Tuesday, August 22nd 2017
Microsoft Announces Age of Empires IV, Developed by Relic Entertainment
I remember Age of Empires II fondly; it was my first PC game, really. The intro sequence of chess really served to put my young mind racing towards ideas of military movements and countermovements, and led me towards devouring historical romances accompanying the exploits of Alexander the Great (Valerio Massimo Manfredi's novels), and Hannibal Barca (I'm partial to Ross Leckie in this one). Now, Microsoft has announced yet another installment in this PC-exclusive series, after Age of Empires III's somewhat lukewarm reception. Age of Empires IV is coming for all of your medieval RTS needs.
Since Microsoft has since dismantled Age of Empires historical developers Ensemble Studios (while finishing development on the first Halo Wars, no less), the helm of the series is now being taken by Relic Entertainment (of Warhammer 40,000K: Dawn of War and Company of Heroes fame), in partnership with Microsoft Studios. In an announcement on its website, Relic wrote that "[We] couldn't be more proud to be a part of the legacy, (...) We can't wait to tap into our strengths as a studio to fuse historical context with deep strategic gameplay, and to bring this franchise back to the forefront of gaming and into the hands of its beloved community." And this is not all: in addition to the previously announced Definitive Edition of Age of Empires I, which will be out in the wild come October 19th, Microsoft also announced Definitive Editions of Age of Empires 2 and 3. Fest your eyes on the trailers below.
Sources:
Relic News, via TechSpot
28 Comments on Microsoft Announces Age of Empires IV, Developed by Relic Entertainment
robin hood
robin hood
I also wonder how do you turn this on?
John Age of Empires (Rambo style)
Age of Empires Balboa (Rocky style)
Age of Empires 4.0 (Die Hard style)
Age of Empires Endgame (Highlander style)
I really dont like game trailers without some actual game play.
They should stick to historical stuff but I think AOE 4 would be about the world wars or present day wars, which I might not enjoy a lot. It could also be somewhat like Rise of Rome, where we began in the nomadic age and moved to nuclear era in the end.
I still play AOE ROR with friend on LAN. It is massive fun, especially because the resources are scarce, and it is a challenge to manage resources like gold and stone. AOE 2 had too much resources, you could make mistakes and still survive.
I'm cautiously optimistic though. Age of Empires is too big of an IP for Microsoft to have it not be fairly decent. I've always liked some other RTS like Civ more, but it will still be worth checking out.
Probably the biggest announcement so far at Gamescom. Granted it's not E3, but I've been expecting a bit more than the minor bread crumbs revealed so far.
This is still pretty big news though and I'll be keeping a close eye on the user reviews whether to buy it or not.
Following THQ's bankruptcy in 2013, Relic ended up in Sega's hands. Their 2 latest games, Company of Heroes 2 and Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War 3, were met with heavy criticism, mostly in regards to gameplay.
For old times sake :)
And don't forget they made Homeworld and Impossible Creatures.
AoE peaked at AoE II, but unfortunately the new HD edition screwed up the game.
Also, I'm glad too see I'm not the only one that enjoyed the first two games, but thought the third was meh.