An essay published last week by a Microsoft Principal Scientist and University of York Researcher is getting some viral heat, and the title alone was enough to make me do a double-take: "If LLMs Have Human-Like Attributes, Then So Does Age of Empires II."

The paper, authored by Adrian de Wynter, is not a joke. Well, it's sort of a joke, but not in the way I first thought. The premise is simple (heh heh). De Wynter built and trained a working neural network inside Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, the remaster of 1999's legendary real-time strategy masterpiece.

Using the game's rather powerful custom map editor, de Wynter constructed operational NAND gates using palisade walls, grass, and bridge terrain, with goats as signal carriers.

While admittedly rudimentary, de Wynter essentially built the basics of a modern AI system. And by doing so, he flipped one of the biggest assumptions in AI research on its head.

Do AI systems have human qualities? AI research wants you to believe so.

There are countless AI studies out there that you can read suggesting that Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Claude possess human-like qualities. I'm talking about empathy. Anxiety. Morality. Self-awareness. The stuff that makes humans human.

Researchers design experiments around these assumptions, test LLMs with them, and report on their findings. There's a problem with this approach. De Wynter looked at more than 300 AI research papers published in the last two years and discovered that more than half of them were created under the assumption that, yes, LLMs do have human attributes.

If an AI paper's author specifically set out to prove that LLMs possess human properties, a whopping 77% concluded that those properties existed. You can see how there's a rather serious confirmation bias at play.

Playing Age of Empires 2 at a truly high level

Age of Empires II is one of my favorite games of all time, and its thriving competitive scene nearly three decades after its original launch is something to behold. But I've never seen something like this.

In his essay, de Wynter proves that Age of Empires II is "Turing-complete," which means it can theoretically run any computation.

As mentioned, he used the game's map editor to build NAND logic gates using custom scenario triggers, with a functioning 1-bit perceptron (a "fundamental build block of neural networks").

Taken to a grand scale with a lot of effort, de Wynter effectively proves that, yes, Age of Empires II could create something functionally similar to an LLM.

Applying the same rules to Age of Empires II as we apply to AI

What de Wynter proves with this experiment is that anyone claiming LLMs have anxiety or morals also has to admit that Age of Empires II, given enough time and complexity, is in the same boat.

De Wynter doesn't stop at Age of Empires II, either.

You might look at this experiment and assume that AI is actually not as smart as everyone thinks it is. In my eyes, that's the wrong take. Instead, the experiment essentially proves that human-like behavior is actually a part of any complex system designed to produce certain results.

For AI researchers attempting to make us believe that LLMs are on the verge of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), that's a rather heavy blow.

Is it time to break up with your AI partner?

AI firms design their products to feel as human as possible. That's probably why so many users form emotional attachments to soulless server racks, using them for therapy and to help with serious life decisions.

Researchers writing papers suggesting that AI possesses human-like qualities feed back into a loop of product and policy decisions from the big AI firms, creating a false illusion of what AI actually is on the inside.

De Wynter's paper posits not that AI lacks truly interesting properties, but that researchers need to be more honest in their approach. He believes that tests should be performed using a "null assumption" that doesn't start with "AI is human," with tests designed to prove the claim.

It's a pretty obvious scientific change that even I, a rural imbecile, understand is necessary to reveal the true nature of AI.

The call is coming from inside the house

I'd like to point out that de Wynter isn't an outsider hoping to discredit AI. He's an established AI researcher based at Microsoft, the company that has poured untold billions into OpenAI and that has jammed Copilot into products as much as possible.

I absolutely love that it's Age of Empires II that was used for the experiment, and I hope that de Wynter's paper has a positive effect on the AI research community. I'll be keeping a closer eye on the goats gathered around my Town Center the next time I play some Age.

Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.

Earnest Yuen is one of Microsoft's longest-serving gaming veterans and has been a key figure at the company, with work dating back to Windows 95. During his 31-year career, he contributed to more than 50 games and products. Today, however, Yuen announced his departure from Microsoft on LinkedIn, sharing some heartfelt thoughts about his time at Microsoft.

“After 31 years at Microsoft, I’ve decided it’s time to begin a new adventure: retirement.

When I joined in 1994, the internet was still finding its feet, game development looked very different, and I certainly didn’t expect that more than three decades later I’d still be having this much fun working with incredibly talented people…

To everyone I’ve worked with at Microsoft, XBOX, World’s Edge, and across the gaming industry, thank you. Your trust, partnership, support, and above all, your friendship, have meant more than you know.”

Guiding the Age of Empires resurgence

Yuen is perhaps best known for his work on the Age of Empires franchise, helping guide the series through the resurgence it has enjoyed in recent years. He became one of the public faces of the franchise, working on projects ranging from Age of Empires: Definitive Edition to the most recent release, Age of Mythology: Retold.

In his retirement announcement, Yuen also shared what comes next, outlining plans that many gamers can probably appreciate.

“As for what’s next? More time with family, new adventures, some long-neglected hobbies, and maybe, for the first time in decades, playing games with absolutely no production meetings attached. I’ll of course still enjoy catching up with friends about games, the business, and long careers, just with a lighter touch on the calendar and fewer things that require slides.

I leave feeling grateful, proud, and excited for what comes next, for myself and for the teams carrying things forward.

Thank you for being part of this fantastic journey.”

It'll be sad to see Yuen go. I actually have rather fond memories of the Age of Empires franchise from when I was a little kid. Games like Age of Empires and Civilization are ones I remember playing with my dad on our old PC in the front room, so seeing the franchise enjoy such a massive resurgence thanks in part to Yuen's work has always put a smile on my face.

With that, I wish him all the best in whatever comes next. If Yuen or Age of Empires have meant anything to you over the years, I'd love to hear about it in the comments, and be sure to take part in our poll below!

Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.

A packed Royal Albert Hall, a live orchestra, and a $250,000 prize pool helped Age of Empires reach a new audience milestone. The Red Bull Wololo: Londinium final peaked at 115,944 viewers, the highest for AoE2 since tracking began, while AoE4 also hit a fresh high. That combination of production scale, sponsorship, and community momentum shows how a nearly 30‑year‑old strategy game can still command mainstream attention — and why publishers and sponsors are watching closely.

It's no secret around the Windows Central water cooler how much of a diehard fan I am of the Age of Empires series. Originally released in 1999, the game has seen a couple of remasters, the latest of which arrived in 2019 with the glorious Definitive Edition that I favorably reviewed.

Would you believe it if I told you that Age of Empires 2 has never been more popular than it is right now, nearly three decades after it was first introduced?

This past weekend was the culmination of the Red Bull Wololo: Londinium tournament, which saw its finals hosted at the Royal Albert Hall in London. In front of a live audience, finalists played on stage for a $250,000 prize pool with accompaniment by a live orchestra, elaborate set pieces, and hosts decked out in age-accurate costumes.

The Red Bull event's finale on Monday, April 6, broke all-time peak viewing records for Age of Empires 2 with 115,944 viewers according to Esports Charts. The previous highest number was 113,650 in 2022, which, as I'm sure you remember, was boosted by the pandemic lockdowns.

I know that roughly 116,000 viewers is peanuts compared to the millions who tune into tournaments involving League of Legends, Counter-Strike 2, and other huge names. But to see a game I grew up with hitting these heights is a testament to Age of Empires 2's lasting greatness.

Age of Empires 4 was also played at Red Bull Wololo: Londinium, and with 67,450 peak viewers during the final, it hit a new high. The game has taken some time to gather a following since it launched in 2021, but it's clear that it's not going anywhere, either.

What's keeping Age of Empires 2 alive nearly 30 years after its debut?

A lot of games from 27 years ago don't hold up, and they wouldn't hold up even if they were remastered like Age of Empires 2 has been. Although some quality-of-life changes were made and some new content was added with the Definitive Edition in 2019, the core of Age 2 remains largely the same.

It's a game that's easy to learn. Anyone can sit down and start making villagers. However, it's incredibly complex and hard to master. I've been playing the game since it launched, and I'm a world away from the level of pro play.

On that note, there's certainly a nostalgia factor. Every time I play or watch Age 2, I'm reminded of many late nights at my parents' PC as I learned about history and real-time strategy mechanics.

The game is also very well balanced despite there being a massive amount of content, which is something that many other RTS games have been chasing ever since.

Put these attributes together with a chief effort from the World's Edge team and the other partners at Xbox Game Studios, YouTubers like T90Official, and Red Bull's ongoing support of the competitive scene, and you have one tasty recipe.

Which factor mattered most for Wololo’s viewership spike: production scale, Red Bull marketing, streamer personalities, or the game’s balance and nostalgia? Explain in the comments!

Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.

There have been a lot of eyes on the Age of Empires series this weekend as the Red Bull Wololo 2026: Londinium tournament is being played out, and the Age of Empires 4 team has taken the opportunity to announce a new DLC.

It's called Yue Fei's Legacy, and it's expected to launch on May 7, 2026. It's available for preorder now at Steam, the Microsoft Store, and Xbox, and it lands with a $14.99 price tag. However, it's currently on sale for $12.74 for a limited time.

The Yue Fei's Legacy DLC adds a new campaign with eight missions, where you play as the Chinese Song Dynasty general Yue Fei in the Song-Jin wars.

The Jin Dynasty also arrives as a new playable civilization for multiplayer and skirmish matches. It's a civ that focuses on strong cavalry and siege, which are two aspects that I always love to use.

The new civ comes with new unique units, including Mounted Grenadiers, Iron Pagodas, and Eruptors, and the DLC also adds four completely new maps and two new biomes for the maps.

Who will win take home the $250,000 prize pool at Red Bull Wololo: Londinium?

Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition and Age of Empires 4 are both currently being played at the highest pro level possible as part of Red Bull's Wololo 2026: Londinium tournament.

Today, April 6, is actually the final day of the tournament, with the ultimate deciding matches being played inside the Royal Albert Hall with accompaniment by a 40-piece orchestra. The winners will receive a big chunk of the overall $250,000 prize pool.

The Age of Empires 4 finale is being played out first in a best-of-five matchup at 10:30 EDT (14:30 London time), while the Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition finale follows it at 13:00 EDT (17:00 London time) with a best-of-nine matchup.

I won't say here which two players made it to the finale for each game; I don't want to spoil anything should you want to go back and watch the full set of matches. It's been an entertaining weekend of Age gameplay, to say the least, and I've been impressed with the production quality.

It's great to see some of my favorite Age casters and commentators dressed up in historically accurate garb as the players battled out the quarterfinals aboard a mock merchant ship.

The full set of videos from this weekend is available at the official Red Bull Gaming YouTube channel, as well as at the T90 Official channel.

Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.

Age of Empires 2 has been around since 1999, and I know that the trail-blazing real-time strategy (RTS) game holds a special place in the hearts of many of our readers here at Windows Central.

As a testament to its lasting popularity, Microsoft and Xbox Game Studios delivered us a glorious Definitive Edition remaster in 2019. Not only did the original graphics, designed for low-res CRT monitors, get a beautiful upgrade, but the game also received new civilizations and campaigns, balancing changes, quality-of-life upgrades, improved multiplayer, and much more.

Since its launch, Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition has done anything but slow its momentum. It has received 10 expansion packs in the seven years since launch, with another — The Last Chieftains — expected to launch on February 17, 2026.

The thing about Age of Empires 2: DE is that, while it's a ton of fun to play yourself, it also makes for an outstanding viewing experience. In case you don't pay attention to the world of competitive Age of Empires 2 at a professional level, I'm here to let you know that you're missing out.

What's going on in the world of competitive Age of Empires 2?

Some of the best, most exciting one-on-one Age of Empires 2 ever played at a pro level occurred this month during the Red Bull Wololo: Londinium tournament's ranked qualifying ladder and last-chance qualifier.

A long list of hopefuls, including 25 of the biggest names in competitive AoE 2, signed up for a fresh Empire Wars ranked ladder and battled it out over the course of 16 days.

Played on a pool consisting of nine custom maps, including the awesome Thames addition that features the Royal Albert Hall in digital form, the Empire Wars game mode delivers competitors straight into the Feudal Age with a half-formed base and some early techs already researched. It makes for a quick, aggressive playstyle that's perfect for spectating.

And believe me, if you haven't watched high-level competitive Age of Empires 2 played by standouts like my fellow Canadian, Hera, I promise you that you have no idea what you're in for. Pro play looks nothing like what the average player can manage in their own matches, and it's truly a delight to watch.

There were some tense moments during the last minutes of the qualifying ladder that wrapped up on January 18, which resulted in a fourth-place tiebreaker series. The qualifiers then moved on to a round of 128 for a last chance at becoming one of eight advantage players heading into the grand finale, set to be hosted at the Royal Albert Hall in London on April 6, 2026.

Can I go back and watch the Red Bull Wololo: Londinium qualifier matches?

An ecosystem of expert commentators, including my personal favorite, T90Official on YouTube, has helped grow the game's popularity while also bringing into the spotlight some of the best players in the world.

Armed with the CaptureAge tool that significantly improves casting and viewing live or recorded games, these commentators have turned spectator AoE 2: DE into a legitimate pleasure.

While Age casters like T90Official produce plenty of great non-competitive content, the most exciting stuff definitely involves the top pro players. If you'd like to check out what I'm talking about, the T90 Extras YouTube channel has a collection of videos encompassing the aforementioned last-chance qualifiers with some of the biggest names from the esport.

Hera, the current best player in the world, has his own channel where he's been casting Londinium qualifier games since claiming the top spot on the qualifying ladder. There are plenty more casters and players to check out; these are just my go-to picks.

Wait ... Red Bull is involved with Age of Empires?

Red Bull entered the Age of Empires orbit in 2020 with its original Wololo tournament. Perhaps more popular than expected, Red Bull has hosted eight follow-up tournaments, including 2024's Wololo: El Reinado, hosted in a castle in Spain.

At the time of the tournament in Spain, Earnest Yuen, Director of Production at World's Edge, remarked that Age of Empires 2 is "more widely played than ever." You love to see it, and I hope it doesn't slow down any time soon.

Are you a fan of watching video games played at a competitive level? What are your favorites to watch? Let me know in the comments section!

If you're a fan of historical strategy games like me, I've got great news. Xbox Game Studios development studio World's Edge shared a roadmap for what players can expect across the Age of Empires franchise next year. Kicking off the most recent entry, Age of Mythology: Retold is getting a new Expansion Pass, which will be available for purchase starting on December 18.

This pass will include four new DLC (downloadable content) packs, with a Demeter pack adding a new major goddess to the Greek roster. The Ultimate Fan Pack adds new decorations and pantheon icons, while the Blood & Bones pack adds blood to combat.

Finally, the main setpiece for the Expansion Pass is the Obsidian Mirror, an expansion that brings in the highly-requested Aztecs as a new playable faction. Like the Immortal Pillars and Heavenly Spear expansions, this will also add a new campaign, which will be composed of 12 missions.

Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition can't be stopped, with a new expansion slated to launch in February 2026. Titled The Last Chieftains, this DLC adds three more civilizations to the already massive game.

Age of Empires 4 is also set to grow more, with an expansion in Spring 2026 bringing a campaign focused on the Chinese. A second expansion will follow later in the year that adds two more civilizations, including the Vikings. Otherwise, Age of Empires: Mobile Edition is also coming to PC, for those who are interested.

All Age, all the time

I wrote earlier this year about how important Age of Empires is to me as a franchise, as it helped to determine my growth and even life path as a whole. It's awesome to see the series in a healthy place like this. It's actually at the point where I can't keep up with every single DLC that comes out across these three games, which is an amazing problem to have.

I'm definitely thrilled the Aztecs are coming to Age of Mythology (Immortal Pillars and Heavenly Spear were both great expansions), and it's a good call to have optional blood effects alongside them. Maybe something similar could be implemented in Age of Empires 4?

Regardless, I'll also be looking forward to the expansion for Age 4 that adds the Vikings. I had a blast playing the Knights of Cross and Rose DLC, so similarly experimental faction mechanics would be great to see.

When I think of Age of Empires, I fondly recall countless, hundreds of hours spent as a child in front of a hazy CRT monitor, clicking frantically as I attempted to stave off the hordes of enemies who wanted to wipe my city and my people off the map.

My love and respect for the Age of Empires franchise has only grown over the years, so you can imagine how elated I was when the series — AoE, AoE II, and AoE III — received remasters. Heck, Age of Mythology also received a great remaster that has been very well received.

In what seemed like an attempt to capitalize on the newfound popularity of the series following the remasters, Age of Empires Mobile launched on iOS and Android devices on October 17, 2024.

Developed by TiMi Studio Group — known for other mobile games like Call of Duty: Mobile, Honor of Kings, and Pokémon UNITE — with help from World's Edge (aka Microsoft's in-house Age of Empires team), and published by Tencent, Age of Empires Mobile has racked up more than 5 million downloads on Google Play alone.

Now, as part of a yearly series update provided by the Age team, Age of Empires Mobile has received an "early 2026" release date on PC. Yes, you read that right. The mobile version of the PC version of Age of Empires is getting a PC version, and it's called Age of Empires Mobile: PC Edition. That's not too confusing, right? Here's a snippet from the official release date announcement:

The game is expected to launch on the PC Xbox app and Steam in early 2026, and it will be available on PC Game Pass on day one. It also has the Xbox Play Anywhere badge displayed on the teaser image. The announcement also comes with a slick new trailer showing the game off in what I can only assume is the best light possible.

I admittedly haven't paid much attention to the mobile version of the game, so from my limited perspective, it basically looks like a lot of other mobile RTS games with a bit of Age flair. Check it out for yourself.

With millions of downloads on the mobile side, I don't doubt that Xbox is capitalizing on an opportunity to attract PC players who want a more casual Age experience.

And before anyone worries too much about this port (unport?) pulling resources away from new Age content that PC gamers might better receive, keep in mind that the mobile news arrives alongside a long list of other content planned for the core titles.

The Age community reacts to the new PC port of the mobile version

Age of Empires Mobile sits at a modest 4.2-star rating on Google Play, falling to 3.6 stars on the App Store. Although we didn't touch it here on Windows Central, Android Authority called it "worse than I could possibly have imagined," while Digital Trends named it "the worst kind of mobile spinoff."

It's essentially a gacha-style game where you collect resources, build a city, and upgrade troops. Unlike classic Age of Empires, the game is idle while you're building, and the bulk of the battles are handled automatically. Ultimately, I don't think it's a game that most diehard Age players are going to want to sink time into.

The Age of Empires Mobile: PC Edition announcement trailer has racked up nearly 5,000 views in the past 19 hours since it was posted, but it has only received 113 likes.

The top-rated comment so far, picking up more likes than the video itself, reads, "What are we even doin, man. There's already Age of Empires on PC and it's the good version."

On the Xbox subreddit, the replies to the announcement are a lot more comical. One user points out the obvious — "That's literally the PC version of the mobile version of the PC game." — while another questions, "Have we all lost our minds?"

FAQ

Age of Empires has announced a partnership with the most popular museum in the world, the Louvre.

It's the museum's "first gaming partnership" in its 232-year history, and it's designed to coincide with a massive Mamluk Sultanate exhibition running from April 30 until July 28 at the Louvre.

The Mamluk Sultanate ran from 1250 until 1517, and the Louvre has compiled 260 works from the Egyptian-Syrian empire for display.

The best way to experience the partnership is, of course, to visit the museum, but not everyone is so lucky. Thankfully, the Age of Empires team is planning a livestream from the museum on June 12, starting at 2 PM ET.

The livestream will be hosted on Twitch by Samuel Etienne, a French streamer, journalist, and radio/TV host. They will be joined by an unnamed Age of Empires developer.

If you can't make the livestream, content from the Louvre will make its way out via the Age of Empires website and corresponding social media channels.

The Age team has also cooked up a new playable Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition Mamluk scenario involving the Battle of Ayn Jalut, created especially for the event. You can download it now straight from the Age of Empires website.

Why choose Age of Empires for this partnership?

Now that this partnership between Age and the Louvre is happening, it only seems natural.

Age of Empires is, after all, the series that spawned a deep interest in ancient and medieval history for countless gamers (myself included) since the original Age game launched in 1997.

Here's what Michael Mann — Head of World's Edge studio, which took over the Age franchise in 2019 — has to say:

The Mamluks didn't arrive until Age of Empires 2 launched in 1999, but they've been a constant ever since, appearing also in Age of Empires 3 and Age of Empires 4.

In Age 2, the Mameluke is a unique unit tied to the Saracen civilization. I can't count how many times I've decimated the map with a ball of heavy camel cavalry with ranged attack.

It's mentioned on the Age of Empire site that the "depiction of Mameluke units in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition is not historically sound, but it represents the unit as its first appeared in the original game."

In Age 3, Mamelukes are available to hire as mercenary heavy cavalry. And in Age 4, the Mamluks (as they're more accurately named) are available via the Sultans Ascend DLC.

If you'd like to know more about the Mamluks, I urge you to take a look at the Louvre's official exhibition guide available for download.

Age of Empires 2's new Ayn Jalut scenario is available now

The Mamluks historically pulled off a major victory against the Mongols in 1260, known as the Battle of Ayn Jalut.

While a similar scenario is also available in Age of Empires 4 via the Sultans Ascend DLC, there's a new take coming to Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition.

It was created by World's Edge Senior Business Manager Ramsey Abdulrahim, who has had a hand in the design of a bunch of other campaigns for the series.

Sorry, Xbox players; it looks like this scenario is only available for PC at this time. The game is available on Game Pass, but you can also grab it for about $12 at CDKeys.

I've written before about my love for Age of Empires 2 and how it shaped my taste in games, but Age of Empires 4 never clicked quite as strongly.

I appreciated the improved graphics and new features, but ultimately, that paled in comparison to the utterly gargantuan amount of stuff that Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition still has to offer. It's a game that's still growing, with more factions and campaigns based on The Three Kingdoms arriving in May.

That's changed with Age of Empires 4's latest DLC, Knights of Cross and Rose. While I was initially skeptical, the faction mechanics introduced here are the most compelling addition Age of Empires 4 has seen yet, and I hope future DLC follows suit.

Xbox Games Studios provided a review code for this DLC.

Age of Empires 4 gets two new factions

As you might surmise from the title, Knights of Cross and Rose adds two new factions to Age of Empires 4 in the form of the Knights Templar and the House of Lancaster.

While both are technically categorized as Variant Civilizations — meaning they are a customized version of an existing faction — that description seriously undersells how different they are and how fun they are to play, especially the Knights Templar.

The Knights Templar choose to ally with other Knightly orders and factions as they advance through the Ages, which means potentially adding Knights Hospitaller or Genoese crossbows into your ranks.

The most compelling element, however, is the Pilgrimage mechanic. The Knights Templar can generate gold by safely escorting pilgrims to holy sites on a map, building a Fortress nearby with armaments that help keep said pilgrims from being ambushed.

It's fitting, as the Knights Templar order was originally founded to protect pilgrims heading to Jerusalem. It's an innovative mechanic that actually changes the fundamental basic way I play, something I can't often say for a new faction in a real-time strategy game.

I'd really like to see more of this. Yes, new units and lords are fun to play around with, but taking something engendered by an element of history and directly adapting it into a gameplay mechanic is fascinating.

This sets the Knights Templar aside in a way that other factions haven't really stood out, even if they were fun to use. Bluntly, they even overshadow the House of Lancaster, though this latter group is still fun to play with if you're tired of the regular English.

