# Age of Empires 3 Discussions...



## icecoolz (Jan 11, 2005)

Well here we go. Microsoft is officially in development of AOE3. Here are some initial screen shots : 

*www.vgames.co.il/images/uploads/images/image109776aoe01.jpg

*www.vgames.co.il/images/uploads/images/image107124aoe02.jpg

*image.com.com/gamespot/images/2005/news/01/04/aoe3_screen002.jpg

Scheduled for Q4 2005.  It will be using the Havoc Physics engine.  

Check out more here : 

*www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/ageofempiresiii/screenindex.html

Oh and also Red Alert 3 is in development. From the original Westwood team....looks like some interesting times ahead for the strategy side of games ...I know I am lookin forward to it


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## Slam Team (Jan 11, 2005)

I am hell bent to buy this one buddy... xlent screenshots...a must buy game this yr. Nice post..I am eagerly awaiting for this one to launch...it must be priced between 2k - 3k


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## rohanbee (Jan 11, 2005)

Definately good news for strategy gamers      
Screen shots look phenomenol..................lets see whats new and what good stuff has been carried from the earlier versions..........
hope it will come earlier than Q4 this year........


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## Sourabh (Jan 11, 2005)

well yaa i read this too in some forums a week ago 

wanted to start a thread in here but dint

to b frank i m surely gonna play tis game, coz aoe was among the first few games i liked

i loved strategy games when i was small 

i esp liked AOE, PHAROAH, CAESAR III and ZEUS

and yeah with the HAVOC PHYSICS ENGINE AND SUCH GOOD IN-GAME GRAPHICS its definately a no-nonsense game

i xpect it sooner than Q4, mebbe around Q3

lets c fingers crossed


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## goobimama (Jan 11, 2005)

Great News! There haven't been any good releases of Strategy games for the year 2004 (fps fps fps, sick of it, mainly because of my gf 4 mx440)

Waiting for that release....

Milind


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## naveenchandran (Jan 11, 2005)

The screenshots are cool
Are the sys. Reqs same as that of AOE2?


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## geek_rohit (Jan 12, 2005)

Well the screen shots are just great. Waiting eagerly for the game to arrive. Guess the game would be very heavy on the system. BTW Microsoft had released Rise of Nations only last year. Another game on same genre so soon. Anyways good for us. Looks like that the year 2005 is going to be great for gaming.


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## rohanbee (Jan 12, 2005)

naveenchandran said:
			
		

> The screenshots are cool
> Are the sys. Reqs same as that of AOE2?



Hope they are..............its very disappointing when you wait desperately for a game and it turns out to have high end graphics requirements....


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## cybershastri (Jan 12, 2005)

*Great Screenshots*

I was waiting for this game from a long time. Hope it does not demand too high system requirements.


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## deepakuma (Jan 13, 2005)

waiting for it!!


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## NikhilVerma (Jan 13, 2005)

This is just to tell you guys that the first two screensots only are from the game...
The last one is a wallpaper........ Not a screenshot.....


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## allindrome (Jan 13, 2005)

BIg Huge Games did a good job of Rise Of Nations.However I suppose Age Of Empires is a trademark of Ensemble Studios.


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## Sourabh (Mar 15, 2005)

Gamespy has an article on what is being shown of the upcoming RTS game Age of Empires 3 at the Game Developers Conference.

"One way to have buildings explode would be to have the art team custom-design the disintegration of each structure. But that would be time consuming, and after all that work players would be disappointed by the exact same explosion every time. Instead, Ensemble Studios licensed the Havok physics engine. The art team cut each building up into logical pieces of debris. Then, when a structure gets slammed by a cannonball, chunks of it part way (leaving ruined holes and broken slats underneath) and fly through the air. No two explosions are the same."

Read more here


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## sachinc (Mar 15, 2005)

*Release Date*

What the release date for AOE 3???  Can't wait for it.


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## ctrl_alt_del (Mar 15, 2005)

Thats intresting Sourabh. I would love to see how havok engine is incoporated into a game like AoE 3.

As for the system requirement, I am sure it will be around and infact more then RoN.


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## enoonmai (Mar 15, 2005)

OMFG! This thing uses Havok?  Oh man, thats just too sweet to even imagine.  I am drooling all over the place already. Mmmm, Havok....(drooling sounds)


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## Dipen01 (Mar 16, 2005)

hey guys...

   AOE II is still one of my favorites (of-course on LAN)...heard about AOEIII long time back..
   anwys. gr8 news its coming soon...Do anybody has an idea when exactly is this coming in India.. i mean will be available in market...
    anyways...


 Cheers..
  Dipen


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## Sourabh (Mar 16, 2005)

which market are u talking abt ??


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## infernus (Mar 16, 2005)

sachinc said:
			
		

> What the release date for AOE 3??? Can't wait for it.



The game will be out by 1st November 2005. Thats a freakin lotta time.


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## Dipen01 (Mar 16, 2005)

Sourabh said:
			
		

> which market are u talking abt ??




 White ,  8)  8) Black..even    Grey... whichever.. comes first....


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## deepakuma (Mar 18, 2005)

For India i think it will release only in 2006!!
But, microsoft is doing lots of promo's in India like "War of a  Million". So, may be it will release sooner.

I Hope it releases here the same time as the rest of the world


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## saurya_mishra (Mar 28, 2005)

well aoe 3 seems to be great but what exactly are its system requirements ... ?? 
moreover i think MS should concentrate on RoN rather than AoE ..

Saurya


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## NikhilVerma (Mar 29, 2005)

saurya_mishra said:
			
		

> well aoe 3 seems to be great but what exactly are its system requirements ... ??
> moreover i think MS should concentrate on RoN rather than AoE ..
> 
> Saurya



Don't expet them to be low... Coz it is utilising all the PS functions and is definately gonna be heavy on sys requirements...

Just look at the screenshots...


