On a smaller scale, I really like how AoE2 DE has driven attention towards the Age of Empires-related UA-cam channels. Spirit of the Law, T90, ZeroEmpires, and all of the professional players (Viper, TaToH, Daut and Hera, just to name a few) have all seen a relatively small (but significant for AoE2) surge in popularity since the release of Definitive Edition. These channels all deserve way for subscribers than they currently have, so seeing them get that extra attention is fantastic to watch.
I enjoy to watch the multiplayer games of AoE2 DE, the Tournament and such, a lot. Really really like it. There is nothing comparable for me when it comes to Blizzards games.
As a 30-something gamer, it feels like we've slipped into an alternate timeline over the last 20 years... Late-90s, early-2000s: Microsoft is a monopoly, Blizzard is releasing classics Diablo 2, Brood War, and WC3 Mid-2000s: We get the Games For Windows Live and Windows Vista abominations, Blizzard releases WoW Current Day: Microsoft is now consumer-friendly and unifying game platforms, Activision Blizzard is competing with EA to take the crown as the most-hated entity in the gaming industry.
I agree, after 2012 it seems like gaming took a huge decline, you have a few good games like alien isolation and the witcher but other than that everything has been pretty bad. Japanese games are doing great though but not everyone is into Japanese style games like persona 5 or Yakuza.
@@delta2372 Yeah japanese games has been foing well... I've een getting into persona and the atelier series. Alien Isolation scared me so much, it was great. The witcher is overall a really fun game... I miss the old battlefront 2 though... T.T rip pandemic studio.
@@lovableairheadmile6809 I've been wanting to play persona but I don't own a PS4, I miss the old and true battlefront 2 aswell rip good star wars games.
I love the fact that they did this so much. I have a laptop with an above average graphics card, therefore I can play DE with ease and I really enjoy it. My brother on the other hand has quite a shitty laptop and therefore it's impossible to play together with him on DE. But we can just continue to play on HD like nothing happened. Even though I don't really play multiplayer on DE, I still consider it to be one of my best purchases of last year, only for the hours of joy you can get from all the reworked campaigns and the editor. It's somehow the same game, but just better in so many small but excellent ways.
@@Cra3ier If you watched the video, you would have heard Bellular explain the situation with OG Warcraft III owners. They were forced into playing the shitty downgraded Warcraft 3: Refuckingshit, in short.
What I don't understand is that 2 years ago they did a remastered edition of StarCraft which was only $15 and a massive success. Why couldn't they just do the same thing with this one?
Yeah, adding SC:R to the comparison would definitely have been interesting. It's not like SC:R was an improvement over the old SC as much as AoE2:DE is over the old AoE2 but at least it added some features like rebindable hotkeys and a new ranked-mode and most importantly: It didn't remove things that the old SC already had! Also the graphics style kept true to the original.
@@ailst Well we could guess and say with the lack of projected profit for WoW - current and the Diablo mobile game, Activision Blizz slashed some of the work and made many cut backs to the original scope to maybe save face with the investors. The game getting delayed and other internal issues happening, the project was just mismanaged and funding may have been taken away. So sadly we get this mess. Even Diablo 4 early footage did not have me excited, it did not show really anything that new, and really PoF has been steadily trying to remain at the top now.
@@bartkorol611 I agree...it was clearly lack of time and money. They didn't have the resources to put into art assets and redeveloping AI that AOE got. Its unfortunate they keep doing this kind of thing to meet arbitrary deadlines.
No money. Blizzard makes more money on licensing. So after DOTA2, they don't want that to repeat again, so want everything they have locked away in their money producing vault. From copyrighting your names of your characters; to anything you created. Add makers will probably face the same issues in the future or not allowed to mod (even if free). It's an example of anarcho-capitalism gone too far.
Compared to the other big publishing companies like EA or Activision, they have always been the nice guy. Their problem is that they don't have enough games, that and the Don Mattrick era fucked them up for a while and they're still trying to move away from that.
Probably started about 2 years ago or so with their code editor. It's brilliant and very community driven. Every month microsoft releases an improvement/update patch.
@@LBPS i hope not its my last hope for wow i really hate bfa.. i rerroled and i need to get everywhere exalted...for essences what are boosting my dps by 10-20k
15 years ago if you told me that Microsoft would be extremely more consumer friendly than Blizzard, to the point of them being not even comparable, I would not have believed you for a second. Now look at where we are... I guess nothing is impossible, huh?
Plot twist - Some of the Warcraft team secretly worked for Microsoft to screw up Warcraft III:Refunded to get Warcraft players to play AoE. Nobody saw it coming!!!
I could imagine the multiple versions would annoy AoE vets to a degree yeah. I skipped AoE as I was too busy playing Starcraft (and WC3) in that era RTS is my favourite genre and it’s shameful that I haven’t played the AoE series, and wow I can play a properly remastered, expansion complete version in 2020 for 20 dollars? A ridiculously good proposition for someone of my taste. Need something to play in the genre, was so excited for Reforged as WC3 was my favourite game of all time and I ended up not purchasing that fucking disaster.
@@Bloodywasher All "new releases" of aoe (aoe 2 hd and aoe 2 DE) have still always brought something new (like new expansions, new and improved features and graphics) with them so it's now like the same game has been released multiple times. HD version didn't itself improve the game a lot but it did bring new civs and campaigns and it was constantly on discount for like 5 dollars so it's not like it wasn't worth the money. DE has improved the game so much that it's totally worth it's full cost.
Warcraft 4 would be a disaster. Just look at WoW's 'lore' since Metzen left. They're horrible writers who have no idea how to tell a story or make good characters.
Metzen's writing, along woth Knaak and others went heavily downhill after the initial release of WoW. That's what happens when you sell what you love, and are forced to continue milking a legacy.
Stories are meant to end at some point. MMO's are built to last forever/as long as possible. The 2 just dont mix well with what they are designed to do. Warcrafts story and Lore was destined to eventually become unimportant within its own universe when it became an MMO.
@Steve Even the wording here is scammy... Reforged implies remake or at least something more than just remaster, not to mention that they said that it will be a bit more than just a remaster.. Even tho i dont believe in Blizz since at lest 2010 it still shocked me that they could botch reforged so hard..
The worst thing about this is that they CAN! They have proven that they can create great games with amazing polish, and thats the standard we expect from their products. They just chose to underperform and cut massive corners. They choke their talented team by underfunding projects and letting amazing people go. If they gave their developers the money and time, that is necessary for something like reforged, it could have been an amazing game.
It was supposed to be a recreation I'm truly hurt as a massive fan of wc3 and TFT then really did drop the ball here and we didn't get anything but slightly better graphics and that's about it
@Steve I know that you dont defend them, just wanted to give my 2 cents about the scammy ways of Blizzard.... What i cant stand is the fact that for years Blizzard was getting worse at making games and kept adding more scammy practices and so many people still defending them (some even now)... There are many fans that can vouch for that. There are so many that werent happy with WoW, Overwatch, D3 and even SCR (me) or now W3Reforged... Im just happy that finally more people see the truth... ^^
What's funnier it's the fact that Microsoft even reworked chat taunts and thet DIDN'T replace the more iconic ones. That's how you treat a classic game.
Well they did have over a year since the games was first showed off. I do not think they were short on time it seems more of a matter of priorities. Hell, they didnt even reach the level of a minimum viable product.
It never ceases to amaze me how companies who focus on numbers start to implode and fail their customer/player base. Where as, companies that seek to provide the best for their customer/player base remain strong.
@Bellullar News Actually they've not only redone the Inca campaign, they've redone the entire Forgotten campaign (Dracula, Bari, Franzecesco, Inca & Aleric) because they thought it was sub-par in comparison to the rest of their campaigns because it was made by fans originally, so they've essentially 'remade' an expac plus added a new one. So yeah, that's basically two entire expacs worth of campaigns made in Definitive Edition, they only took the story from the Forgotten and then paid voice actors, new objectives, entirely new maps, everything for it, plus the Great Khans.
