Why is Age of Empire 2 HD such garbage?

[Humanity has risen!]

I can't believe it, it's the latest version, and it has now crashed for the fourth time for me. What have they done to this game? It's like they've turned it into Evony.

Also I love how on the Steam forums no one but developpers can post anything and the Steam reviews are all positive.

 

[tyrannosaurus rex]

Also I love how on the Steam forums no one but developpers can post anything and the Steam reviews are all positive.

You can, you are simply trying to post in the wrong section (news). There's a general discussion section.

Crash are a problem but not the biggest. The biggest is the framerates drops, for a 2001 game, on modern computers. That makes the game completely unplayable in anything but singleplayer, with few units.

The reason for this instability is that they coded a new engine almost indistinguishable from the old one, but full of invisible useless modern gimmicks and poorly optimized, which will make any computer drop below 20 FPS when there's too many units on the screen.

Also, do not under any circumstances buy the expansion. It's not an expansion, it's an unfinished mod that they decided to price at 15$, while it was free a few month ago.

These developers have shown to be utterly incompetent, and this should serve as a warning if you ever consider buying their upcoming HD products, such as the upcoming Age of Mythology.

Always remember that the ''D'' in HD stands for DON'T BUT IT .

 

[Sranchammer]

The game itself is shit, you were too young to realize it.

 

[oscar]

These HD remakes are a cynical scam and transparent exploitation of people's nostalgia. Big money for ridiculously little work or effort.

There's mods that do far more and far better for free.

 

[xemous]

aom remaster could ve been better

 

[UF6]

I thought it was ok. Anybody expecting anything more then a re-release that uses Steam is kidding themselves. For what it is the game is ok. The pricing is way too high, but I expected this since people will pay it. I got the game for free and the "mod" for $1, so I can't complain about that.

 

[UF6]

precisely.

for example in the newly re-released age of mythology game, which i have fond memories of, needed an increase in polygon density and texture detail across the board. instead of that much needed reform we got some easy-to-implement SPECIAL FX that the engineering team added in while on their lunch-break

not at all impressed with this shit. this could've been a chance to give the game a facelift and propel into the new century

At least the multiplayer will work now due to a printing issue with the CD key that made online only workable from LAN.

 

[Bilgefar]

These HD remakes are a cynical scam and transparent exploitation of people's nostalgia. Big money for ridiculously little work or effort.

There's mods that do far more and far better for free.

It's not even "mods" it's "mod". The user patch by itself does pretty much all of the good things the HD remake does, plus other cool stuff, plus not fucking shit up, all by itself. One easy to install download. So there's really no excuse to ever even consider getting the "HD" version.

 

[Abelian]

Also I love how on the Steam forums no one but developpers can post anything and the Steam reviews are all positive.

The reason for this instability is that they coded a new engine almost indistinguishable from the old one, but full of invisible useless modern gimmicks and poorly optimized, which will make any computer drop below 20 FPS when there's too many units on the screen.

I can't believe they can't optimize a 16 year old game. Cossacks, which is from 2001, was able to handle thousands of units and still looks great today. I have to give credit to programmers from before the 90's: they sure knew how to write efficient and elegant code.

 

[tyrannosaurus rex]

Also I love how on the Steam forums no one but developpers can post anything and the Steam reviews are all positive.

The reason for this instability is that they coded a new engine almost indistinguishable from the old one, but full of invisible useless modern gimmicks and poorly optimized, which will make any computer drop below 20 FPS when there's too many units on the screen.

I can't believe they can't optimize a 16 year old game. Cossacks, which is from 2001, was able to handle thousands of units and still looks great today. I have to give credit to programmers from before the 90's: they sure knew how to write efficient and elegant code.

Speaking of Cossack



Developers clearly in a league of their own.

 

[Cadmus]

COSSAAAACKS YEHEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Fuck HD remake AoE, I looove COSSAAAACKS!! But I remember not being able to get it to run on newer PCs, is there a gog release or something?

 

[Abelian]

COSSAAAACKS YEHEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Fuck HD remake AoE, I looove COSSAAAACKS!! But I remember not being able to get it to run on newer PCs, is there a gog release or something?

Yes. The Cossacks Anthology includes both The Art of War and Back to War expansions.

 

[tyrannosaurus rex]

COSSAAAACKS YEHEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Fuck HD remake AoE, I looove COSSAAAACKS!! But I remember not being able to get it to run on newer PCs, is there a gog release or something?

Yes. The Cossacks Anthology includes both The Art of War and Back to War expansions.

The multiplayer is broken on modern computers though, which is a shame. The speed is completely mixed up and uncontrollable. I think it has to do with the code being in synch with the CPU cycles in some strange ways. The code was indeed, atypical.

Slavic master race indeed. Ukrainians best faction. Serdiuk stronk.

 

[RK47]

Also I love how on the Steam forums no one but developpers can post anything and the Steam reviews are all positive.

That is one fucked up practice.
Can't steam discipline devs who do that?

 

[catfood]

Also I love how on the Steam forums no one but developpers can post anything and the Steam reviews are all positive.

That is one fucked up practice.
Can't steam discipline devs who do that?

They're in cahoots with each other. This is what happens when a company gains near monopoly.

 

[anus_pounder]

COSSAAAACKS YEHEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Fuck HD remake AoE, I looove COSSAAAACKS!! But I remember not being able to get it to run on newer PCs, is there a gog release or something?

Yes. The Cossacks Anthology includes both The Art of War and Back to War expansions.

The multiplayer is broken on modern computers though, which is a shame. The speed is completely mixed up and uncontrollable. I think it has to do with the code being in synch with the CPU cycles in some strange ways. The code was indeed, atypical.

Slavic master race indeed. Ukrainians best faction. Serdiuk stronk.

Ukrainians produce five unique units - the Ukrainian Peasant...

Ukranian peasants. Most unique in the world!

 

[codexian reject]

COSSAAAACKS YEHEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Fuck HD remake AoE, I looove COSSAAAACKS!! But I remember not being able to get it to run on newer PCs, is there a gog release or something?

Yes. The Cossacks Anthology includes both The Art of War and Back to War expansions.

All Cossacks games and expansions are also on Steam, but each one is sold separately and cost 5$.
GoG doesn't have Cossacks 2 for some reason, but its deal for Cossacks 1 Anthology is much better, since it costs 6$ vs 3x 5$ on Steam, same for American Conquest Anthology.
There is also this bundle, it has all 3 base games: Cossacks 1, 2 and American Conquest, but without expansions.

 

[Wilian]

So which is the best one of these Cossack games? I remember loving the first one way back when it came out but now there are so many.

 

[Cadmus]

I don't know but I remember playing the 2nd and thinking it wasn't quit "it" like if some of the charm of the first game was missing. It was also very hard if I recall correctly.