Alongside Warcraft and Command & Conquer, the Age of Empires series has been one of the defining games in the RTS (real-time strategy) genre. In this, the third in the series, the action moves to the Americas.

There's something rather childish, cynical even, about Age of Empires III. Playing it I'm reminded of a girl at school that started giving me presents (chocolate mainly) on a daily basis. She was, I guess, trying to win my affection.

To paraphrase The Who, meet the New World, same as the Old World. Of course, it doesn't look the same. Three years on from the stunning Age of Mythology, Ensemble have once again raised the bar for strategy game visuals. Age of Empires III is beautiful to look at.

Age of Empires III is very much the evolution of this iconic franchise from Ensemble and Microsoft Game Studios thanks to its retention of key gameplay features such as Age progression and the addition on new elements such as the Home City screens.

I have played this series since A.O.E rise of rome and this has to be the best series yet! Campaign just as good and graphics are excellent as usual, well worth the money and time.

Six years is a long time for fans to wait, and Age of Empires III doesn't meet the expectations. The game does a good job at fixing a lot of the previous problems with the Age of Empires formula, but there are still some issues that hurt the game greatly.

I have been playing this game for 3 years now, went onto Warchief expansion, then later Asian Dynasty expansion. and came back to the original. Over the years it had received 12 patches and is currently the most balanced AOE.

I'm a long time fan of the Age of Empires Series. How many hours I spent sneaking into the University computer labs after dark with friends to quickly install and play a networked round of the original, I can't really remember, but those were good old days.

Six years have flown by since Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings became one of the definitive real-time strategy games on the market. Age of Kings typified this style of gaming in many respects, but it innovated and improved the style in many others, establishing the template for untold numbers of...

Tried-and-true formula still makes for a complex and interesting strategy game, Innovative "home city" system creates long-term depth and strategy, Plenty of content and modes of play, Spectacular visuals, if you have a fast system

Some aspects of combat don't look and feel quite right; Frame rate can bog down at the wrong moments; Falls into some of the same traps as many older real-time strategy games

When your collective resume reads like Ensemble Studios' does, people come to expect a certain standard. Age of Empires, Age of Kings, Age of Mythology, and many and various expansion packs, games that refined and redefined the RTS genre as we know it, it would not be an understatement to say that...