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Gameguru Mania News - Sep,08 2005 -

Age of Empires III demo - demo
(hx) 09:44 AM CEST - Sep,08 2005 - Post a comment / read (3)
Microsoft has released the promised playable demo (get_updated_demo) for Age of Empires III, allowing you to try out the upcoming historical 3D real-time strategy sequel by Ensemble Studios. Word is: "The demo includes single player skirmish mode and two missions in the single player campaign. In Skirmish mode you can play as the British or the Spanish empires in the New England and Texas maps." Minimum specs: WinXP, 1.4GHz CPU, 256MB RAM, 64 MB Video Card that supports HW T&L, approximately 370MB of Hard Drive space (not including installer).

Another mirrors: Microsoft, 3DGamers, FileFront, VGPro, WP, FilePlanet, FileShack, GH, GamespotDLX, AusGamers.

last 10 comments:

heretic

(09:55 AM CEST - Sep,08 2005 )

For those that are getting the dreaded "Direct3D Initialization Failed" error message with the white X in a red circle, ES_PieThief might have a fix for you:

quote:

This error which some people have reported seems to happen mostly if you run a widescreen monitor. I believe the problem has been fixed since the demo was put together so it will work in the full version of the game.

I actually got the error on my own machine when I installed the demo and I've found I think two work arounds on my own machine to fix it.

Delete the file NewProfile.xml in your /Age of Empires 3 Trial/Users/NewProfile.xml directory.
Set your screen resolution to 1024x768, then rerun the game

or

Open NewProfile.xml and fine the line that specifies the optiongrfxres and change the res to say 1024x768. In my particular case it was initializing to 1280x768, which my machine did not like much.
For some reason it initializes to a resolution some video cards have problems with if you have a widescreen monitor (I have the 24" widescreen at home and had this problem)

It seems to only happen the first time you run the game, I believe once you get it up and running once, it doesn't happen again.

Hope this helps, it worked for me.

The Outlaw	(08:01 PM CEST - Sep,08 2005 )
Well was waiting for this one eagerly......... my wish also came true that the game demo may be released in a week and it did. :D

The Outlaw	(01:10 AM CEST - Sep,10 2005 )
Well the demo was quite dissappointing. :( The graphics werent as good as i expected, gameplay also didnt have much to offer. The card system was very confusing and there was no reason for the option it was there for the heck of it. Its just a new game in the AOE series thats all.

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