Whoo I cant believe i'm the first person to make a thread about this ^_^
I just downloaded the demo (375mg), which i've been waiting patiently for YONKS now since i saw the little video on
http://www.ageofempires3.com/. Droolness.
Anyway, the game is just as awesome as it looks
I was quite disheartened when the game told me it wouldn't work on my *crap* computer, it wanted 1.4ghz processor and 64mg graphics card, but it works fine
I showed them eh?
I think the cards option is absolutely freaking wonderful, seriously, its great. Its this whole new personality to your playing style which isn't predefined by the race you play like the other age of empires. In the demo you get to play 2 campaign scenarios (out of 25, seems short!) but they are really good. I spent so long trying to pick the right cards for my new civilization in the next map, then i realised its pointless. But i haven't played any single player maps yet so I hope to fully "utilise" this fancyness when I play !
The gameplay is just FANTASTIC. I shoot a bunch of guys with my cannon, and they actually fly backwards into stuff, and down holes! I was playing on easy, so it was really easy to trap the enemy who advanced on the same spot repetitively in the same formation so I just had some horsemen hidden to run in and take out the artilery quickly from the start. Its just great.
ANd things come in shipments, thats so cool. I didn't rtealise that i wasn't getting my shipments of goods until I realised i had to unpack them >.< Traderoutes are fun aswell. I fully recomend downloading it if you are into RTS.
Anyway,
http://www.penny-arcade.com did a really good comic on the card ability
(well its funny anyway) and linked to this gamespy article, which is well worth reading on the card ability. I cant wait to make my own special deck!
http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/age-of-empires-iii/645630p1.html