The definitive remasters of Age of Empires have been good and all — and some of them made in Australia! — but what everyone’s really after is a new Age of Empires. Microsoft announced Age of Empires 4 was in the works a couple of years ago, and very soon we’ll actually see how it plays.
The Xbox publisher announced that a “Fan Preview” event will be held on April 11, 3:00am AEDT. It’s a new tab on the Age of Empires 4 site, and spells out that the broadcast will showcase gameplay, campaign missions and a look at some of the playable factions.
“Our broadcast will include a new look at gameplay, civilizations, campaigns, and more for you to enjoy! We will also be sharing some exciting news for our Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition and Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition players, as well,” developers Relic announced.
It’ll be just after Easter, and I’ll be on annual leave then, so I’ll enjoy just being able to sit down and fully enjoy whatever Relic has in store. The studio could use a solid win after how Dawn of War 3 panned out, and hopefully we get some interesting factions besides the Mongols and English (which were confirmed in previous trailers).
Age of Empires is a big deal, but the RTS genre really needs some revitalisation. Outside of remasters like Command & Conquer and crowdfunded efforts like Iron Harvest, RTS games haven’t done too well lately. It’d be nice to see someone give the genre some fresh ideas, although I suspect AOE 4 will play things pretty safe.
Either way, we’ll know more come April 11.
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