I wish I had time to dwell on all the dud Roman themed games that have passed in front of me. The half finished Pax Romana and Great Invasions, the laughable Legions, the boring Hannibal: Master of the Beast, Haemimont’s Roman city builders, Haemimont’s RTSes. Most of these games aren’t very interesting as reflections on […]
Entries from April 30th, 2008
No King But Caesar – An Epilogue
April 30th, 2008 · 20 Comments · Ancients, Design, Feature:Anc
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The Civil War – Again
April 29th, 2008 · 4 Comments · Civil War, Matrix, Preview
There’s been something of a resurgence in American Civil War strategy games lately, with AgeOD and Western Civ both delivering very different visions of the conflict in recent years. Now Gary Grigsby is turning his eyes to the War Between The States. Taking gamers back to the American Civil War, Gary Grigsby’s War Between the […]
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Rome: Total War (2004)
April 28th, 2008 · 17 Comments · Ancients, Creative Assembly, Feature:Anc, Retro, Review
It’s hard to believe that Rome: Total War is almost four years old, let alone that the Total War series is not new anymore. Shogun: Total War debuted in 2000, was an instant hit, and Creative Assembly has never really paused since. Aside from a couple of ill-advised forays into action gaming (Spartan: Total Warrior […]
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Sins of a Solar Empire Post Mortem
April 28th, 2008 · Comments Off on Sins of a Solar Empire Post Mortem · Industry, Ironclad, Sci Fi
I love post mortems on game design. You can learn a lot about the business and about developers as individuals. It’s always astonishing how close some games come to failure before they even hit the marketplace, where most of them will fail anyway. Sins of a Solar Empire was not a failure. Read about how […]
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Europa Universalis: Rome review
April 25th, 2008 · 4 Comments · Ancients, Crispy Gamer, Paradox, Review
My Europa Universalis: Rome review is now up at Crispy Gamer. I did an interview with Johan Andersson that doesn’t seem to be up yet, but I’ll let you know when it goes live. The review was based on a gold review build; the day one patch has fixed some of the issues. You can’t […]
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The Brilliance of Stupidity
April 25th, 2008 · 2 Comments · RTS
I have few illusions that this will be a great game, but if Stalin vs. Martians doesn’t make you just a little curious, you have are clearly a soulless creature. Maybe even a commie space man. Vopros: Can we play as Stalin himself? Otvet: Yes, but not from the start. Stalin is our commander and […]
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