Great Empires Collection 2 - PC

Packaged carefully and everything advertised was there.

A friend and I are both playing the games in this collection right now. She prefers the Egyptian themed games, Pharoah and Cleopatra, but I like the Greek games, Zeus and Poseidon, much better than the earlier installments. Our differing opinions show how other potential buyers might find some of the games in this set more entertaining than others, but with five games for twenty dollars, you are bound to get your money's worth out of the package even if you only like one game/expansion set.I have played a lot of sims, especially "quiet" games that don't focus on combat (Zoo Tycoon, Roller Coaster Tycoon, The Sims, Dungeon Keeper, etc.), and I have to say that I find the Zeus/Poseidon games especially engaging. The agricultural and mercantile elements of city building are fascinating! I find that the AI in the Greek games is much improved over the earlier games, particularly in the way that building safety and maintenance are handled. In Egypt the buildings are much more fire-prone!One minor quibble about Poseidon is that it lacks map variety, since most of the games are set in Atlantis. That round map with the water channels is very difficult to build on! I don't mind the challenge, but greater variety in the open-ended campaigns would be nice.Overall, this is a lovely set and is well worth the price. If you like sims and city building games, this is a great buy. I particularly recommend it for women gamers like myself, who enjoy non-violent PC games.

Definitely a great buy. The games are still as amazing as I remember :)

I ordered the Great Empires Collection 2 mainly for the Pharaohs game which I loved playing years ago but had lost. Most sellers here probably don't actually carry the retail box of this title as this ad shows, but instead will ship you 3 different games (Zeus Gold-Master of Olympus with Poseidon exp pack / Pharaoh Gold with Cleopatra exp pack and Caesar III). Packaging may also say from Sold Out Software. (see photos I have posted on main ad page)This is not anything to worry about though. Each package contains the full retail version of each game, including the expansion packs and the game manuals on the disc in PDF format. I had read reviews before ordering and had seen complaints about there not being a manual and such. The items I received were new packages, work perfectly and do contain manuals on the disc. These games are classics and allow you to think more than to just run&gun as in a lot of games today. You have to carefully plan and think your way through this and that gives you a greater involvement in the game and in what you build within it. These games are great for young and old alike. I highly recommend them. If you decide to order this item I would recommend buying from the seller GREATSTUFF53. My order arrived very quickly, within a couple days, and in perfect new condition.

This is one of those game compilations that I must have. I love these city builders of back in the day. However, moving across country twice has caused me to lose my disks. Not a problem, I can always find it somewhere, right? Unfortunately, every time I get the Great Empires collections, they seem to be incomplete. My most recent purchase had Caesar III, Pharaoh/Cleopatra, and Poseidon (but not Zeus, which I need to install Poseidon). The previous time I got this collection (the one I lost), I had gotten Pharaoh/Cleopatra, and Zeus (no Poseidon, or Caesar III - When I contacted that seller, he sent me Caesar II). It's honestly pretty sad that I'm willing to dump money repeatedly on sets like this so that I can have a complete set...eventually. It's like my Diablo on Playstation, and Sierra's expansion, Hellfire: I gotta have it. I'll keep getting these until I can actually put the right set together. It's a hassle, sure. But I'm willing to go for it.

I have been a fan of the Cleopatra game for a while but the other games are great too! Not a fan of the Caesar, poor graphics and design quality but Zeus makes up for it for sure! Political, economic and building game for all ages!!!

All three of the games Pharoah, Caesar III, and Zeus are basiclly the same game just different cultures. And the expansion packs Cleopatra and Poseidon didn't add much to the game.The editor that came with the expansions really suck, they are too hard to understand and way too many things to mess with except the things I want to mess with. All in all it's just to difficult for me to be having fun. Now the game itself is pretty fun but there is NO good sandbox play. If I could do it over I would NOT have spent the $25.00 on this.

I love the collection of games. loved them when i ran win2k... With vista the cleopatra expansion does not work, not even in older modes availiable. thank you not microsoft and you unwillingnes to support older software fully.