All of that praise doesn't mean I think there's no room for criticism. This DLC includes a handful of standalone scenarios called Historical Battles, letting players take part in fights like the Battle of Agincourt. This is all well and good, but it's not the same as getting a full new campaign.

While the prior expansion, The Sultans Ascend, included a new campaign to progress through, there's no such addition here.

That's a miss, and if you're someone who primarily enjoys Age of Empires from a single-player perspective, I could understand if that would make you want to wait and pick this DLC up at a discount later down the line.

Still, I really hope the developers at World's Edge and its myriad partner teams don't give up on the thread that's started here. I'm playing Age of Empires 4 more now than I have since launch, and I'd like to see more new civilizations in the future feel similarly distinct to use and play.

Age of Empires 4 is currently available on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Windows PC (via Steam and the Xbox App). Like all Xbox first-party games, it's included in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.

Xbox Game Studios and World's Edge introduced the next Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition DLC on Thursday. Titled The Three Kingdoms, this expansion naturally explores the Romance of the Three Kingdoms period in China.

The Three Kingdoms is adding five new civilizations: the Shu, Wei, Wu, Jurchens, and Khitans. There's a bevy of new units too, such as the Fire Lancers, Rocket Carts, and Dragon Ships, as well as faction-specific units like the Wei Tiger Cavalry and the Jurchens Grenadier.

Developed with the aid of the longtime Age of Empires collaborators at Forgotten Empires, The Three Kingdoms also features three campaigns, which tell one combined narrative that's spread out across 15 missions. These three campaigns follow Liu Bei, Cao Cao, and the Sun Clan.

The Three Kingdoms DLC is slated to launch on May 6, 2025 across Xbox consoles and Windows PC. It's launching at $20, and like many prior DLC packs, there's a discount for anyone that preorders.

When is Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition coming to PlayStation 5?

As previously announced, Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition is coming to PlayStation 5, continuing the recent trend of Xbox games being ported to other consoles.

Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition is coming to PlayStation 5 on May 6, 2025, coinciding with the launch of The Three Kingdoms DLC. PlayStation players that pick up the Premium Edition (which includes all prior DLC packs) can start playing early on May 1, 2025.

A great game is set to get even better

The addition of five more civilizations to play is great, and I'm looking forward to going through these campaigns. The launch timing for the PlayStation 5 version is good too, as it should hopefully result in an influx of new players.

With Microsoft turning 50, I find myself reflecting on how Ensemble Studios' Age of Empires 2 was one of the first video games I ever played.

While I was also given a handful of educationally geared computer programs — think JumpStart Kindergarten and Treasure Mountain! — that I was using from the moment I could remember anything, it was the stories of William Wallace, Joan of Arc, Genghis Khan, and Saladin that formed the basis of the first true game that I was allowed to play.

I still distinctly remember my mom grabbing Age of Empires 2: The Age of Kings from Walmart's game section when I was five years old. Her reasoning at the time was that it was based around history, so it would be good for me to play something fun that could maybe teach me at the same time.

Perhaps understandably, she was less enthused when I wanted to look at the box for Diablo. (Ah well, give it a decade and some change, mom.)

From the moment it finished installing on the old Windows 98 desktop in our house and I started moving a scout around, I was hooked. I didn't even understand a lot of concepts at the time, but one word I quickly grasped was "strategy," and shortly thereafter came "real-time strategy," or RTS.

I was instantly hooked, spending hundreds and hundreds of hours completing the campaigns and building out my own custom scenarios using the level editor. When I received The Conqueror's Expansion a year later for my birthday, those hundreds of hours became thousands.

I should note that my mom's hope did pan out, and my interest in reading history books at an early age largely stems from wanting to know more about the historical figures presented in the game's campaigns.

Playing Age of Empires 2 was also important to my earliest impressions of games for another big reason, as it primarily geared me toward enjoying games strictly on a computer for the next several years.

Sure, I was able to occasionally play something at a friend's house, but it wasn't until several years later that my brothers and I actually had a console of our own, an OG Xbox.

That meant that for the immediate future of my post-Age of Empires gaming escapades, I was limited to other games that could run on a desktop that didn't get a lot of upgrades, setting me up for a life of enjoying RTS games.

My interests in strategy and tactics piqued, but the technological restraints thus set, I turned to other late 90s and early 2000s strategy games like Civilization 2, Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood, and Star Wars: Force Commander.

When I was finally able to build my own gaming computer, I quickly raced to catch up on even more titles the genre had to offer, including Blizzard Entertainment's StarCraft 2.

Growing up and spending my formative years near-solely on PC-centric strategy games shaped my tastes, something I've grown to appreciate more and more as time has gone on.

When I finally owned an Xbox and started playing more console-oriented experiences, my tastes in different genres naturally broadened, but I never lost that original love for what strategy games could be. Indeed, I actively hunted for RTS games on consoles, something that remains sadly rare to this day.

There were fun exceptions, though, such as the surprisingly solid Xbox 360 port of The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-earth 2, as well as Ensemble Studios' swan song, the first Halo Wars.

All these years later, RTS games in particular still offer a uniquely comfortable experience for me, and it's easy for me to get lost spending dozens of hours on some new grand campaign playthrough, even in a game I've played for years and years already.

The main challenge now is in finding enough time to balance all my hobbies (which include playing games outside of work) and the fact that not many big developers are focused on RTS titles anymore.

There are definitely exceptions that are still going strong, especially Sega-owned Creative Assembly, whose support for titles like Total War: Warhammer 3 years after launch should be lauded.

Microsoft also continues to shepherd a suite of strategy games under World's Edge, the team responsible for overseeing Age of Empires and Age of Mythology. I just recently reviewed the first expansion for Age of Mythology: Retold, and I'm looking forward to yet more DLC for Age of Empires 2 later this year.

With Microsoft now also owning Activision Blizzard and its myriad properties, I'd like to hope that maybe StarCraft and Warcraft could see the light of day as strategy games again, but I'll have to wait and see what the years bring.

Ultimately, it's nice to reflect and see where it all started for me. My love for gaming as a whole began with strategy, and that's the throughline that has continued through my life into my professional career.

So, thanks for everything, Age of Empires 2, and thanks for taking a chance, Mom. I'll never forget what it did for me.

Age of Empires 2 and its Definitive Edition (DE) remaster are showing no signs of slowing down more than 26 years after the original game launched.

In case you missed it, the Age DE team shared a 'sneak peek' at a ton of new content coming soon to Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition, a remaster that relaunched the game in 2021.

This comes on the heels of news that Age 2: DE is coming to PlayStation 5 and is set to receive yet another expansion with all-new content.

In 2024, I covered World's Edge Director of Production Earnest Yuen's remarks regarding the continued popularity of Age of Empires 2, with the game being "more widely played than ever" with a "vibrant eSports scene."

Yuen again took to X to add some additional details to the Age DE team's sneak peek.

As explained in the Age DE team's news post, there's not yet an exact date for when all of these changes, fixes, and new content will arrive. However, it's being lined up for a mid-April release.

The news post is "legendarily long," as the Age DE team puts it, with countless bug fixes, balance changes, features, and content laid out.

I pulled some of the standout bits, at least for me, but I urge you to read through the full release if you're a fan of the game.

• Introducing 25 new castle visuals, so that every single civilization uses its own unique castle.
• Every elite unique unit now uses a different visual compared to its non-upgraded counterpart.
• Introduced 6 Monk visuals that have been distributed to the relevant civilizations.
• Introduced 3 new Monastery visuals for Byzantines, Ethiopians, and shamanistic civilizations respectively.
• Attack animations are now synced up with the actual attacks of the unit, for better visual fidelity and gameplay readability.
• Improved attack animations and attack sounds sync for various melee units.
• Introduced a second set of attack animations for a large number of infantry and some other units, which will be randomly played in alternance with the existing attack animation.
• Pressing idle Villager button while holding down Shift now selects all idle Villagers.
• Added two new Random Maps, Glade and Fortified Clearing.
• Added one new Real World map, Great Wall.
• Added seven “Quick Start” map variations where players spawn with six additional Villagers.

• Added new trees.
• Added three new predatory animals.
• Added a new type of herdable animal with three color variations (brown, white, black) and only 65 food.
• AI now has a new scout rush exclusive on Extreme difficulty. This aims to address problematic behavior in the old scout rush where it would get stuck retreating to and from a TC and repeatedly sending scouts into spears.
• Reworked Villagers’ pathfinding which was making them take illogical routes upon completion of a building.
• Added or updated a very large number of attributes to support new gameplay functionalities, most notably alternative ranged attacks and hero active abilities such as special attacks or temporary auras. (Modding)

This is but a brief look at some of the standout notes from the sneak peek, with plenty more info about civilization balancing and changes, map balancing, and random map scripting available.

Tucked into the sneak peek is some new info about Age 2: DE's next expansion. It's explained that a full look isn't ready yet, but shared were details regarding five new civilizations headed to Age 2, all compatible with ranked multiplayer.

This update, expected to arrive sometime in April 2025, is completely free to anyone who already owns Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition.

Last week, I shared an interesting story about how StarCraft played a big role in Age of Empires 2's development in 1999/2000.

I remarked that demand for RTS games has cooled in recent years, but it's clear that the Age team and all of its passion isn't going anywhere.

And for someone whose first real PC gaming experiences were firmly centered around Age of Empires 2, it really doesn't get any better.

Age of Empires 2 is one of my all-time favorite games, and I know I'm not the only one who loves getting a look behind the scenes of its development at Microsoft's defunct Ensemble Studios.

The original title, Age of Kings, launched in 1999 and was followed quickly by the Age of Conquerors expansion in 2000.

Sandy Petersen was a lead designer and developer at Ensemble from 1997 until it closed shop in 2009, and he played a key role in designing Age of Empires.

More than 25 years later, Petersen shared some interesting tidbits on X regarding the Conquerors expansion and the massive influence Korea, at the time, had on the gaming world due to the popularity of StarCraft.

Peterson says he chose the "conquerors" theme, which made it easier to select four civilizations to add to the base game: the Spanish, Aztecs, Huns, and Mayans.

Ahead of schedule by about five weeks in January 2000 — roughly eight months before the official Conquerors expansion launch — Petersen received a call from Microsoft.

The four civilizations planned for Age of Conquerors were about to get an addition at the behest of Microsoft.

StarCraft, developed by Blizzard Entertainment and launched in 1998, was at that time seeing massive success in Korea.

It'd sold 3 million copies in Korea alone, and Microsoft wanted to get in on the action.

As Petersen puts it, he told Microsoft:

"Koreans, greatly to their credit, were not conquerors. They stayed in their lane. While they're cool, they don't fit the Conquerors theme. Starcraft doesn't have any Koreans in it, so those sales had zero to do with a Korean civ."

Petersen's arguments against the addition of a Korean civ for a game focusing on conquerors were valid. But Microsoft wouldn't budge.

This last-minute addition, of course, sent the Ensemble team into a scramble to add an entire civ in about five weeks.

I give Petersen's team credit for creating a Korean civ for Age of Empires II that is still fun to play to this day.

👉 Related: Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition review

However, Petersen points out three mistakes that Ensemble made during the rushed development of a Korean civ.

The unique Turtle Ship unit had artwork that wasn't appreciated by Koreans despite Ensemble's use of a "legitimate source."

The Sea of Japan, which isn't called the Sea of Japan in Korea, understandably ruffled some feathers, and the mention of a Japanese invasion of Korea in the late 16th century allegedly caused a Microsoft rep in Korea to be "arrested and detained for awhile."

Petersen wraps up the X thread by pointing out that Age of Empires 2 never ended up selling three million copies in Korea, no doubt because StarCraft still hadn't gone anywhere.

Where is StarCraft today?

Age of Empires and its Definitive Edition remaster are still going strong, pulling in more than 21,000 players on Steam alone in the last 24 hours.

The indirect sequel, Age of Empires 4, launched in 2021 and is still receiving updates and new content.

Heck, even Age of Mythology recently received a quality remake at the hands of Microsoft and its studios.

So what's happening with StarCraft? I played the first game quite a bit when I was younger (when I wasn't playing AoE 2) but never touched StarCraft 2.

While both StarCraft games have a dedicated fan base, it's been too long since we've had anything new from the IP.

Blizzard is now owned by Microsoft, and it makes sense that the company would want to continue to produce games under the StarCraft banner.

There are rumors that a StarCraft shooter is planned, but so far nothing concrete has come out.

I have no idea if we'll ever see some sort of StarCraft 3 in the future, but I'm sure the idea hasn't been dismissed.

Real-time strategy (RTS) games haven't seen the same level of popularity in recent years as they once did, but there are still a lot of us out there searching for the next big title.

Next month, Microsoft will be turning 50, and that's made me wax nostalgic over the various Microsoft games that have come out leading up to this semicentennial celebration (you don't use that word every day).

During the last half-century, Microsoft has played a historical role not only in tech but within the more niche world of video game software.

I've taken time to list the top seven classic Microsoft games from the pre-Xbox era that have had the most impact. So, this won't include any games technically published by Xbox Game Studios, only titles published under Microsoft or Microsoft Games.

Let's see if you recognize all seven and let me know in the comments if you agree with my ranking.

7) Microsoft Adventure (1979)

While I don't have any personal experience with Microsoft Adventure, seeing as how this game was released 11 years before I was even born, it's undeniably notable since it was the very first game Microsoft ever published, even if it was an adaptation of Colossal Cave Adventure from 1976.

The basic premise is that you are exploring caves and can earn points after successfully solving puzzles and collecting treasures.

In early video game fashion, Microsoft Adventure is a text-based experience, sans graphics, where players read about their environments and then can type in word commands like "South" or "Get rock" in order to travel to different places or interact with in-game objects.

It might not be as popularly played as it once was, but Microsoft Adventure was an important stepping stone that would pave the way for Microsoft to publish additional titles.

6) Microsoft 3D Pinball: Space Cadet (1995)

Included with Windows 95, an audience of people in the 90s and 2000s had instant access to it.

I'm not entirely sure when I first became aware of Microsoft 3D Pinball: Space Cadet (also called Microsoft Pinball), but it would eventually become one of the most revisited games on my '90s cream-yellow computer.

The premise is the same as with most pinball games — pull back the spring-loaded launcher to set the ball in motion, and then try to hit the metallic sphere up into the scoring areas using the flippers. It's one of those games that just about everyone who grew up in the 90s with a Windows PC has played, even if they don't talk about it.

My older brothers would compete to get the highest points and laud their short-term victories over each other until the other took first place. Being age seven in 1995, I never tried to improve or beat my scores. I was simply entranced by the impressive 3D graphics, reactive sci-fi noises, and flashing lights.

Unfortunately, while this beloved Pinball game came with both Windows 95 and 98, it was not included in 64-bit versions of Windows XP (2001). Rumors made it sound like the game was removed for legal reasons.

However, an official Microsoft blog post written by Raymond Chen explains that the tough decision to exclude it was due to a bug encountered on the 64-bit build that couldn't be rectified by the Microsoft team.

At any rate, it was a sad thing for many when the game didn't come with later versions of Windows.

5) Crimson Skies (2000)

This tabletop-turned-video game was created by Jordan Weisman and Dave McCoy, developed by Zipper Interactive, and published by Microsoft.

The story is set in an alternate reality 1930s, where flight is the main mode of travel in Northern America, and pirates roam the skies.

After successfully completing a mission and gathering treasures, the main character, Nathan Zachary, discovers that his pirate gang, the Fortune Hunters, has all gone missing.

The story revolves around him undertaking various missions and experiencing dogfights, explosions, betrayal, and more while searching for his crewmates.

Adding to the game's overall tone, Crimson Skies tells its story like a dramatized radio program, which creates a playful, campy style somewhat reminiscent of a comic book.

What helped Crimson Skies stand out was its creator's desire to make a fun action game rather than a life-like aviation game. So, it was meant to fulfill adventure fantasies rather than have realistic physics.

There hasn't been a new Crimson Skies video game in over two decades since Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge was released for Xbox 360 in 2003. That said, this series still holds a place in many people's hearts and helped show that the experience and not necessarily realism was more important when it came to gaming.

Of course, Xbox Game Studios currently owns the Crimson Skies IP (intellectual property), so there's a chance Microsoft could revive it sometime down the road. Until then, you can enjoy Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge on Xbox Game Pass.

4) Microsoft Flight Simulator (1982)

Yep, another aviation game appears on the list.

Before Microsoft got involved, developer Sublogic created the first FS1 Flight Simulator title in 1980, and then Microsoft acquired them in 1982.

Shortly after this acquisition, Microsoft Flight Simulator was released for IBM PC. The main gameplay has players flying a Cessna 182 aircraft over Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, or Seattle.

Compared to FS1, Microsoft Flight Simulator offered improved graphics and made flights more exciting by offering both night and day, as well as weather changes.

After releasing the game, Microsoft soon found it had success on its hands, with the Chicago Tribune eventually stating that it was "the most popular game ever on a diskette." The preeminent title ended up selling about 800,000 copies in its first five years.

These games have helped thousands of people live out their fantasies of being pilots from the safety of their homes. The fantasy gets even more realistic with the use of the best flight sticks and controls.

Depending on how you look at it, there have been 16 Microsoft Flight Simulator games to date since Microsoft got involved.

Now, this aviation series has had its ups and downs and even experienced some initial turbulence with the launch of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.

However, it's still largely considered one of the very best flight sim series out there.

3) Microsoft Minesweeper (1990)

Most of us have heard of Minesweeper (a.k.a. Flower Field), but where did it come from?

While being on Windows 95 made it ubiquitous, Minesweeper was originally developed by Curt Johnson in 1992 for IBM's proprietary OS/2 operating system but was first released in 1990 with the Microsoft Entertainment Pack 1.

Johnson has acknowledged that he borrowed the concept for the game from a different game (but not Mined-Out), which was pretty standard practice at the time (thanks, Eurogamer).

As with Space Cadet, Minesweeper was a game that came on Windows 95 and soon became one of the biggest sources of workplace distraction in the Windows 95, 98, and XP eras.

Or so I've been told. I wouldn't know firsthand, considering I was seven at the time.

Throughout my childhood, I'd end up watching several adults glued to their computer screens while attempting to beat this game. Those deceptively simple boxes can keep your attention for hours.

Depending on the difficulty, players are presented with 8x8, 16x16, or 30x16 rows of blank boxes and need to determine which ones contain mines and which ones are safe to click on.

If a space has a number 2 on it, then it is in contact with two mines either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. If there's a 3, then it's in contact with three mines. So on and so forth.

By gathering clues, players can slowly clear the field by clicking on safe spaces and marking boxes with flags if they believe they hold mines. However, clicking on even one mine ends the game, which only brings you back feeling unsatisfied and wanting to try again.

It's not quite as iconic as some of the other games that come with Windows, but it's still a very popular one that many people have sunk time into.

2) Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings (1999)

I could write a novel about Age of Empires (AoE), but I'll try to keep this brief.

The 90s was the golden era of real-time strategy (RTS) games like Civilization, StarCraft, Command & Conquer, and more. Even with all of this competition, the original AoE was able to make a splash when Microsoft published it in 1997.

A couple of years later, the medieval-focused sequel, Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, improved on what already made the original game so great while also bringing new features aboard.

As is a common RTS theme, the goal of Ensemble Studios' game is to build up a civilization and withstand any attacks made by other players (or the computer). Depending on the mode, you can win by being the last civilization standing or completing specific goals.

Not only was AoE2 able to sell over two million copies after only three months on the market, but it stayed in the list of top 20 best-selling video games for the next two and a half years. It would go on to get enhanced and re-released in the years to come on various platforms, including modern PCs and Xbox Series X|S (as seen in my review).

Many people say AoE's focus on real history set it apart from the many fantasy and sci-fi RTS games of the time. I'm sure this was a factor, but it would be remiss not to mention that AoE2 also offered a wide range of features, extremely competitive yet balanced mechanics, and fully fleshed-out single and multiplayer modes that drew players in.

After AoE2's initial launch, Microsoft went on to release The Conquerors Expansion in 2000, which refreshed the game by bringing four new campaigns and five additional civilizations (Aztecs, Mayans, Spanish, Koreans, and Huns) to AoE2. But that wasn't the end of AoE2's expansion packs.

Several years later, in 2015, The African Kingdom's expansion came to Steam, and then in 2016, we also got the Rise of the Rajas for the Definitive Edition of AoE2.

In the years following AoE2, we also got Age of Mythology, Age of Empires III, Age of Empires IV, a few remakes and ports, and, most recently, Age of Mythology: Retold, which is a step up from being a basic remake. Even after all of these releases, AoE2 is largely considered the best of the group.

With its massive following and Microsoft's continued support for AoE2 over the years, it's no wonder AoE2 has become a classic that is "more widely played than ever" in the eSports scene.

Between my childhood and now, I can't even tell you how many hours I've put into AoE2. It was something that I'd play with my friends and brothers religiously during summer vacations, and now it's something that I still enjoy after a long workday.

Most importantly to my tweenage self, there was a broad array of silly pre-recorded insults that you could taunt other players with while decimating their units or simply stealing their sheep.

"You played two hours to die like this?"

"WOLOLO!"

What more could you want? AoE2 left a lasting impact on a generation, and it's still going strong.

1) Microsoft Solitaire (1995)

Did you really expect anything else to be at the top of this list?

I honestly wrestled with putting AoE2 at the number one spot, but I've put Microsoft Solitaire here instead because it and its later versions are iconic and have been played by just about everyone.

Microsoft Solitaire was initially released on Windows 3.0 in 1990, but the 1995 version that came with Windows 95 is arguably the most iconic.

I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that I'm a Nertz (basically multiplayer Solitaire) whiz due to the many hours I spent playing this time-wasting card game growing up.

Microsoft has gone on to include a version of Solitaire on each of its new operating systems, including Windows 11, even if it is tucked in the Microsoft Store now.

Solitaire card backs from r/nostalgia

In my adult life, I sometimes find myself spending hours playing newer versions of this addictive card game, all so I can repeatedly get the satisfaction of winning and seeing those cards hop around the screen like bouncy bunnies on a green field.

You know the rush I'm talking about.

Going back to the 95 version, everyone in my family had a preferred card design to choose from; I always went with the night castle theme, while one of my brothers chose the robot, another brother chose the clownfish, and my mother chose the beach scene.

I've seen coworkers playing it at work, classmates playing instead of taking notes, and individuals playing it on the flights to pass the time. It's easy to pick up and is more approachable than a competitive game like AoE.

It's so everyman that it symbolizes slacking off in the workplace, as is evidenced by its use in movies and shows like The Office, Friends, Peep Show, and many more.

BONUS: Metal Gear Solid (2000)

This one is a little bit of a stretch, but it still technically counts.

The original Metal Gear Solid game, designed by the legendary Hideo Kojima and published by Konami, was released in 1998 for PlayStation.

It was so popular that it ended up getting remade and ported to various platforms, including Windows.

To bring the adventure stealth game to Windows PC, Microsoft Games stepped in as publisher with Digital Dialect developing.

In case you don't know, players take on the role of Solid Snake, a gruff military type and former spy who is tasked with infiltrating a nuclear facility to put an end to terrorist schemes.

The series is still going strong, with Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater launching in August 2025.

So, while the initial creativity and design for the classic game definitely belongs to Kojima and Konami, it was thanks to the efforts of Microsoft Games and Digital Dialect that many people got to play this game on Windows.

