Recent reviews by Pnutmaster

Ever since high school, I have been obsessed with the Greek and Roman civilizations. Any of my friends IRL or the Internets can attest to this. If there is ever an occasion to indulge my passion for Greco-Roman history, I take it--be it the guilty pleasure of Starz Spartacus, watching HBO's Rome or Gladiator for the tenth time, or reinstalling Rome: Total War.

Most assuredly, Rome II is not Rome: Total War. In fact, its creators (perhaps conscious of how diametric these two games are), renamed it Total War: Rome II, conceding that it is no Sequel to the game which stirred my imagination all those years ago. All that Rome II is--and can claim to be--is a Trojan horse: a transparent, misshapen, Classically themed "gift" that bears all the faults of the Empire: Total War engine, aka Warscape.

Coupled with its technological limitations, Rome II is the victim of greed and cowardice: it was released in September, 2013, prematurely, to avoid competition with the Next-Gen consoles (showing how much faith the developers had in their product), and was gutted of content in the deluded pursuit of a perfect Metacritic score. What has been left in the wake of this Creative Idiocy is the skeleton of a game in desperate need of at least TWO YEARS of patching and the support of a dedicated modding community.

My time is not meant for Rome II, and neither is yours.

I've never been more engrossed in a historical simulator. Whether you're a count, duke, king, or emperor, every campaign is a nerdgasm in the making.

Feels like the opening of Dark Knight every time you play it. except more shooting and less TKing.