Civilization 3 is a great game but it's not for everyone. It is akin to chess and Risk but much more complex than either.If developing a civilization from a single tribe to a modern superpower sounds like your cup of tea then you should already have this game. You manage all aspects of your chosen civilization: War, diplomacy, trade, etc... .This is a turn based game, slow paced and not action oriented. If your looking for great graphics this is not your game. I think an active imagination is essential to the enjoyment of this and maybe a fondness for history. Patience and much thought must be put into playing this and some people don't enjoy that for entertainment. Understandably I suppose.

Personally this is my favorite game ever. If I could only take one game with me into eternity this would be the one. The replay-ability on this game is phenomenal. I have been playing it regularly since it was first released. For me thats its greatest strength. In this age of jaded video gamers (including me) its truly something for a game to remain so intriguing no matter how many times you've played it. There is so much dept its staggering. However, most of that dept is below the surface and isn't really needed until you start playing on Emperor difficulty or above. After 3 years of playing this I am still learning new things.

One aspect of Civilization that you should be aware of is the modifications people have made for it online. This extends the replay value even more so. The Warhammer mod for this game is excellent. If you want a fantasy setting with elves and dragons etc.. The Rise and Rule mod makes this epic game all the more so by adding hundreds of new technologies and units. There are far to many good mods to address here. Seriously, the mods change Civilization 3 into different games practically. If you have Civilization and haven't taken advantage of the mods your missing out. They can be found at the best gaming community I've ever had the pleasure to lurk upon: The aptly named www.civfanatics.com. Along with strategies and game analysis.

This, I believe, will forever be the standard for turn-based strategy games. There is nearly unlimited customability and playability. And now, almost ten years later, it is super cheap on gamersgate! I think, for me, the concept of a game is more important than the graphics, and this game can't be beat.

The graphics are a little dated, and you wish you had some of the game mechanics from future (and previous) games... but overall its a solid 'take over the world' game, and the last Civ to feature the classic feature of building your palace.

Civ III is a great example of the genius of Sid Meier and company. The feel of the game is very similar to Civilization II and possesses the same great "just one more turn" feel. The graphics are still simple, yet very pleasant, 2d, but that shouldn't dissuade anyone from grabbing such a great game. The depth of gameplay has been enhanced from II with the excellent culture feature, where the largest of your cities can expand their influence to opposing city sites and bring them under your umbrella. At the small price of five dollars this game is a must own for any fan of turn based strategy.

Truly a classic 5 star strategy, I started off with CIV 1&2 this is a step ahead in comparison for content and gameplay. Graphics may look a little bit dated by today's standard but still a very good game and introduction to civilization series if you have not played any of the games before.

Wonderful game. I always love the ability to see your city in details that lacking in the next Civ installments. The addition of new wonders and the improvement in the AI made this classic title really enjoyable to play again.

The only downside is the AI is so smart that it can incite nearly all civilizations in the map to wage war against with no apparent reason even if you are their trading partner.

I just started playing CIV 3 a few months back (or any CIV game for that matter). What a great game! What a great genre of gaming that I'm so happy to have taken a chance on. City building and management along with combat is a ton of fun. It is a little weird seeing the Aztec's or any of the other now defunct ancient civilizations rise to modern military powers, but that's probably the only thing in the game I thought was off. Music was great, graphics won't win any prizes by today's standards, but gameplay is king in this game and it's an absolute time-sink! I always wondered how people could still be playing this game after so many years: now I know why. With it's random scenarios, you could keep playing this for years before you finally took the plunge and upgraded to the newer CIV games. But this is an excellent place to start if you're new to CIV.

Before I bought this game on GG, I played a copy that I'd gotten from the local library. Now that I've gone legitimate, I would like to be one of the millions of voices praising Sid Meier for this jewel. In fact, I'm surprised to see it being sold on the Internet at bargain bin price. It has beautiful 2D graphics and can run on most modern PCs like nothing. The replay value is fantastic, given the worlds are never the same - and even when they are (like in the scenarios) you can always build your empire just a bit differently from the last time.

While I admit I'm more of a casual player than a seasoned veteran (I can just barely hold my own on monarch), I can say there is lasting appeal to creating a huge empire, tons of troops, and dozens of wonders of the world. I bought this game because of that lasting appeal. Many times I can remember spending four or even six straight hours just sending settlers to all corners of the continent (I play in huge mode maps), and improving my cities - and building a few troops, as well, to keep my citizens happy.

