Age of Empires III
Age of Empires III
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 List Price: $29.99 Sale Price: $14.90 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Eligible For Free Shipping 
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Product Description
Strategy Game - 1 User - Complete Product - Standard - English - PC
Details
- Start out playing as the British and begin with a solid economy, or lead the French into an easy alliance with Native Americans - 8 total civilizations to choose from
- Work with Native Americans to your tactical advantage, for the first time ever
- Develop your own Home City, and customize it make it wealthier and more powerful as you take over Europe
- Explore the New World and create colonies while seeking out new resources and making alliances with the Native Americans
- Recover buried treasure from the Caribbean, hunt bison on the Great Plains, compete for trade routes and fortify the coast of New England
Popularity: 8% [?]
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about 1 year ago
Rating
This is not a perfect game. It is unbalanced and at times over reliant on youu being able to micro the hell out of your villagers rather than creating any viable military strategies. Yet, for a period of about 2 months I did nothing but play this game. I would play alone. I would play with my roomates, then alone again. Once one of my roomates was bitter when I played alone, after saying earlier that I would play with him. It was collective addiction. All of us were addicted and obbsessed with the game. We would play till the early morning and also between classes, when we had 20 minutes or so to spare. This game consumed our lives and a soundtrack of power metal and elegies to the greatness of this game filled the air. We would speak of the intensity of addiction. We would mention all of the times that we thought about the game in the least opportune moments. I would lie to my girlfriend that I had essays to write in order to get another few hours to play the game. In fact, I would sneak out of her room at 12 in order to play the game till 4 or 5 in the morning.
The funny thing is that not all of us were even that good, but we were still addicted. That alone demonstrated the levels on which the game could be enjoyed. One of my roomates loved to cheat at the game and would always want to play multiplayer games with cheat codes. Another one played only one map, over and over again at the same level of difficulty. The third liked to tinker with every single team and see which was the best. I just stuck with one or two teams and tried to beat expert.
Speaking of which, expert is really hard in this game, but it is beatable with enough effort. A lot of things are hard, but all of them can be overcome with enough perseverence. I liked to play with one of my roomates against 5 hard enemies, fortunately though our internet connection was powerful enough to handle the intensity of such a battle.
All in all, I recommend this game, but I warn you. It could consume me, so it could just as easily consume you. You have been warned.
about 1 year ago
Rating
Age of Empires III was largely slagged in the press for being “more of the same” and outclassed by the likes of such titles as Rise of Nations and Civ IV. Ironically enough, it also seems that some publications criticized Age of Empires III for straying too far from what Age II was. All that I can say is that they couldn’t be further from the truth. Not only is Age III the best game — console or PC — that I played in the year 2005, it is one of the best games of all time, even surpassing its illustrious predecessors. It is fresh, it is polished, and it’s one of the best damn games I’ve ever played (and believe me, I’ve played a lot of them).
I’ve been a fan of the RTS genre for awhile — mainly the AoE series. From its inception to now, I’ve always purchased an Age of Empires game as soon as it’s released. Ensemble Studios staffs some of the hardest working, brightest people in the industry, and it shows in their work. I’ve tried other RTS games, such as Starcraft, Civ II, and Rise of Nations, but none could hold my attention like the ESO team can.
The single player game in Age of Empires III will be familiar to anyone who played Age of Mythology (another classic, in its own right). You progress through a series of missions/civilizations, are told a fantastically unrealistic (and very entertaining) story, and learn about the game’s nuances and intracies. Basically, the single player campaign serves one purpose: as a prep course for the real meat of the game, which is playing online. The single player is decent, but if that’s all that you’re going to play, then don’t buy Age of Empires III.
Before I begin my pontifications about multiplayer, I’d like to address the technical side of the game. Ensemble is known for pushing the envelope in games — look at the visual quality of the rest of the Age games as a reference — and Age III is no exception. The graphics, even when turned down, are beautiful. The civilizations each have a unique architectural style, and the game is litterred with bloom lighting, brilliant shadows, amazing animation, and an absolutely unbelievable physics engine. Shoot a cannon into a group of soldiers, and watch as they scream out in pain and fly across the map. Attack a tower, and watch as the wood and thatch fly off the roof. It’s a sight to behold, and really adds to the battles a lot. No skirmish — or war — will look exactly the same, and while it may sound like a small detail, it adds to the game’s longevity. Oh, and did I mention the water? It is, quite simply, the best water ever witnessed in a video game. Sound wise, the cannons have nice, meaty explosions that accompany each of their blasts, the muskets sound like guns being fired, and the standard voice-overs for each civ (in their native language) is a nice touch as well. Nothing revolutionary, but all very solid. I turned the music down in favor of my own tunes, but by no means is it bad either; in fact, it’s quite good.
