Product Description

It's the dawn of a new age in real-time strategy (RTS) games. Abrave New World is rising – a hostile yet beautiful worldfilled with innovative gameplay new strategic scenarioseye-searing graphics and much more. Welcome to a world called Ageof

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #258 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Microsoft
• Published on: 2005-10-04
• Released on: 2005-11-04
• ESRB Rating: Teen
• Platform: Windows XP
• Dimensions: .0" h x .0" w x .0" l, .26 pounds

Features

• MS Age of Empires III

Amazon.co.uk Preview
With all the talk of next generation consoles it’s somewhat ironic that the most graphically impressive new game is actually PC real-time strategy title Age of Empires III. The last game in the series was a rather clinical looking 2D isometric game but this new iteration features some of the most complex, organic looking 3D graphics ever seen on any system.

Thankfully the gameplay appears just as developed as you take control of a civilisation from around the time that Age of Empires II left off in the 16th century and continues up to 1850, as you battle to take control of the New World. Gameplay is actually split between the Americas though and your home city back in Europe, which you must also maintain and upgrade in order to keep the populace happy.

The most exciting element though is undoubtedly the new combat system, where the dull and mechanical "tank rushes" of the previous games have been replaced with stunning looking battles of gunpowder and sword blades as you fight angry natives and rival colonisers.

As is demanded of any PC game nowadays there’s also a cool sounding multiplayer mode, with the eight different civilizations you can control allowing for a large variety of different play styles. That’s if you can actually gather your wits enough to form a strategy and stop ogling the frankly incredible looking graphics. -- Harrison Dent

This preview is based on an incomplete version of the game; features or problems mentioned above may not appear in the finished game.

Manufacturer's Description
Age of Empires III will offer gamers the next level of realism, with advanced battle physics and unparalleled visual detail. The game picks up where Age of Empires II: Age of Kings left off, placing gamers in the position of a European power determined to explore, colonize and conquer the World. This time period features stunning scenes, from towering European cathedrals to courageous tribes of Native Americans, and spectacular combat with Industrial Age units like rifled infantry, cavalry and tall ships bristling with cannons.Age of Empires III will once again demonstrate Ensemble Studios' reputation for excellence and innovation in the real-time strategy (RTS) genre. The game will set a standard for visual quality and amaze players with detail never before seen in an RTS. Age of Empires III will also excite strategy gamers with game-play elements, including the concept of a "Home City", civilizations, units, technologies and an immersive single-player campaign that will span three generations.

Customer Reviews

AOE III - The full version
After having played this game for the past few days, I can tell you all that this game is simply a natural continuation of the legendary Age Of Empires series. I have played the previous two and their addons for years, and this game is an improvement in virtually every way.

Graphically this game is beautiful and some of the effects are just wonderful. The weapons feel powerful and the ship -v- ship battles are just stunning. My graphics card is a 256 MB Radeon X600 and on any setting this game works well.

Playing the game is very interesting. There are now limits on the number of some things you can build - such as ships. The villages are now much better, and they do a lot with out being told. if they are idle and there is something obvious to do nearby - they will do it.

Home cities are a wonderful advancement in the game giving it a much more satisfying feel. The more you play the game the better the things you can have sent to you after every few minutes in the game. You gain experience for gathering resources etc., and then this allows you to ship in some extra coin, or eventually a mini army!!!

The campaigns are easy to get into and follow a nice family tale where you can somewhat empathise with the leaders you control. The objectives for the missions are no longer - kill everyone - but there are more specific objectives - one mission is simply to gain experience!

Though most of this game is strong, the one futile thing is treasures. Dotted around the map there are small treaures guarded by, say, a pack of wild bears. After using your explorer to kill the guardian, you can take the bounty - this is often a very small amount of coin etc. However, sometimes you get rewarded with a special warrior or some settlers, so its not all bad!

Overall a very good game, bound to provide hours of fun. The effects when blowing stuff up are very satisfying, and the overall style of the game is extremely finished - a wonderful improvement on a wonderful series of games. I thoroughly recommend you purchase this game.

Amazing!! Do not listen to bad reviews!!
Like many age of empires fans, i have waited a long time for the 3rd in the series. Was it worth the wait? YES!! Before buying it almost a week ago, i read almost every review on amazon. Most people said it was really dull or boring gameplay. Do not listen to them, i did at first and it almost put me off buying it. But then i started watching videos on google etc. looking at what the battles and that looks like. It looked ok. but then me and and a friend started looking further into it. We thought we would see if they had a downloadable demo. And after typing the obvious "download age of empires 3 demo" it came up with many websites. Looking more reliable, we tried the microsoft webiste. We downloaded it, and quite frankly couldn't stop playing it! We loved it! So the day after, i got the full version. Many reviews i have read say that single player is dull, i disagree, its only dull when you compare it to multiplayer. If you buy this game, i 100% advise you to try AOE online, providing you can of course. even though the game has been out almost a year now, there are always at least 1,700 other players online, and at night, it usually goes up to around 3,000, so there's plenty of people to play.

There are so many good things about this game. The gameplay has improved slightly, the graphics are just immense, even on a less powerful graphics card. I will not say much more, but what i will say is if you have played any age of empires, or other RTS games before, and you liked them, i suggest trying this beast! I cannot stop playing it. Yes multiplayer is very challenging, but what fun is a game you can just walk through with your eyes shut, it just makes you wanna get better, so you keep trying! So if you are looking for an enjoyable, addictive, highly fun game, then this is it!

I hope this review has helped you.

Great demo, I hope the game's a good!
Loved Age of Empires and Age of Empires II (and still play the latter). Tried this download - I was a little worried my graphics card (nVidia GF4 Ti4200 w/128MB RAM) wouldn't cope but it does with a fairly pleasing level of eye candy. I might get away with more effects but I haven't tried.

The game. *What* a game!

Great gameplay. Great graphics (especially compared to AoE 1&2).

Items can be placed on the map in a much more freeform manner - there's no grid contraining you to a boring layout. This really makes a difference!

You now get a feeling of advancement between missions (even on skirmish mode) because you now get experience points which increase the level of your home city; the higher the level, the better "shipments" (supplies, tech advancements, troops) it can send you. You can even customise the shipments it can give you as it increases.

There's a variation on "crates" of suprise goodies sprinkled round the map; you have to kill the guardian (outlaws, bears, wolves) to uncover the trasure (worth food/gold/wood/experience or a settler, native medicine man, scout...)

You can ally with natives (i.e. American Indians) and gain tech advances and troops from them.

Oh, the list goes on.

Get the demo if you can - it's a hefty 375MB download, but I'm sure it'll be on a cover disk at some point. My only caveat is that my partition system didn't agree with the setup program (my C:\ drive is small, and this seemed to want 900MB there!).