Age of Empires II Receives First Official Expansion in 14 Years

[Steven Bogos]

Age of Empires II Receives First Official Expansion in 14 Years

"Forgotten Empires," originally a fan-made mod, has received the official expansion status for Age of Empires II HD [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/122570-Microsoft-Reveals-Age-of-Empires-II-HD-Edition].

Well here's something you don't see every day, Age of Empires II, a game which is over 14 years old, is getting a brand new expansion pack. "Forgotten Empires," originally a fan-made mod, has received the official expansion status for the Age of Empires II HD Edition [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/122570-Microsoft-Reveals-Age-of-Empires-II-HD-Edition], and will be released this fall via Steam.

Forgotten Empires for the HD re-release will add a ton of new features to the game, including:

Proper spectator features
Twitch.tv integration (including chat ingame)
Forgotten Empires civs, units, tech tree and balance changes (can be toggled on and off at will in settings)
New game modes: Treaty (no rush mode), Capture the Relic (akin to neutral flag CTF)
New campaigns: Four new campaigns, all set in the Italian peninsula over its long and messy history (Fall of Rome, Mercenary fighters, the Byzantine campaigns to reconquer Italy, etc).
New map size: Ludicrous (4x the area of the previous largest)
New map scripts: Acropolis, Golden Pit, new Megarandom, etc.
New AI: Uses competitive builds and does not cheat.


If you own the original Age of Empires II (not the HD re-release) you can actually already download the mod [http://www.forgottenempires.net/install/] and try it out for free. It would be a safe bet to assume it will also be a free download when it comes out for the HD edition this fall.

Forgotten Empires includes 5 brand new civilizations: the Italians, Indians, Hungarians, Slavs, and the Incas, 30 new technologies, 9 new units, and a population increase to 1000. You'll be able to play with these new toys on 11 new maps.

Source: Gamechup [http://www.gamechup.com/aoe-2-gets-an-official-expansion-after-14-years-forgotten-empires/]

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[Buizel91]

Think i need to re-download steam holy fuck!

How much will this be? :O

 

[TimeLord]

As if I didn't spend enough time plotting the downfall of civilisations already. Now I can do it on 4x the map size with 1000 units!

 

[Random Argument Man]

First official expansion? No love for The Conquerors?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Empires_II:_The_Conquerors

 

[lacktheknack]

First official expansion? No love for The Conquerors?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Empires_II:_The_Conquerors

"In 14 years".

Which is false, because the first expansion was released 13 years ago. Tsk tsk, Escapist!

OT: Cool. Now, put them all in a bundle on sale, and I'll buy it!

 

[Random Argument Man]

First official expansion? No love for The Conquerors?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Empires_II:_The_Conquerors

"In 14 years".

Which is false, because the first expansion was released 13 years ago. Tsk tsk, Escapist!

OT: Cool. Now, put them all in a bundle on sale, and I'll buy it!

Yeah, had the same thought. Although, now I need to find my buggy Mac version of Age of Empires 2 somewhere hidden.....somewhere....

And that's when Steam is more practical.

 

[porous_shield]

I haven't got this for Steam yet but this update makes me want to.

I love Capture the Relic. My friends and I used to play a version of that first when the game game out.

 

[BreakfastMan]

Forgotten Empires includes 5 brand new civilizations: the Italians, Indians, Hungarians, Slavs, and the Incas, 30 new technologies, 9 new units, and a population increase to 1000. You'll be able to play with these new toys on 11 new maps.

Mother of God, that is 5 times the original limit! Just imagine a full compliment of players on the largest map, with the cap set to that max... *drools*

 

[Evil Smurf]

I'm going to download this, so hard. I really like the HD remake.

 

[RandV80]

Wow that sounds awesome, I suppose it was a free mod before but I'll still buy the HD remake now to try this out. Such an awesome game, and really becomes a head scratcher when you look at how developers managed to completely botch the RTS genre since it's release.

 

[mateushac]

1000 units? Holy mother fuck! I used to be disappointed with the old cap, but miltiplying it by 5 might be a little bit too much for me. That said, I had forgotten the HD remake had already come out, time to squeeze every last dime that remained in my wallet after steam's summer sale.

Edit: Think of the houses. You'll be able to wall off your entire civ with them.

 

[Natdaprat]

Does this game still suffer huge performance issues? I bought it on Steam and it lags like crazy even with a good computer.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Holy crap.

I think I finally found my raison d'etre regarding AoE2HD.

 

[TimeLord]

Does this game still suffer huge performance issues? I bought it on Steam and it lags like crazy even with a good computer.

The lag me and my friends usually found to be a connection issue with the game. It's been fixed since though.

 

[Aeshi]

Kudos to the Forgotten Empires guys, they really deserve it!

 

[SonicWaffle]

1000 units? Holy mother fuck! I used to be disappointed with the old cap, but miltiplying it by 5 might be a little bit too much for me.

Sounds like somebody never played Cossacks. Those games were fucking crazy. When I finally got around to throwing my army at someone, the screen would start to shake like a crack baby and it would take five minutes for them all just to empty out of my base.

Good times. Slow times, as it would take quarter of an hour for an army of that size to move across the screen, but good times nonetheless!

 

[Charli]

*polishes Age of Empires 2 disk* WHY DID I NOT KNOW OF THIS?

I forgot I even HAD the original but there it is in an old cd folder. I know what I'm doing this Sunday.

 

[scw55]

I'm excited for this (IF IT'S FREE)
I recently bought AoE2HD when it was 50% off on Steam. I initially regretted it, but after learning how to play (not just mine lots of stone and slowly push a wall across the map with Castles stacked with archers), I really got invested into the game. Helps playing the campaigns I didn't play much of.

If the Expansion is indeed the Free-Mod, then it ought to be Free, because otherwise people will download the free mod. Just because it's "Official" status doesn't means it suddenly should be charged for. They can, but it'd be foul play.

Especially since they didn't do much work 'reworking AoEHD'. Merely increased the display resolution and make the game work on new PCs with more reliable and easier multiplayer.

Whilst other people think military units with regards to 1000 pop cap. I imagine Economy.
I'm imagining the horror unleashed with 500 villagers. Locusts. Imagine all the Military Production buildings you'd need to keep on top of your income.
Maybe the pop cap will support play-styles where one players focuses on economy, and the other on military, and the Economy Civ funnels resources into the Military one.

 

[Playful Pony]

This is awesome... I love the HD remake, such a nostalgia trip. Strangely this is still the RTS I have the most fun playing, it blows any of the new ones I have tried out of the water. May just be that I remember it so fondly.

Does this game still suffer huge performance issues? I bought it on Steam and it lags like crazy even with a good computer.

My friends and I no longer have problems with lag. Don't know if the problem has been fixed for everyone, but it certainly has for us. No connection issues and no disconnects happening.

 

[rasputin0009]

This gives me the biggest trebuchet. Probably 1000's of hours were spent on this game. It's so broken, but so much fun. Maybe because it reached out to the inner OCD in me. Houses had to be in perfect rows or blocks and other nonsense. I probably created the most efficient way to run an economy, all by accident. That's how much time I spent on it.