Age of Empires 3 Definitive Edition - The Digital Foundry PC Tech Review

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  • Опубликовано: 16 ноя 2024
  • Join Alex Battaglia for an in-depth look at the new Age of Empires 3 Definitive Edition - plus a detailed look at the crucial 2D to 3D transition point for the real-time strategy game genre. The new Age of Empires certainly looks as though it retains the gameplay of the original and makes a number of impressive visual upgrades - but is performance everything it should be?
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Комментарии • 537

  • @brurpo
    @brurpo 4 года назад +337

    The fresnel in the water is completelly wrong! its too reflective, its hiding some awesome underwater details. Proper fresnel there would make a lot of difference.
    Also, the depth decay is completelly missing from the original game, where the original had a believable transition from ground to water, the remaster has a harsh line, as the transparency is not properly absorbing energy in the shader, based on depth.

    • @jamesstringerphoto
      @jamesstringerphoto 4 года назад +80

      Yea I actually thought "Water - Low" looked the most beautiful since you see all the underwater details

    • @Ghasttear1
      @Ghasttear1 4 года назад +13

      I was thinking this exact thing

    • @Ashadowtotheworld
      @Ashadowtotheworld 4 года назад +3

      @@jamesstringerphoto yea weird I thought the same

    • @Bazzokapho
      @Bazzokapho 4 года назад +10

      Water on low looks objectively better than on high. Plus less memory thrashing since there's no screen space reflections.

    • @kikiphallin
      @kikiphallin 4 года назад +5

      @@jamesstringerphoto Came here to say this exact two things. Water looks better on low and the abrut change from water to land looks just bad. Other than that the game looks great!

  • @mrcraggle
    @mrcraggle 4 года назад +240

    2020 has been such a weird year for Microsoft. In a year where they're releasing new console hardware, their PC efforts have been crazy. Gears Tactics, Flight Simulator and now a remaster of AoE3 with 4 also in the works.

    • @ShubhamMishrabro
      @ShubhamMishrabro 4 года назад +17

      What about MCC

    • @popifrex1993
      @popifrex1993 4 года назад +43

      Unlike their competitors, Microsoft makes money whether you buy on pc or console, so selling consoles isn't exactly their no1 priority

    • @VanSanProductions
      @VanSanProductions 4 года назад +19

      Game Pass is all. They are getting as many people as the can into the Xbox ecosystem.

    • @mrcraggle
      @mrcraggle 4 года назад +2

      @@ShubhamMishrabro I was thinking more PC first which we haven't seen from MS or a lot of devs tbh in quite some time.

    • @ycageLehT
      @ycageLehT 4 года назад +6

      Imagine a Freelancer remake and sequel... instant buy.

  • @jjforcebreaker
    @jjforcebreaker 4 года назад +137

    Wow PC RTS review on DF! What a day to be alive! Long live Age of Empires series and thx Alex!

    • @fudgeyman99
      @fudgeyman99 4 года назад +5

      I hope we eventually see stuff like total war on here

    • @eternity6350
      @eternity6350 4 года назад +4

      C&C remastered was on here earlier this year, granted I think that's everything else they have on RTS.

    • @MMoer
      @MMoer 4 года назад

      C&C remastered cries

    • @CaveyMoth
      @CaveyMoth 4 года назад

      At least he didn't use Tib Sun music this time.

  • @Cylume.
    @Cylume. 4 года назад +51

    9:34 I think the water shoreline looked better in 2005. 🤔

  • @Cool_Toolbar
    @Cool_Toolbar 4 года назад +45

    Holy cow! AGOE (2005) still looks great after 15 years.

    • @CaveyMoth
      @CaveyMoth 4 года назад +2

      I thought it was released in 2008..it just looks so darn good, holy crap.

    • @xXJeReMiAhXx99
      @xXJeReMiAhXx99 4 года назад +6

      yeah what the hell, i kept thinking it was the remaster, especially the water.
      this must be like the crysis of real time strategy games

    • @asifcra7839
      @asifcra7839 4 года назад

      I played it during pandemic and had no issue with old graphic.
      It was hard to believe this game is 15 years old

    • @maxpayne69.
      @maxpayne69. 2 года назад

      Them Physx :* :* :*

  • @Hezkore
    @Hezkore 4 года назад +182

    I have to say... I much prefer the original water in every possible way.

    • @yyasurayy
      @yyasurayy 4 года назад +24

      I think the addition of boats' water trails is pretty good as is the general look of the water surface but yeah the rest looks like a downgrade, SSR just looks worse and they removed the water opacity gradient near the shore which makes the beaches not look like beaches anymore. Also now the color of the water seems to be more uniformly blue without any green shift that the original had which to me made it look far more realistic.

    • @AFourEyedGeek
      @AFourEyedGeek 4 года назад +12

      Technically superior, artistically inferior.

