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Can Microsoft Successfully Revive the Age of Empires Franchise?

Can Microsoft Successfully Revive the Age of Empires Franchise?

By Pranay Parab | Updated: 23 August 2017 16:59 IST

Microsoft has been announcing a whole bunch of things at Gamescom, not least of which is the revival of a very successful and loved franchise. Age of Empires: Definitive Edition got a release date and price, which has us super excited about the classic that spawned the trilogy. The company also announced Age of Empires IV, with well-known strategy games developer Relic developing it. Since we're always in the mood for a good strategy game, this episode of Transition features an in-depth discussion of all things Age of Empires. Games editor Rishi Alwani, friend of the podcast Mikhail Madnani and host Pranay Parab talk all things gaming before pop culture nerds Akhil Arora and Roydon Cerejo stop by to talk about Netflix's Death Note movie.

We talk about Xbox One X pre-orders, and the recently launched Minecraft edition Xbox One S too. We discuss the state of the Xbox Elite Controller and how it fares against other controllers Microsoft is selling or shipping with its consoles. We then conclude the Microsoft segment of the podcast by mentioning Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds and its upcoming launch on Xbox.

Then we move on to brighter topics such as Overwatch. Both Mikhail and Rishi talk about their excitement for the new map and other content updates Blizzard's game has been getting. Next, we discuss Final Fantasy XV PC edition and the stupendous 170GB download size. We wonder whether the PC port of the game is a bit too late to release and whether it needs support for mods.

We move on to Mass Effect Andromeda and some frankly surprising decisions by EA. The company will no longer provide updates for the game's single-player mode and we speculate on the future of the game itself. BioWare's focus is not on the Mass Effect series anymore and this is where Rishi expresses his frustration about the situation.

Then we talk about the HTC Vive price drop and whether it makes sense to buy the virtual reality headset at the moment. We also discuss the India retail situation of Shadow of War and our experience with Starcraft Remastered.

The last part of the games segment of Transition includes the games we’ve been playing this week, featuring Splatoon 2, Yakuza Kiwami, Technobabylon, Banner Saga, Banner Saga 2, Nexomon, Severed, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, and Starcraft Remastered.

Then we start talking about Death Note. We discuss things such as what the manga and anime are about and how the movie differs from then. We question whether the movie is too Americanised and if that has an impact. We mention character development and the missing back story for certain characters, before discussing our verdict on the movie.

You can subscribe to Transition via Apple Podcasts or RSS or just listen to this episode by hitting the play button below. The music for this episode comes via Magnus Souleye Pålsson's album PPPPPP, which is the soundtrack for the game, VVVVVV.

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Further reading: Podcast, Podcasts, Transition, Age of Empires, Microsoft, Death Note, Xbox, Gamescom, Xbox One X, HTC Vive, Starcraft Remastered, Overwatch, Final Fantasy XV