Age of Empires 3

But if graphics and sound are the icing, what about the cake? Age of Empires III is still rooted in classic real-time strategy gameplay (if you hate RTS games, it may not make you change your mind), but there are some new twists that are well-executed into the game design.

First, Age III simulates colonization, meaning that the town you build in the game can request "shipments" from your Home City. You gain new shipments by earning experience (you get experience from building stuff, collecting resources, or killing bad guys), and you have a set list of things that you can send over. This has a profound impact on your strategy. Do you send over economic resources early, to give your town a leg up on the competition? Or do you send over tons of military units, so that you can field an advanced army while your neighbors are still building up? Shipments add a lot to the game by giving you more strategic possibilities, and by giving you incentive to rapidly earn experience. They really reward players for going out and making things happen around the map.

Every map is also dotted with Native American villages or trade routes (located along central roads) that can be built up by your colony. Controlling a trading post gives you free experience or resources whenever a trade cart comes by, whereas Native American villages can provide you with inexpensive military units or technology upgrades. Controlling these points on the map gives you a major edge over the long term. As a result, it's a rush to be the first to locate these points, and they are always hotly contested. Battles usually play out as a series of skirmishes across the map before big conflicts rage at the town centers.

Finally, Age of Empires III adds the "Home City" concept. Outside of the real-time portion of the game, you can create a Home City representing the world power that's supplying your colonies. Your Home City has a level -- like an RPG character -- representing how experienced it is. As you earn experience playing the game your city will "Level up" and you can choose new abilities for it, in effect deciding what kinds of shipments you'd like to send to your colonies. The decision about what kinds of upgrades to make to your city is agonizing and has a tangible impact on the main game. It's also fun just to level up, develop, and customize your own personal city. One nice side effect here is that, even if you get totally ass-whupped in a multiplayer game, you probably still earned a lot of experience to use to develop your city. This concept works great all around and really contributes to the game.

How the West Got Ownt

The single-player campaign is divided into three acts representing three generations of the same family. Picking up where Age of Kings left off, the lead character in the first campaign is a Knight adventuring in the New World in search of a lost treasure. Said treasure impacts his whole family line, as depicted in Act II, a rip-roaring Davy-Crockett style adventure starring his Grandson. Act III picks up two generations later, featuring a wild west romp involving railroads, the Mexican war, and a quest into the Amazon jungles before the family finally finds closure. As with the other production values of the game, the writing is solid and the voice acting is great.

There's a good variety of missions in the single-player campaign, from protecting a stronghold until help arrives to building a railroad line to battling pirates along a series of islands. None of the individual scenarios have you doing things that hadn't been done in other RTS games, but the real magic is in the gameplay, which allows you to develop a different Home City for each act and tackle each scenario differently.

Each of the three acts will take around eight hours to mow through, leading to an enjoyable couple of weekends just on the single player alone. The difficulty is a little inconsistent, with some missions being a breeze while occasionally one would seem crazy difficult. Fortunately, you have the option of switching the difficulty level for each mission.

One nice thing about the single-player game is that your hero characters can't die. Oh, they can get worked over -- writhing on the ground in pain, calling for help -- but you can always bring them back. This eliminates the frustration of having a scenario end just because a main character dies and also creates the possibility of impromptu 'rescue missions' where you create a small force with the intent of bringing one of your heroes back to your base alive.

Throughout time, there has been one fact that tends to repeat itself: a conflict of interest leads to a conflict of weapons. In this case, there's an international race for who can settle the New World first.

Welcome to Age of Empires III. Eight civilizations, one great continent, zero chance of sharing. When the dust settles and the corpses fertilize the ground, will it be your flag being raised? Or will it be draped over your grave?

Age of Empires III follows the tradition of its predecessors, combining fast action with strategic thinking at every step. In addition to the new card system, even the same civilization can be customized and tweaked to fit your play style. IGN has covered the grounds from Delaware to California, and we bring the strategies and tips to you with our patented accuracy!

In this guide, you'll find:

• Basic Strategies: Details of the Basic Three strategies are here, including what to do and what to expect at each phase of the match.
• Civilizations: Basic weaknesses and strengths of each civilization, and which of the Basic Three strategies work best with them. Be sure to read this if you planning on playing against other players online.
• Cards: Sure, this isn't Yu-gi-oh, but the dozens of cards in the game are too important to shrug off in a single paragraph. You'll get a breakdown of every single card available, including its effects and which civilizations can use it.
• Campaign Mode Walkthrough: For those interested in the single-player campaign, this section gives you a step-by-step, battle-by-battle guide. Plus, you'll get cut scene narration, including a possible rude comment or two along the way.