Kingdom Under Fire The Crusaders Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I bought Kingdom Under Fire/Crusaders on October 13, 2004.Overall, I found this game very fun, and very INTENSE.Below is a list of what I didn't enjoy, and what I did enjoy regarding the game.

Negatives:

1. The game needs a bird's eye view without the map.There are four views all together, two on a map (long/close-up), two in melee(mid/close-up).The game would be better if they had a third viewpoint where you could pull back the camera one step further without opening the map to see other units and manipulate them around the screen.This view could look something like a Warcraft/Command and Conquer View.The map does this to some extent, but it can become tedious manipulating the troops on the map on close-up mode. Another option would be the ability to split screens by units, so you could see what more than one of the military units is doing @ once.

2. The voices are pretty cheesy. In the future, phantagram should invest a little bit more in getting better voice actors who don't
sound embarassed to read their lines*
*This could also be viewed positively though

3.The game is lacking a bit in terms of varied gameplay. In the future, it would be ideal if we could customize our own characters, as opposed to choosing one of four templates.Additionally, it would be nice if there could be co-op modes - like in lord of the rings - return of the king or head to head modes outside of xbox live.

Positives:

1.Graphics - This game has amazing graphics that take full advantage of the XBox Platform.

2.The cheesy voices - People who take wars between fictional medieval soldiers and orcs and dark elves too seriously need to get a life.This video game has somewhat of a kill bill/B-movie quality to it, in that there are excessive amounts of blood and gore, bad language, and dark elf females fighting in thongs.The terrible voiceovers are a finishing touch to this sort of craziness.*
*This could also be viewed as a negative

3.Challenging gameplay - This is not the sort of video game which you can start and play the whole way through without ever losing. What I enjoy about it is that as your units/characters get better, you also get better as a video gamer.For example, a newbie couldn't just take your saved game from let's say the 20th mission, and just play as him. He'd die immediately b/c the missions get progressively harder with time, and in order to proceed to further missions, one needs to become a better video gamer.

4.Intense and complex battle sequences/combat.Fighting Melee Combat - Dynasty Warriors/LOTR style, while commanding your units - Command and Conquer/Warcraft style, while taking into account unconventional things such as terrain, sun, weather conditions, etc. all require extreme concentration.To the observer though, your battles will have the same sort of chaos/intensity as the battle scenes in Braveheart, especially as you shift from view to view.It's extremely satisfying to fight hand-to-hand combat with your character against an enemy and to see people dropping to the ground because of your archers, while your cavalry comes from behind and flanks them.That's only an example of three of the many units that you can fight with.This game reinvents the real-time strategy genre, taking elements from Dynasty Warriors, LOTR video game series, Myth, Warcraft, and Command and Conquer, by molding them all into one video game and taking the genre to the next level.This game's very ambitious and it works.

Although the game does have it's flaws, I do not feel that they are overly significant or that they detract too much from the game itself. One can accustom oneself to fighting using the map within a relatively short time, and even though you cannot customize your characters or go coop there are still 4 characters with over 60 missions.

On a scale of 100, I would give the game a 96.Even though it misses a few minute things, it gets the major and main things right.This game has the potential to bring real-time strategy (usually associated with PCs up to this point) to the video game console in the same way that Goldeneye brought first person shooters to the video game console.

I feel that this game will beocme a sleeper hit, and that they will make a really awesome sequel which corrects all of the minor flaws in this version if they take into account people's suggestions.

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Product Description:
Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders challenges you to lead a massive army in pursuit of the ultimate power. Experience chaotic medieval battle on epic scale, as you command hundreds of warriors all risking their lives for final victory. Fifty years have passed since the Second Great War of Heroes -- in that time, a powerful artifact called the Ancient Heart disappeared. In the town where it was last seen, orcs have invaded, leading to a new war, with new goals and objectives... And new choices for glory. Dynamic game direction make you feel like you're watching an epic film -Multiple camera angles, real soldiers' expressions of pain, victory and defeat, and much moreReal-time ranking update system New Mission Downloads possible through Xbox Live

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Total War Eras Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I won't go in the description of the games themselves - no need.

