Age of Empires is one of the most amazing and legendary civilisation style games that ever existed.

Now in this third part, you're taken into the New World. Players are able to develop European nations from the Age of Discovery through to the Industrial Age. There are eight playable nations that battle across a wide variety of lands - from the early beginning of the swamps of Florida to the Rocky Mountains. You can recruit Native American tribes along the way and with them, try to seize control of trade routes while being supported by your Empire back in Europe.

There's no doubt that visually, the game looks superb with some of the best graphics ever seen in the Age of Empires series. However, the developers seem to have concentrated on graphics more than the realism aspect. An exception to this is the fact that you are supported by your home European nation in your quest to plunder the New World which is something unseen in previous versions.

However, it is attention to detail and unfaithfulness to the realities of history that really let the game down. American Indians are portrayed as mercenaries rather than spiritual tribes and gold mines suddenly appear hundreds of years before they ever did!

Age of Empires 3 looks great and has the potential to be a great game but the developers probably need to pay more attention to historical facts than the graphics themselves.

Download Age of Empires III in Softonic

The SimCity saga is a classic in the world of videogames. Its attractive mixture of strategy and simulation elements along with a high level of detail has made a real success from it.

SimCity Societies is one of the last representatives of this popular series: a new title that follows the SimCity line, but adding more and more elements from The Sims, the other successful saga created by EA. In a way, we could say the game is now easier to play – something which newcomers will be thankful for – while still keeps the same addictive elements for hardcore SimCity players.

In SimCity Societies you have the possibility to create very different towns, not only in aspect, but also in their values. From creativity to spirituality, from knowledge to production, the values of your city will affect its general design and layout.

Another distinctive feature is the attention paid to your citizens, not just as a crowd of people, but actually caring about their individual needs and feelings. You can click on anyone of them and see how they're doing, where they work and whether they're happy of not.

We also find this incredible level of detail in the game's graphics. You can freely move around with your mouse and use the wheel to zoom up to street level, until you're able to see your citizens' faces. There's also a huge array of objects (homes, workplaces, shop and the like) you can choose from and combine anyway you want. On the downside, this means that you have so much information in the game's interface that it can become really overwhelming for first-time players.

SimCity Societies is, in short, a very entertaining game: the kind of title that you can play for hours without noticing the passing of time. Also, it's a great chance for you to start playing the SimCity saga if you haven't played any of these titles before.

SimCity Societies is the evolution of the original SimCity saga: a strategy building simulator that will get you hooked before you can even notice it.

Download SimCity Societies in Softonic

Guns Girls Lawyers Dollars (GGLD) is a business strategy game. Your main objective is to build world business empire as an arms dealer. Your company consists of President (you), Company Stations (established around the world to give you various information and earn profit) and Company Units (Escort Units that travel with president; Station Units which protect company stations) .

Your basic task is to travel around the world, buy and sell goods (weapons and mercenaries), hire units for company protection and establish company stations. The world isn't a peaceful place. Countries can be in war, political instability, civil war, cold war and sanctions. This is not bad for arms trade business, and you should consider country political situation in order to find best place to buy or sell goods.

Naturally, arms trade business is not so popular in some countries. Map view button "Company Status" can give you some information regarding country hospitality (which can be Ally, Neutral and State Enemy). Expect you won't be welcome in states where your company status is "State Enemy".

Your basic transportation will be company cargo plane. President, your escort units and your cargo load are placed in cargo plane (except airplane units; they fly beside your cargo planes as an air protection). So you must be careful in choosing your company units and your goods in order to comply with free cargo space in your cargo plane. Free cargo space can be increased by buying additional cargo planes.

Time is important factor. Flights from country to country takes time. Your speed will be the speed of your slowest cargo plane. For the less successful businessmen there is always an alternative: robbing the banks. Don't except that country where your action takes place loves that; your company status there will be decreased.

