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Age of Empires 4 announced, made by Relic (Dawn of War/Homeworld/Company of Heroes)
- Thread starter Doukou
- Start date
My problem with Relic as the choice for this franchise is that I think the first DoW is by far the best game they've made, and everything since then has been moving ever further away from what I want in RTS, and also from what I think makes a good AoE game.
I'm hopeful but skeptical.
LukasTaves
Member
Age 2 came to PS2 in an era where control schemes were far more rough than what we have now, and the PC version wasn't compromised in any way.
If they don't want to compromise the pc version then don't, the existence of a console version shouldn't force them to.
funkystudent
Member
Big AoE fan growing up. It was my strategy game.
I sure do hope Microsoft dont drop the ball here
I sure do hope Microsoft dont drop the ball here
Move to 3d like AOE.
In another timeline perhaps
Lashley
Why does he wear the mask!?
Yeah I know, they should add KB & Mouse support to xbox
Bl@de
Member
I have a feeling it will end up as a timed exclusive. Userbase on Steam is too big to ignore. 6-12 months after the W10 store is my guess.
I mean, Age of Empires 2 HD sold over 4.3 million copies.
I'm not expecting this to look astonishingly different from the Age of Empires franchise.
mysteriousmage09
Member
Warcraft IV from modern Blizzard is a huge Monkey's Paw moment waiting to happen.
Yearsoflurking
Member
Could build it for pc then work on console controls/ ui after.
FearlessBelgian
Member
With Relic there is a bigger chance because they make RTS's with squad controls but that would mean the identity of AOE would be in jeopardy.
That said, they might not even bother. Did Halo Wars 2 even sell 500k copies?
If a brand like Halo can't sell that on the Xbox, what chance does AOE have? Why would they try?
So what era do we think this will be? It's been years since I played I and II, and I've never played III, but from my memory, the eras were as follows:
AoE: Neolithic to Rome at it's peak (post 3rd Punic War)
AoE II: Fall of Rome (Hun campaign) to the fall of the Aztec Empire (1521) and the Japanese defeat at Noryang Point (1598)
AoE III (never played): Colonisation of Americas and French Revolutionary Wars.
So, logically thinking:
AoE IV: covers approx 1815 to 1918, which would include the following:
- Crimean War
- Wars of German Unification
- Italian Risorgimento
- First World War
- Russo-Ottoman War
- First Sino-Japanese War
- Russo-Japanese War
- Indian Mutiny
- Balkan Wars
- Afghan Wars
- US-Mexican war
- US Civil War
- Opium Wars
- Colonisation of Africa including Anglo-Zulu War, Boer Wars, failed Italian Invasion of Abyssinia, etc
- Boxer Rebellion
Sounds like a good setting for an RTS for me.
AoE: Neolithic to Rome at it's peak (post 3rd Punic War)
AoE II: Fall of Rome (Hun campaign) to the fall of the Aztec Empire (1521) and the Japanese defeat at Noryang Point (1598)
AoE III (never played): Colonisation of Americas and French Revolutionary Wars.
So, logically thinking:
AoE IV: covers approx 1815 to 1918, which would include the following:
- Crimean War
- Wars of German Unification
- Italian Risorgimento
- First World War
- Russo-Ottoman War
- First Sino-Japanese War
- Russo-Japanese War
- Indian Mutiny
- Balkan Wars
- Afghan Wars
- US-Mexican war
- US Civil War
- Opium Wars
- Colonisation of Africa including Anglo-Zulu War, Boer Wars, failed Italian Invasion of Abyssinia, etc
- Boxer Rebellion
Sounds like a good setting for an RTS for me.
I love DoW, but both DoW2 and CoH are better games.
DoW 3 sucks though
Still, it's promising.
If they develop both at the same time of course it will compromise the game.
Total War games aren't exactly RTS like age is. They are 4x games with real time battles. That doesn't really translate well to Age of Empires. They made that one awful console RTS game before Halo Wars 2, I don't remember the name, I guess there is that.
Relic otoh has only made RTS games but their RTS games are like antithesis of Age. No one wants to micro manage some hero unit in Age or control like only 3 squads. We will see how it goes. I'm a bit concerned. Just because their own IPs are that way doesn't mean their AoE will be like those. They are certainly capable of making a game like that if they want to and you can be sure that with their in house tech whatever they make will look very pretty.
As for building walls and castles though, if it's 20th century, you're not getting that. I'm guessing it's going to be similar to CoH but with more focus on base building. That seems nice to me if we get that.
Relic otoh has only made RTS games but their RTS games are like antithesis of Age. No one wants to micro manage some hero unit in Age or control like only 3 squads. We will see how it goes. I'm a bit concerned. Just because their own IPs are that way doesn't mean their AoE will be like those. They are certainly capable of making a game like that if they want to and you can be sure that with their in house tech whatever they make will look very pretty.
As for building walls and castles though, if it's 20th century, you're not getting that. I'm guessing it's going to be similar to CoH but with more focus on base building. That seems nice to me if we get that.
Maintenance
Member
How did Halo Wars games sell? I heard that the original Halo Wars killed Ensemble Studios.
Iced_Eagle
Member
I took that to mean the future of the franchise, not a futuristic setting if that's what you mean.
If I'm not building walls it's not AoE :/
What? No it isn't. Whilst you'll see a good amount of micro in the pro matches of 2, a standard fast castle will just start putting out streams of units once you have 4 TCs. It's very much in a larger scale, much larger than Relic have ever done
JimJamJones
Member
Never forget
Old Gimlet Eyes
Member
This better not take relic away from CoH3.....
I second this.
The concern is that designing an RTS with consoles in mind leads to decisions that adversely impact the experience on the PC side due to having to account for the comparatively limited options a controller offers. Age 2 PS2 isn't a counter-example to that as it wasn't on the cards when the game was in development.
Sounds like you should run for president
MorshuTheTrader
Neo Member
Hoping they sell all three definitive additions as a bundle. Maybe even included with AoE4 as some sort of special edition.
Making PC ports great again.
Yeah, but that was on Steam, WinStore exclusives (without Play Anywhere trickery) will be very lucky with 4.3 k sales.
Please god, we have enough Hero/MOBA garbage.
It was a different time back then. The PS2 version came 2 years after and it was obvious that it only came out because of how popular the system was.
The PC controls weren't affected because PS2 wasn't even a thought during the development.
If this eventually makes its way to the Xbox, it means that they would have been thinking about the control scheme during development and we'll be able to clearly tell.
This guy gets it. Nothing like defending your borders and opening your gates for retreating allies so they can build in your base. ....I might have to go find a copy of aoe2 just to replay until definitive is out.
I guess you've never played the first DoW, then?
And even then, DoW III has massive unit counts in the latter end of 3v3 battles, so this is hardly groundbreaking territory for them.
Building walls, on the other hand...
StrategyFan
Member
the engine should be much closer to a relic game than a creative assembly game
aoe population limit has been ~200. it's not massive
The last game that played like that from Relic was the original Dawn of War. I'm just hoping that they stick to the formula.
Yearsoflurking
Member
They could build it for pc then potentially console later ala city skylines.
SofNasciment-
Member
Even though I'd prefer an Ancient Rome setting, that would be my guess as well. The only other alternative I can see is either multiple timeframes or something crazier.
TheGameshark
Member
As a huge fan of AOE2 I'm curious but can't get hyped yet, especially after AOE3. The dev choice could be worse, but their last game didn't sit too hot with me.
Never forget
I honestly never liked this idea. Keep it in the (far) past please.