Civilization 3 Expansion: Play the World

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Product Features

• Battle against 8 new leaders, from Genghis Khan, Hannibal and more
• Choose from 8 new civilizations in 4 different eras
• Build your own scenarios, or go online & play against other Civilizations worldwide
• All-new multiplayer game modes like Elimination, Domination, Regicide and King of the Mountain
• You can even play a turnless battle for a whole new level of exciting strategy!

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000067FPP
• Item Weight: 2 pounds
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: October 29, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (80 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #15,357 in Video Games (See Bestsellers in Video Games)

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• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From the Developer
Sid Meier's Civilization III: Play the World is the exciting expansion pack to the bestselling historical strategy game Civilization III. Featuring new multiplayer and single player features, Play the World pits you against the best Civilization players from all corners of the planet via the Internet. With new online modes of play, including turnless and fast-paced games like Regicide and Elimination, the battle for ultimate bragging rights will be intense.

Eight new civilizations including new leaders and units provide more challenges and strategic options. A powerful scenario editor allows players to construct their dream scenario and share it with players from around the world. Play scenarios created by others, or build your own--replayability is truly limitless.

Note: this is an expansion to Sid Meier's Civilization III and requires the full version of Civilization III to play.

Product Description
Civilization III: Play The World bring you an all-new level of challenge as you seek to conquer the world -- you've got new leaders to play as(or against), and new conquerors online to face!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

63 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This expansion pack is obsolete!, December 16, 2003

By	P. H. Soares Jr. - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

PTW should be recalled from the shelves and destroyed. It serves no purpose now that "Conquests" has been released. Read on and save yourself some money and frustration....

The "Play the World" expansion pack was originally released in 2002 and it was generally considered buggy and incomplete. Patching fixed many of the bugs but the multiplayer portion still left much to be desired due to poor original design. Unfortunately, these design flaws were deeply rooted and could not be fixed by further "free" patches (it just wouldn't be economical) and so the developer went to work on a new expansion pack called "Conquests".

Now, in 2003, with release of the "Conquests" expansion pack, the "Play The World" (PTW) xpack has been rendered utterly obsolete, since Conquests includes all of the 'good' stuff from PTW (and none of the 'bad'!). Conquests also has many new features (new civs, new wonders, new techs, new units, etc) and much better multiplayer support.

My advice to anyone considering buying this PTW xpack is: DON'T!

You're much better off getting the "Conquests" xpack instead which, at the time of this writing, is the same price as PTW!

In summary, the "Conquests" xpack:

a) includes everything in the PTW xpack except the bugs and flawed multiplayer support

b) has a bunch of new stuff: civs, techs, units, wonders, etc.

c) costs the same as PTW!

Good luck.

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Should I or shouldn't I? Who should buy the PTW Expansion., January 8, 2003

By	Steven Sprunger (Cincinnati, OH United States) - See all my reviews

First off let me say that I do not play multiplayer games nor do I have any interest in playing them. Based on the other reviews here I would not buy the expansion if playing the multiplayer game was a priority for me...but,

I let the reviews here keep me from buying the expansion for 4 months and now I wish I hadn't waited.

The Good:
1) New civilizations. Especially the Ottomans and Spanish which are very challenging.
2) New animations. These are very cool.
3) New AI...I have noticed a smarter AI in the games I have been playing since the expansion and patches. This is making deitiy level much harder to win.
4) New units! Getting to update the swordsman to medieval infantry and eventually guerillas is huge since they are a valuable early unit type.
5) The editor is GREAT...SO much better than the original editor.
6) Expanded commands, especially expanded automation for workers.

The Bad:
1) Multiplayer
2) The price

Civilization is my favorite game all time so any expansion that is put out isn't going to be a price sensitive purchase for me. I felt ripped off paying $29 for the expansion, but it was worth it to me because I am a hardcore civilization player. Bottom line is this...if you are on the fence and don't intend to use multiplayer I think this expansion is worth the money for the hardcore fan.

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Follow the instructions...install the patch, January 5, 2003

By	"wintermute1974" (Northern Colorado, USA) - See all my reviews

I have been an avid fan of the series since the first installment of civilization and have easily wasted solid months (years?) at a time playing Civ II, SMAC, etc. I even bought a new system just for the release of Civ III because it would cause me great mental anguish to know that it was out and I couldn't play it. If this sounds anything like you, and you have a broadband connection (you really do need it) you need to buy this expansion.
Caveats:
I picked up PTW on release day and raced home to see how my months of training with Civ III would fare against human opponents. Crashes and complaints were frequent (this version should have never been shipped) but firaxis has made it work with their second patch (1.14f available from firaxis.com) and after a few frustrating weeks, I have little to no trouble connecting with people to play with, crashes are way down and probably due to new users trying to play without the patch.
My only complaint now is with the human opponents. People with leave the game if they think they are losing, or if you attack a poorly defended civ, or if their sister needs to use the computer or whatever. This wipes their cities completely off the map but also gives the neighboring civ easy access to expand their territory, upsetting the power balance. Other players must think this is a good idea because they then begin to leave in droves. There are no overall statistics kept on your own overall performance (wins/losses/quits) which could have been a nice feature especially matching similar skill levels to play each other. Dial up pings are high and hosts will often ask a player with high pings to leave, if they don't they get booted by the host before the game begins (thus the broadband recommendation). Games last on average at least 3-4 hours and significant military movements can be difficult to complete within the time allotted even if you make use of all the management features. Even with all of these issues, I find myself going straight for the multiplayer lobby rather than the single player game. Hope this helps someone.