What's in the game:

• 500 units for trade or combat
• 120 Countries
• Bodyguards, Secretaries, Lawyers, Agents and Criminals
• Buy and sell tanks, planes, vehicles, artillery, and chemical weapons
• Establish company stations
• Make maximum profit
• Search and Destroy
• Find and rescue
• Rob banks
• Enjoy the life

Download Guns Girls Lawyers Dollars Standard Version 2.1.45.0.5 in Softonic

Ave Prefect! I will tell you a few things about us Romans. We are a peaceful people, and the Roman Empire appears to be blooming these days. For this reason the Roman Senate is in search of talented Governors. It is your honor to fulfill this task. For a start, have plain residential areas built. Satisfy the wishes of Roman families! Provide your people with work and basic necessities like nourishment. Maintain peace and keep everything in order. Celebrate your success by building awe-inspiring buildings like thermal baths, theatres or even a coliseum. If you do well, the Roman society will bloom and living in our city will be rewarding to every citizen.

Glory of the Roman Empire is an empire-building simulation set during the height of the glorious Roman Empire in which the player assumes the roles of city planner, governor and military leader. Successful players will need planning skills, economic savvy and -- should those fail -- military might. Glory of the Roman Empire will challenge gamers to grow a small village into a thriving community and trade with neighbors, while also expanding and defending its borders through military might.

Download Glory of the Roman Empire Demo in Softonic

In the third chapter of this simulation series, you guide your tribe as it populates a new part of Isola.

Virtual Villagers offers you the chance to develop the skill sets of each and every one of your tribe members, as they grow up and become older. Each tribe member has his own character and what he likes and dislikes. You will have to make the best of all of them to make sure the whole tribe survives and becomes stronger. Throughout the game you will also be presented with a number of puzzles to solve. Winning tech points will improve your skills (leadership, restoration, alchemy, medicine and science).

If you are a big fan of simulation games and notably of The Sims series you will probably like this game. However, although the game offers enough help, the lack of clear objectives at the beginning might put off some users. You will need a bit of patience before your tribe really starts developing.

Virtual Villagers 3 - The Secret City is faithful to other iterations of the series: good graphics, lots of puzzles and control over a number of characters. A fun and exotic simulation game!

Download Virtual Villagers 3 - The Secret City 1.0 in Softonic

Who hasn't dreamed of one day making millions as a hacker? In Uplink you perform all sorts of jobs for major corporations, hacking into servers, stealing files and making money in the process.

Uplink adds a realistic touch to the game, as you start out by being hired and have a set of software tools, including crackers and file removers, to work with. You regularly receive missions via email, which you can decide to perform any time.

The game is obviously aimed at geeks, or anyone who was left fascinated with the Matrix as it includes a very technical side to it, where you can actually check the performances of your own PC and improve it. You'll also have to manage the money you earn wisely, as you can invest in shares and monitor the stock market.

Despite weak graphics, Uplink is a very exciting game with a strategical side to it. Will appeal to wannabe hackers.

Download Uplink 1.5.4 in Softonic

Free Orion is an open-source, platform-independent galactic conquest game in the tradition of the Master of Orion games. Its commercial competitors, just to give you an idea, are VGA planets, Galactic Civilizations and Space Empires. Free Orion instead is a collaborative promising project, a community effort that moves forward based on the motivation and contributions of users and it is currently in the alpha stage.

Although graphics can be interesting, the game is somewhat difficult to enjoy for new players. There is little in the way of guidance and at the beginning, FreeOrion appears rather boring. In theory, victory is achieved by eliminating all ships and planets belonging to other empires, that's fairly standard, but at this stage there isn't any combat yet.

You must read the 'quick' play guide, (which isn't that quick) in order to understand a bit what to do. The guide starts in a very step by step way: 'to start a game, run the freeorion executable, then click on the 'Single Player' button on the main menu, then 'OK' on the Galaxy Setup screen. You should then see a starmap which you can drag around with the mouse and zoom in/out with the scrollwheel. The triangle next to the star is a fleet. Clicking the fleet opens the fleet window. Try moving fleets around to explore, making a new colony or clicking on techs in the Research screen to read their descriptions.’

If you are patient enough, and you are really passionate about strictly strategic games you might want to try this project and maybe collaborate in the related forum for further, more exciting releases. As specified in the game's Wiki, the easiest way to contribute when new to the project is simply to join in brainstorming discussions on the forums.