This is what you get in this package:
- 4 DVDs, containing 3 original games and their 4 corresponding expansions:
- Shogun;
- Shogun Mongol Invasion;
- Medieval;
- Medieval Viking Invasion;
- Rome;
- Rome Barbarian Invasion;
- Rome Alexander;

- Soundtrack CD, containing 43 tracks and over 76 minutes of music samples from the three original games;
- Documentary DVD 39 minute interview with the original creator of the series, explaining how they came up with the idea of the game and how game progressed over the years and incarnations;
- 50 page booklet with artwork from all 4 games in the series
- Medieval 2 Poster of the King Richard, the Lion Heart;
- 5 postcards with artwork from the games;
- one combined book with over 275 pages of game manuals

Watch the Documentary to learn such cool facts like, for example:
- how Sun Tzu's 'The Art of War' helped create Shogun tactical AI;
- how 'Gladiator' the movie influenced the decision to cover Roman period in the third game;
- how many future installments we should be expecting in this series before it runs out of gas

Enjoy!

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Product Description:
Total War: Eras compiles all three award-winning Total War games and their official expansions. With Total War: Eras, newcomers to the franchise can now experience all the award-winning gameplay in one premium package. Long-time fans of the series will also find special bonus material to commemorate the art and music of the series. This is a must-have collection for diehard fans and general strategy gamers alike.

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Tactics Ogre Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I must confess, I bought this game only because I had played Final Fantasy Tactics and loved it. Desperate for a strategy/RPG fix, I got TO because many of FFT's creators had worked on it. But just because it preceded FFT does not mean it's not as good...on the contrary, it actually is more fun and absorbing than its slickly polished descendant.
Let's start with the bad news. Tactics Ogre was originally released for the Super NES, and it shows. With small, blocky sprites and the inability to rotate a camera (because the background is also 2D), TO won't be winning any graphics awards anytime soon. The in-game speech portraits are nice, though.
Tactics Ogre can also occasionally get monotonous - the most common culprit being the constant need for training. There's also a special 100-floor (!) dungeon that is not for the faint of heart.
Now the good news: The story is absorbing. TO takes place in the island nations of Valeria; you play Denim Powell, a young member of the Walstanian ethnic group. He, his sister Kachua, and his friend Vice are determined to lead Walsta out from under the oppressive hand of the ruling Gargastan. They're helped in this aim by a group of exiled warriors from Zenobia: the heroes of the first game in the Ogre Battle Saga. Eventually the scope of the conflict widens to include the rest of Valeria, and culminates in a bitter struggle for the High King's throne and for the power of an incredibly powerful magical artifact. TO's story would be its strongest point...except for one thing.
The gameplay.
Dear God, the gameplay. It's like a sundae smothered in hot fudge, chocolate sprinkles, whipped cream, and with a cherry on top: wonderful, but occasionally overkill. TO's gameplay is definitely deep; while it doesn't have the huge list of jobs and abilities that its descendant, Final Fantasy Tactics, does, I can't help but feel it's without a doubt more complex in terms of strategy. With over a dozen sidequests, not to mention three distinct paths through the game (each of which has its own special characters to get), there's no question that TO has even more replay value than FFT. And that's really saying something!
Tactics Ogre is definitely a game not to be missed. While Atlus is no longer making the game, if you can buy a used copy, do!

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Stronghold Warchest Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought this game while I was waiting for the release of Lords of the Realm III.I am very glad I made the purchase. This game has provided much entertainment.I really enjoy designing the castles, placing archers and crossbowmen on the walls and towers and placing engineers with pitch pots to shower the enemy with liquid fire.There is also a lot of management and strategy needed to succeed.For example You can only build a large castle with a large supply of stone. I also like the fact that if you dont have one item you could over produce and sell another in order to gain money to buy what you need. I would strongly recomend this game to Medieval strategy game fans. After playing Lords of the Realm III, I am really glad I bought Stonghold Warchest because while Lords of the Realm III sits in my garbage can, Stronghold sits in my PC.