Microsoft games helped develop my gaming tastes

Microsoft has had a large impact on my life and the lives of everyone growing up in the last half-decade.

From casual games like Solitaire to more intensive strategic ones like Age of Empires II, the company has even helped shape my gaming preferences.

It all started with Microsoft Adventure, but eventually, the company would publish a popular series with enormous followings.

Of course, there are several game IPs Microsoft hasn't touched in years, and we can only hope that Xbox Game Studios will revive these someday.

If you disagree with my ranking, post in the comments, and let's discuss!

While my army has taken a beating, I've still got enough strong units to push through finish the mission. Selecting the Great Flood from my available God Powers, I quickly wash away most of the enemy army, battering their cavalry and wiping out their infantry, making what would've been a dangerous victory an easy win.

That's the exciting culmination of one campaign mission in Immortal Pillars, the new expansion for Age of Mythology: Retold.

I've had a great time playing through this expansion over the last few days, testing the new Chinese faction against the existing roster. I reviewed Age of Mythology: Retold when it first launched last year, and I'm happy to see that the post-launch support I hoped for is panning out.

If you're someone that enjoys strategy games but hasn't checked this out yet (or you've been looking a reason to hop back in) then Immortal Pillars is the perfect reason to dive into Age of Mythology.

This review was made possible thanks to a review code provided by Xbox Game Studios. The company did not see the contents of this review before publishing.

What is Age of Mythology: Retold Immortal Pillars?

• Immortal Pillars is the first paid expansion for Age of Mythology: Retold.
• Immortal Pillars adds the Chinese pantheon, with three new Major Gods.
• A new campaign focused on the Chinese is also included.

Immortal Pillars is the first of two promised expansions for Age of Mythology: Retold, a remake of the original Age of Mythology.

Developed by World's Edge and supporting teams while published by Xbox Game Studios, Immortal Pillars adds a completely rebuilt Chinese pantheon to the game, with an accompanying campaign.

Like the Greeks, Egyptians, and Atlanteans, the Chinese have three Major Gods — the Norse currently have four, thanks to a launch DLC pack adding Freyr — with a plethora of new Minor Gods, mythological units, and God Powers.

I say "rebuilt" because the original Age of Mythology did get a Chinese-focused expansion called Tale of the Dragon, but this DLC was universally-reviled due to a plethora of bugs and poor balancing.

As a result, Immortal Pillars can be seen as a redo of sorts, with the developers focused on getting it right by building everything anew from the ground up instead of trying to salvage an extremely disliked content pack.

Immortal Pillars is available for $20 USD, but it's also just included in the Premium Edition (or Premium Upgrade, for Xbox Game Pass players) of the game.

• Back to the top ⤴

Age of Mythology: Retold Immortal Pillars review — What I liked

• The story presentation in the campaign is well done.
• The new Chinese units and God Powers are extremely fun to use.

As mentioned above, Immortal Pillars is all about the Chinese, adding three new Major Gods — Fuxi, Nüwa, and Shennong — and nine Minor Gods that lend their strength.

No matter your chosen deity, the Chinese have a unified playstyle, gaining favor by expanding their Favored Land. That means you're encouraged to build out your structures in a particular expanding, expanding in certain ways to maximize the benefits of having more land covered.

It's a really fun addition that made me think differently from my usual playstyle. The Chinese army roster is similar interesting, with Qilins that can heal friendly units, while the oddly-adorable Hundun is devastating to your enemies' human troops.

The tortoise-snake Xuanwu is my favorite new mythological creature, as it can switch between swimming or lumbering across land, making it dangerously versatile.

The Chinese also have access to fun hero scout, the Pioneer, which can send sky lanterns across swathes of the map to scout without actually moving themselves.

There's also cool variety in the God Powers, and the aforementioned Great Flood is particularly visually impressive, knocking away dozens of enemies and crushing them at once.

All of this is important to grasp when playing through the campaign, which unfolds over the course of nine missions. The story is fun, following the attempt of a group of heroes to stop the immortal Huang Zhaowu from conquering all of China and destabilizing reality.

It's well-acted and presented, with frequent cutscenes instead of relying on voiceovers during a particular mission.

While the scenarios don't get too wild, a few have some challenging setups, such as racing against the clock to navigate to transport an army over water, or requiring you to defend the construction of a time-consuming Wonder.

Even if many players will be focused on using the Chinese faction in multiplayer, the story is worth playing through once, and I'm looking forward to going through again on a higher difficulty later.

Age of Mythology: Retold Immortal Pillars review — What I disliked

• While the campaign is a good experience, it's a bit short.
• I also ran into a few navigation and pathfinding bugs with a some of the new units.

Immortal Pillars is a mostly polished experience, but I did run into a couple of pathfinding issues with the new units. One in particular, the Yazi, quickly dashes and charges opponents.

That's fun and useful, but more than once, I found the creature became stuck on a tree in a mission where I didn't have access to villagers. A similar issue happened with Qinlong, a flying dragon that shouldn't be getting stuck on anything.

I also found the campaign to be a bit short. While it is nine missions, the first handful are essentially acting as a tutorial, teaching the player how to effectively play with the Chinese, meaning only the latter scenarios felt like seriously challenging missions.

Age of Mythology: Retold Immortal Pillars review — Final thoughts

You should buy this if ...

✅You're already enjoying Age of Mythology: Retold, and you want more.

If you've been playing Age of Mythology: Retold and you enjoyed what the base game had to offer, then grabbing Immortal Pillars is a great idea. The Chinese factions shake up the existing balance of power in a radical way, and the campaign has some fun scenarios worth playing through.

✅You love Chinese mythology and strategy games.

If you haven't played Age of Mythology: Retold yet, but this expansion has caught your eye, I wholeheartedly recommend jumping in. The new Chinese civilization has been brought to life with care, with plenty of new gameplay mechanics that are still newcomer-friendly. Just remember that you'll need to buy the base game (or subscribe to Xbox Game Pass) before getting Immortal Pillars.

You should not buy this if ...

❌You haven't enjoyed real-time strategy games before.

If you aren't a fan of real-time strategy games, then this isn't going to change your mind. Immortal Empires is an excellent addition to already-awesome remake, but while there are fun new things to play around with, it's not going to change the mind of someone that has previously bounced off of similar games.

While Age of Mythology: Retold was already an excellent experience, playing Immortal Pillars makes it abundantly clear that this remake wasn't a one-off, and the teams at World's Edge and its myriad partner studios understand how to keep growing this game in exciting ways.

I've had a blast playing around with the Chinese Major Gods, with the new God Powers and mythological units complimenting the existing pantheons.

I wish the campaign was a bit longer, and there are a handful of bugs to polish, but ultimately, what's here is very good and absolutely worth buying if you've already enjoyed the base game.

Immortal Pillars is a worthy addition to Age of Mythology: Retold, and I'm looking forward to spending even more time with the Chinese faction in the coming weeks.

With the development team providing it could handle reworking a faction essentially from scratch, I'm now extraordinarily curious to see what pantheon will be added into Age of Mythology next. We'll probably be waiting for a while to get any details on the second expansion, but I'll be ready.

Age of Mythology: Retold and Immortal Pillars are currently available on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PlayStation 5.

• Back to the top ⤴

Age of Mythology: Retold's first big expansion, Immortal Pillars, now has a release date, and it's set to arrive on March 4, 2025. This coincides with the launch of Age of Mythology: Retold on PlayStation 5, allowing PlayStation players to join in with Xbox and PC users in wielding godlike powers.

Immortal Pillars adds a reimagined version of the Chinese faction, with the Major Gods Fuxi, Nüwa, and Sennong allowing players to lead a new empire into battle. These gods come alongside new Myth units like the Qilin, as well as Chinese soldiers including the iconic Chu Ko Nu crossbowmen. Minor Gods like Chiyou and Zhurong expand the arsenal of God Powers, letting players empower their troops with lightning or scorch the battlefield with fire. You can check out the latest trailer for the Immortal Pillars expansion below:

Immortal Pillars is also adding a new nine-chapter campaign that's focused on the Chinese faction, giving players a way to familiarize themselves with the new units and God powers before hopping into multiplayer.

Age of Mythology: Retold Immortal Pillars is $20 USD, and it's included in the Premium Edition of the game at no extra cost, as is the second planned expansion for the game. Anyone playing on Xbox or PC through Xbox Game Pass can also buy the Premium Upgrade to access both expansions.

Not much is known about the second planned expansion, though it feels safe to assume that it will be introducing a completely new pantheon into the existing mix.

Age of Empires expands with new platforms and factions

In addition to Age of Mythology's PlayStation 5 port, many of the other Age of Empires games have new content on the way. Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition is also coming to PlayStation 5, though there's no release date outside of a vague "Spring" window for now. This port of the game will also coincide with a new DLC pack.

Finally, Age of Empires 4 is also continuing to grow. While the development team at World's Edge previously confirmed that a new expansion would be arriving this year, we now know that two DLC packs will be launching for the game across 2025. The first DLC is called Knights of Cross and Rose, and it's launching this Spring, with the Age of Empires teams promising to share more soon.

Age of Mythology: Retold is currently available on Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC, and is launching on PlayStation 5 in March 2025. Like all Xbox first-party games, it's also available in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.

More Xbox games are headed over to new platforms. This time, it's two legendary real-time strategy games, Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition and Age of Mythology: Retold, which are coming to PlayStation 5 at some point in Spring and in March 2025, respectively, as shared by Xbox on Tuesday.

Naturally, these games will support full cross-play between Xbox, Windows PC, and PlayStation 5 players, with new updates arriving simultaneously across all platforms. Age of Mythology: Retold players on PlayStation will also be able to buy the upcoming expansion, Immortal Pillars, which is adding a reinvented version of the Chinese faction. Immortal Pillars is slated to launch on March 4, 2025 for all platforms.

Age of Empires and its popular spinoff Age of Mythology are shepherded by World's Edge, a team under Xbox Game Studios that works to partner with other developers in remaking older games while also developing new titles in the storied franchise. Over the past few years, the teams have launched Definitive Editions of Age of Empires, Age of Empires 2, and Age of Empires 3, as well as crafting Age of Empires 4 and ambitiously remaking Age of Mythology.

In my review of Age of Mythology: Retold, I wrote that it "...succeeds at not only being a wonderful remake but also moving the series forward, laying the foundation for years of expansions and updates. I'm looking forward to putting dozens and dozens of more hours into Age of Mythology: Retold, as well as eagerly awaiting the new Pantheons that'll be coming in the months ahead."

Xbox games are moving over to other platforms in force

This news comes shortly after Xbox recently confirmed that Playground Games' Forza Horizon 5 would be launching on PlayStation 5 at some point in Spring 2025. A PlayStation 5 port of Bethesda Softworks and MachineGames' Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is also on the way, with a planned release date of some point in the first half of this year.

Xbox is continuing to expand its reach, bringing games across PlayStation and Nintendo platforms as the platform holder focuses on expanding its profit margins. Many of the upcoming titles in the Xbox first-party lineup are coming to PlayStation 5 on day one, including id Software's DOOM: The Dark Ages and Xbox Game Studios Publishing's Ninja Gaiden 4.

Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spenccer has noted he wants to continue innovating in hardware, and believes that moving forward, said innovation should be the reason players to choose to pick up Xbox hardware instead of something else.

What you need to know

• World's Edge, one of the co-developers of Age of Empires 4 has announced that new DLC content will be coming to the game in 2025 to celebrate the game's three-year anniversary.
• It is currently unclear what this DLC will entail but we do know that it will be the first major DLC content the game has had since 'The Sultan Ascend' expansion, which was released on November 14, 2023.
• Age of Empires 4 is available to purchase on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. It is also available to download and play for free on all aforementioned platforms and xCloud via Xbox Game Pass.

On October 28, 2024, World's Edge, the co-developer for Age of Empires 4, the latest installment in the long-running, legendary real-time strategy franchise, has celebrated the game's 3rd anniversary since it was released on PC in 2021. To honor the occasion, World's Edge has announced on X that they have begun work on new DLC content for Age of Empires 4 that will be released sometime during 2025.

World's Edge has not divulged details at this time regarding what kind of DLC it is making. However, it is highly probable that it will be another DLC expansion much like Age of Empires 4's free One-Year Anniversary DLC update which was released in 2022, and its paid 'The Sultan's Ascend' DLC expansion which was released on November 14, 2023.

We'll likely hear more concrete news from World's Edge or the game's publisher Xbox Game Studios about this DLC content for Age of Empires 4 in 2025 or even before 2024 closes out, so we will keep an eye out and let you know when that happens.

🎃The best early Black Friday deals🦃

• 🎮Lenovo Legion Go (512GB) | $499.99 at Best Buy (Save $200!)
• 📺LG Curved OLED 32 (QHD, 240Hz) | $909.99 at Amazon (Save $590!)
• 💻ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (RTX 4060) | $1,249.99 at Best Buy (Save $300!)
• 📺HP Omen 27qs (QHD, 240Hz) | $349.99 at Best Buy (Save $80!)
• 🔊2.1ch Soundbar for TVs & Monitors | $44.99 at Walmart (Save $55!)
• 🎧Sennheiser Momentum 4 ANC | $274.95 at Amazon (Save $125!)
• 📺LG C4 OLED 4K TV (42-inches) | $999.99 at Best Buy (Save $400!)

New ways to wage war coming soon in 2025

The Age of Empires series has made a big comeback in recent years. Age of Empires 4 has wowed players with its refined take on the RTS genre, Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition is still receiving plenty of major DLC content updates such as the upcoming 'Chronicles: Battle for Greece' expansion, and the underrated classic spin-off, Age of Mythology, has been expertly remade with Age of Mythology: Retold.

Aside from getting cross-play support between PC and Xbox, Age of Empires 4 had been admittingly hungry for major DLC content during 2024 as the game only received balance updates and temporary seasonal events after the release of 'The Sultan's Ascend' expansion. Hopefully, that will change come 2025 when the World's Edge releases the next batch of major DLC content for Age of Empires 4 and revitalizes one of the best PC games and best Xbox Games in the franchise.

Age of Empires is available to purchase on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Windows and Steam. It is also available to download on Xbox Cloud Pass, PC Game Pass, and Xbox Cloud Gaming for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers.

I've been playing RTS (real-time strategy) games since I was a kid, and find many of the classics still hold up to this day. Even the latest definitive editions of classic Age of Empires games have sold well and continue to keep up a good community. I never could have guessed that I'd be able to play these traditionally mouse-heavy games on Xbox as well as PC, but that has been the case thanks to the new wheel system designed for controllers. 

As such, I was curious to see how the new Age of Mythology: Retold played on gaming handhelds such as ROG Ally, Steam Deck, or Legion Go. At this point, I've spent time playing on each of these, and here is what I've found. 

Best Age of Mythology settings for gaming handhelds

Whenever I play a new game on gaming handhelds, I often have to mess around in the settings menu until I find the best setup. However, I'm happy to report that Age of Mythology: Retold works amazingly on each of these devices right from the get-go. No graphics setting tuning was needed. It helps that Retold has relatively modest PC system requirements compared to some other modern games. 

My only advice for handheld players is to consider adjusting the user interface (UI) and selection settings. For instance, you might want to increase text size to make it easier to read or adjust the Marquee Speed Scale/Camera Pan Speed if you find these speeds too fast or too sluggish. You can also zoom in or out by pushing up or down on the left joystick, which makes it easier to select specific units. 

Best Age of Mythology: Retold settings for gaming handhelds

Many of these settings are really just a matter of preference, but here's what I found worked best for me. If you're playing on Steam Deck, remember that pressing Steam button + X brings up the on-screen keyboard for text entry. Press the same button combo again to put the on-screen keyboard away. 

• Run Age of Mythology: Retold → ☰ (hamburger button) → Settings → Accessibility
  • Font Size: Standard works, but put it up to Extra Large if needed
    
    
• Run Age of Mythology: Retold → ☰ (hamburger button) → Settings → Graphics
  • Display Mode: Borderless
  • Resolution: 1280 x 720
  • Frame Rate Limit: 60
  • Texture Quality: Low
  • Texture Filter Quality: Low (Bilinear)
  • Terrain Quality: Low
  • Water Quality: Low
  • Foliage Quality: Low
  • Shadow Quality: Low
  • Dynamic Reflections: None
  • Ambient Occlusion Quality: Off
  • Effect Quality: Low
  • Building Weather Effects: Toggled on
  • Dynamic Lights: Toggled off
  • Enable Height Gradient: Toggled off
  • Obscured Unit Alpha: 60%
  • Anti-Aliasing: None
  • Enable Bloom: Toggled off
    
    
• Run Age of Mythology: Retold → ☰ (hamburger button) → Settings → UI
  (There are a lot of preference options; I just address ones that affect performance)
  • Enable Ultra HD AI Assets: Toggled off
  • Enable Alternative HUD Layout: Toggled off
  • HUD Scale: 100%
  • Full Tooltip Help: Whatever you want
  • Threshold Snap to Unit: 200
    
    
• Run Age of Mythology: Retold → ☰ (hamburger button) → Settings → Controller
  • Pan Speed: 25% worked for me; experiment and adjust as needed
  • Pan Inertia: 25% worked for me here as well, but you might want to adjust
  • Default Zoom Level: 60% felt good to me, but you can change as desired
  • Enable Camera Snap: Toggled on
  • Enable Camera Attraction: Toggled on
  • Attraction Strength: 20% worked better for me, but adjust as needed
  • Marquee Size Scale: 1.0, but if you find it hard to see the marquee, make it larger.
  • Marquee Speed Scale: 1.0 if it's too sluggish or too fast, adjust as desired
  • Quick Find Snaps to Units: Toggled on
  • Quick Find Press / Hold Behavior: Press: select single, hold: select all (global)
  • Hover Highlights: Toggled on
  • Selection Highlights: Toggled on
  • Press or Hold Menus: Press
  • Y or B Cancel: B Cancel
  • RS Press Opens VPS Menu: Toggled off
  • Swapping to Controller Hides Mouse: Toggled on

Age of Mythology: Retold gaming handheld FAQ

This section is hopefully a catch-all for any additional questions you might have about Age of Mythology: Retold on gaming handhelds. 

Steam Deck Compatibility ⚠️

Valve's testing indicates that Age of Mythology: Retold is Playable on Steam Deck. This game is functional on Steam Deck, but might require extra effort to interact with or configure. 

• ⚠️ Entering some text requires manually evoking the on-screen keyboard.
• ⚠️ Some in-game text is small and may be difficult to read.
• ✅ All functionality is accessible when using the default controller configuration.
• ✅ This game shows Steam Deck controller icons.
• ✅ This game's default graphics configuration performs well on Steam Deck.

Battle with the power of the gods on gaming handheld

Thanks to the fact that Age of Mythology: Retold isn't the most graphically intensive game, it runs incredibly well on all major PC gaming handhelds by default. You can adjust the graphics a bit as desired, but overall, it should run well on first boot up. What's more, the game's wheel menus make this traditionally mouse-heavy franchise easy to play with controllers. Plus, the correct controller icons appear on-screen, so you don't have to fumble around or make guesses. 

Rather than focusing on graphics settings, I suggest adjusting UI and selection settings when you first open Retold. That way, you can get the camera to move as fast or slow as you'd like. Plus, you can enlarge the text so you aren't squinting at the screen the whole time. Overall, Retold is a blast to play on gaming handhelds. 

What you need to know

• Age of Empires Mobile is a spinoff of the strategy franchise designed around tablets and phones. 
• Age of Empires Mobile is being developed by World's Edge and TiMi Studios and published by Xbox Game Studios. 
• After undergoing testing in different regions, Age of Empires Mobile is launching globally on Oct. 17, 2024.

Strategy fans will have a new game to play on the go later this year. 

Age of Empires Mobile is launching globally on Oct. 17, 2024, after undergoing testing in a number of regions months, the developers shared. This spinoff of the Age of Empires franchise has been developed by World's Edge and Xbox Game Studios in partnership with TiMi Studios. Pre-registration for Age of Empires Mobile is available now.

“Our goal at World’s Edge is to bring the magic of Age of Empires to as many different types of players around the world as possible. Partnering with TiMi Studio Group means we can combine their expertise in mobile gaming with the strength of our franchise and history - to bring a brand-new take on Age of Empires to even more gamers, in even more places," said Michael Mann, studio head at World’s Edge. 

🎒The best Back to School deals📝

• 🕹️Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (3-months) | $30.79 at CDKeys (Save $19!)
• 💻Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x (X Elite) | $999.99 at Best Buy (Save $200!)
• 🎮ASUS ROG Ally (Z1 Extreme, 512GB) | $499.99 at Best Buy (Save $150!)
• 💻HP Victus 15.6 Laptop (RTX 4050) | $599 at Walmart (Save $380!)
• 📺Amazon Fire TV Xbox Game Pass bundle | $82.85 at Amazon (Save $37!)
• 💻Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon | $1,361.88 at Lenovo (Save $1,257!)
• 🎧Bose QuietComfort ANC Headphones| $249.00 at Best Buy (Save $100!)
• 📺TCL Class Q6 4K QLED TV (55-inches) | $319.99 at Target (Save $130!)
• 🎮 Seagate Xbox Series X|S Card (2TB) | $249.99 at Best Buy (Save $110!)
• 🕹️Hi-Fi RUSH (PC, Steam) | $9.39 at CDKeys (Save $21!)
• 🖱️Razer Basilisk V3 Wired Mouse | $49.99 at Best Buy (Save $20!)
• 🖥️Lenovo ThinkStation P3 (Core i5 vPro) | $789.00 at Lenovo (Save $970!)
• ⌨️Alienware Pro Wireless Gaming Keyboard | $149.99 at Dell (Save $50!)
• 🎮Lenovo Legion Go (Z1 Extreme, 512GB) | $599.99 at Best Buy (Save $100!)
• 💻HP Envy x360 16 Laptop (Ryzen 5) | $499.99 at Best Buy (Save $350!)

Analysis: Age of Empires is a growing franchise

Age of Empires Mobile is positioned to help bring new players into the series with a game meant to be played on phones and tablets. It will also be interesting to see how this game and other mobile Xbox titles, like The Elder Scrolls: Castles, play into the upcoming Xbox Mobile Store.

Meanwhile, the more traditional real-time strategy fans can look forward to Age of Mythology: Retold, which is launching on September 4 (or August 28 for Premium Edition buyers) across Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC. Speaking with the developers, the aim is for Age of Mythology: Retold to be the most approachable game the team has made so far.

With these new games arriving and titles like Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition continuing to receive DLC packs and support, World's Edge and Age of Empires are ever-growing as a vital component of the Xbox division as a whole.

Titans and gods are clashing once again. 

After going dormant for years following the closure of its original developer, the Age of Empires real-time strategy franchise has seen a massive revival over the last few years, with Xbox Game Studios' dedicated team at World's Edge working together with partners to bring new games and the definitive versions of older titles alike to life. 

Now, it's finally Age of Mythology's turn. As the first fully 3D game in the series, Age of Mythology took a number of ambitious leaps away from its predecessors and immediate successors. With detailed new graphics and a suite of gameplay changes for the modern era, there's a lot to learn about Age of Mythology: Retold. I've gathered details on all the frequently asked questions and everything you need to know in this article.

What is Age of Mythology: Retold?

