It's realy a great game...
I installed this game on my AMD Phenom Q4, XP pro machine without any problem in 7 minutes. Graphics are stunning, game play is easy. I played AOEI, AOEII but this one is more complicated and better. The best thing is the gameplay is not changed much. It's a real fun to play this game. I recommend this game to everyone who likes this type of games and who wants to relax...
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
Age of Empires III
If you liked the extra military controls you had in Age of Empires II you will find Age of Empires III incredibly frustrating. Simple commands such as setting formations and "Stand Ground", "Guard", "Follow" etc. are no longer available for some reason. I can't help but feel that because of this it misses the whole point of Imperial age warfare - lining up ranks of...
I installed this game on my AMD Phenom Q4, XP pro machine without any problem in 7 minutes. Graphics are stunning, game play is easy. I played AOEI, AOEII but this one is more complicated and better. The best thing is the gameplay is not changed much. It's a real fun to play this game. I recommend this game to everyone who likes this type of games and who wants to relax while playing.
This is my first purchase from Amazon UK and they are fast.The game gets 4 stars and Amazon UK gets 5 stars from me...
Excuse me of my english....
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
If you liked the extra military controls you had in Age of Empires II you will find Age of Empires III incredibly frustrating. Simple commands such as setting formations and "Stand Ground", "Guard", "Follow" etc. are no longer available for some reason. I can't help but feel that because of this it misses the whole point of Imperial age warfare - lining up ranks of musketeers and rifleman, being covered by artillery and cavalry is virtually impossible. Instead of having organised lines, the infantry units run around like headless chickens, and duly get massacred!
The other aspects of the game are quite good, and the additional political aspects are an interesting development, but reducing the military controls really seems like a huge backwards step, especially given the historical period it is meant to convey.
Over all I was very dissapointed.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Excellent game, hours of game play. Graphics are superb, the whole game is a massive improvement to the previous AofE. Easy to install and runs smoothly on a basic computer. Thoroughly enjoyed it. As others have mentioned, cardboard sleeve was very thin and arrived in a sorry state but game was undamaged.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
I bought this game with high hopes, especially as the "Asian Dynasties" expansion (available separately) promised to deliver an "India" race, a "China" race and a "Japan" race.
The first game in the series (AOEI) was an excellent game in it's day, demanding strategy and tactics to win, and providing a reasonably accurate portrayal of various ancient troop types. AOEII was not so well structured (simply fielding an army of elite missile troops guaranteed victory), but was saved by some good scenarios (especially a few within the Conquerer expansion).
Unfortunately, this third offering didn't hit the mark for me. The graphics are excellent, but the scenarios are overly fantastic (original game and "War Chiefs" expansion very definitely included), the troop types don't work as they did historically, leading to some ridiculous battle winning strategies - especially with human players online!), the game play is rather limited and tedious, and the claims to be a historical game are completely risable. In particular I'm disappointed with the "Asian Dynasties" expansion, which was such a promising idea, but so poorly implemented.
I'm doubtless highly biased by a strong interest in the history of South Asia, and my comments may not apply to the Japanese and Chinese elements so strongly. The "Indian" army is however incredibly flawed, A late Moghul army with no heavy guns?! A Maratha army with no light cavalry?! Indeed where are the famed Rathor horsemen?!!! The masses of rocket troops?
The campaign based on the "First Indian War of Independence" is also incredibly stupid, okay I follow the argument that what has traditionally (and in part correctly) been called a "mutiny" can also be called a "Rebellion" and possibly a "War of Independence". Bit PC and rather inaccurate considering the highly fractured state of the various peoples and nations of the subcontinent at that time, but it could be argued that the Mutineers and Rebels rallying around the reluctant Moghul Emperor did indeed see it as a "War of Independence" - although they were by no means the only combatants in this particularly messy war!
But, my big issue is the campaign itself which seems to have little bearing on historical events and to miss the point entirely. In fact it's a strightforward (and completely inaccurate) racist bash aimed at the British! I would have liked to have seen a campaign from the mutineer's perspective (which would have been anti-British admittedly), but one which better reflected the true state of affairs of the time and wasn't feeding racist propaganda for no reason at all. Whoever designed the campaign ought to shot, but failing that, having them read some good modern interpretations of the the war (by non-partizan historians - Indian and European) would have been a good idea.
Just one brief example of how inaccurate the entire game is to me, was the (bizzarely overly powerful) rocket unit fielded by the British... in this case versus the Indians!!!! The rocket as a battlefield device originated in China, but saw widespread use in India well before the arrival of European forces. The brilliant strategist Tipu Sultan developed highly advanced battlefield rockets which he used on several occassions against British and Indian forces - admittedly with very mixed success. From these encounters Congreave developed the battlefield rockets famously used (rarely effectively) in the Napoleonic wars back in Europe. General concensus is that the British Congreave rockets were inferior to those used by Tipu's elite rocketeers and played little part in any battle.
As if all that wasn't bad enough the campaign editor supplied with the game is appalling. For a start it is confusing and hard to use with very little adjustment to units and buildings possible, but to add insult to injury much of it doesn't actually work. Apparently patches have been promised to fix the broken bits, but I have a feeling they'll never turn up.
Altogether highly disappointing game which promised so much and looked so good!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
This is a big improvement over previous versions. I bought it to use on my Vista laptop as Amazon say it works on Vista. believe me it does not. A pity Amazon can't get its facts right.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
My son Josh says this is definately the "best in the Age of Empires series". The expansion is a "vast improvement on the vanilla version". Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys strategy games. He's not stopped playing it since he got it!!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
In short: the game might have good graphics from a distance but the game seems to be rushed in some places and not even completed in others. i am a bit disappointed that the AOE title as far as i see is not the kind of would of expected.
5.5/10 overall in my opinion.
in long: game voice acting in several sequences are not being played, others are over halfway cut off while the end game sequence while talking cuts off the talking again. the game is always has a repetitive nature in that you follow a blood line generation from the spanish roots, through the meso-american roots through the early american roots to fight for freedom, to fight for family member that is always kidnapped, build this and that, kill this traitor or that traitor. graphics aside its like assassin's creed in that is always the same thing everytime. the whole point in a game is to be fun, not to be bored half to death doing the same things over and over.
the campaign aside, there are one too many units that are overpowering the otherside without a problem, meaning any CPU fight i organise is always defeated before its begun even on hard skill because the units ability to fight off my attackers are slim.
i could go on.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
The campaign part of the game is well put together, especially the option of how hard to play it: easy, moderate, hard. An interesting story unfolds so well worth playing. Sources of gold, wood and food has to be mined/harvested so economic conditions play a part.
The skirmish setup is very good, random maps or choose which one to play, how hard to play it, choice of how many NPC's to play with and against, option to record game enabling the player to watch there actions play out in film or movie mode.
I usually ally myself with a NPC so we are fighting a pair of enemies. NPC's submit sarcastic remarks, NPC's take decisions on themselves. In one game the NPC I was allied with decided to go for monopoly victory, when I was quite happy to go for total war, admittedly it was 1 o'clock in the morning! Also there is the option to give gold, wood and food to the ally and also ask for the same in return.
If you like economic & strategy, this game is certainly one of the best plus the NPC's have been well thought out and take there own actions.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Amazon Home
