Empire Earth 3 Released

Empire Earth 3 started shipping on November 6, 2007. I opted to just download Empire Earth III from DirectToDrive. It's 5 GB so don't bother unless you have a fast connection. I have cable Internet service and was able to average about 1600kbps. Pretty quick.

Here are a few notes and resources seeing as this game is new and info can still be difficult to find.

Empire Earth III Free Public Demo - I wouldn't bother - it's a 1.6GB download and is so stripped down compared to the real game it's hardly worth it. You can't even save a game and there's no multiplayer option. Missing TONS of other stuff too.

Official Empire Earth 3 Site - The official Empire Earth III site.

Official Empire Earth III discussion forum
- Empire Earth III Single Player FAQ
- Early player opinions on the full version of the game (did i mention the demo sucked?)

Empire Earth III Patch 1.1 - The patch fixes a number of bugs along with a number of balance changes. Here's everything addressed with this patch.

Empire Earth III system requirements:

Minimum System Requirements
• 1.7 GHz Intel® Pentium® 4, AMD® Athlon™ XP processor or equivalent
• NVIDIA® GeForcecard or equivalent DirectX® 9.0c-compliant 128 MB 3D video card supporting Hardware T&L and Shader Model 2.0 or higher
• 512 MB RAM
• 1.5 GB Virtual Memory paging file recommended as well
• 6.5 GB of uncompressed hard disk space for game files
• Microsoft® Windows® 32-BIT XP or Windows Vista™ operating system
• DirectX® 9.0c (included)
• DirectX®-compatible sound card and speakers or headphones
• DVD drive
• Microsoft®-compatible mouse and keyboard
• Internet Connection: Cable/DSL or faster for online play

Recommended System Requirements
• 3.2 GHz Intel® Pentium® 4, AMD® Athlon™ 64 3500+ or faster processor (dual core Pentium® D, Core™ 2 Duo or Athlon™ X2/FX processor recommended).
• NVIDIA® GeForce® 7000 series graphics card or equivalent DirectX® 9.0c-compliant 256 MB 3D video card supporting Hardware T&L and Shader Model 3.0 or higher (512 MB SLI compatible 3D video cards recommended)
• 1 GB RAM or more
• GB Virtual Memory paging file recommended as well
• 6.5 GB of uncompressed hard disk space for game files
• Microsoft® Windows® 32-BIT XP or Windows Vista™ operating system
• DirectX® 9.0c (included)
• DirectX®-compatible sound card and speakers or headphones
• DVD drive
• Microsoft®-compatible mouse and keyboard
• Internet Connection: HIGH SPEED Cable/DSL/LAN for faster online play

Common problems people will run into with EE3 are video or sound card drivers as well as DirectX issues. Here's an outline from Sierra of how to correct those problems:

A cause of many problems is outdated or incompatible driver software for the video/sound card.
Always be sure that you have the latest drivers for your video and sound cards along with latest DirectX® update.

Drivers frequently updated to keep the hardware current and to fine tune performance.

Please note: Each manufacturer has a different method of updating device drivers. When contacting a manufacturer to get a driver, you must also get specific instructions for updating those drivers.

1. Determine the current driver version, which installed in your system, so that you can verify if there are newer ones available.

•Click Start, and then Run. Type "DXDIAG" into the Open box and click OK.
•The DirectX Diagnostic Tool will open, and will start on the System tab.
•On this tab, the bottom half of the screen is encased in a box labeled “System Information".
•The third line in this box starts with "Operating System,” and tells us what version of Windows you are running.
•Click the Display tab. The upper left corner is a box named Device. The first three lines are the Name, Manufacturer, and Chip Type of your video hardware.
•On this tab, in the upper right corner, box named Drivers.
•The second line is the video driver’s version number, and the third is the date of release.
•Click the Sound tab. the Name on the top line of the Device box in the upper left.
•In the upper right corner is also a Drivers box, with the version number and dates in the same place.
•Click Exit in the lower right hand corner of the window.

Once you have the information about your Operating System, video/sound card name & manufacturer, driver version, you can go online and see if newer drivers are available from your computer or hardware manufacturer.

Where you go depends on whether the computer is a name brand (such as Dell, HP, Gateway, Compaq, etc.), and whether the hardware in the machine been upgraded since you bought it.

2. Listed below is some PC manufacturers’ web information along with sound and video hardware manufacturers.

If your manufacturer is not in a list, you must consult your Owner’s Manual for the company’s specific contact information.

If you have built your machine from component parts, or you have updated the video/sound card in your name-brand system, then you will need to go to the Web site of the manufacturer.
Check and see if the driver available for your particular video/sound card is newer than the one you have, based on the information you took down from above steps.
If so, then you will want to download and install it.

Computers

Alienware http://www.alienware.com
Compaq http://www.compaq.com
Dell http://www.dell.com
Gateway http://www.gateway.com
HP http://www.hp.com
NEC http://www.nec.com
Sony http://www.ita.sel.sony.com
Toshiba http://www.toshiba.com

Sound Cards

If your computer was configured with a sound card when you purchased it, you should try to obtain the appropriate drivers from the computer manufacturer.
Many companies supply sound chipsets, which often customized by computer manufactures.
If you purchased a separate sound card, and cannot obtain the appropriate drivers, try from the following companies:

Creative Labs
http://us.creative.com/support/downloads/
Realtek
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/

-Video Cards-

If your computer was configured with a video card when you purchased it, you should try to obtain the appropriate drivers from the computer manufacturer.

Many companies supply video chipset, which often customized by computer manufacturers.
If you purchased a separate video card, or cannot obtain the appropriate drivers through the computer manufacturer, you may be able to obtain updated drivers from the following companies:

ATI Technologies Inc.
http://www.atitech.com/support/driver.html

Nvidia
http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp

DirectX® update

If DirectX files missing or corrupt that can cause game not to run properly.

Install or reinstall the newest version of DirectX, follow these instructions:

- Go to Microsoft’s DirectX download site: http://www.microsoft.com/directx
- Click on the Download the latest DirectX link.
- Next, click on the Continue button to validate your current version of DirectX.
- Install the Microsoft DirectX validation software by clicking on the Run button.
- Once the validation completed, you will be on the download page.
- Click on the Download button to continue.
- On the File Download popup, select Run. This will begin the install for DirectX.
- Follow the on-screen instructions to install the latest version of DirectX.

3. If you need technical assistance regarding your game, please go back a page and select the Contact US web link to submit a question by filling the Web form.

DISCLAIMER: Updating video and sound card drivers is computer maintenance and is something for which we do not support. We assume no responsibility for the effects that changing the driver for your video or sound card may have on your system.

They also have a help section you can check out...right now for EE3 it's basically empty:
http://sierra.com/en/home/support/sierra_support.html - (just select Empire Earth III from the product menu and hit search to see all the items)


Enjoy Empire Earth III and some screen shots of my own to follow after I get a chance to take it for a spin.