Then four years later along comes Age of Empires 2 with a campaign about the Scottish Wars of Independence. I cannot overstate how much this film was watched when I was growing up. Point is, finally there was some easy sense of identity for young folk to latch on to. The fever that emerged among Scots following the film even had some English critics describing Braveheart as spreading "Anglophobia". This over-the-top movie (whose historical inaccuracies are no better summed up than featuring the famed Battle of Stirling Bridge.with no bridge) made Scottish history tangible, emotional and inspiring. Scotland's history, of outnumbered rebels fighting against English reign is easy to romanticise but it was also abstract for a load of folk. It might sound dumb to credit one film (made by Hollywood with an American fielding a questionable Scottish accent in the lead role) with a surge in national pride but, well, it absolutely did cause one. It was difficult to be surrounded by the remains of a post-industrial nation and feel any sense of pride or hope about the future or present, never mind the past.
Especially in its deprived areas (poverty fell in the late 90s but in depressing statistics according to the CPAG, it seems to be once more on the rise once again). Now I can't help but wonder as I play through the recently released Definitive Edition, are there games that could manage similar feats? Better ones? Here's a question: How do you get a bunch of disillusioned kids in the arse end of Scotland into real time strategy games? I doubt it's a question the creators of Age of Empire 2 ever asked themselves but nonetheless, they provided a definitive answer.
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