Age of Empires III Member Review for the PC

The stone age pwnz all! GRADE: C-

Age of Empires III is a highly anticipated new game that was released in 2006. Thousands of gamers have been waiting for this great moment in gaming history. Thousands of gamers are extremely angry at their computers!

AoE III takes up 2 Gigabytes on your computer, which, if you are like me, you have an old pentium 4 with barely any more RAM left on his old **** box, is alot of space. My computer gave up RAM just to load the game, which is an extreme inconvenience if you like to Download stuff, play music, and other gamer pump-action methods of kickin' some ass!

Another thing about the RAM is that if your PC is not strong enough, the art icons to build towns, or train new units, or even gather new resources, seem to vanish. They are abducted by a mean looking fox. Whatever happened to originality?

To give credit to the game, AoE III has some pretty breath taking graphics that will, well, take your breath away. The framerate is smooth, the lighting is marvelous, and the animation will make you want to jump up and yell "Eureka!"

So, what went wrong?

The developers obviously wanted to make this game a revolutionary graphics game, but they forgot that half the population can barely install their game. We don't all have new computers every month, guys! Also, for the people who were able to install it, it is extremely hazardous for noobies. It is complicated, and you need a PhD to understand the manual after reading it 5 times.

One great addition is the bonuses each country gets. For example, the british gets additional "peasents" while the french are better at making friends with the local indians. This gives the game a smooth feel that you can play to whatever advantage you like most. It always amazes me to see the someone with the french win online.

Speaking of online, the online play is, god have mercy on are souls, even more complicated than single player. It would take a n00b about 15 minutes just to reach a game, and then he would die instantly by the seasoned veterans that play online. This game is harsh on the n00b factor!

All in all, I think that the developer spent to much time improving the graphics than to actually improve the game itself. The graphics are the only leniant thing about this game, which is why it's grade is so low. Keep it simple, guys!