue of the grass being red for me doesn't show up again :pac:

Well that's partly the idea for the release. Bring everything up to scratch, new textures, new multiplayer. Really cannot wait for it.

MadYaker

Price is a bit steep, but id say it will go very cheap in the steam summer sale.

Dermighty

I hated AOE 2, wont be buying this heap of ****!

cherryghost

Dermighty wrote: »

I hated AOE 2, wont be buying this heap of ****!

WAT. GET OUT.

The Pheasant

Aaaaaaand...yep. I think that this will be the final nail in the coffin for my leaving cert! Without a doubt gonna get this, never got to play online while it was popular because we didn't have Internet - this will be unreal

RoyalMarine

Dermighty wrote: »

I hated AOE 2, wont be buying this heap of ****!

:eek::eek:

The Pheasant wrote: »

Aaaaaaand...yep. I think that this will be the final nail in the coffin for my leaving cert! Without a doubt gonna get this, never got to play online while it was popular because we didn't have Internet - this will be unreal

be warned.....

I spent the best part of my youth playing this game!

Am I missing something about the price? I wouldn't consider €17.09 to be steep.

I think I might be getting this one. :pac:

RangeR

Karsini wrote: »

Am I missing something about the price? I wouldn't consider €17.09 to be steep.

I think I might be getting this one. :pac:

Agreed. Combine that with AOEIII. Bargain.

Dytalus

Yup, definitely will be getting this. Brings back memories of my early strategy days.

Lenmeister

Karsini wrote: »

Am I missing something about the price? I wouldn't consider €17.09 to be steep.

I think I might be getting this one. :pac:

I would considering the normal version is free. I wouldn't pay it. All the normal experts play it on Voobly, I doubt they will all change over to steam, especially of they don't already use steam.

cherryghost

An hour and a half of gameplay here

Pyr0

I can't wait for this release. I've played this online once.. We didn't have internet back when I played it as a kid

cherryghost

Got 11 other friends who have dived into the game. Thinking of having a launch day elimination tourney, maybe 2v2 teams. Anyone interested?

MadYaker

I would buy a t shirt with this on it

1ZRed

Furious the monkey boy FTW!

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

you could get that done up on a custom tshirt easy enough online

10-15 quid on a couple of sites I found with a quick google

http://i.imgur.com/TF4jOBo.png

looks pretty awesome

cherryghost

Game is now unlocked for those who preordered.

Amirani

Any initial thoughts? I'll like pick this up post-exams.

Gone West

Its fairly laggy, at least, the pre-release that I'm playing.
The game still runs at the speed of the slowest player, they didn't recode much really.
Still, not bad. I'm playing it on steam now, it's nice to have it on steam alright.

*edit: QUIT TOUCHIN ME!

DonkeyStyle \o/

Hmm, toying with the idea.
Can't be arsed with all the issues people are complaining about though.

cherryghost wrote: »

An hour and a half of gameplay here

Wow, I haven't watched gameplay of AOE2 in years, I forgot how much those sprites are burned into my brain. It's like suddenly remembering a past life. Freaky

TheChrisD

My experience with the game lag is that it seems to take a nose-dive whenever there's any text on the screen. This includes chat, tutorial/campaign notifications, or the on-screen scoreboard.

mad turnip

Well the classic and one of the most defining RTS's made a return this week in HD resolutions. Age of Empires age of kings, and the conquers expansion. Myself I've had some fps issues with my graphics card that are hopefully sorted soon. Is anyone else a big fan and interested in some games, maybe even in the old version.

I was at one point highly ranked on the AoE3 server during when I was doing my junior cert. So i'm hoping AoE2 is made competitive by the new developers.

SO is there any other ensemble studios fans out there?

Sierra Oscar

I actually started playing AoE 2 again recently a few months back. Was very enjoyable playing through the campaigns again, brought back a real sense of nostalgia. Ill definitely give the HD version a go, there were a few graphics issues when I was playing the base AoE 2 version - hopefully they will be sorted with the HD remake.

I never was huge into AoE 3, but I was a massive fan of Age of Mythology!

mad turnip

good to see I'm not the only one!

cherryghost

Threads merged

Turtwig

cherryghost wrote: »

Threads merged

Aww rats. I was hoping for a post on first impression or something.

mad turnip

there was no real need to merge the threads although maybe we will get more posts now

mad turnip

playneoncraft1 wrote: »

Never played this game. Looking forward to it by the screenshots.

your missing a hell of alot this game defined a generation

omicron

Wondering if anyone can help me with this . . .have never used steam before, so downloaded it yesterday and installed it. Now when I try to open it, I get a box saying ''updating steam'' first for a minute and then an error message saying I must first connect to the internet. My connection is fine, and steam support aren't being very helpful, any suggestions?

Lenmeister

Steam support as in SteamPowered? Ya they are absolutely terrible, they take weeks to get back you and the same again to fix your problem. Not sure what the problem is. Try reinstalling steam. I find googling the problem turns up lots of answers or random forums, go for that, you might find something. It could be a case of your pc being too slow and the thing timing out, though it's never happened to me, it does to some.

cherryghost

Horrendous lag playing 4v4 last night. 4 players vs 4 AI. Was unplayable for the last half hour.

Lenmeister

If they're friends from Ireland you should just host an IP game. That's what we do if voobly is down.

AirBiscuit

Runs terribly on my graphics card... What a shame.

Lenmeister

Well the problems just go on and on eh I'm glad I'm still playing on voobly. I've a tournament starting on the 26th too that I organised. 3v3 Full Random Maps Pick Civs. Should be fun

TheChrisD

Opted into the "performance" beta, oh thank christ can actually play the game now without the on-screen text causing massive slowdowns! It also increased the FPS cap from 60 to 200, not that that matters :P

AirBiscuit

TheChrisD wrote: »

Opted into the "performance" beta, oh thank christ can actually play the game now without the on-screen text causing massive slowdowns! It also increased the FPS cap from 60 to 200, not that that matters :P

Thanks for pointing that out, I didn't even know about it until now, now I can play fullscreen!

Eli Nich

I recently tried the so called HD version of AOE II, its only me not able to feel any difference? or everybody

mad turnip

Eli Nich wrote: »

I recently tried the so called HD version of AOE II, its only me not able to feel any difference? or everybody

Its not remastered, just in HD so the resolution can be put up much higher. All in all its not much different but I have a major fps issue with it .

Eli Nich

mad turnip wrote: »

Its not remastered, just in HD so the resolution can be put up much higher. All in all its not much different but I have a major fps issue with it .

Sad to hear you are lagging, it might be your gpu or something else is wrong.


Ontopic: Ah I got it, So did they waste their time, Becuase I personally dont think it help us with anything other then high resolutions

Micky Dolenz

Recently it starts to crash for me giving me this error: age of empires 2 expansion has stopped working. Windows will search for a solution etc etc.

It happens after about half an hour and I don't playing mutilplayer.

Any ideas for a fix?