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## Raghav Talwar (Mar 30, 2005)

DUDE,AWESOME SCREENSHOTS 8)  8)  8)  8) 
REALLY COOL POST 8)  8)  8)  8)


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## shaunak (Apr 22, 2005)

goobimama said:
			
		

> Great News! There haven't been any good releases of Strategy games for the year 2004 (fps fps fps, sick of it, mainly because of my gf 4 mx440)
> 
> Waiting for that release....
> 
> Milind



the screenshots look as good as fps gfx!


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## moshel (Apr 22, 2005)

I cant wait for this game......looks really cool. even if i have to upgrade my comp for this. i will do it.

its release date is 1st november 2005. its still toooo far away....


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## Vyasram (Apr 23, 2005)

most strategic games these days are heavy on graphics but stratgy gamers dont want it especially in india what they really want is better gameplay and new maps.

I also buy such games only for that ,so microsoft can atleast provide a scaled down graphics version of this game with the same gameplay so that aoe fans with budget cards can also play them (aom and aoe2 graphics are desent enough)


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## anubhav_har (Apr 26, 2005)

The websites say it releases around November December this year but I think it'll be late to arrive with a better look and better Ai


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## vignesh (Apr 26, 2005)

cool screenshots waiting eagerly


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## sujithtom (Apr 28, 2005)

Lol it really roks to see those screen shot. But i don't think the game play view will be like tht. They just release such screenies to attract gamers.


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## Satissh S (Apr 28, 2005)

I hope the AI becomes more tough and acts with some sense! Mythology,Titans and Rise of Nations were a piece of a cake even in the moderate mode.


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## geek_rohit (May 12, 2005)

Man checkout these new screenshots 
*media.pc.gamespy.com/media/721/721644/imgs_1.html?fromint=1
Really awesome 
Check out the fortress. Mindblowing stuff.


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## enoonmai (May 12, 2005)

When is this game coming out? WWAAAH! I can't wait already. The game and the terrain look so realistic that I would have sworn those were videos. Havok-based incremental damage right? Oh man, what I wouldn't give to see the game in action now.


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## icecoolz (May 12, 2005)

enoon...myabe they will do a alpha leak like doom3...p2p...hehehehe


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## rohanbee (May 12, 2005)

waiting waiting getting impatient..........
I think this game will be toooo gooood


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## arcticflare (Jun 6, 2005)

*Age of Empires III Screenshots*

Edit[Nemesis]: I merged the new thread with this existing one. I removed the images as they were huge. Please post thumbnails and not full screenshots. Think about dial-up users!


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## krishnansurya (Jun 7, 2005)

Check out the official site:

HERE

There you will get many screenshots and videos of AOE III

Game Features

Full 3d graphics:

Tone mapping

Lighting and shadows

Bump and specular mapping   

Water â€“Cliffs & Riverbeds 

& many more! just check the official site.

i am not sure about the requirements but 512 mb ram is MUST! for nice gameplay.


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## sub7ven (Jun 9, 2005)

cool post man
AOE rocks
I cant wait to lay my hands on it


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## dOm1naTOr (Jun 12, 2005)

Seems that it wouldn,t run on my machine:MX 440
Its time for an upgrade.


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## deathvirus_me (Jun 12, 2005)

i cant think of a view which would be best for gameplay/eye candy's !!!!! maybe something like that of the AoM .... zoom out during battles .. zoom in during the rest of the time ....


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## expertno.1 (Jun 22, 2005)

man age of empires is my favourite game and i would really like to play that

and one thing..todya only i got the news of empires III

i am a really sucker to know nothing about the AOE3

thanks for the news dude

i will really buy that game my favourite


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## rohanbee (Jun 23, 2005)

Read that AOE 3 is going to have mind blowing realistic graphics.
And the thing is they will be playable on a broad spectrum of machines.......so thats good news for a lot of people.


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## expertno.1 (Jun 23, 2005)

hey what are the specifications ?????????? for aoe3 ?????anyone knows ?????//


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## Charley (Jun 23, 2005)

Regarding ur specifics...

Publisher: MICROSOFT
Platform: PC Games
Category: Strategy


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## Nemesis (Jun 23, 2005)

@achacko: I think everyone who has posted in this thread knows who the developer is and what category of games AOE3 comes under. 

expert no.1 asked for the system requirements. Understand the question before posting anything in response.


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## ammusk (Jun 23, 2005)

*waiting*

am waiting here


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## Charley (Jun 24, 2005)

Nemesis said:
			
		

> expert no.1 asked for the system requirements. Understand the question before posting anything in response.



@Nemesis - Right then, Can u list it below " sytem requirements " ?


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## akshar (Jun 24, 2005)

GOOD ONE.

Anything that belongs to microsoft is owesm


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## Nemesis (Jun 24, 2005)

The system requirements will become available when the game is close to release. Not as yet.


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## enoonmai (Sep 8, 2005)

OK, I refused to believe it, but the Age of Empires III Demo *IS* out. When Cody talked to me about this yesterday, I refused to believe that an RTS game employing Havok 2.0 would release a demo thats a paltry 375MB in size. Today, I know that's not true and the demo *is* that small. I guess I am too used to all new demos being at least 600 MB+. 

The demo went online yesterday night. In any case, you can download the demo straight from Microsoft here. The demo is 365.83 MB and the minimum system requirements for the demo are as follows:

- Windows XP (before anyone asks, Windows XP or later ONLY)
- 1.4GHz Processor
- 256MB RAM
- 64 MB Video Card that supports HW T&L
- Approximately 370MB of Hard Drive space (not including installer)
- DirectX 9.0c

The demo features two playable single player scenarios as well as two skirmish maps with two playable civilizations. Knock yourselves out.


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## navjotjsingh (Sep 8, 2005)

What is RTS, Havok 2.0 and 64 MB Video Card that supports HW T&L?

Will demo run on Intel 845GVSR with 64MB onboard Video? No external graphics card.


