Age of Empires 4

[Raptorsin7]

Anyone on this forum playing the new age of empires 4 beta?

[Chew211]

No, but will get it as soon as it comes out. 

AOE 2 is the first game I ever touched. I was 3. I've improved slightly since then ?

[Raptorsin7]

@Chew211 Sweet, I played a lot of AOE 3 growing up. Some of my happiest memories and best feelings were from playing that game.

AOE 4 has a ton of potential imo. I was impressed by the beta. I'm going to post on the forum and see if some of my ideas can actually be implemented by developers 

[Milos Uzelac]

I've spent a large part of my childhood being entranced and incapsulated by all of the games of the AOE series from 1, 2 to Mythology and 3 and its expansions. They were basicly my fondest childhood memories and I've improgramed in my mind the sounds and voices from those games as well as the general feeling when playing them and their aesthetic. 

However this heavy nostalgia of my childhood years and times that I felt when they released the new expansions for all of the games of the genre and the definitive edition remakes of the original games only fueled my escapist desires (especially when listening to the soundtracks, finding new memes about the game and watching gameplay videos of the series and sinking a lot of hours in these activities) and addictive habits of playing video games for long hours during my school years and a large part of my university time to distract myself from some of the problems I've faced and work I've had to do and the unresolved and unmitigated pains and sufferings I've been facing in my own life for some time currently. 

So eventually after they announced the release of the definitive edition and the 4th title game in the series I've decided to let go of my desires of childhood nostalgia of wanting to play one of those games or watch how the gameplay looks like since I see it as an unhealthy temptation and desire that fuels my wants to using and overabusing it in an unhealthy amount of time to distract myself for investing and directing most of my time and energy in facing and solving my current problems and using it as an escapist unhealthy habit tplo avoid facing issues I now and currently have with my life. 

Didn't want to intentionally darken up this conversation and thread just wanted to share my experiences and memories with the game series and my obstacles preventing me for being more involved when it comes to upcoming sequel of the game a part from hardware and money ones in terms of starting it up. 

Edited August 9, 2021 by Milos Uzelac

[Roy]

I will strongly consider buying it when it comes out. I was a gamer for a long time but I have not been interested in any games that have been hyped up or have come out in the past 5~ years.

I mostly just stick to Eu4 when I want to play something, or a different shooter now and then.

AOE2 (The Conquerors Expansion) was one of the first games I ever had, it's aged quite well and is still great to this day. I have it on Steam.

[Michael569]

I'm enjoying the AOE2 HD version on steam. It's one of those strategy games like Starcraft 1 that you can pretty much play in 50 years and it will still be super enjoyable. I

'm not sure if AOE4 won't just be the exactly same game with hyper graphics. It's tricky, if they add too much new functionality, they will offend the all-time gamers by changing the core concept but if the game just ends up being AOE2 with better graphics, there will be little added value to the new players. It may end up being an overpriced AOE2. 

Mount and Blade did something similar with M&B2 where they released 95% copy of the previous game with improved graphics. I found it quite boring after few hours. Not to mention poor optimisation of graphics 

[Eren Eeager]

I don't know, I actually think aoe is massively overrated game. I played 2 and 3 and both actually feel like a pain in the ass actually to play. I much prefer stronghold crusader and command and conquer generals. Also the upcoming aoe 4 game looks shity actually.

[Roy]

On 8/11/2021 at 4:10 AM, Michael569 said:

I'm enjoying the AOE2 HD version on steam. It's one of those strategy games like Starcraft 1 that you can pretty much play in 50 years and it will still be super enjoyable. I

Bruh play with me sometime! I've been wanting to play it again.

[Raptorsin7]

@modmyth I never played AOE 1, but i played a bit of AOE2 it was one of the first games I ever played.

I think AOE3 came around at the perfect time for me, it was just so exciting and exhilarating to make armies etc

A lot of people really hated AOE3, to this day AOE2 has a significantly larger player based than AOE 3

[Raptorsin7]

1 minute ago, modmyth said:

@Eren Eeager  I think for some of us (well, at least for myself), the nostalgia factor makes it really hard to see it more "objectively". Though I remember playing similar styled strategy games at the time of AoE 1/2 and they weren't as good IMO. Also, it was genre defining.

