One day, every game you're nostalgic for will be easily available through Steam, and then you'll have nothing left to pine for. That day draws closer now that Microsoft has announced that it's bringing real-time strategy game Age of Mythology: Extended Edition to Steam in May 2014. Like last year's Age of Empires II HD , it includes the game's expansion, improves the presentation, and adds a bunch bells and whistles like Steamworks and Twitch integration.
If you're not familiar with Age of Mythology, it plays much like the Age of Empires series: an old-school RTS where you amass massive armies, only with god units that offer all kinds of bonuses and wreck your enemies spectacularly.
In terms of graphics, you can expect improved water effects, bump / specular maps, global lighting, time of day, and antialiasing and ambient occlusion. In short, it may not look like a modern game or anything, but it will look much better than the original 2002 release.
Steam Integration will add achievements, trading cards, leagues, badges, events, and cloud saves. Most importantly, it will handle online multiplayer and mods, which we're sure to say many of when the game's released. Finally, Age of Mythology: Extended Edition will add Twitch integration, and an enhanced observer mode, which makes me suspect that Microsoft is secretly hoping the game will revive a competitive scene. We'll see…
If you're really itching to get back into it, you should be able to pre-purchase the game and get into Early Access later this month.
