Age of Empires Product Description
It's the dawn of a new age inreal-time strategy (RTS) games. A brave New World is rising--a hostileyet beautiful world, filled with innovative gameplay, new strategicscenarios, eye-searing graphics and much more. Welcome to a worldcalled Age of Empires III.
Campaign
In this action adventuretale of historical fiction, players take on the role of Morgan Blackand his family, struggling against the hostile wilderness and amysterious cult that's crept in from Europe.
In a series of 24scenarios divided into three acts, Morgan Black and his descendantshelp the Aztecs resist conquest by Spanish conquistadors, pit theFrench against the British in the French and Indian War and help SimonBolivar lead revolutions in South America.
Multiplayer
Whetheryou're searching for a quick game or hoping to talk strategy withfriends online, Age of Empires III's Multiplayer site is your communitydestination.
Here, you can play with persistent Home Cities thatgain power and strategic options the more games you play, compete for aspot on dozens of ladders, help organize your clan or chat after a game-- all without leaving the multiplayer portal.
Fans of Age ofMythology's Quick Search can still look for games swiftly, whileplayers looking for something specific can browse game lists to findthe set of options that matches their tastes.
New Feature--Home Cities
?Thisrevolutionary new feature to the RTS landscape is incorporated into allaspects of Age of Empires III -- from Campaign to Multiplayer -- and isunlike anything you've experienced before.
Much like thepersistent character from a role-playing game that encourages you tokeep playing, your Home City is an important support system to yourefforts in the New World. During a game, your Home City can regularlysend you supplies or military reinforcements.
You are the leaderof your colony, but your success brings glory back to Mother Europe.The more games you play, and the better you do, the more powerful yourHome City will become. Every few games, you gain the ability to bothupgrade and customize your Home City:
* Upgrade your city by unlocking new types of soldiers or buildings, or improving those you already have.
*Broaden your tech tree in whatever direction most fits your playstyle--invest in warships, native alliances, cavalry, artillery oreconomy.
* Customize your Home City by changing the appearance ofbuildings, the weather or even the types of people who walk, work andperform in its streets.
* Throughout a game, as well as in betweengames, you can visit your Home City to watch its citizens go abouttheir lives, get an opinion on how you're doing, plot your next move orjust marvel at the beautiful sunset.
Full 3-D Graphics, Destructible Environments and More
?Wefirst set out to reproduce the rich detail of Age of Empires II: Age ofKings. As we strove to make the fascinating Age of Empires III timeperiod come alive, that goal quickly evolved: We at Ensemble Studioswanted to create the best-looking game ever. From the stunning watereffects to the hundreds of units battling on-screen, you'll feel likeyou're a part of the action in the New World.
* Tonemapping--This photo imaging technique balances the colors in a scene onthe fly. The end result is a rich, warm game where bright colors arevibrantly rendered alongside darker counterparts, such as shadows.
*Lighting and shadows--The sun is always shining in Age of Empires, soit's important that lighting and shadows be an awe-inspiringexperience. Units and buildings cast shadows according to a real sunposition, and even cast shadows on each other. High Dynamic Rangerendering allows us to represent the shiny glints of sunlight thatbounce off highly reflective surfaces.
* Bump and specularmapping--Water glistens like water. Metal shines like metal. Theseadvanced techniques serve to provide an extra level of rendering detailheretofore unseen in real-time strategy (RTS) gaming.
* Water--Wefelt that portraying stunning, realistic water effects in the game wasso important that we devoted a programmer to it full-time. You'll findthe water rich with details like foam near the shore, accuratelymodeled water motion, flotsam in rivers and realistic water colors.Plus, reflections change with the viewing angle, the angle of sunlightand the motion of the water. The overall effect is breathtaking.
*Cliffs and Riverbeds--Instead of just stretching terrain, we built asystem to attach geometry to the terrain map to allow for realisticoverhangs and steep cliffs, from areas like the American Southwest.This effect is supported on random maps too.