Yeah the memories of play AOE 3 are some of the best of my life. I was still somewhat emotionally open at that point so my ability to enjoy the game was unparalleled 

[Roy]

4 minutes ago, Raptorsin7 said:

A lot of people really hated AOE3, to this day AOE2 has a significantly larger player based than AOE 3

Ngl I bought AOE3 on a steam sale years ago.... haven't tried it because of the narrative I've heard about it, and remember seeing my friend play 15 years ago and not liking it then lol.

Funnily enough it looks like it's based on the colonial era of history, which I enjoy quite a bit. I have a shameful amount of hours logged on Europa Universalis 4 

[Eren Eeager]

@modmyth Yeah, absolutely. And they using that against gamers in the upcoming average game they are developing.

Just look at this.

It is basically aoe 2 with a better graphics.

 

[Michael569]

@Roy i actually suck ? but DM me your nick on Steam ?

[Michael569]

On 16/08/2021 at 10:56 AM, modmyth said:

As a lifelong history nerd, I especially liked reenacting my favourite historical battles that I read about in books.

Seems like you would really enjoy the Total War series. I've clocked an unflattering number of hours in Rome II throughout my youth but am quite happy to return to it even today. 

[Raptorsin7]

@modmyth I just listened to a series on Napolean's wars and now I have an urge to download the Napoleonic era total war game haha

[Michael569]

8 hours ago, modmyth said:

I think there's one based on Shogunate Japan that he's played a lot

Yop, I've clocked over 300 hours on SHogun 2 & Fall of Samurai, not to mention nearly 400 on Rome II  

You know what the worst thing is, I'd probably do it again it they didn't start making all that Warhammer garbage 

[Michael569]

10 minutes ago, modmyth said:

What's the best one of the series, or a good one to start with? (If it matters.) I'm trying to expand my palette a bit.

 

For me it was definitely Rome 2 but that's because I'm really passionate about that time of human history and I explore a lot of those sites here in UK on weekends. The Shogun 2 series are awesome if you liked the movie, The Last Samurai, with Tom Cruise. The Medieval one was also awesome but it is a bit older so expected outdated graphics. For me napoleon didn't fit but that's because I don't particularly like that period of European history. 

13 minutes ago, modmyth said:

ve spent an embarrassing amount of time in the past on the Elder Scroll series, though not that much time on Skyrim. Not as much as I was expecting to when it came out, anyway, and also on the Dragon Age series (and Bioware games back in the day in general, like Mass Effect, etc.). Like in the hundreds of hours.

no shame in spending that time with ES series. It was s time well spend  Mass Effects 3 was insanely good but Andromeda sucks imo. 

14 minutes ago, modmyth said:

It used to be really nice to have an outlet where I just did not think about my life and the outside world at all, probably because I was pretty "on" the rest of the time. Classic escapism, I guess.

Yop, my youth used to be the same 

[Raptorsin7]

5 minutes ago, Michael569 said:

For me it was definitely Rome 2 but that's because I'm really passionate about that time of human history and I explore a lot of those sites here in UK on weekends. The Shogun 2 series are awesome if you liked the movie, The Last Samurai, with Tom Cruise. The Medieval one was also awesome but it is a bit older so expected outdated graphics. For me napoleon didn't fit but that's because I don't particularly like that period of European history. 

I loved the last samurai maybe I'll check that one out.

 

21 minutes ago, modmyth said:

What's the best one of the series, or a good one to start with? (If it matters.) I'm trying to expand my palette a bit.

 

I've actually never played a total war game. I've played a few different RTS games, but growing up I played a lot of Halo, Gears of war, and call of duty

[Michael569]

1 hour ago, modmyth said:

Speaking of games around the late 90s/ early 00s time period with an Ancient Roman theme, do you by any chance remember a game called Caesar III?

ofcourse! It was around the time Starcraft and Dune were out as well. The early days of my video game addiction  

Yop the first video sums it up! No, there were good features. The graphics were excellent but the gameplay was repetitive and vanilla.