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It’s been 25 years since a small studio in Dallas recast the traditional world by the prism of a real-time technique recreation. Age of Empires has echoed Monk wololos about our properties ever since: Mother and father believed that their youngsters had been studying historical past; youngsters believed that they had been gaming surreptitiously. And veteran gamers know that each had been proper.

But Age of Empires didn’t all the time obtain the adore it does at present. The rise of the Xbox noticed PC gaming take a again seat for Microsoft: Communities like AoE’s had been left to fend for themselves. In a really possible way, it was the fervour of those obsessives that led to Microsoft’s renewed consideration and the discharge of the franchise’s newest entry, 2021’s Age of Empires IV.