Age of Empires 2 Gold

AGE OF EMPIRES II GOLD 2.0 CD/DVD

Age of Empires 2 Gold Edition unites the exciting game play ofboth Age of Empires 2: The Age of Kings and Age of Empires2: The Conquerors Expansion plus additional content for onecompelling gaming experience. Experience real-time evolution as youbuild your civilization into a flourishing empire, from the Dark Ageto the Imperial Age. Decide whether to conquer the world throughmilitary might, commerce and diplomacy, or intrigue andregicide. There are many paths to power but only one will reignsupreme. Age of Empires 2: The Age of Kings spans 1,000 years,from the fall of Rome through the Middle Ages. Players control thedestiny of one of 13 civilizations. The game keeps the epic scope ofAge of Empires' gameplay while evolving the combat and economicfeatures. Developed by Ensemble Studios, Age of Empires 2features the expertise of Bruce Shelley, co designer of Age ofEmpires and the hit strategy game Civilization. Age ofEmpires 2: The Conquerors Expansion adds five new civilizations,four new campaigns, 11 new units, 26 new technologies, real worldmaps, and much more. Experience the adventure of the SpanishConquistadors as they enter the exotic lands of the Aztecs, or relivethe destructive force of Attila's pillaging Huns. This add-on packfocuses on the armies and military thinking of a handful of history'sgreatest tacticians, including Attila the Hun, El Cid, andMontezuma. The new civilizations each have unique attributes,buildings, and technologies, such as Chinese Rocketry and PersianMahouts. You'll put hussar cavalry, kamikaze siege units, andhalberdier infantry into battle in four all-new campaigns. Play up toeight other conquerors via modem, Internet, or LAN.

1 oldies are the goodies
its strange....rise of nations improved on everything from this game and u can make the timeframe not go pass medieval age(to stay in the ages of this game)....but even though it improved eveyrthing...it just doesnt hold a candel to this game

2 Sucks
This game completly sucks i hate it because it sucks no more to say

3 hot
This game is great. You can get hooked so fast. And if u beat one part of it there are millions of different ways to play the game u can play on a island with one to seven enemies u never can get bored. If you play renocide you start off with a few people, town center, castle and the king. From there it's up to you. You can start with your economy by makings mills and mining camp, or you can start with you army by building barracks watch towers or walls. As you progress you go through ages. {castle dark imperial etc} With every age there are more possibilities. The game is different depending on what civilization you pick. For example only the Japanese have a great army. But the Vikings have the best navy in the game. you can have allies. this has got to be the best game i have ever played.

4 I keep coming back to it...
It's been years since I first played this game and fell madly in love with it. Newer games have come out since, but they just don't have the same appeal as AoE2 does. There is nothing cooler than this game, seriously. The amount of cultures it covers alone make me drool. You can be everything from Aztec, Mayan, Saracens, Korean, Chinese, Hun, Mongol... I mean seriously, they went all-out with cultural depth. I love listening to all of the languages the people speak!

The only drag about this game is that they haven't made a newer one that has the same nationalities. I wouldn't touch Age of Mythology because it cut you down to a choice between Greece, Egypt, or the Norse... sounds so boring in comparison. I love this game, even if it seems a little old graphics-wise by now... the gameplay has been tuned so perfectly, it's hard to think of anything to complain about.

5 Great Game!
This game is an Rts wonder (Real Time Strategy). You start small, Like Age of empires 1, and build and build. This game is addictive, with campaigns, tutorials and amazingly different civilizations. That said, I will also note the graphics are great, the sound is great, and this game (both Age of Kings and The Conquers) are well balanced, so skill means more than choice.

- About the addictiveness of this game. This game has triggered "Age Of Empires play dates" over multiplayer 4 hours each. (Very long game)

6 My First Game
My very first Pc Game i ever bought. I just Love Rts Games thanks to AoE 2 gold edition.Later i bought Age of Mythology,Rise of Nations and Empire Earth . Overall this game Deserves to be in every War Gamers Collection.