    • @RomainDelmaire
      @RomainDelmaire 4 года назад +3

      Yeah, kinda prefer the original look as well...the new one almost looks like a deformed mirror...it's loosing all the depth the original look had.

    • @Navhkrin
      @Navhkrin 4 года назад

      @@AFourEyedGeek Is it thou? Planar reflections that are removed are generally much better for water reflections, especially from this camera angle. In terms of water, i can even go as far as to claim that water is technically inferior aswell. With obvios exception of ship trails that are added of course, they are pretty nice.

    • @chrisrichfield8906
      @chrisrichfield8906 4 года назад +5

      @Esuard Leder i feel like there is no talent in shader art anymore. most if not all remasters improve texture resolution and particle effects, but the old shader effects look better, or they just straight up remove them without even replacing them. One example i can think of is the Halo MCC, particularly the original game on the original graphics mode, where the jackal shield shader effect is missing, the bump mapping was busted, decals were blurry. they all end up looking more crisp, but less detailed somehow.

  • @SiStockbridge
    @SiStockbridge 4 года назад +149

    Is it just me or does the water in the original look better than the new version? Looks sharper and more detailed to me minus the added extras such as interaction. Also, can Vsync being applied through Nvidia Control Panel solve the issue with non 60fps?

    • @JoaoVictor-hk7iv
      @JoaoVictor-hk7iv 4 года назад +6

      Thought the same here.

    • @forasago
      @forasago 4 года назад +7

      No, the game itself limits the framerate to below refresh rate. You couldn't force it to produce more frames with yet another limitation on framerate.

    • @leomariano2735
      @leomariano2735 4 года назад +1

      @@forasago I would try adaptive vsync at half refresh rate for a smoth 60 FPS experience on 120Hz monitor

    • @jemert96
      @jemert96 3 года назад

      The beaches look muuuch better in the original, but that might be an art direction choice

  • @WhiteoutTech
    @WhiteoutTech 4 года назад +133

    I think that the water looked alot better in the original. Especially on the shores

    • @TheLastLineLive
      @TheLastLineLive 4 года назад +7

      Most definitely, that was a downgrade. Another disappointing aspect of these "definitive" editions of the AoE games which take steps back in certain ways.

    • @cyclingrawvideos9436
      @cyclingrawvideos9436 4 года назад +6

      Thanks! Exactly that's the point I was about to make - 10:12. Also the palette of colours used originally - for example bright shiny gold sandy beaches used originally rather the brown muddy one in the new version works better to give a feel of a tropical shore.

    • @nathanddrews
      @nathanddrews 4 года назад

      Absolutely.

    • @Hopkins955
      @Hopkins955 4 года назад +1

      @@TheLastLineLive Don't worry, I am sure there will be a mod out to fix this soon.

    • @xXJeReMiAhXx99
      @xXJeReMiAhXx99 4 года назад

      @@Hopkins955 I hope so, wheres the top modding places for this?

  • @PrCan1
    @PrCan1 4 года назад +112

    The worse looking water is really annoying me on the definitive edition. It looked far superior in the original. Why fix something that wasn't broken?

    • @VargVikernes1488
      @VargVikernes1488 4 года назад

      Yeah, only the interactivity is better, but everything else is worse in DE.

    • @guilhermebasso9219
      @guilhermebasso9219 4 года назад +4

      ​@@VargVikernes1488 Come on, models and most textures look better. Just water and ship destruction animation look worse.

  • @Siniestro
    @Siniestro 4 года назад +123

    the water looks more realistic on low than on high..

    • @matsta177
      @matsta177 4 года назад +9

      Like AC black flag water

    • @Beofware
      @Beofware 4 года назад +3

      I thought the same thing! It looked better than medium at least.

    • @darthkupi
      @darthkupi 4 года назад +5

      Wanted to post this. Maybe not more "realistic" but aesthetically it sure looks "better"

    • @brandonjohnson4121
      @brandonjohnson4121 4 года назад +5

      Definitely not more realistic. Maybe subjectively better, but not more realistic.

    • @Siniestro
      @Siniestro 4 года назад

      @@brandonjohnson4121 depends on where its located, caribean waters look like this in real life.

  • @blackcaesar8387
    @blackcaesar8387 4 года назад +16

    AOE was my intro into pc gaming. Room mate had a pentium 1 back in college and we'd sit up all night playing, taking turns as player and adviser. Still the only RTS series I have ever played.

  • @soapa4279
    @soapa4279 4 года назад +112

    Wow the original 2005 version looks better than I remember. You can say, it “Aged” well. hur hur hur. I’ll see myself out.

    • @masoodkhan1096
      @masoodkhan1096 4 года назад +2

      True

    • @nachikahn4923
      @nachikahn4923 4 года назад +2

      first thing i thought when i head about the remaster

    • @gtone339
      @gtone339 4 года назад +1

      Destruction physics on the original version is better than the DE version, and the waves along the coastline is different now.