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Patrician 3 Review

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(More customer reviews)Who knew that being a member of the Hanseatic League would make for a fun game?Anyone who figured out that zoning can be fun (SimCity), or pretending to have a real life can be fun (The Sims) knows that the topic can be unusual if the gameplay is there.In fact, games that aren't clones of other games are a welcome sight.Patrician 3 is a fun game on a topic few would expect to see in a game.

This is a trading sim.You start in Luebeck in 1345, with one ship, and build an empire.You buy more ships, set up trade routes, build manufacturing facilities, and try to keep the people of your hometown supplied with all of their wants and needs.Patrician 3 is probably most like Machiavelli: the Prince (AKA Merchant Prince).

The graphics are fine, once you recognize that their purpose is to present information.There's a map of the North Sea, and a map for each town.The battle graphics are serviceable, but don't look for 3-D like Pirates of the Carribean, there is an overhead map with icons.

Gameplay is what Patrician 3 offers.As one reviewer said, this is an oddly compelling game.If you like the genre, this is a "one-more-turn" experience on the order of Civ 3, though Patrician 3 does not have the replayability that Civ does. You can shuffle what cities are good at, and there is a campaign game, but each successive Patrician 3 game tends to be too similar to be playing it week after week.Nonetheless, you'll have plenty of fun before you tire of it, and you'll come back to it months later unlike so many other games.

Beware, however, that Patrician 3 is not supported on many laptops.I installed and ran the game fine, but when I tried to play again I could not initialize the graphics.Ascaron is very clear that they do not support laptops because of the limited graphics "cards" these typically have.

There are not too many changes from Partician 2, but this is a fine game for any new player who likes trade-and-build games, and any Patrician 2 fan who doesn't need a major overhaul to justify upgrading.

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Product Description:
Based on the award winning Patrician IIProduct InformationPatrician III is a real-time trading simulation featuring elements ofconstruction and the historical background of maritime trade in Northern Europeduring the 1300's. As a resident of a medieval town your goal is to risefrom the status of a simple insignificant trader to that of a Patrician andperhaps even become the head of the Hanseatic League. You can raise yourstanding through town improvement and diplomacy or fill your coffers throughpiracy and smuggling.Will you succeed in your career starting as a small trader and rising to aninfluential Patrician? Will your fame help you rise to governor or leaderof the Hanse?Product FeaturesImmersive trade economics sea battles diplomacy and intrigueEstablish and build your own towns and production facilitiesDiscover the dark side: weapons dealing piracy bribery and blackmailObtain missions including hunting pirates smuggling collecting treasuremapsConfront medieval plagues hunger storms and siegesSeasonal and enhanced weather effects: rain snow ice and trees andbushes in bloom - creating a real sense of time and with effects that alsoimpact on production and transportationExtensive building options such as warehouses mints elementary schoolsbarns churchesExtend the city walls increase defenses form your own city guardAdvanced Artificial Intelligence adjusts difficulty based on yourexperience and abilityGame modes: Single player Campaign Multiplayer (up to 8 players via 1PC LAN or Internet)Windows RequirementsWindows 98 Me 2000 XPPentium III 450 MHz processor or higher64 MB of RAM660 MB Hard Drive space32 MB Direct 3D compatible 3D accelerated Graphics Card8X CD-ROM driveDirectX compatible Sound CardDirectX 7.1 or higher (included on CD)Network card for LAN multiplayer modeInternet connection for online multiplayer mode

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Medieval II Total War Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)When I first got this installed and running on my middle-of-the-road system I was expecting it to be a chugging, slow mess. I was happily surprised to find that except for battles against larger cities or against thousands of foes, it runs just fine. I have yet to have a crash, something which in thisday and age of "shove it out the door broken and patch it later" game releases is to be commended.

