strategy

Civilization 3 Gold is really nothing more than the original Civilization 3 game packaged with the first expansion, Civilization: Play the World. While this may seem like a good deal, you can actually buy the second expansion in the Civilization series, Civilization: Conquests, which is included with the first expansion as well. So if you'd like an even better deal, buy a copy of the original Civilization game (which sells for a VERY cheap price new or used) and then buy the Civilization: Conquests expansion and you'll spend the same amount you would for the Gold Edition, get the expansion Civilization: Play the World as well as new content in Civilization: Conquests. If you'd like to know what the Gold Edition brings to the table, basically the purpose of the Play the World expansion was to enable multiplayer, a feature once originally promised in the original game. Atari probably realized it could make more money holding out multiplayer in an expensive expansion pack but if you never gave in to Atari's demands, now is your chance to try it. Multiplayer is a bit of a disappointment in Civilization. The online community isn't large and it's not the same thing as randomly joining a server in a first person shooter or other poppular online game because of the dedication required for long online games. One reason the community isn't that large is because when Play the World was first released it was a buggy disaster! The online game was full of lag no matter what game mode or connection speed you used. Some of the common problems have been fixed with patches but multiplayer has never been a great success with Civilization. Play the World even introduces a simultaneous turn mode which allows the game to speed up and imitates the mechanics of a real-time strategy game. Unfortunately, Civ 3 really isn't meant to be a real-time strategy game and it doesn't run as smoothly as a Rise of Nations or Warcraft game would. If you have a home LAN, that's probably the best way to play Civilization against others. The most successful method of play is still singleplayer, though, so I recommend you buy the Conquests expansion along with the original Civilization game like I mentioned above because that expansion does a better job adding more features for singleplayer but also comes included with the content in Play the World.

My friend just got this game for christmas andn I we played it at his house.we were on the computer for the whole afternoon. it is so cool!!! the object is to build cities and advance in tecnology, but also to conquer your enamies. it has great multiplayer levels, too. i haven't played the other civilization games, so i can't really compare them, but i don't see how anything could be better than this one.

There has never been a game like Civ III and this Gold Edition proves it. Civ III is so far advanced over Civ II that there is just no comparison. The additions in units, nations, advances, city structures and overall graphics is astounding. What is infuriating is the excessively long waits as one nears the end of the game. I have tried everything - don't show enemy moves, don't show automatic, etc. But nothing seems to work faster except perhaps a more powerful computer.