> I'm an HOMM2 player looking for a new game for myself and my
> 9 year old son. We are thinking about getting HOMM3, but we
> are also looking at Majesty or Age of Empires. Anyone play
> those games? How dothey compare to HOMM?

Well, I like Heroes III better than either of those games.

Anyway, Age of Empires is a real-time strategy game (while Heroes is
turn-based), and I only played it a little bit, but it was a lot like
WarCraft or StarCraft, and didn't stand out in my mind.

Majesty is another real-time strategy game, but it's much different in that
you don't have direct control over your people. They all do their own
thing, but you can influence your heroes by building in a certain direction
and by placing bounties on creatures you want killed. It's a fun game, and
it's much different than anything else out there, but it's not one of the
best games in the world. It's neat though.

I'd recommend getting Heroes III Complete (that comes with both expansions)
and Majesty, but if I was to get just one, it would probably have to be
Heroes III Complete.


> Anyone want to comment on HOMM2 vs. HOMM3?

If you like Heroes II, you'll love Heroes III. If you get Heroes III, get
Heroes III Complete though, because that comes with the expansions and has
many other small improvements.

In terms of actual gameplay... well, what's new: More of everything. There
is now an undergound and above-ground area to explore. Each hero has a
unique specialty, more stuff to build, better graphics, etc, etc. It plays
a lot like Heroes II though, most of the changes are subtle. Heroes IV, on
the other hand, is something totally different.