My favorite gaming forum has become infested by Oblivion. Bethesda’s latest role playing epic is the year’s first must-have game. It has been widely anticipated, heavily previewed and extensively screenshotted ever since it was announced. I expect that whereever you read and talk about games, Oblivion is the game de jour.
It is also one […]

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Or so says my review at Strategy Zone.
There is no perfect game, and Battle for Middle Earth II is no exception. But it is one of the best real time strategy games I’ve ever played.
In the end, it boils down to elegance. Battle for Middle Earth II has six races, each with completely unique units. […]

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You can read my opinions of Stardock’s hit Galactic Civilizations II in this month’s Computer Games Magazine. You can also read my review of Takeda 2 - a marginal sequel to a marginal original - and my capsule reviews of Star and Crescent and Prussia’s Glory - two wargames that won’t have the […]

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A quick scan of the fact sheet for the upcoming Civ IV expansion shows few surprises. Here are some of the additions and some of my notes.
A new great person type: the “Warlord.” — Why go with a whole new word and not just “Great General” to go with the Great Scientist or Great Prophet […]

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I mostly don’t believe in premonitions. But I’ve had a hell of an odd month considering 2k’s announcements.
It was only yesterday that I was complaining about the surge of Roman city building sims. So what does 2k announce? CivCity: Rome. For those keeping count, that makes four Roman city builders. In 2006. Nuts. It will […]

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CDV has announced that it and Enlight Software are working on a city-building sim set in ancient Rome called Glory of the Roman Empire. Jason Ocampo has a brief preview at Gamespot. Videos of the game are also available at the site.
Ocampo writes “It’s been a while since we’ve had an ancient-city-building game set in […]

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Real time strategy games are mostly, at their heart, about economics.
(I’m talking here about those RTS that require base-building and unit creation of some form - not one of the many other types of strategy games that just happen to move with the clock.)
With these games, the prevailing paradigm has been the peasant economy. You […]

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My first review for Strategy Zone Online is up. Cuban Missile Crisis: The Aftermath is a Cold War era RTS set in a world where Kennedy and Khrushchev didn’t reach a peaceful settlement of the 1962 crisis.
I liked it a little better than most reviewers have. It’s not a recommendation - even at a score […]

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Reviews
Cuban Missile Crisis: The Aftermath
Battle for Middle Earth II
Company of Heroes
Warhammer: Mark of Chaos
Commander: Europe at War
Galactic Assault: Prisoner of Power

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Gamespot is reporting that a conference call with Take Two Interactive revealed that PopTop, the developer of Railroad Tycoon 2 and 3, Shattered Union, and Tropico has been folded into Firaxis, best known for Alpha Centauri, the 2004 Pirates! and, of course, Civilization III and IV.
Given Take Two’s latest business woes, this is an obvious […]

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