@@AHappyCub Yes, the one with Francesco. You started off as the Spanish venturing into the new world but as you got deeper you switched into the Inca tech tree. It was a bit of a mess of a campaign, but very enjoyable and a lot better than custom scenario's at the time. The team that released DE felt like they've grown enough as a studio to remake it into truly high quality campaign missions. The voice acting and stuff really helps out a ton imo.
the fans who made forgotten empires campaigns , were the ones who ended up getting hired by microsoft to make new expansions for aoe2hd and also making aoe1de and aoe2de, and their team name is also " forgotten empires ". so basically they've redone their own campaigns in DE, which shows how much they care about the franchise
@@K1AoE Indeed, the first resurgence of Age of Empires II was the Forgotten Empires mod which came many years after the Age of Conquerors official expansion. This mod became popular enough that an official "The Forgotten" Expansion was released by Microsoft. A few other expansions later, and we now have the Definitive Edition, which is a true remaster of AOE2.
@Honudes Gai I agree with everything you said except the part saying the custom maps were nothing to do with rts which is false. But yeah most people i know mostly played custom maps and only a little of the actual game itself.
@Agent 005 I hope they learned that the pros of crossplay far outweigh the cons. I hear people complain about m+kb being op, but I've literally listened to plenty of people complain about controller aim assist so I'm guess the vast majority of people complaining just arnt very good to begin with lol. Hopefully we get more crossplay with scarlett cause I'd love to play more games with my xbox friends since I only have pc and they only have xbox so we can only really play sea of theives/cod/smite together.
@@chaoticmuffin1538 it depends on the game more then anything and also is VERY difficult to balance right, and some games you just won't ever be able to find a proper balance to allow fair crossplay. Overwatch for example is a good example of a game that can't really pull off crossplay, due to the lack of natural finesse in controllers turrets were way OP compared to m+kb, so they had to nerf all turret type abilities in the console versions. How do you balance having people on console interact with PC when key features and abilities have to be given completely different damage and fire rate numbers? But I have seen examples of aim assist being bad in both directions, too much and too little. It really does make a major difference. But I will say this from what I have seen so far, there is a higher room for growth in skill with m+kb to overcome the advantages various degrees of aim assist can give. But you need to actually grow that skill and not as many people will have that skill to make those plays with m+kb compared to people using controllers with a really unbalanced aim assist. And of course to make the balancing act trickier even if you got everything perfect and fair there will ALWAYS be salty people who are either pure crappy players or having a really off day who blame one way or the other for their performance. I'm sure we have ALL blamed hackers for a loss once or twice.
I pre-ordered AoE2DE cuz I know AoE is love, but the way he mentioned all the + points of AoE2DE makes me feel proud of the game and the company that made it. a 20 year old game that was remade with REAL passion even when it's new part is in the works is just phenomenal. And the Xbox Game Pass, don't get me starting on that
Microsoft really learned a lot from their first Definitive Edition for AoE 1, this one is so damn good and the cadence for patches is also great
4 роки тому+12
Wasn't a fan of AoE 1 - DE, yes they learnt a lot. AoE 2 - DE other than the minor bugs is a near perfect remaster and has an unbeatable price/value ratio, the game is just absolutely amazing.
Well lets not forget they already succeed with Halo: CE and Halo 2 anniversaries years before....the thing about the first AoE: Definitive Edition is that the original game was never as good as its sequel was, I actually think the original game should have been remade entirely, because it has not aged that well. But granted they also listened to community and made better job with AoE2: Definitive Edition, but bottom line AoE: Definitive Edition's main problem was that the game original game had not aged well and remastering it was not going to improve it enough.
Yeah I'm 100% convinced that aoe1 players were the guinea pigs they used so that aoe2 would be polished and a better product. Because let's face it, aoe2 is THE best game in the franchise from a financial viewpoint. Look at what happened over the course of aoe1DE. Tons of bug fixes, a rocky launch that was eventually improved, the pathfinding was tinkered with until it was improved, I'd wager money that was practice for aoe2's coding as well.
I can't wait for AoE4, particularly after seeing the love that 2 got. After seeing Reforged, and the way Blizzard is treating the IP, I don't even want Warcraft 4 anymore.
Mateo Kostar this is literally how you hype up your new product and gain new customers while bringing back your old ones! Perfect PR move from Microsoft, clever!
This is what Blizzard looked like when they were not an Activision product. Microsoft has been really good about buying IPs and not messing with them, just letting the studio remaster and resell on its own terms. It makes it an effort of love rather than a soulless corporate cash grab.
I believe the studio is a new team. They were modders that were given the chance to make DLC for Age of 2 original and they've been trusted more and more by remastering the trilogy (AoE III Definitive is coming). Best bit is the new team are making AoE IV building off AoE II (The fav). As a fan it has been fantastic for me. I really feel for Warcraft fans because they deserve just as good a treatment as Microsoft has given AoE
I think there was a realization after a few fuck ups that they should hold up and just say ok.. here is a bunch of money...ramp up a team if needed and make something great and just try and do it in a reasonable time but if it takes a bit longers thats fine. Quality has become more important because the realization that customer satisfaction wins more than anything else. It also helps that msoft honestly has deep pockets to let games studios they grab to sit around and let games bake till done.
I was concerned when Microsoft bought Mojang. I envisioned everything in Minecraft being locked behind a paywall, Activision/EA style. But they have treated the players and the devs so well that it really changed my perspective on Microsoft. I never played Age of Empires, Age of Mythology was more interesting to me, but I'll definitely be refunding the Reforged garbage and picking it up.
A legendary title. Spend my teenage hood playing it with my friends. Bought every single expansion. There is still a room for 2D games in today's market, look at Oxygen Not Included.
There is actually a community driven remaster, that has new factions and campaing, etc, etc, with better multiplayer option! Try searching for HotA(Horn of the abbys) expansion!
Might & Magic series ended up as mobile games lol. I will never forget nor forgive Ubisoft for running these series to the ground. I play their games only when they give them out for free (they do it from time to time) or on Black Friday, when I bought Heroes 7 dirt cheap, which compared to the game's budget, was completely fair.
Glad to see this glowing comparison, I've been playing the hell out of AoE2DE since it dropped, and have only had more incentive to spend more time in it and even give custom map making a go with War3 Refunded being such garbage. Such a great game with such great dev love of it.
Its just History repeating itself. Theres a lot of similarities between General Motors and Blizzard entertainment and their downfall. during the Early years of GM, they had Car guys as upper management, but in the late 70's the bean counter took over upper management and they started making cars for share holders. boring crap and started becoming unreliable as they started cutting corners for maximum profit. Blizzard had people who were passionate about games and ran the business in that fashion, but as the years went on the same crap accord to them like GM. As they merged and became Activision Blizzard, the passionate people realize it wasn't the same game company anymore and started leaving. Now the Bean counters started to take over upper management and priorities started shifting to fiscal profits and making share holders happy. This makes me really sad. I've been a fan boy since Warcraft 1 and loved most of Blizzard games. but noticed that things were slowly changing and saw the Death Knell happening live on Blizzcon 2018 when they announced Diablo Immortal. I literally purchased blizzcon virtual ticket to watch the diablo announcement as there were rumors about a new game coming out. I could not fathom how someone there thought it would go over well with hardcore fans who spent thousands of dollars to attend the event in person. I've subbed to wow since it went live and for the first time i'm seriously thinking of ending my subscription and not bothering with shadowlands. BFA is a complete $hit show and 8.3 just made me want to quit.
I'll have to say it, Microsoft has been doing a lot of great things lately when it comes to gaming. Halo master chief edition fixes, game pass, backward compatibility, great games like Forza and horizon. New releases on game pass. A breathing game ecosystem. Low prices. Promising new gen console. AoE and so on. It's refreshing too see something positive in the industry.
If i said AoE kicked WC's butt... that be rather inaccurate. If i said AoE snuck into WC's house, killed his parents, took their heads as trophy's .. and ran over their dog on the way out....- comes a lot closer :) ps though CNC Remastered is still THE *gold standard* how its done. 2 games. 2 engines +expansions + soundtracks, mods, bonus content, etc etc... for 20$ ON STEAM
@@nameless9573 Not necessarily. The team that made AOE 2 DE was the same team behind AOE 2 HD and the mods (fan-made expansions) that came before it. What I'm trying to say is that the developers are huge AOE 2 fans and have experience around that game, hence that's why it's been such a great remaster in my opinion.
Ever since Aoe2:DE came out I have started playing again after ages. It has been the best experience for multiplayer options and now we play at least one game every day with my friends. I am really glad for what the devs did and for the choices the management made. Its definitely worth its price.