Since performance seems to be one of the biggest problems for people, I’m dedicating an entire paragraph to it (along with my experiences). I’ve been running the game at 1280×1024, on a system with an AMD 64 3200+, nVidia 6800GT, and 2 GB Corsair XMS RAM. I built the system from scratch myself at the time of the game’s release. Cost? Twelve hundred bucks. Anyone claiming that they can’t get this game to run well is either incompetent or lying; I had everything but antialiasing turned up all the way, and I was hitting 30 FPS on the low end, and about 45 FPS average. When cranked down all the way, the game never dropped below 60 FPS (average: around 100 FPS), even with close to a hundred units on screen. There is no reason why any reasonably powerful computer built in the past two years can’t run this game. If you drop a thousand bucks on a computer (which is on the low end) right now, it should be able to handle this game easily. Ensemble did a fantastic job optimizing the game, and it really shows. For those trying to play it on a 1.6 GHZ P4 with 256 MB RAM and GeForce 4 MX, please stop complaining and upgrade. Clearly those who can’t get this to run efficiently know zip about computers, and are expecting way too much from their aging or budget rig.
The multiplayer…ah yes, the crown jewel, as they say. The multiplayer is absolutely brilliant, even trumping Age of Mythology’s amazing online battles. The strategies, the intracies…all of it is enough to make the game playable for months on end. The game is extremely well balanced; no matter what people on various web forums may say, each civilization can effectively hold its own in any match, provided the player is up to the task. The introduction of the Home City and a deck of cards ensures that no two battles will be the same, and that players must adjust on the fly to the situation at hand. Getting rushed by a hoarde of Russian Strelets (light infantry)? Call out the free 3 Hussar (cavalry) card and mow ‘em down. Desperately need villagers? Click on the 5 free villager card, and watch your economy soar. If your opponent’s deck looks like a “boom” deck, then use your early cards to rush him and destroy him before he can advance through the ages. It’s a thinking man’s game, and you must be smart to win online in Age of Empires III. Employing one strategy will not be enough to get you by; only playing one civ will not cut it either. You must adjust constantly, and ESO is ever-tweaking the online experience with patches that affect various units, ensuring that no cheap players try to abuse certain advantages too much. And to all those saying that you cannot have formations, they are there. Simply turn them on in the options menu. These are essential for playing online, offerring your troops the ability to stagger their ranks (to avoid getting reamed by cannon fire), or to engage in melee mode (effective against fighting a cavalry onslaught).
Simply put, Age of Empires III has the most dynamic multiplayer I have ever seen in an online game. It requires you to think on the fly, to “run ‘n gun” so to speak, and it all adds up to a frenetic and tense pace, even after you’ve played over 400 games. If you lose, you have no one to blame but yourself; your fate (to use a cliche) is entirely in your own hands. It’s absolutely brilliant, and I am so enthralled and addicted to its multiplayer that I keep coming back for hours a day, more than 8 months after the game has been released.
You will not find a better strategy game than Age of Empires III, period. Those looking for a fast paced, tactical RTS should look no further. Those who enjoy a good chess match should stick to Civilization IV, and those who like a mixture of tactical and real time action should check out Rise of Nations. But for pure strategy, pacing, and production values, then look no further than Age of Empires III. It has refined the RTS genre to near-perfection, and I, for one, am left wondering but one thing — how the hell can Ensemble ever top this? I’ve been left wondering that question before, and they’ve always delivered, so I suppose that, in the meantime, I will continue to indulge myself in one of the best games in recent memory.
about 1 year ago
Rating
I recently purchased this game, and while my computer isn’t fast enough for me to put the graphics on high detail, I still enjoy the game tremendously. I have not even begun to scrape the surface of all that this game holds. I’ve played as two different civilizations, but there is a total of 8. With each civilization, I’ve gotten a different experience, unique, and with different challenges. The maps are still beautiful, even though I don’t have the graphics on full. I’m running the game on a Celeron D processor, 700+ MB-RAm, Nvidia 5500 256 MB PCI video card, and 2.80 GHZ. Sometimes it gets a little choppy, but most times it runs just fine. If you have a better system, you should have no problems running the game.
