• 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

• Age of Empires III: Sybex Official Strategies and Secrets (Sybex Official Strategies & Secrets)
• PC Gamer (1-year)
• Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs Expansion Pack

Age Of Empires 3 is the sequel to the critically-acclaimed strategy game. It introduces all-new gameplay elements, new civilizations to discover, random maps to conquer and a single-player campaign unlike any other. A.I. opponents are now well-developed characters with deep strategies, motivations, and personalities-and more than 4,000 audio taunts at their disposal New lighting and shadow effects, in a game world designed to have real physics and depth -- you'll almost feel like you're there The first 3D iteration of the series uses bump- and tone-mapping to render realistic water and shadows Havok engine's cause-and-effect physics bring battles to lurid life
It's the dawn of a new age in real-time strategy (RTS) games. A brave New World is rising--a hostile yet beautiful world, filled with innovative gameplay, new strategic scenarios, eye-searing graphics and much more. Welcome to a world called Age of Empires III.

Campaign
In this action adventure tale of historical fiction, players take on the role of Morgan Black and his family, struggling against the hostile wilderness and a mysterious cult that's crept in from Europe.

In a series of 24 scenarios divided into three acts, Morgan Black and his descendants help the Aztecs resist conquest by Spanish conquistadors, pit the French against the British in the French and Indian War and help Simon Bolivar lead revolutions in South America.

Multiplayer
Whether you're searching for a quick game or hoping to talk strategy with friends online, Age of Empires III's Multiplayer site is your community destination.

Here, you can play with persistent Home Cities that gain power and strategic options the more games you play, compete for a spot on dozens of ladders, help organize your clan or chat after a game -- all without leaving the multiplayer portal.

Fans of Age of Mythology's Quick Search can still look for games swiftly, while players looking for something specific can browse game lists to find the set of options that matches their tastes.

New Feature--Home Cities
This revolutionary new feature to the RTS landscape is incorporated into all aspects of Age of Empires III -- from Campaign to Multiplayer -- and is unlike anything you've experienced before.

Much like the persistent character from a role-playing game that encourages you to keep playing, your Home City is an important support system to your efforts in the New World. During a game, your Home City can regularly send you supplies or military reinforcements.

You are the leader of your colony, but your success brings glory back to Mother Europe. The more games you play, and the better you do, the more powerful your Home City will become. Every few games, you gain the ability to both upgrade and customize your Home City:

• Upgrade your city by unlocking new types of soldiers or buildings, or improving those you already have.
• Broaden your tech tree in whatever direction most fits your play style--invest in warships, native alliances, cavalry, artillery or economy.
• Customize your Home City by changing the appearance of buildings, the weather or even the types of people who walk, work and perform in its streets.
• Throughout a game, as well as in between games, you can visit your Home City to watch its citizens go about their lives, get an opinion on how you're doing, plot your next move or just marvel at the beautiful sunset.

Full 3-D Graphics, Destructible Environments and More
We first set out to reproduce the rich detail of Age of Empires II: Age of Kings. As we strove to make the fascinating Age of Empires III time period come alive, that goal quickly evolved: We at Ensemble Studios wanted to create the best-looking game ever. From the stunning water effects to the hundreds of units battling on-screen, you'll feel like you're a part of the action in the New World.

• Tone mapping--This photo imaging technique balances the colors in a scene on the fly. The end result is a rich, warm game where bright colors are vibrantly rendered alongside darker counterparts, such as shadows.
• Lighting and shadows--The sun is always shining in Age of Empires, so it's important that lighting and shadows be an awe-inspiring experience. Units and buildings cast shadows according to a real sun position, and even cast shadows on each other. High Dynamic Range rendering allows us to represent the shiny glints of sunlight that bounce off highly reflective surfaces.
• Bump and specular mapping--Water glistens like water. Metal shines like metal. These advanced techniques serve to provide an extra level of rendering detail heretofore unseen in real-time strategy (RTS) gaming.
• Water--We felt that portraying stunning, realistic water effects in the game was so important that we devoted a programmer to it full-time. You'll find the water rich with details like foam near the shore, accurately modeled water motion, flotsam in rivers and realistic water colors. Plus, reflections change with the viewing angle, the angle of sunlight and the motion of the water. The overall effect is breathtaking.
• Cliffs and Riverbeds--Instead of just stretching terrain, we built a system to attach geometry to the terrain map to allow for realistic overhangs and steep cliffs, from areas like the American Southwest. This effect is supported on random maps too.

