Age of Empires 3 | Demo Released | Reviews at 85%

[jerryhussain]

Currently in QA, demo will be released this month.

http://img134.exs.cx/img134/6205/11047780830small9vc.jpg (http://img134.exs.cx/img134/3500/110477808309gn.jpg)

http://img134.exs.cx/img134/6401/11047780831small2hc.jpg (http://img134.exs.cx/img134/4659/110477808314yz.jpg)

http://img134.exs.cx/img134/7256/11047780832small7kq.jpg (http://img134.exs.cx/img134/9089/110477808323am.jpg)

Read more on AOE3 here (http://pc.ign.com/articles/576/576023p1.html)

Personally speaking I've wasted countless hours on the AOE series so far and dont see any reason that their upcoming release can follow that tradition. :)

[puff_daddy_58_99]

the new one seems less like the age of empires. It's like 1500-1850 or something, which really isn't an empire. Rise of Nations and Empire Earth got it right, being able to start in almost the cave age and make it all the way to the future.

I would bet that this may be more of a marketing play. The stock game is 1500-1850, then after it is released they just add new content for an 1850-2050 game or a 1200-1500 game. Same engine, same gameplay, just expansion scenarios and units.

Anyways, I hope it is decent. It is one that I will be sure to pickup!

[Fantaz]

Sexy graphics! I might pick this one up if the gameplay is as good.

[JayPatel]

IGNPC: Are you using a modified version of the Age of Mythology engine or are you starting over from scratch? What new technologies and visuals are you hoping to include?

Ensemble: Yes, we started Age of Empires III with the Age of Mythology engine. But, fairly soon into Age of Empires III's development, we realized that we had an opportunity to do something unique in terms of pushing the edge of the envelope with graphics in the RTS genre, and perhaps even for all PC games. As a result, we've rewritten most of the engine by this point in time.

The Age of Empires III engine is a fully DX9, Shader 3.0 compliant engine with more technical bells and whistles than any other PC game to date. As you can see from the screenshots, we have a world that feels bright and sunny, but with a softness and depth that hasn't been seen before. From things like self-shadowing to HDR (high dynamic range) lighting to water that has proper Fresnel reflectance properties, this is a very high-end graphics engine.

We've also integrated physics into the game in a big way. When units are blown up by cannon fire, we use ragdolls to bounce them around the world, off of rooftops, and down cliffs. As buildings take artillery damage, pieces of the building realistically break off and fall down with proper collision modeling. When you throw in hundreds of integrated animations per unit, the overall effect is quite impressive.

Age of Empires III has more programmers working just on graphics than worked on all of Age of Kings. While gameplay still reigns supreme, it would be accurate to say that the bulk of our programming time has been spent on graphics. Everything from low-level shader architecture to higher level, applied things such as unit movement and combat have been taken to the next level. Simply put, we set out to create the best looking PC game of all time with Age of Empires III.

[ledorky]

Nice. Time to put my 6600GT to use.

[coldWater]

time to upgrade my video card

[plisk3n]

*DROOLS AT THE PICTURES*

Now this is a game I'll play on the PC (I'm mainly a console boy) but I've always loved the AOE series. A definite buy for me!

[JayPatel]

im looking forward to the integration of the physics engine the most. looking forward to the ragdoll deaths

[oceans_end]

i still can remember Rise of Rome Trial days@ zone.com lol

[MrDisco]

time to upgrade my whole PC

[dazz]

Nice. Time to put my 6600GT to use.
I highly doubt it's going to be enough at full resolution and graphics ;)

[slippy]

that is one good looking game
look at all those animal to eat!

[grant]

hopefully they fix the gameplay issues!

I'm also wary of the perspective, when you look at the landscape from an angle it's easy for things to get lost behind buildings etc.

