The only problem with Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition is that you can already play the original Age of Empires 2. Oh and you can also already play Age of Empires 2 HD, which tidied up the original's visuals and, according to its store page, brought in 'improved AI, workshop support, multiplayer, Steamworks integration and more!' So if you're anything like me, that might've made you think twice.

Thankfully, there is more to the Definitive Edition than that. Talking to Adam Isgreen, Creative Director for Age of Empires on the Microsoft side of things and Bert Beeckman, co-founder of Forgotten Empires, the studio that takes the lead on these remasters, the first thing I wanted to ask was why an HD owner would want to upgrade. There is actually a decent answer.

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition is an easy game to get into, but it's incredibly challenging to master. The difference between the AI on easy and experienced human opponents is startling to. Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition, developed by Forgotten Empires, is now available for PC, and not just through Windows 10, but also on Steam. Additionally, it's free for subscribers to Game.

'Well, we sell expansions for the game as well and the expansions usually run about 10 bucks, right?' Isgreen tells me. 'So, within the Definitive Edition you have a whole new expansion, basically: you've got three new campaigns, a whole bunch of new missions, you've got four new civilizations to play with as well, so right there you're pretty much already at 10 dollars into the game.'

You'll also get five dollars off if you already own the HD edition, which helps (I didn't get confirmation for the UK side of things - know you're wondering - but imagine it will be an equivalent amount). 'So for five dollars more you also get brand new AI, an entirely new multiplayer with a super-secure, awesome anti-cheat multiplayer solution that's super-stable across all kinds of connections. You get all the new social features, you get everything like the unified community, there's just a lot of things - for any kind of player you are - to take advantage of.'

Fair enough. That chat was actually after Isgreen and Beeckman had taken me through a closer look at those features in the game, via a peek at the new Tamerlane campaign, the most striking of them being that new AI.

'If you look at the old AI, it cheated' Beeckman chuckled. 'It totally cheated. It doesn't cheat anymore.'

'If you put one AI, non-cheating, of the Definitive Edition version against seven of the original that do cheat, it just wipes the floor with them. No problem. Every time. So that's the kind of level we were aiming for here... the new AI is so good that you can watch replays of it to actually learn how to play the game, because it plays the game correctly now... it tries to follow the competitive meta - on the highest [difficulty] level - because we have 20 years of pro players doing tournaments and we tried to get that in the AI as well.'

You can also talk to the new AI in a more sophisticated way. I didn't see this in action but the example I was given was how, in the past, interactions were limited to things like 'do you have any spare Gold you could give me?' whereas now you could ask an AI ally 'hey, can you attack, with Knights, that specific player at that time', and they'll go ahead and do it.

Again, it's hard to really evaluate those sorts of claims without having a proper, lengthy hands-on, but to me the talk about an AI trained on competitive strategies is genuinely exciting. I might not ever see much benefit from it, mind - I'm one of those strategy players who hits a skill cap somewhere in the no-man's-land between teching-for-fun on Medium and struggling with a rush on Hard - but even the fact that the AI always sticks to the rules is promising enough for those like me who can now actually watch what they're doing and mimic it.

The rest of the improvements in the Definitive Edition fall comfortably into the category of neat stuff for nerds - which I really should stress I count myself as, too! - rather than big headline revolutions. Isgreen and Beeckman told me that the feedback they had was always a request not to touch the gameplay, and so their focus was on how they could help that 'stand out more' and deciding on looking mostly at how it's controlled, which first of all meant the ability to zoom in and out. Hope you were sitting down for that bombshell! (Although it is, actually, weirdly neat to see, especially if you've the dosh to witness it all in snazzy 4K).

There's now a global queue for what you're building. 'If you look at professional players,' Beeckman told me, 'they're constantly clicking on all the buildings to see what's going on, so it's really hard to follow the game. Now, it's there. You know what's going on, you don't have to click any more, there's more time to actually enjoy the game.' Or as Isgreen put it: 'We want you playing on screen, not necessarily playing on the UI.'

There's also a kind of 'automatic farm receiving,' so villagers will keep going as long as they have enough resources to do so (a boon for old school players who remember having to micro-manage this). There's a command queue, which has been in plenty of Age of Empires games and just about every other strategy game since, but was never actually in the original Age 2. There's better unit selection, so if you click and drag over a large amount of military units with a few villagers smattered in there, the game will know you're only trying to select the military ones and automatically leave out the villagers. No more 'why did my villagers stop working on my Wonder?!', as Isgreen put it. Even the ability to attack-move is new. 'All these foundational things that everyone takes for granted in RTS games now, we had to go put all that in.'