7 Fun! At first....
I have owned this game for over 2 years and when I first got it, it was all I could think about. Of course that's how I am with every new game I purchased recently, (Nov 2004-Feb 6) I have been obsessing about Halo PC. After beating a few campaigns, I began to tire of playing this game. A couple of times I played online with my pals but it was still boring. What I find most frustrating is that you can't attack while running. COME ON! WHY DOES SOMEONE ON HORSE HAVE TO STOP EVERY TIME THEY WANT TO TAKE A SWIPE AT SOMEONE? The other thing that bothers me is that the only way to heal someone is by having a monk come do some voodoo magic of some sort. The graphics are good compared to most strategy games, I find myself wanting something that might make my video card work a little harder, if ya know what I mean. The funnest think to do in this game is to play it on easy and then just slaughter the enemy with a huge army of long bowmen, cavalry, siege weapons, and champions. It's fun to watch as empires tumble before you. I hope I don't sound to malicious, I would never allow this to happen in real life, this of course is just a bunch of pixels with mediocre AI that I am destroying. For the following reasons I did not give this game 5 stars:
1. Boring after a few weeks
2. Multiplayer is extremely hard to make work because you have to go to MSN or Yahoo gaming or something like that and half the time, you can't get it to work.
3. Mediocre graphics
4. Lots of annoying little things

If Microsoft makes an Age of Empires 3 of some sort, I will be sure to buy it, even if it is only as good as Age of Empires Gold.

8 Extremely fun
I installed Age of Empires II (AoE2) about 4 years ago. Today, I still play with friends online about once a week. There is something special about AoE2 that makes every game a new experience, drawing us back time and time again.

One thing that appeals to me is its well balanced military system. AoE2 offers a small but complete set of units, each unit playing very differently from another, this means most units will be utilized well in a battle. Many other games have many more unit types than AoE2, but few of them play out as sophisticated as AoE2.

Semi-successors of AoE2 such as "Age of Mythology" or "Rise of Nations" have been on the market for a while, each with promising new features. Yet, neither game could offer the excitement and variety that AoE2 offers. There are aspects of AoE2 that newer games were unable to duplicate. If you value good game play, I would highly recommend Age of Empires 2.

9 The Age of Empires is Here!
All I can say is WWWOOOWWW!!! The campain is GREAT, the scenario creater is COOL, and the whole thing is just PERFECT! I love all the strategy and creating so many new scenarios to play with my cousin. The graphics are perfect, state of the art, and one of the best unit lists I have ever seen! You see, I love strategy games and could play them all day. Out of all, Age of Empires II is one of my #1 choices to play! I 10,000,000% say you should get this game. I also give a 10 out of 10 stars to the makers. Outstanding!!!

10 The best middle age strategy game ever!
A very addictive game, AOE gold is easily the best strategy game out for computer.
A must get for any fan of Starcraft, Command & Conquer, and any other strategy games.

11 Good game, even on older PC
This is one of the very few games I keep on my laptop and play regularly, even a couple years after installing it. This game runs just fine on the low memory and video capabilities of my fastly aging machine, and is a whole lot of fun to play. Game developers need to remember that you don't need gratuitous graphics bloat to make a game fun.

12 Its......Starcraft only really early in histry
This is a great game for Starcraft lovers. You do the same thing as in Starvraft but your in the middle ages. The only problem I had with this game was the voices....

13 Been playing for 4 years and still love it!!
I bought the AOK in 2/2000 and the Conquerors the day it came out in 9/2000. (Also played AOE I from 1998-2000). In my opinion, no other series is as comprehensive and fun. I have also played Empire Earth, Age of Mythology, and Rise of Nations. Here's why I like AOK the best (I'm referring to the most recent release, the Conquerors edition):

By the way, I only play Standard games, I've not tried any of the campaigns so I don't comment on them.

1)Time - The game is simple to navigate but has so many different angles of play. I can start a game with myself and two computer players on the hardest level and whip both of them within 3 hours. I've been playing an EE game off and on for 1 year and still cannot win. The short games keep me interested.
2)Ages - There are only 4 ages. This makes the game manageable for those who can't spend 15 hours a day on the computer playing games for weeks on end. Empire earth has around 10 ages and Rise of Nations has a lot as well. Upgrading the ages in AOK is not that hard.
3)Units - There are enough units here to keep me happy. Calvary, infantry, archers, naval units, seige units, special units with each civ. There are almost limitless ways to play the game. I play calvary one time, then infantry once, and so on. Never gets boring.
4)Graphics - Now that some of the newer games are out, the graphics are only so-so but it's still not that bad.
5)Civilizations - with around 13 civs and each having a unique strength and weakness, it never gets boring playing different ones and learning about each.

Here's why I like AOE better than Empire Earth:
1)The graphics are much better in Empire earth, but I cannot beat the game. The AI is very tough. I can nuke the computer down to 10 units left and 5 minutes later he has 300 armies and 100 buildings.
2)Simplicity. As I stated above Empire Earth is great fun, but almost too much action.