[Rosico]

purdy pictures! :cheesygri

[jerryhussain]

Officially announced today with more screenshots :twisted:

http://img153.exs.cx/img153/9687/age3screenshot07000zm.jpg

http://img153.exs.cx/img153/5117/age3screenshot17003iy.jpg

http://img153.exs.cx/img153/4889/age3screenshot27001gi.jpg

http://img153.exs.cx/img153/1683/age3screenshot37005ws.jpg

http://img153.exs.cx/img153/8922/age3screenshot47008vt.jpg

http://img153.exs.cx/img153/2305/age3screenshot57005we.jpg

[JayPatel]

http://www.worthplaying.com/press/163/aoe3_screen01.jpg
http://www.worthplaying.com/press/163/aoe3_screen02.jpg
http://www.worthplaying.com/press/163/aoe3_screen03.jpg
http://www.worthplaying.com/press/163/aoe3_screen04.jpg
http://www.worthplaying.com/press/163/aoe3_screen05.jpg

[JayPatel]

http://www.worthplaying.com/press/163/aoe3_screen06.jpg
http://www.worthplaying.com/press/163/aoe3_screen07.jpg
http://www.worthplaying.com/press/163/aoe3_screen08.jpg
http://www.worthplaying.com/press/163/aoe3_screen09.jpg
http://www.worthplaying.com/press/163/aoe3_screen10.jpg

[JayPatel]

http://www.worthplaying.com/press/163/aoe3_screen11.jpg
http://www.worthplaying.com/press/163/aoe3_screen12.jpg
http://www.worthplaying.com/press/163/aoe3_screen13.jpg
http://www.worthplaying.com/press/163/aoe3_screen14.jpg
http://www.worthplaying.com/press/163/aoe3_screen15.jpg

[JayPatel]

http://www.worthplaying.com/press/163/aoe3_screen16.jpg
http://www.worthplaying.com/press/163/aoe3_screen17.jpg
http://www.worthplaying.com/press/163/IndianMesa.jpg
http://www.worthplaying.com/press/163/BusyDock.jpg

[ChinpokoMon]

Urge to upgrade video card.........rising!!! :)

[coldWater]

wow, it looks so damn good, i hope the gameplay is going to be good

[jerryhussain]

Wow, those deers look real nice. Everything looks so damn real .. Cant wait 6-9 more months ..

Awesome screens. Thanks Jay. :)

[felix]

yeah, I love the Age of Empire series (fave RTS) and I'm looking forward to this one!

[slippy]

wow great screens
i really like the ocean and snow environments

[wilson.311]

Time to get a new computer system and vedio card for it !!!!

[JayPatel]

http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2005/123/925735_20050504_screen001.jpg
http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2005/123/925735_20050504_screen002.jpg
http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2005/123/925735_20050504_screen003.jpg
http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2005/123/925735_20050504_screen004.jpg
http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2005/123/925735_20050504_screen005.jpg

[jerryhussain]

*wipes drool from keyboard*

When is this coming out again ? I think its summer/fall this year .. cant wait.

[chdude3]

I'll still hold off for the gameplay. I have not really enjoyed any RTS that went "3D". The view and the interface just gets all screwed up.

[porphyra]

::Drool::

AOE is my fave RTS and one of my fave all times games. Just cant wait for this one..

[MrDisco]

those graphics are mind-blowing. lets hope gameplay is equally as good.

[fakishan]

looks *****

AOE 1 & 2 were awesome!

these 3D graphics-type games don't sell well, like settlers: heritage of kings (while the old setllers 2 sold crazy and was very good).

On that note, I tried Warcraft3 yesterday, S H ! T !!!! so horrible!
Prefer Warcraft 1 & 2.

[jerryhussain]

looks *****

AOE 1 & 2 were awesome!

these 3D graphics-type games don't sell well, like settlers: heritage of kings (while the old setllers 2 sold crazy and was very good).

On that note, I tried Warcraft3 yesterday, S H ! T !!!! so horrible!
Prefer Warcraft 1 & 2.
You worried that it might have different gameplay than AOE2 ? I read that they were going to stick the same gameplay, just tweak it in certain areas.

[Evil Techie]

up to this day
im still playing AOK
hehehe


ive seen these AOE3 shots a while ago
now just wondering when it will be out

[felix]

wow, glad I upgrade my computer already .. now I can play everything including AOE 3. :D

[ephemera]

Time to upgrade my coffeemaker, I will be playing this in the wee hours of the morning...

[Fantaz]

Awesome!! I can't wait!

[jerryhussain]

Updated first post.

[divx]

looks good.

[sfu_lifer]

I read in Computer Gaming World, we can thank Bill G's Xbox crew for the purty graphics. The high-end graphics programmers and artists were working on a 360 project that got canned last year. Since they were free, the AOE3 folks nabbed them and this is the result. They had one programmer dedicated solely to water effects, making sure the wash was perfect.

