Age of Empires 3
Andrew's had enough of sticks and stones...
The Age of Empires series is steeped in a great deal of history which is a fair enough description since its content spans an enormous timescale whilst the first of the games was released way back in the 20th Century, (1997). For those of you unfamiliar with its premise, imagine Channel 4's Time Team minus Tony Robinson and his merry band of excavators and instead a cast of living, breathing characters ready to create a town, make some money and slaughter the enemy for you - all at a couple of clicks of the mouse. It's been six years since the genre-defining Age of Empires: The Age of Kings was unleashed onto an eager public so unsurprisingly the pressure piled onto the latest title to do the same is enormous. So does it?
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Despite a few neat touches the answer has to be a no. Just as a week is a long time in politics, six years is a very long time in the world of videogames, (2190 days to be precise) and it seems that although Age of Empires III presses all the right buttons in so many aspects it fails to add anything awe inspiringly original to a field that's as chock-full as a Medieval swordsman's nervously aching bladder. That said, what it does do right it does as well as anything else out there, making a game that's certainly worth a blast (through the past).
Number three in the Age of Empires series is set further forward in time than any of the previous games, concentrating on events from the late 15th century discovery of the New World up as far as the Industrial Revolution. Since even the starting point is decades after the invention of the gun you won't be scrapping it out in such a tooth and knuckle style from the outset as in the other games. There are of course progressing levels of firearms and weaponry, just don't be expecting to be desperately gouging the enemy's eyes out with something as primitive as sharpened sticks and stones this time around. Campaign mode tests your skills as Morgan Black and his descendents in 24 scenarios across the timescale, though you'll probably want to follow the tutorial and practice level first just to find your bearings. A friendly narrator there will show you the ropes until a time when you're confidently able to explore all that the game has to offer.
First to mention is the lengthy single player mode in which your challenge is to take charge of an infant colony and nurture it into a self sufficient community that is capable of living off the fat o' the land by means of harbouring food, wood and coin, the game's three essential elements. With them safely in keeping you must build and strengthen your population through the accumulation of more people who will either work for you or defend your perimeters from the ever present threat of an advancing enemy. One of the new features implemented in Age of Empires III is the Home City feature. You have access to your own European Home City for economic, technological and military support by gaining experience points. Your Home City's success depends on you, while your city's improvements multiply throughout each stage of the game. Also worthy of mention is the inclusion of a simplified interface that makes playing the game more accessible than ever before; certainly a welcome addition to the game for real-time strategy newcomers. If you ever tire of the single player option there's always a fully customizable skirmish mode, the ability to play over a network and of course the ESOnline service which allows similarly ranked players to compete and interact in all manner of ways. Not forgetting the chance to create your very own landscapes to play in, Age of Empires III has enough content to satisfy even the most demanding aficionado of the genre.
In terms of appearance Age of Empires III is certainly one of the prettiest in its field. The environments are never anything short of vibrant and detailed with plenty of attention paid to making character animation interesting and scenery that evolves and collapses realistically. It is genuinely heartwarming to see your men cheer together after a victory or in a more sinister sense to watch them battering away relentlessly at an enemy's defenses, and these charming touches are apparent throughout the game. Amazingly, developers Ensemble Studios employed someone to work full time on manufacturing the most realistic water effects possible, and it shows. Watching the way that in-game waves ebb and flow is a mesmerising experience and if nothing else provides evidence that great care and attention has been taken to mould an experience as engrossing as possible.
Unfortunately, the immersive environments are spoilt by a less than stable frame rate that is apparent even on PCs more than capable of matching the required minimum specifications for Age of Empires III to run. This problem spills over into combat where it is often rendered difficult to control precisely what you want to do when a melee is in full flow. However, perhaps the most frustrating of the game's twists is that in order to advance you must completely annihilate your opposition. Every single last man and building must cease to exist before you can even think about giving yourself a well deserved pat on the back after hours of intense building and combat. Now I'm no historian but I'm sure that in school I was taught that battles were pretty much over when one side overpowered the other or forced them to retreat, not when they deteriorated into a juvenile game of hide and seek ending with the killing of a fearful Ancient who's soiled his underwear after seeking shelter behind a tree in a far corner of the map.
Apart from the aforementioned minor misgivings it is more a case of what Age of Empires III doesn't do rather than what it does. It is a finely constructed, accessible real-time strategy game with a brilliant soundtrack, tactical warfare with intricacies too long winded to go into here and highly addictive gameplay. The contrast in the environments across the three eras of play and the differing mechanics of each are all well implanted, too. Whether on your lonesome or in the company others you will find it easy to wile away the hours in order to create the perfect mini society of which you are master. It is only a shame that games anticipated as much as Age of Empires III could not bring something new and exciting to the genre or correct issues such as the frame rate problems that plagued its previous incarnations. Nonetheless it is easy to recommend this as a worthwhile investment for those cold winter mornings, afternoons and evenings where losing yourself in the mists of time is ever more appealing than going to work.