Overall, this game is fantastic. I’ve been a huge fan of Age of Empires ever since the original one came out, and as each successor has come out, I have never been dissapointed.
If you are familiar with the first two games (AOE 1 & 2), you’ll find that you can dive right into the action of this one. You can play a random map, a scenario, create your own scenario, and play multiplayer. On a random map, you start out with a town center, some villagers (or settlers, as they are called in this game), and an explorer. The explorer can be used to explore the map, and where in AOE 1 or 2, where you once would have found ruins or relics, you can find treasures. But be warned, these treasures are often guarded. The treasures can help you build your colony.
One main difference between this game and its predessesors is that you have a home port from which you can get units or supplies. During game play you will earn experience points, which, when you have enough, can be used to purchase supplies, etc. from the home port. Depending on what civilization you are playing as, you will find that the “deck” of “cards” varies at the home port. An example of a British card would be 2 settlers, which can be sent one time. An example of a German card would be 8 Ulhans, a mounted, armed unit. The more you play, the more points you get, and you can earn new cards to put into your deck.
I could ramble on and on about the features of the game, but the best way to learn is to do often times, and I strongly suggest that if you like this kind of real time strategy game, you should purchase it. I sincerely doubt that you’ll be dissapointed, but don’t take my word for it. Find out for yourself! : )
about 1 year ago
Rating
My review is about single player skirmish mode – playing only against the A.I. I am quite late in joining the Age of Empires games. I’ve never played AOE 1 or 2. I have played Battle for Middle Earth 1 and 2. BFME 1 was TOO slow in gathering resources and limited in placement of buildings the visuals and sounds of both were terrific. BFME 2 was a big leap in the right direction except it didn’t have Rohan’s unique buildings and no make-your-own Hobbit Heroes. I also wish the maps had more variety to them! I have given up playing BFME 1 and now only play BFME 2. I also had played both Star War Battlefront games (FPS) but as they play sooo fast I have given up on them as well. I like a game where you can build up your city into something beautiful to look at (yet not taking forever to do so) before the fighting action begins. Microsoft calls this technique Turtling. So I guess I’m a Turtler! This game allows for Rushing (quickly attacking soon in the game) and Booming (Economic build up) techniques as well.
I have an AMD Athlon 64 processor 3200+ with 1GHz of Ram and a 7600 Tforce Nvidia Card.
I just bought AOE 3 after reading many reviews. It is everything I thought it would be and more! The sounds and visuals are great. The towns build up nicely as well as the armies. I like the enemy coming on taunting you when the AI notices that aren’t keeping up in one area or another in military, commercial or progression in age. The maps are numerous and have a great variety. The boats and ships look great and actually fish with nets – the whales and fish are seen too! The larger ships can open with a broadside or one even has a large destructive cannon which blows apart enemy building that are near the water.
The language (most of it is in it’s own native tongue) is non-offensive even for the younger ones. You have 8 different nationalities to play from each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Add this to the 12 or so maps and you really do have an almost endless variety of play in each game. The natives and mercenaries (as allies) also add a unique touch. The trading posts along the roadside also bring in income. You can select pay ment from travelers either in food, coins, lumber or even add wealth to your home city. If my villagers are lacking in one of these resources I collect this type of resource at the trading post. The battles are fun as well as fighting the wild animals and outlaws scattered over the map. The market is useful in buying and selling either food, coin or lumber so that you can acquire more of whatever resources you might be lacking. This game also allows you to play on sandbox, easy, hard and difficult levels which is really important for me as the game will be either laid back or fierce or somewhere in between. It also has a handicap level for each side as in BFME 2. You also receive shipments of various goods and men from your home city throughout the game. After each victory you can unlock more types of shipments. An icon in the upper screen allows you to note any idle villager so that you can assign him to some work.
I have tried to use the make-your-own-scenario map maker (real neat to add whatever initial resources you want on the map and give it it’s physical look), but so far I have only been able to get my side to act normal in the game. The A.I. enemy team will react to my explorer or other members of my side and shoot at them, but otherwise they just stand around their townhouse and not gather in anything or build up anything. There is nothing in the manual about the scenario map making, so for now its by trial and error.
This is a great quality game which will give people like me hours upon hours of great fun. I don’t see myself getting bored with this game for a long time. The variety of teams, maps, and settings make this game really re-playable!
about 1 year ago
Rating
I, as a veteran AOE player, I recognize this game as the best RTS game ever and as my favorite PC game. The game is set during the Colonial Age, following the Middle Ages which were present in AOE 2, and you are the commander of a colony seeking glory for your country in the New World (America).