AoE 2 was part of my childhood for sure. Based on your mentions, I bought the AoE 2 DE and so far it is an amazing buy. Just finished the Barbarossa campaign (just on standard tho). Great stuff
AoE2DE: Here's some new features you might like! But wait there's More! There's also this new Feature! Warcraft 3 Refunded: We're sorry we had some issues surrounding this, and some problems because of whatnot... but hey Graphics are fine! also you can't turn on shadows if you're not playing refunded... etc and whole bunch of other stuffs! ALSO NO REFUNDS!
@@icecoldchilipreppers They might have to remake it from the ground up I bet, I do not remember how good the game was at managing a lot of models at the same time, much less new higher polycount models.
Never thought I'd see the day when Microsoft was making better publisher decisions than Blizzard. Excellent video, as ALWAYS. Adding positivity can add "balance", but just don't let that become your priority, covering the less popular topics because they are positive. The world, and this industry, is not all fair and positive. Precisely why I come here is that you cover the biggest topics whether they are good or bad, not just picking what you want to cover to get a "balance" of "good and bad"
or some good ol' david bowie too... You remind me of the babe (what babe?) The babe with the power (what power?) The power of voodoo (who do?) You do (do what?) Remind me of the babe
What the hell is going on in the world when we are praising Microsoft and ripping Blizzard. I feel like I’m in the wrong dimension or something...I’ve slipped into an alternate timeline I want to go back home
I honestly dont have ever understand the kind of hate ppl have had for Microsoft. Yes I understand they have made lot of mistakes over the years on several factors, BUT to me they have never resulted in the kind of stuff we are seeing from EA or Activision-Blizzard for example.But thats just my opinion about the matter, what they have mainly done in recent years is disappointed with their lack of 1st party titles but thats something they are on the road of fixing.
@@Balnazzardi You're so innocent. Given the chance Microsoft will screw you over equally if not, worse than others. They're here to make money not video games.
@@summonsays2610 Ah well IE has always been big fat joke, I wont deny that....but like I said to me in terms of gaming atleast, MS has never pissed me off like EA or Activision-Blizzard have.
@@SteveL11 And who isnt out there to make money? All companies are, but atleast to me it seems Microsoft has turned entirely new leaf when it comes to their gaming division. Reviving a franchise like Age of Empires in big way like this, not only getting Relic to make Age of Empires IV, but also remastering all 3 previous games....I personally think its great to see as well as Microsoft investing into new 1st party studios and not caring about "Xbox exclusives" so much rather than trying to offer their games to as large audience as possible, as long as the games are on their own platforms/services. Again atleast from gaming side, to me MS has never been the kind of "villain" some ppl have seen it
It's not that Blizzard doesn't know how to do a remake, they just don't care anymore. The Homeworld remastered is also a masterful remake, and they released Deserts of Kharak after that.
I've been following the Aoe2 community for a long time and I gotta say, it's the decision to listen to the community as well as the community being super nice - that contributed to such a massive success. -Many of the devs are actually part of the Forgotten Empires team(the team who created the HD expansions), who started out as a group of volunteers int he early 2010's with the dream to bring the game to a better place. They created their mod in 2012 which revolutionised the game forever. -Chris from Voobly said that he had to spend over $20k over 12 years from his own money to contribute to the maintenance of the website and its open-source projects(like Open Red Alert). -There is a Finnish player who is among the elitest of the elite, but at the same time has a vast knowledge of AI scripting and has contributed to the AI scheme. His custom made AI set up new standards of how AIs should be - vibrant, humanly and very, very skilled. AIs will cheese you like a smurf and has few exploits which can be utilised only by very skilled players. -The art of war was made to promote multiplayer play by exposing the competitive environment to pve'rs. The tutorials are narrated by BBQ Turkman - a professional caster and a popular UA-camr. -Microsoft has actively donated to the prize pools of tournaments organised by the community, and did well to promote the pros and big UA-camrs(who aren't so big - with less than 200k subs). -There were mini-contests on the Forgotten Empires website, such as taking screenshots of beautiful cities designed in the scenario editor, as well as artwork contests. The voice-over for campaigns in African Kingdoms was also done by volunteers. -AND LASTLY, the community is SUPER FRIENDLY. People gift subs on Twitch, take part in meaningful conversations and are always willing to teach noobs to get better instead of bullying them. All the pros have good sense of friendship and deliberately refrain from cheesing each other by stealing animals or other resources out of mutual respect.
I had no idea about the AoE definitive edition. Based on this video, buying it ASAP. Glad I didn't waste the money on WC3: Reforged... was looking forward to it.
WC3 is getting rekt by AoE2 Definitive Edition, and Diablo Immortal is getting rekt by PoE Mobile. WoW is failing, OW is beginning to fail, Blizz really has lost their ability to make games. I wonder what kind of mess Diablo 4 will be? I really hope they learn before that comes to pass. I somehow doubt that however... SMH
Activision-Blizz has fully embraced the minimum viable product philosophy. Unfortunately a reputation built up over decades of quality games has allowed them to set that bar exceedingly low. The record profits are not a fluke because enough of the fanbase hasn't felt the water boiling yet. JAB has been a disaster. Considering he was a producer on Star Wars: Galaxies and that historic implosion, someone should have seen this coming.
You know usually when you release two simillar games, with same tematic, same genre or whatsoever, it damages the selling numbers of each company. In this case, Reforged was the best thing that could happen to AoE2
Combined with WoW you have this: World of Warcraft Reforged: Battle to kill Azeroth. And the idiocy of Blizzard - the sword is still stuck in the planet but the Voice of Azeroth (Magni) says - "The old god is dead, she is fine now!" - lol. They really do not know what they are doing anymore. Every time I see Ian Hazzikostas in a video (just recall Blizzcon) I get the feeling he is coming down from a hangover or high on drugs. Bellular thank you for bringing AOE2DE into view. I would not have noticed it had you not made this video. Thank you.
Im sure they will, I mean considering how succesfull and popular these Definitive Editions seem to be for them. But ye I remember well when they were released and there was actually this big 3 way RTS rivalry around 2002-2003 with Warcraft III, Age of Mythology and C&C Generals....those were the golden days of RTS genre....sad to see how the genre almost died, but with revival of Age of Empires and project like Iron Harvest getting crowdfunded, I have some hope for the future of RTS games. Even though Blizzard failed us with Reforged. Personally for me btw how I ranked those games are: 1.Warcraft III: RoC/TFT (still my favorite game(s) of all time) 2.C&C Generals/Zero Hour 3.Age of Mythology/Titans But dont get me wrong, all were excellent games imho, its just that for whatever reason I liked Age of Mythology the least, possibly because at the time atleast I thought the mythological creatures of AoM were too OP compared to regular units, so you just wanted to build as many as them as possible. Then when years later I played the HD edition, I realized how much they actually cost compared to regular units and that you could actually play the game also with just large army of regular units and how to best use them was ofc important as well. But ye, I really hope Definitive Edition of AoM as well, because its 3D engine has not aged well, unlike that of Age 3 that still actually looks rather good, but Im still eager to see its Definitive Edition as well.
I work in a software company, support engineer for a piece of software that is massive and used for companies. Yes we have hundreds of tickets regarding bugs however 99% of them are caused by customers (rightfully) are caused by EDI interaction or related to performance due to customer tinkering that we are required to solve as part of contracts. We are talking about software that interacts with GPS, Ships, tricks, trains, warehouses and hundreds of clients. Yes sometimes our software bogs down, but it deals with endless data. If i look at what happens in the games industry it is simple. If we where to a single of these shitty scammy actions our reputation would be ruiend. Sure we have bugs, however if something slips through the cracks (it rarely happens but it does) it is a p1 fix... 30 min to pick up non stop work untill its fixxed. The games industry does not deal with customers... they deal with consumers... consumers that are often to blind to view that they are being screwed over. (cash shops, pre purchases, absurd prices) and are extremely unlikely to backlash to being treated poorly. So why give you the same service as I am required to give my customers? To hell with testing your products... you got to the money let them test it. Why implement everything you say when you got the money and you know they will come back. Unless the customer base changes... they wont change.
I am a wc3 players for 10 years who made the switch to AOE2:DE a month ago seeing the reforge was looking like shit. I am having a blast, the community is super nice and the game is alot of fun.
I do want to see more positivity. While it was great to see the WCIII:R is a complete dumpster as a sort of warning, I think endorsing great things is even better for gamers in general. Pointing to things that are well-made and to be enjoyed is, in my opinion, just as valuable as helping people avoid the grief of buying a bad game
AOE is the reason I got into pc gaming in 1998. I went to a friends house and played it on his pc and fell in love. The fact that people are still enjoying this game in 2020 puts a smile on my face. Can't wait for AOE4!