The original Age of Mythology was developed by Ensemble, the now-defunct studio that kicked off the Age of Empires franchise. Released in 2002, Age of Mythology is a spinoff of Age of Empires, letting players command mythologically-inclined forces from the Greeks, Egyptians, and Norse, with units like Minotaurs, Dwarfs, and Scarabs. Players also have access to God Powers, unique abilities that can suddenly turn the tide of a battle or rapidly boost their faction's economy across a campaign and multiplayer.

The game was expanded in 2003 with the Titans expansion, which added the Atlanteans as a playable faction and a new campaign following the threat of Kronos, as well as allowing each faction to craft a game-changing Titan. In 2016, supporting developer Skybox Labs released the Tale of the Dragon expansion, which added the Chinese as a fifth faction. 

Age of Mythology: Retold was announced in 2022, when World's Edge and Xbox Game Studios confirmed that at long last Age of Mythology would be rebuilt like the Age of Empires Definitive Editions. 

Age of Mythology: Retold is going further than these prior efforts though, with far more gameplay balance changes and altered elements compared to the remastered Age of Empires games. This includes making God Powers reusable, as well as better balancing across the different factions. Age of Mythology: Retold includes the Greeks, Egyptians, Norse, and Atlanteans. The Chinese are coming in the remake's first expansion, and are expected to be significantly changed in line with player feedback. 

Does Age of Mythology: Retold feature multiplayer?

The original Age of Empires supported multiplayer when it first launched in 1997, allowing several players to hop into matches as friends or foes. This trend has continued with every game in the franchise, including Age of Mythology in 2002. Naturally, Age of Mythology: Retold also supports multiplayer, meaning that once you're done with the campaign, you can play online against human opponents with your chosen godly faction. 

Is Age of Mythology: Retold cross-platform?

There isn't an overwhelming abundance of strategy games available on console, with the genre traditionally thriving on PC due to the nature of the controls, needing a mouse and keyboard. With Age of Mythology: Retold supporting controller or mouse and keyboard controls on Xbox and PC from day one, this difference is seriously mitigated. 

As a result, Age of Mythology: Retold supports cross-platform play across Xbox Series X|S consoles and Windows PC. Players can take control of mythological forces and enjoy the game with their friends, no matter which platform they choose to play on. 

What platforms is Age of Mythology: Retold coming to?

When developer World's Edge first began working with external partners on the Age of Empires: Definitive Edition remasters, the studio was focused on bringing the games to Windows PC across PC Game Pass and Steam. Things changed in 2023, which saw the arrival of Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition and Age of Empires 4 on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S consoles, though at this time, Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition remains exclusive to PC hardware.

With Age of Mythology: Retold, the series is seeing its first-ever day-and-date launch across both a console and Windows PC, the culmination of years of effort and technical learning across World's Edge and the rest of the development teams on the project.

Age of Mythology: Retold is coming to Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC. It won't be available on the older Xbox One consoles, as Microsoft has for the most part moved from developing games for last-generation hardware, having made this decision back in 2023. The result of this is that the game can be built around a higher "baseline," allowing for heavier visual effects and higher-resolution textures on screen at the same time, without causing problems. 

Is Age of Mythology: Retold coming to Xbox Game Pass?

Microsoft reworked how Xbox Game Pass tiers work in 2024, removing the Console tier for new subscribers (though current subscribers are allowed to maintain the tier) and introducing the Standard tier.

While the Console tier is on its way out, Core subscribers have access to a limited selection of games and online play, while Standard subscribers will have access to a broader library of titles that doesn't include the newest games. 

Nothing has changed at the top tiers, however, as Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers are still getting the standard editions of all Xbox first-party games on day one. Anyone subscribed to either tier will be able to play Age of Mythology: Retold when it launches without having to buy it.

Age of Mythology: Retold is one of many Xbox first-party titles to launch in Xbox Game Pass across 2024 and early in 2025. Several other games are also on the way from across Activision Blizzard King, Bethesda Softworks, and Xbox Game Studios, including Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and Avowed.

When is the release date for Age of Mythology: Retold?

Age of Mythology: Retold was given a release date during the Xbox Games Showcase 2024, where the team revealed that the standard edition of the game would be launching on Sep. 4, 2024. Additionally, anyone buying the premium edition would get a week of early access, meaning they can start playing on August 28 instead. 

This early access is also open for anyone subscribed to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass who then decide to purchase the premium upgrade, in a similar fashion to upgrades that are available for previously-released Xbox first-party games like Forza Horizon 5 and Starfield. 

There might have been a more efficient way to clear the Egyptian army in my path, but I'm content to watch meteors rain down, sending men and monsters flying while buildings crumble. As the path is clear, I send my giants charging, slamming into the Titan and absorbing its huge blows while centaurs in the backline rain down arrows. I cast my last God Power, armoring my units and keeping them safe long enough to eke out victory. 

So went one key battle in Age of Mythology: Retold, the latest "Age" game being rebuilt by the teams at World's Edge and Xbox Game Studios. First confirmed to be in the works a while ago before being properly revealed earlier in the year, Age of Mythology: Retold takes what players like me loved about the original game and repackages it for modern hardware, with gorgeous graphics and a number of changes to the gameplay, particularly in allowing God Powers to recharged. 

Shortly after the Xbox Games Showcase 2024, I had the chance to play Age of Mythology: Retold for about 20 minutes, as well as speaking to some of the developers about the work that's gone into crafting the experience. 

A strategy epic built for a new generation of hardware

Right before jumping in, Earnest Yuen, director of production at World's Edge, showed a direct comparison of what the original Age of Mythology looked like compared to the visuals in Retold. I knew Age of Mythology had...well, aged compared to what it would look like in my nostalgic mind's eye, but the level to which this remake improves things is just ridiculous. Every screenshot is packed to the brim with gorgeous detail along coastlines, with better-defined buildings and detailed unit models that hold up well even heavily zoomed in. 

For my time playing Age of Mythology: Retold, I was given access to a special demo that's been built specifically for preview purposes, as several heroes try to stop a titan from destroying the world. Along the way, new reinforcements and God Powers were granted for destroying enemy fortresses and temples. I opted to play with a mouse and keyboard, though controller stations were available.

Controlling different groups of warriors was easy, and God Powers were similarly mapped in a way that made them quick to use and identify. As I carved through the demo, my troops had different tactical options despite the time limit. Did I want to use underworld gates to get around groups of foes, or risk fighting them for additional rewards before taking on the Titan? Taking different routes also meant getting different kinds of reinforcements before the big battle, with Norse and Egyptian encampments opposite each other on the map. 

No matter what I did, the unfolding gameplay was downright gorgeous, and seeing creatures fall to lightning as minotaurs toss mere mortals around simply doesn't get old. Having God Powers be rechargeable is such a sorely-needed change, and I'm fascinated to see how they affect gameplay outside of this demo.

Age of Mythology: Retold is unique for Xbox and PC

Age of Mythology: Retold presents a huge opportunity and just how far the team at World's Edge has come. While prior Age of Empires games have been launched on Windows PC first before some of them  were brought over to console — so far, Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition and Age of Empires 4 have made their way over —  that's not the case here. Age of Mythology: Retold is launching concurrently across Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC, with controller support on the latter from day one.

Speaking after I was victorious in the demo (twice!) Yuen emphasized that while the team has taken great care in retelling the original game and its Titan-focused expansion, there is more to come. The Chinese civilization, which was added as DLC to the original game, was not exactly well-received, and the team sees an opportunity in redoing things this time around. 

As such, the Chinese are being completely redesigned for Age of Mythology: Retold's first expansion, while a second expansion has been promised to be in development, with both expansions being bundled in the game's Premium Edition. I wasn't given any spoilers, but Yuen does note that they have a number of options across all of the world's mythology, adding that even outside of paid content, launch is "just day one" and that "we're going to keep updating and adding as long as people keep playing."

I'm keenly aware that as fun as it was, this demo doesn't show the economic side of this strategy game, and I'm curious to see how any rebalancing has affected slower-paced skirmishes or even portions of the campaign. Even so, I'm excited, and I can't wait to play this in full when it launches later in the year. 

Age of Mythology: Retold is scheduled to arrive on Sep. 4, 2024. Preorders are open now, and it's also coming day one to Xbox Game Pass. If you own the original Age of Mythology on Steam, you'll get a discount when purchasing the remake!

What you need to know

• Age of Empires 4 first launched on Windows PC in 2021, with Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One versions arriving in 2023. 
• The latest update preview is bringing cross-play for Age of Empires 4, allowing players on Xbox consoles and PC to play together. 
• There's also a number of balance changes for the various civilizations. 

Platforms will no longer divide aspiring conquerors thanks to the ongoing efforts of developer World's Edge. 

The latest preview update for Age of Empires 4 brings cross-play support across Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Windows PC, meaning friends can hop into modes like Team Ranked together with no issues. In order to use this feature on PC, you'll need to manually update your game on Steam, the Microsoft Store, or the Xbox app. The update will bring your PC copy of Age of Empires 4 to Build 10.0.576. 

Age of Empires 4 Season 7 balance patch

Alongside the addition of cross-play, every civilization has received a balance pass for Season 7, with some tweaks that'll shake up the expected flow of different games. You can find the full patch notes for each Age of Empires 4 civilization below. 

Abbasid Dynasty:

• Fresh Foodstuffs moved from the Town Center to the Mill. 
• Camel Archer cost reduced from 180 Food to 170 Food. 
• Fertile Crescent Wood discount increased from 25% to 30%. 
• Spice Roads upgrade now correctly modifies gold income for all traders. 

Ayyubids:

• Tower of the Sultan: 
  • No longer has Ram melee vulnerability. 
  • Build time reduced from 200 to 140 seconds. 
  • Garrisoned units increase movement speed for each unit garrisoned. 
• Atabeg’s Supervision and Biology are now multiplicative. 
• Corrected an issue where Desert Raiders ranged weapon was not fully benefitting from their Golden Age 5 attack speed bonus. 

Byzantines:

• Chierosiphon cost reduced from 200 Wood 100 Gold to 200 Wood 60 Gold. 
• Chierosiphon health increased from 280 to 310. 
• Chierosiphon ranged armor increased from 30 to 50. 
• Chierosiphon bonus damage vs Walls increased from 0 to 5. 
• First Mercenary contract choice is now free and instant, saving 100 Olive Oil and 20 seconds of research time. 
• Veteran Mercenary upgrade cost reduced from 100 Food 250 Gold to 50 Food 125 Gold and research time reduced from 60 to 30 seconds.  
• Limitanei Shield wall damage reduction reduced from 40% to 30%. 
• Mangonel Emplacement damage reduced from 8 to 7. 
• Corrected an issue where Mercenary Sipahi and Mercenary Camel Riders would receive Gold from Expilatores upgrade when killing Villagers. 
• Greek Fire Projectiles help-text now mentions that patches of Greek Fire can’t stack.

Chinese:

• Barbican of the Sun now accepts your tax donations.

Delhi Sultanate:

• Ghazi Raiders are no longer missing bonus damage versus siege engines. 
• Lightweight Beams now has the correct research time in the Imperial Age.

English:

• Berkshire Palace weapons are no longer duplicated on their UI. Corrected an issue where one garrison arrow was normal instead of incendiary. 

French:

• French Keeps now cost 10% less stone to build.  
• Keep Influence range increased by 1 tile.

Holy Roman Empire:

• Marching Drills is now a civilization bonus and is granted for free at the start of the game, it no longer affects Prelates. 
• Inspired Warriors now increases the move speed of Prelates. 
• Prelate inspiration range increased by 1 tile. 
• Meinwerk Palace bonus increased from 40% to 50% cost and research time. 

Japanese:

• Castle of the Crow issue corrected where projectiles would be blocked when attacked from certain angles. 
• Castle of the Crow help-text now explains that bonus Stone is reduced compared to Food, Gold, and Wood. 
• Previously missing Towara, Takezaiku, and Fudasashi economy pips now appear. 

Jeanne d'Arc:

• Consecrate help-text now updates after researching Ordinance Company. 

Mongols:

• Ovoo Stone income in the Dark Age reduced from 80 to 70 per minute. 
• Moving buildings rotation rate reduced so that they do not instantly snap when changing direction. 
• Khaganate Palace: Rus Knights now properly use Poleaxe.  
• Horse Archers now properly use the Gallop ability. 
• Nest of Bees units now receive the Additional Barrels upgrade. 
• Prayer Tents no longer grant vision on pre-placement after researching Monastic Shrines. 
• Fixed an issue where units could get trapped in a Mongol landmark when its owner was eliminated. 
• A crash relating to The Silver Tree landmark has been fixed. 
• Allies of a Mongol player can now set the Silver Tree as a trade destination while it’s packed up and Traders will only move to it when it’s unpacked. 

Order of the Dragon:

• Aachen Chapel bonus increased from 10% to 15%. 
• Meinwerk Palace bonus increased from 40% to 50% cost and research time. 
• Golden Cuirass cost increased from 50 Food 125 Gold to 100 Food 200 Gold (50 Food 100 Gold discount). 
• Zornhau cost increased from 100 Food 250 Gold to 150 Food 350 Gold (75 Food 175 Gold discount). 
• Bodkin Bolts cost increased from 200 Food 500 Gold to 300 Food 700 Gold (150 Food 350 Gold discount). 
• Corrected Gilded Handcannons missing projectile and muzzle effects. 

Ottomans:

• Great Bombard health reduced from 350 to 300. 
• Great Bombard ranged armor increased by +5. 
• Vizier experience requirements for each level increased from 60/80/120/200/320 to 60/100/150/240/320 
• Military School production speed reduced from 4.5x to 5x the standard production rate. 

Rus:

• Hunting Cabin build time increased from 25 to 35 seconds. 
• Boyars Fortitude cost increased from 100 Food, 250 Gold to 150 Food, 350 Gold. 
• Corrected an issue where Horse Archers would not retain the Mounted Precision bonuses when advancing to the next tier. 

Analysis: A great addition for a game going strong

Cross-play has become a huge feature in the last few years, and it's especially important for keeping game populations healthy, so I'm happy to see this happening for Age of Empires 4. The game is going strong, with last year's expansion being the best-selling DLC ever for the franchise. 

Outside of Age of Empires 4, the rest of the series is continuing at a brisk pace, with new DLC for Age of Empires 2 and Age of Mythology launching on Xbox and PC later this year. To learn more about both of those topics, I recommend reading our interview with World's Edge founder Adam Isgreen. 

"We want to keep Age going into perpetuity."

Friday was an exciting day for Age of Empires fans who learned during the Age of Empires New Year, New Age Livestream that various titles in the franchise were getting updates, including the new Victors and Vanquished DLC for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition (Age 2). We also learned about the new Age of Mythology: Retold, a game coming simultaneously to Xbox and PC sometime this year. Unsurprisingly, Mythology: Retold will be coming to Xbox Game Pass like the other Age games produced by Xbox Game Studios and developed by World's Edge LLC. 

In the wake of such glorious news, I had the chance to speak with World's Edge founder and Studio Creative Director Adam Isgreen about what to expect from these new scenarios, civilizations (civs), and real-time strategy (RTS) adventures.

Disclaimer: This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Age of Empires II's continued success is due to its dedicated fanbase and intuitive mechanics

When I remarked on how incredibly rare it is for a game to maintain as much interest over the years as Age 2 has, Isgreen was quick to attribute this to the dedicated fanbase as well as the game's approachability. 

"So much of the game is so instantly accessible by so many people across the world. It's something I've always loved about the Age series... With an incredible community and incredible mods, I mean the stuff that people do with the game is crazy and creative. It's always fun to see how passionate people are about it."

"We thought there is no way people are going to want more civilizations and yet, 'more! We want more! We want this we want that.' I did not predict that we would still be making civilizations for this game into the — what are we 40s now? 50s? I'm going to get it wrong. But a lot [of civilzations]. A lot more than any other RTS game I've ever even conceived with that many civilizations and I think that's fantastic."

Upon hearing his remarks, I congratulated the Age team for keeping Age 2 interesting with frequent updates and new content. To this, Isgreen remained humble and said he had to thank fans for maintaining interest in the game during the dark years when it wasn't supported. 

"You know, I have to credit the community for keeping the game alive for so long. The modders, the balance patches, all of the stuff that was done even when Microsoft wasn't fully supporting the title, that was before my time here at Microsoft, but the community could not have been better about really keeping the game up, keeping the game going. I'm really humbled that we've been able to work with them to just keep making the game better and better."

Creating fun remake DLC means running with each Age game's original bugs

Later, I asked how the Age team feels seeing Age 2's continued success after triumphantly bringing controller mechanics to Xbox (see our Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition for Xbox review) and seeing the Sultans Ascend DLC sell better than any Age expansion before it. In response, Isgreen talked about how happy this made him and went on to say that meeting fan needs means running with an original game's bugs.

"Let me just say that, first off, I love [that] the game is more popular now than it was when it released, right? We have streams, we have ridiculous prize Wololo tournaments, and apartment cups, and all of this awesome play for it, and Esports for it as well. I love that they're games that stand the test of time.

"...There's (sic) bugs and quirks in the games that, you know, as a game designer and as a creator, I would be like, 'oh, do we have to keep that?' And it's like, 'no, we kind of have to keep that.' Because even if it was a bug, now it's something that everybody relies on, right? Like, did they really intend for houses to be walls when Ensemble built the original? Probably not. But you can't get rid of that. You can't change that. You can't go around that kind of stuff because it's become part of the DNA of the game."

Age 2 Victors and Vanquishers DLC's 19 scenarios are a labor of love made by a lauded modder turned employee

When I asked about the Age 2 Victors and Vanquished DLC, Isgreen explained to me how Ramsey Abdulrahim (Filthydelphia, @PhillySouljah) — who talked about the DLC on the livestream — was the main creative mind behind these new scenarios. 

For those who might not know, Abdulrahim is lauded among Age enthusiasts for having been a prolific modder who eventually became part of the official Age team. His passion for this RTS game can easily be seen through his attention to detail, intriguing campaigns, and portrayal of history. 

"[Victors and Vanquished] scenarios are all different," Isgreen said. "They all feature different leaders, different places in the world. Ramsey is a machine — the sole creator of this as a labor of love. He just loves Age so much that- you know, its funny. Everyone has roles, of course, working here at World's Edge. [There are] developers for things we've got to do and Ramsey is in the business group, but you just cannot tear him away from Age and campaigns. He loves it to death and he will just do them right."

"...And I think this is a really fun thing to do to kind of have this DLC that's just campaigns, right? That's just all these unique scenarios and missions. And man, I get my butt kicked by them. I will tell you like Ramsey builds for players that are, you know, good players of Age of Empires. So, I'm really excited to see how the community kind of tears into them and what they think of them."

"... I think that that's the fun thing is being able to kind of let passionate people on our team express themselves in ways that we think other people will enjoy."

In response to Isgreen's comments, I asked if we should expect these 19 upcoming scenarios to be especially difficult. However, he assured me that they are complex enough to provide a different experience each time but will still be enjoyable for a range of players. 

"No, I wouldn't say they're difficult. They're just- I'm a very casual RTS player. So for me, right, I am like, you know, my Fast Castle skills are not the most leet, right? That they could be. So I think that the great thing is, the scenarios are so spread out and there's such a diverse set of them that everyone can find something to really enjoy. And of course, we still have difficulty levels, right? So you can always turn down the AI and do things, to make them easier for you."

"But what I like is that they are made for real fans of Age of Empires, right? And that you can really sink in your teeth into them and not have them be like a one-and-done kind of thing. You can go back to them and try them again, right? Yeah, and there's (sic) some scenarios you can play different ways, right?... But it's different depending on which way you go. And so you can play the scenario multiple times and never see the same thing."

Isgreen went on to explain his excitement for the Ninja units and the stealth aspect they bring to Age.

"I love this [Ninja] archetype of unit. How do we get this in Age of Empires? And the ninja as just the shinobi was a perfect way to kind of go about doing that and getting that kind of more spy stealth sneak super micro like you know I'm going to do something and I love that we've been able to pull things you know from other RTS games that we loved or elements that we haven't been able to explore right yet in age, and that's the amazing thing. There's so much more that we can do."

Mythology isn't the "Definitive Edition," it's "Retold" to improve upon the original

We switched gears to Age of Mythology: Retold and discussed how awesome it was that this game will be the first Age game to simultaneously release on both Xbox Series X|S and PC. Isgreen applauded the team that brought Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition to Xbox, specifically shouting out the team's controller mechanics like the Villager Priority wheel. We then discussed what kind of gameplay to expect from Mythology: Retold on both PC and Xbox.

"Yeah, and you know, the council for [the Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition for Xbox team]... knocked it out of the park in terms of taking all of the ideas and synthesizing them and iterating and iterating until they found that wonderful magic with like the automated villagers — the Villager Priority System — and the site menus."

"And those things are so great. That those are actually going to move forward with us regardless of platform... I think that [the] stuff that the console version has taught us [is] that we can be even better with accessibility, even on the PC side, than we are right now ...You're going to see more and more of that. And Mythology: Retold is going to be one of the ones that systems like Villager Priority and the site menus and stuff are gonna show up on the PC side as well."

"Optional, of course, right? Like optional. Of course, you don't have to use them, but they're there so that people that want to enjoy them don't have to only play on the console and be able to enjoy those features."

Knowing that some people are averse to Age controller mechanics brought in for Xbox, I asked if there would be a way to make it so only people playing on keyboard could play together and only people playing with controller controls could play together when Mythology: Retold comes out.

"...I don't think we've aligned on perfectly like, 'oh, this is the rule set for ranked versus unranked.' But those are all options and things we can explore. And what we want to do is- you know, we saw this with Auto Scout, right? When we put that in on Age 2, there was a lot of controversy over Auto Scout. But then people played with it and they're like, wow, this thing doesn't scout very well. And we're like, yeah, that's intentional actually. Like, we put it in to help people, especially early in game, but we didn't intend it to be the only way you scout."

"And so as we look at features like this, you know? I mentioned Villager Priority, but I don't know if you're aware of Villager Priority isn't as efficient as a player doing all of this stuff, right? There's (sic) delays and there's (sic) things that we've intentionally put in that the game is still really great and easy to play, but a real player can be more efficient if they micro everything."

"...But yeah, we'll look at options, you know. Again, this is one of those things. We'll listen to the community and see what they really want. But what we really want to do is just open the games up to more players. And we know that not everyone has the mind to be able to micro as much as others and that, you know, they can enjoy the game this way."

"...And I think as people get over the initial kind of hump of like, 'Oh my gosh, this stuff is in PC now, what the heck?,' I think they'll see that, 'oh, this is actually not this big of a deal as I thought it would be.'"

I pointed out that the other Age games have all been getting a lot of DLC and asked if we could expect any expansions for Mythology: Retold. While Isgreen couldn't say anything about that, he did point out that Mythology: Retold is a retelling rather than the "Definitive Edition." In other words, it aims to improve aspects of gameplay from the original, which had mixed responses at launch, rather than being completely true to it. 

"Just on a personal note, I absolutely love Mythology to death. There's a reason we wanted to wait to do this because Retold is much more than Age. There's a reason we didn't call it 'Definitive Edition' because many of us in the studio and many of the fans love Mythology. We all know there's this amazing, amazing game inside of Age of Mythology that maybe didn't get all of it just quite right out the gate, and that's what we're doing this time around with Retold."

"There's (sic) some pretty significant changes to how God Powers work. There's (sic) some significant changes to how you can control your myth units and use their abilities and things that really change the game, like the game plays different."