I have sited many improvements from earlier AOE games which eventually make it another successful AOE Title. Some of its main improvements are:
3D World: Now the scenery is completely 3D, instead of being made of 2D Sprites; beautiful wilderness, gorgeous cities and grand oceans make the main part of these amazing 3D graphics.
Special Effects: Lots of Incredible special effects have been added, making the game really fun; now soldiers will go flying when shot by cannons, buildings will slowly go falling apart and then crash into the ground once destroyed and ships, once destroyed, come apart and sink into the sea. Also, if soldiers shot by a cannon are near a cliff, then they will actually fall from the cliff; the same happens with buildings, since if buildings are near a cliff and are destroyed, they will crumble apart and their pieces will also fall from the cliff.
Personalities: Now, when playing in single player, each computer controlled civilization will have its own leader or personality, these personalities are historical leaders (The French have Napoleon, the British Queen Elizabeth, etc). The cool thing about this is that these personalities can talk to you; in AOE 2, you would only receive typed words when a computer controlled civilization talked to you; now, you received the type message and you actually hear their voice. Also, they talk to you more often; if you destroy their Town Center, they say something ; if they eliminate your army, they brag about it; if you advance of age before them, they will say something against you, and so on. I think this of the more talks from the AI is excellent; before in previous AOE games, when playing in single player, I felt too lonely because AI players would never talk to me or because their taunts were to artificial or were always the same, they never varied; but now all of this has greatly improved Also, I like the addition of an advanced player chat; now apart from taunting and talking to your allies and enemies, you can do lots of other things: You can tell your alley whether to concentrate on economy, military or defenses; you can also tell him whether to train infantry, cavalry or artillery; you can ask for immediate resources or for your alley to send you resources through time and you can order him to send troops at a determined place of the map.
Home Cities: The most significant new feature of Age of Empires 3 most probably is the addition of the Home City Concept. When you start the game, you must create your Home city; you choose its name and the name of its explorer along with the civilization it belongs to. Once it is created, it starts off at level 1 with 0 XP. As you play matches, you gain XP by: Killing enemy units, destroying enemy buildings, gathering treasures, training units, constructing buildings, etc. With all this XP earned your Home City gradually levels up. Since your Home City permits you to ship soldiers, civilians, resources, fort wagons, factory wagons, etc. from Europe to America (Where you play the matches), as you level up you will be able to choose new shipment cards, which permit you to ship more stuff from your Home city. For example, lets say you start with only 3 Shipment cards: one that ships 3 musketeers, another which ships crates of 300 wood and another one which ships 1 Galleon; you win a match and level up; so you choose a new card which ships 2 heavy cannons and add it to your game deck. Then, in your next match, you can apply the cards you had before along with the new card, increasing your odds of winning. With time, you will greatly increase your Home city level, providing you with more powerful shipment cards. Also, when you level up you can choose new customizations, which add new visual stuff for your Home City, such as: New and more people walking, different building styles or building versions, permit you to see comments made by walking people, change the sky appearance, add fisherman and fishing vessels, etc. Whether you win or not a match, you usually level up and have new cards and customizations to choose. The idea of the Home city makes the game better and encourages you continue playing; it combines an RPG (Role Playing Game) with an RTS (Real Time Strategy Game), making the game really cool and really fun. This Home City feature is revolutionizing RTS gaming by implementing this combination.
Other new features include Native Tribes with whom you can form alliances, trade routes which give you free XP and resources; these trade routes can be upgraded so a train passes through them, enabling a faster gain of resources and free XP. Also there are more varied civilizations. In AOE 2, each civilization had only one unique unit (except 2 or so which had 2 unique units, one terrestrial and another naval), now civilizations number of unique units range from 2 to 5 unique units; also the civilizations have got cool unique abilities which differences them more from each other and at the same time maintains in-game balance.
In overall, I think this game is excellent; I highly recommend it to you, whether you have played previous Age of Empires games of other RTS games or whether you are new in the world of RTS gaming. I highly recommend you to play this game; give it a try, and see for yourself…
about 1 year ago
Rating
At the time that I am writing this, the average customer rating for this game is 3 stars. What in the world?
I’m not a gaming geek. However, when I was younger I enjoyed two computer game series the best. And that was Heroes of Might and Magic and Age of Empires.
