This is the game that introduced and defined strategy games for me. I remember when I was in high school a friend of mine installed the demo on my computer and I was glued to the monitor that night. The game has a simple concept; build an economy, progress through the ages and complete objectives or obliterate the enemy. Simple but in so many ways addictive. Age of Empires is an isometric game (2 dimensional made to look 3D) and therefore does not require any graphics hardware acceleration beyond that which your computer already has. It is almost 13 years old yet the graphics feel fresh. Vivid colours, beautiful animations and great ...  Read the complete review

This is my favourite game in the Age of Empires series, for months i had to play the trial version of this game, that only contained about 3 missions or so, but finally i could afford to buy it, For a start the game is a lot simpler than the other AoE games, in single player the game is locked to 50 units per player, This can cause problems for people that focus on economy, they may have so many villagers that they cannot build up a sufficient army. Luckily in the multiplayer side of the game, for up to 8 players over Serial, Modem, IPX, TCP/IP or through Microsoft Gaming Zone (Discontinued), there is a population limit option allowing you to choose to allow ...  Read the complete review

AGE OF EMPIRES -------------- This game was made by Ensemble Studios, and released by Microsoft in 1997, Its a Real Time Strategy game with a lot of depth. Personally im not normally a fan of RTS games, but this one had a little something more, which has made it one of my favourite games. With lots of options and customizations, this game can be endless, there is just so much that you can do. GAMEPLAY -------- The game is played in the same style as your normal RTS games, such as Command and Conquer, but this game also has a lot of elements of the Civilization Series of games. When you first load this up you ...  Read the complete review

I have to admit when I heard about this game I thought oh no a game by Microsoft, how good can that be, but it looked like the type of game I would enjoy so I went out and bought it. Here I am 2 years later and I am still playing the game. When I first started playing I could not put it down, many a night’s sleep was lost trying to complete the campaigns just to find out what would come next. Then when I had finished the campaigns I went on to the random map mode and started taking on the computer and it is this mode I am still playing today admittedly not as much as when the game first came out, but probably a few times a month. The ...  Read the complete review

Background ~~~~~~~~ The game is set in Europe & Asia between the Stone Age and Iron Age which spans 10,000 years of history. You fight in epic legendary campaigns such as escorting Hannibal across the Alps and going to war with the great Roman Empire. The game, at heart, is a Real Time Strategy (RTS) which has become one of today's more popular game genres - and im pretty sure this, and the advent of Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, was responsible for it. If you aren't aware of what a Real Time Strategy game is ...  Read the complete review