I do know a man whose solely recreation is Age of Empires 2. He’s been taking part in it for about 25 years. He does not have a gaming PC, does not have a wider curiosity in gaming, and after I as soon as talked about Age of Empires 3 he mentioned “oh yeah I heard they made one other one” and that was the top of the dialog.
AoE 2 followers do be like that: Why trouble with one other videogame when perfection has already been achieved? And the venerable 26 year-old technique title continues to have an unimaginable afterlife, enabled partly by 2019’s Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition, and issues are actually not slowing down.
The newest patch notes for AoE 2: DE are among the many most gargantuan I’ve ever seen. The builders themselves admit they’re “legendarily lengthy”, however the “cherry on prime” is that they’re going to quickly be “releasing one of many greatest updates Age 2: DE has ever had!”
How lengthy? They simply maintain going, and the one manner I might consider to summarise was to focus on the entire thing and do a phrase rely: 8229 phrases. So let’s roll. The subsequent replace will arrive “mid-April,” and the headline options are as follows:
- Bug fixes primarily based in your suggestions!
- New Visuals for Castles, Elite Unique Units, Monks and Monasteries!
- Technology Tree UI updates!
- Balance adjustments!
- New Maps!
- New options and content material to help:
- Random Map Scripting
- Scenario Editor
- Modding
We then go into a complete host of bug fixes and settings tweaks. The visible overhauls introduce 25 new citadel visuals throughout civilisations, and each elite distinctive unit now has totally different visuals in comparison with their non-upgraded counterparts: “With Teutonic Knight helmet crests, Samurai banners, or Janissary hats, defeat your opponents with extra fashion than ever.”
There’s a bunch of animation enhancements throughout all models, together with improved syncing of the animations and assaults themselves, together with new assault animations for infantry that might be randomly shuffled with the prevailing ones. The know-how tree structure has been reorganised “for higher readability and extra environment friendly use of area,” with up to date wording and higher descriptions, and there is new choices from the primary menu to go straight into the editor and different options.
Pathfinding tweaks and new attributes jostle for consideration amongst unit fixes, together with the amusing “Sheep and Turkeys can not obtain unintentional pace increase after ungarrisoning from gurjara Mills.”
There’s a completely large listing of steadiness adjustments to particular person models, which for everybody’s sanity I’m simply going to hyperlink reasonably than reproducing, after which we return to the massive theme of those patch notes, which is China.
A brand new state of affairs, “Xie An”, is free for all house owners of the Victors and Vanquished enlargement, wherein “the Xie clan defends the Fei River from the northern warlord Fu Jian who has designs to beat all of China.” This will allow you to infiltrate enemy camps with spies, bribe enemy generals, fund a riot, “and even misdirect the enemy military” along with your crafty methods.
“The Chinese at the moment are listed as an Archer and Gunpowder civilization and are receiving a large replace to their models and bonuses” say the notes, adopted by a listing of latest additions and civilisation bonuses. Developer World’s Edge is in tease mode in regards to the recreation’s subsequent enlargement and, given the main target right here, betting on historical China could be smart.
There are then actually a whole bunch of phrases on adjustments to herdable animals (please do not ask), and huntable animals, whereas within the Northern Isles the devs have “mounted boars typically failing to generate.” Forest spacing and the quantity of water on maps now scales extra appropriately, relics are distributed extra evenly, there are much less inaccessible areas, and oysters will not block shore fish from spawning, which was apparently a factor.
There are a complete bunch of latest timber, amongst which Sinophiles might word the Lush Bamboo,
Asian Pine, Peach Blossom, and Asian Maple. There’s additionally a “Panda Rock” which is a rock that pandas wish to climb on. There’s additionally a brand new fowl, the Red Crowned Crane, which is typically referred to as the Manchurian crane. And a brand new map: Great Wall.
“It’s been a minute since we’ve offered some ideas and teasers towards the whole lot that’s taking place with Age 2: DE, and the final time we did we had been in the midst of launching Chronicles: Battle for Greece,” writes World’s Edge.
Watch On
“But let’s not bury the lede… For anybody that was questioning after we’d be again with one thing new for our aggressive gamers, that is our love letter to you. We needed to provide you a while to digest all of it and get hyped whereas we end up the work on considered one of our greatest updates ever!
“We additionally talked about that there’s an thrilling new enlargement coming to Age 2: DE! We even offered a few pictures to provide you a chance to sleuth and debate what we’re cooking up. It’s been enjoyable for us to see what everyone is guessing at! We’re not but able to share the total particulars, so maintain your eyes peeled for a future announcement with a whole breakdown of the whole lot included within the new enlargement.”
China. It’s China.
“The subsequent enlargement for Age 2: DE will embody FIVE model NEW Civs, all playable in Ranked Multiplayer. Yes, you learn that appropriately. Five! Is that each one the DLC consists of? Nope. We’ll be following up quickly with extra particulars […] it’s our absolute privilege and pleasure to have the ability to develop this recreation and franchise for you! We adore it as a lot as you do, and we’re glad you’re right here!”
Needless to say the dev staff indicators off in the one manner you are legally allowed to finish AoE 2 patch notes: “Wololo!”
Suffice to say that AoE 2 followers are cock-a-hoop about this replace, with some declaring it “the very best replace ever” and others reaching for the phrase “absolute cinema.” Developers Forgotten Empires and World’s Edge have set a rip-roaring tempo of expansions for the Definitive Edition, with six launched thus far (together with 2023’s Return of Rome, which introduced over each civilization from the unique AoE).
PCG’s technique king Fraser Brown says that although the Definitive Edition “wavers between remaster and remake” it is “the very best model of the very best Age of Empires recreation by a large margin.” And an unimaginable 26 years after the unique launch, it simply one way or the other retains getting higher.