In order for me to understand the game right now, I went back to the Age of Empires I days. I installed it back in my PC. The Hittites were my favorite, by the way. Played it for a while and it took me back. Took me back to the graphics and the gameplay that I had to deal with. It was still revolutionary back in its heyday. I then continued to play Age 2. Still enjoyable.
And onto this game, what a blast. I love love this game. I’ve been playing it for over four months now. And it’s still exciting to play.
I could go on and unleash the floodgates of how great this game is, but I’ll just discuss the shortcomings of the game.
1. Civilization inequality: Ottomans are given a bad beat. They have a special feature of free villagers. But the villager growth rate is painstakingly slow. And the costs of the Mosque take away from the Ottoman special feature.
2. Gold spread and colony economy: Gold mining has always been a staple in Age of Empires I and II. But I dont see colonists mining for gold in the Great Plains map. And there are alot of geographical maps that are known to not have a lot of gold. However, the dependence of plantations for wealth is fairly accurate. It doesnt say anything about the Home Country sending over a shipment of slaves to run those plantations though. (Age of Empires III XPack sidebar: Also it’s bittersweet, playing a British colony and winning against the Iroqois or the Cherokee). I think a good way to have bolster an economy is creating tax technologies.
3. The revolution option doesnt come in till the Xpack: …but at least it does come in. It’s not historically accurate until colonists are allowed to revolt.
4. Mis representative screenshots: I dont think you’ll have the same screenshots that they display on their websites unless you have the newest and best graphics card and CPU. And I have a fairly good, 5 months old, 100 dollar graphics card, and I’m not getting the same graphics that they are. The graphics are still very good however.
5. Computer ally tributing: There’s a small problem that can be patched. There’s a command that instructs the computer ally to feed you resources slowly. However, there is no stop command. So when the ally is attacked, there is no way they can recover since they give you all their resources as soon as they harvest it.
6. A better campaign idea: Instead of making a fictional storyline, why not highlight important battles of this time period or take a civilization out for an adventure. Something similar to Age 2. I think the campaign storyline is lacking and not very believable.
Well, it’s a short list of flaws. I’m sure I missed a few. If you are reading up to this point, then thanks for reading my rant. If you are considering on buying the game, then play the trial version. Or visit your buddy’s house who has the game.
Thanks.
about 1 year ago
Rating
To play this game in it’s full splendor you need an nVidia 6800 or 7800 video card. It is the card they designed the game for and I have a 6800 and it makes the graphics smooth as glass. For slower machines get the 7800 because the Video Card takes a bunch of work off the processor and RAM. This game has less capability than AOE 2 but it is still fun.
about 1 year ago
Rating
Age of Empires III builds upon the previous installments in the series with more civilizations and options, and the War Chiefs Expansion adds even more diversity to the game. I will not specifically describe the features of the game as these can easily be found elsewhere, but my satisfaction with this product was very high.
I live at college and several other people on my floor own this game. Since I purchased it, I have been able to participate in numerous “tournaments” via the online or LAN modes in the game. This is very enjoyable and takes things far beyond the single player experience.
I have not had any problems with this game, except that with the graphics turned up all the way, large battles can cause lag on standard computers. Computers with graphics accelerators and enhanced processors should not have any problem running this game. However, by turning the graphics down, I can still enjoy the detail of this game to some extent without facing massive lag.
I would recommend this game to any fan of the AoE series, anybody who likes colonial history/wars, and those fond of strategy games. The countless scenarios that this game provides, especially when playing against live opponents, makes the replay value extremely high.
about 1 year ago
Rating
This is a great new Age of Empires! The graphics are the bomb! The new addition of a Home City really puts a sweet twist on it! I give this great game a wonderful 5 stars.
NOTE: Be sure to have a newer computer with plenty of room. Installed in the typical instal was 2131 MB. And besure to have a new Video card. Or it just won’t handle this graphic intence program.
Considering everything tho… This is a great game!
about 1 year ago
Rating
This game is absolutely amazing. I don’t understand how people can’t get great graphic settings. I have my graphic settings maxed out on an Athlon 64 3200+, 1 gig dual channel DDR RAM, and 256mb Radeon X800xl and it does not lag unless there is a huuuuuuuuge and i mean huuuuge battle going on between maybe 400 units. The gameplay is great, the graphics are great, mostly everything about the game is fantastic. ESO, the online servers, are still sorting out the bugs, but i highly recommend this game. HIGHLY RECOMMEND.