Rating: 
Summary: This expansion pack is obsolete!
Review: PTW should be recalled from the shelves and destroyed. It serves no purpose now that "Conquests" has been released. Read on and save yourself some money and frustration....The "Play the World" expansion pack was originally released in 2002 and it was generally considered buggy and incomplete. Patching fixed many of the bugs but the multiplayer portion still left much to be desired due to poor original design. Unfortunately, these design flaws were deeply rooted and could not be fixed by further "free" patches (it just wouldn't be economical) and so the developer went to work on a new expansion pack called "Conquests". Now, in 2003, with release of the "Conquests" expansion pack, the "Play The World" (PTW) xpack has been rendered utterly obsolete, since Conquests includes all of the 'good' stuff from PTW (and none of the 'bad'!). Conquests also has many new features (new civs, new wonders, new techs, new units, etc) and much better multiplayer support. My advice to anyone considering buying this PTW xpack is: DON'T! You're much better off getting the "Conquests" xpack instead which, at the time of this writing, is the same price as PTW! In summary, the "Conquests" xpack: a) includes everything in the PTW xpack except the bugs and flawed multiplayer support b) has a bunch of new stuff: civs, techs, units, wonders, etc. c) costs the same as PTW! Good luck.
Rating: 
Summary: Should I or shouldn't I? Who should buy the PTW Expansion.
Review: First off let me say that I do not play multiplayer games nor do I have any interest in playing them. Based on the other reviews here I would not buy the expansion if playing the multiplayer game was a priority for me...but, I let the reviews here keep me from buying the expansion for 4 months and now I wish I hadn't waited. The Good:
1) New civilizations. Especially the Ottomans and Spanish which are very challenging.
2) New animations. These are very cool.
3) New AI...I have noticed a smarter AI in the games I have been playing since the expansion and patches. This is making deitiy level much harder to win.
4) New units! Getting to update the swordsman to medieval infantry and eventually guerillas is huge since they are a valuable early unit type.
5) The editor is GREAT...SO much better than the original editor.
6) Expanded commands, especially expanded automation for workers. The Bad:
1) Multiplayer
2) The price Civilization is my favorite game all time so any expansion that is put out isn't going to be a price sensitive purchase for me. I felt ripped off paying $29 for the expansion, but it was worth it to me because I am a hardcore civilization player. Bottom line is this...if you are on the fence and don't intend to use multiplayer I think this expansion is worth the money for the hardcore fan.
Rating:
Summary: Civ3: Conquests
Review: The Civ3 add-on "Conquests" is one of the greatest add-ons I have seen in the Civ line-up. To play the add-on, you only need to have the original Civ3 game (as this add-on includes the title name add-on "Conquests" and the first add-on for Civ3 - "Play the World"). For those of you who played Civ2 from the time it was released until Civ3 was released, I see no reason not to purchase Conquests - Civ3 is going to be around for some time, the add-on is worth it. My favorite feature of the game is the simultaneous moves multiplayer mode. Unlike the bugs and glitches of the Play the World add-on, the Conquests version features a fairly streamlined play. I frequently play a small or normal sized world with friends on a local LAN (although internet play is viable as well) on a weekend day. Another feature that makes Conquests great is that it expanded everything about the game without changing the core system. Instead, it just adds more choices a player must make to be successful (which is a good thing for those that like strategy games like Civ3). Friends of mine who make Mods for games have found this add-on to be very exciting. Not only does Conquests come with recreations of real life conquests (such as WWII in the Pacific), Mod makers can create their own Mods just like the conquests that come with the game. At about $20, Conquests is a great deal that delivers a lot. Its flaw, although not directly related to the game, is that Firaxis/Atari released the "Play the World" add-on separate first (charging $20 for that game as well) and included it free in "Conquests." While it was a smart choice to sell them together for "Conquests", those of us that purchased the first add-on feel cheated.
Rating:
Summary: The worst add-on I ever bought. Waste at any price.