"The great thing is, all of our community council — you know, we're engaged with our community pretty much 24/7 — and they've been playing the game for months with us and they're really happy, I guess is the way to say it. So far you know. Just teased with the [livestream] today and we didn't show you gameplay and we didn't show things that I know people want."

"Like I was on Reddit, I was reading the comments on the gaming forums and it's great to see that people are so excited and they want more. But just know that we know that."

I acknowledged the original Age of Mythology's rough launch and reception back in the early 2000s, and expressed my own interest in seeing what changes the team had made in the Retold game.

"Well, yeah. To me, Mythology should have been one of the most popular Age of Empires games and it was kind of criminal to me that it wasn't."

"And we want to get it there, right? So that's what myself and the rest of the teams and everyone that's working on the game believes really wholeheartedly that it can be a fantastic game. And we want to bring that game out. So that's what we've been spending all the time. That's what we've been really hush-hush about, what we've been doing on the game so far."

"...We will have information coming out about the game. You can expect as we get closer to launch, we'll definitely ramp up the content and the coverage to make sure that people get everything they want to know about the game out there because that is a lot to talk about..."

"You have no idea how much I want to gush about a whole bunch of stuff in that game that I can't right now. But I promise you, we will at some point."

Will Age games simultaneously release on Xbox and PC going forward?

Knowing that Mythology: Retold is going to be the first Age game to launch simultaneously on PC and Xbox, I asked if we can expect Age of Empire games to release on both PC and Xbox going forward.

"You know, I can't say. I can't promise that. It depends the the way that we're building the games and the way that we look at our technologies, you know, it can be challenging because we have so many different engines right now."

"You know we've got the [Age 2] engine, the [Age 3] engine, which fortunately is also part of the Myth engine, the [Age 4] engine. You know. So there's a lot going on there and every time that we try to do something together it can be challenging because of moving the tech, making sure they all work together."

"... We're going to keep going down there to make sure that we can really deliver a great RTS experience for people that want to sit on a big, comfy couch with a big TV and a controller in their hand."

Age of Empires III's two new civs

Our discussion eventually led us to talk about Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition and the two new civilizations it will be getting. 

"We've got two new civs coming to Age of Empires III — we've got Poland and Denmark. Which, yeah, it's funny. I'm like, don't say the names and then they showed the flags (in the livestream). I'm like, OK, well fine, now I'll share the names..."

"There's a nice trial you can do and play Age 3 for free now. We really believe in the title that, you know, it's a totally unique experience in the Age pantheon of games. The deck-building system, the home cities totally changed the way that game feels and flows. Even the gameplay itself, right? Ensemble took a lot of risks and tried a lot of crazy things. You know, to try to find other nuggets of really good strategy that they could do with [Age 3]. And I think that they succeeded."

"...Adding more civs to [Age 3] is just another way to show that we really do still care about the game and want to keep pushing and adding content to it that players can jump in and really experience."

Age of Empires: Mobile provides RTS elements on the go

After discussing the main PC and Xbox Age games, Isgreen expressed his excitement for the upcoming Age of Empires: Mobile, which won't be a true RTS game but will have Age RTS elements that players can enjoy on the go. Plus, players can chill and fish.

"'How are you gonna do an RTS on mobile?' It's not exactly perfectly an RTS, right? It is still a strategy game, it has many elements of RTS in it, but the thing that I love is Timi has been a fantastic partner, like, I couldn't ask for a better partner, honestly, in building a game in the terms of the respect... That level of respect that we try to bring to Age 2 is what they want for the mobile title as well."

"...The thing that we wanted to make sure is that there were the through lines, right? You know, like I always think of games almost like cars in some ways, right? You look at an old Aston Martin and then you look at a new Aston Martin and the grills are very similar, right? They've got this curve and then a bigger curve... And that was the thing that we wanted to make sure with Mobile that it had Age of Empires DNA and you could see the through lines."

"I can't tell you how absorbed I get [playing Age of Empires: Mobile], you know, like you can fish, but it's a mini-game... That's part of that unique dynamic of Age of Empires, right, Is that I can build a city, I can go wage war, or I can just like chill and fish like. And I love that diversity, you know? And yeah, it's really great to see that it's been captured well and that, you know, it's still upheld that kind of pace that we love in Age of Empires."

Age of Empires has a bright future ahead that's centered around keeping fans happy

Winding down our conversation, I asked Isgreen if there was anything else he'd like to say about Age games or Mythology: Retold. After discussing things for a while, he finally ended by saying that his goal is to keep Age going by listening to fans. 

"Today as we're doing the streams and going on gaming forums and just combing through everything I could — reading the articles coming out just to make sure like, OK, what can we do, you know. And we want to keep everyone happy.

"We want to keep Age going into perpetuity."

There's a lot of excitement in store for Age fans who will be able to experience expansions like the latest Victors and Vanquished DLC for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition as well as the brand new Age of Mythology: Retold when they release. You can dive into these RTS games now on both Xbox and PC or register for the upcoming Age of Empires: Mobile.

What you need to know

• In a special Age of Empires-focused livestream, Xbox Game Studio World's Edge shared that the franchise has passed 50 million players so far.
• A new campaign-focused DLC called Victors and Vanquished is coming for Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition. 
• Victors and Vanquished focuses on fierce leaders like the Viking Ragnar Lothbrok, daimyō Oda Nobunaga, and aspiring emperor Charlemagne. 
• Victors and Vanquished is slated to launch for Xbox consoles and Windows PC on March 14, 2024. 

One of the world's biggest strategy games isn't done getting new content. 

As the Age of Empires franchise crosses 50 million players, Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition is getting new campaign-focused DLC. Titled Victors and Vanquished, this DLC introduces 19 new scenarios, with fierce leaders like Ragnar Lothbrok, Oda Nobunaga, and Charlemagne at the center. 

Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition Victors and Vanquished is slated to launch for Xbox consoles and Windows PC on March 14, 2024. You can check out the announcement trailer below:

Like all Xbox first-party games, Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition is available on Xbox Game Pass. 

Age of Empires continues to grow

Age of Empires has grown massively over the last few years with the launch of Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition, Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition, and Age of Empires 4. Age of Empires 2 and 4 also arrived on Xbox consoles, with numerous DLC packs. 

Age of Empires 2 in particular has been the focus of numerous expansions and DLC add-ons, such as the Return of Rome, which ported the original Age of Empires' civilizations and campaigns into the remastered Age of Empires 2 suite. 

Looking ahead, Age of Mythology: Retold is slated to launch in 2024 on Xbox consoles and Windows PC. This unified launch will be a first for the series, as the prior console ports only came some years after the original PC launch.

Analysis: A great game won't stop getting better

It's hard for me to imagine exactly how many hours I've poured into Age of Empires 2 and its remaster, but that number won't be slowing down. A campaign-focused DLC is a great idea (not that the game was already lacking in campaign scenarios) and these characters and settings feel laser-targeted to my tastes. 

What you need to know

• Age of Mythology first released in 2002 as a spinoff of the Age of Empires franchise. 
• World's Edge and Xbox Game Studios have been working on Age of Mythology: Retold, an extensive remaster of the game with new models, animations, and much more. 
• Age of Mythology: Retold is scheduled to arrive in 2024, and in a first for the franchise, is coming to Xbox consoles and Windows PC at the same time.

The gods will again influence the wars of mortals. 

Age of Mythology: Retold is on the way, an extensive rebuild of the original game developed by World's Edge and Xbox Game Studios. Similar to prior remasters in the Age of Empires franchise, this game includes new models, animations, gameplay rebalancing, and more. 

Unlike these past games, Age of Mythology: Retold is coming to Xbox Series X|S consoles and Windows PC at the same time. There's no release date, but the game is slated to arrive later in 2024. Like all Xbox first-party games, it'll also be available day one in Xbox Game Pass. You can take a look at the sneak peak video below, showing the improved models and detail for Medusa, the Pegasus, and the Titan Cerberus:

What else is coming to Xbox in 2024?

Age of Mythology: Retold adds to an already-impressive calendar for Xbox first-party games. Obsidian Entertainment's RPG Avowed and MachineGames' adventure Indiana Jones and the Great Circle are both slated to launch later this year. Meanwhile, Ninja Theory's long-awaited Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 is set to arrive in May. 

That's in addition to the obvious expectation of a Call of Duty game this year, plus big expansions for games like Starfield and Diablo 4. ZeniMax Online Studios is launching another yearly expansion in June, with the upcoming arrival of The Elder Scrolls Online: Gold Road. Xbox is also expanding with some multiplatform launches, bringing Sea of Thieves, Pentiment, and more to other consoles. 

Analysis: All Age, all the time!

The Age of Empires franchise isn't slowing down, and with more DLC coming to Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition — the setup of campaign-focused expansion is really cool — as well as the promise of new civilizations for Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition, there is something for everyone when it comes to this behemoth strategy franchise.

Much like Age of Empires 2, Age of Mythology was an absolutely gargantuan game for me growing up. The design and experience helped shape my perception of what games even are or could be, so I'm absolutely thrilled this is on the way.

It's also extremely cool that it's coming to Xbox at the same time as PC. I've understand why that hasn't been the case for the past launches — World's Edge has openly talked about the difficulties with getting RTS games working on a controller — but seeing a "unified" launch like this is super cool. Get ready Nidhogg, I'm coming back!

Ah, love is in the air, and it's that wonderful time of year when you tell that special someone how much you care. But, while there are several Valentine's cards out there to choose from, few feature your favorite video game characters. Even fewer offer the corny, eye-rolling phrases we all want to see.

No worries. We at Windows Central have created some super cheesy Valentine's Day video game cards for the occasion. Moreover, the Xbox and PC characters we chose all come from excellent multiplayers, making perfect games to play with your significant other tonight. 

Dear John Halo

Halo's Master Chief is really just looking for love. He's put his heart out there to ask if you'll take a chance on him.

He also makes for a perfect partner when running around blasting alien enemies. As for date night material, Halo: The Master Chief Collection bundles several of his best games together, and each title offers local split-screen co-op campaigns. So you can run through these sci-fi shooters on either Xbox or PC with your significant other. 

No more palling around

Time to let that special someone know you're serious? Palworld's 69th Pal, Loveander, expresses the right sentiment for you, even if she's a bit too enthusiastic about it.

Speaking of, Palworld is that survival creature-collecting multiplayer game that exploded earlier this year. You can play with your favorite person while collecting materials and building a base together. When you feel up to it, you can both go after wild Pal bosses and try to catch them. It's a fun title that you can sink hours into on both Xbox and PC. 

Love on your side

With just a "Wololo" Age of Empires, priests have the power to convert enemy units to their side. So it's no wonder this flirty guy is looking your way.

Age of Empires was one of the very first games I fell in love with back in the 90s, and I still play it with friends. Since you can team up with other players and play against other teams (or AI opponents), it makes for a fun date night activity. There are a few games in this franchise, but my favorite is Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, which is on PC and Xbox. Note that you will need two copies of the game and two systems to play it, though. But if that's possible, then the RTS fun it offers is worth it.

Finally, get that bad boy's attention

Many players got spurned when trying to go after Baldur's Gate 3's most romantically elusive vampire bachelor. So here's a chance to finally give that special someone Astarion's attention. 

As for the game itself, I can honestly say that Baldur's Gate 3 is one of the most amazing adventures I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing. Each of your decisions carries weight, and you get a lot of freedom to tackle challenges creatively as long as you can come up with ideas. Not to mention, your companions, including the aforementioned pale elf, are all interesting and add a lot of depth to the story. 

While Baldur's Gate 3 can be played solo, you and up to three others can join a party and play through the main storyline together. It makes for an excellent standing date night or double date night. 

It's complicated...

Ohhh, this here Xbox Series X is being a bit sassy and makes for a silly Valentine's Day card to share as a joke with that special someone. 

Of course, we'll be hearing more about the future of Xbox from Phil Spencer on Thursday. Either way, tons of excellent multiplayer and solo adventures are available through Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass. I love that this service allows me to check out games I might not usually play. I've found some awesome hidden gems in that way, including multiplayers to share with my favorite guy. 

Controller and cuddles?

Xbox Series S is down for a fun time and is the perfect Valentine to send to your love who loves to game. 

That being said, you can't really have a co-op multiplayer game night if you don't have a second controller handy. So, if you don't already have one, take some time to grab one of the best Xbox Controllers for your favorite person. They come in so many colors and designs that you can find a look your significant other likes best. These controllers are obviously designed for Xbox Series X|S, but they're also a favorite for PC as well.

Happy Valentine's Day, y'all!

That's it for Windows Central's video game Valentine Cards roundup this year. Feel free to send these cards to someone special and consider having an awesome date night playing a fun multiplayer game for two (or more if you want to do a double date).

I love playing co-op multiplayer games with my husband and am constantly looking for fun new games to share with him. There are plenty of different genres of games, so you can always find something you both will enjoy.

What you need to know

• Australia's national science agency and the University of Western Australia are using Age of Empires to simulate ant warfare.
• Australia has spent millions fighting invasive ant species, and the simulated battlefields have provided data that may help improve the outcome of battles between native and invasive ant species.

Back in 2002 if you were a kid in Australia or the US it was very likely you sat down to open a box of cereal for your morning breakfast. It was also likely you found a copy of Microsoft Studio's Age of Empires on a physical disc inside the box. Age of Empires has grown way beyond its humble beginnings as cereal box loot. You may not find Age of Empires at the breakfast table these days, but you can find it in the halls of the University of Western Australia.

In a partnership with CSIRO, Australia's national science agency, the University of Western Australia's researchers have been using the real-time strategy and battle simulator to solve a crisis involving invasive ants. 

"Ants are one of the few groups of animal species in which warfare resembles human warfare, in terms of scale and mortality," Dr. Samuel Lymbery, a researcher working on the project, told ABC Australia.

The research team constructed multiple battle simulations within Age of Empires and ran them multiple times to generate mathematical models of potential battle outcomes. They then repeated the battle parameters in the lab to collect real-world examples. If you think running ant battle scenarios repeatedly in Age of Empires sounds like a great time, Dr. Lymbery disagrees: "This is probably the most boring way to play a video game."

While the computer models are predictable, the battles between the live ants were less so. Researchers were then able to pinpoint commonalities and differences between the real and simulated battle results. The resulting data could be used in the future to change the way Australia approaches habitat management for native ant species in a bid to give them the upper hand.

If you want to simulate your own ant battles, you can play Age of Empires IV now on Xbox or PC via Game Pass.

Earlier this year, I was floored when I wrote our Age of Empires 2 for Xbox review and found that the classic real-time strategy (RTS) game for PC had been ported over to Xbox in a way that actually worked well on the console. Due to this past success, it's unsurprising that the most recent game in the series, Age of Empires 4, has also been given a similar console overhaul for Xbox.

I've spent over 16 hours playing a preview build of Age of Empires 4 on Xbox Series X while running through Campaign and Skirmish modes. After spending so much time with this game, I can say that while not perfect, it is a very enjoyable experience that maintains the integrity of the RTS genre, making it something Age fans will enjoy.

As is further relayed in my Age of Empires 4 for Xbox interview with creative director Chris Rubyor, the game feels especially rewarding to play on Xbox because it provides some features that the PC version doesn't have.

Disclaimer: This review was made possible thanks to a review unit provided by Microsoft. The company did not see the contents of this review before publishing.

Age of Empires 4: What I like

Before I dive into how well Age of Empires 4 translates to Xbox, I'll just talk about how good the game is itself. The biggest and most important takeaway I can say for Age of Empires 4 is that it feels very similar to its predecessors but with enough changes to make the strategic gameplay feel relatively fresh. 

Whether I'm playing solo in Campaign mode or duking it out against AI in Skirmish mode (I couldn't find anyone to play online multiplayer in the preview build), I feel like a masterful tactician. For anyone unfamiliar with the Age of Empire games, the goal is to build up your empire from nothing by collecting resources, advancing your society, increasing your military or naval might, and creating a booming economy. Of course, this all gets a whole lot trickier when human opponents (or the AI) are out to destroy your civilization. You have to learn how to defend yourself, figure out how to advance to the next age fast, know when to attack, fall back, and devise means of squashing your enemy's economy to win.

As usual, Skirmish mode allows you to choose the specific parameters for winning the match that you and your friends prefer, such as destroying your opponent's landmarks completely, building a Wonder, capturing sacred sites, and more. Up to eight players can play at a time and can choose which teams to be on.

There are eight playable civilizations to choose from: the English, Chinese, Mongols, Delhi Sultanate, French, Abbasid Dynasty, Holy Roman Empire, and Rus. Each civilization has unique perks specific to it. The Mongols have early access to cavalry units, the English have their religious kings that boost forces in battle, the Delhi Sultanate have a scholarly focus with unique upgrades and War Elephants, etc.

These differences make each civilization a new challenge to play and keep the game interesting. For anyone who likes having a reason to play, there are also Daily Challenges to complete, such as having you win a game while playing as a specific civilization. This all gives the game lasting entertainment value to get me coming back for more.

As far as visuals go, Age of Empires 4's buildings, character models, textures, and overall map aesthetic have been upgraded from previous games, giving them a nice look on PC and now Xbox. One new thing I love is that the camera can now be rotated as well as zoomed in and out. This makes it a whole lot easier to see what's going on in certain busy scenarios, like when I want to select specific characters within an attacking mass of units or assign a task to a specific unit that's blocked by a building.

Xbox-specific changes for the win!

Traditionally, the interface setup for Age of Empires games has really only been conducive for PC since these games offer so many small command bars and menus. Not to mention, gameplay in this far-away strategic view requires clicking on small individual assets or selecting multiple units within an area, both of which are minute actions very much suited to fine mouse control.

However, Age of Empires 4 manages to work incredibly well on Xbox by incorporating useful controller-specific HUD elements such as menu wheels (just like Age of Empires 2 on Xbox did) and slightly different selection mechanics, which allows gameplay to feel extremely good via the controller. Some settings might need to be adjusted to your preferences, though.

When I first started playing Age of Empires 4 on Xbox, the reticle speed felt very sluggish, and it seemed like it took an eternity to pan across the map. Thankfully, taking a quick jump into the setting allowed me to adjust not only the pan speed but also its inertia. Since making these changes, I can get to my intended areas very quickly. I also appreciate that tapping the Xbox's View Button immediately takes me to any units under attack, so I don't have to waste time panning at all.

If multiple units in different areas are getting attacked, I can repeatedly tap the View Button to make the game hop between these points. It's very convenient for allowing me to come to my people's aid in time.

I can also click and drag to select groups of units or double-tap A on a unit to select all of the same units of that type (i.e., double-tap calvary selects all calvary). The D-Pad is also extremely important when playing. Holding left selects all military for easy command, but I can also hold in RT before touching the D-Pad to change the options that show up. This way, I can quickly select all Ranged, Melee, Religious, or Calvary units and send them where I wish.

Plus, I can even make my own custom groupings filled with a mix of fighters, assign them a spot on the command wheel, then command them from that menu wheel at any point I wish. It maintains that strategic nature that is so intrinsic to Age of Empires but makes the game very intuitive to play once you know how to access the various menus.

Of course, the previously mentioned menu wheels are one of the biggest reasons that Age of Empires 4 feels so good on Xbox. They aren't available in the PC version of the game, but they manage to make the Xbox version more convenient to play without detracting from the overall strategic element.

For instance, the useful Villager Priority System (VPS), which isn't available in the PC version of Age of Empires 4, allows me to direct all of my Villager units by giving them general instructions on how much of each resource they should be gathering. The Basic selection focuses on mostly food and wood with a little focus on gold and stone. But then, if I decide I want to change my focus to creating a powerful navy or I realize I need to build strong defensive walls, I can change my selection on the VPS and it will change what resources the Villagers focus on so I can get what I need to build my civilization the way I want to. Plus, when the VPS is utilized any Villager who emerges from a Town Center or finishes up a previous task will immediately assign themselves to food, lumber, gold, or stone based on my previously stated needs. I don't have to hunt around and locate each Villager individually to assign them a resource-gathering task the manual way.

Additionally, when nothing from this priority wheel is selected, the helpful Idle Villager icon at the top of the screen quickly alerts me if anyone isn't working on something. All I have to do is click up on the D-Pad, and I'm brought to the idle Villager so I can easily allot them a task.

This helpful menu wheel layout can also be brought up after I select a building or a specific unit so I can quickly and easily select whatever options might be available for it. Like when I select a Town Center and tell it to start producing Villagers. 

What's more, tapping the LB button brings up a Quick Find wheel with the following categories: Land Military Units, Town Centers, Research Buildings, Arsenals, Military Production Buildings, and Warships. I can go into this wheel at any time and quickly find any upgrades or production options in any of these categories without having to specifically click on the buildings or units that offer these services. It makes it very easy to keep producing fighters, upgrade my military might, stay on top of the latest upgrades, and generally keep control over my civilization without having to pan to specific areas of the map.

History made interesting

Something I've always loved about Age of Empires is how its single-player campaign mode makes history come to life. I don't just enjoy this strategy game; I learn about significant wars and how they affected other civilizations. Age of Empires 4 offers four campaigns in total, one about the Norman conquest of England, another about the Hundred Years War between England and France, a third dealing with the expansion of the Mongol Empire, and finally, the Rise of Moscow. 

Unlike Age of Empires 2, which makes campaign mode feel like story time with its gorgeously illustrated cutscenes, Age of Empires 4's campaigns each feature documentary-style cutscenes that would feel right at home on the History Channel. This includes shots of famous locations, costumed actors acting out battle scenes, and having someone with a beautifully authoritative voice provide the narration.

Something I especially like is that sometimes shots of the actual real-life fields, castles, and cities where famous battles took place are shown before getting overlayed with warrior models or patched-up parts of buildings to give a feel for how a scene might have looked like when at war. It sucked me in and made me want to rush through all of the possible campaigns so I could learn more.

These single-player campaigns also function as tutorials to some extent, with the earliest ones teaching you basic things like how to use buildings to produce military units while following the progression of a story. However, the later campaigns also teach winning battle strategies that were actually employed throughout history. Sometimes this deals with cutting off an enemy's trade routes to weaken their economy or hiding in trees to ambush enemy reinforcements. 

Controller or keyboard and mouse?

Xbox Game Studio previously announced that Age of Empires 4 on Xbox Series X|S would support a controller as well as keyboard and mouse input, so of course, I had to check both out. Of course, you'll want to use the best gaming keyboard or best gaming mouse for the fastest responses. I found that the game doesn't automatically swap back and forth between the two control options, so I had to specifically go into the Options menu, enter the Control tab, and then make the change there before my chosen means of input would respond. However, it worked really well after that, regardless of which input method I was using.

As expected, when playing with a keyboard and mouse on Xbox, the Age of Empires 4 cursor changes to look more like what you'd normally see on PC. Left-clicking selects a unit, while right-clicking tells that unit where to go or what to do. Additionally, the useful wheel menus available for the controller are replaced with Command Bars when played on with keyboard and mouse. It makes the whole experience feel very familiar to anyone who just doesn't feel right about using a controller with this RTS game.

Age of Empires 4: What I don't like

The game's earliest campaigns and tutorials manage to both handhold far too often and also fail to explain how to perform specific actions. As an example, there are several moments within each campaign and tutorial where menus and options are restricted, only allowing for specific commands. For example, I might be given the objective to gather my army in a specific area, and the game won't let me access my Village Center or upgrade my abilities until I've done so. 