  • @iurysza
    @iurysza 4 года назад +27

    I think the water is looking worse now.
    The transition from water to sand is too harsh. Looks worse imo

  • @simulify8726
    @simulify8726 4 года назад +34

    To be honest, a graphically impressive RTS is a great benchmark for CPUs and GPUs alike.

    • @CaveyMoth
      @CaveyMoth 4 года назад +2

      How about Universe at War? That game was BEAUTIFUL.

    • @shadowwhite9324
      @shadowwhite9324 4 года назад +1

      For benchmarking you can take anno 1800

  • @Terminatar98
    @Terminatar98 4 года назад +5

    Seeing Alex talk about the visual features and quirks of the 2005 original really makes me want to see him and/or John do a dive into the original Company of Heroes. At the time, I was amazed by the level of detail they could fit into that game considering it was an RTS!

  • @MMaRsu
    @MMaRsu 4 года назад +59

    As a Dutch man I find it strange when my villagers say Handelaar (Merchant) when mining. I hope they patch it so they say Verzamelaar (Collector) instead?
    Handelaar (Merchant) doesn't make any sense when mining for ore...

    • @Ali-t9v1c
      @Ali-t9v1c 4 года назад +6

      contact developer to fix it

    • @ephphatha230
      @ephphatha230 4 года назад +42

      Literally unplayable

    • @fcukugimmeausername
      @fcukugimmeausername 4 года назад +2

      Evil tonic

    • @ruekurei88
      @ruekurei88 4 года назад +5

      @@ephphatha230 Dude just said it was weird, he wasn’t disparaging the game.

    • @deivytrajan
      @deivytrajan 4 года назад

      Why Merchant can't sell gold or gold ore?

  • @xJOHNYAPPLES
    @xJOHNYAPPLES 4 года назад +32

    Water looks better on low, medium and high just reflects too much

  • @sean7332
    @sean7332 4 года назад +26

    I recently played age of empires 2 for the first time in like 10 years , I played it for 12 hours straight haha

    • @Contredanse
      @Contredanse 4 года назад +5

      "Oh, cool. AoE3 DE is out. Let me load it up to see what's different and then go to bed."
      4AM, 6 hours later...

  • @TerraWare
    @TerraWare 4 года назад +5

    Age of Empires 2 The Age of Kings and Diablo were the first PC and online games I ever played as a little kid and as much as I loved my N64 and the PS1 at that moment I realized that PC gaming provided a unique experience to gaming that the consoles didn't but they complimented one another nicely and to this day it is still my mindset.

  • @Dando545
    @Dando545 4 года назад +8

    Seeing that Dawn of War footage made me realize how much i want a good remaster of it with every DLC and campaigns that come with them.

  • @andrewgebert5718
    @andrewgebert5718 4 года назад +4

    I was very fortunate to work on this project as a 3D artist.
    Thanks for giving it an honest review :)

  • @symol30872
    @symol30872 4 года назад +25

    Happy to see this covered as well as a mention for Homeworld, I remember how incredible it looked on my Pentium III 600Mhz with a TNT2🤣

    • @mihirchitnis905
      @mihirchitnis905 4 года назад +3

      Same for me when I played it back in the day on my AMD K6-2 500 Mhz and Geforce 2 MX400. My jaw dropped for the first time when I saw the visuals for the first time when I played the homeworld 1 demo, I was in disbelief that my system could render something so beautiful.
      Age of Empires 3 also looked very good when it was released. But the change in visuals meant a loss of the charm the original age of empires games had.

    • @wille84fin
      @wille84fin 4 года назад +2

      @@mihirchitnis905 Yup. I had almost the exact same setup as you did, except my cpu was K6-2 450. Good times, shitty cpu though, the thermals on that thing..

    • @nemz7505
      @nemz7505 4 года назад +1

      HW1 & HW2 were so far ahead of their time, hope they get HW3 right - trailer music gave me chills ;)

  • @superior96
    @superior96 4 года назад +25

    Not even 1 minute in and I'm already seeing a $1500 RTX 3090 dropping below 60fps on a remake of a 15 year old game at 4k... Jesus Christ.

    • @dave7244
      @dave7244 4 года назад +5

      This game at 4k brings my 1080Ti to its knees. The old game ran fine at 4k ....

    • @superior96
      @superior96 4 года назад +5

      @referral madness The usual awful optimization from current day devs. Also ironic the 3090 is marketed as a "8k card" but can't maintain 60fps in a remaster of a 15 year old game. Quite obvious.
      Btw you don't need to put a space between the last letter of a word and a question mark.

    • @Carrotsalesman
      @Carrotsalesman 4 года назад

      @@dave7244 yeah I am also 1080ti and play it all the time at 4k 60, well, over 60 but never below. Looks absolutely fantastic. No need to buy this new version at all sadly.

