Rating: 
Summary: Correction
Review: I do not own this game; I am not here to review it (please ignore my star rating; I had to put something there).To Robert Dunn: in your review, you mentioned that you met all the requirements for this game, and went on to say that it doesn't work because you have an onboard video card. That means that you couldn't have met all the requirements because on the Microsoft website for this game, it clearly states that you need at least a 16Mb video card. Don't mislead the public.
Rating: 
Summary: BORING
Review: That's right, this game is boring from the start all the way to the end and back. I wouldn't be doing justice if I only used one word to describe such a deep and complicated game, so I'll add another word--TEDIOUS. Unless, of course, you love playing the exact same scenario over and over and again and again and so on. The campaign mode is like you start with 3 buildings and you beat the other guy, then you get to the next turn, and pick another country to attack on the world map. That's when you get to master the skills you learned in previous scenario by starting again with 3 buildings and beating the other guy. End of turn. Attack/defend again, start with 3 buildings, beat the other guy... rinse and repeat... until you have conquered the whole world. Of course you could also save the game at the start of any give turn and play that turn again and again... and by golly you wouldn't know the difference. Oh and in case you advanced in age ahead of the other guy, expect your tanks to be poked into oblivion by dem pikemen. They really can find some holes in dem tanks with their long umm.. pikes. Anyways, you might still like this title a LOT since it is deep and balanced and long and... VERY satisfying to a masochist--I suppose. If you like it then great but if you want a better title then try Medieval Total War.
Rating: 
Summary: addictive ...
Review: I really liked 'Alpha Centauri' so was thrilled to pick up this as soon as it came out. The game has various modes of play and can be played online or in a solo mode. The game also comes with half a dozen scenarios in addition to the 'Conquer the World' campaign.
New wars have also started popping up on the net and you can download American Civil Wars from online sites!! As other people have said the game goes a bit too fast but this can be corrected by increasing the level of the game.
Rating: 
Summary: Missing the Challenge
Review: I had played games likes Civilization, Age of Empires and Empire Earth. I had found this game to be lacking the challenge. I could end the game in a couple of day. Unlike Civilization, Age of Empires and Empire Earth, it kept me playing for a few months. I would say this is a great disappointment, I had expected more from it. The only plus point about this game is the graphics. It is very good but gameplay - it is BORING
Rating:
Summary: Do not buy this game...honestly
Review: I cannot believe this game is still on the shelves. I read the great reviews and decided to try it. I have a brand new computer that met all the req. Unfortunately it won't run. According to the tech help guy, it just doesnt work on alot of computers.
"Do you have an onboard video card?"
"yes"
"oh thats' the problem. It won't run on those."
"how many people who buy this gamne have onboard video cards?"
"85%"
"Why are you selling a 50$ game that won't run on most peoples computers? There isn't anything on the box."
"people who can play it really like it." It was a frustrating call. Buy this game and find out how fun that call can be.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent game
Review: This game is far superior to AoE2, Empire Earth, and AoM. The graphics are good, but not the best. What really sets this game apart from the rest is the gameplay. A feature in the game, Conquer the World, combines a Risk-like map with individual invasion and defense scenarios. While this feature could be better, it is the best executions of any attempt out there to combine RTS and TBS. Based on the graphics and general purposes and goals in the game I would have only given it three or four stars.
I give this game five because of the AI in the game. I have read very few forum posts of people having beaten this game on MODERATE. There are two levels for enemy intelligence that are more difficult than moderate, which means this game will provide challenges for months, if not years of gameplay.
While it may not live up to the insanely lofty goals of some gamers out there, it is an extremely good game and is sure to provide fun to any strategy gamer. read the system requirements before you buy the game and complain about not being able to play it.