Despite this, it often felt like the tutorials and instructive campaigns were angled more at people already familiar with Age of Empires who needed a refresher rather than people brand new to it. I'm already rather familiar with Age of Empires, but even I got stuck sometimes when trying to figure out how to access specific menus via the controller. Small popups explaining what buttons to push to access specific menus or even popups explaining the implications of my choices will show up sometimes, but other times I was left to my own devices to try and figure out how to do what the game required of me.

In one baffling campaign, I was given the objective of buying local settlements to increase my power. However, I either missed the instructive pop-up or the game didn't tell me what buttons I needed to push in order to access the menu that would allow me to purchase settlements. I ended up playing the campaign for a much longer time than was necessary until I finally stumbled into the menu that allowed me to complete the objective and move on. It really is a fun game; it would just be more approachable if instructions were clearer and felt like they read more for newcomers rather than Age veterans.

I will note that I mentioned this instruction confusion to Chris Rubyor, World's Edge creative director during an interview, and he informed me that he will look into making some changes. At any rate, there will undoubtedly be some Age of Empires 4 updates releasing in the coming months since World's Edge does a good job of engaging with its community of players and providing helpful updates. 

Age of Empires 4: Should you buy it?

You should buy it if...

• You loved earlier RTS games from the 90s and 2000s.
• You'd prefer to play this latest game on a console. 
• You like learning about history.
• You want a game you can play solo or in multiplayer. 

You should not buy it if...

• You easily get overwhelmed with instructions and troubleshooting. 
• You aren't a fan of the RTS genre. 
• Competitive play isn't something you enjoy. 

Age of Empires 4 builds upon the classic RTS series and manages to play well on Xbox regardless of whether you're using a controller or keyboard and mouse. The visuals are a big improvement from previous games in the series, and many small quality-of-life changes work together to make gaming sessions run more smoothly. All-in-all, it's a fantastic port that works very well on Xbox allowing one of the best PC games to run as one of the best Xbox games. 

The only thing to be aware of is that sometimes the game doesn't do the best job of explaining how to access certain menus. So you'll need to be ready to experiment with controls until you get a feel for everything. That being said, the historical campaigns are great for solo play while the Skirmish and online multiplayer options allow groups of up to eight players to enjoy strategic competitive play together. It all works to provide a very fun experience that can make you feel like a master tactician if you can outsmart your opponents. 

What you need to know

• Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition first launched on Windows PC back in 2019, with Xbox consoles versions being released on Jan. 31, 2023. 
• Return of Rome is an upcoming DLC pack for the game that was first announced during the 25th anniversary celebration for the franchise last year.
• World's Edge studio shared that Return of Rome is now slated to be available on May 16, 2023. 

Ready for even more Age of Empires? 

As shared via the official Age of Empires Twitter account, the next expansion for Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition, Return of Rome, is now slated to launch on May 16, 2023. This DLC, appropriately enough, sees the return of the Roman Empire and some other playable civilizations from the first Age of Empires and its expansion, The Rise of Rome.

The Return of Rome was first revealed back during the 25th anniversary celebration of the Age of Empires franchise, where we also learned that Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition and Age of Empires 4 would be coming to Xbox consoles, alongside the announcement of the Age of Mythology remaster. 

In our Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition Xbox review, staff writer Rebecca Spear wrote that "I'm happy to report that while not entirely perfect, Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition feels very good to play on Xbox."

Windows Central's take

I echo my colleague Rebecca in her sentiments about Age of Empires 2, it's amazing how well it works on Xbox console. While I personally am most interested in the Age of Mythology remaster, it's cool that Return of Rome is coming next month, showing just how much life this decades-old game continues to find through the remaster.

When I think back on my tween and teenage years, it's impossible to do so without thinking of The original Age of Empires 2, which released in 1999. My father was an electrical engineer with a penchant for fixing broken computers that people discarded. Because of this, we had four PCs in our den, which I'd use to set up LAN parties with my brothers and friends in order to play this real-time strategy (RTS) game for hours on end. Even when no one else could play, I'd spend my freetime going through the single-player campaigns. Of course, I wasn't the only fan out there.

The original game was massively popular among RTS enthusiasts when it released and so well revered through the years following that it even got the HD remake treatment in 2013. This ended up getting several expansion packs that brought additional civilizations and campaigns for players like me to experience. Then the Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition for PC released in 2019 with all previous DLC included along with updated graphics, a new expansion called "The Last Khans," and a large number of small quality-of-life improvements. It too proved to be just as enjoyable as the original.

So, when I heard that Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition was coming to Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One, I became both extremely excited and curious about how a game that was heavily designed to work via mouse clicks could perform on a console with a controller. After spending over 15 hours playing the near-final preview build of the game for Xbox Series X which was provided by Microsoft, I'm happy to report that while not entirely perfect, Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition feels very good to play on Xbox. Since it's coming to Game Pass, you really shouldn't miss it.

In full disclosure, the preview build that I had access to didn't offer multiplayer, so I don't know for sure how well matchmaking works in Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition for modern Xbox consoles. However, I did spend several hours playing the historical campaigns as well as skirmishes against the computer while paying particular attention to the new features. The Xbox version offers several small improvements angled at controller play that add up to great effect. 

Still one of the best RTS games

The basic gameplay is just as good on Xbox as it ever has been on any previous iteration of this game. By that, I mean that I constantly get sucked in for long gaming sessions and don't want to stop playing because it provides such rewarding strategy sessions. 

The main idea behind Age of Empires is civilization building and domination; a thing that this game manages to do in real time, which isn't as common these days. Players are in charge of a historical group of people and can build and advance their technology in a few different ways. For instance, the right choices allow me to improve or unlock better weaponry, stronger armor, robust military units, defensive structures, destructive warships, powerful siege machines, dangerous war animals, and much more.

However, players must take into account the number of limited resources and terrain layout of the map while being wary of attacks from other civilizations. For instance, if you're on a map with lots of water, it might be best to harvest a ton of wood to build up your navy rather than focusing solely on your military. Usually, your best bet for success is to advance as fast as you can through various ages so that you can be the invading force that prevails. 

Of course, you could also choose to build such a strong defense that your enemies cannot harm you while you take the time you need to build up your empire before striking. Or maybe you'd prefer to start by attacking an opponent's villagers and market carts to cut off any resources that will help them advance. There are many different strategies to employ and many different modes to experience.  

Disclaimer: This review was made possible by an early access, near-final preview build of the game provided by Microsoft. The company did not see the contents of this review before publishing.

Over 200 hours of historical campaigns and single-player sessions

One of the best things about Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition is the historical campaigns that players can engage with that teach actual history better than any class I ever took. During my time with the Age of Empires series, I've come to better understand the value of resources, economics, technological advancement, location, and of course war strategy in addition to the historical figures that successfully manipulated these elements for their advantage. 

Each campaign starts with a storytelling moment, illustrated with new pictures, a remastered soundtrack, and excellent voice acting to make the story come to life. The campaigns themselves put me in varied situations with different challenges to overcome, which prevents gameplay from getting too repetitive. I might need to escort Joan of Arc to another city, build a Wonder, or demolish an enemy's buildings while a historical battle unfolds. 

Players get their money's worth with this version as there are over 200 hours of gameplay to experience in solo modes. Even after all of that, single players can always jump into skirmishes against the computer for varied matches. Online co-op and competitive modes are also available to keep things interesting with friends.

New interfaces for Xbox eliminate tediousness so you can focus on strategy

Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition feels good to play on Xbox and that stems from the fact that a few new interface mechanics were added to the game to make it play better for consoles and controllers. There's even a new tutorial that I highly suggest playing through that explains these new Xbox mechanics. 

For instance, instead of tediously needing to tell every single villager to perform a specific task, pressing in the right stick brings up a Villager Priorities Presets wheel that lets me choose what materials I want my villagers to focus on gathering. Then the AI automatically governs all of my villagers based on that choice so I can focus more on my war strategy rather than micromanaging everything. 

Don't worry, I can still select single villagers or groups of them and give them different tasks from everyone else such as building a Monastery. The awesome thing is that the villagers go back to material collecting once they're done without me needing to tell them to do so. 

Additionally, I can give a chain of instructions by holding down the left trigger while assigning various tasks. I often used this to send a group of villagers to build a row of Watch Towers or to make my Infantry units explore various parts of the map and then come back to my City Center. All these new wheels and command options work together to make gameplay less repetitive while not taking away from the fun in anyway. 

The PC version of this game features unit commands that appear at the bottom left of the screen when a unit is selected. However, the Xbox version of Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition allows me to select a unit and then hold down the right trigger to bring up a wheel of possible options available to that unit. This way I can easily tell my villagers to build a Castle, make my military units patrol an area, or get any of my buildings to perform an upgrade without taking focus away from the center of the screen.

The D-pad is also expertly assigned with what feels like hotkeys. Quickly tapping one of the four directions respectively allows me to select any of my idle villagers, military units, monks, or livestock. Similarly, holding the left trigger and then tapping the D-Pad buttons allows me to specifically select a category of military units such as cavalry, siege, melee, and long range units. Holding down these D-pad buttons rather than tapping selects all units of a category. This makes it very convenient for me to give them all the same command at once, like when I want to attack a distant enemy without actually having to click on anyone.

Additionally, I can either tell my units to attack one object by selecting it with A or I can tell them to attack anything along the path to a target by pressing X. That way my forces protect themselves along the way and I don't have to worry about them as much. All of these little improvements do an amazing job of taking this PC game and turning it into something enjoyable for Xbox consoles. However, Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition for Xbox isn't perfect by any stretch.

It's so fun, but not without flaws

The biggest frustration I faced in Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition for Xbox was when trying to place buildings on specific areas of the grid. For instance, sometimes I'd want to place a row of houses perfectly in line with each other as an impassible barrier, but hovering over the exact spots I wanted wasn't always easy as the marquee would jump around instead of going where I wanted it to. I attempted to fix this by adjusting camera and marquee speeds in the settings, but it didn't fully solve the issue.

In a similar vein, when several units occupy a small space, it is often hard to select a specific character from the group, which isn't ideal when in high-stress situations. Not to mention that sometimes the AI makes a clunky job out of simple tasks. This problem often happens when I tell my military units to walk to a part of the map, but they keep getting stuck on unseen barriers and take much longer to get there than is necessary. Sometimes I have to go in and specifically chain destinations for units to walk to so they get to the final destination in the most efficient way possible.

Still a major player, but now on Xbox

While some minute parts of the game sometimes don't work properly, these flaws never completely ruin the experience for me. Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition is still highly enjoyable on modern Xbox consoles and I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested. There are over 200 hours worth of gameplay to experience and there's enough variety to keep things interesting whether it's your first match or your 100th. 

Seriously, if you're the kind of person who loves to think strategically and is interested in history then you'll get sucked into this RTS game. See just why it's been seen as one of the best strategy games of all time. 

What you need to know

• Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition is coming to Xbox consoles and Xbox Game Pass on January 31, 2023.
• This is a classic game remastered for modern enjoyment.
• The historical campaign boasts over 200 hours of playtime or you can engage in online co-op or competitive multiplayer.

Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition already came to PC back in 2019, however, it's just now coming to Xbox consoles and Xbox Game Pass this year. According to a tweet from the Xbox Twitter account, this remastered classic releases on January 31 and is currently available for pre-install via Xbox Game Pass or preorder from Xbox One or Xbox Series X|S.

Gameplay centers around players controlling a small number of characters and using them to build and strengthen a civilization. As time goes on, players can acquire stronger weaponry and better means of acquiring materials. In the single-player campaign, players engage in historical battles with content that can last for over 200 hours. The Definitive Edition includes all previous expansions from back in the day along with a brand-new expansion for players to enjoy.

This game also offers both co-op and competitive multiplayer for two to eight players online. Anyone with an Xbox Game Pass membership can go in and pre-install the game or those who have an Xbox One or Xbox Series X|S can purchase the game on its own for $20. 

The original Age of Empires 2 released back in 1999 and is still considered by many to be one of the best multiplayer games of all time.

What you need to know

• Age of Empires turns 25 today, and it was celebrated by a special 25th anniversary broadcast.
• It was announced that Age of Empires 4 is coming to Xbox sometime in 2023.
• It was also announced that Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition is coming to Xbox One and Series X|S consoles on January 31, 2023.
• The broadcast included an official announcement for a new Age of Empires 4 Anniversary Edition, available now at Steam and the Microsoft Store.

Age of Empires is one of the most popular series in the real-time strategy (RTS) genre, and it has now been around for 25 years. The studios that have worked on the series over the years celebrated today with a 25th Anniversary broadcast, complete with interviews, highlights, and some juicy announcements.

The biggest announcement is undoubtedly that Age of Empires 4 and Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition are coming to Xbox in 2023. Age 2: DE has a more approximate expected date of January 31, 2023, while Age 4 is still listed simply as "2023."

Though the Age 2: DE portion of the news leaked out earlier today via a PEGI rating board listing, it's now been officially announced. Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition is still considered the flagship title by many people, receiving updates and attracting many competitive players to this day.

A new Age 2 tutorial has been cooked up to help players adjust to controller input, and new AI will be available in-game to cut down on micromanagement (like managing resources). It's also been stated that mouse and keyboard inputs will work on Xbox, plus there will be crossplay available between Xbox and PC.

The PEGI rating lists only Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S, so it appears that PlayStation and Switch users will be left out. As is tradition with games under Microsoft's roof, these titles should join Game Pass on day one. Age 2: DE will also be available through Xbox Cloud Gaming.

The Age series shows no signs of slowing down, with the latest Age of Empires 4 game kicking off its third competitive season today, as well as being reintroduced on Steam and the Microsoft Store as an "Anniversary Edition" that includes all old and new content.

Current owners of Age 4 will also receive the new update, which includes two new civilizations — Malian and Ottoman — with new achievements and challenges, new biomes, eight new multiplayer maps, and eleven new game languages. Keep in mind that PC Game Pass subscribers can grab Age of Empires 4 in all its glory.

What you need to know

• Age of Empires is celebrating its 25th anniversary in October.
• A new Anniversary Edition of Age of Empires 4 with all content so far released, including the Anniversary Update, will launch October 25.
• Age of Empires 4's Season 3 launch will also coincide with the anniversary celebration.
• Remastered Age of Empires 2: DE and Age of Empires 3: DE games will see in-game events with new rewards and challenges.
• A special 25th anniversary broadcast will air October 25 at 1PM EST with new announcements from and interviews with Age developers and community members.

Age of Empires, one of the best real-time strategy (RTS) series ever released on PC, is turning 25 this year. That's right ... the original Age of Empires launched in 1997, dating most of us in ways we don't want to admit. To celebrate, the Age team has come up with a bunch of goodies for newcomers and longtime fans of the series alike.

A live Anniversary Broadcast is planned for October 25 at 1 PM EST, in which the development team and community members will share new announcements and answer questions in an interview format. The team isn't sharing complete details about what we'll see, but you'll be able to check it out yourself on major streaming platforms, including Twitch and YouTube (the Age of Empires, Xbox, and Red Bull Gaming channels will all have the live stream).

October 25 will also see a new Anniversary Edition of Age of Empires 4 hit digital storefronts. It will be considered the "full version" of the game, with base platform, all updates so far released, and the new Anniversary Update launching on the same day.

The Anniversary Update, which includes content seen during the Age 4 Season 3 Public Update Preview, will be free for all Age 4 owners. It includes new Malian and Ottoman civilizations, new challenges and achievements, two new biomes, and eight new maps on which you can wage war. Eleven new languages are also being added in this update, including Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Portugal), and Swedish.

The third competitive season will kick off on October 25, giving all players a fresh go at the leaderboard. New Ranked Team Games are included, as are new naval balancing changes and new waypoint markers.

Older Age games aren't being forgotten, including Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition and Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition. New challenges and rewards will be made available to celebrate the anniversary.

October 25 sits in the middle of the Red Bull Wololo: Legacy tournament, which runs from October 21 to 30. It's being billed as the "biggest Age of Empires competitive event of all time," with multiple Age games included in the fun. You can check out Red Bull's website for more information.

What you need to know

• Age of Empires 4 first launched back in October 2021. 
• During Opening Night Live at Gamescom, two new civilizations for the game were revealed: The Malians and the Ottomans.
• These two civilizations will be entirely free and are scheduled to arrive on Oct. 25, 2022.

At Opening Night Live at Gamescom, we learned that two new civilizations are on the way to Age of Empires 4.

The Ottomans and the Malians are coming to Age of Empires 4 and will be entirely free. Both civilizations are being added in an update on Oct. 25, 2022. You can check out the announcement trailer for the Ottomans and Malians update below:

Naturally, the Ottomans bring heavy firepower to the battlefield through their cannons. Meanwhile, the Malians can use the terrain and foliage to hide their troops, focusing on flanking and using guerrilla warfare to engage numerically superior enemies.

In our review of Age of Empires 4, we found that it was a polished experience, even if it wasn't a complete revolution of the genre.

Age of Empires 4 on Xbox: Why did it take so long?

Age of Empires 4 released first on PC, as did its earlier siblings. The Age series has always been about precision pointing and performing as many actions per minute as possible, which translates well to a keyboard and mouse. However, many RTS games have made a smooth transition to the controller, and meanwhile console accessories like the Razer Turret are coming into fashion.

The Age 4 developers stated that they're focusing first on the PC experience. The first major Age of Empires 4 patch of 2022 went out Jan. 19, and there's still a lot of work to be done to get the game in tip-top competitive shape. That doesn't mean there's not also an Xbox version being worked on. The developers never ruled out an Age 4 console version, instead going with a "stay tuned for now" message.

What Age of Empires games are coming to Xbox?

After speculation and rumors, during a 25th anniversary event for the franchise, Microsoft officially confirmed that both Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition and Age of Empires 4 are coming to Xbox consoles. Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition is slated to launch on Jan. 27, 2023, while Age of Empires 4 will be coming to Xbox consoles at a later date.

This is in line with information from our sources before the announcement, as well as the developers' intentionally vague answers when asked about a console version. 

If you're looking to get in on the Age action on Windows PC, you already have access to the game if you're a PC Game Pass subscriber. The game is also available as a standalone title via the Microsoft Store and Steam, if you prefer to just purchase games outright.

What you need to know

• Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition is getting a dedicated Mexico faction.
• Mexico is being added on Dec. 1, 2021.
• There are special bonuses for anyone that also grabs the USA pack in addition to Mexico.

Age of Empires 4 is now available, but that doesn't mean World's Edge and its partner studios are done working on the other Age of Empires games. Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition is getting Mexico as a faction on Dec. 1, 2021, as shared on Monday. You can check out the reveal trailer for the Mexico faction below:

Anyone who buys the Mexico pack gets access to several new historical battles. There's also some extra battles that are available for anyone who buys both Mexico and the USA faction pack.

The Mexico faction pack is normally $6 and is available on Steam and through the Microsoft Store. There's also a unique double pack on the Microsoft Store that bundles in Mexico with the United States for $10.

What you need to know

• World's Edge and Relic Entertainmend shared a roadmap for Age of Empires 4.
• More bug fixes and balancing patches are coming in 2021.
• In early 2022, user creation tools are slated to arrive, alongside the first Ranked Seasons.

Age of Empires 4 is in player hands and the developers across World's Edge and Relic Entertainment are already working on updates to come. In an update via Xbox Wire, the team shared an Age of Empires 4 roadmap, detailing what players can expect over the next few months.

First up are more balance tweaks and bug fixes, which will be rolling out sometime over the holiday period. Heading into 2022, there's also content creation tools on the way, as well as simple ways for non-modders to try out user-created content. Finally, Ranked Seasons will also be kicking off some time early in 2022. You can see all this information laid out below:

Ranked Seasons will last for 12 weeks, with in-game rewards for players that partake. Other upcoming additions include a widely-requested Patrol move for units, as well as the inclusion cheats and taunts, which are a staple of past games, especially Age of Empires 2.

We previously learned that the developers are also looking into an Age of Empires 4 console version, though there's no certain news or timing just yet. Right now, the game is only available on PC, through Steam and Xbox Game Pass for PC.

What you need to know

• Age of Empires 4 from World's Edge and Relic Entertainment is currently available on PC.
• In an interview, World's Edge creative director Adam Isgreen indicated that the developers will look into an Xbox console version shortly.
• Some other Xbox Game Studios titles, like Gears Tactics and Flight Simulator, launched on PC before coming to console.

Age of Empires 4, the latest entry in the long-running real-time strategy franchise, is now available on PC. The game was developed as a collaboration between Xbox first-party team World's Edge and Sega-owned Relic Entertainment. While PC players are already enjoying the clash of various historical factions, there's no console version, so anyone on Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S or Xbox One is still waiting for a console-based Age of Empires experience.

It appears those fans shouldn't lose hope just yet. In an interview with Multiplayer.it (as shared by @Klobrille on Twitter) that took place a few days before the launch of the game, World's Edge creative director Adam Isgreen shared some hope for fans wanting to see an Xbox console version of Age of Empires 4.

"As soon as we finish managing the game's PC release, we'll start thinking about how to make the game run on consoles. We don't have any final plans yet, but now we're really going to start thinking about it," Isgreen explained.

Age of Empires 4 isn't the first title from Xbox Game Studios to arrive on PC first, with turn-based strategy game Gears Tactics and Flight Simulator also launching PC several months to a year before the console version.

At long last, Age of Empires 4 is on the way, soon to be in the hands of eager real-time strategy (RTS) fans everywhere. This game was developed by World's Edge and Relic Entertainment as a modern take on everything players loved about past games, especially Age of Empires 2. Depending on how the launch goes, it could even end up being one of the best PC games available.

Our interview with the developers of Age of Empires 4 revealed that the team is focused on history, wanting to make sure players understand the weight behind every faction, with plenty of in-game resources to aid in learning about who these famous heroes and tyrants were.

Age of Empires 4: Release date

Age of Empires 4 is scheduled to launch on Oct. 28, 2021. The game is coming exclusively to PC right now, though players can choose to go through Steam or Xbox Game Pass for PC in order to play it.

Age of Empires 4: Launch times

Age of Empires 4, like many games, has a single launch time around the world, as confirmed by the official Age of Empires Twitter account. Naturally, this means the exact time the game is available will depend on your region. We've rounded up what this looks like in major timezones across the world.

Age of Empires 4: Preload and download size

Age of Empires 4 requires 50 GB of free space on your computer, in line with the size of many modern games. Naturally, this will probably grow over time as the game evolves and more updates, DLC, and expansions are added in the coming months and years.

Initially, Age of Empires 4 did not appear to support preloading, which was especially unfortunate if you have a slower internet connection. Fortunately, this has changed ahead of launch. Age of Empires 4 now supports preloading in all regions, so you can go ahead and start downloading the game so you're ready the moment everything unlocks.

Before you buy the game, you'll naturally want to check the Age of Empires 4 PC requirements to make sure your system can handle it. With that said, Age of Empires 4 was developed to scale on a wide range of hardware, meaning most players probably don't have anything to worry about.

Age of Empires 4 was announced on August 21, 2017, and ever since then, real-time strategy (RTS) fans have been eager to see where Microsoft, Xbox, and a talented cadre of developers would take the renowned series. I'm one of the lucky few who received early access to Age 4, and as I'm sitting down to write this review I've been playing almost non-stop for just more than a week.

