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**CAUTION: Please Read Prior to Purchase

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 18 / 21
Date: November 15, 2005
Author: Amazon User

First, I would like to point out that I was never able to actually play this game, thereby accounting for my rather poor rating.

That being said, PLEASE do yourself a favor if you're thinking of purchasing this game - download the demo from [...].

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Upon purchasing this game and downloading the update, (1.01 as of the time of this review), I came home to a rather horrific surprise. My computer wouldn't even install the game DESPITE meeting the minimum system requirements.

When I attempted to install the game, I received an error stating that my CPU does not support SSE Technology and thus the installation aborts. Unless I'm going to pony up money for a new/ adaptable Processor, there is no way I can play now. Also, the retailer I purchased this game from does not allow returns on opened software/ PC Games. (Can you blame them?)

Upon further review, I searched AOE3's website and, under "System Requirements," still did not see ANYTHING CLEARLY STATING "SSE" INSTRUCTION SET REQUIRED.

I am out some serious cash-money. I'm frustrated and will honestly never purchase a game from Ensemble Studios again. Microsoft/ Ensemble Studios should address this issue as it appears to be fairly common. Just search Google for
Age+of+Empires+3+SSE
and you'll see.

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In conclusion, please be advised and do not make the same mistake I did. Take the time to download the demo FIRST just to see if your CPU will handle the game.

*NOTE: Minimum Requirements per AOE3 Website >> My Computer
CPU: 1.4GHz >> 1.8GHz AMD Athlon XP
RAM: 256MB >> 512MB
Video: 64MB >> 128MB ATI Radeon
O/S: Windows XP >> Windows XP Professional, SP2

Again, please be advised and good luck with your purchase. As for downloading the Demo, it'll be time-consuming even with Broadband. However, if it saves you $45.....

Good Luck.

For some....great technical problems (i.e., BUGS!@#!)

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 15 / 23
Date: October 23, 2005
Author: Amazon User

WARNING: Bug-ware alert

After paying my $50 for this game, I loaded the three CDs required, rebooted my computer, expecting to play all night long.

Much to my surprise, I'd launch the icon to start the game, and it would give me an error and exit as it got to the main menu - each and every time. I made 12 attempts, still nothing. My computer is a 2005-model HP Pavillion with fast Pentium 4 and 1 GB RAM. Definitely should be able to handle this game.

Being resourceful, I found the technical support site. I wasn't too shocked to find a significant number of people who also had this problem too. And the publisher does NOT have any answers for them -- certainly not when or if it will be fixed. (They already have your money, and aren't giving it back.) I'm still awaiting my answer too! And I'm still out my $50, plus tax and shipping.

WARNING: Buy at your own peril. You won't get a refund. These people need to be held accountable.

Buggy, Buggy, Buggy! Unplayable

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 14 / 15
Date: December 01, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Be warned before you purchase this game as there numerous bugs and technical issues. A huge majority of the playerbase have had technical issues you can read about at the AoE3 official website forums. There is a patch expected, but it has not yet been released. The game is plagued with lock ups, sound issues, mouse freezing, online gaming troubles, and even installation troubles. It was poorly tested and seems to have been released to make the Christmas rush, not because it was finished.

I can't comment too much on the gameplay itself, as I've only been able to play about 10 minutes before it locks up. I stroungly recommend waiting for the patches and feedback from players saying it's working fine before purchasing this game. WAIT UNTIL THEY FIX THE BUGS BEFORE PURCHASING!

Don't Believe the Listed System Requirements

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 13 / 17
Date: January 16, 2006
Author: Amazon User

My system meets the nearly invisible system requirements microscopicly printed on the box but it still would not install because it detected an "unsupported video card." Turns out the README file contains a huge list of video cards they already know won't work but of course you can't see that list until you open the box.

Age of Empires for Idiots

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 14 / 27
Date: January 18, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Is it too much to ask that a sequel be better than the games that came before it?

Here is my theory: the game designers wanted to create a game that was more multi-player friendly. Therefore, they took the old version and stripped it down. Less units, less technology, fewer buildings, etc. Heck, I think the maps are even smaller.

What they created was AOE for Idiots. In fact, the game is so simplified that you really don't even need half of the advances they give you. Just collect resources, build a big army, and go smash someone. That's it.