Strictly for strategic games lovers, an intriguing, promising game.

Download FreeOrion 0.3.9 in Softonic

Freeciv is a free turn-based multiplayer strategy game, in which each player becomes the leader of a civilization, fighting to obtain the ultimate goal:To become the greatest civilization. Freeciv is maintained by an international team of coders and enthusiasts, and is easily one of the most fun and addictive network games out there! That also means it has very extensive multilanguage support, something rare in games.

The goal of Freeciv is to build cities, which in turn can build armies to attack the other players. You start with 2 settlers and 1 explorer. Using the numeric keypad, move the settlers to a good location and build a city by pressing b (for build). Freeciv is turn based; every unit can move once per turn.

Cities also produce units, which can be used for various purposes, from fighting wars to enhancing infrastructure. Different strategies depend on different focuses between things external and internal to a city.

The eventual goal of the game is to win either by using military units to conquer all opposing civilizations, or by using massive scientific knowledge and production to build a spaceship to send to Alpha Centauri before your rivals can do so.

Download Freeciv 2.1.4 in Softonic

I must admit strategy games are not exactly my cup of tea, but I do appreciate good strategy titles when I find any. And Sins of a Solar Empire is one of them.

This adventure will please strategy fans for sure, as it includes all the typical elements you can find in this game genre: resource management, merciless battles and smart planning to take your empire to the highest level. But don't be fooled by this apparently traditional scheme: being set in outer space, Sins of a Solar Empire is quite original for a strategy adventure.

This particular setting means that every element in the game is related to space. So, instead of using regular soldiers, horses, combat units or even tanks, you manage spaceships. And instead of conquering towns and villages, you take over planets. Graphics are just fine, certainly not as detailed as other strategy games that are set in historical environments though.

Sins of a Solar Empire features single player and multiplayer gaming modes (though the demo only lets you play the first one). Solo gaming presents you with a series of scenarios and various challenges, including typical strategy elements such as diplomacy alliances, research and development of new strategies and a rather unconventional black market where you can trade crystal and metal without following the legal procedures. As you can see, there are many elements to be taken care of, which means that the game may feel a bit overwhelming at the beginning. This confusion is particularly noticeable when moving around the playing area, because maps are quite large and you can easily get lost.

Even if you're not a big strategy fan, you'll appreciate Sins of a Solar Empire for its original gaming environment. If you like strategy, you should definitely give it a go.

Download Sins of a Solar Empire Demo in Softonic

Launched in 1995 Transport Tycoon Deluxe is a classic economic simulation, where you aim to make it big by building and developing your own transport company. Grow your own transportation network and sell off goods to beat your main rivals and become the leader on the market.

Nostalgic fans of the game will be glad to discover OpenTTD, effectively a completely free version of the game. What's more it has been completely revamped. Graphics have been slightly improved, adding more color, and many new features are now included. The Euro is now part of currencies, you can bribe town authorities and set up international and metropolitan airports among others. Usability is also better, with new features like the autorail build tool or being able to get a cost estimation. You can even play online with up to 8 other players.

The only real drawback to the game is that you' ll the original version of Transport Tycoon Deluxe data files in order to make it work.

In all, anybody who's even the least bit interested in games should get their hands on this free version of an excellent classic simulation title.

Download OpenTTD 0.6 in Softonic

Your aim in UFO: Alien Invasion is to fight the forces of evil in a world that has turned over a leaf in the next stage of it's evolution.

While war and famine have been virtually eradicated, one major threat remains hanging over mankind - the threat of alien invasion. UFO: Alien Invasion is a free game rich in background history and strategy. You have to lead a crack commando team to destroy and investigate the increasingly dangerous extraterrestrial technology which threatens to wipe out the human race. The game takes the shape of a strategy/shoot-em-up action based thriller which requires a certain amount of guile and map reading ability as well as a quick trigger finger. The missions are incredibly well thought out and rich in detail and although the graphics aren't exactly stunning, there are some excellent special effects. It's easy enough however to pick up pretty quickly although to get the most out of the game, you'll have to consult the Wiki which has extensive details of the how to play.