I would be lying if I said it's been a difficult task. From the moment I sat down to play through the four-part historic campaign with 35 missions, all the way through to testing out skirmishes and multiplayer matches, the game has been a treat.

I've done my best to leave my Age love at the door despite Age of Empires 2 being one of my favorite games of all time. This is definitively a fan's review, examined in-depth across all of the game's systems and mechanics. Nostalgia aside, Age 4 is a new title created by a new team of people, with 16 years between now and the release of Age of Empires 3. Has it been worth the wait? The answer is very much yes.

Disclaimer: This review was made possible by a review code provided by Xbox Game Studios. The company did not see the contents of the review before publishing.

Age of Empires 4: Visuals and sound

There was a lot of hoopla surrounding Age 4's visual presentation leading up to the release, so I'd like to tackle this section first. I wrote an editorial reminding players that it would be primarily gameplay that makes or breaks Age of Empires 4, but that doesn't mean the game can't excel in the visual department. Some of the main complaints I saw were about unit and building scaling in early versions of the game that we were able to test.

I've no doubt not yet seen every unit and building in the game, but these issues seem to have been handled. Keeps and fortresses tower above towns, villagers look small next to armor-clad military units, and weapons are at an appropriate size to be noticeable but not overbearing. The game is not going for a hyper-realistic look, and that's OK when it attempts to run on such a wide range of hardware. Nearly everything is clearly identifiable at a glance, with units defined well even in the ruckus of battle.

Map landscapes — the backdrop for your matches and campaign missions — are gorgeous. Forests vary in color and type, trees and grass sway lightly in the breeze, sea water color grades naturally toward shore, and unseen clouds passing in front of the sun drape shadows across the plains. There are also plenty of accoutrements that pop up when you build certain buildings.

For example, building a house in an open area will have a small garden and fence appear next to it, adding to the sense that your city is a living organism. Roads also appear automatically between well-traveled areas, though they don't provide a movement bonus. These extras don't affect the game and can be built over if you're pressed for space. A lighted grid that appears when you want to build helps identify what space is open, so you're never really having to guess where to place your next building.

The game ships with 17 different skirmish maps, each with eight different biomes that change the look of the map. Want to play nothing but Dry Arabia but don't want to see the pale palette anymore? Switch to a different biome for a few matches.

Architectural art design is also a strong point. I love the appearance of common buildings across civilizations; they're easy to identify but fit in with the rest of the civ. Unique landmarks are fun to watch as they're built, with scaffolding and virtual workers rising out of the ground. This is where the architecture really gets unique. One thing that stood out to me was how similar the keep looks across civilizations. A bit more variety there could go a long way.

While the vast majority of animations I've seen are fluid, there are still some areas for improvement. One thing that stood out to me immediately was infantry units building siege. Instead of swapping spears or swords for hammers, units would just sort of crowd around a battering ram foundation and point their weapons at it until it was built. If I tasked more units than could fit along the foundation's edge, the rest would spin restlessly until the building was completed. It looks odd, and betrays the attention to detail in other areas of the game.

Arrow animations (and sizing) were another sticking point for many people who saw an early build of the game. While size has been addressed — arrows and bolts are more distinguishable from one another and don't look like spears being tossed — though, the animation is still a bit wonky when zoomed in. In the heat of battle it's not noticeable, but a single archer's timing can be a bit off. At least the arrows release from the bow instead of the soldier's feet now.

The HUD is informative, straightforward, and accessible with hotkeys that are displayed in a discrete manner next to the buttons they represent. You don't have to pause the game and go check your key bindings every five minutes until you memorize them. I would like the ability to increase the minimap size, as I found myself often squinting up close to the screen to see if I'd discovered any stone deposits elsewhere on the map. Having the ability to adjust map size would be a nice addition.

Nevertheless, red circles that alert you to a fight are clear to see on the minimap, which helps move your attention appropriately. The ability to hit Spacebar to take you to the most recent alert is also a nice addition that keeps players from wondering where exactly they need to be.

There are some moments where the HUD can be a bit overbearing, especially if you're playing with tutorial popups enabled. Bubbles above units on the map will suddenly appear, blocking whatever is behind them. And in the campaign, I noticed a large opaque pop up here and there, usually over a mission objective. The popups did occasionally get in the way of targeting specific units. Turning these transparent when centered on the screen would take care of this issue. Missions objectives are also constantly displayed in the top-left corner of the screen, seemingly without a way to hide them. I know what I need to do; let me reclaim that screen space.

I wasn't far into the game when I realized Age 4's sound design is something special. I was tracking my army as it moved across the English countryside, over stone bridges, through fields and forests, and into a city. The sound of horses, infantry, siege engines, and all the associated weapons and armor blended together into a harmony that I had to stop and appreciate. Instead of following through immediately on my campaign objective, I took time to move the army back and forth across terrain just to hear all the sounds.

The same attention to audio detail presents itself throughout the game. The tear of trees being felled, the thud of a builder's hammer on a foundation, or the crash of a stone gate falling, only to be rushed by a screaming horde of soldiers; it's all realistic to the point where I can't imagine how much time went into real-world audio capture.

Age of Empires games present a lot of repeated sounds over the course of a campaign mission or a skirmish match. Each time you select a unit or a building an audio cue plays. For example, this aids a fast-moving player to recognize that they've selected the Town Center as they mash the Q button to produce more villagers. As another example, each time you select a villager or soldier they'll have something to say. If not done properly, this can become overbearing over the course of a play session.

Unlike previous Age games where unit sound cues are fairly static throughout the game, Age 4 takes things to another level by changing language to reflect the approximate time period. For the English and the French (two languages I know), I noticed that units speak increasingly modern versions of the languages as you move through ages. It's such a subtle touch but it adds a lot to the historic feel.

Zooming, panning, and rotating the camera changes sound accordingly, and whether you're listening through external speakers or headphones you're going to love what you hear. I found myself getting up close to battles just to hear swords crashing against armor and shield, screams of pain from felled soldiers, and the violent moan of siege engines as they make waste of stone walls. I might be a monster.

Despite some hiccups with the HUD and with certain lacking or unpolished animations, Age of Empires 4 presents itself visually and audibly at an impressive caliber. You might not agree with all of the graphical decisions — some are still going to find the game a bit too cartoonish — but I'm convinced it could look a lot worse and still be a success thanks to its solid gameplay.

Age of Empires 4: General gameplay

Age of Empires 4 is all about moving your civilization of choice through the Dark Age, Feudal Age, Castle Age, and Imperial Age, all while balancing economy and military as you try to defeat your opponent. While the campaign has set mission objectives and carefully crafted maps, jumping into a skirmish — against AI or human opponents — gives you a procedurally generated blank slate with which to work.

You begin games with some villagers, a Town Center, and a scout, with some discrepancies based on the civ you're playing. It's up to you to task your units with gathering resources, building new structures, attacking the enemy, and defending your domain. Scouts can now herd domesticated animals to your Town Center (with some extra upgrades available for wild animals), while your villagers can build, farm, hunt, fish, chop trees, and mine gold or stone.

A new feature involving areas of influence naturally propels players to create districts. For example, an English mill speeds up the food production from any farm in its range of influence. This extends to military units and buildings. As another example, the Rus have wooden defensive keeps that speed up lumber production for any camps within their vicinity. This applies the other way as well, with certain buildings receiving bonuses if they're placed next to appropriate resources. You'll find that each civilization has some unique take on this, each with its own powerful bonus.

To move to the next age, you must assign villagers the task of building a landmark. There are two to choose from in each age, both with a different set of perks that will continue through the rest of the game. These unique landmarks don't just sit idle for the rest of the game; they can be used to produce special units or to boost surrounding units and buildings.

There are three different win conditions possible for regular skirmish matches. You can destroy all of an opponent's landmarks (the buildings used to Age up and the Town Center), you can capture and hold all the map's Sacred Sites, or you can build and defend a Wonder. When setting up a game you can tune victory conditions as you like, and single-player skirmish preset scenarios can all be tweaked.

Held sacred sites generate a steady income of gold, as do any relics you manage to capture and keep at your base. Trade sites scattered randomly around the map are used in tandem with your created trade caravans to generate gold. The combination of sacred sites and trade sites makes for some spicy encounters against enemies who are vying for the same map control.

Combat feels fluid and visceral, no doubt helped by the high-end sound design. Units all have strong and weak counters, and you'll be punished for not paying attention. Sending archers in against cavalry will quickly end in ruin, as will sending cavalry in against spearmen or spearmen in against archers. This triangle of combat is key to the Age series. It runs a bit deeper this time, with certain units receiving bonus abilities. Cavalry have a charge ability, spearmen have a brace ability against cavalry, and so on. This extra micro-management is where veteran players excel, and I hope there's enough to keep the top professionals interested.

Stone walls can now be mounted by infantry (a first for the series), and most buildings can no longer be used to create makeshift barricades like in Age 2. Sorry house-wallers, you'll need to mine stone to create a strong defense. Stone towers must be attached to stone walls (with some unique exceptions depending on the civ), and they have upgrades available to help deal with enemy units. Keeps can be upgraded in the same way, as can standalone outposts. Any units on a wall receive less damage, while ranged units can fire further, adding some depth to a defensive strategy.

A new fire mechanic plays a big role in Age 4. Buildings damaged below 25% but left standing by units will get an emblem above that shows a fire; these must be repaired by villagers to prevent them from completely burning down to nothing. Some civilizations even get bonus resources from setting buildings on fire, so expect this to be a popular tactic.

Poor pathfinding in an RTS game is inexcusable. This seems to be a non-issue for Age of Empires 4. Even with massive armies moving through tight spaces, every unit seemed to be able to easily find its way to where I'd clicked. The only issues I saw had to do with units trying to get onto a crowded wall. They can only climb to the top of the wall at a gate, a tower, or a ruined portion, which can lead to some bottlenecks.

Grouped armies of different unit types intelligently line up, with archers at the back and quick horsemen at the front backed up by spearmen. While "micro" — the act of carefully controlling individual units while in battle — is still an enormous part of being successful at higher levels of play, units tasked with a general attack-move order can generally figure out where they need to be.

You can now click and drag a direction in which you want your units to line up, which works well with set formations you can change on the fly. You can also now group units into multiple control groups simultaneously; this helps you command divisions made up of different types of units, while also letting you select, for example, all archers on the battlefield with one button. There are also smart selection tools you can employ for easier control with just a mouse.

One thing that irks me is a lack of positional flags when assigning units with multiple move points. A scout, for example, will make a ring around your Town Center if you assign a bunch of move commands with shift-click, but there's no visual representation. Another little rub is dragging to select units with a mouse. If you touch the edge of the screen with a cursor, the camera moves and brings the box you're created with it. This results in certain units being omitted from selection.

Naval warfare seems to be something that players either love or hate. I played a couple of skirmish matches with a focus on water to get a feel for it. It's quite similar to Age of Empires 2, with fishing ships and a variety of military ships to play around with. A couple of neat additions are the ability for fishing ships to repair military ships, as well as broadside attacks from the larger ships. It also seems like deep-sea fishing spots repopulate after some time, which means you don't end up at a late-Imperial position where you're scrambling to make farms or replenish fishing traps.

One complaint here, after waging some naval battles with Delhi Sultanate, is that ships sort of look the same. I understand cultures had a certain method of shipbuilding, but a bit of extra flair to help differentiate at a glance would be appreciated, especially when fishing ships are grouped up with warships for repairs. Age of Empires 4 isn't going to revolutionize naval warfare in an RTS game, but it seems to be working without issue.

The multiplayer portion of the game is fairly limited with pre-release access, so I can't speak for now on large-scale network capabilities and any issues that might arise at launch. I can say that the multiplayer menus are straightforward and simple to navigate. You can click just once to begin searching for a game against other humans, or you can go in and create your own setup for others to join. Here you're able to set win conditions, map, teams, and the number of total players. Games go up to eight players, with any combination of teams you want.

You can set your online match to be observable. A list is populated in the multiplayer menu, giving you a choice of what you want to watch. You get a nice HUD that shows player resources, as well as controls to change playback speed and change view of the player. You can speed things up to reach live footage, or you can let it play out at the regular speed. I was able to test it once and it worked flawlessly.

Ranked matches, along with scenario editing tools, are not included at launch. I'm guessing the team wants to ensure the game is running properly both on the foundational and network levels before introducing these extra features. It's a shame that we can't jump right in immediately, but the team has stated numerous times that the game will be carefully taken care of for a long time to come. Here's hoping that this isn't an empty promise.

Age of Empires 4: Civilizations

Age of Empires 4 has eight civilizations (with more expected to come), which might not seem like a big enough number for this type of game. However, the individual complexity that's revealed once you start playing them makes up for any worries about the number. Civilizations range from easy to advanced, with a definite leap in difficulty while playing. The English, for example, play a lot like the Britons from Age 2. Then there's something like Delhi Sultanate or Mongols which play unlike anything else.

I'm still learning the intricacies of each civilization, growing stronger as a player as I come to understand how the unique bonuses and playstyles work. It's fulfilling to discover a new strategy, implement it, and see it succeed. Instead of just being the fastest with a mouse (which does still make a huge difference) and getting a win, it feels like understanding a civ's strengths and weaknesses plays a much larger role in Age 4.

Each civilization has a set of unique bonuses that changes the way they play. A bunch of them are map dependent, adding even more depth. The Delhi Sultanate's infantry units being able to construct defenses reminds me a bit of the Norse from Age of Mythology, while the Mongols' ability to pack up and move everything at any time is sort of like the Terran's lift off ability in StarCraft. Each time I play a skirmish match with a civ I feel like I'm discovering something I didn't see the last time; this will abate over time, but the metagame possibilities seem to be plentiful.

Age of Empires 4: Campaign

Age of Empires 4 is made up of four distinct campaigns with a total of 35 missions spread throughout. I first tackled the entirety of The Normans campaign — spanning about 150 years and covering William the Conqueror and his heirs — before moving on to sample the majority of missions in The Hundred Years War, The Mongol Empire, and The Rise of Moscow campaigns.

There are about 25 to 35 hours of gameplay in just these campaigns depending on the difficulty level you choose. There's a story mode that essentially boils gameplay down to an interactive romp through history, all the way to hard mode where veteran RTS players will feel challenged. You can change the difficulty as you please.

Pacing is spot-on throughout the missions. You always have something to do, and you're not toiling for long before getting back into a fight. I played through on intermediate difficulty, and it seemed like the game was well-tailored to this setting. There's a definite difficulty climb as you move toward wrapping up each campaign, and there were several missions where I realized that I'd taken the wrong approach. Autosave came to my rescue, allowing me to back up a few minutes and change a crucial decision.

The campaign's varied missions, smooth voiceover work, and gorgeous map presentation is a lot on its own, but the developers took things to a whole new level with "Hands on History" and "Path of History" video segments. These videos, produced by award-winning Lion TV studio and Relic Entertainment, take real-world modern footage and overlay it with CGI to give an idea of what landscapes looked like in, say, 1066.

Castles still standing today are shown with soldiers manning the ramparts, rivers still flowing today are shown with cavalry fighting on the banks, and stone walls that have since fallen are digitally made whole again. This is all mixed with top-notch narration, delivering a wholly satisfying experience. Moving from the live footage mixed with CGI to standard gameplay feels natural and really gets you involved in what's about to happen.

Hands on History segments are unlocked upon completion of most missions. These focus more on a specific subject related to the mission you just played, and they're presented in a sort of documentary style with experts and hosts. For example, the first mission in The Mongol Empire campaign involves huge, fast-moving armies. The Hands on History video segment you unlock is about Mongol drums and signal arrows, which were used to convey messages to Mongol armies.

Each of these videos is a few minutes long, and all are absolutely worth watching. It's clear that this is an integral part of the game that matches the level of polish seen everywhere else. I don't know any other game that has focused so heavily on getting history right, and I will definitely finish the rest of the campaign missions if only to unlock the outstanding mini documentaries. I'm too much of a boor to go through these with a fine-tooth comb to find any historical inaccuracies, but it's clear the team was acutely focused on presenting these cultures in an uplifting manner.

On top of all this, your user profile gains experience as you play the game. Civilization masteries are sets of objectives that can be completed no matter how you're playing, and there are also daily quests for a bit of variety. Completing these grants you XP, unlocking new content for your profile like coats of arms, town monuments, and more.

Age of Empires 4: Should you play it?

Age of Empires 4 has not reinvented the RTS genre. If that's what you were looking for, you might be disappointed. At its core, it feels a lot like Age of Empires 2, albeit with new graphics, sound, technologies, perks, and strategies. The developers were clear about their intention to create a true successor to Age of Empires 2, and in that regard, they've succeeded.

My main impression, in a time when so many high-profile games are rushed out with missing features or tons of bugs, is that Age of Empires 4 feels like a finished game. And that's despite ranked play and user-generated content (UGC) tools being saved for a large update expected Spring 2022. Age of Empires 4 runs well, even on a mid-range gaming laptop with settings turned up. The game is polished, to the point where I've noticed only maybe two or three minor bugs in my playtime that is approaching 25 hours. I saw one crash on an Intel/NVIDIA system, with no crashes on a full AMD system. Be sure to check out our best gaming laptops collection if you're in need of some new hardware.

Accessibility options, like color filters, remappable key bindings, strong contrast for menus, text scaling, and more help get people comfortably into the game. And the developers have stated that there's a roadmap being released shortly after launch that will keep us informed about what's to come in the near future. It seems like the game is going to be supported for a long time, which I really hope is held up.

The best part of Age 4 for me is the campaign. Its Hands on History and Path of History segments are incredible, both in knowledge conveyed and production quality. These aren't something tacked on; they're an integral part of the full experience. With somewhere around 30 hours of high-quality campaign content, you're going to get a lot of your money's worth in this section alone. And the eight unique launch civilizations mixed with 17 skirmish maps is making my head spin with possible strategies to unleash on a full multiplayer pool.

If you're not a fan of the way Age 2 plays, Age 4 likely won't be in your wheelhouse either. But if you enjoyed previous games in the series, this should be no exception. Age of Empires 4 isn't the revolution some of you were hoping for, but I've had an absolute blast playing the game. I can't wait to see you out there on the multiplayer battlefield. Check out our guide on the Age of Empires 4 launch time to be sure you don't miss out on the release.

What you need to know

• An Age of Empires fan preview event is coming on April 10.
• The event will feature news for Age of Empires 4, such as gameplay, civilizations and campaigns.
• There'll also be news for Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition and Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition.

Today, Microsoft announced a new Age of Empires fan preview event that'll be held on April 10 at 9:00 a.m. PT / noon ET. This event will be streamed live and is set to include reveals for multiple titles like Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition and Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition, as well as the upcoming Age of Empires 4.

You can take a look at the teaser below, which includes a small bit of new Age of Empires 4 gameplay.

According to the video description, the reveals will be composed of new gameplay, civilizations and campaigns, so hopefully this means there will be a fair bit of Age of Empires 4 information for fans to dive into. So far, not much has been revealed, though we know that both the English and the Mongols will be factions featured in the game.

Age of Empires 4 was last seen at X019, where the team at World's Edge, a studio at Xbox Game Studios focused on the Age of Empires franchise, talked about what's required in bringing this franchise up to modern times.

It's been a grand few years for the Age of Empires franchise, and it's now expanded further with the recent addition of an official Age of Empires Gear Shop over at the Xbox website. Age of Empires has been revived thanks to the remastering of the original trilogy into Definitive Editions, and its communities — especially for Age of Empires 2 — are thriving. If you want to show that you're still in love with this legendary series, there are 16 different merch options available now.

Want to sip wine, coffee, beer, or tea and think back on that time you tower-rushed an enemy into submission? Grab a wine glass, tumbler, beer stein, or mug. There's even a mug with Wololo! printed on it. Bit chilly in your office when you're advancing to through the ages? An Age of Empires 2 and 3 Sherpa blanket is available, as well as a sweatshirt with a sheep on it with the words "King of Scouts" printed below. It's clear this merch was designed by fans of the series. T-shirts, phone covers, and tote bags round out the options.

Visit the official Age of Empires Gear Shop

If you're thinking about getting back into Age of Empires now that it has been remastered, our collection of reviews might help sway you. Check out our Age of Empires: Definitive Edition review, our Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition review, and our Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition review for much more information. And those who are interested in fresh content can check out our Age of Empires 4: Everything you need to know guide.

Age of Empires 2 is a classic strategy game, and with its new release, you might be looking for an Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition beginner's guide to help you get caught up to speed. Unlike the HD edition, this re-release features new graphics, animations, and plenty of features and quality-of-life improvements. There's also a Microsoft-powered server backend for multiplayer games, so now's as good a time as ever to get into Age 2 whether you want to play Xbox or PC.

What makes Age of Empires 2 so good is the amount of depth and strategy involved, which is why we have come up with a quick guide to get you started. Be sure to check out our Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition for PC review or our Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition for Xbox review if you're wondering whether or not this game is for you.

Getting started

Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition is an easy game to get into, but it's incredibly challenging to master. The difference between the AI (even on harder difficulties) and experienced human opponents is startling to newer players. Luckily, this guide will teach you all you need to know to handle the basics and start focusing on honing your skills.

In total, there are 37 civilizations in the game to choose from, including two new civs which arrived with the "Lords of the West" expansion in 2021. Some are considered meta, which essentially classifies them as the most popular and considered the best by the community. This is bound to change based on official updates and new playstyles developed by experienced players.

Depending on your playstyle — do you like to sit back and defend, or do you like to attack with cavalry? — your choice of civilization can have a substantial impact on how your games will play out, as well as what options will be available to you.

In skirmish matches against AI or real players, Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition puts you in control of a civilization. In most cases (save nomad games), you begin with a few villagers, a scout, some herdable animals, and some banked resources. You're tasked with taking all that and building the most powerful force on the map. Villagers handle all your resource gathering and building construction, while military units take care of any threats. These rules differ depending on the game type you're playing.

Our guide for the ages will focus on the standard game type, generally called Random Map skirmishes that can be waged, as mentioned, against AI or human opponents.

Progressing through the ages

We've put together some exact build order guides for you to check out, including an Age of Empires 2: DE Tower Rush strategy guide, an Age of Empires 2 DE Fast Castle strategy guide, and an Age of Empires 2: DE Scout Rush strategy guide. We've even collected some of the best laptops for playing Age of Empires 2: DE. These, however, are best reserved for players who have more than a few games in the bank and are comfortable with the basics.

Following is a rough walkthrough for each age that will help you keep up with rival civilizations and know what you can do while in each age.

Dark Age

Dark Age Summary

• Begin making villagers in the town center. Don't forget to build houses to support your population.
• Research Loom when convenient. Can do before luring the nearby boars to prevent accidental villager death.
• Use your scout to explore around your starting location. Continue branching out, not letting it sit idle for long.
• Prioritize wild animals over farming and berry bushes. Eventually, build a Mill and collect berries once you have villagers chopping wood and harvesting animals.
• "Kite" wild animals like boars back to your TC.
• Build a Lumber Camp near a forest to gather wood.
• Advance to the next age (need 500 food and two Dark Age buildings for Feudal Age).

Build a workforce and gather meat: The first and foremost age in most matches is the Dark Age. This is where you'll start with only a handful of villagers, a scout unit, and a town center (TC). While it may be an attractive prospect to use the berry bushes, save these for a little later. Villagers can carry much more meat through hunting, so we'll want to prioritize sheep/turkey and wild animals like boars. At the same time and for nearly the rest of the game, create villagers in a constant stream from your TC. Pro players will stress that your TC should never idle.