You should check out some of the recent tournaments, REALLY high level play with some great personalities on youtube and twitch. I found out that people are playing it competitively about half a year ago. Outstanding community behind this game that's been supporting and playing it for decades . They just did NAC, and will be doing Hidden Cup 3 soon.
I just bought Definitive Edition this morning, I am astounded with how good it feels and with the work they've done. I bought the 2013 HD edition too, years ago, which was a nice touch up. But this is just fantastic.
Thank you for this. There is so much negativity out there about the gaming industry, it really is good to hear something positive. I know there is a lot to complain about, but hearing some good news is really a relief.
I get it now, some higher up in blizz realized they are still paying for w3 servers and came up with a plan to dissuade people from playing it WHILE selling another version of the game - brilliant
Yes! So happy AOE2 DE getting some love, hardly anyone talking about it on mainstream channels. I bought it as soon as it came out, and was not disappointed. Super active dev team releasing frequent patches and doing balancing work on the different civs. If you liked AOE2 I highly recommend AOE2 DE. Its the same as the original only better. It feels and plays almost exactly the same as the classic, while having a more modern look and tons and tons of content, there's like 35 playable civs now....
So glad. I was in the alpha and beta of AOE2DE. We used to constantly and still report and use the forum so much. The devs were so responsive. It was always a communication that felt genuine, resulting in a fine product.
I know I gave AOE DE a 10/10 review on steam, absolutely amazing game and I’m coming from the conquerers. very good details and still pays homage to the original game perfectly
Didn't hear about aoe2 definitive edition, this made consider buying it. And the way blizzard has been treating their games and customers lately, I am thinking about completely skipping D4, despite it looking to been exactly what D3 should have been.
AoE2DE: Got the old version? Here's a discount!
WC3R: Got the old version? Not anymore LOL!
It hurts that it's true
LOL
xD
hahaha yup
Haha!
On a smaller scale, I really like how AoE2 DE has driven attention towards the Age of Empires-related UA-cam channels. Spirit of the Law, T90, ZeroEmpires, and all of the professional players (Viper, TaToH, Daut and Hera, just to name a few) have all seen a relatively small (but significant for AoE2) surge in popularity since the release of Definitive Edition. These channels all deserve way for subscribers than they currently have, so seeing them get that extra attention is fantastic to watch.
I have been a subsciber of T90 for years.
Never played the game though.
Just bough it on Steam last week because of how MS is going.
I enjoy to watch the multiplayer games of AoE2 DE, the Tournament and such, a lot. Really really like it. There is nothing comparable for me when it comes to Blizzards games.
This great to hear, the AoE2 community is while very small is one of the best game communities out there.
The only Yt i watch is sotl
T90 bro is amazing. Him and the others are doing the game so amazingly.
Bought this with my refund money. Best decision of 2020 so far.
This. This made me legit laugh 😂
Nice one, good sir 👌🏼
Good idea!
wish i could they only refunded me bliz balance x.x
That was a good one. #mademesmile
Outstanding move
As a 30-something gamer, it feels like we've slipped into an alternate timeline over the last 20 years...
Late-90s, early-2000s: Microsoft is a monopoly, Blizzard is releasing classics Diablo 2, Brood War, and WC3
Mid-2000s: We get the Games For Windows Live and Windows Vista abominations, Blizzard releases WoW
Current Day: Microsoft is now consumer-friendly and unifying game platforms, Activision Blizzard is competing with EA to take the crown as the most-hated entity in the gaming industry.
I agree, after 2012 it seems like gaming took a huge decline, you have a few good games like alien isolation and the witcher but other than that everything has been pretty bad.
Japanese games are doing great though but not everyone is into Japanese style games like persona 5 or Yakuza.
@@delta2372 Yeah japanese games has been foing well... I've een getting into persona and the atelier series.
Alien Isolation scared me so much, it was great. The witcher is overall a really fun game...
I miss the old battlefront 2 though... T.T rip pandemic studio.
@@lovableairheadmile6809 I've been wanting to play persona but I don't own a PS4, I miss the old and true battlefront 2 aswell rip good star wars games.
@@delta2372 RIP lucasarts... I miss OG star wars... The great LUCAS ERA.
Nope, that crown belongs to EA.
I highly recommend using the money you get from refunding Warcraft III: Reforged to purchase Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition instead.
This. But as a Twitter campaign as well.
#refundreforged
I did. 👍
And it's way cheaper and more!!
Hell, for the Warcraft III refund, you can now buy AoE: DE AND AoEII: DE in a bundle on Steam!
@@3dmaster205 You can also buy a pizza and beers to enjoy while playing
The crazy part is I was concerned for AOE2:De and wasnt worried about reforged at all... I had it alllllllllll wrong.
Bro the moon is flat!
Global warming is a PR scheme to raise taxes!
Where is Satan when you need him!
@@Icemario87 The world is ending, the world is ending. Quick, give the govt more money!
@@os6552 you stole my childhood and my Dreams. I should be in school how dare you
Warcraft 3 Reforged: No wonder thou wert victorious! I shalt abdicate
AoE II DE: 11
TaumelScheibe AoE II DE: 30
Blizzard: 5
Comedy gold
AoE II DE: 8
Player to Blizzard: 9
Best and most underrated thing from the Definite Edition? They didn't mess with the folks who are fine with playing HD and original editions!
I love the fact that they did this so much. I have a laptop with an above average graphics card, therefore I can play DE with ease and I really enjoy it. My brother on the other hand has quite a shitty laptop and therefore it's impossible to play together with him on DE. But we can just continue to play on HD like nothing happened. Even though I don't really play multiplayer on DE, I still consider it to be one of my best purchases of last year, only for the hours of joy you can get from all the reworked campaigns and the editor. It's somehow the same game, but just better in so many small but excellent ways.
They actually made further optimisations so you can run the game on a potato. My 4 year old laptop can run DE with minor issues.
@@thomascoppens8498 I thought classic war3 players can still play on bnet, no?
@@Cra3ier If you watched the video, you would have heard Bellular explain the situation with OG Warcraft III owners. They were forced into playing the shitty downgraded Warcraft 3: Refuckingshit, in short.
What I don't understand is that 2 years ago they did a remastered edition of StarCraft which was only $15 and a massive success. Why couldn't they just do the same thing with this one?
Because Activision-Blizzard.
Yeah, adding SC:R to the comparison would definitely have been interesting. It's not like SC:R was an improvement over the old SC as much as AoE2:DE is over the old AoE2 but at least it added some features like rebindable hotkeys and a new ranked-mode and most importantly: It didn't remove things that the old SC already had! Also the graphics style kept true to the original.
@@ailst Well we could guess and say with the lack of projected profit for WoW - current and the Diablo mobile game, Activision Blizz slashed some of the work and made many cut backs to the original scope to maybe save face with the investors. The game getting delayed and other internal issues happening, the project was just mismanaged and funding may have been taken away. So sadly we get this mess. Even Diablo 4 early footage did not have me excited, it did not show really anything that new, and really PoF has been steadily trying to remain at the top now.
@@bartkorol611 I agree...it was clearly lack of time and money. They didn't have the resources to put into art assets and redeveloping AI that AOE got. Its unfortunate they keep doing this kind of thing to meet arbitrary deadlines.
No money. Blizzard makes more money on licensing. So after DOTA2, they don't want that to repeat again, so want everything they have locked away in their money producing vault. From copyrighting your names of your characters; to anything you created. Add makers will probably face the same issues in the future or not allowed to mod (even if free). It's an example of anarcho-capitalism gone too far.
Microsoft becoming the nice guy, what time to be alive.
And blizzard being the incarnation of stupid greed. What’s next EA will release a good single player game? Wait...
Compared to the other big publishing companies like EA or Activision, they have always been the nice guy. Their problem is that they don't have enough games, that and the Don Mattrick era fucked them up for a while and they're still trying to move away from that.
Cant believe it either. But it really feels like M$ is more customer centric nowadays.
It's a cycle, the tide rises, and the tide falls. Give Microsoft time and they'll be telling Bethesda to hold their beer, mark my words.
Probably started about 2 years ago or so with their code editor. It's brilliant and very community driven. Every month microsoft releases an improvement/update patch.
Warcraft 3: Raid Shadow Legends Edition.