Civilizations

British Quick access to Settlers gives the British one of the strongest economies in the game. The ability to upgrade two key units -- the Musketeer and Hussar -- make the British military formidable in the late game. The British Home City emphasizes improvements to technology and naval warfare.	Dutch Although Dutch Settlers are limited and costly, their civilization makes up for this economic disadvantage by building Banks and generating coin automatically. The Dutch Home City emphasizes upgrades to defense and economy.
French Although the French economy starts slowly, the Coureur unit, a Villager with strong fighting skills, makes the French difficult to attack early. The French also have the strongest cavalry unit in the game -- the Cuirassier. Plus, the French are experts at allying with the Native Americans.	German The Germans have fewer Settlers and therefore a slower economy. Fortunately, both the Settler Wagon and Uhlan cavalry spawn for free from the German Town Center. Plus, the Germans start with the ability to send Mercenaries from their Home City (long before other civilizations can).
Native American European civilizations can learn new technologies and gain troops by forging alliances with the Native Americans. A British player who allies with the Iroquois is essentially playing as two civilizations: the British and the Iroquois.	Ottoman For the Ottomans, Settlers spawn automatically from the Town Center. Building a Mosque and conducting research help keep that Settler production steady. Befitting their position straddling Europe and Asia, the Ottomans have more unique units than any other civilization.
Portuguese Starting the game with two Town Centers, the Portuguese can quickly produce Settlers, control territory or support their allies. The Spyglass ability allows the Portuguese to easily spy on the enemy. The Portuguese also have a strong navy, strong light infantry and the best Dragoons in the game.	Russian Starting the game with extra resources but fewer Settlers gives the Russians the flexibility of focusing on economy or an early raid. Russian infantry, individually weak, are trained in blocks at a faster rate, providing the Russians with the opportunity to overwhelm their enemy with greater numbers.
Spanish The Spanish have a strong military, with both hand infantry and cavalry. Flexibility in early shipments from the Home City give the Spanish the option to attack early or set up for a strong, late economy. Spanish Home City improvements benefit soldiers, buildings and naval units.

Combat
Age of Empires III gives players an amazing amount of control over their side of the battlefield.

• More to command -- Not only are you in command of large and diverse armies of infantry, cavalry and artillery, but also Native American warriors, mercenaries and tall ships.
• Multiple formations -- You can assign different formations to your army for different strengths and weaknesses, or have the game automatically choose the most appropriate formation. Examples include:
• Volley -- ranged infantry, like musketeers, take turns firing at enemies ahead of them.
• Charge -- your soldiers walk, then run into combat. Cavalry wield sabers, and musketeers fix bayonets. This formation does tremendous damage but makes your soldiers more prone to injury.
• Bombard -- your soldiers protect the cannons, while the cannons shell enemy ranks. Available only when you have artillery in your army.
• Battles are easier to follow -- You can still command individual units. But when the units fight in formation, you'll be able to tell exactly who is winning the fight.
• Real-time physics -- Infantry struck by cannon fire will be thrown like rag dolls, perhaps even over a cliff and into the water. Cannonballs bounce and ricochet.
• Detailed destructions -- Shingles, shutters and whole towers may fly off a building and interact with the terrain, such as crashing into nearby water. This next generation effect is done on the fly so that each building always has a unique destruction, no matter how many times you see it.
• Unique animations -- With hundreds of unique combat animations, you'll never see the same battle twice.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Never worked out bugs! NOT STABLE ON XP
Comment: I have played this game on four different PCs starting a year ago. The game itself is pretty fun but the bugs were never worked out. The latest patch was v 1.12 but it has not fixed the problems I have. My wife and I enjoy playing the game on our LAN with laptops. But 50% of the time the game will stop during the game. Sometimes we'll be an hour into the game when it will crash. It is very frustrating. And because the makers have not dealt with this issue after so long I give you the lowest score possible.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: simply amazin
Comment: i was only like 10 when i watched my brother play aoe2 and i thought it was the koolest game ever... now that hes like 20 and im now 15 i bought the game when it came out without hesitating... and ive never regretted i love this game... ive had it for like at least two years now and its still number 1 or 2 on my favorite games. of course i set it down but only in small times like a week or 2 but i love this game, its really challenging and it never gets old...

a lot of ppl say aoe2 is better but with aoe3 theyve installed a new physics engine and if u want stuff to be simple aoe 2 is ur game... ever civilation the same thing except for minor differences. but in aoe 3 ever civilization you play has a different economy, military, and most importantly strategy

RTS games are my favorite games and this is the best RTS ive ever played

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Age of Empires 3
Comment: I would play it but my computer is a Dell Dimension 2400 and does not have 1 GB of hard drive or 1 GB of memory on it yet. The hard drive I can not find 1 GB of. My son has been playing the Age of Empires trial games on the computer. He loves them. Christine ascencio