It does add up - at least in theory. The Definitive Edition will have 27 campaigns in it; the original had five. There were 13 civilisations in the original and 35 now. I'm really not one for equating time spent in a game to value-for-money but, if that's your bag, Beeckman claimed that 'if you play through all the campaigns and win them all in one go, you have 200 hours of gameplay. That's how much there is, just in the campaigns, for 20 bucks.' Again, fair enough. It's cross-play between stores (Steam or Microsoft Live), 'basically it's like a mini version of Battle.net,' as Isgreen told me, so 'you have all the AoE games, all of your friends from both Steam and from Live; chat, everything across games all in one place, so we're kind of bringing the whole community together with Age' - hence the 'unified community' comment when I asked.

Basically, it does actually seem like a proper, ground-up job and a reasonable ask, given everything that's included - but it does also seem like it's still a big reasonable ask. It seems like the teams behind it, at Microsoft and at the three studios - Forgotten Empires, Tantalus, and Wicked Witch - are aware of that. The demo felt as much like a sales pitch as a walkthrough of what's new, because it's necessary if they're going to get players who bought Age of Empires 2 back in 1999, and then HD, so they could play it again with their friends, in 2013, to triple-dip on an even-more-HD version now. I can tell you it's pretty though (it really is), and I can tell I think I'm probably sold myself - even if it's just the cost of getting an AI friend to teach me how to play.

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition Trainer

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition trainer is now available and supports STEAM. These Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition cheats are designed to enhance your experience with the game.

Options

Edit: Food
Edit: Gold
Edit: Health
Edit: Max Health
Edit: Stone
Edit: Troops
Edit: Wood
Game Speed
Instant Build
Instant Research
Instant Units
Mega Resources
No Player Team Damage
Player Team Does Super Damage

Download Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition Trainer 101.101.34793.0

Game Version: 101.101.34793.0
Distribution(s): STEAM, WINDOWS STORE, XBOX GAME PASS FOR PC
Compatibility: Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10+
Contributor: Caliber
Virus Scan: This cheat has been scanned and is virus and adware free. Some trainers may set off generic or heuristic notifications with certain antivirus or firewall software.

• Cheat Codes

While playing the game, press [Enter] to display the chat window and type one of following codes to activate the corresponding cheat function. Note: In a multiplayer game, the 'Enable Cheats' box in the lower right corner must be checked in order for the codes to work.

Effect	Code
1000 food	cheese steak jimmy's.
1000 gold	robin hood.
1000 stone	rock on.
1000 wood	lumberjack.
Cobra car	how do you turn this on.
Commit suicide	wimpywimpywimpy.
Control animals	natural wonders.
Fast building	aegis.
Full map	marco.
Instant loss	resign.
Instant victory	i r winner.
Kill all opponents	black death.
Kill indicated opponent	torpedo[number]
No shadows	polo.
Saboteur	to smithereens.
VDML	i love the monkey head.

• Various Steam Achievements

Complete the indicated task to unlock the achievement.