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## Sourabh (Sep 8, 2005)

Well to say it in a better way, let me quote from the AOEIII dedicated portal,



> Graphics cards that can forget about it!
> Intel 845G (82845G)/Intel Extreme Graphics
> Intel 865G (82865G)/Intel Extreme Graphics 2
> Nvidia TNT/TNT2
> ...



Taken from here

Do give it a try if you wanna try your LUCK.


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## navjotjsingh (Sep 8, 2005)

Time changes rapidly. Its only 1 year when i upgraded my pc. my vendor says he has given me the best avaialable at that time. Time to upgrade? Well not now unless i finish gta sa, max payne 2, nfs u2, hp1, hp2, hp3 and quake 3. Also nearly completed gta vc and gta3.


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## Sourabh (Sep 8, 2005)

845chipset with support for DDR RAM were outdated way back in 2002 itself. So if you thought you got a good system 1 year back, think again. PC vendors are always after their part of the earnings and as a result it becomes important how you build your system with the right components rather than getting it assembled from a dealer with no idea of what he is giving. As for the games you are willing to try on onboard video, dont give it a try for GTA:SA and MP2 :d


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## rockthegod (Sep 8, 2005)

*reply*



			
				navjotjsingh said:
			
		

> What is RTS, Havok 2.0 and 64 MB Video Card that supports HW T&L?
> 
> Will demo run on Intel 845GVSR with 64MB onboard Video? No external graphics card.



RTS = Real Time Strategy... a genre of games.

Havok 2.0 = Physics engine employed in the game

"64 MB Video Card that supports HW T&L"... not onboard gfx card as they don't support HW T&L (Hardware Transform and Lighting) [Except for Geforce 2 MX 200 onboard in case of nForce2 chipset and new generation Intel GMA ones] .. This game requires external Gfx card with atleast 64 MB of onboard memory (that means memory chips on the Gfx card) supporing HW T&L.


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## navjotjsingh (Sep 8, 2005)

I am already playing gta sa on Onboard Card. It works great. I have dropped the idea of aoe3 demo download.


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## ctrl_alt_del (Sep 8, 2005)

Wokay! I think I will still give it a shot and see if my onboard card can run it. 375Mb is worth taking the risk. Lets see if I get lucky!


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## mohit (Sep 8, 2005)

the demo is available on the official website also ,

*www.ageofempires3.com/

check it out , ill download mine tonite after 2 am.


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## expertno.1 (Sep 9, 2005)

> 64 MB Video Card that supports HW T&L


not good not good at alll
my onboard graphics doesnt supports hd t&l

is there any way to bypass the hd tl ?


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## ctrl_alt_del (Sep 9, 2005)

You might give 3DAnalyser a try but there is no surety that it will work.


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## anubhav_har (Sep 9, 2005)

will certainly buy the game..


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## navjotjsingh (Sep 9, 2005)

Link to 3DAnalyser please? I could not find an english site giving details on its latest version.


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## ctrl_alt_del (Sep 9, 2005)

Finally managed to get the link. Here it is.
3DAnalyze

Anyone who has already tried the demo, please review it!


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## ctrl_alt_del (Sep 10, 2005)

*Age Of Empires 3 : Demo Review*

A new Age Of Empires game is bound to generate excitement. And so was the case when AoE3 was announced to be in devlopment. Me being a RTS fan, was eagerly awaiting for the game to come out. Though a bit apprehansive that the game might not run at all on my underpowered gfx card-less system, I was still ready to give it a try.

The good news started to flow in when the demo was released for download. 375Mbs only? That was amazing, since we all have got accoustomed to 700Mb+ demos a long time back. So last night before I went to sleep, put the download on. By this morning, the dmeo was on my HDD ready to be installed. So without any further ado, I started the installer and browsed the forum while it installed the demo on my PC. As soon as the demo was installed, I was ready to test it. 

I am well aware that my PC doesn't meet the requirements in any way. At *P4 1.5Ghz, 256RAM and an Intel Onboard Extreme Graphics*, I hardly had any chance of running the game at all. As predicted, the game warned me that my gfx controller was not upto the mark to play the game, yet it let me try to run it. And the game actually initialised!!!

At first the default setting was 1024*768 but I would be a fool to try to run it at that resolution. So quickly navigated to the Video Options and downgraded it to 800*600. What's more amazing is the game loaded almost instantneously. I was presented with a screen where I had to get a profile name, name my city and then give a name for my Hero. After that you will have to choose a civilisation. I chose British and the game then took me to the familiar screen with a few villagers and a Town Centre.

Now here things get a wee bit complicated. Your City and your Town Centre are two completely different things. Your City is from where you set out to colonise the world. It's the Town Centre where you will be actually playing the game. I will come back to the use of the City soon. So I started the normal routine of gathering food, wood and stones, as it is in every AoE game. A small departure from the previous installments is that here, when you gather wood, the trees are not felled. I guess it's kinda like the RoN where resources didn't run out, saving you from micromanagement. Also while a villager is gathering food, he need not shuffle between the Town Centre and the food source. As long as he is working there, the food will continue to accumulate. These are the initial things that I have noticed. I am sure much more such nitty-grutties will emerge as we continue playing the game.

Now to the Hero unit. Your Hero is the explorer in the game and you can send him out to explore the map that is covered by Fog-Of-War. As the Hero wanders about on the map, he will come across hidden treasures which only he can collect. Generally the treasure will be guarded by fierce wild animals which you will have to eliminate in order to gain thetreasure, which can be anything from a stockpile of gold to food or maybe wood. You may have a few soilders assist him in this noble quest so as to assure that he returns back hale and hearty. In any case, he won't die in case of excessive injuries. It will take some time for him to limp back to normal before he can be commanded by you again.

