Anyone play age of empires III?

[Triton]

Okay I admit the age of empires games are my particular vice (well that and sharp pointy things). I recently purchased a new computer system and one of the freebies that came along with that system was the Age of Empires III game. That was a happy coincidence since I'd intended to buy it anyway once I had a new system. The problem is that the game didn't come with the usual instruction manuals etc. That's typically not a problem as games in a series like this often are similar in the way they operate and during game play that is the case with this game. However I've got one difficulty. Typically in these games in the setup prior to starting the game you are able to select which culture you wish to play as and also the civilizations of your computer generated opponents. However in this particular game I seem to be stuck on the Spanish??? When configuring the game in single player mode prior to play there is the GUI where you can select the number of opponents you wish to have, the map that you wish to play and the nationality of your opponents by clicking on their flag and switching them if you wish. However, when I select "my" flag all that I get is the spanish as an option.

So the question I have is what am I doing wrong? Is there some other place where I am supposed to be selecting my nationality or is this freebie copy of the game some sort of limited version, or do you have to play to a certain level with the Spanish to "unlock" other nationalities?

Thanks!

 

[rebeltf]

I'm thinking it's not the full game but a demo. You can try updating it/patching it.. otherwise I'm not sure. Also if it said it was a "full version" and it's not a full version you can try contacting Microsoft games and telling them "whats up with this!!?" maybe they'll shoot you a freebie.
Actually the Spanish are one of the easier nations to play with French being the easiest , by easy I mean most powerful military units. I've played them all and only one I didnt care for was the Portuguese.
Anyways , good luck on it man.

 

[Triton]

I'm thinking it's not the full game but a demo. You can try updating it/patching it.. otherwise I'm not sure. Also if it said it was a "full version" and it's not a full version you can try contacting Microsoft games and telling them "whats up with this!!?" maybe they'll shoot you a freebie.
Actually the Spanish are one of the easier nations to play with French being the easiest , by easy I mean most powerful military units. I've played them all and only one I didnt care for was the Portuguese.
Anyways , good luck on it man.

Darn it! I was afraid of that. So you are able to switch nationalities by just clicking on the flag and selecting someone else I take it?

 

[rebeltf]

Yea. That's how it works You should be able to find the game pretty cheap , it's a few years old now , if you wanted to buy it.

 

[Triton]

Yea. That's how it works You should be able to find the game pretty cheap , it's a few years old now , if you wanted to buy it.

Yeah, I just picked it up for 20 bucks on ebay. Now when it gets here I'll have to start leveling up my guys again. Darn it! Well at least this way I'll actually get a chance to play the English and such.

 

[rebeltf]

Yea leveling can take hours and hours and.... hours lol
English are good , heck all the nations are good but each has their own weaknesses/strengths , of course.
Lately I've been wasting time playing Civ3 , now that is a hard game to master.

 

[Triton]

Yea leveling can take hours and hours and.... hours lol
English are good , heck all the nations are good but each has their own weaknesses/strengths , of course.
Lately I've been wasting time playing Civ3 , now that is a hard game to master.

Yeah I've heard about that one, sounds excellent but complicated I don't want to spend (in face I CAN'T spend) a ton of time doing this stuff. The age of empires stuff is fairly easy to learn the basic concepts of even if it takes a long time to master so it's perfect for my small amounts of gaming time. Thanks for helping me out here, I was driving myself nuts trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. I'm pretty irked that I've got to wait until at LEAST Monday before the new one I purchased will be here. Stupid freebie software!