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Age of Empires IV Technical Stress Test
- Thread starter Kenpachii
- Start date
Elder Legend
Banned
Is it me or is there really little hype for this game? I used to be a big fan of AoE back in my wee lad days but I feel its not same anymore, there is something off about AoE 4...
BigBooper
Member
I think it's just not in normal channels. Neogaf for instance doesn't have a lot of pc game discussion.
Personally, I'm not terribly interested in yet anoth AOE unless the really do something to make it different. AOE2DE is fantastic and I don't see them topping it if the gameplay stays the same.
ZehDon
Gold Member
RTS as a genre has diminished dramatically. But, the success of the AOE remasters has shown there is a lot of love for the series. I, for one, am pretty excited about AOE4.
Fools idol
Banned
RTS as a competitive genre pretty much died a death in popularity. I played them a ton during the 90s and 00's, things like Starcraft broodwar and AoE2 were great to play online. Over time though more addictive games like DotA and eventually battle royale games kind of stole aawy my passion from them a great deal. Cant really tell you why but I just dont enjoy competitive RTS games anymore.
Bragr
Banned
After a few hours of play, I would say it's very similar to Age of Empires 2, very very similar. At least so far.
The interface is slick, it's easy to access everything and I like that you don't have to press the "build" button to find the buildings. I like how easy it is to build walls, and it seems you can't upgrade the wooden walls to become stone but you have to build them separately, which I actually like. Telling the peasants what to do and where to assign them is easy, and I like the style and look of the game.
I find that the units take a split second to react before they move, not sure if it was my computer or if that's the game, but I would like the units to be more responsive.
But it really really feels similar to the old games. I have to play it more to make up my mind if that's a good thing or not, I did expect a bit "fresher" and newer gameplay.
If I had to guess, it's gonna hit 82-83 on Metacritic. Critics never value the depth and scale of RTS games and I expect the "sameness" of the game will hurt it in their eyes.
We have to play Age IV for a few weeks to really get the grips of how the online turns out. It's gonna be so good to have a new triple-A RTS again, and delve into the online and all that.
The interface is slick, it's easy to access everything and I like that you don't have to press the "build" button to find the buildings. I like how easy it is to build walls, and it seems you can't upgrade the wooden walls to become stone but you have to build them separately, which I actually like. Telling the peasants what to do and where to assign them is easy, and I like the style and look of the game.
I find that the units take a split second to react before they move, not sure if it was my computer or if that's the game, but I would like the units to be more responsive.
But it really really feels similar to the old games. I have to play it more to make up my mind if that's a good thing or not, I did expect a bit "fresher" and newer gameplay.
If I had to guess, it's gonna hit 82-83 on Metacritic. Critics never value the depth and scale of RTS games and I expect the "sameness" of the game will hurt it in their eyes.
We have to play Age IV for a few weeks to really get the grips of how the online turns out. It's gonna be so good to have a new triple-A RTS again, and delve into the online and all that.
Bragr
Banned
There is a number of die-hard RTS fans that are looking at the game as the re-birth of RTS, there certainly is anticipation, but PC-only games are not what they once were. Indie games are ruling the PC scene now, and Relic and Blizzard both have been disappointing in the last decade with their RTS output, and no other developer has stepped up. It's a shame.
Fare thee well
Neophyte
I think RTS kind of has diminished representation on this forum. It's not a bad thing, just the way the propabilities played out. I'm definitely hyped.
Was really surprised NO ONE posts anything total war related. This new release video was awesome!
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tmlDan
Member
watched some streams of it today and it looks absolutely terrible...like a game from 2012.
IDK how they can sell this for full price, i used to love AoE games, it's sad.
It's made to run on 6+ year old hardware.. it looks fine.
tmlDan
Member
the minimum specs are 6 year old computer parts
jigglet
Banned
I was kinda hyped but it all fell through the floor when I learned the removed the death skulls for the Chinese market.
