Caesar III Review

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(More customer reviews)This is one of my favorite games. It is simple enough to pick up and play, yet it takes awhile to learn exactly how it works. (There is some great information out on the internet to help you along.) Trying to get your city to work just right is very addicting. I have replayed many of the scenarios several times, trying out different approaches to the problems they present.

I originally bought it years ago, and just picked up a used one to be able to play it on my laptop, if my kids are playing it on the desktop.

If you like the city-building games, this one is a must-have. It is definatly a classic.

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Product Description:
As a provincial governor charged with spreading the glory of Rome your mission is clear; build cities, foster trade and industry, make money.

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Sierra Emperor: Rise Of The Middle Kingdom Review

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(More customer reviews)I love this game! This is one of the best that Sierra has produced. It eliminates most of the bugs of early games without losing any of the inherent whimsy.

It is a great strategic game that allows for fast paced thought as well as long term planning. Admittedly, while many of the boards do take a while to work through (building the Great Wall or constructing Canals)there is seldom 'nothing to do' while your people work. And unlike earlier games (Pharoah and Cleopatra) it is easier to manage the finances of the civilization. The only mechanism which I wish they had kept from the aforementioned Egyptian games is the ability to donate money from one's personal finances to the city itself. However, it is a greatly improved version of its predecessors and one only wishes that Sierra would re-release their early games with an updated mechanism.

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Product Description:
MINIMUM PC REQUIREMENTS Windows 98/2000/ME/XP Pentium II 400MHz Processor 64MB RAM 800MB Hard Disk Space 4X CD-ROM Drive 4MB SVGA 800x600 at 16-bit colors Video Card Mouse

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Buccaneer's Bounty Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a great bundle. Tortuga and Port Royale II are similar games that give the player the opportunity to sail between several Carribean islands and amass a fortune by either trading, taking contracts/missions, pirating, or a combination of all styles. Patrician is more town based and emphasizes RTS style play centered on a successful economy.

Viewpoint in all three games varies depending on what you are doing. Port Royale and Patrician use an isometric view in towns, while Tortuga uses a landscape style "view from the sea" interface. Players may select buildings to open menus that pertain to each particular structures function. Tortuga and PR use an overhead view while the player is at sea, using a blown up map of the islands to travel.

All three titles are fun and have their own unique merits. I prefered Tortuga as it offered what I thought was a superior level of gameplay balance. PR, however, has an added bit of depth that allows the player to actually build structures on islands and start producing products to sell. This offers a nice added bit of depth and challenge as it then becomes necessary to make sure your factories have raw materials, make sure you have an adequate workforce, and make sure your workforce has housing etc..

I have played Patrician least of the the 3 which accounts for my limited comments.

While a little dated graphically all three titles offer solid gameplay experiences at a remarkably affordable price. Additionally, there are not too many current generation games that offer similar gameplay.

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Product Description:
Includes 3 action packed stratgey games in 1 package - all with a Pirate theme! Get ready for some the ultimate Pirate adventure with Patrician 3, Port Royale 2 and Tortuga.

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Stronghold 2 Deluxe Review

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(More customer reviews)This game is great. It runs fine on my system. I have a AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ @ 2.4 Ghz, Onboard Geforce 6150se (not the greatest) with 128mb, and Windows Vista Home Premium. Runs like a champ. Its alot harder than Crusader by a long shot. If you have played crusader then you know its not so much about the castle and more about killing people. In this one its seems more about your castle. I mean you get lots of great units to use to kill your enemy, but to get there it takes great castle management. Very fun game once you get the hang of it!

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Product Description:
Build. Battle. Become a King.Product InformationPlay the ultimate castle simulation in Stronghold 2 Deluxe. Expand yourlands and build and fortify your citadel. Entertain with jousts lavish feastsand tournaments or rule with an iron fist and dispense medieval justice to youroverworked and slovenly peasants. Stronghold 2 is an accurate amazing anddynamic depiction of siege-warfare and castle-life ever portrayed.New FeaturesMore MapsAdditional OpponentsAdditional Historical CastlesCrusade Across Europe in a New Game ModeProduct FeaturesFight daring duels through castle keeps over walls and inside greattowersAll new troop units and siege equipment and now formations allow epicwarfareLook inside buildings and watch as medieval day-to-day life unfoldsHold lavish feasts and spectacular jousting tournaments that bestow honorupon youWindows RequirementsWindows 98 Me 2000 XP2 GHz processor512 MB or RAM2.5 GB Hard Disk space64 MB DirectX 9.0c compatibleGraphics CardDirectX 9.0c compatible Sound CardDVD-ROM DriveLAN and broadband Internet play supported

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Master Of Olympus: Zeus W/ Poseidon Exp. Review

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(More customer reviews)My daughter and I are addicted.Best city building game I have ever used. Easy and not over detailed, takes plenty of planning so you have to play the game multiple times to get it right. ALways a challenge no matter how many time youplay it. Once you play you are hooked. DOnt bother with Pharaoh, its the same game, different graphics. I find the other city building games too detailed or stress too much war/battling.This would have been a great game in 7th grade to to learn all the mythology. They need a NOrse version!