If you like empire building but find real-time strategy games to be a bit nerve-wracking, I would give Civilization III a chance. It has excellent graphics for being ten years old, the game mechanics are easy to learn and enjoyable, the AI is fairly intelligent, there are several interesting scenarios included to keep you entertained. And it's got something for everyone. Warriors, wonder makers, diplomats, and city planners all can find something enjoyable in this classic game, now available at a price anyone can afford!

The Civilization series has to me always been the pinnacle of brilliance in turn based strategy. From playing the first game on my parents' 386 to playing Civ V on my current computer the gameplay has always been brilliant. And Civilization 3 is no exception. It's got that "just one more turn" thing going for it that Civilization has always been known for. So basically the main question is "should I get this game if I never played any Civilization before?" And there is no real easy way to answer that. Because Civilization 4 is really brilliant and in Civ 4 complete you get the fantastic Colonization game in the package. So to anybody on a reasonably powered computer (anything other than netbooks basically) I'd recommend Civ 4 anytime. But if you want a really engrossing game to go with your netbook Civilization 3 is it. Only thing is that the 1024x600 resolution of the screen will make you need to scroll the screen and you have to move the units by mouse as you lack a numeric keypad. But those are small sacrifices to be able to play this game. It is surely a gem that will make hours fly by and you'll be surprised when you look out the window and find out the sun has gone up...

This game is one of the best strategy games I've ever played. I feel it sets the bar for a 5 star rating strategy game. There is tons of game play witch can be time consuming, fun, and addicting. The game play & controls are pretty easy yet the game can be tough (even on the easiest setting) to govern and lead to victory. I highly suggest reading the game manual in order to better under stand how the game works. Anyways, the games pretty much a mix between Sim City, Risk, and ummmmm lets say Warcraft all mixed into one but its much better in even aspect then any of the other games just mentioned.

Have a netbook? Wonder what games might be affordable, worth the time invested in them, and run smoothly on your nifty but sorely underpowered gadget? Civ III Complete is the answer to your question.

The add-ons that come in the package are essential for any Civ enthusiast, adding more nations, multiplayer over the net, and dozens of other features missing from the already brilliant 'vanilla' version of the game. The graphics are best described as 'functional', so don't expect an eye-candy fiesta -- it is the playability and depth where this game truly shines. The computer opponents are both varied in their playing styles and more competent in doing their job than the AIs of many other strategy games, which makes the single player experience quite challenging if you play at the more demanding difficulty levels.

As many have already pointed out, at this price the package is an absolute steal. Recommended!

I don't normaly play real time stradegy games but civilization is a series that draws me in for hours on end sense the first game till the last. This game has great gameplay you can destroy your other players or simply make peace with them. This game makes for a great time you can pick up and play it for even 5 minutes if you wanted to which is what i like about it sense most rounds can last up to 2 hours or more. Theres plenty to do mutiple ways to play and you will not get bored. Its not that graphically intense either so most computers should be able to run it pretty well.

Since there are now 5 title in the Civilization series, the best way to compare Civ 3 is to it's other titles. The game play in 3 is a lot more balanced than in 2 and the world is still extremely in depth and you can control many features of it. However, the tooltips are incomplete, the graphics leave something to be desired, the AI is not very good, and on hard difficulty there is only one way to win, reducing replayability.

A good game at a good price. My main complaint is that I found it difficult to find a sweet spot in terms of difficulty against the AI, it either being too easy or too frustrating (largely because much of the increased difficulty is carried out by increased AI cheating, which while in many ways understandable still annoys me when at its most obvious).

Of Civilization games, I prefer Civ IV, but this is by no means a bad game.

Even after owning CivIV and CivV, CivIII remains my favorite version of the series. Game play keeps things interesting, the graphics were good for their time and the value of the complete pack can't be beat. I[d strongly recommend this version for anyone new to the series.

As a side note, I'm a huge fan of nuclear weapons in the game - just because they are cool.

Well, I am new to turn based strategy games so it is alot different than what I am used to. I read the manual that came with the game and read alot of reviews, most people say to just play the game and you will learn as you go. This is very true in my case. I started on the easiest level and played for hours only to have the whole world declare war on me and crush my civilization. The more I play the better I get at managing resources, allocating more money to science so I can research and advance faster and building up an army without overspending on my budget per turn.

It is a fun game with alot of different civilizations to play with and many different routes to take in research to get where you want to be technologically. I would recommend trying this game but be warned, it takes many, many hours of your time just to play on the default settings which I believe is 500 turns before the game ends.

