For those whose eyes have already turned to the promise of Age of Empires IV, the remastered version of the most divisive of the original games is unlikely to be marked in their calendars. But Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition is nearly here, and, well. It does the job.
I can't stress enough how excited I was when I got the code to play this game. I'll even admit to squealing a bit when the song started (doo-DOO, doo-doo-doo-doooo). And once the feeling of nostalgia from the introduction fades, we get a nice little gift: a note admitting that the representation of the indigineous civilisations and American history had taken "some liberties" in the game's original 2005 release. Developer Forgotten Empires goes on to promise that it has corrected these errors by working closely with native American tribes. There's no explicit apology, but it's a welcome recognition of the mess made of native tribes in the original's War Chiefs expansion.
In the main menu, I am presented with the choice of choosing to stick with the classic UI from the previous games or a cleaner, more modern version.
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