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Product Description:
Zeus: Master of Olympus is the sixth game in the award-winning Impressions City Building Series, which has sold over two million copies worldwide. Zeus: Master of Olympus, set in a mythological ancient Greece, serves up a world filled with the likes of Hercules, Athena, Ares, Medusa, the Minotaur, and many others. Players build and rule Greek city-states while summoning heroes and gods to protect their land from monsters and other Greek cities. Easy to learn, and quick to get in and out of, Zeus promises to be one of the most fun city-building games of 2000.Poseidon: Zeus Official Expansion: Return to ancient Greece and rule Atlantis as described by Plato! In Poseidon: Zeus Official Expansion, you'll rule an advanced civilization that built monumental pyramids, sanctuaries, observatories, and great libraries. You'll summon Bellerophon and Atalanta, and battle the terrifying Chimera. You'll meet ancient civilizations from both sides of the Atlantic, and decide to trade or conquer. Poseidon: Zeus Official Expansion features new gods, heroes, monsters, and resources. Play more than 45 exciting episodes in six epic adventures. Conquer or trade with Mayans, Egyptians, Phoenicians, and more. Meet such new gods as Atlas and Hera. Poseidon offers unlimited play. You can even design your own myths with a simple yet powerful Adventure Editor.

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Patrician 3 Review

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(More customer reviews)Who knew that being a member of the Hanseatic League would make for a fun game?Anyone who figured out that zoning can be fun (SimCity), or pretending to have a real life can be fun (The Sims) knows that the topic can be unusual if the gameplay is there.In fact, games that aren't clones of other games are a welcome sight.Patrician 3 is a fun game on a topic few would expect to see in a game.

This is a trading sim.You start in Luebeck in 1345, with one ship, and build an empire.You buy more ships, set up trade routes, build manufacturing facilities, and try to keep the people of your hometown supplied with all of their wants and needs.Patrician 3 is probably most like Machiavelli: the Prince (AKA Merchant Prince).

The graphics are fine, once you recognize that their purpose is to present information.There's a map of the North Sea, and a map for each town.The battle graphics are serviceable, but don't look for 3-D like Pirates of the Carribean, there is an overhead map with icons.

Gameplay is what Patrician 3 offers.As one reviewer said, this is an oddly compelling game.If you like the genre, this is a "one-more-turn" experience on the order of Civ 3, though Patrician 3 does not have the replayability that Civ does. You can shuffle what cities are good at, and there is a campaign game, but each successive Patrician 3 game tends to be too similar to be playing it week after week.Nonetheless, you'll have plenty of fun before you tire of it, and you'll come back to it months later unlike so many other games.

Beware, however, that Patrician 3 is not supported on many laptops.I installed and ran the game fine, but when I tried to play again I could not initialize the graphics.Ascaron is very clear that they do not support laptops because of the limited graphics "cards" these typically have.

There are not too many changes from Partician 2, but this is a fine game for any new player who likes trade-and-build games, and any Patrician 2 fan who doesn't need a major overhaul to justify upgrading.

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Product Description:
Based on the award winning Patrician IIProduct InformationPatrician III is a real-time trading simulation featuring elements ofconstruction and the historical background of maritime trade in Northern Europeduring the 1300's. As a resident of a medieval town your goal is to risefrom the status of a simple insignificant trader to that of a Patrician andperhaps even become the head of the Hanseatic League. You can raise yourstanding through town improvement and diplomacy or fill your coffers throughpiracy and smuggling.Will you succeed in your career starting as a small trader and rising to aninfluential Patrician? Will your fame help you rise to governor or leaderof the Hanse?Product FeaturesImmersive trade economics sea battles diplomacy and intrigueEstablish and build your own towns and production facilitiesDiscover the dark side: weapons dealing piracy bribery and blackmailObtain missions including hunting pirates smuggling collecting treasuremapsConfront medieval plagues hunger storms and siegesSeasonal and enhanced weather effects: rain snow ice and trees andbushes in bloom - creating a real sense of time and with effects that alsoimpact on production and transportationExtensive building options such as warehouses mints elementary schoolsbarns churchesExtend the city walls increase defenses form your own city guardAdvanced Artificial Intelligence adjusts difficulty based on yourexperience and abilityGame modes: Single player Campaign Multiplayer (up to 8 players via 1PC LAN or Internet)Windows RequirementsWindows 98 Me 2000 XPPentium III 450 MHz processor or higher64 MB of RAM660 MB Hard Drive space32 MB Direct 3D compatible 3D accelerated Graphics Card8X CD-ROM driveDirectX compatible Sound CardDirectX 7.1 or higher (included on CD)Network card for LAN multiplayer modeInternet connection for online multiplayer mode