    • @SmogginMog
      @SmogginMog 4 года назад

      @referral madness New games (esp. Remasters) should be able to (at least partially) support arbitrary resolutions and framerate. They obviously had access to the source with the various non-texture "enhancements", and they massively botched it. Nobody is comparing this to theoretical console version, this is an apples to apples comparison of AoE3 and AoE3:DE on PC. This game was poorly coded, just like many of the other Remake/Remasters to come out recently.

    • @dave7244
      @dave7244 4 года назад

      @@Carrotsalesman It not like this edition is bad. But I have a pretty decent PC and it is killing it. Maybe this is the new Crysis? :)

  • @AndySomething
    @AndySomething 4 года назад +7

    This game was my jam in my early teens. I had an absolute potato of a computer so it ran terribly, but still loved it 😂

  • @albertotr1
    @albertotr1 4 года назад +3

    Oof, when Alex hits us with that 0:49 ‘JOHNRAUGH’ - classy AF

  • @DasTechGuy
    @DasTechGuy 4 года назад +29

    Sad that the ships just sorta drop in on themselves now instead of actually sinking and breaking apart like the original. Still, if that’s the only thing I can find that is different and a bummer this is looking to be a great remastering.

    • @deus_ex_machina_
      @deus_ex_machina_ 4 года назад +3

      The water also looks much worse on high then on low, problem is you lose all planar reflections on low.
      The original game's water was better in every way. Truly a testament to Ensemble's prowess.

  • @GratefulDave93
    @GratefulDave93 4 года назад +39

    This game was my childhood!

  • @GunStreets-ct1kj
    @GunStreets-ct1kj 4 года назад +16

    1:55 Age of Mythology is the best RTS and the best out of all the Age of empires games.

    • @joshuarowe8410
      @joshuarowe8410 4 года назад

      100%

    • @le4-677
      @le4-677 4 года назад

      best campaign for sure

    • @StReborn311
      @StReborn311 4 года назад

      Age of Mythology (true history) fan here! I just checked my Steam library- still there- phew! Now if they give it a good treatment- and add it to game pass so I do not need to purchase it again for the 3rd time I will be soooo happy!!

  • @xanderlinhares
    @xanderlinhares 4 года назад +3

    I remember while I was at the Guildhall hearing about how Graeme Devine spent a year working the original water for the game. Super impressive result for the time and I still think the original shorelines look much better in the transition to land.

  • @NovaAoE
    @NovaAoE 4 года назад +2

    I'm glad to see you guys finally gave some love to the franchise! After the Definitive Edition came out last year and I didn't see any coverage I thought you just didn't know/enjoy the series. AoE2:DE will turn 1 year old on next month's 14th, and ofc I'd love if there was some sort of content for it, since it evolved quite a bit since it came out! In any case, good job, and congrats on the million subs!!!

  • @Rearendoftrain
    @Rearendoftrain 4 года назад +39

    Pfft, modern games don’t even do a great job of physics simulations, I feel like there was a point in time in the mid 2000s where lots of games started having really fun interactive environments, now everything is shiny and polished and static with not a lot of interactivity.

    • @Xythium
      @Xythium 4 года назад +2

      cpu limitations probably

    • @capnrotbart
      @capnrotbart 4 года назад

      League Of Legends “physics”

    • @SuperTheLycan
      @SuperTheLycan 4 года назад +3

      I am in the same boat. Nvidia physics was great. I recall the Batman games where the interaction was awesome.

    • @JaimeIsJaime
      @JaimeIsJaime 4 года назад +2

      Its because of modern PC/consoles architecture. Beautiful graphics do indeed use a lot of CPU even if those environments are completely static. Every texture, shadow, shader, geometry, etc, has to pass through the CPU and be processed in some way before reaching the GPU.
      The jaguar cores in the XONE/PS4 were a big part of the issue too. 360/PS3 were pretty balanced in CPU to GPU power. meanwhile, the jaguar CPU cores, while being better than what 360/PS3 had, were not powerful enough to compensate the improvement in GPU power. The race for graphics meant that if developers were to take advantage of all available GPU power in PS4/XONE the CPU had to be used almost entirely to process graphics.
      Luckily this is something that next gen consoles are supposed to address with a more balanced CPU/GPU configuration and dedicated decoding hardware with new I/O APIs to alleviate the CPU. so hopefully those dynamic and interactive worlds should have its comeback.

    • @abeidiot
      @abeidiot 4 года назад +4

      far cry series is the perfect example. Also borderlands 2 vs 3

  • @geneshifter
    @geneshifter 4 года назад +2

    2005 was a great year for games. I remember getting this and Civ 4 on PC and xbox 360 launched.

  • @christos6462
    @christos6462 4 года назад +5

    9:39 Notice how on the original the ship is a pirate ship and on the right it's Morgan's ship.

