Age of Empires III, as one can tell from the name, is the third iteration of the famous strategy series. Unlike some games, it has kept with the winning formula and merely improved. Developers have made sure to take advantage of technological advantages to maximise the visual impact of the game. It's a case of something recognisable that looks a heck of a lot better.

Like in the other version, you play one of several European countries, as well as the Ottoman and Russian Empires, as you attempt to dominate the New World starting from the exploration through the age of steam.

Solo play consists of quite a long story line that involves a conspiracy, a fountain of youth type place, pirates and locations all of over the New World. It's a bit contrived and probably not that original but it allows the player to develop his skills in a gradual way to prepare for multiplayer play. There is at least one map that is almost too hard even on the easiest settings, but overall it's quite a balanced campaign. It's divided in three parts and never really gets boring. I found myself keen to find out what is next as I made my way through it.

Overall the game is rather stable, especially if one includes the new update. However, there are still occasional episodes of crashing when things get complicated and full on the map. What is most frustrating is when you get either settlers or units trapped in the building. This occurs both when making a building and when manufacturing a unit. However, this can be factored in accordingly.

There are a myriad of maps on which you can practice your play to prepare yourself for the inevitable multiplayer online play. You can play Age of Empires III via the venerable Gameranger system. This system works rather well and there always seem to be games that one can join.

One of the neat things about AoE III is your home city, which builds up as you get experience in the game. These developments both allow you to change the look of your city (pointless but amusing) and gather upgrades that can be used on your maps. For most of the game, until higher home city levels, you are are limited to 20 upgrades "cards". However when you have more than choices you can pick and choose 20 depending on what type of map you want to play. The nice feature is that you chose "your deck" once into the map rather than before so you don't head in blind.

Overall this is an improvement on a good series. It makes for hours of good fun both solo and online. I quite enjoyed this game and expect I will go back every so often. Of course once you are bored with this game you can get the War Chiefs add-on. Look for a review on that soon.

Age of Empires III is a great game for when you don't want to have the stress of a first-person-shooter. One last thing, I found that playing this game with a trackball makes for quite a bit more fun.

It is good to see that the AoE series is in good hands.

Age of Empires III is rated T (Teen) by the ESRB for Blood, Violence. This game can also be found on: PC.