Now for the City Centre ( I am not sure if that's what it shouldbe reffered to as, so kindly excuse ). Whenever a Hero discoveres a treasure, you gather expirince points. The same with the villagers working. The expirience points that you gather continue to pile up in a small circular indicator. As soon as the indiacator is full, you gain one upgrade point. Now when you click on that point, you will be taken back to a screen that shows your City Centre. Here you can choose between many bonuses that your upgrade point offers such as a big contigent of food, or extra army men etc. You can choose to accumulate your points and use them at your will. Clicking on the circular indicator again takes you back to the Town Centre from where you can continue playing the game.

At this point, I had to quit because I had a call waiting. However, I noticed that on quitting, I was taken back to the City Centre where there was tally of all my points accumulated in the time I had spent in the Town Centre. I am not sure how it will affect the gameplay in long run, but it seems to be of some importance in the whole scene. I will update my impressions as soon as I get back from college an try the rest of the game.

In the meantime, people with no gfx card can take heart at the fact that it atleast runs, and runs quite smooth at low details. So make sure to try the dmeo and see if it runs or not. Who konows, you might get lucky. Please excuse any mistakes that I have made as I haven't yet spend any quality time with the game and this is a quickie first impressions. Have fun!!!


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## QwertyManiac (Sep 10, 2005)

Whoa !
cool review there ctrl_alt_del 

Waitin for the release (sounds like warcraft experience pts)

So will it run on Mx 4000 128mb ?


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## enoonmai (Sep 10, 2005)

Wow, awesome job, Cody.  I am really happy you were able to play the game on your PC without a video card. The fact that the game runs pretty well on your PC at 800x600 is a testament to the scalability of the game. What remains to be seen is how the framerates hold up when there is a lot of action on-screen. I remember AoM freezing up a couple of times for a few seconds on a slightly underpowered machine when there was too much activity on the map. 

Since Cody has covered the Skirmish mode in quite a detailed manner, I will focus my attention to the other parts of the game. First off, the Campaign mode. The Campaign mode seems to be divided into three Acts, each Act dealing with a different part of American history during the time of the colonization and industrialization of the Americas. The Acts are called Blood, Ice and Steel respectively, and for the demo, only two missions from Act III - Steel are available. Just like AoM, the missions are unlocked as and when you clear them, allowing you to proceed through the story the same way as in the previous AoE and AoM games. The history behind the story is well researched, and even though my early American history is vague at best, I am sure the game draws from events in history pretty accurately. The events and characters in the AoE3 demo at least, aren't as well known as William Wallace or Joan of Arc from AoE2. (From a small precursory search on Google for Major Cooper, it seems that this was a circa 1850s Major after whom Fort Cooper in Florida is named, and played a major part in the Second Seminole War.) The game, in classic AoE fashion, also allows you to replay the missions you have already cleared. The Difficulty Levels are as usual - Easy, Moderate and Hard, seeming to break with the multiple difficulty options presented in AoE2. 

The game draws heavily from its newer predecessors, namely AoM and RoN, not to mention, some cues from the "other" famous RTS - Warcraft III. The cutscenes in the game somehow eerily resemble the ones from Warcraft III, although with a lot more detail. The cutscenes are rendered in-game but are sometimes rendered in the normal plane instead of the usual isometric view, which adds to the realism of the game. Each character that's currently speaking has a light circular halo under it, like the way W3 used to highlight characters that are currently speaking. The cutscenes in the demo appear to switch freely between the normal plane and isometric view, but the game doesn't seem to allow the player to switch to the normal plane view ever. 

The presence of the Havok physics engine is easily noticed. Explosions send chunks of rock and debris hurtling from the damaged structures and the smoke and firing effects are absolutely world class. The game's minimap allows you to find heroes, use signal flares, talk to other players, and use the Advanced and Toggle functions of the minimap, which doesn't seem to have changed much at all from it's predecessors. Resource gathering is again through food, lumber and gold. Markets and Trading Posts generate gold and experience, and the Experience Points accumulation paves the way for what the key feature of AoE3 is - Persistent Home Cities. 

Persistent Home Cities is EXACTLY what the name indicates. The Home Cities that you build for yourself and the technology upgrades and improvements that you make persist over single player as well as multiplayer games. The other previous AoE/AoM/RoN games had the problem where all changes you made to your Home City or Base and all the technology that you researched and unlocked were lost once you finished the mission and moved on to the next level. Even though the next level would be set in the same place as the previous one for some missions, the system would arbitrarily select the Age and technology that you had available and you had to do everything all over again. This is not the case with AoE3. Persistent Home Cities ensures that you will never ever have this problem with this game. 

Of course, this brings up the obvious problem. You might like different strategies and different researches, more of a certain building type, etc. for different maps and different playtypes. For example, I don't want to create a settlement with lesser protective walls for one map and then have it demolished in another scenario where it would have better to have more walls and more outposts. It also works the same way with resource collection. Sometimes I want more resource processing structures and sometimes I want more structures associated with the war machine. To solve this problem, the game allows you to maintain and create different "decks" with multiple "cards" in them, allowing for different maps and strategies. Also, like RoN, each Home City is unique for a culture and there appear to be certain "bonuses" associated with each culture and each Home City and the technology available for it on the Research and Upgrade trees. 

Also, as Cody pointed out, the Home Cities can be a place where your experience points can get you more food, gold, lumber, settlers, combat units, trade caravans and advanced weaponry, depending on the Age you are in and the number of experience points available. This feature appears to be a bit too easy for advanced RTSers, since Experience Points keep accumulating steadily as long as you play even averagely and can then be traded for more goodies without even breaking a sweat. In addition, the Town Centers can be upgraded to more advanced versions, and here, more of AoM inspired tricks come in. Just as in AoM, where upgrading required to select and ally with one of the Gods/Goddesses, upgrading the Town Center in AoE3 requires you to select a Politician from that age to ally with. Each politician requires a certain amount of conditions, resource or existing military establishments and provide different benefits. For example, allying with an Admiral would give you Dock benefits, while allying with a Marksman would give you extra military units. So far, from the demo, its not known whether allying with some units would grant "special" upgrades, such as a special unit or a new building or upgrade.

