Age of Empires IV was just announced at this years Gamescom with a brand new trailer. As a huge Age of Empires fan I'm really interested in this news and hope Microsoft can work amazingly well with Relic Studios(the developers creating Age of Empires IV) to make a game that fits in with the style of Age of Empires. The original Age of Empires featured early progression from very early tribes to bronze age and later early civilization level units. Age of Empires 2 started you in a later civilization stage to end up solidly in the Dark Ages / Castle age. Age of Empires 3 was set around the time that America was colonized roughly around the years 1492 to 1876 so my thinking is that Age of Empire IV will be set after that. Getting an Age of Empires that starts in the 1800's and ends up in the 90's, 2000's or later era seems really interesting to me. Traditionally Age of Empires has featured older civilizations but i'm interested in seeing a new take on modern RTS combat.

All that said, the details on Age IV are sparse to non existing so as more information drops i'll keep you updated.

https://www.ageofempires.com/news/age-of-empires-event-at-gamescom-live-wrap-up/

All The Definitive Editions!

Age of Empires Definitive Edition is coming which is a 4K HD revisioning of the original Age of Empires that should release at some unspecified date. In keeping the Age of Empires hype train rolling Microsoft released that they will also create Definitive Editions for Age of Empires 2 and Age of Empires 3.

"We started off announcing the release date for Age of Empires: Definitive Edition, October 19th, 2017! What a great way to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the original game! AoE: DE will launch with a ton of awesome new features, but we have kept a lot of things the same to preserve the feel of the original game. Take a look at the list:

• Attack Move


• 250-300 population cap​


• Rally Points Basic


• Rally Points Contextual (Intelligent Villagers)


• Grid default key layout​


• Select Idle Military


• Select Idle Villagers


• Unit queueing


• Right-click mouse scroll


• And MORE!

We then announced that we will be releasing Definitive Editions of both Age II and Age III, keep an eye out for more details about those!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3rDhoWcVgQ

I wonder how Age of Empires 2 Definitive stacks up to Age of Empires 2 HD? I thought Age of Empires 2 HD was an incredible rebuild of the game and it works great on Steam so i'm wondering what Microsoft is going to for the definitive edition? I suppose they could remake the graphics in 4K but i'm not sure Age of Empires 2 HD really needs that but then again, I love the original 2D graphics.

What are you looking for in Age of Empires IV and what do you think about Age 2 and 3 Definitive Editions?

New episodes of The Angry Video Game Nerd are a bit few and far between these days so when one comes out it's pretty special. The latest one is all about the Gameboy, which is pretty amazing up front but the Nerd focuses on the many odd Gameboy accessories. The Gameboy had a lot of accessories and some really strange stuff was made including a Gameboy sewing machine? The video wraps up in the typical Angry Nerd style making me happy that James is still doing these video after all these years.

Nostalgia Games recently found an old Toys R Us promo VHS for The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask and recently dropped it on their YouTube channel. It's a fun snapshot of the NES dominated era and features a Nintendo counselor talking about the game and giving it high praise. Majora's Mask is one of those Zelda games that does get quite a bit of love still but even so the video really does seem a bit forced and even so, it would have totally worked on me as a kid to seem like some kind of real news expose on how great this game is.

Chess came out on the NES in 1988 and this is a really good review of it. The reviewer takes point with some of the games graphical and gameplay choices, which makes sense considering Chess doesn't seem like it wasn't well designed.

Good news everybody, Battle.net is back and it's... the same?

Back in September Blizzard announced that it's Battle.net online game service would be called "Blizzard." It was an interesting idea but one that was a bit sad and strange because they didn't seem to consistently stick with it. That and most people still called it Battle.net. Well it seems Blizzard is heading back to calling Battle.net Battle.net and I think that's a really good idea.

"Battle.net is the central nervous system for Blizzard games and the connective tissue that has brought Blizzard players together since 1996. The technology was never going away, but after giving the branding change further consideration and also hearing your feedback, we’re in agreement that the name should stay as well. Take it from the developer formerly known as Silicon & Synapse, and Chaos Studios, names are important too.

Moving forward, to help offset some of the original concerns we listed back in September, we will be connecting “Blizzard” to “Battle.net” in our logo for the service and in general when we refer to it in print: Blizzard Battle.net."

https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/news/20972461/blizzard-battle-net-update

Like many of us YouTuber Lazy Game Reviews(LGR) is a fan of the original NES Duck Hunt. Sad that the NES light gun doesn't work on modern LCD panel TV's but if you keep an old 4x3 around the house you can shoot 8-bit ducks to your hearts content. In his latest video LGR talks a bit about his love for the original Duck Hunt and reviews a bunch of other Duck Hunt clones, most on the PC. Results vary but one thing remains true... The original Duck Hunt is the kind of Duck shooter games.

