Rise of Nations Gold

Product Details

Rise of Nations Gold From Microsoft List Price: $19.99 Price: $10.44 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Ships from and sold by lakeplacegames 21 new or used available from $7.09 Average customer review:

Product Description

Rise of Nations: Gold Edition gives you the greatest strategic game experience as you you lead your armies on land or sea. This version gives you both the award-winning original title and the critically acclaimed expansion pack, Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1263 in Video Games
• Brand: Microsoft
• Model: A1L-00001
• Released on: 2004-10-26
• ESRB Rating: Teen
• Platforms: Windows NT, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows XP, Windows 95
• Format: CD-ROM
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .30 pounds

Features

• Lead 1 of 24 diverse nations in this epic, historical, real-time strategy game
• Engage in 5 single player campaigns and over 130 scenarios
• Brings to life 6,000 years of history from the ancient age to the information age
• 6 new nations, 4 unique single-player campaigns, 20+ original units, and more
• Challenge up to 8 players on the Internet or via local area network

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Editorial Reviews

From the Manufacturer From acclaimed game designer Brian Reynolds and Big Huge Games, comes < i>Rise of Nations an epic, historical, real-time strategy game. For the fir st time, gamers will experience the pulse-pounding thrill and speed of real-tim e gaming combined with the epic scope and depth of turn-based strategy games. T he game brings to life 6,000 years of history from the ancient age to the infor mation age--not just in warfare but in city building, trade, and diplomacy. Des pite the long timeline in the game, Rise of Nations is designed with the casual audience in mind, meaning gamers will be able to move through the game quickly. Rise of Nations: Gold Edition includes both the award-winning Rise of Nations and the critically acclaimed expansion pack, Rise of Nations: T hrones and Patriots. Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots, the expa nsion pack to the critically acclaimed, best-selling Rise of Nations, ad ds a barrage of new features to the original game. The expansion introduces six new nations, four unique single-player campaigns, more than 20 original units, new wonders, and government types. The original Rise of Nations has garnered several Best of 2003 awards an d "Editors Choice awards" from major media outlets. Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots, released in April 2004, has also been awarded a number of "E ditors Choice awards" and has been praised as one of the best expansions to dat e. Key Features:

• Lead one of 24 highly diverse nations: With the Gold Edition, players can l ead one of 24 nations--in the single player campaigns or on a multiplayer battl efield. Each nation has its own distinctive national powers and special units.
• Engage in five single player campaigns and over 130 scenarios: Non-linear, single-player campaigns based on historical epochs will keep players busy as th ey plan their moves on the strategic outer map and play out battles in over 130 scenarios. Campaigns include Alexander the Great, Napoleon, the New World, Col d War, and the ultimate challenge: the Entire World.
• Command over 240 different units: players can lead their armies to fight on land, sea, or in the air with everything from slingers, musketeers, tanks, mas sive Persian War elephants, aircraft carriers, and nuclear missiles.
• In-depth game experience: Gamers will be able to create a truly strategic g ame experience by using national borders, flank attacks, spies, and generals. I n addition, as a nation advances through the ages, players can decide between s ix different government types, from socialism to capitalism, despotism to repub lic, each government type has a different power that allows players to customiz e their nations and open up new tactics and strategic possibilities. A unique P atriot unit is available with each government type, bringing a variety of power s to the battlefield.
• Cross-genre gameplay: Combining the speed of real-time gaming with the epic scope of turn-based strategy games, Rise of Nations: Gold Edition allow s players to have a fast and fun experience with the option to complete a game in less than an hour. The games epic scope moves through eight historical epoch s, tying together the mysteries of ancient philosophy and the wonders of the wo rld.
• Multiple ways to achieve victory: Players succeed through nonmilitary and q uasi-military strategies including espionage, political maneuvering, technology races, and population growth. Players can also choose to win through military action.
• Streamlined multiplayer: challenge up to eight players on the Internet or v ia local area network, including in-game matchmaking.

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Customer Reviews

Development of civilizations made fun In many ways, Rise of the Nations is more like an upgraded version of the Age of Empires series. In the Gold edition, you will also get the expansion game that came after the original so that is a good deal. This is a fun game to play. The format isn't anything new or special. Its your typical gathering the resources, building up your armies, developing your tech level and go out and conquered your foes. It been done many time before. But what make this game go up to the next level is that there are a lot of options to be play. Different nations, different tactics, different priorities to developed and nice graphics that actually helped the player. Its also fun as you conquered from Risk-like board, going from nation to nation as your initial commands of hoplites changed into Tiger tanks and usages of nuclear weapons and development of national shield system. Overall, a pretty fun game, interesting and above all, entertaining to boot. By the way, I owned a Pentium III 800 and its plays well on my system. my new favorite RTS In the past, I've played a lot of games like Starcraft and Command and Conquer: Generals, so when I had some extra Christmas money, I decided to look for a good RTS game. Before I bought Rise of Nations, I downloaded trials of Civ IV, Empire Earth (I and II), Rise of Nations, and Age of Empires III. In this game, there are twice as many ages as in Age of Empires, so you get to play the progression from slingshots to rocket launchers. There are also 14 different nations. Each nation has it's own strengths and a few unique troop types, but the technology tree is basically the same so that you don't have to learn a whole new tree if you want to try out other nations. I haven't done much with the campaigns, so I can't say anything about them. I've basically done skirmishes and played multiplayer. When playing this mode, there are a lot of options to customize the game. You can go with the defaults or you can choose different sets of victory criteria, 5 skill levels for the AI, AI personality (aggressive, defensive, etc) or even limit the game to a range of ages rather than play all the way through. One of the only shortcomings is that I wish there were more maps. I haven't looked into whether there is a way to install or download more. When playing, there is a lot going on, but the interface keeps things from looking cluttered and confusing. I figured out how to play just based on my experience with other RTS games and am just now going back and looking up some of the hotkeys to speed up my game. There are a lot of upgrades to keep up with between age upgrades, troop upgrades, and resource upgrades, but pressing tab automatically scrolls you through all currently available upgrades, so you don't have to spend half your time remembering where your library/granary/lumber mill is. I know this game is a little bit older, but I think it is better than any of the others I demoed. The only exception may be Civ IV, which I bypassed once I realized it was turn-based. If you're a fan of turn-based games, you might like it better, they just aren't my cup of tea. If you're looking for a good history themed RTS, Rise of Nations is one of the better ones out there. My view When RON came out, it was definitely the best game of its kind: the graphics and game engine were far superior to anything that had been made before. However, there are now several better games on the market. Summary: Great fun to master, but once you're good - it's very tedious. Also, there are a few critical flaws in the AI, making the game seem rather stupid at times. Overall, it's great for a short-lived, thrill of a gaming experience, but once you've conquered the world, you've conquered it - there's nothing else to do, unless you want to conquer it again...