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Customer Rating:
Summary: One of the best game all time
Comment: This is one of the best game of al time. I have always been a huge fan of real time strategy game, and Age of Empire series have always been consistant in its delivery of strategy, graphic, and gaming. Age of Empires III raises the bar to another level, and this is a must have for any gamer, both for Macintosh and for PC. The add on's - Warchiefs and Asian Dynasty are both terrific. I love this so much I have both Mac and PC versions.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: I still prefer Age of Empires 2
Comment: I have AoE 1, 2, and 3. Theres no point in playing AoE 1 as AoE 2 is much better. So scratch AoE 1, that includes Rise of Rome. AoE 2 is the game I fell in love with. AoE 2: Conquerors Expansion more specifically. I once moved out of my home state and left the CD in my old computer. I realized this and I had to purchase another one just for the fact its a game I MUST have. Even though I dont plan on playing it, I need it by me at all times ... just in case. And what about AoE 3? I have it, but I never play it lol. I play AoE 2: CE instead. I just finished playing some of AoE 3 cause Im trying to find a reason to like it. I still prefer AoE 2, and here is my review of AoE 3 ...

At first glance it looks very creative and it has beautiful graphics. Very life like almost. You're introduced to some new differences from AoE 2 and they can be hard to pick up on. In fact, its a lot different in many ways. Finding treasures is new. Indian Settlements are new. Having a home town with "cards" is new. The cost for buildings are higher so its hard for me anyway to decide what is the best option for me. The problem I have with the game though is that its too quick! And the graphics seem too small. In my screen view, I can only see the town center and half of 2 other buildings I built around it. So its very hard to manage. It goes so fast such that when you build a manor (house) you receive an extra villager! I hate having to go back once a house is built to send that villager off to do something. Experience is gained so fast that I notice I have 3 cards waiting in my home city. And when I use them, its like ... well I didnt really need them, I was doing fine building my town in "the New World" on my own. So you have shipments coming in, settlers popping up, the settlers you have to chop down wood, or gather food they dont need a mill or lumber camp nearby so they gather resources really fast and eventually run out. Having to send them off somewhere else. And then you have your explorer, gotta keep him moving around the map to find indians and treasures. In the meantime you're just trying to build your economy / military in which honestly, you can grow a HUGE military and settlers in no time at all. Within 10 minutes, I had a church, created a few priests, created like 20 military guys, created 10 archers, created 2 grenadiers, I had 3 outpost wagons. And I have a whole bunch of crates in front of my town center that came from the home city I dont really need! They're just sitting there, so I have to manage a settler to open them what have you. So theres a lot to manage you dont really know where to start. I just pumped out a bunch of military guys and situated them around my town. Kind of felt like I won the game right then lol. A word to the enemies: Good luck trying to get through! I didnt need to make contact with Indians, or find treasure. I just sat there creating settlers to gather resources, then build buildings, then build a military. I have resources up the ying yang and theres no enemy coming to attack. I had to turn the game off cause Im sitting there with a HUGE military and I havent even sent my explorer out yet lol.

So how does this relate to AoE 2? AoE 2 was REAL STRATEGY! I have old notebooks I recently found in the garage I was looking through where I wrote down my strategy in the game. Those were the good old days. Like "build a second wall in NE corner of empire" ... "kill the villager trying to build a castle to the east outside the gates" ... "there will be 2 enemy monks carrying Relics south of us, so send out 5 cavalry, and create 2 monks". "Try to defeat the enemy civ to the west of us as we will then control the south western portion of the map, they also have extra resources on that land, and 1 relic I believe". If we can conquer that land, the civ to the north of them is small so they can be taken out as well. Build a strong defense on the eastern side of empire, and start an offensive on the west". THAT is a strategy game. When you have to pause the game every 15 seconds and think everything through. Constantly saving it, planning and managing your resources. I cant see that being done with AoE 3. I had a friend who played all the campaigns on it and he said he liked it. Im sure its an ok game to play as far as campaigns go. But AoE 2 is the REAL RTS if thats what you're looking for. This game seems it can be fun to some extent. You have a home city, theres treasure and indians (kinda lame though, like a treasure is guarded by 2 black bears that instantly die from 5 musketeers before they even deal damage lol, ok whats the point of that? And when I gathered the treasure I have no idea what i received. Probably a couple hundred gold I really didnt need cause I had 8 guys on the silver mine and a few unopened crates). Oh and you receive extra resources when you choose a "politician" when you advance to the next level so that adds MORE free resources you have enough of! R&D did the best they can to create a fun game. Its not the game for me though. Too fast, hard to manage, somewhat boring / easy and not very strategic. I also couldnt find the hotkey option in the game??

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