Caesar 3

Rating:
Summary: Learn how the Empire was run
Review: As an expert on ancient Rome, I was anxious to pick up the newest version of Caesar (Caesar III) and having done so, I wasn't disappointed. This game should appeal to a wide range of people: students of history, fans of the Sim games, Age of Empires, Pharoh and civilization, anyone who enjoys a strategy building game and powerhungry company execs (or wannabes) who love control (it'll want to make you skip that boring sales meeting). One of the few entertaining games that I believe is educational as well: learn about money management, resource management and a bit of History. And for something under $20, its a steal. Buy it for the price, play it for the fun!

Rating:
Summary: One Hellova' Game!
Review: Ok, so I admit it, this game can become difficult and annoying (at some times), but let's face it! It doesn't get better than Caesar 3. But to be honest, you have to like the Roman times! This game remindes me a lot about "Gladiator" the movie, it ties in. Once you become someone who understands the game, you win the game (which I intend to do, but still haven't) which can be difficult. The graphics are amazing, the action is true, and the game is real. Now I bet you've lost me when I said the game is true, but it all means that you can have fun while you play this strategic game. The following games are like Caesar 3: Many of the many "Sim" games, "Starcraft" or "Warcraft", one of the many "Age of the Empires" games, "Pharoah", and many others. Have you ever played any of these games? They can be fun, but Caesar 3 is the most realistic. Come on, people say this game can be difficult, which it is, but they don't look "beyond" the difficulties! This game makes sitting around watching the computer screen fun! Now I know I've skipped many features and details of Caesar 3, but I'm running out of room to type. So I'll make this short and sweet, buy this game and you will experience something totally new, totally different, and totally fun! Take whatever I typed in concideration, thanks Ü

Rating:
Summary: [e-mail]???!?!?
Review: First, the good. The shipping was VERY FAST. Package arived in less than a week. And the game is a blast. ^_^ Now the bad. What I got wasn't what I was expecting. I had placed an order on a NEW copy of the game, but what I got was some sort of reprint from a company in the UK. Putting the disk in the drive caused my firewall to go nuts (I DON'T LIKE HAVING SPY-WARE SENT TO ME!!!) and when I tried to exit the install, it cut off my internet connection. Now why would it want to do that? Also, the boxart that is shown online ISN'T the same box that I got. I liked the game, but was not pleased with all the extra crap that was put on the disk. >=(

Rating:
Summary: Best building game since Civ II!
Review: This is an excellent game for gamers who want to build cities; the game is complex enough to challenge you, yet the "advisors" are there to prevent the complexity from becoming frustrating. You can get many hours of pleasure for your dollars.

Very few games I know of have such a user-friendly and frustration-free system. One reviewer lamented the lack of difficulty settings, but a simple free patch at the Sierra site provides five difficulty levels and some other good tweaks. One of the interesting aspects of this game is how you get to know the character of certain neighborhoods. While the early building is great fun, even better perhaps is the urban renewal by which you fix some of the chaos that naturally occurs in cities (cyber and real). There is no random map generator, but you can play eight different games (four with and four without military actions) *or* choose the career path. Sierra has another free download which lets you create maps and scenarios (I haven't tried it). This is a major advance over Caesar II.

Rating:
Summary: So you want to run a Roman city...
Review: For those of you looking for a great, realistic and HARD game here it is. You are selected by Rome to run a series of cities, each one with problems and needs different than the last. You will have to develop farms, dig clay pits, fill warehouses, design road systems, supply people with food and goods, build houses, set up markets, workhouses and make sure everybody has clean water. THAN you also have to deal with trade, enemy armies, the Gods and Caesar's own demands for supplies and legions! People will want doctors on call, schools for their kids and theaters for their free time. Businesses will need labor living near them, easy to access docks, roads, warehouses and don't forget lots of enginers to keep things in repair!
Oh, and don't forget the walls, towers and gatehouses!
And lots of roads, gardens, roads, plazas and more roads.

Don't worry, there is a easy setting. And you can turn off the Gods too. Try to take it slow and easy.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but two big problems
Review: I played this game for a couple of months earlier this year, and enjoyed it very much. It was very exciting when you got to the point where you were generating money, pleasing Caesar, and increasing the population. There are two big problems, though.

The first is that the instruction booklet, which comes with the game, is not complete. In order to get to the nitty gritty, which I insist on knowing in every game, you must buy the companion "strategy" guide. This is bull. For the $ you have to plop down in the first place, you should be able to get complete instructions.

