Age of Empires III V1.02 Patch

Base Game: Age of Empires III

Developer: Ensemble Studios

Genre: Rts Website: www.agecommunity.com

Version Reviewed: 1.02

The Version 1.02 Patch for ensemble Studios�� Age of Empires III isn��t much of an upgrade. Some players will be glad to see that a handful of networking issues get addressed, and others might enjoy the supersized maps, which provide more room to boom in the Carolinas, the Great Plains, Saguenay, Sonora, and Texas (sadly, we don��t get any bigger naval maps��it sure would be nice if ships had more space to swing their prows). A lot of players might even appreciate the new hotkey screen in the options menu��but although you can customize your hotkeys, this feature comes with some strange limitations and a number of important commands still missing.

Certain unit stances, which were useful for managing battles in the pre-1.02 game, have gone missing. Also newly absent: the ability to issue your units an ��attack move�� order, during which they will stop to fight when they come in range of an enemy. Odd, since these kinds of commands often play a crucial role in how a real-time strategy game plays��and this patch removes them. You can restore these attack moves by manually editing a certain text file, but Ensemble warns players against it, citing ��known issues�� with attack moves��a feature that the developer no longer officially supports.

Age of Empires III was only one patch away from greatness. Not only is this is not that patch, but it actually moves Ensemble��s RTS even farther away from that goal.

This is not the patch you��re looking for.

Verdict: 1.5 Stars

Copyright © 2006 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in Computer Gaming World.