Talking about all of this, its very important to focus on micromanagement. Since quite a number of people found the micromanagement and upgrade/research paths in RoN to be a bit tedious, Microsoft and Ensemble have stuck to the traditional Research/Upgrade trees with this game, to continue to keep existing AoE players who might be put off by too much of a change. Cody already pointed out the part about resource gathering and micromanagement, and it seems to work fine, freeing you to colonizing the world, rather than worry about running out of food or wood. Drawing once again from AoM, each single player campaign appears to have two Hero characters (highlighted by a white star beneath them), and while so far, both Hero characters are always available, it is unclear whether there will be missions that will require the Hero characters to work independently of each other or not. Also, if a Hero character is gravely injured, he/she doesn't die and then be revived as in AoM, but simply lies on the ground, writhing in pain for quite some time, healing slowly and then limping away. Its also unclear whether this will be constant throughout the game or whether there will be a set number of times that the Hero character can be gravely injured without dying permanently and ending the mission as a failure. 

Building and repairing is done through Settlers, who can build Manor Houses, Town Centers, Mills, Farms, Docks, Outposts, Barracks, Protective Walls, Churches, Firearms Ranges, Stables, Blacksmiths, Arsenals, Mining Posts, Trading Posts and a lot of other advanced structures, depending on the Age you are in. Settlers automatically find work, and do not seem to be lounging around uselessly, making you search for a "Find Idle Villager" button everytime you want to make sure everything's ship-shape.

The sound system, as always, is top notch, and the music, classic AoE. The sounds of the various units and the battle noises are recreated superbly and voice acting for the Heros are extremely professional, and the whole of the game is acoustically A-class. The graphics aren't genre redefining or groundbreaking in any way, retaining the look and feel of the classic AoE, but the small things that you don't really pay THAT much attention to make the game visually very appealing. For example, the smoke effects of a passing train, the tiny muzzle flashes from the weapons, the debris from a building being attacked, the shadows on the ground from buildings and trees (which are pretty darn realistic and depend on the position of the Sun, the building and your perspective, as in real life) and all are rendered excellently well and lend a bit more reality to the game. The game also allows you to zoom in to a Warcraft-III level zoom detail, but its no Rome: Total War. Don't be surprised if the game looks more like classic AoE rather than reality. 

The single player campaign for the full version of the game will feature 8 European civilizations, 24 Single Player Campaign scenarios, 15 Random Map games with multiple civilization options and Skirmishes with 7 computer personalities. I haven't had the opportunity to try out the multiplayer aspect of the demo yet, but a simple glance already showed quite a lot of people playing online. The game also features online matchmaking via the Ensemble Studios Online v2, pairing you up with someone who's the best bet for you as well as allowing you to play with/against your friends online. Load times for the game are superfast, even faster than AoM, which is something that surprised me.

All in all, AoE3 looks to be a surefire success once again in the RTS world. I can't wait for the game to release. I hope Microsoft launches the AoE3 Collector's Edition in India. I really do! In the meantime, here's some screenshots to whet your appetite. More information on units and strengths, weaknesses and tactics and a rudimentary strategy guide will follow soon.

AoE3 Load Screen
Main Menu
Campaign Mode - Selection Screen
Cutscene
Home City and Trading
Objectives Screen
Hero Units and Market Options
Units, In-game Menu and Unit Upgrade Options (Stable)
Town Center Upgrade - Affiliation/Politician Selection
Town Center
Settlers - Various Build Options
Skirmish Mode - City Creation Screen
Closing Screen - Full game features

The final verdict on the demo:

GAMEPLAY: 9/10
GRAPHICS: 7.5/10
SOUND: 9/10
FUN: 9/10
VFM: (based on download size for the demo): 9.5/10
TILT: 9/10
OVERALL (not an average): 9/10

END NOTE:
Reviewer's System Configuration:
Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.2 GHz
Corsair XMS 2x512 DDR400 Dual Channel
Gainward GeForce FX 5950U Golden Sample
Western Digital Raptor 10kRPM SATA 80GBx2
Creative SoundBlaster Live! 5.1


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## ctrl_alt_del (Sep 10, 2005)

Awesome in-detail review Prof!  Just as soon as I get home, I am gonna get busy with the Campaign mode. I completely forgot to mention that it was the Skirmish mode that I tried out. I am dying to see some combat on-screen and see the Havok engine in action.


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## Guest (Sep 10, 2005)

gteat yar .. i luv strategy games .. cant wait


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## enoonmai (Sep 11, 2005)

Playing the game a bit more now, I am getting very surprised. Has AoE3 broken the tradition by introducing the main characters as fictional ones? Searches for the connections of Amelia Black, Beaumont the Prospector and Major Cooper with early Colonial American History are throwing up no reference at all in Google. If this is the first time that Microsoft and Ensemble have introduced fictional characters that they created into an Age of Empires game, then it seems to be a major break, since most other AoE games focus on actual characters and events in history rather than taking a general era and then weaving a game around it. A search for the Falcon Railroad Company threw up no references again. Can any AoE fan confirm if all this is true? Is AoE3 *gulp* fictional?

I urge anyone who has the demo to advance quickly to the IIIrd Age and then get a Rocket at the Home City and then try it out against the enemy. I don't think I have been this happy seeing little characters go flying into all directions when the rocket hits them. I would have been happier if the game included a map with some water bodies. I haven't gotten around to Skirmish mode yet, so maybe Cody can confirm if there are water bodies in any map. I can't wait to see the spectacular water effects and to get my X800 XT PE and have the game rendered in glorious HDR. Ahhh!


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## deathvirus_me (Sep 11, 2005)

The demo rockz .... i've waiting for this game quite for some time now .... graphics are very impressive and soothing ... and considering the specs its running on this will surely be another hit ......