Rating: 
Summary: To each his own
Review: This may turn out to be a good game for online game players. So far, in single player mode, other games of this type seem to be more fun, more visual, more realistic. I have only been through it a few time so I may be missing something. The first try ended at just over one hour of game time. As mentioned by others, the pace of advancement does not give much chance for combat between unique civilization Unit types. One gets to the Gunpowder Age so fast that everything turns into Tanks, Gunners, and APC's. I would have liked the opportunity to see how Slingers did against Archers, for example. Also, comparing the different civilization Mounted Units could have been educational. This optional for tactical play may occur in online games if that mode slows down Age advancement. The options for strategies seem limited. Basically, it is a race for Age advancement. The first few Ages are spent building the economy. After that it is ramp up the military and fight. On the battle field it is a numbers and unit type contest with few tactical opportunities. Using something like the Terra Cotta Wonder it is fairly easy to cheaply disrupt the opponent's economy and quickly out-advance him. The graphics are OK, but nothing special. Even with zoom mode the characters lack visual appeal compared with other games. The mechanics of the game are familiar but more complex. For me, I was so busy Researching this, Upgrading that, Building whatever, and Age Advancing that there wasn't time to enjoy any Age-specific uniqueness. That is pretty much it. If you like modern military battles then this could turn out to be a fun game for you. Don't expect any major Medieval conflicts or many opportunities for either strategic or tactical play in any age. Just my opinion...I could be wrong.
Rating:
Summary: Extremely Addictive
Review: I have always been an avid fan of stategy games, preferring turn based strategy games over the RTS genre. I bought Rise of Nations, thinking it had to be a good game but ready for a dissapointment. I must say, I am very impressed! I won't waste anyone's time writing the same thing others have written about this game, so I will just say that I am in full agreement with the positive points made by previous reviews. They are correct and couldn't agree more with them. I have played Empire Earth and AOE, and though they were OK, this is MUCH better overall. Go get it and play it! The only problem is that you may lose some sleep playing this, I have been up to the wee hours myself playing it.
Rating:
Summary: Make this game your own.
Review: Its hard to pinpoint exactly what makes this game so much fun to play. Like other RTS games, you build, explore, and conquer. Thanks to a few major new features and hundreds of subtle touches, this is always a gratifying experience. The concepts of national borders, attrition to enemies in your borders, and assimilating captured cities are a brilliant touch that add layers upon layers of strategy. Even the econonomic system in Rise of Nations is a game in itself. Also cool is the level of control and customization you have. You can disable info displays; set multiple game, research and resource gathering speeds; disable rushing until a certain Age, the list goes on. Also a relief: there is NO tedious micro-management. Idle citizens will get to work on whatever construction or resource you need, resources don't deplete, all major research is done at one building, waypoints can even be set on units. Everything has been streamlined to let you focus on the fun stuff. The combat here is really intense. Fighting with knights and catapults is cool, but your pulse will really start pounding once you start cranking out the planes, battleships, rocket launchers and tanks. The explosions, smoke and all around devestation are high quality. And the nuclear launch is incredible, something you have to see for yourself. There were a couple of complaints about the single player campaign crashing, but that was fixed in a patch days ago. Its impressive that with hundreds of units on the screen, Rise of Nations can still be played on a system with minimal hard acceleration. For those who want better graphics, anti-aliasing really makes it beatiful. There's just to much cool stuff here to touch on it all. The Conquer the World single player campaign; special multiplayer game rules like Assasin; a scenario editor along with easily modded XML rules documents (there's some cool mods out already); fast, informative tutorials; special speed and agility mini-scenarios; as well as refreshing sound and music. You can truly make Rise of Nations your own. Its been a LONG time since I've had this much with a game. The only reason I haven't uninstalled AoE is nostalgia. BUY this game. It will treat you well.
Rating:
Summary: Too slow for my PC
Review: I've played this game for about a week now. Its very similar to Empire Earth. One nice feature is that infantry operate more like they do in "cossacks" as they line up for battle. The economy in Rise of Nations is just passable, but not as good as Setlers or Stronghold where individual villagers carry products from industry to industry. However, whereas Empire Earth plays fine on my XP 733Mhz PIII with 16M Nvidia card and 128M RAM, Rise of Nations is a dog. It just grinds to a halt with hard disk accesses, and I mean a halt! "Pause" leaves it in continuous HD access mode. Playing a battle ends in a frustration of hard disk access as you can't even select your soldiers while they get wiped out by the computer enemy. Even exiting the game takes 2 minutes of hard disk access. Maybe the game plays better with 256M ram or more, or maybe Microsoft will release a patch to correct this. There is one XP bug listed in the readme but the workaround doesn't seem to reduce the hard disk accesses for long. If you must buy this game, you probably need a 1 Gig PIII w/256M RAM and 32M Nvidia video card. Better yet, go for 512M PC system RAM. Or you can always stick with Empire Earth...
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