What this is about Know the enemy, and know yourself It seems fitting that 2000 should have seen the release of Shogun: Total War, the inaugural entry in one of the decade’s defining strategy series. Combining turn based empire-building with spectacular tactical battles, Shogun was the game I had always wanted. Strategy and tactics were [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Creative Assembly'
Decade Feature – 2000: Shogun Total War
October 30th, 2009 · 11 Comments · Creative Assembly, Feature:Decade
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New Game Announcements from CA and P’Dox
August 19th, 2009 · 10 Comments · Creative Assembly, Paradox
In what is probably the least surprising news of the month, Creative Assembly has announced what I think is an expansion for Empire: Total War, using Napoleon as the theme. The turn-based campaign is split into three different story-driven campaigns, telling the story of the rise and fall of Napoleon Bonaparte through his most famous [...]
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Empire: Total War DLC Disappoints
June 22nd, 2009 · 3 Comments · Creative Assembly, Patches
I’ll still defend Empire: Total War to whomever wants to listen, but there is a bit of a consensus that the early reviews – mine included – were too generous to the game. Whatever. I like a lot of what it does and have continued to enjoy it in spite of the bugs in the [...]
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Whip Select (TM) Whiplash
April 27th, 2009 · 6 Comments · Creative Assembly, RTS
I’ve been struggling with my review of Sega’s Storm Rise, and mostly because I’ve been struggling with the interface. Developed by Creative Assembly’s junior studio in Australia, the selection mechanism is a registered trademark – Whip Select (TM) – and it’s a bit of a lie since most of the time you cannot whip, and [...]
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Empire Total War Debate
March 21st, 2009 · 19 Comments · Creative Assembly, Crispy Gamer, Review
One of my favorite things about Tom Chick as a critic is that he always argues a corner. A game either succeeds or fails, with little room for fence sitting. This does not mean that his reviews are not nuanced; he never ignores the good stuff or fails to contextualize the bad. His recent Empire:Total [...]
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Losing the Intimate Epic
March 7th, 2009 · 7 Comments · Creative Assembly, Design
“Epic” is a terrible word to use when you talk about video games. It’s usually just reviewer shorthand for “This is big” or “This is long” or “Worlds will shatter”. It’s been used to the point where it is as useless a descriptor as “fun”, “immersive” or “easy to learn, hard to master”. Part of [...]
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