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## ctrl_alt_del (Sep 11, 2005)

Yup Prof, the Skirmish mode indeed has water bodies. The one that I played on last night had a considerable amount of water covering the map, enabling me to have some battle ships give a hard time to the enemies.

A small correction. Resources can run out completely. After having hacked off a tree or silver mine of all it's resources, they will disappear and you will have to look for new resources.


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## netcracker (Sep 11, 2005)

Cool game....can't w8 to get my hands on it.


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## usmayur (Sep 12, 2005)

Like any other RTS fan, I was eagerly awaiting the release of AOE 3. I even downloaded its demo which took me 20 hrs to download. Here's my experience with the demo. 
Villagers don't have to drop their resources at Lumber camp or mill. Resources grow automatically as long as citizens work there. So Microsoft has taken a huge elemnt of micromanagement out of the game. 
We have a hero unit which can't be killed. How rubbish is that? 
There is no stone, so only food, wood and gold are to be collected. 
Only a single fort and 2 towncenters can be built. So expansion and defence becomes less strategic and more difficult. 
Monks can't convert. 
A cumbersome interface and not so intuitive home city idea only added to my frustration. 
Graphics are only a notch above RON and the Sound is not inspiring at all. 
From my point of view AOE 3 completely sucks and those awaiting its release should stick to AOE 2 which was a masterpiece. 
I just hope RON legends doesn't turn out to be as bad as AOE 3.


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## cvvikram (Sep 12, 2005)

Wow ....so much info on AOE3 that;s great......


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## khandu (Sep 12, 2005)

i liked the demo

waitin for full version..


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## GunshotSilence (Sep 13, 2005)

looking at my rig in the signature, will the demo run on my pc??


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## QwertyManiac (Sep 13, 2005)

cant see ur siggy pal !

Well, will it run on a MX card ?


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## GunshotSilence (Sep 13, 2005)

noqw see mysig and tel me is it worth downloading the 350 mb game? i mean will it run?


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## usmayur (Sep 13, 2005)

*No it won't run*



			
				GunshotSilence said:
			
		

> noqw see mysig and tel me is it worth downloading the 350 mb game? i mean will it run?


 
No it won't run.
Min System req
Win XP
1.4 GHz P4,
256 MB RAM
64 MB VRAM


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## moshel (Sep 13, 2005)

Gr8 review ctrl_alt_del good work!


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## GunshotSilence (Sep 13, 2005)

but ihave 256 mb ram
64mb vram and winxp

just p3 933 mghz

so still it wont run?


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## usmayur (Sep 14, 2005)

*Will it run?*



			
				GunshotSilence said:
			
		

> but ihave 256 mb ram
> 64mb vram and winxp
> 
> just p3 933 mghz
> ...


 
One of my friends has similar config, and it didn't run on his pc. I suggest u go for download only if u have broadband.


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## GunshotSilence (Sep 15, 2005)

it ran!!!! it ran!!!!

yeah it was a l'l slow and had to close all running services and stuff.

played both skirmish and 2 campaigns
rail road and mexico defense

shud i post my reviews here?? or a new thread?


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## GunshotSilence (Sep 15, 2005)

well heres my review


i had left playing aoe2 age of kings casue it wudnt run due to corrupt installation pirated cd and also i was young back then-in 11th and didnt  know anything about strategy or shortcut keys. *and was defeated very badly on msn gamig zon by a army of 20 elephants by my opponent *.so switched to RON as son as i got my grpahic card.fter hating AOM. and found RON to be the best. interms of graphics and shortcut keys. and needed a good reason like age3 to comback to aoe series.

now over to the aoe3 demo-

the game started after much speculation from my side.
and advice from digitforum friends that it wont run.

installation was slow. and so was the loading.but in game loading of the actual scenarios, was quite fast.

its showed the window that my proccy was very slow as compared to what was actually needed(1.4ghz) but still i chose to run it(cause i had spent 4hs and 380 mbs on it-so i wasnt gonna leave it without a try)

but my decision to go ahead with the download paid off.

so it started finnaly. and lo! my jaws dropped to the ground on seeing my home city. superb.

i straight went to the options and set reso to 800*600 and all options low.

and then started the skirmish game(new england) on sandbox mode.
but quit cause i didnt understand what to od.

my mouse cursor was sluggish and moving very slow or very fast and jumping and missing everything on the mini map. had to drag it really slow  and use keyboard arrow keys for navigating on minimap.

*graphics:* maybe b'cause i was playing on all lowest settings so i didnt find anything mindblowing like all the pics i saw before.

graphics felt like age ofmythology just a li'l better.

ships looked the coolest. but buildings and peple were like aom.

*but aoe2 grphics were very good especially the pikemen or soldiers.*

*and rise of nations grpahics wer too cool*

*rating* ***

*sound:* music and sounds r superb. especially the games starting and ingame music with all orchestras and instruments. i have a diff playlist of these tunes on itunes which i listen to regularly. 

as not much variety of souns/music in RON

i loved battlemusic (from ageofempires3.com)

*rating* *****


*concept:*the concept of home city and getting supplies was cool. ans so was of railroads-highilighting the concept of imperialism where home city was like london and colonies like india or america. and the people moviing about and building being show while selcting cards.

so the objectives were well defined and no simply attacking but micromanagment was needed for a good army to defend allrail roads. it took me 3 tries to complete the campaign missions- rail roads. completed on third try. railroad gave supplies so were good.

terrian was cool and so was the concept of hidden treasure.

it was a good thing that the hero didnt die. but defeating a group of treasure gaurds single handedly was tough unless i use some army force

and good there was no starting in the dark ages with stone weapns. but directly guns.

