Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Restoration of Erathia

The Good
It flows. When playing HoMM3, you don't waste your time on minor things like extensive resource managment or deep experiance calculations, you simply play the game. The interface is clear, straight forward and easy to learn, and I believe it's the most powerful feature of the game.
Other nice additions- Excellent sound in .mp3 mode, so you'll be able to play it even while not playing the game, averge graphic and a good AI, that'll require some time to defeat.

The Bad
The game is almost identical to the other games on the series. The graphics are very similar, and most of the objects weren't changed at all, other than increasing their resolution a bit. Some of the armies are clearly better than the others, and on lower difficulty levels you can easily reach some of their more powerful units on the 1st or 2nd turn.
The campaign is terrible. The story is childish and uninteresting, each of the scenarios is easy and straight forward, and there is no real challange.
The greatest problem of the game is its multiplayer. Since it's a turn based games, you may wait long hours waiting for the other players to play, and for a game which supports up to eight players this can be a long wait... Actually, me and my friends started playing Talisman between our turns.

The Bottom Line
Although the game has many flaws, the single-player (and hotseat for up to three players) is f-u-n, and it's worth buying just for that.

The Good
Heroes III is without a doubt a great visual improvement over its predecessor, and also features digital music tracks (MP3s) as well as some modifications to the rules of the game. However, the game itself is essentially the same, and as such all that I said of Heroes of Might and Magic II applies, with the following difference:

Graphics! Heroes of Might and Magic III is simply astounding. Amazing! The graphics in this game are beautiful! Landscapes lush and realistic, cities simply magnificent. On the visual side, you just can't beat this game.

The Bad
Again, braindead AI (although somewhat improved over Heroes II) is the main problem with this game. And, as history would have it, the campaigns in Heroes III still suck. Sorry guys, just stick with the scenarios.

Also, I don't think a graphic overhaul justifies a completely new game in the series. Essentially Heroes III is just like Heroes II with thoroughly improved graphics - so why should you have to spend a fortune on the same game?

The Bottom Line
A great graphical improvement over an already well-established predecessor. Fetch this game - you won't regret it.

The Good
It's very addictive. I'm not sure exactly WHY it has such high replay value, but even repeating the same scenarios over and over again is a lot of fun. The graphics are good, in my opinion. A turn-based strategy game doesn't NEED top-of-the-line graphics. The backgrounds and creatures are actually beautifully rendered. The only graphics that probably should have been a little more intricate are spell animations. Compared to Heroes II, the AI seems to be more on a level with what is possible for a human player to do. In the previous game, it seemed as though the AI had access to more resources than I did, and that my creatures could therefore never compare. In Heroes III, the AI is more equally matched, and sometimes your computer opponents will fail to take advantage of blatantly obvious opportunities... it's nice to be given a fighting chance. It's a fun multiplayer game for two or three people, although many more than that and it starts to take huge amounts of time to finish. The map builder is a fun feature too--makes you appreciate how difficult it is to create a challenging but win-able scenario.

The Bad
The campaigns are terrible. Each one gives you three scenarios. Without exception, the first two are so easy that they are not any fun--the sole purpose of the first two scenarios is to build up your heroes for the third one. Kind of akin to walking around purposelessly in an RPG to try to get your characters up to level 99... and I HATE doing that. And then, once you finally trudge through to the third scenerio, it is way too hard. The AI has overwhelmingly superior forces from the start. The scenarios are nice moderate levels of difficulty, it would be so nice if the campaigns had been similarly designed.

The Bottom Line
Very fun, very addictive. I didn't exactly lose any sleep over this game, but it is a great way to run out a dull afternoon.