Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties Expansion Pack

Platform	Windows XP
List Price	$29.99
	$24.99 (Save 16%)

Published by	Microsoft
Release date
ASIN	B000U92L8A
Availability	Usually ships in 24 hours

Japan, China, and India still wield significant power and influence over the world economy and thought in the 21st century. It's astounding to witness their evolution over millenia as powerful dynasties. Add this RTS to your version of Age of Empires 3! "Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties" is the second expansion pack for the massively popular "Age of Empires III" from Ensemble Studios and Microsoft Game Studios, which has sold over 2.5 million copies to date. Engaging gamers of all ages and types in epic warfare in the Eastern world, "Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties" will lead Japanese, Chinese and Indian civilizations to expand their empires. "Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties" is the latest installment in the award-winning "Age of Empires" franchise, developed collaboratively by Big Huge Games and Ensemble Studios for the Games for Windows platform.

Customer Reviews - courtesy of Amazon.com

Great game

I love the age of empires games and this one is no exception. The graphics are amazing. The few things they added, like export, are great too. Good changes but the game still plays the way you are familiar with.

Great But...

It's a great expansion pack but I still like Warchiefs better. Warchiefs I find is more entertaining, and Dynasties you can get tired easily. I would buy Warchiefs first if you want to buy Dynasties.

The hours just fly by

This game is great! I was completely impressed! I was a huge fan of Age of Empires II and played it constantly, bought III but I think my computer was a little slow, so I wasn't able to really say much about III. After a new computer and the expansion coming out, I am completely sold on it and spend hours and hours on it. Whether it's the campaigns or endless skirmishes. The detail paid to the historical accuracies is great!

So-So

This is not all that great, but does give a few more scenarios. I am disappointed that a company with such capabilities would not take a step up with this game. I find my self playing The Conquerors from Age 2 most of the time. But then I am a grouchy old lady; perhaps the younger folk like these new versions. I was disappointed.
However the product was delivered in a most timely manner. It is the product I am unhappy with not the service.

AOE 3 is not like the last 2.

I have the first 2 in the AOE series. This one is not as historic, as far as I can tell. The stories aren't the same and it seems more like WarCraft than the last 2 games. Still, some of the graphics are great and the game itself is simple enough for younger audiences, despite the "T" rating. My wife also likes the background music.
This addition was nice because it had more in it than the War Chiefs, 3 story lines, as opposed to only 2. That ups the value in my book.
One drawback I do see is that it deals with the Chinese sailing to the Americas. While there is some speculation about this among historians (yes, I watch the History Channel), there still isn't enough evidence to support it. Plus the game shows them landing on an Eastern shore. Some archeologists are actually looking for a Western landing. So there's more fiction/speculation than previous iterations. If the hype dies on the Chinese bit, that sort of makes this a little mediocre.
Then there's the Indian saga. That one has a little more historical relevance to it. So to me, it was actually better.
Still, if you're into AOE, this is certainly more graphically stunning but stories are not on par with earlier versions.