Here's why I like AOE better than Age of Mythology:
1)I am very disappointed with Age of Mythology. I find it downright boring.

I've only played rise of nations a couple times but I do not find it to keep my interest as AOE does.

Happy gaming.

14 This is a really great game.
This is a really good game. I had mastered the Star Wars equivalent, Galactic Battlegrouds, and was a little skeptical about the great replay value others had given this game. However, my misgivings were baseless. I have been extremely pleased with this game. Something about it gives it TREMENDOUS replay value. 5 stars. As far as the expantion pack goes, I've never played the original Age of Empires II. However, the features that come from the expantion really make the game. If you've ever played a real time strategy game before, make sure to get the gold edition.

15 This game is cooool.
I love this game. I played it forever. But I mastered it. So if you love histiry you would like this game. It has some history in it.

16 Automated farms are great
1. Farmers start a new farm once the old one is done, you can queue. any one who ever played AOE-I knows how great that is :).
2. The addition of Gates makes for nice Castle building
3. Villagers automatically start a new task when they finish a work type building (granary, storage, town center)
4. UNIT FORMATIONS!!! my personal favorite only second to the Farm queue. It adds a whole new dimension to battle tactics. huge improvement from AOE-I
5. Advanced unit commands. Follow, Protect, Patrol, they just make this game so much nicer.
6. the ability to toggle around to your inactive (we'll call it that) villagers. "where's my whip"

All this improvements have the feel of AOE developers playing their own game and saying "gee wouldn't it be nice if we had this" they realy polished this game. It belongs in anyone's greatest games list. Easy!

17 Challenging till Boredom
I used to love Age of Empires but it got prety boring by year two. The map editor is fun to use. But the internet multiplayer requires you to have the same version of Age of Empires, and the same system (Mac/Window) as the person you are playing with. The bottom line is buy this only if you have some buddies that have this too.

18 Clap Clap Microsoft
I must put my hands together to Microsoft for producing this game, for it has kept me going for months (from the 25th December 2003 to the 31st of May (and that was because I got a new game!)). Two of the ongoeings of the best game ever made makes this the best stragity game pack money can buy!

19 This game is outstanding.
I would truelly say that this was one of the greatest games ever created for Pc. Microsoft deserves praise for this stradegy game. I recommend this game to anyone who loved Red Alert or Sim City. Please check it out.

20 IT ROCKS!!!!!!!!!
This game is MUCH better than civilization 3!!! It features close up action, about 100 war units, and new cheats!

21 This is going to be an all-time classic.
I think that this is one of my favorite computer games in the whole wide world. I think that anyone who likes action games and likes building their own cities & villages, will like this game. I think that people who like the Sim City games, and like medieval fighting games, will love this one. It is a lot of fun planning out how you're going to build your civilization into an empire and upgrade your army,navy,etc. This game is honestly going to be an all-time CLASSIC!!

22 Sim City with seige weapons!!!!
If you like battles and are creative, then you will love this game. The graphics get an A+ and the game is so fun that it will hook you for hours. You get to make cities, armies, and more, but at the same time you have to be cautious with your rations, you only have so much stone and food. But, you can easily just harvest more supplies, making it so that your city never stops growing. And yes, there are exiting battles, conquests and explorations, too. If your parents want games that are educational, guess what, THE AGE OF EMPIRES II has tons of historical facts about the middle ages. In the long run, all these things put together make this a very cooool game.

23 awesome game
I'm very picky when it comes to computer games, but this game absolutly kicks a**.

You must play it.

24 great game
very good game a little to easy on somthings a little to hard on others the campanines are harder than the other three kinds of games for single player a great game i'm geeting another copy to give to a friend. need alot of memory and fast copmputar to play

25 Not at it's best....
Honestly, those who keep giving this game a five are cheating themselves. The truth is, if you live in the 21st century, you know that this game has subpar sound (only when your units speak) and crappy graphics and animations. Of course, it is a great game. Easy management of you empire along with some great music make this a definate keeper for all of you guys who like RTS games.

To sum it up, if this had graphics that were as good as their semi-new game Age of Mythology, it would have been a five. BTW, you better go buy that. It is awesome.

26 awesome
this is truly the best game i have ever played. for players who are hoooked on to the medieval ages, get the game! I personally did not like AoE I because it took place in an age where all the races are ancient races (babylonians, assyrians,carthagians). But this is the best. For the medieval aged game player, this is a must have.

