14 DAY TRIAL // 
It's been a long time since the last Age of Empires. The fans await with great anticipation this new sequel, especially because of the beautiful, story like graphics, screenshots and trailers.
For those of you who have been waiting for something completely new, you're in for a disappointment. With a few exceptions and the introduction of a new feature you will see nothing revolutionary.
Age of Empires III picks up where its predecessor, the Age of Kings, left it. Focusing on the colonizing of the Americas, AoE 3 follows the actions of the European powers as they strive to carve out their influence on the New World. The time period covered by AoE 3 allows an interesting mix of medieval and gunpowder-early steam-age technologies.
You will be able to play 8 powers, each with its distinctive gameplay (not sufficient, as you might notice) and a multitude of units. Unfortunately, they don't differ much from other RTS games that have surfaced this days and which cover the same time periods. On account of this, Ensemble Studios decided to introduce the new feature we were talking about - The Home City- which actually looks like the castle in Heroes of Might and Magic, which you can access anytime.
By far, AoE3's biggest innovation is this home city, which brings an element of persistence to both your single and multiplayer games and adds a ton of new strategy to the mix. You will be able to hold not one but 20 cities at once. This is possible but not probable; the player usually focuses on the development of one.
The city acts like a player in an RPG game, so you will be able to upgrade it as you go further and send more shipment to your battlefield. The better you play the smaller will be the time between shipments. This is done by support cards which you can take into battle or by developing new ones. You can counterattack in this manner a map that is low on resources, so you will find yourself in dire need of food or military aid as soon as you start.
In addition to the Home City, Age of Empires III also made a few other changes since the last outing. Each player gains control of an unkillable leader unit, the Explorer. The Explorer, in addition to being a powerful military unit, is also able to loot treasures and build a few choice buildings and units.
There is now need to remind you of the graphics, but you should know that it's not extraordinary, but pretty good. Though, for some particular reason, I 'm under the impression that I have been cheated. I have a graphic card that supports the latest technologies but I wasn't that impressed and it lacked a full 3D perspective. Yes, I liked it but it didn't make much of an impression on me.
The good news is that Ensemble Studios did a very good job optimizing it. It runs quite well on medium machines (if you get rid of the shadows) with very little frame rate drops.
The sound isn't particularly interesting. It resembles to the other titles, especially the main theme. The weapons sound OK and the ambient sounds are very well done. The game leaves a very pleasant feeling behind it.
It will be a hit, there is no doubt about it, but like any sequel it will generate sales just because it's a sequel and not because of itself. It's going to be an interesting title to play especially because we lack a good RTS title that can keep us in front of our computer for years and years to come.