Kenpachii
Member
Played 2 matches, vs 2 ai and 1 person matched up with me through matchmaking, so 2 players vs 2 ai is what i did.
the animations etc are fine, the sound is absolutely fantastic. the matchup system works like a charm. its basically age of empire u know, but more streamlined and modern.
Visually, i do hope they tune it a little bit, the map that's available not much color is in it weirdly and it looks kinda blurry.
Still lots of fun as nobody knows what the hell is going on in the game love it.
the animations etc are fine, the sound is absolutely fantastic. the matchup system works like a charm. its basically age of empire u know, but more streamlined and modern.
Visually, i do hope they tune it a little bit, the map that's available not much color is in it weirdly and it looks kinda blurry.
Still lots of fun as nobody knows what the hell is going on in the game love it.
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Perrott
Gold Member
Very cool.
I have some problems with the UI design because it makes it difficult for you to notice what's everything supposed to do and keep track of the resources (huge mistake to have them in the left down corner) and it is not clear to me at glance what certain technologies or units are supposed to do or how X mechanic is supposed to work.
But other than that I had a great time and even though the graphics make it difficult for you to keep track of what's going on or where a certain unit is at times, I have to say that the visuals are fantastic and very charming, plus the performance is absolutely great.
Small piece of advice to everyone who's trying out the Tech Test: Although the Tech Test seems to be multiplayer-only at first glance, if you get into "Multiplayer" and select "create match" (or whatever the option is called in your language), you can set everything up in the match settings menu to make it a 1v1 of you against the AI with no multiplayer at all, which is helpful when trying to learn the mechanics and getting used to the game.
I have some problems with the UI design because it makes it difficult for you to notice what's everything supposed to do and keep track of the resources (huge mistake to have them in the left down corner) and it is not clear to me at glance what certain technologies or units are supposed to do or how X mechanic is supposed to work.
But other than that I had a great time and even though the graphics make it difficult for you to keep track of what's going on or where a certain unit is at times, I have to say that the visuals are fantastic and very charming, plus the performance is absolutely great.
Small piece of advice to everyone who's trying out the Tech Test: Although the Tech Test seems to be multiplayer-only at first glance, if you get into "Multiplayer" and select "create match" (or whatever the option is called in your language), you can set everything up in the match settings menu to make it a 1v1 of you against the AI with no multiplayer at all, which is helpful when trying to learn the mechanics and getting used to the game.
Hooks
Member
They removed what?
I'm not surprised that they would sell it at full price. I do agree that this game looks terrible.
It looks like it could have been made like a decade ago and that pretty much killed a lot of my hype for the game.
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The graphics look the same as in their gameplay trailers to me. It's got a more painterly art style over a high contrast lookWhy do the graphics look really bad? The trailers looked awesome but this game looks rough right now. I'm hoping its due to a super early build. Here's some comparisons I took:
Age of Empires II DE
Age of Empires III DE
Age of Empires IV Stress Test
Kenpachii
Member
Visuals are fine in my book, it plays absolutely fantastic and that's the main thing u should focus at with a game like this. But animations / sound its all good.
The only issue i have is indeed the world itself is extremely bright and blurry looking, i wish they fine tuned that a bit. Here's some gameplay starts at the moment me and yellow go after red and his partner.
The only issue i have is indeed the world itself is extremely bright and blurry looking, i wish they fine tuned that a bit. Here's some gameplay starts at the moment me and yellow go after red and his partner.
Last edited:
Magic Carpet
Member
Tried the training this morning and got as far as sending my spearmen out to destroy a fence and attacking a 'lone' sentry. The game gave no indications when I clicked on the sentry but the spearmen would kill the sentry anyway. But the game would not let me advance into the fog. Do I need to send the scout into the fog before the spearmen? I'm doing something wrong or the game is glitching. Is it kill, advance, kill, advance?
I was unable to get a 1v1 match going with the AI. I could not figure it out.
I"m also going to complain about the zoom being too close. But I guess the units are so tiny that they had to do it this way.
The sounds are indeed really good.