27 AOE 2 Is Amazing
Everytime you play, it is a different senario. This games consumes for much time and is so much fun I have lost entire days dedicated to playing it. Main goal is to Rule and Conquer the other civilizations!

28 The Zeus of god games.
The Age of Kings (AoK) along with its expansion pack, AoK:TC (The Conquerors--which we now call "AoC" when both are installed) is a superb game for either "Multiplayers" who play on-line or "Singleplayers" who don't. If a game which has a historical aspect to it which resides in the 1,000 year realm of ancient history stated has appeal for you (which isn't all 'hoked_up' with fantasy creatures), you cannot go wrong with purchasing the "Gold pack".

Yes, in order to play AoC which epitomizes the development of the game, you need to install from both disks, first installing AoK, then removing it and installing the AoK:TC disk which you leave in the tray (it must be in there when you want to play). You can then go online to either Microsoft's or Ensemble Studios' websites for the game, Age of Kings: The Conquerors, and download the 1.0c patch which fixes any minor 'bugs' discovered and rectifies a few civilization "balancing issues" which have come up. Thus buying the Gold pack is a real good deal for anyone getting the game now as it cost me more than twice as much to have bought AoK & then AoK:TC, as they came out.

There are so many ways to play this game that it almost boggles the mind, but preferred game modes are "Conquest" followed by "Deathmatch" in popularity amongst "Agers". If you really want to learn to play the game using the various "strategies" for the 18 civilizations which Agers have developed, it's a good idea to join a good Ager gaming clan such as Tonto Clan, which caters to both Multi- and Singleplayers. You can find Tonto Clan by doing a websearch for "tontoclan1", or look for "Tonto Empire". The clan celebrates its 2nd birthday the 13th of March, 2002, so you know they aren't fly-by-nighters. And that's a good place to ask any questions one might have about the game.

A final thought: "Real Time Strategy" is a bit of a misnomer, oxymoron, in computer games as "twitch-and-bang" on the keyboard doesn't really give a person time to think, only act and react. But an aspect of AoC that makes it come closer to being enabled as a true strategy and tactics game is that you have the "Pause key" which when playing Singleplayer you can use to pause the game in progress in order to "think on it" a bit and decide what next you want to do. This brings yet another dimension to the game that most don't have.

There are other RTS 'historically based war games' which have come out since "Age", but it is surprising how many people will try them and then just keep coming back.... to AoC. And, for my money the next RTS slated to come along that might be as good or possibly better isn't projected to hit the market until Spring (if then) of 2003.

29 This game rocks
This game rocks. My whole family is addicted to it even my anti-violence mom. The gameplay is great with 18 civilazations u can play as each one with its own unique abilitys and strengths. the graphics aren't stupendous but aren't bad either. i have played the game for hours upon hours and it is still fun. As you play u find new strategies and new approaches to the computer. also the computer puts up a good fight if u have The conquerors installed. unlike the Age of Kings where the computer makes tons of villagers and almost no army. but overall it is a great game that is definetly worth the cash.

30 Great War Games with great add-ons. Good deal!
Age of Empire II is a great improvement over Age of Empires I, albeit, Age of Empires I is still good. AoE I starts with the stone age and goes up to the Dark Ages. AoE II starts out at the Middle Ages and goes to the industral age. The game set is a great deal and would make a good Yule present. Wyatt Kaldenberg

31 cool game with small problems
It is a great game you can be almost anybody you can think of in the middle ages. If there was only 1 computer game I could play it would be this.The small problem is that it is very hard to set up multi player. I have failed to do so in having this game for 2 years.

32 cool game with few problems
It is a great game you can be almost anybody you can think of in the middle ages. If there was only 1 computer game I could play it would be this.The small problem is that it is very hard to set up multi player. I have failed to do so in having this game for 2 years.

33 This game was off the HOOK
This game is a must buy. You have definitely have to buy this game. It is now one of my favorite games. That is besides Halo, F-Zero GX, Enter the Matrix, and The Sims Unleashed.
This is a must buy for gaers who are into strategic games.

34 Age of Empires 2 Gold
The best game in the world it is so much fun

35 Really great!
I really like Age of Empires Gold (mostly because I didn't have to buy the original and the expansion, which would have cost more). The 2 for 1 deal is really great and the game, with all its different campaigns, is worth the money. I just wish AoE had 3D graphics, like Age of Mythology. If it had the 3D graphics, it would be a perfect game.

