Preset audio messages are a thing of occasional comedy genius when it comes to videogames. As much a highlight as any is Unreal Tournament's "Engage according to operational parameters." I mean, who in the heat of battle, is ever going to conform to such specifics as operational parameters?

So when Age of Empires introduced to me nearly 40 audio commands I felt a utopian sense of perverse pleasure descend upon me.

"Build a navy," a command that your AI ally will happily endorse even on land locked maps.

"Raiding party!" chorused by a collection of irritating American accents and a term repeated over and over again by juvenile players just to add that extra level of annoyance.

"A monk, I need a monk!" a comment delivered at just the right and entirely random moment can cajole even the most serious gamer into a hearty chuckle.

But the days of such archaic demands for monks, paladins and stone may be behind us. Age Of Empires, after a bit of a mythical backtrack, continues its relentless march towards the modern day with the colonial conflicts of the New World. And a more modern setting contextually will be aided by advancements in the world of videogame technology. Fixed isometric views and simple graphics have been consigned to the bin, while ultra-detailed scenery and rag doll physics are in. Essentially AOE III is going high profile on our asses, hopefully for all the right reasons.

You see, I worry about when games begin to take themselves seriously because of previous and popular success. AOE introduced us to a new breed of approachable games, being more deep and complex than your Command and Conquers of the world, but still intuitive and briskly paced, unlike the strenuous demands of a Civilisation of Total War. The AOE universe exists upon three main principles: establish, expand and conquer. But now it seems the developers want to take AOE III to a new level. That's all very well if it works but will the purity of the franchise be compromised? It's time to do a bit of scrutinising.

As mentioned previously, AOE III sets itself in the New World, where the Native Americans are just asking to be pillaged and the whole of is fighting amongst each other for the rich and seemingly endless land. But while success in the New World will obviously give you an edge, of equal importance will be your home European city, which will represent one of the eight European powers you choose. The riches you gain in the New World can be ploughed back into your home city, which, in turn, enables access to special units and abilities (which you can hand pick depending on your style of play, whether it be an aggressive warmonger or a reactive defender) to ship over to your fledging overseas empire. It all sounds very RPGish and you’d be right because as you progress through the game your European city will grow in stature. Just imagine London levelling up from 'sprawling urban cesspool' to 'rat infested, traffic congested, high-rise, overpriced quagmire' and you can see where we're heading. As it stands there will be 24 single player missions and the elements acquired within the game will be transferable to matches too.