I was unable to get a 1v1 match going with the AI. I could not figure it out.
I"m also going to complain about the zoom being too close. But I guess the units are so tiny that they had to do it this way.
The sounds are indeed really good.
Perrott
Gold Member
You have to enter "Multiplayer", then click on "Custom" (or whatever it is called in English), then click on "Create Match", and inside the match settings menu all you have to do is close all the open slots for other players and leave one for you and an AI opponent.
Kenpachii
Member
My review about the 2 days i played with it:
In short: it fails to deliver.
Major problem 1: Visuals:
- Animations are fine, character designs are right, building designs are fine. What's not fine is the absolute blur fest of the visuals in this game.
There are no colors, the grass that came out of a decade old game is shimmering like hell and just look at the texures its a blur fest. ( this is maximum settings )
The art is also terrible. Everything has the same green grey hue look on it.
its a handicapped PC RTS that was probably builded for anything but PC.
U can notice this from controls, to icons that are used, towards managing your army's and selecting army's its all heavily dumped down from even age of empire 2 or starcraft to the point even the most basic stuff that's already in here for 2 decades like selecting a group of people and moving one unit out of it is simple not possible. It really feels like somebody that doesn't play PC RTS got assigned towards it and basically the result is as following a dumped down RTS that simple lacks any micromanagment and fine control.
I heard from a starcraft 2 player they actaully where invited to a beta before this one to get feedback on the game, but the reality is they did nothing and that all the while the ui / visuals / controls scheme had to be changed drastically with 1 month left now its probably not going to happen. So for competitive age of empire players or even star craft players this RTS is not it and never will be as its simple lacks the most basic stuff u would expect to the point he calls it a mobile RTS rather then a PC RTS. and i must say i agree with him on it.
Online experience is bad: ( basically the only thing this game offers atm )
Reasons for this:
- Xbox and pc gamers get lumped together. I have yet to see a single xbox player not fall behind even the worst pc gamer through its limited way to control stuff. Its a huge disadvantage where micro is basically instantly dead. I have people on PC straight up leave after they see in there playerlist xbox live. Microsoft needs to make either its own servers for xbox players, or simple force them to use keyboard and mouse.
- When u play 4vs4, people always disconnect. everybody that plays anything online wise knows this. When that happens there is no way to reconnnect which means the base is instantly gone and so is the view on the map for the other players. u see this happen in 8 of the 10 matches where people leave before u actually start the game. This creates for incredible bad online experience to the point i had out of mine 5 matches 4 disconnects and 1 disconnect on the other side which means u are always handicapped and basically will stop signing up for the next one as a match can last 45 minutes easily.
- Resources are not split between other factions when one bails and view or base he has isn't added towards another player or players.
- No color coding which means all enemy is red, everybody on your team is yellow. When a army attacks u have no clue if its every single one of them or just one guy which means information is lacking = hard to play tactical games this way.
In short they need to make a reconnect system and a way to deal with leavers smart, instead of just bailing which means after 20 minutes of building your whole run is a dud as result. People with disconnects because of bad internet skip this game, its pointless and frankly without a AI taking over for this guy to reconnect or another being placed in it, online will be deader then dead sooner rather then later.
General stuff:
- Minimap is unclear and to small in my view, its a pain in the ass to find markets on the map to the point i have to spend far to long scrolling over the map to find it
- Chat should have been smarter implemented, xbox players and chat yea right. Its basically sol with xbox players.
- Unit movement is far to slow. build a wonder behind layers of walls at the other side of the map. u need atleast 5 minutes to even get there and 10-9 minutes later its already won.
- Tons of units are simple useless they do little to no damage.
- Navel is simplistic but lacks dept.
- Walls and towers feel weak.
- Colors again, its hard to see units versus buildings and the blur fest as everything is kinda the same colored. I wish it was more clear what the units are versus ecenomy with clear color choices.
- View distance is bad, need to be able to zoom out way more, but its probably because of performance reasons they do it on consoles.