Review: I felt ripped-off. I love Civ III, but this add-on is total trash. Nothing to it. It is only good for their pocket books, I was very let down that this trash was put on the market. It is not worth even a dime!!! Wyatt Kaldenberg
Rating: 
Summary: Play the World...You'll end up playing "Petty Theft"
Review: Don't Get me wrong..CIV 3 is the greatest, but PTW is [not]. Why?? For the simple fact that multiplayer over the internet DOESN'T WORK. IT WILL LEAVE YOU FEELING JIPPED. Once again, Firaxis and Infogames have released a product that is RIDDEN WITH BUGS!!. The 1.04 patch helps somewhat, but still doesn't get to the heart of the problem. THAT MULTIPLAYER IS TOO SLOW and that it may take you 10 TIMES just to get one simple game started. EVEN with 2 players, the game is SLOW!! Now I don't have a BROADBAND connection, only 56k, but if AGE OF EMPIRES OR WARCRAFT can work perfectly find on my 56k connection, why can't CIV III. And why can't INFOGAMES at least provide a warning to 56k owners. But that was just the only problem. Not only that, but I had to spend 2 hours just to get the program to work on my computer. Thus after a day in a half of trying to get to this game play an online, in a game that absurdly boast the ability to PLAY THE WORLD!!, I found my self severly dissapointed with the only comfort being the extra game modes, scenarios and civilizations/units. Nice music by the way ...if that happens to be a plus ...P>That has at least saved this reviewer from giving it 1 LONELY STAR!! The lowest review I ever had to give a game that I brought. SAVE YOUR MONEY!! FOR WHEN INFOGRAMES SOMEHOW FIXES THIS PROGRAM, you probably will be much happier.
Rating:
Summary: Wait for two months then buy it
Review: The Civ series of games are probably the best computer games ever made. The trend has continued with Civ III so naturally I bought the expansion the day it came out and I have been moderatly dissappointed. I would reccomend waiting a few months before you purchase this expansion. The reason for this is that there are may bugs with the multiplayer that makes it unplayable for most people. If you can actually manage to get a game going then it will probably be more trouble that it is worth. After a month or so they will have several patches that I am sure will work out most of these problems and it should be good to go. If you just want to play single player with the new units and civilizations and don't care about the multiplayer then go ahead and buy it now. There is a bug with industrious civs not getting bonus shield production correctly and small bugs like this but nothing that makes it close to unplayable like the multiplayer is. All in all Civ III is one of the best games ever but if you are going strictly for multiplayer like most people are who purchase this expansion then you'll have to wait. It just doesn't work yet.
Rating: 
Summary: The Best Yet
Review: This is, in my opinion, the greatest member of the Civilization. I just ordered Conquests, so we'll se how that goes, but I've personally logged about 1000 hours on PTW. The new advanced orders make the game a lot less tedious at the higher levels. Multiplayer is REALLY WORTH IT, believe me. I don't even use it online, and I do hotseat games. Seriously, if strategy games are your thing, PTW is the ultimate.
Rating:
Summary: Multiplayer no, Mulitproblem yes!
Review: The only reason someone would buy this expansion pack is to play multiplayer Civ. That is really what this expansion offers. Well, let me assure you, this system is so full of bugs, so user-unfriendly, and so poorly designed that after 2 hours, me and my friend were still unable to play together online. First, to play the game online you must go through Gamespy, an internet site. Now, you can launch the multiplayer mode from Civ 3 itself, but not be able to find friends or see who you could play, let alone invite them. You have to enter through the Gamespy program instead, and select Civ 3 as your game there. Don't worry, there are tons of ads to amuse you while you try and fail to launch the game. Personally, I had many "firewall errors" because of my router, so I opened the ports. The errors still showed up (?), so I disconected the router and went stright from the modem. Still, the errors persisted. There is no online customer service at Gamespy, so I get to try and "figure it out myself". I want the multiplayer simplicity offered by Age of Mythology. I love Civ 3, but this system seems hopelessly outdated already.
Rating:
Summary: Only for Multi-Play Fans
Review: My review of "Civilization III: Play the World" will be short and sweet or short and sour if you prefer. The bottom line is: if you don't play multi-player games, then don't get this. The only other additions are new civs, a few new units, and one new wonder. There simply is not enough different or new to warrant purchasing this expansion pack.
Rating:
Summary: This item is obsolete upon the release of 'Conquests'
Review: This is the first expansion pack to 'Civilization III', and, after installing the badly-needed patches provided on the civ3 website, I've enjoyed it for its single-player additions alone. The important thing to know at this point, however, is that all of the content in 'Civ III: Play the World' is to be included in the *next* expansion -- 'Civ III: Conquests'. That means that there's no reason whatsoever to invest in this expanion now. Note that pre-ordering 'Conquests' here at Amazon earns one an additional bonus disc of fan material as a giveaway from Atari. Got it? In order to get the 'Play the World' material (and all the new additions), go buy 'Conquests'.
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