The package comes with two CDs, an Age of Empires II: Age of Kings Technology tree card of laminated cardboard, a Age of Empires II: Age of Kings game manual, at 142 pages and a Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion manual, at 48 pages. The manuals are in the same book, back-to-back.

CD one:

The Age of Empires II: Age of Kings CD, version 2.0a. There is no patch for this game CD, as the CD contains the latest update.

CD two:

The Age of Empires II: The Conquerors, version 1.0b. There is a patch for the game, "update v1.0c" (Age2XPatch.exe), you can download via the "web connection" link in the game menu.

Gameplay is fine. for the nuances of the game, check the Amazon listings for the stand-alone game and it's expansion package, ASIN: B00002NDRY and ASIN: B00004VP4M

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My very first Pc Game i ever bought. I just Love Rts Games thanks to AoE 2 gold edition.Later i bought Age of Mythology,Rise of Nations and Empire Earth . Overall this game Deserves to be in every War Gamers Collection.

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This is my favorite game of all time. The multiplayer is great. The levels are extremely challenging. The cheats are also quite good. I think that this game took me almost a year to beat. I also reccomend the expansion. I actually never played the first AoE, but if it is good as the second i reccomend it too. In my mind this is the best RTS game ever!(Yes, even better than Starcraft).

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My son loves this game! We downloaded the trial version and he poured through that quickly. Christmas was the perfect time to give hom this full version with extras! Made him scream with joy~!~! This is the best price around...Go Amazon~

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Age of empires 2 is a great game you can control up to 18 different civilizations like Chinese, Vikings and much more. This game is also very good because it has a few history wars.

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This is one of the best games available on the stands - no amount of adulation would suffice when trying to put in words, my admiration for this game. My friend introduced me to AOE I in 1998 (a demo version), and I had been waiting to get out of college to buy the full version.

I have played extensively, all the single player options in the game, we would all rush back from work, to play the game - it was thrill - we even had a grading among ourselves...

'Getting hooked' to this game is easier than anything else in the planet. My friend was with me when I made my soldier move according to the instructions in the tutorial, and such similar stuff, but after that, I wanted to handle the empire on my own... it has never stopped since then.

No two scenarios are similar - each needs different priorities, units - strategy, I mean, and game play is dictated as much by our will, as it is by the resources in the game. The freedom we have in choosing our moves, adjusting our priorities, dictating how an enemy creates an army (yes, by the force of our army, we CAN force our enemy to create certain kinds of forces - anyone would know that if I create a huge force of paladins, they should be creating an equal or more amounts of halberdiers - you know what I mean) - the variety and the freedom, is commendable.

I am saving all the games, so I can play them with my children. There was a period in time when there was not a day which passed without me playing a game or two.

The map editor is one of the best things the creators of this game can give us - our dream scenarios can be created using the editor - whats more fun ?

Each civilization has its own peculiarities and advantages/disadvantages - the Vikings have special naval capabilities, the teutons have their knights (man ! Im impressed by their strength), the huskarls (goths), with their impenetrable armor, and so on... and what is more pleasure than unpacking 5 or 6 trebuchets and hurling stones over the enemy's area - the sound of trebuchets hurling stones, itself is a treat to hear.

To quote Mr. Hernandez, 'Newer games have come out since, but they just don't have the same appeal as AoE2 does' - wow, it is a true statement, and the game stands by every word. I have played so many other games in this genre, but they all seem so boring and I always keep thinking they have been inspired by AoE - it has THAT good a design !

Whats more, each civilization speaks a different language - the game has been so well designed !

I don't even want to talk about Age of Mythology here - it is nowhere near comparison to AoE.

Here's why I like AOE :

1. The freedom to create at our own will

2. The variety of scenarios/civilisations/armies/buildings/geography - the list is just mind-boggling.

3. Ease with which we can learn the game

4. Units - there is a huge list of units we can create, both to attack, or in response to enemy's units (halberdiers in response to cavalry) This makes the game more interesting,

Buy it - I never regretted that I bought it in the first place. You can come back to it after a long time and still find it interesting...

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If you are in to real-time strategy gaming, then AGE OF EMPIRES 2 GOLD EDITION is an absolute must. This game totally engrosses you as you build you Dark Age city into an empire in the Imperial Age. There are so many ways to play this game: deathmatch, standard game, King of the Hill and tons more. Also, each mode has different modes itself, to create a gaming experience unlike any other.

Another awesome mode is the scenario editor. At your disposal is every unit, building, and terrain in the game for use in creating your own maps. You can have a blast recreating real historical events.

Plus, the instruction manual is perfect for learning and is also somewhat of a history book. It has real information about the units, buildings, and technologies written in an interesting manner that is very informative.

There are masses of neat units and many awesome upgrades. The game is very balanced with a rock-paper-scissors type fighting system. A pikeman slaughters cavalry perfectly, but swordsman kill pikeman while cavalry kills swordsman. There is such a large amount of buildings that a town will be filled with them. I will list the improvements over the first AOE.

*Buildings are to scale

*Higher population cap

*Units can walk over farms

*Has a better engine that can handle many more units at a time

Now I will list the positives and negatives for the game itself.

+Great graphics

+Big variation of units

+Nice sound/music

+Lots of command selections

+Endless replay value

+Cheap price

-Campaigns are boring and bland

If you want a great game that will never get old, pick up AGE OF EMPIRES 2 GOLD EDITION TODAY.