The graphics are beautiful but are not the amazing leap forward like occurred from Medieval 1 to Rome. Think of it more as putting an extra coat of shiny polish on your car. The effects of firing flaming arrows and the pageantry of heraldric colors on the knights and other troops are beautiful to watch. The little movies showing events like weddings and your assassins' antics are often genuinely hilarious (until you've seen them all 100 times). But all that is also just eye candy, there's very little NEW here that wasn't in Rome. Also, the medieval setting has now been done to death in this game's predecessor and other games in the last few years and I'm praying that the next title WON'T be a remake of the original Shogun but will move the series squarely into the gunpowder age, culminating with Napoleon. Enough with the primitive and medieval weapons and tactics.

The AI has been improved marginally, but I am still attacked for ridiculously random reasons no matter the difficulty level I play on. As England I had developed into one of the largest powers on the map and Portugal inexplicably attacked me without provocation despite our neutral relations (not "poor" or "abysmal", mind you) and trade rights. Needless to say they were immediately squashed, but why would they even bother? This is not intelligent AI, it's just annoying AI. Alliances seem to be equally meaningless when they are made with the human and are difficult to achieve unless the AI brings it to you. I have yet to ever form one when I initiate the offer even when it would be a massive advantage to the comp.

Battle AI is more clever at using its archers as harassment and has no hesitation in squashing yours if you leave them unguarded. When outnumbered it does tend to sit there passively as one other reviewer wrote. I have nearly obliterated an entire force with archers while they just sat there in the corner before the general turned tail and withdrew.

Overall, it's a small step forward and the Rome engine is certainly beautiful to watch in action. The Total War series still is unparalleled in strategic enjoyment on both levels but the next offering in the series needs to be groundbreaking in both time period and AI complexity.

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Product Description:
Take complete control of your kingdom like never before and grow it into a continents-spanning empire through diplomacy, trade, espionage, and war! Join the Crusades as a Christian or Muslim empire and battle over the fate of the Holy Land. Raise mighty armies to crush your neighbors and conquer all of Europe and even the Americas to become the greatest power of the Middle Ages.

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Stronghold: Crusader Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Anyone who likes real-time strategy (Starcraft, Age of Empires) will love this game too.Especially if you were the kind of defensive player who enjoyed putting up walls and towers more than mobile armies (although both have a role in Crusader).
The economy is significantly more complex than most of the previous games in this genre, so it will take some practice to get good enough at building a stable economy that you can concentrate on warfare.(E.g. training crossbowmen requires: you are popular enough to have free peasants; you have crossbows, and leather armor; having weapons requires an armory to store them; crossbows require someone to make them, who in turn needs wood from woodcutters; leather armor requires a tanner, who needs to get cows from a dairy farm.Any one of these links can be broken, especially during warfare, and suddenly you can no longer make more crossbowmen.)
Compared to their first release (Stronghold), the minor tweaks have improved the game.A mercenary camp lets you build an army at the beginning, instead of waiting until the midgame.Trees andpotential farmland are now limited to an oasis (this being the middle east instead of England), which has the effect that there are now resources to fight over from the very beginning.
But don't just take my word for it.Firefly/GOD offers a free demo (of both Stronghold and Crusader) with a few very playable, very fun levels.Get the demo and try it out!You can decide yourself whether you like the gameplay enough to purchase it.

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Product Description:
This software is BRAND NEW. Packaging may differ slightly from the stock photo above. Please click on our logo above to see over 15,000 titles in stock.

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Kings Bounty: The Legend Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)King's Bounty is the best turn based strategy game since X-Com came out in 1993.

It works on XP and Vista 32-bit.
There may be problems with Vista 64-bit.