  • @cobracommander2007
    @cobracommander2007 4 года назад +1

    I would love to see a remake of Cid Meires Pirates and Titan Quest

  • @fabioverso
    @fabioverso 4 года назад +14

    Wow, they really botched the ship destruction animation...

  • @johnnygreene4658
    @johnnygreene4658 4 года назад +4

    The Age of Empire series is some of the best games ever made. Especially part 2. Age of Mythology was amazing also. Just fun and addictive.

  • @IHeart16Bit
    @IHeart16Bit 4 года назад +8

    I appreciate the boat trails but come on man, that water looks terrible compared to the original, more technically advanced as it is.

  • @TheBlackstarrt
    @TheBlackstarrt 4 года назад +3

    That sound track is really good.

  • @deathdoor
    @deathdoor 4 года назад +8

    10:00 Serious talk.
    What's your problem Alex, that sometimes you can't see glaring graphical downgrades even with someone strangling you with one hand while points at the screen screaming with the other?
    It's baffling.

    • @SlayerSeraph
      @SlayerSeraph 4 года назад +1

      @Macdealerx that's actually worse.
      Honesty is important in Tech Reviews, and I agree with Panino, it's pretty much a downgrade and should be mentioned.

  • @imDannyGaming
    @imDannyGaming 4 года назад +6

    Great game but got some technical issues. I was playing it yesterday with a friend online and a couple of times we both got kicked to Windows without any error message. We also couldn't see the lobbies created after a couple of games, so we changed over to Company of Heroes 2 instead since AoE was broken

  • @1894db
    @1894db 4 года назад +13

    9:19 why is this animation worse on DE?

  • @ReSp0nCeHD
    @ReSp0nCeHD 4 года назад +2

    Absolutely loved Age of Mythology. My best friend and I spend so much time playing that game when we were teenagers. So much fun and the setting was so cool and different than other rts games.

  • @jzilla1234
    @jzilla1234 4 года назад +3

    Sheesh that looks rough. I remember my brother used to get a "computer buyer" magazine as part of his job in the 90s and 2000s and they came with a demo disc. So many memories of theme hospital, red alert cc, etc.

  • @tunit20
    @tunit20 4 года назад +3

    9:55 I think the water looked better in the original overall

  • @EarthB00
    @EarthB00 4 года назад +2

    This is Amazing DF, one of the best videos I've seen on PC RTS. A genre I dearly love. I have played ALL the games you mentioned and was hit by a tsunami of nostalgia.
    PSA: Homeworld 3 is under development right now, can't wait for it.

  • @TheRacePig
    @TheRacePig 4 года назад +29

    I'm curious, you didn't mention how variable refresh rate screens handle this game's particular performance bug. Say I'm on a 60hz screen that supports gsync, is it still skipping frames with vsync behaviour or are the frame times flat?

    • @cts006
      @cts006 4 года назад +2

      I was having similar thoughts about this issue. I believe, with the way g-sync works, the frame times would still be all over the shop but the refresh of the monitor would track with it. It could provide a smoother experience I would assume. I am also curious if a 120/144/240 Hz monitor could run it with Adaptive V-Sync (Half refresh rate) in the Nvidia control panel at a locked 60/72/120 Hz.

    • @Lazirus951
      @Lazirus951 4 года назад

      If you had a gsync monitor, you'd want to have vsync disabled, so you wouldn't have "skipping" frames because your monitor refresh and game framerate would be synchronized.

    • @BenchARTVideos
      @BenchARTVideos 4 года назад

      This issue is fixed now, they have released a patch

  • @vfplayer
    @vfplayer 4 года назад +4

    I think I played Age of Mythology the most actually, and I played a hell of a lot of AoE2. The Titan expansion really added a great play mechanic to the game. I really hope they do a definitive edition of AoM, I would buy it day 1 I think.

    • @Erikcleric
      @Erikcleric 4 года назад

      Havent they done that in a way already? AOM : Extended edition, released some years ago. Its not a full remaster but it is quite enchanced. I liked it alot.

    • @vfplayer
      @vfplayer 4 года назад

      @@Erikcleric Yeah I have the Extended Edition, but it isn't a full remaster like this. In fact I don't think they did anything but include all the expansion packs and make it compatible with newer video cards I guess. I don't think any reworking of anything was done.

    • @Erikcleric
      @Erikcleric 4 года назад

      @@vfplayer it wasnt a remaster yea :), just enchanced, textures were still original. But i copied this of the Steam store:
      Improved Visuals
      Time of Day
      Improved water
      Shadows
      Bump / Specular maps
      Global Lighting
      Antialiasing & Ambient Occlusion
      With all those little enchancements, i guess how it looked depended on what you had enabled.

    • @vfplayer
      @vfplayer 4 года назад

      @@Erikcleric more of a bump than I remember, I’ll have to play it again, but it definitely isn’t as big of a jump as AoE3:DE. I would still like to see them do a full remaster/upgrade/remake.