UI:
Its bad, its mobile bad. Its needs a entire new revamp. I don't understand how its hard to implement simplething from age of empire 2 or any other RTS and just copy it, atm it feels incredible clunky / looks not clean or clear and the split between ecenomy and militairy should have been divided far better. Also half of the spaces that are empty are not even used. Most of the stuff u can do with the units is all useless.
I think everybody can agree its the worst RTS ui i saw so far.
Icons are also uninteresting and appealing and just felt like a rushed project. Maybe this will still change. who knows. Its just bad looking and not good functional.
Like give the icons some color coding that makes sense like any other RTS has, and also make 2 sections of militairy and ecenomy. why are barracks near farms. It makes little to no sense.
Performance
mostly with a 9900k and 3080 u will sit around the 100-160 range in smaller fights bigger fights its already 60, however when fights get real and u sit with 4vs4 players it can drop as low as low 70's which means for me its perfect however for most people it will be a issue. its probably also zooming out is limited.
The multicore taxation is pathetic in this game, i honestly wonder it uses more then 2 cores and 4 threads lol, this is when a heavy fight starts and i am cpu bound.
The FPS can drop from 160 > 80 fps by just having 80 units on your screen. Its not acceptable.
The goods:
So they have 2 editions
59,99 euro for the normal version
79,99 euro for the deluxe editions.
The deluxe edition adds:
Coats of arms, whatever that means maybe a skin?
Player profile portrait, great i guess
Monument, not a fan of exclusive buildings behind paid content. it won't add anyhting probably stat wise but its still annoying u can't build something.
Craig ( honestly the game feels like halo infinity remake has to be done on it, so its kinda funny its called that ) art complication, who cares.
Digital sounttrack, stock de stuff, unit counters charts whatever that means.
As of now and my experience with the game. I don't think its worth any money. I would probably play it incredible limited if its free to play. there is just to much stuff that kill the fun and this beta is probably all i need to get my age of empire 4 shot going. Mabe if the end product gets some drastical shift forwards and this beta is actually a year old effort to test some underlaying stuff out ( highly doubt it ) i could be interested. But lets be honest this is all they got. I think age of empire 2 will not go anywhere and will stay the main focus for most RTS players in the age of empire realm
There is simple to much wrong with it in the current state and for 60 euro's its simple a no go.
Its a shame, for people looking for the next big RTS game or finally a fully fletched funded AAA age of empire game. As of now this isn't it.
In short: it fails to deliver.
Major problem 1: Visuals:
- Animations are fine, character designs are right, building designs are fine. What's not fine is the absolute blur fest of the visuals in this game.
There are no colors, the grass that came out of a decade old game is shimmering like hell and just look at the texures its a blur fest. ( this is maximum settings )
The art is also terrible. Everything has the same green grey hue look on it.
its a handicapped PC RTS that was probably builded for anything but PC.
U can notice this from controls, to icons that are used, towards managing your army's and selecting army's its all heavily dumped down from even age of empire 2 or starcraft to the point even the most basic stuff that's already in here for 2 decades like selecting a group of people and moving one unit out of it is simple not possible. It really feels like somebody that doesn't play PC RTS got assigned towards it and basically the result is as following a dumped down RTS that simple lacks any micromanagment and fine control.
I heard from a starcraft 2 player they actaully where invited to a beta before this one to get feedback on the game, but the reality is they did nothing and that all the while the ui / visuals / controls scheme had to be changed drastically with 1 month left now its probably not going to happen. So for competitive age of empire players or even star craft players this RTS is not it and never will be as its simple lacks the most basic stuff u would expect to the point he calls it a mobile RTS rather then a PC RTS. and i must say i agree with him on it.
Online experience is bad: ( basically the only thing this game offers atm )
Reasons for this:
- Xbox and pc gamers get lumped together. I have yet to see a single xbox player not fall behind even the worst pc gamer through its limited way to control stuff. Its a huge disadvantage where micro is basically instantly dead. I have people on PC straight up leave after they see in there playerlist xbox live. Microsoft needs to make either its own servers for xbox players, or simple force them to use keyboard and mouse.