Concept:
King's bounty is a great mix of turn based strategy, adventure, and RPG elements.You explore a world and find items to increase your stats and gather troops for your army.If you encounter enemies, you battle them in turn based combat.You can also cast spells during the battle to heal your troops, increase their stats, weaken enemies, or alter the battleground.

Heroes
You can choose one of 3 Hero types (Warrior, Paladin, Mage) and customize them through a skill tree or equipping items.Your class, skills, stats and items affect the army that you control.
Warriors have more troops and weak magic skills.Paladins are balanced.Mages have the fewest troops but can cast the most powerful spells during the battles.
Attack - Increases the damage that your troops dish out.
Defense - Decreases the damage that your troops take.
Intellect - Increases the power of your spells.
Leadership - Increases the amount of troops you can have in a battle.
Gold - Allows you to buy new troops and items.
Runes - Allow you to buy skills on your skill tree.

Your Army
There are over 90 different types of creatures you can have in your army.
Tanks - knights, giants, dwarves...
Ranged - archers, elves, beholders...
Infantry - soldiers, snakes, spiders, pirates...
Spellcasting - priests, mages, inquisitors...
Special - werewolves, vampires, ghosts...

So, why is this game so great?
You're constantly being rewarded for playing.It seems like every 10 steps, you're getting gold, runes, new units, and leadership banners.New enemies constantly appear and change the strategy of the battles.The game never feels stale.You're always learning new spells and trying to exploit the enemies' weaknesses.

Just when you think you've got the game mastered, you gain access to new lands, new enemies, new spells, and new units.

There are tons of optional side quests, too.If you complete them, you get gold, experience, or special items.You may even make a new alliance which adds new troops to your army.

The box says rated T for Teens, but this game is fun for everyone.The descriptors say:
Drug Reference - I never saw one, although pirates talked about rum.
Language - I didn't see any harsh language.
Mild Fantasy Violence - knight swings sword, hits monster, and a 25 appears above the monster.There's no blood or impaling.

What could be better about this game?
The story is good, but the writing on some of the quests is sub-par.One of my friends had trouble playing it on Vista, but he got it working.

The game is about 40-90 hours long, depending on how you play.It's a must buy if you like turn based strategy games, old school RPG's, or want to kill time while you're waiting for Diablo III.

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Product Description:
Platform:WINDOWS XP/VISTAPublisher:ATARIPackaging:RETAIL BOXRating:TEENIn a fairy tale fantasy world of fearless knights evil mages wise kings and beautiful princesses you are a hero. King's Bounty: The Legend is an adventure game with tactical turn-based battles and role-playing elements.Game play is divided into two major sections: adventure mode and battle mode. In adventure mode you control your character in real-time. You move through the adventure map seeking various treasures fighting monsters and aplishing quests. In battle mode you lead your troops in tactical turn-basedbat. Battles take place on land or sea in dungeons or castles or even in some items.You yourself don't participate in thebat but can assist your troops by casting spells or summoning different creatures. Features:A rich role-playing system including 7 parameters and more than 30 skills and perks and a highly-developed system of tasks and relations.More than 70 spells to use on the battle arena and in everyday life.An alternative option for magic development are the Spirits of Rage to be summoned inbat. More than 60 unique creatures with special abilities and skills ready to fight in your army Dozens of different battle arenas. Unique arenas for castle sieges Various traps and bonuses on battle arenas that can change the course of fight.Unique system of live items acting of their own will and changing their essence Ability to start a family find a wife and have children. Countless hours of exciting addictive gameplay:A modern-day version of the classic game that started it all -- Kings Bounty.Unique blend of role-playing adventure and tactical battles with hundreds of troops.Choose three distinct hero types -- Warrior Paladin or Mage - for threepletely different game experiences.Cast powerful spells summon deadly Spirits of Rage and equip legendary items to help you def

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Mount & Blade: Warband Review