36 Age of Empire, A pc gamers game
This game is very good for one who like small stratagy games, I personaly have this game and if you buy this and want to play agaist people on the internet you will have to download a patch but it is worth it. This game has many interesting civilizations to play and with a scenario editer make your own scenario and show it off on the internet. If you are a true pc gamer you would buy this only if you like the kind of games that you make an army to protect, and another to attack and there is only on downfall, there never seems to be enough resources and the realistic detail is down from other games, like a mining camp on the ground in the middle of the field... uh huh, right.. Well thats my Reveiw.

37 OUTSTANDING
Seriously, you will love this game. It's not too hard for beginners because there are 5 difficulties and a fun tutorial. You manage your empire from every perspective whether it is diplomacy, economy, military, etc. Go buy this game.

38 aoe #1 on steroids
this is the absolute best midevil game ever. great graphics. it's [great] for anybody who loves strategy games. though it does have disatvantages such as the same style of soldier for every country it is still awsome. a must have

39 I Have One Word For This Game...
AWESOME! ABSOLUTELY AWESOME! This game surpasses the first ones with even more possibilities. The new Campaigns in The Conquerors and the new and unique buildings, technologies, and the special and unique players for each civilization! It's just mind boggling how the squeezed evrything into a little box!

40 Good all around, much improved over the first AoE...
The improvements in game play in Age of Empires II: The Conquerors is one area of this game that has been largely improved. Everything from the actions of your units (especially non-combat ones such as villagers or fishing ships) to the organization of your military units has been refined to provide a much better gameplay experience.

Age of Empires II: The Conquerors also provides some new civilizations. They are the Aztecs, the Huns, Koreans, Mayans, and Spanish. Like the civilizations that came with the original Age of Empires II, these civilizations all have their own unique strengths and weaknesses. For instance, since the horse was not native to the Americas, the Mayans and Aztecs cannot create Stable units.

Since the Mayans and Aztecs have also been added to the game, it would naturally make sense to add new maps to the game as well. Tropical terrain is one of the many new additions, as well as Winter terrain. There are also maps from the real world, which basically let you fight it out with an enemy on a location such as Britain, France, etc. However, there is one small complaint on the real world maps -- you can't adjust their size, which makes sense, because it's the real world, right? However, it does kind of get annoying, especially when you have to hunt down the LAST enemy villager over a larger area than you would normally have to. Still, it is nice to be able to see battles occurring where they actually happened.

Another nice feature of this game is the ability to command allied computer players. Short on food? Just ask for it! Most of the time they will give it to you, unless they either don't have a market (which is necessary to give tribute), or they simply don't have the resources to spare, which generally happens when you repeatedly ask for resources over a short period of time. You can also command your allies to do anything from build a Navy to stop building villagers.

Speaking of villagers, they are also smarter than they were before. Remember before, when you would create a mining camp right next to a bunch of gold, and your villagers would just stand there and look at it? Not any more, now all of the villagers that were involved in building the mining camp (or town center, mill, etc.) will begin to collect resources after they have completed the building of whatever it is you have just created. Also, after they have finished, say, collecting all the gold that a given mine has to offer, they will begin to go towards another mine (if they can see it, which occurs if you have the All Visible option turned on). This is an obvious help, especially when you have other things to attend to, such as holding off an enemy that's at your gates.

Overall, Age of Empires II: The Conquerors is very much improved from the original Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings. It is light years ahead of the original Age of Empires due to its many new improvements. If you bought Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings but never got the expansion, I would highly recommend picking it up. For those people who never bought anything in the Age of Empires II series, I would highly recommend picking up the Gold Edition of Age of Empires II.

41 THIS GAME ROCKS!
This game has me hooked! It's one of the few games I have that keeps me coming back. This is because of the fun campains and the great 1 player games. You can fight the computer, be allied with the computer, or have an all out war; the latter is my favorite.There also many difrent maps you can play in and many difrent types of games.

42 This is probably the best game i ever played
This is my favorite game of all time. The multiplayer is great. The levels are extremely challenging. The cheats are also quite good. I think that this game took me almost a year to beat. I also reccomend the expansion. I actually never played the first AoE, but if it is good as the second i reccomend it too. In my mind this is the best RTS game ever!(Yes, even better than Starcraft).