Warning: Do not install

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 12 / 16
Date: November 14, 2005
Author: Amazon User

If you are still determined to purchase this game after reading all the reviews here - do yourself a favor and search the tech forums first. There are a lot of questions and not many answers.

Some people think this game requires 64 bit capable processors - others note the long list of unsupported video cards, but many have serious problems. Patch 1.01 was only for the german version, and didn't fix any bugs.

This game seemed to work fine on my computer (AMD64 X2, 2 gig, unsupported ATI vid card), but it made the entire computer run 4x slower. After about a week of gameplay I got the dreaded sound problem (for no reason) and finally decided to remove the game. After uninstall failed to re-gain the previous speed of this relativley new computer, I re-formatted and re-installed the entire machine. I have friends that have done the same after noticing the same decrease in performance.

As others have stated here - the new "features" are not worth risking your comptuer's health.

Does not work with Windows 2000 - but should

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 11 / 35
Date: October 25, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Well it looks like those nice folks from microshaft want you to upgrade from a perfectly fine operating system to XP just to install this P.O.S.........this is bang out of order. Dont let this be the start of something very sinister......(forced upgrades when THEY decide) ByeBye AOE3 nice try.

Not worth buying, a big disappointment

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 11 / 15
Date: December 06, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I have been playing AOE I and II for years, but I have to say this is a big disappointment. Except for 3D, I don't see any improvement
any all. This is a game that will be forgotten quickly. If you have not bought so far, don't.

Stinker

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 11 / 20
Date: February 16, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Well to say I was disappointed is quite understating what I felt about for this game. I was expecting Age of Empires 3 not Empire Earth without the bombers. The game has none of the feeling of its predecessors, it has small cramped maps not the sweeping expanses of AoE 1+2, the AI is retarded, there is little logic in advancement, the battle tactics non existent, you can't even set formations. No surprises at all if you have played Empire Earth. In fact EE (which is a really poor game in itself) is much more engrossing than this simplistic, albeit very pretty, direct port of Empire Earth. My kids, whose pocket money was spent on this wasted effort, were even more disappointed than I was.

It is not Age of Empires 3, it has neither the feel, game play nor charm of the Age of Empires games series and I look forward to Microsoft & Ensemble Studios actually bringing out the proper Age of Empires 3.

Buyer Beware -- You'll Need a New Computer And Then Some...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 10 / 18
Date: January 30, 2006
Author: Amazon User

OK, sports fans here's the low down. We live in a neighorhood of boys running from about 7 to 14 with a few outliers on each side. Unfortunatley, they are all into playing video games. So, when one kid got AOE III, they all had to have it. Here is what transpired from a parent's point of view. Now mind you, we live in a pretty affluent area. Everybody has at least one pc and there is almost always one pretty up to date, hot machine in each home. One of my son's friend's dad is an exec with Intel and gets every new technology there is, much of it for free. Despite this, not a single computer in the neighborhood would play AOE III without buying, at a minimum, a new graphics card. We are running a DELL Dimension 4600, Pentium P4 2.66 GHz with 512 MB of RAM. The graphics card is a NVidia GeForce FX5200 and we've got a 75 GB hard drive with tons of space on it. The drivers for the NVidia have all been updated per DELL instructions. We're up to date on MS Direct X using 9.0c. Bottom line: it won't run AOE III. Now according to the AOE III box, our system should be more than enough to run this game -- but it won't. I've spent several hours, includng a couple using DELL help and still can't get AOE III to run.
A neighbor up the street has a four-week old Fry Computer that is loaded. It wouldn't run AOE III and he took it back to Fry's. They had to install an NVidia PX6600 TD in order to run AOE III. That card is priced at $199.99 and Fry's is a discounter for those of you not familiar with them. That is just the price of the card and doesn't include installation.
So, I'm still trying to track down why AOE III won't run on our system. (This is one of those magic Microsoft moments when one is reminded just how fragile Windows is and how difficult it is to both diagnose and fix problems.)
The price of promised super graphics is that the authors of AOE III have not been forthright about just how hot a system one must have to run AOE III.
I'm hoping I've just overlooked something and I'm going to drag one of the Intel guys over here to look at what is going on, but so far AOE III has been a major disappointment. The fact that at least four of us in the neighborhood, with hot computers, that should easily handle the game yet wouldn't should tell you something and it ain't good.

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