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Wololo your way to fun as Age of Empires IV gets a Fan Preview event

Today, World’s Edge and Relic Entertainment released a Fan Preview event for the upcoming strategy game Age of Empires IV, which is currently in development. The event covered a ton of different facets of the game, from campaign details to gameplay mechanics, as well as a host of other new updates coming to previous Age of Empires entries.

A new Age is here! Today, we got our first look at new gameplay footage for the upcoming Age of Empires IV during the Age of Empires: Fan Preview event that showcased the wonderful Age of Empires community, as well as celebrated the many games that have made this franchise a mainstay in the strategy space for two decades.

The preview event kicked off with a detailed look at one of the new playable civilizations in Age of Empires IV, the Delhi Sultanate, and showed off one of their most iconic units in action: the War Elephant. Mixed in with gameplay of archers firing down from above on castle walls, spearmen engaging in combat, Sultanate Scholars capturing sacred sites and supporting War Elephant assaults – it all looks very Age of Empires and we couldn’t be happier to see it in action.

The global show continued with a peek into the Norman campaign, which also gave us our first look at the new presentation style for Age of Empires IV’s campaigns. Drawing inspiration from gilded manuscripts of the time, the “golden soldiers” project historical events over present-day real-world locations, giving us a realistic sense of place in how events unfolded hundreds of years ago.  It’s very BBC documentary styled-inspired, and it looks great. Get ready for more of this throughout the three other campaigns in Age of Empires IV.

The Norman campaign will tell the story of Duke William of Normandy as he wrestles control of England from King Harold, starting at the Battle of Hastings, then later following his descendants Robert, William II, and Henry I as they continue to fight for what would become modern day England. All the classic medieval units were shown here in action, from knights on horseback engaging with pikemen across large fields of battle capped off with a great looking castle siege.

It all looks very epic with many units on the field and the game engine itself displaying well detailed grass on the fields, intricate stone textures on the castle walls, and detailed features of units from their shields, spears, and armor all help to bring an authentic look and feel to this strategy game.

In addition to the preview news, there was also word of updates to the Definitive Editions of the previous titles:

The Definitive Editions will receive some new updates as well, starting with the Dawn of the Dukes expansion this Summer for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition that takes players to Eastern Europe with new campaigns and much more. Also, later this year, Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition will launch Co-Op Historical Battles which will feature handpicked campaign missions and historical battles to play with friends.

Then on April 13, Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition will release its first major update, the United States civilization. This new civ will feature a new home city, nine new units, a new age-up mechanic, and more. The U.S. civilization will be free for a limited time for those who complete a 50 State Challenge. All players need to do is complete up to 3 challenges per day and unlock the civ on the completion of the last challenge. Alternatively, the U.S. civilization can also be purchased directly via Steam or the Windows Store for $4.99 USD. Age of Empires III: DE will also have another update planned for later this year featuring African civilizations; we’ll have more details to share here later this year.

Check out the event above, and stay tuned for more news here on Gaming Trend.

Elisha Deogracias is an aspiring accountant by day, freelance writer by night. Before writing for Gaming Trend, he had a small gig on the now defunct Examiner. When not being a third wheel with his best friends on dates or yearning for some closure on Pushing Daisies, he's busy catching up on shonen manga and wacky rhythm games. Mains R.O.B. in Smash. Still doesn't know if he's a kid or a squid.

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