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 […]
Entries Tagged as 'Creative Assembly'
Empire Total War Debate
March 21st, 2009 · 19 Comments · Creative Assembly, Crispy Gamer, Review
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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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Empire: Total War Review
March 5th, 2009 · 13 Comments · 1up, Creative Assembly, Review
You can find it over here. I’ll have more to say tomorrow, but I shouldn’t do two long posts in a single day with a column still to finish.
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Empire: Total War – Embiggening Everything
February 26th, 2009 · 9 Comments · Creative Assembly
I’m reviewing this for 1up, so you’ll have to wait a week or so before you get my final verdict on Creative Assembly’s new game. But, boy, is this big. The battle maps seem to sprawl on forever. I’m partly astonished by the sheer size of the battles and partly discouraged by how distant everything […]
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Diplomacy Improved in Empire: Total War
February 4th, 2009 · 4 Comments · Creative Assembly, Preview
Over on Gamespot, Andrew Park has uploaded an interview with Creative Assembly’s James Russell. Key bits include: Deeper diplomatic model: These relationships provide the backdrop to the negotiations that players will be involved with as they strive to develop a network of trade partners and allies, or negotiate military access to enable them to further […]
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But Will it Fly?
December 13th, 2008 · 2 Comments · Creative Assembly, Multiplayer
The Total War games have always had a fairly interesting multiplayer battle game. You line up your Frenchmen, your friend pulls out his English longbows, and then you have at it. The most recent iteration, Total War: Kingdoms, implemented hotseat play for the campaign, but hotseat PC gaming hasn’t really been popular since I was […]
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