Finally, a chance to play a game I have been waiting for for years. This is the ultimate in strategy game that allows you to waste untold weeks obtaining your goal of world domination. And, the US won't order air strikes against you.

All time classic! Can't get any better than this, although many prefer Civ 2 and Civ 4 to this, but I still like it all the same. With the expansions, this is a good buy for its price! Coupled with the ease of modifying the game, this is really a value for money!

This bundle is well worth its price... In my view Civ 3 remains very close to what the 1st and 2nd episodes were - and I am old enough to have an original box of CIV I on a shelve - , but offers a lot more in terms of complexity and long term playability, not to mention the updated graphics. I personnaly prefer the 3rd over the 4th. It's a matter of taste of course, but CIV 4 somehow favours a much more peaceful, cultural approach and I never really got accustomed to the importance given to religions. Haven't tried 5 yet, but who cares with III and its expansions for a mere 5 dollars ?

One of the greatest games for the PC. This game has entertained me for endless hours. Even though I have Civ 4, I still play this game here and there as it still has value to it. At such a low price this is absolutely an amazing deal.

Overall I would give this game a 9.5/10 and I would recommend this game to anyone who plays strategy games.

Great game! New players will have to spend some time getting to know how to play it, but Civ buffs will get right into the action! Greatly improved than Civ 2.

Great game, but only for them who are oldschool, don't want all that shiny new graphics and just wanna have fun. It is a fun game, but it isn't easy to play.

7.8/10

If you enjoy the any of previous versions of Civilization, you must get Civ 3 complete. They have improved the game in numerous ways: updated graphics,

new technologies, wonders and civilizations advances.

Plus this edition includes around 36 different civilizations so there is a lot of replay value. You can play trough various eras of History: The Rise of Egypt, The Fall of The Roman Empire, The Napoleonic Wars, etc. Each scenario has distinct objectives.

Worth every turn.

Its a great game if you have the time to play it, a very in depth strategy game you can manage citys or an empire. its wothe the money if your in to this type of game

Come on, it's 5 DOLLARS!. I mean, this has to be the deal of the century. One of the best versions of the Civ franchise. Not as moddable as Civ IV, but still fun. Who needs all the 3D graphics anyway? Plus, it's ONLY 5 DOLLARS!

This is a game collection where I could spend hours upon hours playing. Civilizations III Complete is a turn-based game that allows you to explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate from ancient times to the modern era. There are many rulers (31 of them in total) for you to assume control and the animated caricatures of them are so hilarious!

The game starts small and as your empire grows, you get tacked with more decisions to make, more plans to design, more wars to fight, more building/research to embark on. I especially love building the wonders and improving my own humble abode to a grand and stately building. And just when I think I should quit, a new development occurs in the game - and before I know it, another half hour has elapsed. With a rating of 90%, you know this game is very addictive!

Although Civilizations IV is out and available for purchase, do give this game a try if you want to confirm whether it's your cup of tea. The graphics is not as inferior when compared to the latest version - it's passable for today... but it was wonderful in it's heyday.

Now, on to some technical aspects of the game. First thing to note, Civ III Complete could not run in my netbook as it does not support the resolution of 800x600. In fact, the game only supports a minimum of 1024x768. You will have to edit the conquests.ini file if you want higher resolutions; there is no other way to change to a higher resolution in-game - remember to read the readme file for further information on how to approach this. Finally, for me, I managed to run Civ III Complete on both Vista and Windows 7 as well at a high resolution of 1600x1200 (remember to set to XP compatibility mode). That was way cool! Many more hours of play will definitely come my way this Christmas 2009.

Good game at a great price. For me, the custom scenarios are pretty interesting. On the technical side, you need to add keepRes=1 in the ini files for wide-screen support. Keep in mind that the Securom version it's crippled by has a pretty upsetting issue regarding right-clicking, so I had to google for a good solution. Basically, you need to download http://www.securom.com/support/repair.zip, run it, and make C:\WINDOWS\system32\CmdLineExt.dll read-only.

At $10, this game is an incredible buy, unless you are completely jaded by the better graphics and game play of Civ IV and its expansions. Still, this game is probably easier to get into first; features an incredibly detailed game editor; plus both expansions. Although it's best to read the manual, I was able to jump right in, modify a scenario and start playing...and playing some more. What a great value. **** (four stars)