Age of Empires 2 HD is broken, much anger is being felt

[CC17]

I preordered Age of Empires 2 HD on steam, as did many others. It became available to play and ever since then there have been masses of complaints from people about it crashing, bugging out or just plain not working. I myself am unable to play it as it won't even launch without crashing (apparently this is happening to anyone who tries to play it on xp or a 32-bit version of vista). Given that this is basically just an HD rerelease of an old game that worked fine, how have the developers managed to screw it up so badly?

EDIT: The system requirements specifically state it should work on xp.

Anyone on XP should stop bitching really. The OS is what 11 years old? I don't hear anyone about games not working on Win2k or 98 either. Anyone without at least Win7 64b should upgrade asap.

I dont get your logic. The developers specifically state it should run on xp. Therefore, it should run on xp, no?

XP is an 11 year old OS that's no longer officially supported. It's also being phased out of compatibility in newer titles today, even indie titles today are having trouble with Windows XP. Yeah the developers say that it should work with XP but PC gaming is a big more complicated then that and you know it.

The game also hasn't even been out 48 hours yet so there may be a patch/homebrew fix coming.

But seriously, if you're using your PC for gaming it makes little sense to have XP at this point. People who still use it seem to be wearing nostalgia goggles.

I guess thats true, i'm only running it on xp because i want to get it working on my old computer so when I go to uni I can take my gaming pc and be able to play my brother. Oh well, never mind I guess.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

It's weird how I some people can have everything wrong with the game but someone like me has a perfectly functioning game :/

I know right. Apparently Alpha Protocol and Skyrim were buggy as hell. Sure weren't for me.

Well sorry. I was a little interested in this game. Guess I won't be getting it now.

Get it. It seems to be only people using Vista (eww) and XP (made dated OS) that are having problems. Everyone else seems to be fine.

 

[MrJinglez]

On the steam store page it says: "This game will unlock in approximately 2 days and 15 hours".

If it works for you, then i am clueless since the game hasn't even been authorized to be played yet until the 9th, I pre-ordered mine and it gives me error "Failed to start, Contact Steam Tech support". This is a old school game i used to play when i was a midget teenager years ago. I have the original version in my old pc storage that looks so outdated lol. it runs with no problems. I'm Sure on April 9th it will work for most of you. If you are asking for a refund then look at the facts...: the game is "locked" right now, if it works... then perhaps you used an exploit or got lucky.... Be patient for a few more days, then you can try again, and if it isnt working still, then you have consent to complain.

 

[The_Lost_King]

It's weird how I some people can have everything wrong with the game but someone like me has a perfectly functioning game :/

I know right. Apparently Alpha Protocol and Skyrim were buggy as hell. Sure weren't for me.

Well sorry. I was a little interested in this game. Guess I won't be getting it now.

Get it. It seems to be only people using Vista (eww) and XP (made dated OS) that are having problems. Everyone else seems to be fine.

Oh good, I have windows 7 x64 I'll get it when it goes on sale for a little more. Summer sale will be good.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

On the steam store page it says: "This game will unlock in approximately 2 days and 15 hours".

If it works for you, then i am clueless since the game hasn't even been authorized to be played yet until the 9th, I pre-ordered mine and it gives me error "Failed to start, Contact Steam Tech support". This is a old school game i used to play when i was a midget teenager years ago. I have the original version in my old pc storage that looks so outdated lol. it runs with no problems. I'm Sure on April 9th it will work for most of you. If you are asking for a refund then look at the facts...: the game is "locked" right now, if it works... then perhaps you used an exploit or got lucky.... Be patient for a few more days, then you can try again, and if it isnt working still, then you have consent to complain.

There's no exploit to get the game working before the 9th. Those who pre-ordered before the 5th got early access is all.

 

[josemlopes]

Dont pre-order, solved.

The only game that for now was justified for pre-ordering was Bioshock Infinite (although I didnt) because even if it sucked you would also get 2 other games that were really good for a nice price. All the pre-order incentives that AOE2 had was the 10% Steam Sale... 10%... couldnt you wait?

Also, its usual that nowadays the first releases are all filled with bugs and shit, just give it some time.

 

[RedLister]

They have recently released a patch which will hopefully fix the windows XP problems, not sure about vista though since the small forum thread giving a small detail about the patch only mentioned XP.

Be nice if they got better frame rates for it. It is almost like they didn't even touch that side of the game. Or maybe that's just limitations of the old engine they used?

Hope they can fix the achievements too because they just don't seem to wanna trigger. Managed to get 5 pop up all at once after a nice 2 hour battle with some friends.

Sure they will brush up and fill in the cracks to get it to run better when it is officially released and more people will be playing.

 

[SpAc3man]

Been working perfectly for me on Windows 8 64bit.
You shouldn't be using XP. It is old, decrepit and obsolete. Not to mention a security risk.
Using XP these days is the equivalent of still using Win 3.X when XP came out.

 

[Auron]

I don't see the need for an older 2D-plane strategy game being re-released in "HD". It seems kind of redundant.

Compatibility, exposure, gauging for a possible sequel(amen.), it was updated with current stuff like automatching. It's a really good project if you fix the kinks.

 

[Yuno Gasai]

I'm running Windows 7 64-bit and haven't had any problems running the game itself.

I did run into some strange multiplayer issues when trying to play with @TheSaw: and @TimeLord:, though - apparently it doesn't approve of Time hosting at all. He kept being kicked and stuff.

I'm hoping that's an issue on their end that they're intending to fix. Hopefully. Maybe.

 

[Smeatza]

Bought a 4 pack, neither me or any of the 3 friends I gave copies to have had any issues.

The product is fine, perhaps the people having issues should get an operating system that isn't more than a decade old.