Achievement	How to unlock
90kg Over 300 Meters	Build 300 Trebuchets.
A Tale of One City	Complete the Bari Campaign.
A Truly Holy Emperor	Convert the Cathedral in Milan without acquiring a single Villager in the third Barbarossa mission 'Pope and Antipope'.
Age of Discovery	Complete the Francisco de Almeida Campaign.
Age of Empires	Win a game with every civilization.
An Army Marches on Its Stomach	Complete all secondary objectives and destroy all of Dagnajan's smaller bases before Dagnajan and his army march in the third Yodit mission 'A Fallen Crown'.
Anyone Order a Pizza?	Train 1,000 Condottieri as a non-Italian civilization.
Aztec Victory	Win a game playing as the Aztecs.
Barbaric Manners	Beat an AI opponent on 'Hardest' difficulty in a 1v1 game.
Battle Beast	Complete all Historical Battles.
Battleship	Win the Historical Battle 'Lepanto (1571)' without allowing any Turkish Transport Ship to unload on your shores.
Berber Victory	Win a game playing as the Berbers.
Bird Shooting	Kill an enemy Scout Cavalry with your Town Center.
Briton Victory	Win a game playing as the Britons.
Bulgarian Victory	Win a game playing as the Bulgarians.
Bull's Eye	Destroy a Trebuchet with another Trebuchet.
Burmese Victory	Win a game playing as the Burmese.
Byzantine Victory	Win a game playing as the Byzantines.
Cakkavatti	Complete the Bayinnaung Campaign.
Castle Crusher	Destroy 50 Castles.
Castle of Doubt	Lose an unfinished Castle that is at least 95% complete.
Celtic Victory	Win a game playing as the Celts.
Chain Reaction	Blow up an enemy Demolition Ship with a Demolition Ship of your own.
Chasing the Crown	Kill King Takayutpi before 5 minutes have elapsed in the first Bayinnaung mission 'The Burmese Tigers'.
Chinese Victory	Win a game playing as the Chinese.
Cuman Flush	Win the second Kotyan mission 'The Battle at the Kalka River' without advancing to the Castle Age.
Cuman Victory	Win a game playing as the Cumans.
Custodian of the Holy Land	Complete the Saladin Campaign.
D-Day (D stands for Demo)	Destroy an enemy Transport Ship with a Demolition Ship.
Dark Dinner	Eat 2 Wild Boars in the Dark Age.
Dark Humor	Kill 20 Villagers with Militia in the Dark Age.
Destroyer of Axum	Complete the Yodit Campaign.
Diplomacy is for the Meek	Kill the Scythian Prince and defeat the Scythians in the first Attila the Hun mission 'The Scourge of God'.
Earth Shaker	Complete the Pachacuti Campaign.
Easy Going	Beat an AI opponent on 'Standard' difficulty in a 1v1 game.
El Campeador	Complete the El Cid Campaign.
Elephantastic	Train 40 War or Battle Elephants in a single game.
Emperor of Tenochtitlan	Complete the Montezuma Campaign.
Empire of the Steppes	Complete the Tamerlane Campaign.
Eternal Gratitude	Encounter a Penguin in the Historical Battle 'Vinlandsaga'.
Ethiopian Victory	Win a game playing as the Ethiopians.
Fighting From Afar	Create 500 Longbowmen in a single match.
Final Countdown	Destroy an opponent's Wonder with less than 100 years remaining on the Wonder Victory countdown.
Fire with Fire	Amass 10 Condottieri, 10 Genoese Crossbowmen, and 10 Bombard Cannons in the fifth Dracula mission 'The Night Falls'.
For the Horde!	Complete the Genghis Khan Campaign.
Frankish Victory	Win a game playing as the Franks.
Frankly My Dear...	Create 100 Throwing Axeman in a single match.
Friends, Countrymen, Lend Me Your Ears	Convert Afonso de Albuquerque without killing a single Portuguese unit in the fifth Francisco de Almeida mission 'A Son's Blood'.
Furor Teutonicus	Defeat all opponents instead of collecting the required Relics in the first Barbarossa mission 'Holy Roman Emperor'.
Gothic Victory	Win a game playing as the Goths.
Guardian of Scotland	Complete the William Wallace Campaign.
He Won't Be Back	Assist King Bela and defeat the Austrian Duke Frederick in the fifth Kotyan mission 'A New Home' before 45 minutes have elapsed.
Homeless	Delete your starting Town Center and still win the game.
Hot And Spicy	Prevent Tabasco from being defeated in the third Montezuma mission 'Quetzalcoatl'.
Howdy Neighbor	Scale an enemy wall using a Siege Tower.
Hun, What Are You doing?	Burn down 200 buildings with Tarkans.
Huney, I Shrunk the Romans	Complete the Attila the Hun Campaign.
Hunnic Victory	Win a game playing as the Huns.
I Was in China Before	Defeat the Jin before they start constructing a Wonder in the third Genghis Khan mission 'Into China'.
Inca Victory	Win a game playing as the Incas.
Indian Victory	Win a game playing as the Indians.
Iron Maid	Complete the Joan of Arc Campaign.
Island Hopper	Complete the Gajah Mada Campaign.
It's a Treb!	Kill 25 units with Trebuchets.
Italian Victory	Win a game playing as the Italians.
Japanese Victory	Win a game playing as the Japanese.
Kaboom	Kill 1,000 enemy units using Demolition Ships.
Karambolage	Spam the enemy with 500 Karambit Warriors in a single game.
Khmer Victory	Win a game playing as the Khmer.
King of Africa	Complete the Sundjata Campaign.
King of the Just Laws	Complete the Suryavarman I Campaign.
Knocking On Your Door	Demolish 200 buildings with Battering Rams.