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Zeus Expansion: Poseidon Review

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(More customer reviews)Poseidon is the expansion for the game Zeus, city-building in ancient Greece.New gods, monsters and heros, plus an "Atlantean" slant on the game, keep it fresh and interesting.Also, there are new adventures for Greek cities.The basic premise hasn't changed:one builds the city/colony to achieve the victory conditions in the episode.The Episodes tie together and link to each other in the adventure.The Atlantean twists are replacing the "Cultural" enchancements of the Greek city-states with "Science"-as Atlanteans prized knowledge and learning according to myth.Additional aesthethic improvements are available (as well as to the Greek adventures). Some minor bugs in the game system have been fixed; also now one may halt construction of any major building.Additionally the details about construction are much more useful than before.Speaking of bugs, I can't really think of any in Poseidon-a tribute to the team that built the program. If you enjoyed Zeus, you will really like the additional features in the enchancement.

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Product Description:
Return to ancient Greece and rule Atlantis as described by Plato! In Poseidon: Zeus Official Expansion, you'll rule an advanced civilization that built monumental pyramids, sanctuaries, observatories, and great libraries. You'll summon Bellerophon and Atalanta, and battle the terrifying Chimera. You'll meet ancient civilizations from both sides of the Atlantic, and decide to trade or conquer.
Poseidon: Zeus Official Expansion features new gods, heroes, monsters, and resources. Play more than 45 exciting episodes in six epic adventures. Conquer or trade with Mayans, Egyptians, Phoenicians, and more. Meet such new gods as Atlas and Hera. Poseidon offers unlimited play. You can even design your own myths with a simple yet powerful Adventure Editor.

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Settlers 5 Heritage Kings Gold Review

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(More customer reviews)I first purchased and played Settlers 6, which is absolutely excelent.
I am a little disapointed with #5 and expected it to be more like #6.
It should be noted that I bought #5 as a protest to the newest game in the series.
The devil is in the details with #7 . . . must annually pay a subsciption for a server;
server crashes;no off-line play at all ETC. UBI-Soft made a classic blunder. Shame, it
is one of the reasons why I know nothing about FF11, for example.

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Product Description:
The Complete Settlers ExperienceProduct InformationSettlers Heritage of Kings Gold Edition provides you with the full version ofThe Settlers Heritage of Kings and the expansion disc. The Settlers:Heritage of Kings is a world-building strategy game with fully rendered 3Dvisuals and unavoidably addictive gameplay. Players can dive into a detailedmedieval world offering a unique mix of RTS and simulation gameplay. A fullyfunctioning community can be created; new advancements can be discovered andenemy forces will be repelled! In the Expansion Pack a new danger appearsclearly on the horizon and once again it is Dario who has to fight for hisheritage and the peace of his country's residents.Product Title IncludedThe Settlers Heritage of KingsThe Settlers Heritage of Kings Expansion PackProduct OverviewThe Settlers Heritage of KingsIn The Settlers - Rise of an Empire playersbuild lively bustling towns in a medieval world. Everything in this richlydetailed realistic world is visible and lovingly animated. Each Settler figurehas his or her own daily routine with a range of different actions andbehaviors that can be observed at all times. The ultimate objective of the gameis to expand your empire and become a legendary ruler. Spur your settlerson to ever greater efforts develop a flourishing economy satisfy the needs ofyour citizens and protect your people from danger!The world of The Settlers is lush dynamic and full of variety: largeislands deserts dense forests fertile countryside mountains and fjords. Aworld with a rich history and many a story. A world of several nations eachpursuing its own interests.Build your town in this world in a way that it can grow and prosper. Gatherresources and manage the food supply. Expand and improve your town by planningit with foresight and building roads and fortifications. Construct buildings toimprove its productivity. Hire traveling entertainers and organize a fa