[justlam_]

What will be the minimum requirement to run this game?

[konfusion666]

Intended for SM3.0 parts? Bleh, I guess my X800 will suffer then...

[divx]

What will be the minimum requirement to run this game?

althon x2-4800
3 gig of ddr2 ram
7800GTX-SLi
1 TB HDD

basically, the req is way over the roof :lol:

[Evil Techie]

althon x2-4800
3 gig of ddr2 ram
7800GTX-SLi
1 TB HDD

basically, the req is way over the roof :lol:

ahahaha
i hope not
lol

but since when does athlon X2 work with DDR2?

so what date is the demo coming out?

[ttt]

althon x2-4800
3 gig of ddr2 ram
7800GTX-SLi
1 TB HDD

basically, the req is way over the roof :lol:

:lol: i better buy a new pc. :lol:

[konfusion666]

jerry, any info on how our X800 parts will handle this?

[deals4j]

Can't wait to put my dual core to use :D

[ollio]

:lol: i better buy a new pc. :lol:
Same here

[plisk3n]

The demo is out:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/d/7/3/d7348fe3-d498-4e13-96c6-3da92e8f0c62/aoe3trial.exe

ENJOY! 300megs+

[jerryhussain]

The demo is out:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/d/7/3/d7348fe3-d498-4e13-96c6-3da92e8f0c62/aoe3trial.exe

ENJOY! 300megs+
Thanks. :)

[Jucius Maximus]

Heh, my mouse died as a result of the previous Age of Empires / Mythology games.

Looks like I'll need a whole new computer this time. :twisted:

[JayPatel]

The demo is out:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/d/7/3/d7348fe3-d498-4e13-96c6-3da92e8f0c62/aoe3trial.exe

ENJOY! 300megs+

awesome 500 k/s download speed. 5 more minutes......

[JayPatel]

anyone else having problems launching the game? I keep getting Direct3D errors popping up telling me I may have a corrupted driver installation or an out of date driver. I installed the newest 78.01 drivers and still no luck

[jerryhussain]

People with Athlon64 or Nvidia setups are having problems, not sure about the root of the problem. The demo is buggy though. :|

[plisk3n]

I just found out it only runs on Windows XP! DAMN!@#!#@

[Xtahse]

looks *****

AOE 1 & 2 were awesome!

these 3D graphics-type games don't sell well, like settlers: heritage of kings (while the old setllers 2 sold crazy and was very good).

On that note, I tried Warcraft3 yesterday, S H ! T !!!! so horrible!
Prefer Warcraft 1 & 2.

Warcraft 3 has different game play than 2.
2 was based on the more man you have, you will WIN

[ShadowVlican]

awesome graphics, i need a new comp

[JayPatel]

solution found. You need to edit the cfg file so that it reflects a supported resolution of your LCD flat panel.

From rage3d.
Anyone getting this error is due to the resolution of a flat panel. You must force the startup resolution the game uses to one that is supported by your monitor.

To force the game to run at a certain resolution, make a text file in the folder My Documents\My Games\Age of Empires 3\startup\user.cfg

Then designate the resolution using "xres=" and "yres=" for example...

xres=2560
yres=1600

Will start the game up in 2560x1600

You should be good to go. Once you are in the game you will be able to choose a new res that suits you.

[JayPatel]

just tried it out..and yes it does work.

[jerryhussain]

solution found. You need to edit the cfg file so that it reflects a supported resolution of your LCD flat panel.

From rage3d.
2005FPW here, worked flawlessly. No editing needed.

[Fantaz]

Either this game is too hard or I just suck because I keep getting killed by these guys before I can build enough trade posts or do anything. Plays like the previous AoE games with a bit of Generals game mechanics. The graphics are good but not as good as it looks like in screenshots, such as Westwood did with their C&C games. The music gets repetitive really fast so I turned it off. Otherwise this game is pretty fun and imo much better than the previous games. Hard learning curve from the demo because there is no included tutorial. Anyways I much prefer Sci-Fi themed games.