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Comments
...................... im first
Well done
I made a comment
this is a naff game, dont buy
Hey, if u want your game to run u must have a good pc bro...dont try with a 64 mb video card.
even with a 128 u wont get highest details.
Anyways this is a great game..
Worths its money
this game is too hard to use
i love this game soo much it worht the money mother fackers
LO QUERIA PARA MI PRIMO GRACIAS
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you smell
no comments
This is a great game and i have completed the campaign. It's worth the money but you need a good graphics card/ PC all together. ROCK ON AOE 3
This game ricken sucks like crap
DOES ENY1 HAVE AGE OF EMPIRES 3 FOR SALE
i just wanna say that all who has said this is a naff game you should consider buying barbie or the tweenies game cause you obviously don't have any taste in games and for those how couldnt understand it go back to school get a cat scan or something better yet chuck your p.c out the window you might not figure out how to turn it off A.O.E has allways been a clasic but simple game and im sure there are others that would agree
forgot to say not having a dig (ME) but the graphics card does make a diffrence i tried it with a geforce 2 and nothing worked i upgraded to a geforce 6800mx and it ran smoothly
(me) dont even get me started Radeon are crap even if it is 512 mb i played it on my 512 geforce 6800mx and it worked and my 6 year old brother played it on his s4 savage incase you havent heard of it, its about as old as worms
my problem is dat the game starts but windows restarts in sumtime .. And dis problem happens everytime
plz someone tell me the solutions do patches work?
if yes den wich version
I have a problem ... AOE doesnt want to install its like have a procesor problem (not support something) what cann that be
???
NEED KEY CODE
what is the CRC error on the es onlie mean
Hey, i put AoE 3 on my laptop and everything seems to be woking fine except the graphics.....i can't see anything. The whole screen would be in shades of brown or gray. What can i do to make it work? (it's not the lightness or brightness of the sreen).
can someone please answer! thanks
I have the game and i installed it on my laptop, but when i come to play the game the screen turns on its side and then when it comes to the main menu section it shuts down and gives me an error report, if anybody has any feed back on how to solve this please reply ASAP.
I have the game and i installed it on my laptop, but when i come to play the game the screen turns on its side and then when it comes to the main menu section it shuts down and gives me an error report, if anybody has any feed back on how to solve this please reply ASAP.
i have my screen turning off on me during gameplay.can someone plz help
this game sucks i cant get it to do anything. my friend and i are trying to play today and it says
i have a problem installing age of empires 3. at the end of the installation it says 'error 1305.error reading from file C:Program Filesjavaartart2.bar. Verify that the file exists and that you can access it.
i have a problem installing age of empires 3. at the end of the installation it says 'error 1305.error reading from file C:Program Filesjavaartart2.bar. Verify that the file exists and that you can access it.
i have the same error 1305 Pls someone who knows what to do????!
Just bought both games, the expansion too all for $50, is it worth it??
hi i dont know what to say write now so word.
Can anyone help me? Start up screen is Purple Green and White, the menu doesnt come up. No menu at the bottom of the playin screen sometimes, white trees? Cant get on the game, if I get onto the game half of the features arent there. Everything goes white green or purple.
Whyy???
I've downloaded the patch I need because I have Windows Vista. When I run this it says that Age Of Empires 3 is up to date.
WhyyyWhyyyyyyyyyyyyWhhyy.
:|
to the 'sup' person that wrote:
"Can anyone help me? Start up screen is Purple Green and White, the menu doesnt come up. No menu at the bottom of the playin screen sometimes, white trees? Cant get on the game, if I get onto the game half of the features arent there. Everything goes white green or purple.
Whyy???
I've downloaded the patch I need because I have Windows Vista. When I run this it says that Age Of Empires 3 is up to date.
WhyyyWhyyyyyyyyyyyyWhhyy.
:|"
I'm having the same problem did you ever get a resolution to this error?
I agree with Roobb this game is easy, but great. So read the construction booklet or something! I just don't see how anybody wouldn't like it. Anbody that doesn't is a big NOOOOOOOOB!
I agree with Roobb. This game is easy, but great. Anybody with brains could play it. I just don't see how anybody wouldn't like this game. who ever doesn't is a NOOOOOOOOB! What do you think Roobb?
Who ever is coping what I say stop it!
does anyone know how to fix a error 1305.verify file exist
hi, listen guys but i got a prob i downloaded AOE3 and got 4 ISO images disc 1,2,3 and warchiefs i mount with alcohol 1¸20 disc 1 and everything goes good until it asks me to insert disc 2 i mount it but the comp does not read it it keeps asking me to insert dics 2 but i got it mounted on the pc :S sould i copy it on a cd or what can anyone help me?
hello , please help me!! , what is the age of empires install code?? ,25 characters
this game is so coolthe posen how made this game is so cool.
key kode ago empire 3
Hey it works fine on my comp.
i have no idea y that happens on the laptopthe game must dislike laptops
hehe