Age of Empires III (PC Games, 2005)

Age of Empires III has a great idea of advancing units and cities through eras of history, but is lacking control during battle.
I am a diehard Blizzard Entertainment and Command and Conquer fan so I am comparing this game mostly to those previous titles. AOE has interesting units with a complete navy with ships that are easy to load/unload with troops. There are also war wagons, different types of calvary, and unique mercenaries you can ally with. The only real problem I have with the game is the lack of control during battle. Most of the troops dont have any problem engaging the enemy, but it is very frustrating the few times a group of soldiers walks up to the enemy and cant quite get close enough to shoot until after two or three seconds of scrambling around. Also the cannons are very hard to use sometimes, they can get stuck behind rocks or each other, and sometimes spin around in circles instead of firing. Cannons being one of the most expensive units it drives me crazy when I lose them in battle because of some glitch.
One of the best parts of the game is the ability to customize your home city and the supplies/resources that can be sent. When the main city increases size after a certain amount of experience points players may pick one card; which can be sent infinitely for resources, or once for units or a special ability. The use of a home city sending supplies really creates a colonial feeling that can be taylored to your style of play. You can also customize the look of the home city by picking colors and designs. This is really uneeded however because it has no affect on the game.
AOE III also has an interesting story to follow which advances through the the three acts you must complete in the campaign. It tells of the history of people involved and gives a pretty reasonable excuse for sometimes restrictive objectives.

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