Ok so, we were all disappointed that AoE2 HD brought nothing new to the table, and because it is laggy as hell, and some animations are even broken, but the game still is somehow popular so since Hidden Path were clearly not the guys to go ahead and properly change the game they gave it to someone who can, a team that worked on RTS games before, SkyBox Labs.
Let me highlight some important stuff from that post...
"I’m proud today to announce that we’ve been working with SkyBox Labs to ensure that AOE II HD’s future is brighter than ever."
"we are thrilled to announce a new partnership with the team behind the community driven Forgotten Empires project."
"Working with the FE team will allow us to focus on improving what the community has been deemed most important over the years!"
"Throughout the summer we’ll be providing a series of patches to the core title to continue improving the game, fix bugs, improve performance, and more."
And some nice recent changes...
"Maximum unit selection increased from 40 to 200. Internal game’s frame rate is no longer forced at 20 frames per second."
So yes, things look extremely well for the Age of Empires franchise once again. I hope we will get the AoE2 game we all dream of!
Who knows, maybe they'll even bring LAN back...
"In Age of Empires II: HD Edition, fans of the original game and new players alike will fall in love with the classic Age of Empires II experience. Explore all the original single player campaigns from both Age of Kings and The Conquerors expansion, choose from 18 civilizations spanning over a thousand years of history, and head online to challenge other Steam players in your quest for world domination throughout the ages. Originally developed by Ensemble Studios and reimagined in high definition by Hidden Path Entertainment, Microsoft Studios is proud to bring Age of Empires II: HD Edition to Steam!"
"So what will this include? The original AOE II: The Age of Kings and The Conquerors expansion, all remastered in HD by Hidden Path. This will enable 1080p+ resolutions, and also include enhanced textures, lighting, and water and fire effects. As a Steam exclusive release, it will incorporate Steamworks, and have achievements, leaderboards, matchmaking, and the ability to save to the cloud. Steam Workshop support will also be included, enabling sharing of mods and user-created content for the game."
I think we all feel the same way, amazed and very happy. Most of us here played the classic and beautiful AoE2 and know it has unmatched gameplay.
Maybe a completely new AoE game would have been better, but since the AoE franchise seemed dead once again with development on AoE Online being stopped, this is better than nothing. This re-release of AoE2 will surely be successful and will show Microsoft how loved this franchise still is if they get it right.
I still have a few problems with AoE2 though, such as civilizations uniqueness. For example, Aztecs and Japanese have an European techtree with just 1 or 2 unique, specific units... This is silly and disrespectful compared to something like AoE3 but what can you do.
Even so, it is a great game and the competitive player base might grow into something huge. Who knows.