    • @Erikcleric
      @Erikcleric 4 года назад

      @@vfplayer Yes.
      Back then i jumped from AOE 2 to AOE 3, i never bought AOM, so i liked EE, and a great way to finally play it but i noticed it was a nice blend of new and old i guess. :)
      But yes, i mean, that AOE 2 remaster is so good, im barely finished with it, incredible work and now im onto the 3rd aswell, yea, a remaster done well does alot!

  • @Meisuko
    @Meisuko 4 года назад +4

    Thank you looking into this classic🙏

  • @Nardril
    @Nardril 4 года назад +1

    I'd love a DF retro video about Ground Control. Such an awesome game that was also visually stunning for its time

  • @miladesn
    @miladesn 4 года назад +18

    I am so embarrassed for Blizzard. Look at this next to the turd that is War3 Reforged, a game that was much much bigger and more important than Age3 got no love at all.

    • @harriskicksyou
      @harriskicksyou 4 года назад +1

      Age 2 wasn't perfect at launch either, I am hoping the weird issues that 3 DE has will be patched with time.

  • @Baleur
    @Baleur 4 года назад +2

    I liked this game when it came out, best mapgen ive ever seen in an rts.
    But just way too few ages, every skirmish feels very short, and it doesnt feel like you progressed at all through ages.

  • @ICalverz
    @ICalverz 4 года назад

    I got a pc in 1998. It was our family’s first pc. 2002 was a hard year for me. As games like these and in particula black and white could not run on it any longer. In 2003 i was advised to buy a 64mb graphics card. I then discovered that my pc didnt have an AGP slot and therefore the graphics card was useless. Please bear in mind i was like 15 and this was before youtube days. I then didnt return to pc gaming until 2019. And now im having an absolute blast being able to play all these 3d games from the early 2000’s that i wanted to play.

  • @pyrojinn
    @pyrojinn 4 года назад

    I used to play this underrated AoE title on a prebuilt office machine with no external GPU and a Celeron CPU, and somehow I still remember it being quite beautiful. This remaster does seem to remind me of the feel, but given how old it is at this point, I would expect a bit more. A remake, even.

  • @waaghals
    @waaghals 4 года назад

    A mention of both Homeworld and Ground Control in the same video? What a time to be alive!

  • @mbsfaridi
    @mbsfaridi 4 года назад

    Alex should try his hand at a DF Retro on PC classics (games that don't work well in a console environment) with other RTS games, Sims, roller coster series, simulators like farming sim, etc. Always like his work on PC games which are unique to the platform.

  • @MaximumJoy
    @MaximumJoy 4 года назад +4

    I'm having that frame rate issue too. Can't see any reason for it other than a bug.

  • @igorokinamujika2073
    @igorokinamujika2073 4 года назад

    Wow, didn't expect a mention of Homeworld in this video. You earned my like just with that. So I guess you'll make a video dedicated to Homeworld 3 when it releases, and, maybe a DF retro video about the original Homeworld?

  • @dreammfyre
    @dreammfyre 4 года назад +6

    Alex and PC gaming, a match made in heaven.

  • @Knorrkator
    @Knorrkator 4 года назад +4

    Nah man if you look at the building/ ship destruction the old physics model was way more fun and satisfying. The game is kind of blurry aswell because of TAA. They should atleast give you an option for different AA

  • @ArreatPLvro
    @ArreatPLvro 4 года назад

    Homeworld and Ground Control 1 :3 my favourite RTSes of 90s

  • @will891410
    @will891410 4 года назад +8

    9:13 For me the original looked better.

  • @J0man1
    @J0man1 4 года назад

    It does look quite nice, I'm enjoying it; though there are very odd frame drops out of nowhere. Plus the unit selection ring is bizarrely very low res. Some technical issues will hopefully get fixed come next update.

  • @SITSIndustries
    @SITSIndustries 4 года назад +1

    2:51 "A bit like watching a Quake 2 level from afar." Needs Turok Man to pop his head in and say, "That's fine."

  • @diharaw94
    @diharaw94 4 года назад

    The disappearing water mesh at the edges is most likely due to them using the projected grid approach to rendering water. Basically the water mesh grid is rendered only in screen space so there are no vertices beyond the screen edges, so because of this any large displacement value will reveal the under lying color which is most likely the clear color. Most games don't use this approach anymore and would rather prefer something in world-space like CDLOD terrain or geometry clip maps.

  • @Radhaugo108
    @Radhaugo108 4 года назад +2

    Review starts at 7:30
    ~ You're welcome.

  • @malecrium8665
    @malecrium8665 4 года назад +3

    Awesome a suprise DF video!

  • @KyokujiFGC
    @KyokujiFGC 4 года назад +1

    Very annoying when the full-screen option in games is not actually exclusive full screen.
    Makes a huge difference for input lag and frame times.