A very well designed and thought-out game that, considering it's completely free, will thrill any UFO enthusiast or strategy game fan.

Download UFO: Alien Invasion 2.2 in Softonic

Really Rather Good Battles In Space is a real time strategy game with fleets of spaceships. It is a single player real time strategy game following the fall of the great Artillian empire.

The main gripe I have with this game is that it just too short. It doesn't seem to comprise no more than a few levels which are over before you've really got going - and without much of a challenge either. On level one, you merely have to shoot and destroy 50 ships followed by a rather unimaginative level 2 where the aim is 200 ships. The main difference in the challenge level is that the ships move a hell of a lot faster on level 2 but it's still hardly difficult. The movement of your ship is also rather odd - there seems to be some kind of lag between then movements you make with your mouse and the actual moves the ship makes - if it makes them at all. While the graphics are only 2D, they are actually one of the better aspects of the game creating a realistic feel of sometime in 4000AD when the game is set. The music also adds to a realistic and atmospheric feel and the game is proceeded by a short tutorial (which you don't really need).

Overall this is not one that space adventure fans will really love but if you just want a quick blast with some nice graphics, it does the job.

Download Really Rather Good Battles In Space 1.06 in Softonic

The Roman civilization became the world's largest empire of Antiquity. It created a powerful network of roads, had a highly developed engineering and gave rise to an impressive artistic era.

Now Imperium Romanum enables you to live the glorious days of the Roman Empire as if you were right there. This real-time strategy game challenges you to build your own portion of Roman civilization by creating a Roman settlement and turning it into a powerful, influential capital city.

Just like other similar titles, there are several elements that must be taken care of in Imperium Romanum: creating buildings, gathering and managing resources and defending your village from enemy troops. In this sense, although the game is not difficult to play by itself, it does require concentration and care for the detail.

Talking about detail, the game's graphics are rendered with an amazing realism, especially as regards landscapes and nature effects such as the day/night transition or weather. Characters are a bit more simplistic though. Unfortunately I can't say a word about music, simply because there was no music at all. Yes, I checked system volume settings and the game inner settings too, but sorry, no music for me.

As for gameplay, Imperium Romanum is fun to play (as long as you like classic strategy titles) because you not only have one general mission, but also smaller tasks (the so called "tablets") that provide you with new challenges and also guide you through the story.

Imperium Romanum is the classic real-time strategy title that lets you take part in the building of one of the most important civilizations of old times.

Download Imperium Romanum in Softonic

Scorched 3D is a game based on the classic DOS game Scorched Earth "The Mother Of All Games". You can pick up the game and begin playing very quickly. Then, you can delve in to the dimmer recesses of the game and get into the strategy.

At its lowest level, Scorched 3D is an artillery game with two or more tanks taking turns to destroy opponents in an arena. Choose the angle, direction and power of each shot, launch your weapon, and try to blow up other tanks.

But Scorched 3D can be a lot more complex than that, if you want it to be. You can earn money from successful battles and use it to invest in additional weapons and accessories. You can play with up to twenty four other players at a time, mixing computer players with humans. There's a variety of changing environmental conditions and terrains to be dealt with. After the end of each round (which ends when everybody dies or there's only one person left), you get to buy stuff using the prize money you won from previous matches.

Download Scorched 3D 41.3 in Softonic

Build an empire in this Risk-like game. Conquer the world, Europe, or North America with up to ten computer opponents, or play against a friend (LAN/Internet and Hotseat). Minimize your losses during the game and, if you are good enough, get your name listed on the world's top-20 Web site.

You also can create maps of your own and share them with others. The game's options include seven computer personalities to choose from, the ability to chat while playing, statistics, and the option to play with or without dice. Version 4.1 features 1280x1024 sized maps; click anywhere on a territory to select (not only right in the middle); new map of Scandinavia; less mouse clicks required.

