Forgotten Empires

I’ve mentioned before on this blog that I loves me some old stragety video games.  I particularly like Age of Empires and Age of Empires II, as they hit my history geek sweet spot in just the right way.

So I was delighted to learn at the end of 2012 that an unofficial expansion pack was being worked on by some developers and programmers who are fans of the series.

Here is their website.

I was going to mention this a lot sooner but meh.  For an unofficial project, this is astoundingly good.  It adds 5 new civilizations with new sounds for all of them and completely new art for 3 of them.  It’s an amazing accomplishment, I think.  It’s so good in fact that I suspect that at least one of the people who worked on this project worked for Ensemble Studios on the original Age of Empires II and its expansion pack.

There are screenshots on the web, so if you’re interested, just google them.  They’ve truly done a wonderful job, and nothing looks rushed or odd.  My personal favourite new civ is the Slavs, though the Italians have some nice architecture as well.

My only gripe is that I’ve seen the game crash at least once each time I’ve played it.  Not a huge problem, and it looks like there are 2 patches out now.  I’ve been playing as the Slavs again today, so next time I play, I suppose I’ll be patched and seeing what kind of experience I have as the Magyars or Italians.

I’ve read a lot of comments from people saying how Forgotten Empires has made them play Age of Empires II again.  That makes me feel a bit like a dork because I’ve been playing it more or less regularly since it came out.

I’m such a geek.

Oh, and I was looking for a rather funny image that I saw many years ago that would have been pertinent and amusing.  But I couldn’t find it.  So here is a rather odd representation of Bootsy Collins.

bootsy

Why this came up in the same search for said image shall remain one of life’s great mysteries.