The Age of Empires 4 stress test has been open to players since yesterday. In comparison to the last beta, there are some improvements, however, there are also numerous flaws. Some are merely irritating, while others have a considerable impact on gameplay.

Age of Empires 4 entered closed beta in August and has been undergoing stress testing since yesterday evening. Players can do so by requesting a participation authorization through Steam and then downloading the 25 GB of game files. Age of Empires 4 can be played till Monday, however not all of the content is available yet: Only four races and five cards are available.

The stress test version of the game contains some differences from the beta, such as camera and balancing improvements. Since the first beta, bugs have been eliminated, although the game is far from bug-free: According to the developers, the stress test version contains several more or less serious issues. One of them is that moving the camera around the map during multiplayer battles can cause the game to crash. Furthermore, the Steam version of the game will occasionally crash before the intro. Other causes of crashes are unknown, but there are a few other nagging problems to be aware of: If teams are forbidden in custom matches, you will receive an error message following multiplayer matches. As a result, you may be unable to dismiss the error message and must restart the game.

Furthermore, Age of Empires 4 may freeze after being minimized, or frame dips may occur when joining or winning a match. Furthermore, there are still some unfinished construction sites in the game: Visual issues, such as villagers using the wrong tools or no movement at all, are mentioned by Microsoft.

What's more striking is that your own map markers are occasionally passed on to all players, not just your buddies. As a result, covert attack coordination is now challenging. Terrain changes are also shown outside of your field of vision, allowing you to predict where your opponents are currently constructing. Another oddity is that you can't delete your own scout due to a bug. When it is removed, it loses all of its life points, but the HP regeneration process continues as usual. He only dies if his HP reaches zero.

There are still some unsightly bugs in Age of Empires 4 at the moment, but fortunately, there is still enough time for the fine-tuning until the game is released. Age of Empires 4 should be available by October 28th - by then the developers should hopefully have processed the manageable list of errors.