Korean Victory	Win a game playing as the Koreans.
Lithuanian Victory	Win a game playing as the Lithuanians.
Lone Warrior	Win the Historical Battle 'Kurikara (1183)' without forming an alliance with the Hojo clan.
Losing Your Religion	Convert an enemy Monk.
Magyar Victory	Win a game playing as the Magyars.
Malay Victory	Win a game playing as the Malay.
Malian Victory	Win a game playing as the Malians.
Mango Shots	Kill 500 units with Mangonels.
Marco Polo	Explore 99% of a ludicrously sized map.
Master of the Maghreb	Complete the Tariq ibn Ziyad Campaign.
Masterpiece	Win alone against 3 human opponents.
Mayan Victory	Win a game playing as the Mayans.
Mongol Victory	Win a game playing as the Mongols.
No Royal Hair Touched	Reach the King before 10 minutes have elapsed in the second Gajah Mada mission 'Unconditional Loyalty'.
No Suntzu Light	Shoot 100,000 arrows with your Chu Ko Nu.
No Wonder on my Watch	Destroy every enemy Wonder before it is completed in the sixth Attila the Hun mission 'The Fall of Rome'.
Not a Greek Tragedy	Win without losing any of your four heroes in the fifth Le Loi mission 'A Three-Pronged Attack'.
Numerous As the Grains of Sand	Win the second Alaric mission 'Razing Hellas' while training no military units aside from infantry.
Offense Is the Best Defense	Defeat all opponents before constructing a Wonder in the sixth Saladin mission 'The Lion and the Demon'.
Out of Their Element	Destroy a ship using a melee unit.
Out With a Bang	Kill an enemy King with a Petard or Demolition Ship.
Persian Victory	Win a game playing as the Persians.
Pitched Battle	Successfully defend Cuzco without constructing any new walls or gates in the second Pachacuti mission 'The Field of Blood'.
Pleasant Peasant	Build 1,000 Farms in total.
Portuguese Victory	Win a game playing as the Portuguese.
Prominent Player	Beat an AI opponent on 'Extreme' difficulty in a 1v1 game.
Raging Wildfire	Conquer Delhi at least 5 minutes before the timer expires in the fourth Tamerlane mission 'Sultan of Hindustan'.
Rebel with a Cause	Complete the Le Loi Campaign.
Relic Hoarder	Collect all Relics on the map in the fifth Suryavarman mission 'Nirvanapada'.
Relic Hunter	Collect 100 Relics.
Renaissance Man	Complete the Sforza Campaign.
Rest in Peace	Beat an AI opponent on 'Peaceful' difficulty in a 1v1 game.
Roar like a Lion	Win the fifth Sundjata mission 'The Lion's Den' on Hard difficulty.
Rome Was Destroyed in One Day	Destroy all Roman Castles before 30 minutes have elapsed in the fourth Alaric mission 'The Giant Falls'.
Rough Ride	Beat an AI opponent on 'Hard' difficulty in a 1v1 game.
Saracen Victory	Win a game playing as the Saracens.
Sheep Hoarder	Gather 20 Sheep in a Random Map game.
Slavic Victory	Win a game playing as the Slavs.
Smoke on the Water	Purchase 20 Dragon Ships in the Historical Battle 'Lake Poyang (1363)'.
Spanish Victory	Win a game playing as the Spanish.
Supremely Unexpected	Win a match as the Spanish while only creating Villagers.
Sushi Lover	Build 30 Japanese Fishing Ships.
Tatar Victory	Win a game playing as the Tatars.
Teutonic Victory	Win a game playing as the Teutons.
The Blind Archer	Complete the Prithviraj Campaign.
The Cabbage King	Complete the Ivaylo Campaign.
The Emperor Strikes Back	Complete the Barbarossa Campaign.
The Go-Getter	Defeat the Hungarians before Subotai has arrived in the sixth Genghis Khan mission 'Pax Mongolica'.
The King Is Dead, Long Live the King!	Win a Regicide game.
The Kushluk Assassination	Kill Kushluk before 20 minutes have elapsed in the second Genghis Khan mission 'A Life of Revenge'.
The Missionary	Collect all Relics in the first El Cid mission 'Brother Against Brother'.
The Thicker the Hay, the Easier Mowed	Complete the Alaric Campaign.
The Wonder, the Wonder, Noooooo...	Build a Wonder.
The Wonder, the Wonder, the...Oh, Never Mind	Prevent the Korean Wonder from being destroyed in the 'Noryang Point (1598)' mission of the Historical Battles.
Too Lame To Tame	Loot 500 gold with Keshiks.
Truly Countless Bodies	Defeat all opponents before 30 minutes have elapsed in the fifth Attila the Hun mission 'The Catalaunian Fields'.
Turkish Delight	Win the Historical Battle 'Bapheus (1302)' by defeating all other Turkish factions without forming an alliance with any of them.
Turkish Victory	Win a game playing as the Turks.
Unexpected	Convert 100 units using Spanish Missionaries.
Vietnamese Victory	Win a game playing as the Vietnamese.
Viking Victory	Win a game playing as the Vikings.
Vladislav, Baby Don't Hurt Me	Complete the Dracula Campaign.
With Moderation	Beat an AI opponent on 'Moderate' difficulty in a 1v1 game.
With the Help of My Sisters	Amass an army of at least 100 Gbeto Warriors in the fourth Sundjata mission 'Blood on the River Bank'.
Wololo	Convert 1,000 units.
Yes we Khan!	Complete the Kotyan Khan Campaign.

Age Of Empires Definitive Edition Download Pc

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Age Of Empires 2 Definitive Edition Walkthrough

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