  • @tribalbeat6471
    @tribalbeat6471 4 года назад

    at 11:30, this was actually a feature added in one of the original expansion packs.

  • @JacoEEE
    @JacoEEE 4 года назад +1

    I didn't notice the disappearing water in the corners of the screen.
    But I wonder why Alex didn't notice the disappearing 3D waves in the corner of the screen.
    e.g. 00:14 - There the waves are cut off. And I can tell you that it's even worse in 21:9.
    Never the less I really like the look of the remaster. Especially the more detailed look of the cliffs - more 3D- detail and more foliage on them : )

    • @jamesstringerphoto
      @jamesstringerphoto 4 года назад +3

      good find

    • @JacoEEE
      @JacoEEE 4 года назад +2

      It's very subtle in the footage here but annoys me in 3440x1440 because it starts basically at the edge of the 16:9 ratio.
      So the waves disappear in ~ 1/3 of the screen with 21:9 resolutions.
      Seams as if the "fov" of the wave is hardcodes and does not scale with aspect ratio.
      And I capped the framerate at 80 with river tuner. Perfect frametimes after that : )

  • @brendanspencer6735
    @brendanspencer6735 2 года назад

    I wonder if they fixed the water issues yet? Like the transition at beaches being harsh, which needs to be soft/smooth like og.

  • @BenchARTVideos
    @BenchARTVideos 4 года назад

    Just to mention, frame rate soft lock was fixed. I can now easily have frame rates >60 with a 1650 super at high settings at 1080p with a 60hz screen.

  • @CaveyMoth
    @CaveyMoth 4 года назад

    1:30 "New drop zone."
    "Unit lost, squad one. Unit lost, squad 2. Squad 2 recharging."
    8:30 Wow, I can't believe I actually prefer more bloom.

  • @arjunratnadev
    @arjunratnadev 4 года назад +2

    waiting for new reworked artwork and perhaps hopefully have new compelling animated cutscene works for Age of Mythology 🤔

  • @Haiderali64
    @Haiderali64 4 года назад

    DF Retro and a modern Tech Review in one video!

  • @coroamanicolai4527
    @coroamanicolai4527 4 года назад +3

    Amazing review! I hope the developers see this and patch the game.

  • @jakobfriedrich5117
    @jakobfriedrich5117 4 года назад +1

    I played aoe3 for the first time in 2010 and I remember still thinking it was gorgeous. Especially the shadows and water

  • @ChrissieBear
    @ChrissieBear 4 года назад

    My only issues with with the textures is the colored bits that show off team colors are less detailed, especially on units. It's all flat with no variance in luminosity, such as no creases in the cloth.

  • @Carrotsalesman
    @Carrotsalesman 4 года назад +7

    Releasing a game these days that ISN'T full of bugs is illegal, didn't you all get the memo?

  • @Erometal
    @Erometal Год назад

    I noticed some graphical issues in this review that i still encounter on the latest version of AoE3DE like the water edges in the cutscenes still not fully rendered and the weird water lines when you’re panning the camera around water surfaces like weird dark shadow spots that follow the camera in the water. Hard to explain but if you turn the graphics settings to high or very high these issues become apparent

  • @Ordo1980
    @Ordo1980 4 года назад

    I like black bars on top and down to generate a cinematic feel. And I also like big UI. But I know, that is not the current norm.

  • @WhnNinjasAttack
    @WhnNinjasAttack 4 года назад

    Ugh, so glad you guys did a video on this. Was tried of seeing small brain steam reviews saying "hurrr all they did was change the saturation nothing else is different" when that's objectively not true.

  • @savagemadman2054
    @savagemadman2054 4 года назад

    I played though the OSX port of AoE 3 in 2015 on a Mac Pro. Much to my surprise, it worked fine at full res with my newfangled ultrawide monitor while many current titles didn't - albeit with some oddities in cutscenes and the title screen. The game had some really strange performance issues and some stability problems though. Performance was more unstable on a Radeon 7970 and Xeon X5670 than I would've though.

  • @Carrotsalesman
    @Carrotsalesman 4 года назад +20

    Original water for the win.
    Also, gotta say, as someone who already plays original at 4k 60fps, the game looks beautiful, and debatebly better than the new DE.
    Kinda pointless making a bugged-out version of a perfect game with similar graphics 15, yes 15 years later... this is not a 15 years of graphics upgrade. 15 years people and the biggest upgrade looks about 20% better, and other parts genuinely look worse.
    Not buying it sorry MS I'll stick with the OG

    • @abeidiot
      @abeidiot 4 года назад +5

      The asset quality is extremely more detailed. They messed up shading and stuff, like the water effects

    • @Navhkrin
      @Navhkrin 4 года назад +4

      IDK what are you seeing but from what I have seen, everything except water looks significantly improved.