*rating:*****

*gameplay:* 

infantry was useless unless acompanied by atleast10 horsemen or 5 cannons. it wasnt defined as who is strong or weak against whom? as in RON. making selection tough without knowing their strike power in the beginning.

lack of shortcut keys(espicially after being an avid fan of RON)
i cud manage to find shortcut keys for building,idle people, finding my hero/explorer and some of my minutemen.

but the lck of keys for selecting buildings and single button for all researches (like tab key in RON), depleting forests and silver,etc. was very frustrating.

i hope before the final game is launched, thses probs n the gamplay are rectified.

*rating:***

overall the game was good but waiting to see the full game.


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## usmayur (Sep 15, 2005)

*Congrats*

Well, congratulations that ur efforts paid out. May be it was because of the presence of graphics card that did the trick. Hopefully u liked the demo.
 Personally I like AOE 2 and RON more than this one. I just hope they don't mess up with RON legends as they did with AOE 3. I'm eagerly awaiting for its release. Till then RON and AOE 2 rock.


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## bala4digit (Sep 16, 2005)

release date is 10/25/2005


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## GunshotSilence (Sep 16, 2005)

who said i liked it?

i liked the concept, and music. but lack of shortcut keys was frustrating.

i loved ron and so left playing aoe2 all together.

my neighbour works in AMDOCS (in our magarpatta city, pune)

he used to hav lan parties when he was in the US b4 marraige. and maan u shud see him play. aoe2 and exp. cooool.

but he attactks with mostly swordsman and trebuchets and horses later.

i gues he cant do it in aoe3 cause
u know what even a small army on ron was so good that if i left it to defnd a captured city and looked else where, it wud do great job.

and if u clicked on the enemy unit-it told u what was it good against and how to counter it.

in aoe3 the infantry is soo weak, that a couple of cannons blast them. and they r useless without horses or cannons

and as for with ron legends, they r really messing up the game. see for ur self.

*www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/riseofnationsriseoflegends/screenindex.html

*www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/riseofnationsriseoflegends/previews.html

all ficional characters and nations. ron was reality. allowing to play all human histroy in under 2 hrs


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## GunshotSilence (Sep 16, 2005)

see some news and what others hafta say

*www.gamerankings.com/itemrankings/launchnews.asp?newsid=148048

*www.firingsquad.com/games/age_of_empires_iii_preview/page1.asp


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## icecoolz (Sep 19, 2005)

Well the game crashed quite a bit for me. And also it rebooted my system as well. I think I'll just wait for a more stable release.


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## cvvikram (Sep 19, 2005)

@icecoolz, even the same prob for me......


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## deathvirus_me (Sep 20, 2005)

> Personally I like AOE 2 and RON more than this one. I just hope they don't mess up with RON legends as they did with AOE 3. I'm eagerly awaiting for its release. Till then RON and AOE 2 rock.



Why the hell do you think that they messed up AoE 3 ??? personally i find it great ... graphically its very soothing .....


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## usmayur (Sep 20, 2005)

*AOE 3 messed up*



			
				deathvirus_me said:
			
		

> > Personally I like AOE 2 and RON more than this one. I just hope they don't mess up with RON legends as they did with AOE 3. I'm eagerly awaiting for its release. Till then RON and AOE 2 rock.
> 
> 
> 
> Why the hell do you think that they messed up AoE 3 ??? personally i find it great ... graphically its very soothing .....


 Well, I don't give that much importance to graphics. Gameplay and realism are must. AOE 3 takes a lot out of micromanagement which AOE 2 fans loved about it. eg now citizens don't drop resources at mill but it is automatically collected. The music isn't great either. Microsoft has been working on this title for quite some time now. Wonder why they didn't notice reasons for AOE 2 success. 
That's why they messed it up.


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## icecoolz (Sep 21, 2005)

Well I dont get it. So what if the villagers dont drop resources in the towns ? It only means that the game play has greater things to focus on. One thing which I noticed is that the AI is much more aggressive even on easy settings. Which leaves you to focus on the combat and strategies. Which is a main reason for a win in RON. RON focuses so much on combat that micro management takes a back stage. The days of amassing a big resource and then big army is gone. You need to balance your attack/defense strategies. This is the way going forward with most RTS games.


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## usmayur (Sep 23, 2005)

*AOE 3 messed up*

Is there any problem, if we have to concentrate on both micromanagement of resources and battle. It will make it more challenging and hence more satisfactory. That's my point.


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## GunshotSilence (Sep 23, 2005)

i personally think ron is the best.

it has both micromanagmnt and combat.

u gott build cities and a set no of buildings for each like university, library(as backup in case of nuke attack on capital), mines, smelters, wonders, and also defense buildings like AA,towers,forts, barracks, stable and seige factory. so there is plenty of micromanagment. and plus u hafta conquer cities and hold them and manage ur big AF and navy too. or else they wont be siitng duck but siiting idle doing nothing. unles attacked first.

micromanagemt for economies is to send scout scouting , merchants and caravans, and tap all resources b4 the prices of researches and army goes up.

and it has cool grpahics(especially nuking ones) and realistic game play to play all human history in under 30 mins. i defeated the opponent with bantu tribe in 20 mins at moderate in deathmatch.


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## mako_123 (Sep 23, 2005)

guys

when i start AOE 3 . My computer restarts , is there a problem with the graphics drivers .

My config is 2.8 HT , 512 Ram , Ge force 6200 .


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## icecoolz (Sep 24, 2005)

*Re: AOE 3 messed up*



			
				usmayur said:
			
		

> Is there any problem, if we have to concentrate on both micromanagement of resources and battle. It will make it more challenging and hence more satisfactory. That's my point.



Increasingly that is not the case. The focus is more on battle and hence the tactics. Micro management can only get you so much. The days of being defensive, building large armies and the attacking are long gone.