AI Villager Automation on Xbox: The Xbox version allows villagers to govern themselves after the player chooses what they should gather most from the Villager Priorities Presets wheel (accessed by pushing in the right joystick). You'll want to change priorities as you make your way through the various ages. Food should be your number one priority at the start of the match, but then you'll want to gather more resources later on. Note that PC players will need to manage each villager individually as this preset wheel isn't in the PC version.

Create houses for your villagers: Upon entering the game, you'll want to build two houses near your TC with starting villagers before sending them to harvest the herdable animals found nearby. 

Use housing as a cheap wall: Houses don't cost very much, so they can work as an effective defensive wall at the start of the game. Make sure to place them side by side so there's no gap between around your base and then it will take enemies a bit more work to get to your TC. 

Make your people stronger: If you can't create villagers, try dropping off food or try researching Loom. This invaluable research provides your villages with some much-needed additional armor to prevent them from getting killed by wild animals and opponents. On PC, the available commands and upgrades for buildings and units shows up in the bottom left of the screen when something is selected. However, on Xbox, players must select a building or unit and then press the right trigger in to make a wheel of possible actions appear. 

Explore the map and spy on opponents: Use your scout to unexplored areas around your base, locating valuable resources like herdable animals (which can be sent back to the TC), berries, stone, wood, and gold. PC players can make use of the waypoint system (Shift+Right-click multiple points on the map) or auto-scouting system, so your scout doesn't require babysitting.

Give a unit multiple commands in a row on Xbox: After selecting a unit, Xbox players can hold down the left trigger while issuing various commands and the unit will follow them in order. So do this to indicate various destinations around the map for the scout to explore and then have them come back to the TC. That way you won't have to babysit them along the way.

Strategy for bagging big meat: For boars and other wild animals like rhinos and elephants that attack once provoked, you'll want to kite (shoot and run) the beast back to your town center with a single villager, using the rest of your villagers to finish the kill once it's near the TC. 

Acquire lumber: As soon as you have six villagers collecting food at your TC, send a new villager to build a lumber camp next to a robust woodline. Send a few more villagers to chop wood before expanding to berries.

Level up the TC: Continue creating villagers and gathering food and wood (for houses and a barracks) until you have enough resources to progress to the Feudal Age (you need 500 food). Depending on what type of build order you're going for, you should be ready to advance to the next age around the 20 to 28 villager mark. If you'd like to go straight to Castle Age as quickly as possible, for example, you'll want more villagers. If you're in a rush to create a Stable and get some Scouts onto the field to harass the enemy, you'll want to advance as quickly as possible with fewer villagers.

Feudal Age

Feudal Age Summary

• Continue developing your economy.
• Put together a light military force if you want to attack or if you see the enemy approaching. Try taking advantage of your civ bonuses.
• If attacking your opponent(s), focus on taking out villagers and picking off military.
• Commence (or expand) the collection of stone and gold.
• Fully scout out the enemy to see what units they'll produce.
• Switch to farms for food generation.
• Don't have your TC idle. More villagers needed.
• Consider walling your base if you're playing defensively or simply to protect your economy from later raids.

Be prepared for anything: The Dark Age is getting your feet off the ground, and the Feudal Age is where you really begin to take flight. This period is invested in developing your economy (and military if rushing other civilizations). The Feudal Age is where you'll usually have the enemy scouted and work out which strategy you aim to follow for the rest of the game. This guide will become a little vague from this point on as Age of Empires 2 is all about reacting to your situation.

Continue to build your villager workforce: Never let your TC idle. With your natural food resources burning out, it's time to start farming. This requires some wood, so you'll want to bolster your wood collection and make a start on gold and stone, if not already done so. A wise move is to stagger farm creation, as they will expire and require wood to be replanted. If all your farms expire at the same time, you'll run out of wood.

Know your civilization perks: Be sure to get familiar with your civilization bonuses and unique units. You'll want to use your civilization's strengths to overcome any weaknesses. Don't go focusing on cavalry as an infantry civ unless you know what you're doing. Also, be sure to scout the enemy's base to see what they're up to. If you see a couple of, say, Archery Ranges, chances are they're coming in hot with Archers. If they're walling the base and you don't see military bases, chances are they're going to boom their economy and head to the next age.

Attack opponent resources and villagers: If you plan on challenging your opponent(s), focus on villagers and their military. Ignore any buildings that do not block your way. Taking down any villagers caught off guard will have a major impact on your opponent's economy. The same goes for your own villagers, so consider using buildings as a wall around your important resources. Be sure to queue up farms in your Mill if you have a surplus of wood, which will have the farmers auto-seed the exhausted plots.

Gather the materials you need to advance: Advancing to the Castle Age requires 800 food and 200 gold, and two Feudal Age buildings. These include Blacksmith, Market, Stable, and Archery Range. Which two you build will depend on whether you're focusing on economy or offense, though Blacksmith is pretty much a necessity no matter the way you're playing. There you can upgrade your offensive and defensive units.

Continue to gather resources: Once you've gathered 800 food and 200 gold and built two buildings, it's time to advance to the Castle Age, which is where the fun really begins.

Castle Age

Castle Age Summary

• Build more Town Centers near valuable or vulnerable resources as soon as possible. Continue creating villagers from all TCs.
• Build a Castle near valuable resources or on a strong point (hill or choke).
• Consider researching upgrades at resources camps. Lumbers Camps, Mining Camps, Mills, etc., all have technologies.
• Keep an eye out for relics, represented by a white icon on the minimap. Collect them with Monks built at a Monastery.
• Consider building siege units.
• Research upgrades for your units following a build order.
• Continue to build your economy (villagers!) and see what your foes are doing to consider counter units.
• Build a market and trade with allies. (This also allows you to trade resources or buy/sell.)

Build a castle on an advantageous spot: Castle Age is arguably the most important step along your civilization journey. This is where powerful buildings like the castle become available, which can produce some killer unique units and research and provide additional firepower with a barrage of arrows — castles can be used in both offense and defense, but they're incredibly expensive. In most cases, you'll want to build one (or at least have the stone resources to build one) as soon as possible after advancing to the Castle Age. A popular spot is overlooking a gold mine or cutting off an approach point to your base. Always try to build a castle on a hill, which gives it more offensive and defensive power.

Construct new buildings ASAP: You'll want to build new Town Centers to build villagers faster and provide additional means to store resources like food from farms and wood from nearby trees. Three TCs will pump out villagers much quicker than one TC, allowing you to get ahead in villager count. A Monastery is also required to earn gold from collected relics, which can be captured with Monks. The Siege Workshop is an important building in your arsenal (aside from civilizations that suffer from a lack of siege units). Rams are ideal for soaking up damage from ranged units and can bring down buildings. Mangonels are a great counter to massed archers (try the attack ground function), and Scorpions make short work of grouped infantry.

Work on military, navy, and defense: You'll want to continue to poke at your enemy or build up defenses and anticipate an attack, focusing on upgrades across your military through the Blacksmith and appropriate creation buildings (like the Archery Range or Stable). Because gold is a limited resource, you'll generally want to invest it into upgrades for one particular unit. For example, if you're heading down the cavalry route, there's no sense in upgrading attack and armor for archers.

Overwhelm the enemy with inexpensive military: Generally speaking, you'll want to use a mixture of expensive units like Knights (which require gold to create) alongside "trash" units (which require only food or wood) like Pikemen or Skirmishers, the latter which you send in large numbers to overwhelm the enemy.

Bulk up your navy and military if you keep getting attacked: If you're being pushed back by a specific unit, consider countering that unit with a more effective military. If they're swarming your cavalry with pikes, look to build Archers and Scorpions as a countermeasure. Never fixate on a single unit or type; Age of Empires 2 requires you to be proactive and reactive to what's being thrown at you.

Don't forget to continue to harvest materials: Advancing to the Imperial Age costs a staggering 1,000 food and 800 gold, so it's considered "late game."

Imperial Age

Imperial Age Summary

• Research techs in your buildings and unlock elite unit upgrades.
• Build valuable Trebuchets to take down Castles and other buildings.
• Focus on balancing your economy. At this point, you should have close to enough Villagers, but be sure to keep recreating any that are killed in raids. If you need room for more military and have banked resources, don't be afraid to delete villagers to make population space.
• Continue to mine stone, gold, and chop wood, moving villagers to new resources.

Create the strongest military and siege units: Imperial Age isn't too different from the Castle Age. All this advancement provides are additional researches and unit upgrades to provide you with an advantage. There's also one of the most important units in the game — Trebuchets. These are like Catapults, but have incredible range and are best suited for tackling buildings without taking damage. Just be sure to protect them, as military units will easily take one out if it's unguarded.

Keep collecting resources: Don't forget about your economy. Trees will be cut and ores collected. Be sure to revisit your economy and move villagers to new areas frequently. Always be mining stone, gold, and cutting wood to supply your army, and don't forget to rebuild your camps to be as close as possible to resources. If you haven't already built a market and begun trading with any allies, do so now.

Some handy tips

Hotkeys

Hotkeys save valuable seconds when moving across the map and selecting units/buildings. On PC, the time it takes for you to click somewhere on your minimap and select your TC to create a villager is wasted compared to using hotkeys (by default H for the TC) to achieve the same result, but with seconds to spare.

Meanwhile, pressing one of the four D-Pad buttons on Xbox allows you to quickly select livestock, villagers, the TC, or military units. Holding down this same button rather than tapping it selects all units of a category. So you can quickly command a certain type of unit in just a few taps. 

Try not to waste units

Your military is valuable. Yes, even that single scout you start with. Especially in the early game, do not waste your units. If you think you'd lose an engagement, choose to approach it differently or not at all. Live to fight another day, as the saying goes. Never, ever send in a stream of single units. Mass a group before sending them into battle. If you see an enemy trickling units toward your base, plan a sortie to cut off the reinforcements one at a time.

Never let your Town Center idle

Honestly, I know I've banged on about this a few times in this guide, but it's not without good reason. Regardless of if you're playing Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition on PC or Xbox, your TC should always be creating new villagers to bolster your economy or replace killed peasants. This should continue until you at least reach the Post-Imperial portion of the game. I cannot stress just how important this is. If you do not have enough food for new villagers, your economy has not been configured correctly.

Utilize trade carts

If you have allies on your team, be sure to build marketplaces and many trade carts to enjoy the passive gold income. Build markets as far apart as possible, and be sure to protect trade lines from raids by having military units assigned to guard your market karts.

Counter the counters

If you're struggling to take down counters to your prized unique units, utilize your other military buildings to create counters of your own to counter the counters. Some inception stuff right there. Never go into a head-on battle against units that naturally counter what you have on the field. For example, don't send in your expensive upgraded cavalry against grouped pikemen, no matter how tempting it might be.

Microsoft and its partnered studios have been hard at work for the last few years bringing us remastered versions of some of the best real-time strategy (RTS) games ever made. We reviewed all three titles — including Age of Empires: Definitive Edition, Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition, and Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition — and came to the easy decision that these are must-haves for anyone who loves PC gaming.

To make their acquisition about as easy as possible, all three are included with the Xbox Game Pass for PC, a subscription service that nets you more than 150 PC games for one monthly price. You can buy each game separately, but they do now come in a Definitive Collection set if you want all three without going in for the subscription service.

But to celebrate the Definitive Collection on Xbox Game Pass for PC, YouTuber colinfurze — well-known for building some truly impressive machines — was sponsored to build a modern trebuchet inspired by Age of Empires.

Anyone who loves a 90-kilogram projectile-slinging weapon of war is definitely going to want to check out the video. This is a modern project, so where wood would have been used in the middle ages, it's now been replaced with steel. This is no amateur project, and the end result is monstrous. Bonus points for being impervious to arrow fire and cavalry charges.

You'll have to wait for the next video to see if the modern trebuchet actually launches anything, or if the massive gold investment has gone to waste. In any case, props to Microsoft and its Xbox Game Pass for PC for sponsoring this awesome project.

What you need to know

• Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition recently released on PC.
• While the game has been received well overall, there's a few performance hitches and balancing tweaks that have been needed.
• A new update today is adding anti-aliasing options, fixing some crashing and bringing other benefits.

Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition released on October 15 and the developers already have the first update ready. This update addresses some simple quality of life factors like fixing potential crashes, adding anti-aliasing options and more. Here's the list of fixes and improvements in the update:

• Implemented potential fixes for several crashes and desyncs.
• Added anti-aliasing options to the Graphics menu.
• Implemented several possible fixes for campaign progression issues.
• Numerous AI fixes to improve their aggression and battlefield tactics.
• Balance adjustments for several civilizations!
• Several fixes for multiplayer lobbies and matchmaking!

Hopefully this should solve any early problems players are running into, though of course there will be future updates in the weeks ahead.

In our review of Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition, we found it to be a solid collection with smart improvements to the Home City mechanic and fantastic visuals, though admittedly visuals that are more demanding than the past remasters. If you're finding yourself overwhelmed, there are plenty of tips and tricks to up your revolutionary strategy game.

PC Gaming

Main

• Best PC Games of 2020
• Best PC Gaming Mice in 2020
• Best PC Gaming Keyboards in 2020
• Best Gaming Laptops in 2020
• 12 Essential PC Accessories Under $30

Going through the "Age" real-time strategy games years ago, I found Age of Empires III the weakest offering. The Home City system with unlockable cards, the focus on colonial expansion, and eschewing of the historical campaigns in favor of a secret society plot just didn't come together or feel as strong as past titles. While still well-received, Age of Empires III was far from the universal acclaim of its predecessor, Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings.

Age of Empires III went on to receive two DLC packs, The WarChiefs, and The Asian Dynasties. Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition takes all the prior content that was released and bundles it with strong graphical enhancements, two new civilizations, heavy reworks for the Native American civilizations, challenge missions in The Art of War, and Historical Battles.

Forgotten Empires has already proven itself in remastering Age of Empires: Definitive Edition and Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition and the team is aided here by Tantalus Media. While the changes aren't as numerous as the sheer volume of content found in the prior remaster, they're arguably more important.

Disclaimer: This review was made possible by a review code provided by Microsoft. The company did not see the contents of the review before publishing.

Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition What I liked

My coworker Cale Hunt already shared some thoughts on the game when he got to play a preview build, and I'm happy to echo his opinion on just about everything. While of Age of Empires III already looked the best of the original trilogy, it looks even better here with 4K graphics and a warm palette that fits the American setting.

There's plenty of customization options for the UI, with different placement options depending on your particular preferences. Using keyboard shortcuts to up your strategic game isn't difficult either. Managing different army groups with hotkeys was a breeze, and figuring out the right macros for keeping an economic pipeline booming wasn't difficult.

The entire Home City mechanic has mercifully been reworked outside of the singleplayer campaigns. All cards are unlocked from the start for everyone. Now, if you're beginning to explore multiplayer, you won't be at a disadvantage playing against somehow who has hundreds of hours under their belt. Just being able to focus on choosing shipments during a match felt like a huge relief. When combined with the addition of dedicated servers, I expect players will be a lot happier with the multiplayer scene.

With the addition of the Swedes and the Incas, there are now 16 civilizations to play. I specifically focused a lot of my time in custom matches with these two newcomers, and both feel like solid, balanced additions. The Incas feel suited to midgame rushes, with the ability to quickly speed unit production, while the Incan Priestess can convert enemy units (Wololo!). Meanwhile, the Swedes take a while to get going but become a downright frightening force in the endgame, cranking out artillery and hiring mercenaries with mechanized perfection.

The game has been well-optimized, too. On my Samsung 850 EVO solid-state drive, the different story missions, custom multiplayer battles, and other modes never took more than about six or seven seconds to load, which meant flowing from one engagement to the next could be done with ease. With every setting to max at 1080p, a GTX 780 Ti and I7-4930k easily averaged 60 FPS, with some drops into the mid-40s when multiple large armies clashed.

The Art of War challenge missions from Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition make a welcome return here. Meanwhile, Historical Battles provide fully-narrated and voiced scenarios with nice production values. It's not the same as dedicated campaigns but being able to take on the Spanish at Algiers and undergo other fights meant the mainline campaign's focus is no longer as jarring and is actually fairly enjoyable.

One of the most meaningful changes comes in how the Native American tribes are represented. Names have been changed to match authentic historical civilizations, with stereotypical material like the Fire Pit removed. Act II of The WarChiefs campaign has also been altered to remove Crazy Horse and has been written as a more personal, fitting story. For more information, I encourage you to read the World's Edge interview with Anthony Brave, a Sicangu Oyate (Rosebud Sioux Tribe) and Chippewa-Cree descendant who helped to develop the new content and recommended different changes.

Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition What I disliked

My performance was solid overall, though I did repeatedly get framerate stutter in cinematics, especially when trying Historical Battles. These would play out quite choppy despite little happening on the screen, only to resolve immediately upon assuming direct control of my units. These issues never cropped up in gameplay, so I'm willing to chalk it up to an odd bug, but it's still something to keep in mind.

This isn't exactly a complaint, but you should also be aware this title is far more physically demanding than Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. A modern gaming PC shouldn't have any issues. Still, if you're planning to game on the go, you'll want to look into one of the best laptops for Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition to have a smooth experience.

While the AI's pathfinding has certainly been improved from 2005, I still noticed some odd movement choices that raised my eyebrows on multiple occasions. Cliffs, in particular, continue to provoke odd pathfinding behavior as artillery and infantry would split up, head in different directions, then reconvene for seemingly no purpose.

It's a minor gripe, but it's also far too easy to accidentally select every unit in the area, which can make sorting villagers and combat units early on tedious; you'll want to set up custom groups quickly.

Should you buy Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition?

While the prior remasters provided beautiful new graphics and chunks of new content, the changes here been more subtle yet arguably even more important. Age of Empires and Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings didn't need remasters to feel like incredible games, but here, it feels like Age of Empires III's potential has finally been realized.

Everything on offer here will provide dozens of hours of playtime before you ever touch multiplayer, and if the low price of $20 somehow isn't enough, it's included with Xbox Game Pass for PC.

If you're looking for some classic strategy with a modern polish, it's well worth your time to check out this impressive effort, especially as it appears to be the final remaster before Age of Empires IV eventually arrives — unless World's Edge decides to grace us with an Age of Mythology: Definitive Edition. I'd really, really, really like that.

Microsoft vs. Steam

Overall, we think that the Microsoft Store is the best place for PC players to buy Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition. This is because, on top of being able to purchase the game normally, Microsoft Store users will also get to play the game if they're a subscriber to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. This service allows you to play hundreds of different games for a monthly fee, and while it usually costs $15/month, the service frequently goes on sale to as low as $1/month, making it an absolute steal. Also, if you happen to be a subscriber already, you can permanently buy the game for $15 as opposed to $20, thanks to Microsoft's discount.

If you're not interested in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, though, you may prefer to go with Steam. This is because Steam has deep and rich community features that allow fans to share tips, content, and more with each other with just a few clicks. Also, if Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition gets Steam Workshop support, you'll be able to delve into the world of modding easily and quickly.

Why get Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition?

Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition is an extensive remaster of the original RTS game from 2005, featuring new graphics, new 3D assets, new game modes, crossplay multiplayer between the Microsoft Store and Steam storefronts, and even a remastered soundtrack. Being able to play in 4K, enjoy a modernized score, and play as the Inca or the Swedes is a fantastic way to experience Age of Empires III like never before, so veteran players have a lot to look forward to here. The remaster is also excellent for newcomers to the series, too, since they won't have to deal with the jank of a 2005 game. Currently, it's slated to release on October 15, 2020, on Windows 10 PCs.

What you need to know

• The classic real time strategy franchise Age of Empires has been remade with Definitive Editions.
• The final entry in this quintessential Age of Empires collection will be Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition.
• Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition will launch on October 15, 2020 on Steam, the Windows Store, and Xbox Game Pass for PC.
• Interested players can pre-order the game right now, with discounts for owners of the first two Definitive Editions.

Fans of the real time strategy genre may be impatiently waiting for the arrival of Age of Empires IV, but World's Edge isn't leaving players high and dry without any Age of Empires action. They've been hard at work remastering and reworking the original Age of Empires titles with Definitive Editions, and the final entry in this line will be Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition. Today at Gamescom, World's Edge announced Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition alongside its very first trailer. This lovingly remastered title will be launching October 15, 2020, and will be on Xbox Game Pass for PC day one.

If you played the original Age of Empires III, you're in for a treat here. The Definitive Edition will include:

• 4K graphics.
• Rebuilt 3D assets.
• Modernized UI and UX.
• Cross-play multiplayer.
• Enhanced soundtrack and audio.

But the Definitive Edition isn't just about graphical improvements, and also adds two new game modes and civilizations. The game modes include:

• Historical Battles. This game mode are specific scenarios set within the time period the game covers.
• Art of War challenges. These challenges are a fan-favorite from Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, and are returning in Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition to help players learn about the different civilizations, the art of real time strategies games, and the intricacies of Age of Empires.

Finally, Age of Empires III and all of its expansions included a total of fourteen civilizations. The Definitive Edition will add two new all-new civilizations, and make some changes to other civilizations, which include:

• The Swedes. This civilization is all-new to the franchise, and encapsulates a small but powerful nation that dominates with unique military tactics.
• The Incas. A mainstay of the Age of Empires franchise, this South American empire was known for its construction prowress, building impressive cities, temples, and more.
• Changes to Native American civilizations. World's Edge wanted to better represent Native American civilizations in the game, so they consulted with experts to accurately capture the culture of the Native American civilizations on display in the game. This means civilizations may be changed in Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition.

So how do you get your hands on the latest in the Definitive Collection? Pre-orders are opening up now on Steam and the Windows Store for $20. Players can nab 25% discounts if they already own either the Age of Empires III: Complete Edition, or both of the current Age of Empires: Definitive Editions, bringing the total price down to $15. World's Edge will also release an Age of Empires: Definitive Collection which will include all three games for $45.

Finally, Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition will join Age of Empires: Definitive Edition and Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition on Xbox Game Pass for PC (Beta) when it launches on October 15, 2020, so players there won't have to shell out any more to gain access to the game. If you want to buy the game to permanently add it to your collection, Xbox Game Pass for PC and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers will both receive the same 25% discount.

You can keep up with the Age of Empires team on social media or their official website for information about the game, and even opportunities to test the game before its official release.

What you need to know

• Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition is the remastered version of the classic RTS game.
• It has a lot of very talented and dedicated players who compete to be the best in the game.
• The Hidden Cup 3 tournament to decide the victor is starting March 19, 2020.
• The tournament should last three days, ending on March 22.

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition is a faithful reimagining of the infamous classic real-time-strategy gem. A ton of players enraptured by the first version have returned en masse to experience the remastered Definitive Edition, and of course that means tournaments to decide the best strategist and leader have to take place. That's why the Hidden Cup 3 tournament finals are taking place starting March 19, 2020 all the way to March 22, 2020.

The tournament will feature ranked AoE II: DE players from countries all over the world, pitting them together in heated battles until, eventually, one will emerge ultimately victorious. The players are given new game usernames, so they'll be mostly anonymous, and won't be able to tell who their opponents are. The same will hold true for the audience. If you're interested, you can find more information on Age of Empire's blog.

In our review we said "It's a true update to one of the greatest RTS games ever made, and it's never been more enjoyable to play," and gave it a very favorable score of 4.5 stars.