Shadow garbage edition
@@thecommentguy9380 for sure, i think shadowlands will be more worse than bfa. lol
what kind of a abomination youre thinking?
@@amarait2 the kind that would make refunded edition look like a masterpiece
@@LBPS i hope not its my last hope for wow i really hate bfa.. i rerroled and i need to get everywhere exalted...for essences what are boosting my dps by 10-20k
15 years ago if you told me that Microsoft would be extremely more consumer friendly than Blizzard, to the point of them being not even comparable, I would not have believed you for a second. Now look at where we are... I guess nothing is impossible, huh?
Yea, I'm still not believing that, well, M$, of all people, seems to be the most consumer-friendly AAA outfit this generation... But here we are.
Not Microsoft, just the studio which was given full control. Microsoft and XBox support are largely ignorant about the game's existence.
If someone told me Star Wars would die, I would've laughed at that person
And yet here we are, the ashes of Star Wars lie beneath our foot
@@nebufabu hold my nintendo
TheJBerg Yes but that Xbox game pass is such a great deal
Step 1: don't be the physical incarnation of a deadly sin, namely greed.
Or Pride
Ah Greed the basic b***h sin so over played and so expected... only time greed has been cool is in anime which is well needless to say fiction
@@marzaincalmwind4435 if done right, it's good but mostly it's pretty cringy
Look at kotick and tell me there's absolutely no gluttony there...
Unless your lady Merlin from the seven deadly sins.
The failure of WC3:Refudged has made me start playing Age of Empires II DE and I couldn't be happier
Yeah I ended up downloading it on game pass to get my strategy game fix. Honestly Warcraft just helped me remember how good age of empires 2 was.
same i wonder how many of us there are
Plot twist - Some of the Warcraft team secretly worked for Microsoft to screw up Warcraft III:Refunded to get Warcraft players to play AoE. Nobody saw it coming!!!
@@hez8719 next level thinking, nice one 111111
@@hez8719 4D Chess
AoE:DE - BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE
Blizzard - meh you’ll take what we give you
Nah, just refund and get my money back lol.
Blizzard be like : you want a remake ?
ok.
but in case we fuck it up we kill the old game too.
But wait; there's even more, now on Steam AoE: DE, and AoEII: DE in a bundle for just 30 bucks, 25% off!
Blizz: BUT WAIT THERE'S LESS
Aoe 2 DE is a Trebuchet shot to the face of Activision.
I hope AGE of Empires hooks you up for this, they schooled the industry on how remasters are SUPPOSED to be handled.
I'm so glad you covered this masterpiece. This game needs more attention and heal the wounds of the Warcraft 3 players
My words
@Lawrence Pollit I might be blind but atleast im enjoying myself.
@Lawrence Pollit "aweful gamergate icons" nah he's a fucking moron. Fuck off.
I could imagine the multiple versions would annoy AoE vets to a degree yeah.
I skipped AoE as I was too busy playing Starcraft (and WC3) in that era
RTS is my favourite genre and it’s shameful that I haven’t played the AoE series, and wow I can play a properly remastered, expansion complete version in 2020 for 20 dollars? A ridiculously good proposition for someone of my taste.
Need something to play in the genre, was so excited for Reforged as WC3 was my favourite game of all time and I ended up not purchasing that fucking disaster.
@@Bloodywasher All "new releases" of aoe (aoe 2 hd and aoe 2 DE) have still always brought something new (like new expansions, new and improved features and graphics) with them so it's now like the same game has been released multiple times. HD version didn't itself improve the game a lot but it did bring new civs and campaigns and it was constantly on discount for like 5 dollars so it's not like it wasn't worth the money. DE has improved the game so much that it's totally worth it's full cost.
Warcraft 4 would be a disaster. Just look at WoW's 'lore' since Metzen left. They're horrible writers who have no idea how to tell a story or make good characters.
Blizzard must have hired the writers of Lost because the more they write the less it makes sense.
@@DeepSpaceNinja and make Sylvanna a femitard
This is complicated, since a lot of Metzen-era lore made no goddamn sense either.
Metzen's writing, along woth Knaak and others went heavily downhill after the initial release of WoW.
That's what happens when you sell what you love, and are forced to continue milking a legacy.
Stories are meant to end at some point. MMO's are built to last forever/as long as possible. The 2 just dont mix well with what they are designed to do. Warcrafts story and Lore was destined to eventually become unimportant within its own universe when it became an MMO.
Blizzard couldn’t remaster pong correctly much less Warcraft 3
@Steve Even the wording here is scammy... Reforged implies remake or at least something more than just remaster, not to mention that they said that it will be a bit more than just a remaster.. Even tho i dont believe in Blizz since at lest 2010 it still shocked me that they could botch reforged so hard..
@Steve Well, finally this was just remaster, as remake means changes to game like new cinematics, overhaul of compaign.
The worst thing about this is that they CAN! They have proven that they can create great games with amazing polish, and thats the standard we expect from their products. They just chose to underperform and cut massive corners. They choke their talented team by underfunding projects and letting amazing people go. If they gave their developers the money and time, that is necessary for something like reforged, it could have been an amazing game.
It was supposed to be a recreation I'm truly hurt as a massive fan of wc3 and TFT then really did drop the ball here and we didn't get anything but slightly better graphics and that's about it
@Steve I know that you dont defend them, just wanted to give my 2 cents about the scammy ways of Blizzard.... What i cant stand is the fact that for years Blizzard was getting worse at making games and kept adding more scammy practices and so many people still defending them (some even now)... There are many fans that can vouch for that. There are so many that werent happy with WoW, Overwatch, D3 and even SCR (me) or now W3Reforged... Im just happy that finally more people see the truth... ^^
What's funnier it's the fact that Microsoft even reworked chat taunts and thet DIDN'T replace the more iconic ones. That's how you treat a classic game.
1
11
*"All hail king of losers"* is probably my personal favorite.
Turns out taking the extra time to do it properly pays off.
who would've thunk it?! inconceivable
The Witcher 3 is a good example of this
Well they did have over a year since the games was first showed off. I do not think they were short on time it seems more of a matter of priorities. Hell, they didnt even reach the level of a minimum viable product.
There are far greater problems then just that. :P
If they can't put a cash shop in - they don't care.
It never ceases to amaze me how companies who focus on numbers start to implode and fail their customer/player base. Where as, companies that seek to provide the best for their customer/player base remain strong.
@Bellullar News
Actually they've not only redone the Inca campaign, they've redone the entire Forgotten campaign (Dracula, Bari, Franzecesco, Inca & Aleric) because they thought it was sub-par in comparison to the rest of their campaigns because it was made by fans originally, so they've essentially 'remade' an expac plus added a new one. So yeah, that's basically two entire expacs worth of campaigns made in Definitive Edition, they only took the story from the Forgotten and then paid voice actors, new objectives, entirely new maps, everything for it, plus the Great Khans.
I dont even know Inca campaign even exist in HD
@@AHappyCub Yes, the one with Francesco. You started off as the Spanish venturing into the new world but as you got deeper you switched into the Inca tech tree. It was a bit of a mess of a campaign, but very enjoyable and a lot better than custom scenario's at the time. The team that released DE felt like they've grown enough as a studio to remake it into truly high quality campaign missions. The voice acting and stuff really helps out a ton imo.
the fans who made forgotten empires campaigns , were the ones who ended up getting hired by microsoft to make new expansions for aoe2hd and also making aoe1de and aoe2de, and their team name is also " forgotten empires ". so basically they've redone their own campaigns in DE, which shows how much they care about the franchise
@@K1AoE Indeed, the first resurgence of Age of Empires II was the Forgotten Empires mod which came many years after the Age of Conquerors official expansion. This mod became popular enough that an official "The Forgotten" Expansion was released by Microsoft. A few other expansions later, and we now have the Definitive Edition, which is a true remaster of AOE2.
I'd never thought I'd live to see the day when AoE would outshine Warcraft - what a time to be alive.
Is this sarcasm? AoE was always superior.
@Honudes Gai I agree with everything you said except the part saying the custom maps were nothing to do with rts which is false. But yeah most people i know mostly played custom maps and only a little of the actual game itself.
FFXIV outshines modern WoW as well, and Path of Exile just *crushes* Diablo 3 mercilessly.
@@steel5897 I kinda disliked FFXIV as a WoW player. But then, I also think WoW is pretty shit now too.
@@steel5897 not really. 14 is like 4th or 5th place in the MMO genre.