- When u play 4vs4, people always disconnect. everybody that plays anything online wise knows this. When that happens there is no way to reconnnect which means the base is instantly gone and so is the view on the map for the other players. u see this happen in 8 of the 10 matches where people leave before u actually start the game. This creates for incredible bad online experience to the point i had out of mine 5 matches 4 disconnects and 1 disconnect on the other side which means u are always handicapped and basically will stop signing up for the next one as a match can last 45 minutes easily.
- Resources are not split between other factions when one bails and view or base he has isn't added towards another player or players.
- No color coding which means all enemy is red, everybody on your team is yellow. When a army attacks u have no clue if its every single one of them or just one guy which means information is lacking = hard to play tactical games this way.
In short they need to make a reconnect system and a way to deal with leavers smart, instead of just bailing which means after 20 minutes of building your whole run is a dud as result. People with disconnects because of bad internet skip this game, its pointless and frankly without a AI taking over for this guy to reconnect or another being placed in it, online will be deader then dead sooner rather then later.
General stuff:
- Minimap is unclear and to small in my view, its a pain in the ass to find markets on the map to the point i have to spend far to long scrolling over the map to find it
- Chat should have been smarter implemented, xbox players and chat yea right. Its basically sol with xbox players.
- Unit movement is far to slow. build a wonder behind layers of walls at the other side of the map. u need atleast 5 minutes to even get there and 10-9 minutes later its already won.
- Tons of units are simple useless they do little to no damage.
- Navel is simplistic but lacks dept.
- Walls and towers feel weak.
- Colors again, its hard to see units versus buildings and the blur fest as everything is kinda the same colored. I wish it was more clear what the units are versus ecenomy with clear color choices.
- View distance is bad, need to be able to zoom out way more, but its probably because of performance reasons they do it on consoles.
UI:
Its bad, its mobile bad. Its needs a entire new revamp. I don't understand how its hard to implement simplething from age of empire 2 or any other RTS and just copy it, atm it feels incredible clunky / looks not clean or clear and the split between ecenomy and militairy should have been divided far better. Also half of the spaces that are empty are not even used. Most of the stuff u can do with the units is all useless.
I think everybody can agree its the worst RTS ui i saw so far.
Icons are also uninteresting and appealing and just felt like a rushed project. Maybe this will still change. who knows. Its just bad looking and not good functional.
Like give the icons some color coding that makes sense like any other RTS has, and also make 2 sections of militairy and ecenomy. why are barracks near farms. It makes little to no sense.
Performance
mostly with a 9900k and 3080 u will sit around the 100-160 range in smaller fights bigger fights its already 60, however when fights get real and u sit with 4vs4 players it can drop as low as low 70's which means for me its perfect however for most people it will be a issue. its probably also zooming out is limited.
The multicore taxation is pathetic in this game, i honestly wonder it uses more then 2 cores and 4 threads lol, this is when a heavy fight starts and i am cpu bound.
The FPS can drop from 160 > 80 fps by just having 80 units on your screen. Its not acceptable.
The goods:
- Game is responsive
- The match making is smooth
- ui in the settings are solid
- Sound design is probably the best i saw so far
- animations are great
- physics when buildings collapse is great
- Feels like old age of empire in a new jacked so that's good.
So they have 2 editions
59,99 euro for the normal version
79,99 euro for the deluxe editions.
The deluxe edition adds:
Coats of arms, whatever that means maybe a skin?
Player profile portrait, great i guess
Monument, not a fan of exclusive buildings behind paid content. it won't add anyhting probably stat wise but its still annoying u can't build something.
Craig ( honestly the game feels like halo infinity remake has to be done on it, so its kinda funny its called that ) art complication, who cares.
Digital sounttrack, stock de stuff, unit counters charts whatever that means.
