In Age of Empires: the Age of Kings, you can control one of 13 different civilizations including the English, Mongols, Chinese, Japanese, Byzantines, and many more. Age of Empires 2 is not your typical RTS. Unlike WarCraft and StarCraft, AOE2 requires more thinking on your part rather than creating an army of soldiers and storming the enemy base. That doesn't cut it in AOE2. You actually have to think in order to outsmart the computer (oh my gosh, some of you mindless people actually have to use your so called brains). In regards to AOE2 and the major change I had to go through from playing WarCraft and StarCraft, was the fact that I had to learn how to multitask my characters. In WarCraft and StarCraft the only resources you can gather are either two or three resources. In AOE2 you must gather food, wood, gold, and stone in order to keep your civilization alive. Also the many different upgrades and research items in AOE2 was a big change from WarCraft and StarCraft. In an overall rating, AOE2 outperforms WarCraft and StarCraft by a considerable amount and is 10x more fun and challenging. And your also learning a bit about history as you play (it doesn't get any better than that).