This is such an unfair comparison. I mean, Microsoft has some standards.
@Agent 005 I hope they learned that the pros of crossplay far outweigh the cons. I hear people complain about m+kb being op, but I've literally listened to plenty of people complain about controller aim assist so I'm guess the vast majority of people complaining just arnt very good to begin with lol. Hopefully we get more crossplay with scarlett cause I'd love to play more games with my xbox friends since I only have pc and they only have xbox so we can only really play sea of theives/cod/smite together.
@Agent 005 nothing lousy about my Xbox my dude 😁
@Agent 005 Xbox has gone very pro consumer from quite a while. Only non gamers or p people l living under a rock wouldn't know it...
@@chaoticmuffin1538 it depends on the game more then anything and also is VERY difficult to balance right, and some games you just won't ever be able to find a proper balance to allow fair crossplay. Overwatch for example is a good example of a game that can't really pull off crossplay, due to the lack of natural finesse in controllers turrets were way OP compared to m+kb, so they had to nerf all turret type abilities in the console versions. How do you balance having people on console interact with PC when key features and abilities have to be given completely different damage and fire rate numbers?
But I have seen examples of aim assist being bad in both directions, too much and too little. It really does make a major difference. But I will say this from what I have seen so far, there is a higher room for growth in skill with m+kb to overcome the advantages various degrees of aim assist can give. But you need to actually grow that skill and not as many people will have that skill to make those plays with m+kb compared to people using controllers with a really unbalanced aim assist. And of course to make the balancing act trickier even if you got everything perfect and fair there will ALWAYS be salty people who are either pure crappy players or having a really off day who blame one way or the other for their performance. I'm sure we have ALL blamed hackers for a loss once or twice.
One company has gone up and the other down
I pre-ordered AoE2DE cuz I know AoE is love, but the way he mentioned all the + points of AoE2DE makes me feel proud of the game and the company that made it. a 20 year old game that was remade with REAL passion even when it's new part is in the works is just phenomenal. And the Xbox Game Pass, don't get me starting on that
Microsoft really learned a lot from their first Definitive Edition for AoE 1, this one is so damn good and the cadence for patches is also great
Wasn't a fan of AoE 1 - DE, yes they learnt a lot. AoE 2 - DE other than the minor bugs is a near perfect remaster and has an unbeatable price/value ratio, the game is just absolutely amazing.
@Agent 005 since when is musical jargon corporate speak
Well lets not forget they already succeed with Halo: CE and Halo 2 anniversaries years before....the thing about the first AoE: Definitive Edition is that the original game was never as good as its sequel was, I actually think the original game should have been remade entirely, because it has not aged that well. But granted they also listened to community and made better job with AoE2: Definitive Edition, but bottom line AoE: Definitive Edition's main problem was that the game original game had not aged well and remastering it was not going to improve it enough.
Yeah I'm 100% convinced that aoe1 players were the guinea pigs they used so that aoe2 would be polished and a better product. Because let's face it, aoe2 is THE best game in the franchise from a financial viewpoint. Look at what happened over the course of aoe1DE. Tons of bug fixes, a rocky launch that was eventually improved, the pathfinding was tinkered with until it was improved, I'd wager money that was practice for aoe2's coding as well.
I can't wait for AoE4, particularly after seeing the love that 2 got. After seeing Reforged, and the way Blizzard is treating the IP, I don't even want Warcraft 4 anymore.
Reforged is the closest Blizzard will ever get to making Warcraft 4.
I do not want d4 after this... did not found my money on trash can
We have to wait. Next release is AoE3 DE then AoE4. Maybe 2023.
Mateo Kostar this is literally how you hype up your new product and gain new customers while bringing back your old ones! Perfect PR move from Microsoft, clever!
@@neilnograles 2023? Thats a bit too late, I'd say 2021 the latest.
This is what Blizzard looked like when they were not an Activision product. Microsoft has been really good about buying IPs and not messing with them, just letting the studio remaster and resell on its own terms. It makes it an effort of love rather than a soulless corporate cash grab.
I believe the studio is a new team. They were modders that were given the chance to make DLC for Age of 2 original and they've been trusted more and more by remastering the trilogy (AoE III Definitive is coming). Best bit is the new team are making AoE IV building off AoE II (The fav).
As a fan it has been fantastic for me. I really feel for Warcraft fans because they deserve just as good a treatment as Microsoft has given AoE
@Agent 005 That what happens when you creat a shit XP system. Not counting the controller aim bot problem.
At first Microsoft fucked up with Rare (R.I.P. Banjo & Kazooie and Perfect Dark), but seemed to learn from their mistake and are more open now ;)
I think there was a realization after a few fuck ups that they should hold up and just say ok.. here is a bunch of money...ramp up a team if needed and make something great and just try and do it in a reasonable time but if it takes a bit longers thats fine. Quality has become more important because the realization that customer satisfaction wins more than anything else. It also helps that msoft honestly has deep pockets to let games studios they grab to sit around and let games bake till done.
I was concerned when Microsoft bought Mojang. I envisioned everything in Minecraft being locked behind a paywall, Activision/EA style. But they have treated the players and the devs so well that it really changed my perspective on Microsoft. I never played Age of Empires, Age of Mythology was more interesting to me, but I'll definitely be refunding the Reforged garbage and picking it up.
Imagine a definitive edition of this quality, but for Heroes of Might and Magic 3.
Dark_Figure4 now that’s a game that I haven’t thought about for a very long time. One of the first greats for pc
A legendary title. Spend my teenage hood playing it with my friends. Bought every single expansion. There is still a room for 2D games in today's market, look at Oxygen Not Included.
ooooo, I want it!
There is actually a community driven remaster, that has new factions and campaing, etc, etc, with better multiplayer option! Try searching for HotA(Horn of the abbys) expansion!
Might & Magic series ended up as mobile games lol. I will never forget nor forgive Ubisoft for running these series to the ground. I play their games only when they give them out for free (they do it from time to time) or on Black Friday, when I bought Heroes 7 dirt cheap, which compared to the game's budget, was completely fair.
Glad to see this glowing comparison, I've been playing the hell out of AoE2DE since it dropped, and have only had more incentive to spend more time in it and even give custom map making a go with War3 Refunded being such garbage. Such a great game with such great dev love of it.
I played almost 200 hours and it feels like I just touched the surface. Amazing game. 15 Euros well spent!
Its just History repeating itself. Theres a lot of similarities between General Motors and Blizzard entertainment and their downfall. during the Early years of GM, they had Car guys as upper management, but in the late 70's the bean counter took over upper management and they started making cars for share holders. boring crap and started becoming unreliable as they started cutting corners for maximum profit. Blizzard had people who were passionate about games and ran the business in that fashion, but as the years went on the same crap accord to them like GM. As they merged and became Activision Blizzard, the passionate people realize it wasn't the same game company anymore and started leaving. Now the Bean counters started to take over upper management and priorities started shifting to fiscal profits and making share holders happy.
This makes me really sad. I've been a fan boy since Warcraft 1 and loved most of Blizzard games. but noticed that things were slowly changing and saw the Death Knell happening live on Blizzcon 2018 when they announced Diablo Immortal. I literally purchased blizzcon virtual ticket to watch the diablo announcement as there were rumors about a new game coming out. I could not fathom how someone there thought it would go over well with hardcore fans who spent thousands of dollars to attend the event in person.
I've subbed to wow since it went live and for the first time i'm seriously thinking of ending my subscription and not bothering with shadowlands. BFA is a complete $hit show and 8.3 just made me want to quit.
Welcome to Capitalism. Enjoy your stay with your life conditions and the merchandise you acquire becoming more precarious by the day.
ages of empires DE is freaking great, warcraft 3 reforge broke when leaving the forge
dont give blizzard any love! dont forgive them! remember: they betrayed us
pirate their games! share the safe links to your friends and topple blizzard from their golden thrones.
Hot dang. I'm going to go buy Age of Empires Definitive Edition!
age of empires 2 DE cough cough. The 2 is important here
Yes don't forget the "2" because you might bought the "1", cheaper but AoE "2" is better
@@krioni86sa Well he could get the bundle, it think it actually cheaper too
dont forget the 2!, AoE DE 1 was their first attempt at an definitive edition and it was.... well... , lets just say 2 was way better
Nononono it's AOE *2*
AOE 1 definitive edition isn't that great tbh
The best thing about AoE 2 DE is that I can still play my old version if I want to...
