Age of Empires II HD...Steam Exclusive...April 9th!

[heybtbm]

Holy crap...

http://youtu.be/q_MEFt7KrxQ

AoE2 is easily the game I've put the most hours into over my 30+ years of gaming. 2000 hours? 3000? I never kept track. I've installed it on every computer I've owned/built since it's release. I've kept up with all the current mods, etc.

I had no idea this was coming out. So cool.

[Tanooki]

Very cool, almost. It's on steam so it is front end DRM with that. That's a shame, if it was stand alone I'd buy it.

[Reganomics]

When I saw they wanted $20 for what is basically a quick .ini hack and a water mod, I was disappointed. The only good I can see in this HD re-release is the ability to download mods/maps from steam workshop easily.

[Trumpman]

Very cool, almost. It's on steam so it is front end DRM with that. That's a shame, if it was stand alone I'd buy it.

Your incessant whining about Steam is getting incredibly annoying. Steam has democratized gaming for many users with its low prices. Yes, it's DRM, but it's well-implemented DRM. The unified friends list, mod support, etc. has made PC gaming so much more enjoyable for many. If the tradeoff for incredibly cheap games and a community experience that is console-esque is that you have to run a small standalone client at all times, I'll gladly take it.

[Sysop]

Your incessant whining about Steam is getting incredibly annoying. Steam has democratized gaming for many users with its low prices. Yes, it's DRM, but it's well-implemented DRM. The unified friends list, mod support, etc. has made PC gaming so much more enjoyable for many. If the tradeoff for incredibly cheap games and a community experience that is console-esque is that you have to run a small standalone client at all times, I'll gladly take it.
Added to this, it has marginalised the need to resort to piracy in order to acquire certain titles.

[BydoEmpire]

Very cool!

[FayeC86]

Your incessant whining about Steam is getting incredibly annoying. Steam has democratized gaming for many users with its low prices. Yes, it's DRM, but it's well-implemented DRM. The unified friends list, mod support, etc. has made PC gaming so much more enjoyable for many. If the tradeoff for incredibly cheap games and a community experience that is console-esque is that you have to run a small standalone client at all times, I'll gladly take it.

Thats hardly whining. If they don't want to support DRM'd games at all then pointing out how affordable and enjoyable they are doesn't really change that. Maybe the trade off is worth it for you, and if so, great. It not being worth it for them doesn't make them a whiner, only a smart customer not supporting a business model they don't respect.

[Berserker]

What I find interesting about this is that here we have a "new" (reworking of a classic though it may be) release of a Microsoft game that's NOT being saddled with GFWL. The Steam exclusivity is likely the only reason this is happening, but it's still noteworthy - this is not something I'm aware of MS doing with any PC title in recent years. It appears they're taking advantage of the platform with things like the Mod Workshop, which is better than just arbitrarily requiring Steam and not doing anything with it I suppose.

Exclusivity is bad, but is it worse than Games For Windows Live? No DRM is the best kind of DRM, but at the end of the day this is Microsoft we're talking about here. They're not going to just let their products fly free on the wings of the humble indie honor system, much as I'd love to see that. They're going to put something on it, and at the moment Steam is the least-worst something.

[Guyra]

I would wager they've also fixed that annoying memory leak bug or whatever it was that made the game play incredibly slow after a certain amount of time. If so, I'm certainly getting this. And I never buy stuff on Steam. :P

Edit: They also seem to have replaced certain graphics completely, the fire animations and water being the most prominent.

[Tanooki]

Thats hardly whining. If they don't want to support DRM'd games at all then pointing out how affordable and enjoyable they are doesn't really change that. Maybe the trade off is worth it for you, and if so, great. It not being worth it for them doesn't make them a whiner, only a smart customer not supporting a business model they don't respect.

Thank you. At least you have the intelligence and maturity to realize that unlike him. I don't like DRM if it's something that dicks with drivers and APIs to just some asinine front loader you're required to install and use to just play a game which often tend to require having an online connection. I guess I'm just showing my age, but when I buy something I think I should own it, have a physical of some sort copy, and be able to freely use it without baggage. I have no respect for any of it from the minor way Steam does it to the shit that EA and Ubisoft pull with SimCity(2013) or the Assassins Creed debacle.

I'm fine if they want to have a community aspect like consoles, but forcing it to be there, especially if I buy a game off the rack and making me online crosses the line. As I see it MS could have very well sold this thing directly as a download or a cheap disc at retail with it updated to run on modern versions of Windows, but going with Steam and the DRM was a choice. I personally love AOE2 and would be happy to play this again, but I won't with the current setup.

You don't need steam, origin, or the others to get cheaply priced games as that's a lie and a myth. GoGames doesn't require it and look at their rates and that's just one easy example.

[heybtbm]

Thats hardly whining, only a smart customer not supporting a business model they don't respect.


Thank you. At least you have the intelligence and maturity to realize that unlike him.

You two should get a room. You can play spider solitaire and minesweeper until the sun comes up.


:)

[Daltone]

I replayed the first AOE a few years ago and found it incredibly hard. The enemy AI seemed incredibly efficient and aggressive. Does AOE II have the same sort of problem (or have I just been playin CIV for too long?)