Rating: 
Summary: SLOW
Review: I Like playing some of the senarios with 31 AI players on hudge maps 250 x 250. But there is one problem even with my fairly up to date cumputer, 1.6GHz and 512MB of Ram. The game is slow so slow I cant stand to play it. Even when I play with only 8 AI players after 3 or 4 hours the AI players moves take up a minute or so between turns. This ends the game for me. I have never played online, but the game speed cant be any better.
Rating: 
Summary: Another wonderful strategy game.
Review: This is so much more than a game, its an educational tool designed to train young and old minds alike to rule the world, via conquest or diplomacy, which to choose... Go up against the machinations of various historical figures and try your best to outsmart them.
Will you succeed in launching your colonizer space craft first or will you simply take the world by force.
A game you can play over and over and over again, new worlds generated every time you play, or you can even make your own....
Rating:
Summary: Great addition to an already great game
Review: Play the World is an excellent addition to Civilization III. It adds 8 extra civilizations - the Ottomans, Arabs, Spanish, Vikings, Celts, Mongols, Carthaginians, and Koreans, bringing the grand total to 25. The multiplayer is great - I don't know what the other reviewers were complaining about. The editor is far better than the old one. Definitely buy this expansion pack!
Rating: 
Summary: Question Regarding Multiplayer
Review: I've read many of the reviews here detailing the laundry list of problems with the multiplayer game. I am wondering (and would like to hear from people regarding) whether the "hotseat" multiplayer, which I think is just played on one computer by multiple people, has the same laundry list of problems as the multiplayer played over the internet with strangers. I'm considering buying PTW just for the ability to play multiplayer at home with others, but won't if people say it has all of the same problems. Any thoughts?
Rating:
Summary: Heir to the throne
Review: The Expansion pack brings Civ III up to par with the fantastic titles that have gone before it. Finally, we are provided with some historical scenarios with "real world" starting positions. An amazing 30+ civilizations can vie for control in a single scenario. I have only begun to play with the editor that comes with the program, but it seems to allow for the kind of expansion and creativity that kept me playing Civ II when I bought it all those years ago until a few weeks ago when I bought the expansion pack to go along with Civ III. Admittedly, I was not thrilled with Civ III by itself, but the expansion pack makes it a worthy successor to the Civ throne.
Rating:
Summary: can't make it work through firewall
Review: I'm a big fun of this game. I have an internet router with default firewall configuration, and the game doesn't work through it. So I got to spend some time figuring out how to configure firewall rules before I can get online... I played single player game once so far but did not get into many of the features yet... The best feature I like so far is better automation of workers. It was a pain before to keep them cleaning pollution, but now I can focus on more interesting tasks :-)
Rating: 
Summary: Very good, but multi is SLOW!
Review: If you are a Civ lover, PTW is the way to go. It has 8 new civs (I like the Vikings best, but there's the Spanish, the Mongols, etc.) with pretty cool and interesting special units. The Viking Berserk is 6/2/1 for 70 and replaces Longbowmen (they slaughter if you focus on tech early on) and the Mongol Kizik is a Knight that moves over mountains as if they were grassland, while still getting the defensive bonus. Interesting. Civ 3 PTW also has multiplayer, which is good in Hot Seat mode, but terrible over the internet. If you want a half-reasonable speed, play turn-based and not one of the new multiplayer modes (Turnless and Simultaneous Moves), although turn-based is still pretty slow. Of course, the worse the ping, the slower the game, and you need everyone to have about 30ms ping with each other to go normal speed. (For those of you who don't know, anywhere less than 200ms is usually considered fine. 200ms makes for an incredibly slow game in PTW.) I give this 4 stars for the new civs and just HAVING multiplayer, but that last star will have to wait until they fix the multiplayer speed.
Rating:
Summary: Diehard fans may enjoy, but still disappointing
Review: One word can sum up Play the World: disappointing. If you are a diehard fan, the several new civs and units may be fun for a while, but it's truly not worth paying for. You can forget about the multiplayer. It doesn't work. Period. As I write this, only 76 people are trying to play PTW on GameSpy right now. The patch supposedly fixed the multiplayer problems, but by the time you bother to patch yours, you'll be bored with it already. Essentially, you'll be buying a buggy patch for Civ 3. Teach Firaxis a lesson and save your money.
Rating:
Summary: Follow the instructions...install the patch
Review: I have been an avid fan of the series since the first installment of civilization and have easily wasted solid months (years?) at a time playing Civ II, SMAC, etc. I even bought a new system just for the release of Civ III because it would cause me great mental anguish to know that it was out and I couldn't play it. If this sounds anything like you, and you have a broadband connection (you really do need it) you need to buy this expansion.
Caveats:
I picked up PTW on release day and raced home to see how my months of training with Civ III would fare against human opponents. Crashes and complaints were frequent (this version should have never been shipped) but firaxis has made it work with their second patch (1.14f available from firaxis.com) and after a few frustrating weeks, I have little to no trouble connecting with people to play with, crashes are way down and probably due to new users trying to play without the patch.
My only complaint now is with the human opponents. People with leave the game if they think they are losing, or if you attack a poorly defended civ, or if their sister needs to use the computer or whatever. This wipes their cities completely off the map but also gives the neighboring civ easy access to expand their territory, upsetting the power balance. Other players must think this is a good idea because they then begin to leave in droves. There are no overall statistics kept on your own overall performance (wins/losses/quits) which could have been a nice feature especially matching similar skill levels to play each other. Dial up pings are high and hosts will often ask a player with high pings to leave, if they don't they get booted by the host before the game begins (thus the broadband recommendation). Games last on average at least 3-4 hours and significant military movements can be difficult to complete within the time allotted even if you make use of all the management features. Even with all of these issues, I find myself going straight for the multiplayer lobby rather than the single player game. Hope this helps someone.
Rating:
Summary: Play the World--Sorry, but you can play your freinds!
Review: This is a GREAT add-on. The other reviews keep ranting and raving about how the multiplayer doesn't work, but THAT'S JUST ON-LINE! Try an internet cafe like a LAN setup and it works like MAGIC! First of all, there are now EIGHT new civilizations: The Vikings, the Carthagians, the Celts, the Koreans, The Spanish, The Ottomans, The Arabs, and the Mongols (Huns).Obviously, these aren't the ones you immediately think of when making an original game (no offense intended to anyone,) but they add much more fun to the game. Each new civilization has been integrated seamlessly with the rest of the game, complete with characteristics and special units. Two new units have been added for all civs as well: Medievel Infantry and Guerillas, which were in Civ2. The interface is also much better. I've one twice now and I owe it all to the new interface!!! There is now a new wonder--the Internet (A great thing both in real life and in the game!) and there are numerous new city improvements and worker actions. In multiplayer, you can play a hotseat game with only one computer needed, or a play-by-email if you don't have a good internet connection. This way is much faster then it would appear to be--and it retains all of the pacing. On LAN, you can play Simultaneous Turns, where everyone takes their turn at once (Frantic, but fun!) or the much-discussed TURNLESS, where there are NO turns whatsoever, and various things are kept track of by faction upkeep timers. Great in every way, just don't play online!!!!!
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