Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

First off, Civilization III is a fantastic continuation of the 'Civilization' series of PC games which I've been playing since the first one hit the shelves back in 1991. However, I'm not here to give a review of this great game (there are plenty of reviews out there already) but rather to guide potential buyers for choosing which Civ3 version to get (or not get as the case may be). The Civ3 games are as follows: - Civilization 3 was originally released in 2001. It is the full, stand-alone game title. - Civilization 3: Play the World was later released in 2002 as an add-on to the standard Civ3 game. It was generally considered buggy and incomplete and took a few patches to get it (almost) right. - Civilization 3 Gold, released this year (2003), is essentially the original Civilization 3 game packaged with the "Play the World" add-on. - Civilization 3: Conquests was also just released (2003) and is the latest add-on to the standard Civ3 game. IMPORTANT: the Conquests add-on includes EVERYTHING from the Play the World add-on plus adds a whole lot more goodies!! In a nutshell, Conquests fixes many of the problems with the PTW add-on and has a bunch of new stuff to boot. So, my advice to anyone considering buying Civ3 Gold is thus: DON'T! Because you're better off buying the original Civ3 (which is extremely cheap now) with the Conquests add-on. It will cost you about the same for both anyway and you're essentially getting THREE Civ3 titles instead of only TWO. I hope this helps save you a few bucks to spend on something else this holiday season. Enjoy!