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The Age of Kings (AoK) along with its expansion pack, AoK:TC (The Conquerors--which we now call "AoC" when both are installed) is a superb game for either "Multiplayers" who play on-line or "Singleplayers" who don't. If a game which has a historical aspect to it which resides in the 1,000 year realm of ancient history stated has appeal for you (which isn't all 'hoked_up' with fantasy creatures), you cannot go wrong with purchasing the "Gold pack". I've been playing AoK/AoC for more than 2 years now and it still holds fascination for me... and many others that I know. Just today I was teaching one of my 10 year old grandsons about the game when he was visiting. We'll get him the Gold pack. My son introduced me to the game in Dec. '99.

Yes, in order to play AoC which epitomizes the development of the game, you need to install from both disks, first installing AoK, then removing it and installing the AoK:TC disk which you leave in the tray (it must be in there when you want to play). You can then go online to either Microsoft's or Ensemble Studios' websites for the game, Age of Kings: The Conquerors, and download the 1.0c patch which fixes any minor 'bugs' discovered and rectifies a few civilization "balancing issues" which have come up. Thus buying the Gold pack is a real good deal for anyone getting the game now as it cost me more than twice as much to have bought AoK & then AoK:TC, as they came out.

There are so many ways to play this game that it almost boggles the mind, but preferred game modes are "Conquest" followed by "Deathmatch" in popularity amongst "Agers". If you really want to learn to play the game using the various "strategies" for the 18 civilizations which Agers have developed, it's a good idea to join a good Ager gaming clan such as Tonto Clan, which caters to both Multi- and Singleplayers. You can find Tonto Clan by doing a websearch for "tontoclan1", or look for "Tonto Empire". The clan celebrates its 2nd birthday the 13th of March, 2002, so you know they aren't fly-by-nighters. And that's a good place to ask any questions one might have about the game.

A final thought: "Real Time Strategy" is a bit of a misnomer, oxymoron, in computer games as "twitch-and-bang" on the keyboard doesn't really give a person time to think, only act and react. But an aspect of AoC that makes it come closer to being enabled as a true strategy and tactics game is that you have the "Pause key" which when playing Singleplayer you can use to pause the game in progress in order to "think on it" a bit and decide what next you want to do. This brings yet another dimension to the game that most don't have.

There are other RTS 'historically based war games' which have come out since "Age", but it is surprising how many people will try them and then just keep coming back.... to AoC. And, for my money the next RTS slated to come along that might be as good or possibly better isn't projected to hit the market until Spring (if then) of 2003.

Ken aka tonto_real

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age of emps. is awsome! youd be better off buying this than both individually because its cheaper. if you already have one, its still cheaper to buy this cause for the same price price as coquerers you can give the one you already have that came in the pack to someone for their birthday or something.(not your old one).

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I play this on my windows 98 gateway computer. This pc game has two disc. Both with a story line. It even has one character name William Wallice the same character in the movie "BraveHeart". This game is very educational taking you back in the roman age. I love it cause it's adventures I wish it had animated blood shown when a person gets killed. I love building the wonders and the castle that shots arrows and monks that can convert the enemies and heal your allies.

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I have enjoyed this game over and over. You can choose from scenarios that reach towards a goal, or simply play infinite variations of a game of domination over other kingdoms that develop over time. Average game play is just over three hours. Warning--it can be addictive! I have to have a friend of mine hold the game for me until I have free time to enjoy!

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This is one of the very few games I keep on my laptop and play regularly, even a couple years after installing it. This game runs just fine on the low memory and video capabilities of my fastly aging machine, and is a whole lot of fun to play. Game developers need to remember that you don't need gratuitous graphics bloat to make a game fun.

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Age of Empire II is a great improvement over Age of Empires I, albeit, Age of Empires I is still good. AoE I starts with the stone age and goes up to the Dark Ages. AoE II starts out at the Middle Ages and goes to the industral age. The game set is a great deal and would make a good Yule present. Wyatt Kaldenberg

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If the old AOE with a maximun population on 50 was already very good, what can I say about AOE2 gold edition? It's just the most adictive game I ever played, weekends last only minutes when you are playing it. Love it!

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I have owned this game for over 2 years and when I first got it, it was all I could think about. Of course that's how I am with every new game I purchased recently, (Nov 2004-Feb 6) I have been obsessing about Halo PC. After beating a few campaigns, I began to tire of playing this game. A couple of times I played online with my pals but it was still boring. What I find most frustrating is that you can't attack while running. COME ON! WHY DOES SOMEONE ON HORSE HAVE TO STOP EVERY TIME THEY WANT TO TAKE A SWIPE AT SOMEONE? The other thing that bothers me is that the only way to heal someone is by having a monk come do some voodoo magic of some sort. The graphics are good compared to most strategy games, I find myself wanting something that might make my video card work a little harder, if ya know what I mean. The funnest think to do in this game is to play it on easy and then just slaughter the enemy with a huge army of long bowmen, cavalry, siege weapons, and champions. It's fun to watch as empires tumble before you. I hope I don't sound to malicious, I would never allow this to happen in real life, this of course is just a bunch of pixels with mediocre AI that I am destroying. For the following reasons I did not give this game 5 stars:

1. Boring after a few weeks

2. Multiplayer is extremely hard to make work because you have to go to MSN or Yahoo gaming or something like that and half the time, you can't get it to work.

3. Mediocre graphics

4. Lots of annoying little things

If Microsoft makes an Age of Empires 3 of some sort, I will be sure to buy it, even if it is only as good as Age of Empires Gold.

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