As of now and my experience with the game. I don't think its worth any money. I would probably play it incredible limited if its free to play. there is just to much stuff that kill the fun and this beta is probably all i need to get my age of empire 4 shot going. Mabe if the end product gets some drastical shift forwards and this beta is actually a year old effort to test some underlaying stuff out ( highly doubt it ) i could be interested. But lets be honest this is all they got. I think age of empire 2 will not go anywhere and will stay the main focus for most RTS players in the age of empire realm
There is simple to much wrong with it in the current state and for 60 euro's its simple a no go.
Its a shame, for people looking for the next big RTS game or finally a fully fletched funded AAA age of empire game. As of now this isn't it.
Last edited:
My review about the 2 days i played with it:
In short: it fails to deliver.
Major problem 1: Visuals:
- Animations are fine, character designs are right, building designs are fine. What's not fine is the absolute blur fest of the visuals in this game.
There are no colors, the grass that came out of a decade old game is shimmering like hell and just look at the texures its a blur fest. ( this is maximum settings )
The art is also terrible. Everything has the same green grey hue look on it.
its a handicapped PC RTS that was probably builded for anything but PC.
U can notice this from controls, to icons that are used, towards managing your army's and selecting army's its all heavily dumped down from even age of empire 2 or starcraft to the point even the most basic stuff that's already in here for 2 decades like selecting a group of people and moving one unit out of it is simple not possible. It really feels like somebody that doesn't play PC RTS got assigned towards it and basically the result is as following a dumped down RTS that simple lacks any micromanagment and fine control.
I heard from a starcraft 2 player they actaully where invited to a beta before this one to get feedback on the game, but the reality is they did nothing and that all the while the ui / visuals / controls scheme had to be changed drastically with 1 month left now its probably not going to happen. So for competitive age of empire players or even star craft players this RTS is not it and never will be as its simple lacks the most basic stuff u would expect to the point he calls it a mobile RTS rather then a PC RTS. and i must say i agree with him on it.
Online experience is bad: ( basically the only thing this game offers atm )
Reasons for this:
- Xbox and pc gamers get lumped together. I have yet to see a single xbox player not fall behind even the worst pc gamer through its limited way to control stuff. Its a huge disadvantage where micro is basically instantly dead. I have people on PC straight up leave after they see in there playerlist xbox live. Microsoft needs to make either its own servers for xbox players, or simple force them to use keyboard and mouse.
- When u play 4vs4, people always disconnect. everybody that plays anything online wise knows this. When that happens there is no way to reconnnect which means the base is instantly gone and so is the view on the map for the other players. u see this happen in 8 of the 10 matches where people leave before u actually start the game. This creates for incredible bad online experience to the point i had out of mine 5 matches 4 disconnects and 1 disconnect on the other side which means u are always handicapped and basically will stop signing up for the next one as a match can last 45 minutes easily.
- Resources are not split between other factions when one bails and view or base he has isn't added towards another player or players.
- No color coding which means all enemy is red, everybody on your team is yellow. When a army attacks u have no clue if its every single one of them or just one guy which means information is lacking = hard to play tactical games this way.
In short they need to make a reconnect system and a way to deal with leavers smart, instead of just bailing which means after 20 minutes of building your whole run is a dud as result. People with disconnects because of bad internet skip this game, its pointless and frankly without a AI taking over for this guy to reconnect or another being placed in it, online will be deader then dead sooner rather then later.
General stuff:
- Minimap is unclear and to small in my view, its a pain in the ass to find markets on the map to the point i have to spend far to long scrolling over the map to find it
- Chat should have been smarter implemented, xbox players and chat yea right. Its basically sol with xbox players.
- Unit movement is far to slow. build a wonder behind layers of walls at the other side of the map. u need atleast 5 minutes to even get there and 10-9 minutes later its already won.
- Tons of units are simple useless they do little to no damage.
- Navel is simplistic but lacks dept.
- Walls and towers feel weak.
- Colors again, its hard to see units versus buildings and the blur fest as everything is kinda the same colored. I wish it was more clear what the units are versus ecenomy with clear color choices.