[Evil Techie]

The demo is out:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/d/7/3/d7348fe3-d498-4e13-96c6-3da92e8f0c62/aoe3trial.exe

ENJOY! 300megs+

thank you
going at 592kb/s
lets see when the RFD effect kicks in and kills that link
lol

[Leshita]

Just played it a bit, and I liked it much like all the other games of this series. I kinda miss the ancient civilizations though (one of the reasons I like these 'Ages' games opposed to other RTS like Star Craft); I hope they make a future installment with them and improved graphics.
Anyway, the buildings fly apart really nicely when the rockets hit. :p

[go leafs]

Great graphics!!! I'll need a new video card though, shaders and shadows (what makes the game look like PR shots) slow my system down to a crawl.

I was reading on aoe3 heaven that they've already fixed many demo bugs, and have reduced the interface size a little

Also, check out the menu options... some things you might want to see (eg. pop limit) are in there

[plisk3n]

thank you
going at 592kb/s
lets see when the RFD effect kicks in and kills that link
lol

Haha, it's going off M$'s server, so there's plenty of bandwidth to spare. If they can handle pumping out 200 meg SP2 for Windows XP with hundreds of thousands of PC's hammering it, then this is fine.

:lol:

[sfu_lifer]

Doh. My 6200 128MB ain't cutting it for this game :lol:

[Evil Techie]

this game seems pretty fun
i like it

so far, i turned on all of the details to max and running it at 1280x1024 and has no lag at all

my system spec is
2100+ A-XP @ 2.1GHz
1GB of PC3200 OCZ LL dual channel
Radeon X800XL 256mb AGP

graphics isnt all that impressive
this game seems like a hybrid of war3 + cossacks european war and has the controls and shortcuts of AOE series

pretty good

[st7860]

I hope someone ports over the AOE2:TC map Michi@Non Rush Forest to this.

[sfu_lifer]

this game seems pretty fun
i like it

so far, i turned on all of the details to max and running it at 1280x1024 and has no lag at all

my system spec is
2100+ A-XP @ 2.1GHz
1GB of PC3200 OCZ LL dual channel
Radeon X800XL 256mb AGP

graphics isnt all that impressive
this game seems like a hybrid of war3 + cossacks european war and has the controls and shortcuts of AOE series

pretty good

Yeah the screenshots look so good too. I turned up all the options to the max and was kinda underwhelmed on a 6600GT (not because of the framerate).

[Evil Techie]

i finished the campaign and played 2 games of scenarios

pretty fun
why cant i delete my units or buildings though...
anyone else got this bug?

at least this is a lot less buggy than BF2 demo
but oh well different types of games and BF2 is more complicated

[Brandon]

i finished the campaign and played 2 games of scenarios

pretty fun
why cant i delete my units or buildings though...
anyone else got this bug?

at least this is a lot less buggy than BF2 demo
but oh well different types of games and BF2 is more complicated

Yea, delete doesn't work for me either.

[joshmxpx]

thanks for the demo, downloading it now, i've ben waiting for this game all summer

[Evil Techie]

ok
delete on single person works

building delete doesnt work
and i cant delete buildings when they are being built

multiple ppl selected cant be deleted all at once which is annoying

unit movements arent that smart yet, sometimes they get stuck (actually pretty often) and they would stop cutting wood or moving to a set point

when is the full game coming out?
cant wait to play the full game

[motorcycleguy]

haha. I just downloaded it to see what's the fuss is all about. My AMD PC is freezes at the ad saying something like " Works best on Pentium HT".
I should forward this to AMD for use in their trial against Intel :)

[evman150]

I'm probably not going to be able to play in on my 2GHz 256RAM 64VID but I'm going to try anyway.

Can you imagine if you always got 600Kb/s? Holy ****. The internet would be amazing.

I'm a big AOE fan. I have all three games and their expansions.

[chdude3]

I'm probably not going to be able to play in on my 2GHz 256RAM 64VID but I'm going to try anyway.

Can you imagine if you always got 600Kb/s? Holy ****. The internet would be amazing.

I'm a big AOE fan. I have all three games and their expansions.600Kb/s? I think you mean kB/s... and you certainly can get that 'always'. I pulled down the demo at about 650kB/s - Cogeco's speeds are excellent on their regular tier. :)

As for the demo - I think it looks pretty decent? I'm running 1 gig PC3200 on an OC'd 2400 XP-M and a 6800NU 128meg card.