    • @CaveyMoth
      @CaveyMoth 4 года назад

      How do you deal with UI scaling at 4k?

    • @Carrotsalesman
      @Carrotsalesman 4 года назад +2

      @@CaveyMoth The scaling is fine, I just checked my in-game settings and they are as follows:
      Enabled minimized UI - yes
      Camera zoom - very far
      Video res - 3840 x 2160
      Refresh rate - 60
      Vsync - no
      Then just everything else on max possible settings.
      I wish I could sent you a pic, but it's fine

    • @CaveyMoth
      @CaveyMoth 4 года назад

      @@Carrotsalesman That's good. I'm getting my first 4k screen, and I was worried that the UI would go bonkers at such high resolutions. How do trees look in 4k? They always look really aliased at 1080p, even with MSAA.

  • @nayyarrashid4661
    @nayyarrashid4661 4 года назад

    Loved the units from those mercenary building... German Black Cavalry and Jaegars were my favorite unit and also that huge cannon... Hopefully Microsoft brings these games to Series X

  • @notgazo7009
    @notgazo7009 4 года назад

    11:25 The passive ability was added by the expansions ;)
    18:30 I didn't know there was a mod for that lol (pirate skin for Morgan's ship)
    The only thing that shocks me is the lack of smoothness between land and see like in the original (10:08)

  • @zipzeolocke2
    @zipzeolocke2 4 года назад

    I'm curious if you can set the FPS limit to the perfect amount that you can adjust it to land on a steady 60 FPS. For example if you set a 70 FPS limit and the game is dropping 10 FPS, then through trickery you get to play your game at 60 FPS! I use FPS limits in all titles, I play to find out how well my graphics card can do, to get 60 FPS minimum, and then set my FPS to whatever my average is. That way I always get a fluid smooth gaming experience

  • @SomeSimpleGaming
    @SomeSimpleGaming 4 года назад +1

    So much better than the IGN review. That kid had no idea what he was talking about.

  • @tejassb8658
    @tejassb8658 4 года назад +1

    WATER !! This is the water comment you’re looking for. Feels much better in the original.

  • @gangaindenial
    @gangaindenial 4 года назад

    I experienced the exact issue with an MSI GE75 (RTX2080 150W) laptop and it no matter what the settings was locked at 55fps @ 4K and appeared to be running on borderless with no way to enable real fullscreen.

  • @Rexter2k
    @Rexter2k 4 года назад

    Not mentioning Total Annihilation in the quick summary of 3D graphics in RTS games is big mishap. Truly a game that was many years ahead of its contemporaries.

  • @philharmonic2251
    @philharmonic2251 4 года назад

    This is a fantastic video! I don't really have any interest in AoE 3: DE but this was really interesting and I loved the section on optimal settings. Great stuff!

  • @realevostevo
    @realevostevo 4 года назад

    Great video Alex 👍🏻 I hope they fix the issues.

  • @freaksuyash
    @freaksuyash 4 года назад +1

    Why not one on age2de! Just one video, please!

  • @81Mendel
    @81Mendel 4 года назад

    Can you trick it to lock to 60 Hz by doing 120Hz screen mode and then v-sync half refresh rate?

  • @TazzSmk
    @TazzSmk 4 года назад

    back in 2005/2006, I played Empire Earth II more than Age Of Empires III, along with Warhammer 40K Dark Crusade, those were all amazing games that time

  • @MarkS6789
    @MarkS6789 4 года назад

    The water effects near the ground are definitely worse I'm not sure what you're seeing. You can't see the waves break or come into the beach area.

  • @pachinkor83
    @pachinkor83 4 года назад

    This looks pretty solid, Great breakdown as usual Alex. Really don't understand why Microsoft has such a hate on for exclusive full screen , not only does it lead to issue like the vsync being busted but it also makes gsync almost un-usable. (although it doesn't look like this game SHOULD be dropping below 60 so gsync shouldn't be required for that target)

  • @Nicholas_Steel
    @Nicholas_Steel 4 года назад

    Great, so gameplay speed is tied to FPS matching Refresh Rate? Any deviation affects gameplay speed... unsure if this is worse than tying gameplay to FPS. Both approaches are similar, the former achieves good results regardless of Refresh Rate so long as FPS matches Refresh Rate while the latter only works well if the game runs at the FPS the developers intended it to run at (30 or 60FPS in a lot of games).
    I guess the latter approach is worse for VRR displays... assuming the game can produce consistent gameplay speed with a variable refresh rate.

  • @H8ts
    @H8ts 4 года назад +1

    No VSYNC FPS lock, underutilized GPU and stuttering while scrolling is what was the biggest issue of the original game and they did not fix this biggest issue even in remaster... for me, this is 0/10.

  • @joshhummel22
    @joshhummel22 4 года назад

    I'm gonna go back and play through this again. The original was amazing at the time and this looks great.. assuming it gets some patches, but it obviously will.