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1602 A.D. Review

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(More customer reviews)I have been a Gamer (Mainly Strategy) now for approx 18 months and have bought all the top rating Strategy games that have been distributed including Age of Empires, Railroad Tycoon, Homeworld,Caesar111, Pharaoh,Alpha Centauri,HOMM. now they are all in the drawer, I have been playing1602ad (Demo Version) because as yet we cant get the full version here inAustralia, every night and have become so addicted to it that I have been emailing all over the World to try and get the full version.
Never has agame captivated me so much, its Empire building and easy interestingprogress of your City through development and trade always want me to try anew way and direction. One is not distracted by other players attacking youbut to some regard you are left alone to better your own City. I now havereached the stage where the darn game shuts down after saying one shouldbuy the full version and you have reached the level of under standing.Igive this game 5 stars and recommend it most heartily. Perhaps when youhave tried it you lucky Americans you can give me a email,, Good hunting,Grumpy Gramps

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Product Description:
Discover, build, and rule your own new world. The year is 1602, and your future at home is uncertain. On board a ship, a small band of courageous explorers have decided to set sail to begin a new life and seek their fortune in far-off lands. As their leader, you must explore undiscovered coasts, establish new settlements and diplomacy, conduct trade, and sometimes battle to ensure the survival of your new colony.

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Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom Review

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(More customer reviews)I want to start this review with a disclaimer: I don't know a lot about game programming, so if you want a technical analysis of the game, this isn't the review for you. I do know that I like it though.

I would say that this game is on a par with Sierra's other city building games-Caesar III, Pharoah, Cleopatra, Zeus, and Poseidon-but with one new feature: you can play it online with your friends. If not for that feature, I probably would've only given this game 4 stars. The graphics are pretty cool but I've been having a hard time with the toolbar. The icons all look the same to me. The warehouse icon looks like a trading post icon that looks like a mill icon, etc. I suppose I'll get used to it. I remember not liking that about Zeus at first either, but that one eventually became my favorite.

The other interesting thing about this game (I say interesting because I'm not sure I like it yet) is that feng shui is very important to your people. In the other games, if you could place a building in a certain spot you got a green footprint, if you couldn't, you got a red footprint. In this game you get red, green, and YELLOW footprints. If you get a yellow footprint over the spot you want to place a building on, you can still put it there if you want, but it decreases your feng shui rating. And the less harmonious your feng shui, the less your people like you. So you really have to think a lot when you're building your city.

I'm not sure that this game is Sierra's best city building game yet, but it's still fun to play and I would recommend buying it. I would also recommend getting Acropolis, which is Zeus and it's expansion pack Poseidon in the same package.

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Product Description:
In Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom, you are transported back in time to when emperors reigned and China was the greatest and most resplendent power on Earth. Epic in scope, Emperor spans seven dynasties and more than 3,000 years of Chinese history--from China's preimperial Xia dynasty circa 2100 B.C. to the Mongol invasion of the Middle Kingdom under Genghis Khan in A.D. 1211.
As emperor, you will build housing to attract immigrants to your new city. Then the city's workers and farmers, administrators and soldiers will be yours to command, and you will have the work force you need to build a provincial city into a great metropolis. At your bidding, legions of workers will toil to erect walls strong enough to keep the barbarians at bay. Under your banner, armies will march forth to do battle with the enemy. Trade and commerce will flourish, and an army of tax collectors will collect the taxes due. Schools and clinics, palaces and gardens will embellish the city you have built and proclaim your benevolence to the world.

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Pharaoh Official Expansion: Cleopatra Review

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(More customer reviews)After beta testing this add on for the last six weeks, I was very impressed with the additional history of the great leaders of Egypt and new features to make the original game that much more enjoyable.
This add-oninstalls over the original Pharoah game and includes about fifteen newmissions spread over four different campaigns. The wonderful part is theinclusion of tomb building in the Valley of the Kings and famous landmarkslike the Great Library at Alexandra and one of the lost wonders of theancient world - the Lighthouse at Alexandra.
For those that feltmissions from Pharoah took too long because the pyramid building processwasslow, you now have the option to allow the gods of your city to helpspeed up the building through blessings, which can shave hours off somegames, but only if you keep the gods happy. If not the programmers haveadded new ways for the gods to punish you for not giving them their duerespect. Plagues of frogs infesting your houses, locust destorying yourfields, hail storms killing your people and the Nile turning to blood arebeautifully done and make game play a joy.
The new missions are morechallenging then the older Pharoah missions which may be the only draw backto individuals that found some of the original missions hard tocomplete.
This expansion also includes the campaign editor that wasreleased earlier this year via the web; new industries such as paint andlamp makers; new statues; new and more difficult enemies to fight;scorpions, loins and asps to deal with, and a number of new material toimport/export and use to meet the goals of city building. A few newbuildings are also included, my favorite being the Zoo which if keptsupplied contains a number of animated animals for your citizens toenjoy.
Probably the nicest feature that old Pharoah players will enjoy inthe ability to play any mission in any order you choose. For those that mayhave gotten stuck on a difficult mission, you'll now be able to skip overit and continue with the game.
This expansion will provide you withdozens of hours of added enjoyment to your original Pharoah game.