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## GunshotSilence (Sep 26, 2005)

*age of empires3 runs on intel 810e chipset*

hey guys, just to test i disabled my graphics card and re-enabled my 810e onboard chipset and connected my monitor to the onboard chipset. and restarted the system.

 i ran age of empires 3 on my old 810e chipset with 256mb ram and p3 933 mghz and guess what? 
IT RAN. YES IT RAN. BUT THE GRPAHICS WERE POOR. could see units but not muhc of explored land.

defeated the damn spanish.

so u see the games min req is still low. but if u want to the see the mind blowing graphics u need, a fast pc and grpahics card. but u can play it on a p3 too. with onboard graphics.


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## prathap_lab (Oct 2, 2005)

hi, 
AOE 3 demo has been released. it is 365MB. it is available at: 
*www.ageofempires3.com/ 

i played, it is very nice. in campaign it has 2 levels and in skirmish it has 2 maps. only 2 civilizations are available in demo version(spanish & british).  you can even check the release date in "AOE press" link on the website mentioned above. 

its sys. req. are high.
try it. 

thank you.


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## GunshotSilence (Oct 2, 2005)

were u born today?
cause the game demo came 3 weeks ago and i got it and played it full 2 weeks ago

and even posted a review here
and u r posting about it now


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## usmayur (Oct 3, 2005)

*AOE 3 demo*

It has more than 2 maps. Just keep on playing skirmish and u will get different maps


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## navjotjsingh (Oct 7, 2005)

Age of Empires 3 Official NewsLetter said:
			
		

> Age of Empires 3 should be on store shelves October 18th in the U.S.  Ensemble Studios will also be shipping the biggest, most content-rich Collector's Edition that we've ever created.  Quantities are limited, but you can pre-order yours now at www.ebgames.com or www.gamestop.com.
> 
> Check out what's going on in Age of Empires at our brand new community  site www.agecommunity.com and while you are there check out the downloads sections to get the latest demo!
> 
> ...


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## damnthenet (Oct 10, 2005)

I love strategy games. But my computer can't afford to play this game. The system requirements are quite advanced!


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## yourharry (Oct 10, 2005)

*hi everyone, i got the game*

hi everyone, i too like aoe very much. but i wont play the demo as its not enough for me. 

*Edit: [Enoonmai]: Please do not encourage piracy or post information on where to get pirated stuff. Further talks on piracy will merit a Warning tag.*


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## nitish_mythology (Oct 22, 2005)

*Cool  AOE*

All the versions of AOE are cool. I loved Age of mythology the most. Hope this game satisfy the need of all gamers that love strategy games!!!!


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## Dipen01 (Oct 23, 2005)

Well.. my favourite is AOE II havent tried AOE III as  my systems doesn't support it.... well even Rise of Nations was good...


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## Yoda (Oct 25, 2005)

The game is out and it comes in 3 CDs for PC. I will try the game soon.


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## vignesh (Oct 25, 2005)

Waiting to get my hands on it.Hope Digit gives the demo.


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## shaunak (Nov 6, 2005)

just tried aoe 3 demo my reveiw:
+runs on low ens systems [2ghz ,384mb ram,intel 865 onboard gfx card]
+no or little learning curve: even if u havent played any of the aoe series you shud b able to manage.
+great grafix even on low end systems
cant w8 to get my paws on it.


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## icecoolz (Nov 8, 2005)

ok finished the game. I was disappointed with the story line. Somehow did not feel like AOE game at all. And the modes are a lil strange. Easy mode is tooooooooooo easy. Hard mode is a nightmare. There isnt an even distribution. Some more things. The mounted cavalry is pretty useless. I completed the game with ground forces (shooters mainly) and the artillery. A lot of the units seem redundant. The game does look gorgeous and the havok engine is damn good when it comes to realistic physics, still I thin AOEII was way better than this.


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## usmayur (Nov 8, 2005)

*Re: AOE 3 messed up*



			
				icecoolz said:
			
		

> usmayur said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



He he he 
Now wat view abt AOE 3 since u were a staunch supporter of battle and tactics. Now u say AOE 2 was way better. Maintain a stand.


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## jamyang312 (Nov 16, 2005)

Will it work on a P3 machine with SIS620???
What all are the games that might work on it??


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## icecoolz (Nov 17, 2005)

*Re: AOE 3 messed up*



			
				usmayur said:
			
		

> icecoolz said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Did I say that AOE2 was better because of Micro Management ? Yes the focus is on battles in AOE3 however the levels of game play in AOE 3 is what I had an issue with it. Easy is way too easy and hard is very very hard. Also the balance in terms of units was the problem. With the ranged shooters, it almost made the halebriders redundant. Even th cavalry was lame against the shooters. Infact I still needed to micro manage neways. Esp with the cards which I had to send from my towns. Your stand is that AOE 3 will suck becos we dont have micro management. And honestly speaking u cannot focus on Micro management in AOE3. The battles at times is extremely large. I actually had a problem only with the levels of game play in terms of difficulty. I sitll say this. Micromanagement in RTS is of the past. Perhaps u should try LOTR: BFME then you will see what battles are all about. Or perhaps Dungeons and Dragons: Dragonshard. Now that has different battle dimensions.


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## Sourabh (Nov 17, 2005)

edited the topic title from Development to Discussions. The thread has come a long way from the start.. Hope icecoolz doesnt mind


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## icecoolz (Nov 18, 2005)

not at all Sourabh  I should have thought of that myself thanks for the change


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## Srijandeep Das (Jan 26, 2006)

*age of empires3*

here are a few cheats for AOE 3:


Cheats
Press ENTER and input the following codes for the decribed effects: 

X marks the spot - Reveals map
Medium Rare Please - Stocks 10000 food
Give me liberty or give me coin - Stocks 10000 coin
Nova & Orion - Stocks 10000 XP
Speed always wins - Building rate doubled
Sooo Good - Random saying when killed by infantry
This is too hard - Clears current map in single player
tuck tuck tuck - Stocks monster truck in retail version 
A recent study indicated that 100% of herdables are obese - All animals on map are fattened.

have fun!


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