The second problem, and the more serious one, is that the game is almost impossible to win. Now I expect it to be difficult, and I don't mind playing a scenario three or four times before I get it right, but at some point, I would like to be rewarded with a victory.

In Caesar, the goals are usually to reach a certain population level, and to reach a certain rating in four categories: peace, prosperity, culture, and favor. You can see where you are at any given time. So you click on prosperity, and you are at 31, and to reach the goal, you must have 35. You click on it, and it says, for example, to build more theatres. So you do. A year goes buy, or about ten minutes, and the favor improves to 33. Great, you think, I will win next year. But the next year rolls around, and it stays at 33! Why? You click on it again, and it says the favor rating is improving. So you wait another year. Now it goes down! So you click again. Again it says the rating is imrproving. And the following year, it does. But now it's been forty minutes, you've accomplished everything else, and you'd like to go on to the next scenario, especially since you've played this one five times already.

I finally quit in exasperation, and haven't picked it up since. It is unfortunate, because all the other ingredients were there.

Rating:
Summary: Quite entertaining. Very good. Actually great!
Review: Caesar 3 is yet another great game from Impressions. It greatly improves on Caesar 2, which I found to be an excellent game in it's own right. Having everthing on one screen is kind of nice, rather than having a city screen, and a province screen.

The graphics are nicer and you actually have more than just a couple o people walking around in your city.

With the option on the difficulty settings it make the game quite flexable. Whether you're a casual gamer who just wants to play around, or simply have some fun, or a hard-core gamer who wants to challenge the game to its limit, this game can serve both types of consumers and all of those in between.

There's a good variety of buildings, but not so many that you never use them all. The two different games settings are quite interesting. There's the campaign mode, in which you work your way up the ladder of Roman politics, or the city construction kit if you just want to build a city. There is a program that come's with the game that allows you to make you own settings, options, terrain, goals, you name it... It allows you to make you own maps. This game is appealing to young and old. Oh, and who said that only guys play computer games? My 12-year-old sister loves this game (as do I, being 15). That's about it. Try it. With the price so low it's a great deal!

[Impressions has designed other games which may be of interest, such as: Lords of Magic (Special Edition) (highly recommended), Pharoah (and the expansion pack), Zeus: Master of Olympus (and the expansion pack), Civil War General 1 and 2, Lords of the Realm, Lords of the Realm 2 and soon Lords of the Realm 3.]

Rating:
Summary: This is a good one
Review: The highest praise I can give a video game: I don't want to do anything else. I have many important things I need to be doing, but ever since I discovered Caesar 3 I've been finding ways of avoiding them so I can continue to build and fight and govern my way through this very entertaining strategy game. This, I think, is the true measeure of any game in the genre.

Caesar 3 offers you the chance to develop a Roman city from scratch, paying attention to every minor detail from trade to housing to where your public baths should go. The game has a very user-friendly interface, plenty of easy to navigate overlays, and superb graphics. Also, it leads you step-by-step through the fundamentals of city building with a tutorial-like early game assignment mode -- very helpful. Lots of intriguing trade options, logical reactions for each of your governing choices, and 'catchy' game play additions (you can click on each of your citizens and get a quick update on your population's state of mind, for example) make the game fun, and the game includes a fairly rich history of various elements of the Roman Empire. It reminds me, actually, of 'Roller Coaster Tycoon,' with its point and click building and background sounds. Easy to use, not easy to master.

Simply put: this is a fun and challenging game, certainly worth the price they're charging.

Rating:
Summary: I want to get this game
Review: I love this game. It is so much fun. You get to advance through the ranks and build. If you like Rollar Coaster Tycoon or Sims or Civialization you'll love this game. You have to get this game. I have to get it too. After playing it in school I've been adicted. You have to buy this game. It's great. Buy it asap.

Rating:
Summary: Another brilliant strategy game!
Review: Caesar 3 is unstoppable! You can play it a million times and each game will be different. The cities in the game can be huge, one of my cities covered the whole map.
The game is very easy to play, you have to build a Roman empire, and take care of it's residents. You have to build loads of things, like schools, libraries, theatres, markets, farms etc.
A cool effect of the game is that every person says something when you right click on them. I had fun just by doing that in a city. Sometimes in the game, Caesar sends you requests and if you don't fulfill them, he gets angry and chucks you out the city, taking away your place of mayor.
You only get 500 in money (i can't remember the name for money in the game) and if you use it too quickly Caesar gets angry.
There's loads of disasters in the game - like fires, building collapses, riots and disease.
Overall, a jam packed game that you will not get bored of. Play and become Caesar!