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Product Description:
The Nile calls once again as the Queen of Kings takes center stage in Pharaoh Official Expansion: Cleopatra, with four new campaigns for Pharaoh. Offering a completely new story line, starting with the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt, this expansion pack includes the mysterious and exotic time of Cleopatra VII.

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Zeus: Master of Olympus Review

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(More customer reviews)I finally got my hands on a copy of Zeus, and it surely doesn't disappoint. First off I noticed that this game plays very similar to Pharaoh. The animations of the characters that walk around have been slightly improved, but the biggest leap forward is the animations of the gods who walk around your city. Those are some of the best looking sprites I have EVER seen in any game, great job on those. Another aspect of the game which I love is all the little soundbites in the game. I spent hours clicking on everything I could to hear what they have to say, most of the time its really funny. Not only that you hear the strangest comments during the game, one that stands out is I always seem to hear someone saying, "Where's my spear, how can I be a spear carrier without my spear". Just little things like that make the game exciting. As for the monument building side of this game, it does take a lot less time than building a pyramid did in Pharaoh, but don't get me wrong, we are still talking hours in some cases, not that I mind. Some of the original new parts of this game is that you can blackmail and attack other city states if you wish. Everytime I have tried thus far I usually come out on the losing end mainly cause of to small a force. The campaign structure part of the game is a little different than past city builders in that you have these smaller Adventures which don't take nearly as long. Some are a little to easy, but I still think this is a great idea for future player created adventures. What can I say, I just love this game, it expands on all other city builders, looks great, sounds great, and any game that keeps me up till 3am four consecutive nights has my vote for a great game!

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Product Description:
Zeus: Master of Olympus is the sixth game in the award-winning Impressions City Building Series, which has sold over two million copies worldwide. Zeus: Master of Olympus, set in a mythological ancient Greece, serves up a world filled with the likes of Hercules, Athena, Ares, Medusa, the Minotaur, and many others. Players build and rule Greek city-states while summoning heroes and gods to protect their land from monsters and other Greek cities. Easy to learn, and quick to get in and out of, Zeus promises to be one of the most fun city-building games of 2000.

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Pharaoh Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Where, oh where to begin?I dug Caesar III to the point where it caused me to lose sleep and affect my health.Being a huge fan of Egyptian history, I was salivating for months while Impressions developedPharaoh.
I was not disappointed.The graphics, while not your latest3D-Accelerated Zing-Boom flavor, are slick and very nice to look at.Thegameplay is all we remember from the Citybuilding series, plus a bunch ofnew surprises.There are many differences in the way you build a Romancity vs. an Egyptian city, and it's refreshing to see that Pharaoh goes foraccuracy in the little details.This is a detail-oriented game, after all. Floodplain farming, the lack of groundwater in the desert and monumentbuilding are some of the interesting differences between Pharaoh and CaesarIII.Management of religion is improved somewhat, though I still findmyself constructing "temple row" somewhere out of the way just tomake sure all the gods are equally appeased.
The biggest stumbling block,ironically, is also Pharaoh's greatest triumph: the accurate and detailedprocess it takes to build monuments.You don't just say "Oh, I wannabuild a pyramid" and plunk it down.No, first you must build theinfrastructure; guilds must cut and lay stone, peasants must prepare thebuild site and haul stone.Carpenters must build ramps, etc etc.Theprocess of building a pyramid is excellent, and most fun to watch... whenit goes as planned.
Unfortunately, the damn things take FOREVER to build! You may have met all your victory requirements for a given mission fourhours previous, but you're stuck waiting for that Pyramid to build. Sometimes carpenters just don't come build the ramps, and your stonehaulers are left stacked up waiting to deposit their loads (that stuff getsheavy after a few months!).
Game lengths aside, Pharaoh is as fun andaddicting as any strategy game I've played, and the city-building style isalways a refreshing change from the "Gather>Build Units>DestroyEnemy" formula that most RTS games employ.In Pharaoh, if you don'tmake your city work, or plan, or listen to your people, you'll be oneunhappy city manager.
This game rocks

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Product Description:
This software is BRAND NEW. Packaging may differ slightly from the stock photo above. Please click on our logo above to see over 15,000 titles in stock.

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