One match I actually had decently fast connection with two other players, and then a third person connected with 200+ ping. Thus you have no way of knowing what your connection will be like until you’re in a lobby, and even then the situation might change as more players connect. Games also don’t seem (as far as the beta’s concerned) to be region-locked, or even let you specify a preferred region. Since connections are peer-to-peer, there’s no all-encompassing ping for you to measure against in the match browser. Good justification for a beta!īut even if some problems are due to latency alone, Age of Empires: Definitive Edition isn’t doing much to help. The info Microsoft and developer Forgotten Empires are getting from this beta is undoubtedly important-the team wants to smooth over any lingering netcode issues before release. Multiplayer’s important, and it’s hard to test without live players. Oh, I’m sure there are good reasons for it. Hosting a multiplayer- only beta for Age of Empires: Definitive Edition was (maybe) a mistake.
Multiplayer, when you canĪnd that’s a huge caveat, right? It’s also one that only applies to the beta though, and therein lies the problem. The problem is you can only appreciate the remastered visuals when the game works.
Ground textures and water look vivid, buildings are crisp and crumble in a satisfying way, and the units are impressive looking even when restricted to eight-way movement, cavalry especially. The menus are a bit underwhelming, but otherwise the art is across-the-board fantastic. Definitive Edition developer Forgotten Empires had a lot of work to do here, and somehow did it.