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(More customer reviews)Warband refines the rough-hewn Mount & Blade (Native). While the original offered stellar combat mechanics, in the end you could only do so much. Interactions with other lords were limited, and while starting one's own faction was theoretically possible, in practice it was virtual suicide. Warband fleshes the game out a little. You have more options to make friends and enemies. You can marry into nobility and even achieve a level of legitimacy as a ruler in your own right. You can also promote your followers into lords or send them to gather intelligence in other empires. Add in the new Sarranid (Arabian themed) faction, and the augmented game proves quite entertaining. The lack of a formal plot leaves details to the imagination, but even so, it feels like a story is playing out.

You can just see how King Graveth is ruining his empire by claiming all the new lands for himself. Sure, his kingdom is growing vast, but the lords are growing restless. Soon Graveth himself gets wind of the discontent and begins exiling men left and right for treason. When Matheas finally does betray him and takes Veluca with him, the player character storms the walls and retakes it asking for the castle as his reward. But then what? With so few lords remaining to his King, half the empire is in the player character's hands. Should he try to lure back some of the exiled lords to his liege's service? Or is it time to secede from this dying empire and call on his old allies and in-laws to join the new kingdom? Could such a kingdom survive the threat of civil war, the hungry Swadians to the north, and the Sassanids to the south who have been waiting for the right moment to retake Shariz? It's addictive...

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Product Description:
Mount & Blade: Warband is the eagerly anticipated sequel for the game that brought medieval battlefields to life with its realistic mounted combat and detailed fighting system.

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Mount & Blade Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)To be fair I have been playing M&B since it was in beta 0.610 or thereabouts. It was rough and unpolished then, but it was the first game of its kind, an incredibly immersive and fun steel-and-horses age combat simulator. I bought it immediately, and have never looked back.

This first thing that confuses people including off-the-cuff (Gamespot) reviewers is that this game is not Oblivion. Taleworlds went in a completely different direction, instead of rehashing the same formulaic crap that infests the game publishing world today, and they should be thanked for it. Instead, they get rated down for NOT being boring. This is not strictly speaking an RPG in the way that the industry thinks of RPGs. It is not strictly a strategy game. It is not a shooter. So what is it?

Mount & Blade is a great sandbox game, along the lines of Pirates!, but more interesting (to me, anyway). You get thrown into the game and from there can literally do whatever you want. The game does skew towards combat professions and goals, since its greatest strength is its combat engine, but you can be a merchant, a rebel, a vassal, a mercenary, even a tournament specialist. You can even do several of these things in sequence, defining the career of your character through your gameplay choices.

The combat engine is utterly magnificent. This is one of the rare games where you can come up with a solution to a problem by doing what you would do in the real world, and it works! On foot, you turn your body in the same direction as your weapon swing as you make contact, and you get an increase in damage. Duck in and out of striking range based on the actual length of the weapons you and your opponent are using. Stand on the high ground with your bow for a range advantage that you can see happening as your arrows take a natural dropping flight path. Get back up on the hill to slow the momentum of that gyu riding down on you, step to his blind side, and chop his horse out from under him so you can brain him while he tries to get back up. This is a lot more immersive and gratifying than spending points on various melee skills and hitting control buttons for special moves over and over again while standing in one place.

The political and economic systems in vanilla (un-modded) Mount & Blade are simple, but they work! Build up friendships with local lords by doing stupid errands for them if you like, or else catch them in combat with a superior force and run in to save their bacon, which they'll be grateful for. Build favor with the ladies of the court so they can funnel bribes for you to lords who mislike you. Gain enough renown and favor with your liege to be put forward as a candidate for Marshall, but make sure you can curry enough votes to win the election. Burn local villages to prevent enemy lords from recruiting there, and kill their caravans to stagnate their city's economy.

