Age of Empires 2: Age of Kings for Windows

I have to admit, when I first played AOE 2, I found the opening menu screen far less appealing that the original Age of Empires. But once I got into the game, I was very impressed. The sequel offers many improvements on the original.

The biggest of these improvements in my opinion, is the addition of a pseudo-economy. With a market in place you can now sell you excess wood for gold, or stone. This comes in very handy once all the gold on the map has been mined, it's especially useful in death match/multiplayer games. The Market also allows you to utilize trading carts to generate additional gold buy walking back and forth between your market and that of your allies.

Another great improvement is the unique units that each race can produce. Persians are the only race with War Elephants now. you have to use a little more strategy when planning how to best exploit your race's advantages against your opponent(s).

Add in better bigger graphics, more types of war ships, better multi-player options and AOE 2 is a terrific game with unlimited replay value!