- View distance is bad, need to be able to zoom out way more, but its probably because of performance reasons they do it on consoles.
UI:
Its bad, its mobile bad. Its needs a entire new revamp. I don't understand how its hard to implement simplething from age of empire 2 or any other RTS and just copy it, atm it feels incredible clunky / looks not clean or clear and the split between ecenomy and militairy should have been divided far better. Also half of the spaces that are empty are not even used. Most of the stuff u can do with the units is all useless.
I think everybody can agree its the worst RTS ui i saw so far.
Icons are also uninteresting and appealing and just felt like a rushed project. Maybe this will still change. who knows. Its just bad looking and not good functional.
Like give the icons some color coding that makes sense like any other RTS has, and also make 2 sections of militairy and ecenomy. why are barracks near farms. It makes little to no sense.
Performance
mostly with a 9900k and 3080 u will sit around the 100-160 range in smaller fights bigger fights its already 60, however when fights get real and u sit with 4vs4 players it can drop as low as low 70's which means for me its perfect however for most people it will be a issue. its probably also zooming out is limited.
The multicore taxation is pathetic in this game, i honestly wonder it uses more then 2 cores and 4 threads lol, this is when a heavy fight starts and i am cpu bound.
The FPS can drop from 160 > 80 fps by just having 80 units on your screen. Its not acceptable.
The goods:
Price is it worth it?
- Game is responsive
- The match making is smooth
- ui in the settings are solid
- Sound design is probably the best i saw so far
- animations are great
- physics when buildings collapse is great
- Feels like old age of empire in a new jacked so that's good.
So they have 2 editions
59,99 euro for the normal version
79,99 euro for the deluxe editions.
The deluxe edition adds:
Coats of arms, whatever that means maybe a skin?
Player profile portrait, great i guess
Monument, not a fan of exclusive buildings behind paid content. it won't add anyhting probably stat wise but its still annoying u can't build something.
Craig ( honestly the game feels like halo infinity remake has to be done on it, so its kinda funny its called that ) art complication, who cares.
Digital sounttrack, stock de stuff, unit counters charts whatever that means.
As of now and my experience with the game. I don't think its worth any money. I would probably play it incredible limited if its free to play. there is just to much stuff that kill the fun and this beta is probably all i need to get my age of empire 4 shot going. Mabe if the end product gets some drastical shift forwards and this beta is actually a year old effort to test some underlaying stuff out ( highly doubt it ) i could be interested. But lets be honest this is all they got. I think age of empire 2 will not go anywhere and will stay the main focus for most RTS players in the age of empire realm
There is simple to much wrong with it in the current state and for 60 euro's its simple a no go.
Its a shame, for people looking for the next big RTS game or finally a fully fletched funded AAA age of empire game. As of now this isn't it.
1. You may set your resolution to 100%. Standard ist 75%. You get subsampling, you get blur. That easy. The visuals are just fine how they are. The game is meant to be played as competetive game. AoE III had a lot of details and decals but this aspects ware a big point of criticism in the view of multiplayer gamers. The game was simply too visually complex to plays over hours concentrated.
2. I agree partially on the controls. However, since the game relies much more on actual group dynamics and formations than its predecessors, I understand the decision. After a few rounds, it should quickly become clear that group formations have a much stronger influence on the combat than they did in AoE II or III.
3. There isn't even a release date for Xbox and as today you had the option for separate matchmaking on every game with crossplay. Don't worry, just turn it off and let the others have their fun. The disconnect-situation however is a problem with every Microsoft Game. Seems they don''t have any multiplayer policies regarding this issues. Hope this gets better after release. Don't unterstand the thing with the color-coding. Army has the color you choose before start. Did you ever play AoE?
3. Minimap need indeed a overhaul and some "zoom"-options. Unit movement is on par with AoE II and just how AoE players should expect it, you should try smaller maps if you can't handle big ones. Every unit serves it purpose and you even have a tooltip with the information of the strengths and weaknesses but balance tuning should be on the way. Walls and towers are indeed very powerful, with good playstyle you can easily defend with 20 archers and 20 knights on hourse the walls against an army double the size. Zoom needs a factor more, yes, feels a bit cluttered on big battlefields.