43 Very good strategy game
I'm a fan of both Age of Empires 1 and 2. Age of Kings is a fitting improvement of the first game. The timeframe is medieval and the civilizations and technologies are appropriately tailored to that era. Graphics-wise, the game is as attractive as the first, probably more so. The buildings are proportioned better, so that a castle looks big compared to the peasants who built it. The sound effects are decent, as is the music. There some interesting maps available, and the new scenarios (Joan of Arc, William Wallace, El Cid, etc.) should keep you occupied for a while. Also, there are other game options, such as Regicide, Defend the Wonder, and Wonder Race. The AI is smart, but not unbeatable. You can now find idle villagers much easier, can queue things, units can be garrisoned, and combat units can be placed in various stances and formations. However, the game still suffers from some of the problems the first game had. For example, there is a great deal of micromanagement required. Fishing ships, instead of looking for more fish, will just sit in the water unless directed toward a fishing spot. Computer opponents tend to quickly team up against you, unless you put them on separate teams and check "allied victory" at the beginning of the game. Diplomacy is still a rather weak part of gameplay. Also, it seems that computer opponents sometimes don't quite understand the objectives of some games (such as holding a wonder for a period of time), and thus will not pose much of a challenge. Despite these shortcomings, the game has a lot to offer. It also comes with an editor that allows you to tailor much of the gameplay to your liking. I highly recommend this game to anyone who likes real-time strategy games, or enjoyed the first Age of Empires game.

44 Amazing, you couldn't ask for more
This game is truely amazing, it is a huge step up from it's predecessor. Apart from having more units than AOE1 you can manage them a lot better aswell, you can put them into units and select different postures, you can also mix the units so that you have balanced armies. There are many civilisations to control each having its own strengths and weaknesses. The game itself is very balanced, there are no units without weaknesses (if you don't know how to kill elephants use massed amounts of scorpions) and no civilisations without it's flaws. I won't go into detail about what you can get because that will spoil the suprise for you.
there are only a few problems with this game and i will list them:
1)there is a population limit
2)the people and buildings are not to scale
3)if you play this over the internet there is usually alot of lag
there you go thats about all the problems

by the way this game is awesome over the internet, it makes such a difference fighting against real people.

45 Combined education and fun. LOTS!!!
This is a great set. It comes with two cds. The origional and the expansion. This game is even more fun if you play on line against other people. Or you can make your own game against the computer on a number of different maps. Control their difficulty. Change the map size or just play thier campigns.
They also have many civilizations to pick from. You could be the Vikings, Japanese, Spanish, Goths, Britons, Chinese, Saracens and more. While playing you have fun while also learning. They even have a history book built into the game that tells you the militant history of each civilization.

46 Combined education and fun. LOTS!!!
This is a great set. It comes with two cds. The origional and the expansion. This game is even more fun if you play on line against other people. Or you can make your own game against the computer on a number of different maps. Control their difficulty. Change the map size or just play thier campigns.
They also have many civilizations to pick from. You could be the Vikings, Japanese, Spanish, Goths, Britons, Chinese, Saracens and more. While playing you have fun while also learning. They even have a history book built into the game that tells you the militant history of each civilization.

47 Highly fun, detailed game, at the same time educational
great game! Requires fast thinking, strategy, and of course a good enough computer. Very similiar to them Blizzard games(starcraft, warcraft), build an army and force you opponent to the ground. Be one of the many civilizations and fight battles that really occured in history. A must have for you RTS gamers
(that would be me)!

48 Age of Empires 2
Age of empires 2 is a great game you can control up to 18 different civilizations like Chinese, Vikings and much more. This game is also very good because it has a few history wars.

49 Please Buy This Game it's the BEST!...
Dear AMAZON this is the best game in the world !Each civilization has their own uniqe unit,technology,and special abilities choose 1 of 18 civilizations including the Aztecs,Mayans,Spanish,Persians,Saracens,Mongols and many more.The villagers are smart gathering resources to grow your flouroshing empire.You can also arrange your units any way you want.Their are hundreds of units inclding Jaguar Warriors,Calvry Archers,Camels,Paladins,Crossbowmen,just to name a few of the wonderful units in the game.Good artillery weapons such as trebuchets,Onagers,and huge SIEGE Rams.Trully the best stradegy game EVER!thank you Amazon!

50 Fun Game...falls short for Network Play
I've played this game for weeks with a good friend. We like it, but it lags, and has frozen up while play against the computer.
We are both on cable modems, and using the TCP/IP connection.
It's similar to Warcraft 2, and Starcraft, but with more variables.