I'm going to buy Age of Empires 2: DE. Was already thinking about it but for sure now
It’s awesome. It is powered by nostalgia, except they made you forgot all the old annoying stuff like manually positioming Trebs or reseeding farms.
Or get gamepass, this game is on it
PC version only though
I'll have to say it, Microsoft has been doing a lot of great things lately when it comes to gaming. Halo master chief edition fixes, game pass, backward compatibility, great games like Forza and horizon. New releases on game pass. A breathing game ecosystem. Low prices. Promising new gen console. AoE and so on. It's refreshing too see something positive in the industry.
Bought Aoe 2 Definiton with my refund money (:
Money well spent Sir.
Same! I'm so happy with it!
"Microsoft just went super consumer-friendly"
me: O__O sweet jesus what times we are in?!?
It's amazing what happens when you actually put effort into making a game better.
If i said AoE kicked WC's butt... that be rather inaccurate.
If i said AoE snuck into WC's house, killed his parents, took their heads as trophy's .. and ran over their dog on the way out....- comes a lot closer :)
ps though CNC Remastered is still THE *gold standard* how its done. 2 games. 2 engines +expansions + soundtracks, mods, bonus content, etc etc... for 20$ ON STEAM
😂👌🔥🔥
That's so dark man, but true 😂😂😂
Microsoft did a damn fine job. I hope they can do as well with AoE 3 definitive edition.
Same if they did that good in aoe 2 then 3 should be very good
Or age of mythology
If Microsoft release AoE IV as a fine piece of art...man, blizzard well be on a bad situation
@@turkmen8594 As Lawrence said, this already exists as Age of Mythology Extended Edition
@@nameless9573 Not necessarily. The team that made AOE 2 DE was the same team behind AOE 2 HD and the mods (fan-made expansions) that came before it. What I'm trying to say is that the developers are huge AOE 2 fans and have experience around that game, hence that's why it's been such a great remaster in my opinion.
Ever since Aoe2:DE came out I have started playing again after ages. It has been the best experience for multiplayer options and now we play at least one game every day with my friends. I am really glad for what the devs did and for the choices the management made. Its definitely worth its price.
AoE 2 was part of my childhood for sure. Based on your mentions, I bought the AoE 2 DE and so far it is an amazing buy. Just finished the Barbarossa campaign (just on standard tho). Great stuff
Just bought it with the refunded money, thanks for the recommendation.
"Hide old game and make players buy new remastered version" I see Blizzard is learning a lot from Todd Howard and his Skyrim Remastered
I'll bet it's a not Todd Howard but their investors are pushing for this, pushing for monetise custom content and going for mobile style monetization
@@chadiaffan1956 it is a Joke xD
Microsoft: 105
Blizzard: 5
When an AAA title for PC got compared to Raid: Shadow Legend, you know it's goddamn shitty
AoE2DE: Here's some new features you might like! But wait there's More! There's also this new Feature!
Warcraft 3 Refunded: We're sorry we had some issues surrounding this, and some problems because of whatnot... but hey Graphics are fine! also you can't turn on shadows if you're not playing refunded... etc and whole bunch of other stuffs!
ALSO NO REFUNDS!
I hope they make an Age Of Mythology Definitive Edition as good as this one.
I'd SO buy it in a heartbeat
It doesnt sound like they are doing AOM... not sure why..
@@icecoldchilipreppers They might have to remake it from the ground up I bet, I do not remember how good the game was at managing a lot of models at the same time, much less new higher polycount models.
You can already get an remastered version on steam. It's called Age of Mythology: Extended Edition.
P R O S T A G M A
Never thought I'd see the day when Microsoft was making better publisher decisions than Blizzard. Excellent video, as ALWAYS.
Adding positivity can add "balance", but just don't let that become your priority, covering the less popular topics because they are positive. The world, and this industry, is not all fair and positive. Precisely why I come here is that you cover the biggest topics whether they are good or bad, not just picking what you want to cover to get a "balance" of "good and bad"
You remind me of the Can. "What can?" The Last Can. "Who can?" You can. "Can what?" Remind me of the Can.
or some good ol' david bowie too...
You remind me of the babe (what babe?)
The babe with the power (what power?)
The power of voodoo (who do?)
You do (do what?)
Remind me of the babe
Haaa, The Labyrinth
I SAW MY BABY...
When software company (Microsoft) makes better game than purely video games company (Blizzard)...
What the hell is going on in the world when we are praising Microsoft and ripping Blizzard. I feel like I’m in the wrong dimension or something...I’ve slipped into an alternate timeline
I want to go back home
I honestly dont have ever understand the kind of hate ppl have had for Microsoft. Yes I understand they have made lot of mistakes over the years on several factors, BUT to me they have never resulted in the kind of stuff we are seeing from EA or Activision-Blizzard for example.But thats just my opinion about the matter, what they have mainly done in recent years is disappointed with their lack of 1st party titles but thats something they are on the road of fixing.
@@Balnazzardi "I honestly dont have ever understand the kind of hate ppl have had for Microsoft." I work as a web dev and have to support IE.
@@Balnazzardi You're so innocent. Given the chance Microsoft will screw you over equally if not, worse than others. They're here to make money not video games.
@@summonsays2610 Ah well IE has always been big fat joke, I wont deny that....but like I said to me in terms of gaming atleast, MS has never pissed me off like EA or Activision-Blizzard have.
@@SteveL11 And who isnt out there to make money? All companies are, but atleast to me it seems Microsoft has turned entirely new leaf when it comes to their gaming division. Reviving a franchise like Age of Empires in big way like this, not only getting Relic to make Age of Empires IV, but also remastering all 3 previous games....I personally think its great to see as well as Microsoft investing into new 1st party studios and not caring about "Xbox exclusives" so much rather than trying to offer their games to as large audience as possible, as long as the games are on their own platforms/services.
Again atleast from gaming side, to me MS has never been the kind of "villain" some ppl have seen it
It's not that Blizzard doesn't know how to do a remake, they just don't care anymore. The Homeworld remastered is also a masterful remake, and they released Deserts of Kharak after that.
This was a brilliant advertisement for AOE. I will buy as soon as I’m back at my PC
From someone heavily involved in the Age of Empires community, thank you for making this video and continuing to spread the reach of Age.
~ Willis_35
When you start watching the video and then UA-cam notifies you
*Speed*
I love AoE, been fan of since the Rise of the Rome! Even made song about it on my channel.
happy to see that AoE gets the credit it deserves ! cheers
we need you to do more videos like this. They cannot be allowed to get away with this. I wish you actually tried to contact Blizzard about this
Bellular: "Now let's compare this to Warcraft 3"
Me: "What's Warcraft 3?"
like, the best competitive RTS ever created. Also the perfect sandbox.
I've been following the Aoe2 community for a long time and I gotta say, it's the decision to listen to the community as well as the community being super nice - that contributed to such a massive success.
-Many of the devs are actually part of the Forgotten Empires team(the team who created the HD expansions), who started out as a group of volunteers int he early 2010's with the dream to bring the game to a better place. They created their mod in 2012 which revolutionised the game forever.
-Chris from Voobly said that he had to spend over $20k over 12 years from his own money to contribute to the maintenance of the website and its open-source projects(like Open Red Alert).
-There is a Finnish player who is among the elitest of the elite, but at the same time has a vast knowledge of AI scripting and has contributed to the AI scheme. His custom made AI set up new standards of how AIs should be - vibrant, humanly and very, very skilled. AIs will cheese you like a smurf and has few exploits which can be utilised only by very skilled players.
-The art of war was made to promote multiplayer play by exposing the competitive environment to pve'rs. The tutorials are narrated by BBQ Turkman - a professional caster and a popular UA-camr.
-Microsoft has actively donated to the prize pools of tournaments organised by the community, and did well to promote the pros and big UA-camrs(who aren't so big - with less than 200k subs).
-There were mini-contests on the Forgotten Empires website, such as taking screenshots of beautiful cities designed in the scenario editor, as well as artwork contests. The voice-over for campaigns in African Kingdoms was also done by volunteers.
-AND LASTLY, the community is SUPER FRIENDLY. People gift subs on Twitch, take part in meaningful conversations and are always willing to teach noobs to get better instead of bullying them. All the pros have good sense of friendship and deliberately refrain from cheesing each other by stealing animals or other resources out of mutual respect.
