Shamil Hadi CIS - 487

Basic Information Game Title: Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion Company & Author: Microsoft, Ensemble Studios Type of game: Build and manage civilizations Price: $19.99

Minimum states hardware requirements and actual hardware requirements –Multimedia PC with Pentium 166MHz or higher processor. –Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 5 operating system. –32 MB of RAM –200 MB of hard disk space; additional 100 MB of hard disk space for swap file. –Super VGA monitor supporting 800x600 resolution. –Local bus video card that supports 800x600, 256 color resolution and 2 MB of VRAM –Quad-speed CD-ROM drive. –Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device. –28.8Kbps modem (or higher recommended) for internet or head-to-head play. –Audio board with speakers or headphones. –To access the MSN Gaming Zone you need Internet Explorer 3.02 or later software or Netscape Communicator 4.0 or later.

Game Summary Quick overview: The basic game play is to building a city, army, and civilization, to protect your city and conquer others.

Story line: You lead you civilization through a conquest expanding it, or protecting it, based on history facts. Player’s role: You are basically the General/Governor of the city/army; you build your own city, protect your own city/others, and attack other cities as well. Game Summary Game Summary – Cont.

Installation To install Age of Empires II, you must be using Microsoft Windows® 95 or later or Microsoft Windows NT® 4.0 with Service Pack 5 or later. (For information about how to get Service Pack 5, go to To install Age of Empires II: Turn on your computer and start Microsoft Windows 95 or later or Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 5 or later. Place the Age of Empires II CD in the disc holder (if required), and insert it into your CD-ROM drive. If AutoPlay is enabled, click Install, and then follow the instructions that appear on the screen.

Game Summary Game Summary – Cont. User Interface: Mouse and Keyboard Game Play: Click on units and building structures to either create new units or have a new building built, or command the unit to attack or do other tasks.

Game Summary Game Summary – Cont. Scoring: The more resources you gather, more map you explore, and the more you conquer gets you the higher score. Artwork: It is in 3-D, there are buildings, landscaping (including trees, sand, etc...), and units such as (soldiers, horses, catapults, etc...)

Game Summary Game Summary – Cont. –Sound and Music: Depending on the type of unit/civilization type, the unit makes a different noise, for example, if the unit is of French descent it will speak French, or if you click on a horse it will make a horses sound, the music is classical and old ages type, there are alerting noises when units are being attacked.

Special factures: The game is based of historical facts. Manual: The manual is included on a read me file in the CD Bugs: Sometimes when minimizing the game it would lock up, so there are patches that you can get to fix this issue.

Game Review What is good (fun) about the game? Why? Since the game is based of historical facts, it feels as if you are the general/king of that time period. What is bad (not fun) about the game? Why? Some times it takes forever to build an army/city because of lack of resources, and it gets the player to become board. How does it compare to similar games in the same genre? This game is ranked very high in the gaming community; it is one of the best in its genre.

Game Review – Cont. Why is it better or worse than similar games? The game is better because you can build many different buildings, and produce many different units, each doing special tasks, and it makes it exciting to upgrade to the next level of your civilization. What is the appropriate audience for this game: People of all ages from age of Are any design mistakes present? No

Summary Overall strengths and weaknesses: Some of the strengths are: –Solid game play –Easy to play –Fun to navigate and go through beating the game –Can have up to 8 people play against each other, other then single player mode –Based of True history facts

Summary –Cont. Some of the weaknesses are: –Sometimes the game crashes, if you don’t have the latest patch –If there are way too many units on the a map, then you experience lag during game play

Summary –Cont. Is the game worth purchasing: Yes How could it be improved: It has been already improved in later versions, such as Age of Empires III.