Age of Empires III: The War Chiefs Expansion Pack Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I've been playing this game since it was first released and added the expansion pack as quickly as it came out. I just don't get tired of it. I highly recommend it.

The newest release builds on the past two with all of the fantastic strategy included in the earlier games. The new improvements are vast and I'm sure that other users and reviews will be able to expand on them more directly. However, if you've played AoE games in the past, this one will not disappoint. They've dropped some of the more esoteric and mundane steps (like villagers constantly returning to town center) and have added simplifying features but haven't sacrificed any of the strategy. I think version three finally brings it all together.

There are a few features which are lacking, however, the scenario game play is a little weak in AoE III and I didn't see any addition in the expansion pack. Also, the scenario creator has so much potential for active users to build situations that others might like to play but requires so much time and effort as to be useless.

On the whole, I certainly recommend this game and the expansion pack to anyone who is interested in strategy games.

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Product Description:

MODEL- MS-CD25988WI VENDOR- MICROSOFT

FEATURES- Age of Empires III: The Warchiefs
Try the new expansion pack for the best-selling real-time strategy
title of 2005--Age of Empires III from Ensemble Studios and
Microsoft Game Studios.
Microsoft Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs--the new expansion pack
for Age of Empires III--will engage gamers of all ages and types in
epic warfare in the Americas where they will lead the proud native
civilizations to expand their empire and fight for control of the
Americas.
* Playable Native American civilizations
Lead one of three proud Native American civilizations. Each civilization
has its own unique units buildings and a distinct approach to their
Home City feature.
* Gripping new single-player campaign
Play through 15 new missions with a rich story and a cast of characters
that interact with real historic figures and events.
* Enhancements to European civilizations
The expansion pack will also provide exciting additions to existing
European civilizations with new Home City content new units and new
ways to look at your card deck.
* Extended gameplay
Experience more of everything including new random maps in unique
locations in the Americas additional native allies and units more
statistics tracking and new ways to play.

REQUIREMENTS- 1.4 GHz or faster processor
256 MB of RAM
2 GB of available hard-disk space
Windows XP MANUFACTURER WARRANTY:90 DAYS

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Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties Expansion Pack Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This is a solid expansion to the AGE OF EMPIRES III, the one you will play for hours at end. Although the 3rd installment of AoE was the weakest of the series (I personally enjoyed much more AGE OF EMPIRES II), I have to admit that I was really pleased by this expansion - and cannot complain but about minor things.

After the lukewarm WARCHIEFS, which introduced Native American civilizations, this expansion introduces three major Asian civilizations (Japanese, Chinese, and Indian) - with their corresponding campaigns.
The Japanese campaign takes place during the Shogunate civil wars. The Chinese campaign (trying to avoid any...political shoals) is on the fictional discovery of the New World by the Chinese (I would have preferred it to be about the unification of China under the Qin dynasty - but, then again, that would make it quite similar to the Japanese campaign). Finally, the Indian campaign is centered on the uprooting of the British East-India Trading Company.
All three campaigns follow a scenario that will surprise you at many points (and frustrate you in some others). Nevertheless, keep in mind that this is an RTS game - so don't expect a JAMES CLAVELL novel plot twists.

The graphics are just a notch better than WARCHIEFS, the interface has received only minor retouching strokes and one can rely on finding, once more, the known exceptional gameplay. Not only are the new units carefully balanced, they can be seamlessly incorporated with the previous AGE OF EMPIRES III units. Stacking Samurai infantry against Highlanders anyone? (yes, only one can survive in the end...)

My only complain is the music: AoE's are of the games that are played for endless hours. So music is important not to be tiresome. This being the ASIAN DYNASTIES expansion, I felt that the game developers missed the chance of introducing some new and distinctly Japanese, Chinese and Indian tunes. Well, one can always bring his own music I guess...

One of the best expansions this year.

RECOMMENDED.

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Product Description:
MicrosoftAge of Empires III:Asian Dynasties Expansion Pack Win32 .Rule powerful and exotic Japanese, Chinese and Indian civilications of the East; battle with Samurai, Chinese Banner Armies and devastating war elephant troops; build powerful wonders such as the Great Wall and TajMahal to advance in Age.

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Age of Empires III: Complete Collection Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This collection of the basic game and expansions is a good value for Real Time Strategy (RTS) game players.The War Chiefs expansion is ok, campaign short, and not a lot of depth.The Asian Dynasties Expansion is a lot of fun, three campaigns (Japan, India, China), with each nation having their own wonders giving them unique special abilities.The different nations are neat, but not having a United States colonial civilization to choose from in skirmish mode is disappointing, especially after playing the campaign game in War Chiefs.The campaigns are easier to complete and have less depth than Age of Empires II (AoE2).AoE3 campaigns were overall fun, but require much less strategy to win; build one small army to defend your base and when the large army is ready to go, overwhelm the computer.

The graphics have improved, but did experienced significant lag and even game freezing at times due to ship combat on the duo-core Thinkpad, even with all graphic options reduced to minimal levels.Other than naval combat, the game played well.Not sure why the lag occurred.

There are some improvements to the game play where a single large farm can be built and no need to worry about cueing or constantly checking if there is enough wood to re-task the workers to harvest food.The use of a home city for the campaign game is really neat with special cards to provide resources, upgrades, or units.Each nation has unique units and cards.The strategy of the cards is very important, does the player want to have early age villagers to gather resources faster or hold on for the late age military units for the end game battles?This adds depth to the game.

The basic resources are still wood, gold, food, with experience for home city improvement (cards).Experience is gained from killing enemy units, destroying structures, building units, and having a trading post.

The negative about the game is the combat options.The player no longer has the option for unit formations or commands such as defend ground or hold ground.Units will rush off when attacked and baited by the enemy.Worse yet, units will stay in large massed formations when attacking artillery units, to be blown apart.The player can not select skirmish mode or defend unit mode.Your healer will rush off and attack an enemy building or unit.

Another negative is artillery units being too strong to destroy and the targeting of units.Example would be attacking a group of enemy artillery units that are in marching order.Your cavalry can attack the artillery, but somehow, even the big siege gun, will be able to unlimber and fire, killing multiple units even though they are engaged in hand to hand combat against swordsmen and cavalry.Artillery does not cause splash or collateral damage to friendly units too.So if the enemy has their infantry attacking yours in hand to hand combat, their artillery will be able to fire through them and only kill your units, not theirs.This is a frustrating factor.

As we know in history, artillery units, when attacked in hand to hand combat, can not fire, also siege cannons, take a long time to reload and can not if the crews are attacked in hand to hand combat.But in AoE3, the game has super artillery being able to unlimber and fire multiple times, killing your units before being finally subdued while under attack the entire time.The siege cannons take a lot of damage to destroy too.This is a very frustrating experience that detracts from the game.

Given lack of combat formation / options and the lag time experienced in naval combat, AoE2 and Age of Mythology are still the preferred games.The massive battles with large armies between multiple players were a lot fun in AoE2 as each side slugged it out, but for some reason, lacking the same level of intensity and excitement in AoE3.

Unfortunately, Ensemble Studios was closed by Microsoft, which is not a good sign for us computer gamers.If Microsoft closes their only computer game developer, it becomes very clear that their focus is to make money from console games.The loss of Ensemble Studios means that we computer strategy game players will have fewer quality games to purchase and play in the future.

Thank you Ensemble Studios, your games have been fun to play and AoE3 was another enjoyable experience.

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Product Description:
Age of Empires III will offer gamers the next level of realism, with advanced battle physics and unparalleled visual detail.

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