Download Empire XP 5.2 in Softonic

Warzone 2100 is a real-time strategy game, developed by Pumpkin Studios (Archived website) and published by Eidos-Interactive. In late 2004 Warzone was released by its copyright holders, Eidos-Interactive, to the public under the GNU General Public License and the Warzone 2100 Resurrection Project was born.

Although comparable to Earth2150 in many significant aspects, it does contain some that are unique. These include various radar technologies, a greater focus on artillery and counter-battery technologies, more frequent in-game cinematic updates as gameplay progress, as well as a different vehicle design method.

Download Warzone 2100 2.0.10 in Softonic

Everyone has sometime dreamed of being mayor and ruling a city. The good news is that you can now make that dream come true.

City Life gives you the reins of a whole city and entrusts you a simple yet difficult mission: manage every single aspect of your city and make it a great place to live. You can choose to play either in Scenario mode, where you begin your career with an already built city, or in Free mode, in which you start building everything up from scratch. Whatever playing mode you choose, you must take care of every single detail: power factories to light up streets, residential areas for citizens, companies and firms for them to work, shopping areas, hospitals, schools and of course, traffic and public transportation. As you can imagine, you'll need loads of concentration and a good strategy if you want to succeed as virtual major. Man, I never knew running a city was that hard!

But that's not all: City Life includes another challenge, this time involving citizens themselves. They're categorized in different social classes and you'll need to have that into account when building residential areas if you don't want demonstrations and riots going on everyday.

Gameplay is quite easy: most actions are performed with the mouse, plus menus are simple and clear. I especially enjoyed the ability to zoom in up to street level, so that you can actually walk along the inhabitants of your city. On the downside, moving around the map is not that intuitive and I couldn't find a way to change perspective with the mouse, which is far more comfortable than they keyboard.

City Life 2008 lets you build the city of your dreams, but be aware that this involves a lot of work!

Download City Life 2008 in Softonic

Battleships Forever is a new strategy game in real time that is focused entirely on space battles. It's distinguished by enormous ships and spectacular battle scenes plus some great gameplay.

You begin by choosing a number of ships from among a list destroyers, patroller or defenders. Each is composed of different "modules" that can be configured to obtain different advantages on the battlefield. From there, the whole game is controlled by using the mouse although there are hotkeys that allow you to issue orders to your fleet. The gameplay is simple but each mission is a challenge, because the artificial intelligence of the enemies and the size of some of the craft which you can also design yourself with the in game editor.

The graphics are a bit disappointing in that they are 2 dimensional but the sound effects, particularly explosions, make up for this

A great battleship game that will have space fans enthralled for hours.

Download Battleships Forever in Softonic

Vega Strike is an interesting space simulation game in 3D, fully developed under the GPL licence (and therefore free), which combines elements of an action RPG with galactic battles against all kinds of aliens and other enemies of the universe. Your task is to travel through space accepting missions using your resources wisely and interacting with other space crusaders.

It is very difficult to get to grips with at first but the rewards and gameplay make it worthwhile. Also, if you get stuck, you can always consult the Handbook on the Web.

Vega Strike features excellent 3D graphics (developed, it should be remembered for free) and it has great potential for expansion thanks to the open support for new missions, new ships and endless mods.

Download Vega Strike 0.4.3 in Softonic

Some videogame genres are more likely to be set in certain environments or historical periods, such as RPG and fantasy, FPS and World War II and real-time strategy and medieval times. However, sometimes you find exceptions to the rule like Company of Heroes, an adventure set during the Second World War which all strategy lovers are going to enjoy.

The game enables you to play as the British army or the German Panzer Elite squad, in two of the most important battles in World War II. In spite of being a real-time strategy game, you're soon immersed into action-packed skirmishes and you really need to be quick if you want to beat your enemy. This is why we strongly recommend following the tutorial level instead plunging headlong into the campaign.

Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts features extraordinary graphics, plus the ability to pan and zoom the camera with total freedom. I specially enjoyed the possibility to set the camera at ground's level and see action as if you were right in the middle of the squadron.

Get ready for some strategy and lots of action in this epic adventure.

Download Company of Heroes Oppossing Fronts Demo in Softonic