5. I'm fine with most of the UI. It's a matter of taste and in tune with today's representation of things by symbols.The biggest problem however is the position of resources in the down left corner. They should change this segment with the "build" segment as resources have to be always on focus. Regarding your Starcraft 2 friend's fears, I can reassure you. AoE doesn't play like SC and the newest part proved that it never will (thankfully). I've heard satisfaction from some multiplayer veterans in that regard.
6. Performance feels strange at this point. I get some dips which aren't resonable. However, playing with 45-80 fps with a 1070 and Ryzen 3700 on nearly max settings at 1440p. Game is heavily GPU-Bound but release is still somewhat away.
It's not AoE II and it's far away from III. Most of the game feelds indeed as made for AoE Veterans and I think core players should be happy. It won't convince SC II players or lovers from other RTS. It's just a new AoE and I think it's gonna be good. We aren't in 1999 and it's not their job to revolutionize the genre. I like the strong distinction between the civilizations. In AoE II and III, the traits were a bonus. Now traits are just fundamentally different from each other and encourage different play styles.
To be honest, the graphics bothered me a lot until I played the game myself now. They appeared like a step backwards to me. After playing several times, however, I have to admit they fit just right. The graphics style gives the game an overview that beats AoE II yet is still packed with many details. Although I still think there would have been a bit more in it. Compatibility aside, I would have liked a bit more "glory" upwards. However, the negative taste is gone. From a technical point of view, I think the AI still needs some adjustments. Villagers sometimes behave more stupidly than in AoE II and the attack behavior of the units sometimes leaves something to be desired. The sound design on the other hand is a blast, never experienced such a good sound design in an RTS.
The game lives very much from proper formation play, more than I'm used to from the predecessors. It requires much more sensitivity to balance the unit groups. Homogeneous unit groups work much worse than in the previous games. Heterogeneous, small groups are sometimes a real blast. I love that.
I don't get the price point of the deluxe edition but I like what I played. Every RTS fan should give it a try with Game Pass and afterwards you can still decide if it's worth it.
/Edit: Just saw in your video that game remained blurry still with the resolution adjustment. Maybe a bug?
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Kenpachii
Member
Nice post.
We will see its a beta after all, i really had high hopes for it as i grow up with the game and wanted some real jump forwards on it. Sadly after playing it just doesn't feel like it and i struggle to play matches at this point or want to sign up that's a bad thing. Still I am a sucker for RTS and probably will buy it anyway just in the hope a new one gets made with a higher budget.
About the visuals, i think they stated somewhere its a bug where texture quality is on the lowest setting, some other stuff was broken. but after watching there gameplay trailers it still feels very blurry looking. Maybe its the grass that does it or whatever else no clue.
It has nothing to do with resolution or DSR tho, because non of the other games have this issue on my screen at all, even my older 27 inch 1440p screen and 24inch 1080p screen show this problem so its the game itself, and frankly from watching other people play it they also have this issue. It could be something relative easy to fix i guess or maybe the game is build for HDR solutions ( still waiting for my 1.4 dp cable to arrive to see how that will work out ) but again basing content on HDR in a space where HDR is kinda useless is probably not the smartest thing to do if that is actually the issue. Probably not.
Anyway we will see.
Hawking Radiation
Member
No 120FPS.
No Ray Tracing. Only during replays.
No FOV slider.
Fuck off Microsoft.
Did I do that right?
No Ray Tracing. Only during replays.
No FOV slider.
Fuck off Microsoft.
Did I do that right?
Kenpachii
Member
yeah there's no xbox versionKenpachii you must be thinking of the windows store version (which is 'xbox') vs the steam version. It's all still PC on keyboard/mouse
Ah well i had 2 matches where people chatted and said aint playing with a console player and bailed. So they should have cleared that up then.