Civilizations
British
Quickaccess to Settlers gives the British one of the strongest economies inthe game. The ability to upgrade two key units -- the Musketeer andHussar -- make the British military formidable in the late game. TheBritish Home City emphasizes improvements to technology and navalwarfare. Dutch
Although Dutch Settlers are limited and costly, theircivilization makes up for this economic disadvantage by building Banksand generating coin automatically. The Dutch Home City emphasizesupgrades to defense and economy.
French
Although the Frencheconomy starts slowly, the Coureur unit, a Villager with strongfighting skills, makes the French difficult to attack early. The Frenchalso have the strongest cavalry unit in the game -- the Cuirassier.Plus, the French are experts at allying with the Native Americans.German
The Germans have fewer Settlers and therefore a slowereconomy. Fortunately, both the Settler Wagon and Uhlan cavalry spawnfor free from the German Town Center. Plus, the Germans start with theability to send Mercenaries from their Home City (long before othercivilizations can).
Native American
European civilizations canlearn new technologies and gain troops by forging alliances with theNative Americans. A British player who allies with the Iroquois isessentially playing as two civilizations: the British and the Iroquois.Ottoman
For the Ottomans, Settlers spawn automatically from the TownCenter. Building a Mosque and conducting research help keep thatSettler production steady. Befitting their position straddling Europeand Asia, the Ottomans have more unique units than any othercivilization.
Portuguese
Starting the game with two Town Centers,the Portuguese can quickly produce Settlers, control territory orsupport their allies. The Spyglass ability allows the Portuguese toeasily spy on the enemy. The Portuguese also have a strong navy, stronglight infantry and the best Dragoons in the game. Russian
Startingthe game with extra resources but fewer Settlers gives the Russians theflexibility of focusing on economy or an early raid. Russian infantry,individually weak, are trained in blocks at a faster rate, providingthe Russians with the opportunity to overwhelm their enemy with greaternumbers.
Spanish
The Spanish have a strong military, with bothhand infantry and cavalry. Flexibility in early shipments from the HomeCity give the Spanish the option to attack early or set up for astrong, late economy. Spanish Home City improvements benefit soldiers,buildings and naval units.
Combat
Age of Empires III gives players an amazing amount of control over their side of the battlefield. ?
*More to command -- Not only are you in command of large and diversearmies of infantry, cavalry and artillery, but also Native Americanwarriors, mercenaries and tall ships.
* Multiple formations -- Youcan assign different formations to your army for different strengthsand weaknesses, or have the game automatically choose the mostappropriate formation. Examples include:
o Volley -- ranged infantry, like musketeers, take turns firing at enemies ahead of them.
oCharge -- your soldiers walk, then run into combat. Cavalry wieldsabers, and musketeers fix bayonets. This formation does tremendousdamage but makes your soldiers more prone to injury.
o Bombard --your soldiers protect the cannons, while the cannons shell enemy ranks.Available only when you have artillery in your army.
o Battles areeasier to follow -- You can still command individual units. But whenthe units fight in formation, you'll be able to tell exactly who iswinning the fight.
* Real-time physics -- Infantry struck by cannonfire will be thrown like rag dolls, perhaps even over a cliff and intothe water. Cannonballs bounce and ricochet.
* Detailed destructions-- Shingles, shutters and whole towers may fly off a building andinteract with the terrain, such as crashing into nearby water. Thisnext generation effect is done on the fly so that each building alwayshas a unique destruction, no matter how many times you see it.
* Unique animations -- With hundreds of unique combat animations, you'll never see the same battle twice.
Product Description
AgeOf Empires 3 is the sequel to the critically-acclaimed strategy game.It introduces all-new gameplay elements, new civilizations to discover,random maps to conquer and a single-player campaign unlike any other.A.I. opponents are now well-developed characters with deep strategies,motivations, and personalities-and more than 4,000 audio taunts attheir disposal. New lighting and shadow effects, in a game worlddesigned to have real physics and depth -- you'll almost feel likeyou're there. The first 3D iteration of the series uses bump- andtone-mapping to render realistic water and shadows. Havok engine'scause-and-effect physics bring battles to lurid life.
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