I have seen lack of a concrete storyline mentioned as a weakness in some "professional" reviews. The game lacks a storyline because it's not supposed to have one! There is a background, there is an ongoing political dynamic, but you create your own story. Honestly, I don't understand the point of "story" based games where you walk through in a linear fashion, click some buttons, and listen to some voiceovers. To me the last great story-based computer game was Fallout, which also incorporated a sandbox play style as part of its dynamic, in addition to some really great lore. Nowadays, if you really want to follow a storyline, you can probably find better and longer-lasting ones in different media. Books, for instance. (If you lack the imagination required to have a rewarding experience reading a book and prefer the multimedia experience brought to you by some hack writing computer games, there is always television.)

The most important thing to me about Mount & Blade, though, is that it captured my attention back then, and still does. I spend many nights not going to sleep because there's one more siege I want to pull off, or one of my rebellion faction lords who needs help, or some juicy enemy caravans waiting to be plundered. I would rate its replayability along the same lines as the original Civilization when it came out (and I basically wasted six months of my life on that). Not many games nowadays can even capture my interest, let alone hold it for longer than a couple of days. It's just that much fun.

There are a lot of videos of M&B gameplay on YouTube, and some of them are mine:

[...]

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Product Description:
War has come down on Calradia. In a land torn by constantdanger, raids and skirmishes, you will raise and lead your own warband, commanding dozens of hardened soldiers.You will fight epic battles where arrows cut the air, swords hackwith fury, and horses and men clash into a violent melee.Combining a sophisticated, dynamic game world and intensemedieval sword fighting action, Mount&Blade strives to create agame experience never seen before.

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Medieval II Total War Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I picked up Medieval II Total War / Total War Kingdoms Gold Pack for $30 and I have to say, for that price it's a great deal.There are months of gameplay packed into this game.I was up until 4am, 4 nights in a row!

Concept: 9/10
In Medieval 2GP, you play as 1 of 17 different Factions / Nations in an attempt to use diplomacy, treachery, and military might to take over the world.The game features a Battle Mode where you can fight a Battle against AI, a Short Campaign where you must wipe out 1 or 2 rival nations and occupy a good portion of the world map, or a Grand Campaign, where you must occupy Jerusalem and a very large portion of the world.The "Short" Campaign could take you anywhere from 8 - 40 hours to finish.With the expansions, there are more maps, 13 more Factions, and 110 more military units...There is also a dedicated Modding community that has further enhanced the game.

Graphics: 8/10
The graphics are impressive on the high settings and it's pretty incredible to watch 4000 soldiers clash on the battlefield with arrows raining from the sky and catapults destroying fully destructible cities.
NOTE:I had an awful time getting my NVidia 7900GT to work with this game, but I finally found the solution on a forum.Creative Assembly's and SEGA's websites were less helpful than a Magic 8 Ball.I'll post the solution in the Comments Section below.

Gameplay: 7/10
There are three types of gameplay in the game.There is a World Map where you can move armies and units across a battlefield and into enemy territories.You strategically use diplomats, merchants, religious figures, spies, assassins, princesses, and armies to thwart your opposing nations.This plays out like old school RISK.

There is faction management, where you govern your cities, raise or lower taxes, build structures that provide troops and upgrades for your army, balance your budget, put your leaders in the most optimal places, and assemble your armies.Your Heirs, Commanders, and Governors have stats... some make great generals, some make great governors.It's up to you to put them in the right places.If you have a brother in-law who is a weak commander and not very loyal, you can send him off to fight the Mongols Far Far away from your homeland.Think of it as chlorine in your family gene pool.You don't want his offspring inheriting your kingdom.

There are the battles.The battles are fought between units in an RTS, rock, paper, scissors, type of battle.Archers are great at long range, Horsemen can run over the archers, spearmen can set themselves in a defensive formation and impale a cavalry charge.There are also infantry (swordsmen) who fare well against the spearmen.There are literally hundreds of different types of units.There are open field battles in different types of environments, mountains, snow, forests...
There are castle sieges where you must use catapults, rams, ladders, siege towers, to take over a walled city.And there are castle sieges where you must defend your city from invaders.During a battle, you can also pause the action and issue commands, or speed it up 2x - 6x so you don't have to wait for the troops to get into position.