Why wouldn't they include at least some of the tutorial with the demo?

[Headhunter]

multiple ppl selected cant be deleted all at once which is annoying
That's to prevent accidental army deletions... :lol:

[divx]

Why wouldn't they include at least some of the tutorial with the demo?

it's probably the same as AOE1, AOE2

[Evil Techie]

haha. I just downloaded it to see what's the fuss is all about. My AMD PC is freezes at the ad saying something like " Works best on Pentium HT".
I should forward this to AMD for use in their trial against Intel :)

maybe u forgot to click the "Next" button on the lower right corner?

[evman150]

600Kb/s? I think you mean kB/s...

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

[Bordello]

it's probably the same as AOE1, AOE2
They're completely identical.

[felix]

It went gold today according to BluesNews (http://www.bluesnews.com).

http://www.ageofempires3.com/

[othy]

Got the demo, looks great and plays well on my laptop (turion 2GHz, X700 ATI) even in windowed mode!

Holy hell is this hard though, were the other games like this? Either I totally suck or the difficulty setting doesnt do much.. Before I can get my barracks built about 30 musketeers show up and beat my ass down. Weird!

[Evil Techie]

Got the demo, looks great and plays well on my laptop (turion 2GHz, X700 ATI) even in windowed mode!

Holy hell is this hard though, were the other games like this? Either I totally suck or the difficulty setting doesnt do much.. Before I can get my barracks built about 30 musketeers show up and beat my ass down. Weird!

haha
u just need to get the hang of it

back in AOK days
it was more intense

if you played on the zone with the pros, within 20 minutes they can get a respectable sized army heading your way

in AOE3 demo, hardest difficulty, custom game, i could beat the computer easily
just gotta select the right cards and so on
and always have a strong economy going
pump out as many settlers as possible and build a few TCs
thats always been the key of the series since AOE 1
economy is the backbone of military

[Evil Techie]

nvm i take that back
eating my own words now
starting from colonial age is pretty tough
almost impossible to play against the toughest comp

but if you choose industrial age and on, its pretty easy even at the hardest difficulty

artillery rules...

[Oni-kun]

piece of crap wont install because my AMD processor doesn't have SSE. How lame.

[Evil Techie]

piece of crap wont install because my AMD processor doesn't have SSE. How lame.

lol ur comp is too old to be playing this game anyways
if it cant handle SSE, it wouldnt run well at all even if u got it running

[Oni-kun]

theres AMD processors that go upwards to 2Ghz that don't have SSE. Sure my processor isn't the fastest out there but I played recent games like World of Warcraft, Half-Life2, Doom3 etc.. with little trouble.

[Evil Techie]

theres AMD processors that go upwards to 2Ghz that don't have SSE. Sure my processor isn't the fastest out there but I played recent games like World of Warcraft, Half-Life2, Doom3 etc.. with little trouble.
so what exactly do u have?

[Evil Techie]

full version of AOE3 has been leaked

i think the game is expected to ship in north american around the 25th of Oct.

the full game seems much less buggy now
and the multiple unit deletion now prompts with an extra window asking u if u want to delete x amount of troops

so far the campaign is pretty fun except i spent half an hour in the first campaign fighting aimlessly because there was a bug

[Bordello]

Yep, I'm playing the full version of AoE3 right now. It's pretty much bug-free. Good game.

[oceans_end]

does zone still host age of empires games?

i remember the good old Rise of Rome trial days lol

[st7860]

yeah it hit filelist and torrentbytes a few days ago.

[Evil Techie]

i find the campaigns fun but very time consuming
anyone got cheat codes for the game?
i dont have time to play thru it all that slowly

[chinaboy1021]

is it just me or does the audio speech lag? it would show text, then the character using body language (moving arms etc), then 10 seconds later, the speech will turn on....

[Ziggy007]

Wow maybe it has jus tbeen a while since i played serious RTS games, but I was getting killed at this game yesterday. Even on easy mode the computer is very agressive in its attacks once it gets to the industrial age. Should I be micromanaging to slow him down more?

[ephemera]

I tried out the demo for awhile. I didn't like the added home base part. It doesn't function at all in the demo but I assume that you can click on it to deliver supplies and whatever. Not something I care for anyhow. The game looks great, better if i had a great gfx card. The game play is the same as the older aoe's. I found that your men don't get stuck behind trees as much as before, they are smarter now. Also, they don't just let enemies walk right in front of them, they will default to attacking them if they are in range, which is good. I will probably buy the game cuz I love those types of games.