51 AOE - A Weekend Get-a-way for the Family
Our family has been playing AOE since it first came out. For us, that is saying something. There has never been a game that kept our span of interest over the course of years. AOE also has the appeal for all ages. Our children that are 10 & 11 up to our parents all play. On weekends we connect via Internet to play multi-player with family members only. AOE combined with Voice Share is an awesome way for our family to stay connected.

52 Best Strategy Game Available!
Microsoft has unwittingly created the best Real-Time Strategy Game available for the PC in Age of Empires. Not only are the scalable graphics outstanding, the accurate historical perspective is refreshing. This game is enjoyable for young and old.

Up to 8 human/AI players can play simultaneously with any combination of teams. Most games do not allow AI players to team with human players, but Age of Empires does. The variations of terran, map size, and random seed creation option results in an unlimited number of unique games. There are even selectable degrees of difficulty. For those of you that love to play with cheat codes, do not worry. There are a plethora of cheat codes available for this game on the Internet.

Modes include single player and mulitplayer via the Internet, a network, or a serial (NULL modem) cable.

This bug-free software program is a must have for any PC-gaming enthusiast. With a name like Microsoft, how can you go wrong?

53 THE BEST GAME ON EARTH!
I Got this a week after it came out thats been 2 years i think. I still play it all the time, never gets boring...the best game ever created.

54 Great game
This game is a great follow up to the original age of empires game.
Great real time play with tons of great units, buildinns and technology areas.
The addition of castles and gates is a great help as they were not present in the old version. The unique units each civilization has is also very very cool.

The scenerio/campaign editor is easy to use but, a pain to get is supper customized as one would like. Some work could have been done to make it more user friendly.

There are plenty of maps and scenerio ideas for hours upon hours of play. Sure beat the mission based games you get rid of a couple of months.

consider this game if you like real-time strategy

55 the best
I have been playing comp games since 1976. This is the best game - strategy, graphics, AI, and fun, that I have ever had the pleasure to play. Buy it.

56 This game is ruining my life
This game is ruining my life. It took me 3 weeks to find the time to install the game, but once I did I have averaging 5-6 hours of sleep per night. I've never smoked crack, but this must be the gaming equivelant. I am contimplating taking some vacation time from work so I can devote the necessary time to perfect some of my empire building strategies.

The game started out with a nifty learing scenario to get you started. It was quite thorough and I was up and running in about 20 minutes. From there, you get experience and figure out how to dominate (cooepration doesn't seem to work as well) other players and take over the world.

After describing this game to my brother, he insisted I need therapy. While I may indeed need therapy--that doesn't take away from this awesome game.

57 As Good As Gold : )
The Age Of Empires series of games has always stood out at the top of the strategy games list. Age Of Empires 2 Gold Edition keeps up the great tradition. The Gold Edition bundles both the Age Of Empires 2 CD ROM and the Conquerors Expansion CD ROM, What a deal. If you want to kill time as well as villagers and soldiers and castles in a challenging way look no further. This is the Ultimate War/Startegy game!! It Rules!! And so can you, if you manage those resources, villagers and soldiers right.

58 Great game!
I thought that Age of Empires Gold Edition was an awsome game! I have it and love it. I first started with this series with the first one. I beat the game 9 times and beat everyone on the internet. So then I got the new one and I have only beat it six times so far. Once again i'd like to let you guys know that this game is great!

Jonny

59 Nice but not that much fun
My Title tells it all. I think it was well done,but it really couldn't hold my interest. I'm not sure why I lost interest but it just didn't have a compelling reason to go on.

60 Awsome Game!!!
THIS GAME ROCKS!!! It is by FAR the BEST Game I have EVER played!
BUY IT NOW!!!

...

61 Absolutely the best real time strategy (RTS) game ever!
The Age of Kings (AoK) along with its expansion pack, AoK:TC (The Conquerors--which we now call "AoC" when both are installed) is a superb game for either "Multiplayers" who play on-line or "Singleplayers" who don't. If a game which has a historical aspect to it which resides in the 1,000 year realm of ancient history stated has appeal for you (which isn't all 'hoked_up' with fantasy creatures), you cannot go wrong with purchasing the "Gold pack". I've been playing AoK/AoC for more than 2 years now and it still holds fascination for me... and many others that I know. Just today I was teaching one of my 10 year old grandsons about the game when he was visiting. We'll get him the Gold pack. My son introduced me to the game in Dec. '99.