If you are interested in playing Arcane Studios latest shooter Prey head over to the Steam, PS4 of XBone digital stores and download the brand new demo! The demo is of the first opening hour which should give you a pretty good idea of what Prey is and if you want to pick it up. To help make the purchase a bit easier Prey is also discounted on Steam and the consoles so you know... why not check it out?

"In Prey, you awaken aboard Talos I, a space station orbiting the moon in the year 2032. You are the key subject of an experiment meant to alter humanity forever – but things have gone terribly wrong. The space station has been overrun by hostile aliens and you are now being hunted."

I have a board game backlog. I have a couple immersive games i'd love to sit down and play with my friends for hours but just don't have the time right now. The new Fallout Board Game by Fantasy Flight looks so awesome and i'd love to put it on my shelf right next to the other amazing board games I have ... if I just had time to play it. Maybe you do though and if you do you need to check it out..

"Beyond the map itself, the scenario will also determine which two unique factions you’ll have the opportunity to behead or befriend—your choice. In The Commonwealth for example, the Railroad and the Synths go head to head (assuming you haven’t already done the beheading). On the back of the scenario card, you can mark the progress of these two factions, giving each side more power. Should one of the factions progress to the very end of the power track, the game will end, whether there is a winner or not. So don’t get ahead of yourself. Allies are only allies as long as you’re worth something to them.

Finally, the scenario also sets up and drives the main quest you can follow in the game. “Welcome to the Commonwealth” is the first card in the scenario depicted here, kicking off the main quest. Completing one of the actions on this card will cause the noted effects, move the story forward, and reveal even more quests. While the main quest cards will more often than not impact the factions, side quests will allow you and the other survivors to explore other stories within the game without pushing that primary narrative too far ahead."

Fantasy Flight Games do a great job of releasing games with amazing figurines, well designed tokens and gameplay and art that really keeps things interesting. The Fallout game looks just as good and if this is like any past releases it will get quite a few expansions as well. As many of you know, the old Kevin Wilson Doom Board game is my all time favorite and this looks like something i'd like to put right next to it.

And if you are a Fallout collector, you know why not?

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2017/8/8/fallout/

StarCraft Remastered launched today giving players the ability to play this classic LAN staple in 4K HD! One nice feature of the new StarCraft update is the amazing new graphics and also that you can play it alongside the original remastered and totally free to play version. Blizzard also added StarCraft to the Battle.net client and also made logging in to multiplayer in StarCraft us the new Battle.net sign-in interface. StarCraft still uses Classic Battle.net after that but you sign on with the new Battle.net and then it stores your old Battle.net credentials in the new client making you only have to sign in once. If that doesn't make sense then head in to StarCraft and try it out yourself, it's actually a really nice process.

In other less amazing news it seems that Blizzard is being sued by gaming cafes in Korea for Anti-trust.

"The Internet PC Culture Association, which represents local internet PC cafes where people play online games, also known as “PC bangs” here, said Monday that it had petitioned the Korea Fair Trade Commission to investigate Blizzard for unfairly charging them for the new game.

“Starcraft: Remastered” is an upgraded version of the former “Starcraft” game fitted with upgraded graphics and an improved soundtrack. The game was prelaunched at selected PC bangs in Korea on July 30, weeks ahead of its official worldwide release slated for Tuesday.

The Korean PC bang association has taken issue with Blizzard’s new policy to charge PC cafes between 203 and 233 won (20 cents) per hour for offering the new Starcraft game to visiting players. "

I get why they'd be upset about this because StarCraft Remastered really is an amazing amount of HD paint and a ton of work on the old game but it's not a new game service or anything. Since I am far from a Korean legal expert i'm curious how this will all turn out.

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20170814000693

Collecting Retro Games is a bit part of preserving video game history for the future. Collectors spend lots of time trading old games keeping this stuff out of the landfill and available for future generations. We've shared retro game preservation videos before about caring for and cleaning game karts but this video focuses on how to restore Super Nintendo boxes. Currently I only have two retro games in box in Kirbys Dreamland and Romance of the Three Kingdoms II and they are in great condition. If I find a box in bad shape, I think i'll come back to this video and see what I can do to make it better.