Age of Empires II HD | Cheerful Ghost

Age Of Empires II Gets Another Great Looking Expansion Called Rise of the Rajas!

1999 was a good year in gaming that gave us one of the best strategy game sequels Age of Empires II. So many elements were improved making Age of Empires II one of the most beloved strategy games of all time and one I still play with my friends. When Age of Empires II HD came to Steam I was very excited and was thrilled when Microsoft let us try it out before launch on Steam. Age of Empires II HD is the base game you know and love updated for modern Windows and hooked in with Steam multiplayer to make it simple and fun to play epic matches with friends or total Internet strangers. I'd have thought that porting the game to modern systems would have been the end of... Read All

Age of Empires II HD To Get New Expansion "The African Kings"

Age of Empires II HD is getting a new expansion titled "The African Kings" adding a new civilization called The Malians. Age of Empires II was released in 1999 yet it is still going strong with the recent HD re-release, The Forgotten Kingdoms expansion and now the upcoming The African Kings. I look forward to more Age of Empires II as this RTS classic, in my opinion, will never go out of style.

http://www.forgottenempires.net/age-of-empires-ii-teasing-at-e3-2015

Oh and Age of Mythology is also getting a new expansion called "Tale of the Dragon" that was also teased at E3. I am still waiting for iD to drop word of a original Doom map-pack but until then this will have to... Read All

Official Age of Empires 2 Expansion: The Forgotten

No too long after the release of Age of Empires II HD we are getting a new official Age of Empires II expansion called "The Forgotten." You might remember a Age of Empires II fan expansion that was released called "Forgotten Empires." Apparently the team that made that is partnering up with SkyBox Labs and Microsoft to incorporate much of that content into the new expansion.

Not only will they be adding 5 civilizations such as the Italians, Indians, Slavs, Magyars & Incas. The expansions will also include new technologies and 4 new in game campaigns as well as integrated Twitch.tv support and multi-player observer mode.

Awesome.

... Read All

Beta Multiplayer: First Thoughts

After playing my first Age of Empires 2: HD multiplayer game I am happy to say that it went very well. All the awesome fun of the original game is here and in full force. Travis and I played a 2 vs 2 match with bots to try out the Age 2: HD multiplayer landscape.

Since its been a few years since I played last, it took me a bit to get back up to speed. As we were playing I was letting Travis know all the special UI hints I knew to make the game play much smoother. For instance, you can shift click to queue up house construction instead of just doing one at a time. And that you need to remember to queue your farm reseeding. Age 2 has a ton of advanced UI and knowing it... Read All

Age of Empires II: HD is Superb!

Age of Empires 2 is a classic RTS game that for many, defined the genre. I have had many epic LAN battles with my friends over the years and its really sad I can't play it with them anymore. I have tried much to get back to those awesome multiplayer battles, but nothing has worked.

As it turns out Hidden Path and Microsoft think this problem must solved and have paired up to release Age of Empires 2: HD Edition. Travis and I just got press beta access to this game and I had to post my first few hours with it!

Put simply, this is the game I wanted them to make.

fullscreen/windowed

There is a simple toggle to go from full screen to windowed mode and it works very well. If... Read All

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 03/22/2013 at 12:37am

Can't wait to play!

http://imgur.com/E4yz1

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/22/2013 at 02:33am

I just played multiplayer with Travis, going to be writing about that soon :D

Travis Admin wrote on 03/22/2013 at 02:36am

It. Was. Awesome.

It still lags out a bit when you get a ton of enemies on screen, but I'm sure Jon will be talking about that soon in his post.

beansmyname Supporter wrote on 03/22/2013 at 02:40am

Never played AoE II. Played a metric-poop-ton (trying to keep it clean) of the first, though. Many a late night gaming session became an early morning bedtime as me and my cohorts played 3-on-5 battles against the AI. Egyptian priests were my army and the computer's weapons became mine. :)

I drooled over AoE II before it came out, but life happens and I just never played it. Glad to see it got revived and is just as fun as it ever was.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/22/2013 at 03:17am

Yeah, it is very fun. I just posted about the match Travis and I had.

Microsoft and Hidden Path both said this won't be coming to Linux though. Total bummer.

beansmyname Supporter wrote on 03/23/2013 at 01:38am

Oh well. There'll be other games. There will always be other games.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/23/2013 at 05:10am

Always more games!

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In an Instant, My Geek Prayers Were Answered

Sometimes things happen that seem like the world is giving you a high five. Today was such a day in that Hidden Path Studios announced that they were releasing Age of Empires 2 HD. Yes folks, one of the the most amazing Real Time Strategy of all time is being re-released for modern systems on Steam!

Take a moment... breathe... this is really happening.

A bit of the press release:

"In Age of Empires II: HD Edition, fans of the original game and new players alike will fall in love with the classic Age of Empires II experience. Explore all the original single player campaigns from both Age of Kings and The Conquerors expansion, choose from 18 civilizations spanning over a... Read All

krcDeuce Supporter wrote on 03/08/2013 at 03:26am

A light shineth down from the heavens.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/08/2013 at 05:01am

Absolutely. So excited about this.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 03/08/2013 at 11:00am

This is one series that eluded me through the years. I love that feeling, though, when you think you've lost something, then you hear it will be returned to you soon. A moment of completion that seems to happen often for gamers. For instance, yesterday, a friend told me that Nintendo was remaking The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker in HD for the Wii U!

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 03/08/2013 at 07:24pm

Dude, sweet!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/08/2013 at 08:49pm

@script: Totally. I also think this is like a piece of culture being lost and now coming back. For this game, it is so popular there is a economic incentive to bring it back in HD. The really sad thing is for games where it doesnt make economic sense to do that and they are lost.

For that reason I really appreciate companies like iD releasing the game source. DosBOX and other emulators make it less of an issue, but for a better long term solution, opening up the code on old games is a better option.

Chris_Schetter wrote on 03/18/2013 at 11:38pm

Insta-buy.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/18/2013 at 11:43pm

Absolutely.

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