If you want to play the game RISK style, you can have the AI simulate the battles and get a results screen that says something like:Victory, you lost 200 men, the enemy lost 650 men.
If you want to play the game like an RTS, you can have the AI govern your cities, while you fight the battles.It was a great idea to cater the game to both styles of play.

Strategies:8/10
The AI is pretty simple in the game, and once you figure out how to play, you will rarely lose a battle.You can use units and the terrain to your advantage.Unlike Starcraft, you don't have to kill every enemy on the battlefield.You can break their morale and get them to run away.If you see a bunch of enemy swordsmen, you can pepper them with arrows and kill half of them as they are charging, then run them down (literally) with heavy calvary.The game displays their morale and you can see when they are about to break.When they flee, you can let them retreat, or run them down to finish them off.

On the World Map, you can hide your armies in the woods to ambush enemies, or position them in choke points to halt enemy advances.If you are at war with another Christian Faction, the Pope may order you to cease fire for a few turns, which usually allows the enemy to regroup and counterattack.But you can actually destroy an enemy city without attacking it.Send spies, and assassins to take out the governor, kill the militia, and the citizens could riot and rebel against their king.If you have a charming princess, you can marry an enemy general into your family, stealing their army... or you can send diplomats to negotiate with your enemy and harm their economy.There are many ways to topple an enemy town.You can even form an alliance with another nation, and use spies and assassins on them if you don't get caught.If they declare war on you, the Pope may excommunicate them for violating the alliance, or even launch a Holy Crusade against them!How you conquer your enemies is completely up to you.

Interface Screens: 5/10
Switching screens to manage your cities is pretty clunky and it seems that you have to click to 3 different screens to gather information before you make a decision.This gets a little irritating after a while because it feels like everything is 3 clicks away, when it should be 1 click.For example, after a battle, if you decide to execute your Prisoners of war, a box appears on the far left of the screen.Left Click on the Box and it says, "Your Commander has +1 Dread" - right click to close the box.Now find your commander on the battle map, left click on him, then double right click to bring up his stats to see how much Dread he actually has and what it means.It would have been great if that first window showed my all of my commander's stats and his location.

Issues:Diplomacy.Diplomatic Negotiations are pretty broken in the game.It feels like a die roll, instead of strategy.You may ask another nation for Map Information and offer 200 gold.They may refuse and GIVE YOU 1000 GOLD.The game would have been much better if the Map Information cost X, and you had to negotiate to get X down.

Overall: 8/10
Learning the World Map and Battle Strategies is great fun and feels rewarding, but the limited AI and clunky interface keep the game from being GREAT!

The game is rated T for Alcohol References, Blood, Mild Language, a bit of innuendo, and Violence in the form of large scale battles.

Buy it cheap if you want months of light strategy and epic battles.

If you're looking for a Starcraft Killer, you should probably keep looking.

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Product Description:
Medieval: Total War Gold Edition is the compilation of the critically-acclaimed Medieval: Total War and its official expansion pack - Total War Kingdoms. Set in the turbulent Middle Ages, Medieval puts you in command of your own empire as you crush neighboring kingdoms and unify all of Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East. Medieval: Total War Kingdoms features four entire campaigns centered on expanded maps of the British Isles, Teutonic Northern Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas. In Medieval II, you were only given a glimpse of South America, but in Kingdoms, vast tracts of land in both North and South America have been opened up for you to conquer. All-new factions from the New World are also now fully playable, including the Aztecs, Apaches, and Mayans.In both games, you rule all aspects of your kingdom throughout centuries of medieval warfare. Lay siege to mighty fortresses and command vast armies across the battlefields of Europe and North Africa. This is Total War.

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