[jerryhussain]

Gamespot Review : 8.2 (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/ageofempiresiii/review.html) | IGN Review : 8.8 (http://pc.ign.com/articles/658/658624p4.html)

[Evil Techie]

i find this game's strategies rely heavily on home city shipments

if you use that wisely, it can really help you to win

damn campaigns though
still buggy, finished it and achieved all objectives, even the objective window shows them all checked and confirmed
the act still didnt close up and it continued even though nme is wiped out from the map completely

I NEED THAT CHEAT CODE NOW IGN/GAMESPOT!!
i dont have the patience to play it over again

[Evil Techie]

anyone know where the screenshots are saved?
i cant find it in the AOE3 directory
cant find it in my documents either
dont know what sort of name to search for either

lol game just came out already and patch 1.01 is already out as well
at least we know that ensemble studios work much harder than EA (trauma studio)

lol

crack 1.01 is out already, looks like deviance is following the AOE3 pretty closely

[puff_daddy_58_99]

If only I had a hardware T&L compatable card (stupid 700m with onboard graphics), I would be all over this game. The scores look good, nice so see the game was well done.

[mart242]

The game looks good, I've actually considered picking it up. I think that it's on sale for 50$ at futureshop tomorrow only. The big problem with this game is that each game takes such a long time. You need to get started, build the base, gather resources, ... and then the ennemy trashes your base and you have to start all over again (that's if you're like me and you suck). No good for someone who only wants to play one hour at a time! :(

[mrmoe]

The game looks good, I've actually considered picking it up. I think that it's on sale for 50$ at futureshop tomorrow only. The big problem with this game is that each game takes such a long time. You need to get started, build the base, gather resources, ... and then the ennemy trashes your base and you have to start all over again (that's if you're like me and you suck). No good for someone who only wants to play one hour at a time! :(


Take me 1-1.5 hrs a mission.
I buildand pgrade everything.

ALSO USE THE SAVE. So if you are seiged then go back build more units and then youwill be ready.

Oh yeah, I love the cannons, 10 cannons and the enemys is reduced to body parts on the ground.

I give it a 9.3

P.S. a trainer is out for this. nforce.nl

[Evil Techie]

there is this cheat

Unlimited Resources
Use a text editor to edit the "proto.xml" file in the "data" directory in the game folder. Note: You may first need to uncheck the "Read Only" attribute of that file's properties in Windows Explorer. Search for the text "CrateOf". You will find CrateofFood, CrateofCoin, CrateofWood, CrateofFoodLarge, CrafteofCoinLarge, and CrateofWoodLarge. For all these entries, find the tag "InitialResourceCount" and change the count to whatever desired. For example, the normal crates each have "100.000" of the resources. You can change the "100" to "99999.000", etc.


but it gives nme the extra resource as well
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/ageofempiresiii/hints.html?mode=secrets

ive finished the campaigns 2 days ago
it was alright
each campaign took me about 30 minutes

still no real cheats to be found though

[felix]

Wow, out already? Nice.

[Fantaz]

Back of manual:

http://home.comcast.net/~cataphract_40/aoe4and5.jpg

[Evil Techie]

Back of manual:

http://home.comcast.net/~cataphract_40/aoe4and5.jpg

hahahaha
that is awesome!!!
hope its not just a joke
i wish they can up the pop limit to 300 though
Cossacks: European War can have like unlimited pop
so does Rome: Total War

ensemble studio is a bit behind on that

[Bordello]

Wow, the later ages look great. I'm still on like the 3rd mission. I've been way too busy to put in any time for this game. I'm liking it so far though.

[felix]

^ That back of manual page mentioned on Blue's News ...
http://www.bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/board.pl?action=viewthread&threadid=61285

[jerryhussain]

there is this cheat




but it gives nme the extra resource as well
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/ageofempiresiii/hints.html?mode=secrets

ive finished the campaigns 2 days ago
it was alright
each campaign took me about 30 minutes

still no real cheats to be found though
Your enemy also gets unlimited resource with that cheat. I think the trainer is out atleast on torrents. ;)