Coming soon, Age of Empirecraft: Wrath of the Byzantines
Mircosoft is just getting better and better
I had no idea about the AoE definitive edition. Based on this video, buying it ASAP. Glad I didn't waste the money on WC3: Reforged... was looking forward to it.
AoE2 DE specifically. AoE DE was good but AoE2 DE is just vastly superior.
I’m surprised Blizzard didn’t implement microtransactions to WC3 gameplay or implement Winnie the Pooh.
When You buy this game with the refunded money, do not forget to mention this fact in your review... :D
I like the change you did today. It was a nice change and a welcome one. Having an occasional break from bad news is a good idea.
WC3 is getting rekt by AoE2 Definitive Edition, and Diablo Immortal is getting rekt by PoE Mobile. WoW is failing, OW is beginning to fail, Blizz really has lost their ability to make games. I wonder what kind of mess Diablo 4 will be? I really hope they learn before that comes to pass. I somehow doubt that however... SMH
Blizzard has lost their freedom to make good games. The Activision suits are morally bankrupt.
Activision-Blizz has fully embraced the minimum viable product philosophy. Unfortunately a reputation built up over decades of quality games has allowed them to set that bar exceedingly low. The record profits are not a fluke because enough of the fanbase hasn't felt the water boiling yet. JAB has been a disaster. Considering he was a producer on Star Wars: Galaxies and that historic implosion, someone should have seen this coming.
"the server based multiplayer of AOE4 have been back ported"
Damn. Inside scoops!
Caught that...happens, he was genuinely excited talking about this... unlike sad depressed mood talking about blizz.
AoE2 DE also has a new cheat code where you can make a cat riding a shark jet so it can fly and shoot missiles.
I mean, c'mon. Even that alone should make it worth the $15-20, the rest is just a bonus
You know usually when you release two simillar games, with same tematic, same genre or whatsoever, it damages the selling numbers of each company. In this case, Reforged was the best thing that could happen to AoE2
You forgot to add that AoE 2: DE devs originally made it for Win10 only, but they took the time to make it work with previous Win OS.
Imagine telling someone 2010: "In the future Microsoft will be the good and Blizzard will be the bad company"
Combined with WoW you have this:
World of Warcraft Reforged: Battle to kill Azeroth. And the idiocy of Blizzard - the sword is still stuck in the planet but the Voice of Azeroth (Magni) says - "The old god is dead, she is fine now!" - lol.
They really do not know what they are doing anymore. Every time I see Ian Hazzikostas in a video (just recall Blizzcon) I get the feeling he is coming down from a hangover or high on drugs.
Bellular thank you for bringing AOE2DE into view. I would not have noticed it had you not made this video. Thank you.
I hope they make an Age of Mythology Definitive Edition sometime, because in many ways it's the true rival to WC3 (being released in the same year)
Im sure they will, I mean considering how succesfull and popular these Definitive Editions seem to be for them. But ye I remember well when they were released and there was actually this big 3 way RTS rivalry around 2002-2003 with Warcraft III, Age of Mythology and C&C Generals....those were the golden days of RTS genre....sad to see how the genre almost died, but with revival of Age of Empires and project like Iron Harvest getting crowdfunded, I have some hope for the future of RTS games. Even though Blizzard failed us with Reforged.
Personally for me btw how I ranked those games are:
1.Warcraft III: RoC/TFT (still my favorite game(s) of all time)
2.C&C Generals/Zero Hour
3.Age of Mythology/Titans
But dont get me wrong, all were excellent games imho, its just that for whatever reason I liked Age of Mythology the least, possibly because at the time atleast I thought the mythological creatures of AoM were too OP compared to regular units, so you just wanted to build as many as them as possible. Then when years later I played the HD edition, I realized how much they actually cost compared to regular units and that you could actually play the game also with just large army of regular units and how to best use them was ofc important as well.
But ye, I really hope Definitive Edition of AoM as well, because its 3D engine has not aged well, unlike that of Age 3 that still actually looks rather good, but Im still eager to see its Definitive Edition as well.
Try Age of Mythology: Extended Edition on steam it's the current remastered version.
ΒΟΥΛΟΜΑΙ!
Reje?
I work in a software company, support engineer for a piece of software that is massive and used for companies. Yes we have hundreds of tickets regarding bugs however 99% of them are caused by customers (rightfully) are caused by EDI interaction or related to performance due to customer tinkering that we are required to solve as part of contracts. We are talking about software that interacts with GPS, Ships, tricks, trains, warehouses and hundreds of clients. Yes sometimes our software bogs down, but it deals with endless data. If i look at what happens in the games industry it is simple. If we where to a single of these shitty scammy actions our reputation would be ruiend. Sure we have bugs, however if something slips through the cracks (it rarely happens but it does) it is a p1 fix... 30 min to pick up non stop work untill its fixxed. The games industry does not deal with customers... they deal with consumers... consumers that are often to blind to view that they are being screwed over. (cash shops, pre purchases, absurd prices) and are extremely unlikely to backlash to being treated poorly. So why give you the same service as I am required to give my customers? To hell with testing your products... you got to the money let them test it. Why implement everything you say when you got the money and you know they will come back. Unless the customer base changes... they wont change.
Age of Empires II DE: WOLOLO
Warcraft III Reforged: WOLOLOL
I am a wc3 players for 10 years who made the switch to AOE2:DE a month ago seeing the reforge was looking like shit. I am having a blast, the community is super nice and the game is alot of fun.
I do want to see more positivity. While it was great to see the WCIII:R is a complete dumpster as a sort of warning, I think endorsing great things is even better for gamers in general. Pointing to things that are well-made and to be enjoyed is, in my opinion, just as valuable as helping people avoid the grief of buying a bad game
Good work getting the video and audio synched on this one.
AoE2:DE is comparable to Homeworld remastered and even better in many ways, both did extremely well and earned their pricetag.
AOE is the reason I got into pc gaming in 1998. I went to a friends house and played it on his pc and fell in love. The fact that people are still enjoying this game in 2020 puts a smile on my face. Can't wait for AOE4!
You should check out some of the recent tournaments, REALLY high level play with some great personalities on youtube and twitch. I found out that people are playing it competitively about half a year ago. Outstanding community behind this game that's been supporting and playing it for decades . They just did NAC, and will be doing Hidden Cup 3 soon.
@@kahal510 Thanks for the info! I'll have to brush up on my skills so these kids don't wreck me lol.
The difference in these releases has been completely insane.
And thanks a lot, Bellular, for shouting out AoE 2 because we really needed some more players and this is one of the games that really deserve it.
Mircosoft has just hella consumer focused recently. It astonishes me tbh.
I just bought Definitive Edition this morning, I am astounded with how good it feels and with the work they've done. I bought the 2013 HD edition too, years ago, which was a nice touch up. But this is just fantastic.
I got my Warcraft 3 refund. Think I’ll take that money and go buy age of empires.
I believe MS actually hired the whole development team for a massive age of empires 2 mod when they where doing ao2 HD.
Yes, the Forgotten Empires expansion was the mod...
MS got the whole team to work on HD (and kept them around)
@@TheWilyx
Honestly, good job on MS's part. Glad those modders got rewarded for their efforts.
Thank you for this. There is so much negativity out there about the gaming industry, it really is good to hear something positive. I know there is a lot to complain about, but hearing some good news is really a relief.
I get it now, some higher up in blizz realized they are still paying for w3 servers and came up with a plan to dissuade people from playing it WHILE selling another version of the game - brilliant
Yes! So happy AOE2 DE getting some love, hardly anyone talking about it on mainstream channels. I bought it as soon as it came out, and was not disappointed. Super active dev team releasing frequent patches and doing balancing work on the different civs. If you liked AOE2 I highly recommend AOE2 DE. Its the same as the original only better. It feels and plays almost exactly the same as the classic, while having a more modern look and tons and tons of content, there's like 35 playable civs now....
I have never agreed this much to your words. I thought I had bought reforged but I must have forgotten and oh boy am I glad I did
Greed vs Passion
So glad. I was in the alpha and beta of AOE2DE. We used to constantly and still report and use the forum so much. The devs were so responsive.
It was always a communication that felt genuine, resulting in a fine product.
I know I gave AOE DE a 10/10 review on steam, absolutely amazing game and I’m coming from the conquerers. very good details and still pays homage to the original game perfectly
Didn't hear about aoe2 definitive edition, this made consider buying it. And the way blizzard has been treating their games and customers lately, I am thinking about completely skipping D4, despite it looking to been exactly what D3 should have been.