content: I've loved AOE since the first installment and had been looking forward to AOE 3 for years. Unfortunately it turns out to be a huge dissapointment. Everyone else has mentioned the bugs and ridiculous system requirements to get the game working properly but these aside, the gameplay is just truly awful. I AOE 2, you could build a large, realistic looking and balanced army, in AOE 3 its just a rabble of very similar units that are impossible to organise. The maps are too small, the explorer unit is just plain pointless, resource gathering is not what it used to be and the trading posts are annoying to say the least. The main strength of AOE 2 was that it was open to multiple different types of play, from rushers, to stay at home economy builders, but in AOE 3 you have one set way to play and if you don't do it you lose.Overall, although not quite as much of a let down as Championship Manager 5, I'd strongly advise you steer well clear of this.