Ken aka tonto_real

62 Cry havoc and Let Slip the dogs of war
This is one of the, nay, the best, game I have ever played. Not only is it exciting and fun but it is educational as all get out. And this is not just some twelve year old saying this. I am a medieval history major in college and the things this game is teaching are, almost without fault, true and factual. You can't ever get bored of this game, if you finish all the campaigns, you can make your own on random map or on the game editor. I personally have consturcted the viking invasion of England and the Moorish invasion of the Iberian Peninsula. Game On!

In the immortal words of Genghis Khan,
"You'll go where I go, defile what I defile, and eat who I eat!"

63 Lets keep these a coming.
Man oh man this game is it. It has history and strategy and some pretty good graphics. All the age of empires series is the best pc games I have ever played. This was the whole reason I spent 1299 on my computer. Its was strictly bought to play games on and this was the reason why. I have seen this game in a world war 2 format as well. If anyone knows any games of this magnitude please email me at ...

64 Really good game
Much better than AOE (Age of the Empires) 1! In this game if your people go behind trees or other buildings you can see their outline so you never lose you guys. This game also has girls instead of just boys. You can walk over farms so you can build them more closely than you could in the other game.

65 pretty good
Well, it is a great game and the realism is fantastic! If you know any cheats it makes it twice as fun because you can build anything!

66 A real feeling of power
You want to escape our world and join a fantastic and unkown one? You are found of strategy games and you love antic history? Try Age of Empires and please don't forget you need to sleep some time...

67 AWESOME
1 WORD, AWESOME, GREAT GRAPHICS, SPEED, STRATEGY, THE PERFECT GAME, I'M ADDICTED TO IT

68 The best war game ever created
this is a very cool game.This game is about fighting other openents with your armies.the grahics on this game are very realistic.The point of this game is to defeat the other oponent by building barracks or other buildings and train new people to become your warriors.You have to constantly get upgrades to advance to new ages or upgrade your warriors.I own this game anI think everyone should get this game who likes war games.So what are you waiting for get up and get it!!!

69 The best war game ever created
this is a very cool game.This game is about fighting other openents with your armies.the grahics on this game are very realistic.The point of this game is to defeat the other oponent by building barracks or other buildings and train new people to become your warriors.You have to constantly get upgrades to advance to new ages or upgrade your warriors.I own this game anI think everyone should get this game who likes war games.So what are you waiting for get up and get it!!!

70 five stars
age of emps. is awsome! youd be better off buying this than both individually because its cheaper. if you already have one, its still cheaper to buy this cause for the same price price as coquerers you can give the one you already have that came in the pack to someone for their birthday or something.(not your old one).

71 A GOOD BUY
if you read the one of the previous reviews about the game not including both age of kings and its expantion, its wrong. what that guy did was try to load the expantion pack first. they give you both, you just have to load it in the right order. anyways, its a great game definitly worth buying.

72 This is a fun game!
I confess to not being a hardcore gamer, so I'm undoubtedly out of date wrt what is the 'best' game out there, but I really like this one! Talk about fun. I've spent hours on this game, trying various strategies, researching various technologies, etc. I'm not even close to being bored with it, or being burned out on playing it. Hints: Try getting to the point where you can successfully build a wonder! Definitely use Trebuchets. Try 'plowing' through the woods with a siege weapon. Build a prison camp to confine your opponent! (I was able to build multiple wonders this way)

73 Age of Empires Gold
Age of Empires Gold is the best game. You can build and controll civilizations with many campeighns. Have heroes from Eric The Red to Ghengis Khan. Destroy other worlds before they destroy you. Change history.

74 Gold edition??????????
Aren't gold editions supposed to have both the age of kings and the expansion kit for a cheaper price? Just got my game, and when installing, the game complains that without Age of Kings installed that the conquerors expansion kit cannot install. I called Microsoft support and told them that I am installing a gold edition, and they said that gold editions only include the expansion kit for double the price. Never mind that both this Amazon and Microsoft site says that the gold edition includes both. Thank you Bill Gates. I guess he is trying to recoup some of the losses at the stock market....
I wan't my money back. Don't buy anything microsoft.

75 Great and Greater
I know that you probably don't want to read a review for a product that has not even been released but listen anyway. I have these games (I bought them seperately) and know about the product. Don't listen to Product description- This is Age Of Empires !2! and its expansion!!!!!!!! The game itself is a beauty and the online play and custom scenarios just add for nearly unlimited replay value. I would reccomend this for a person who wants a slightly cheaper package of both games.

Age of Empires 2 Official Expansion: The Conquerors