Hacker News Reader

Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition has a thriving pro level tournament scene and online multiplayer culture.

And Age of Empires 2 on Voobly is still active as well, with userpatch updates being released.

Then there is Age of Empires 4 that is nearing completion which might be an Age of Empires 2 DE contender or might be an AoE 3 dud.

Unlikely. AoE4 looks more like a Civ competitor than AoE2, in that it'll look beautiful, have wildly divergent civs, and almost entirely be played SP long run.

AoE2 does so many things wrong by 'modern game' standards. The graphics are 2D. Pick any two civs, they're 80% identical. New, goofier mechanics (Flemish Revolution) are disliked by the players (although still used). It's still an incredible game.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com