I use to browse around the Internet (when I was in like 4th through 6th grades, which was about 3 to 5 years ago, I'm going into 9th grade) and read reviews for games (Gamespot was the best one, but it kind of sucks now). I heard that Age of Empires (which I had) was represented as a cross between Civilization and...Command and Conquer was it? I don't remember. But I read the reviews, but there werre other games I wanted (Starcraft, Age of Empires II, Descent 3, Jedi Knight, etc.) but then one time, after I was ised ot playing computer games all the time and I could just get all teh great releases, I had a hard time decideing between Civilization III and Empire Earth, and of course bought this. That was about a year ago. I wasn't too hooked on it at first, but then I saw my dad get it and play it (computer programmer, this was hte first game he ever bought) and it rekindled my interest. Then I got Conquests for Christmas last year and I haven't been able to stop playing.