Total War: Shogun 2 is the seventh instalment in the hugely popular Total war series from Creative Assembly. It is a remake of the original Total War: Shogun title released almost 11 years ago (which still occupies a space on my much coveted favourite game shelf) and returns the player to 16th Century Japan. A Japan fractured into rival clans, each vying for supremacy and each faction’s Daimyo looking to rise above all and reunite the nation as the new Shogun.

As with all previous Total War titles, Shogun 2 combines a turn-based tactical campaign with real time strategy battles. The turn based portion of the game takes place on a 60 province map of Japan. It is beautifully rendered showing the passing seasons and your armies and towns. The landscape changes from a stylistic hand drawn map to reveal stunning detail as your armies explore Japan and the surrounding oceans.

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Ahhh! The wondrous whizzing of cannonballs as they hurtle towards the enemy, leaving a path of death, destruction and disfigurement in their wake. The thunderous approach of a hundred horsemen, each willing and very able to lop the heads off your exposed infantry with just a single swing of their sabres. The wispy white smoke that fills the battlefield from the coordinated firing of an army of muskets while officers struggle to bark their orders above the roar of the ensuing mayhem. This is the incredibly immersive world we have come to know and love from Creative Assembly’s Total War series and Napoleon: Total War definitely delivers on this stellar reputation.

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Begin with an existing hugely popular franchise: Command and Conquer is known and loved throughout the gaming world for its unique mixture of futuristic RTS game play, three wonderfully unique factions and for its entertaining live action cut scenes. It has also given us one of the most famous bald-headed baddie ever, Kane.

Now with this groundwork and huge fan base firmly in place one would think that making this fourth and final instalment, Command and Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight, would be a cinch and that it would be virtually impossible for this game to be anything but a huge success. Unfortunately the game designers at EA have shown us that if you put your mind to it, nothing is impossible.

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Company of Heroes, which graced our computer screens back in 2006, can definitely been seen as the Mac-Daddy of real-time strategy games. Relic Entertainment’s World War II based masterpiece managed to breathe new life into the genre by providing the player with new levels of realism through units that really felt “alive.” In 2007’s Opposing Fronts we continued to see our armies diving for cover and constantly looking for Jerry. This time, however, they had two extra campaigns to do it in and it also offered the player two new playable factions. Tales of Valor offers the player three new mini campaigns and a smattering of additional units and game modes. While the base game still continues to shine, featuring wonderfully epic explosions with the occasional body part thrown in for good measure, I can’t stop thinking that this expansion just doesn’t offer its fair share of fresh meat.

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Demigod is a fast-paced hybrid role-playing/strategy game from Gas Powered Games. Players select hero Demigods, outfit them with numerous power-ups and potions and unleash them in team based mayhem. Each team has a base to defend, the ability to spawn minions to fight on their behalf, flags to capture and gold to mine. “But that sounds just like DotA!” I hear you say. Well, yes, because it is.

Being able to summarise a game, almost entirely, in four lines with space at the end for an unsuccessful attempt at humour can never be a good thing. And it’s this lack of depth that ultimately leaves Demigod falling short of what could have potentially been an outstanding title. For those of you still wondering what a “DotA” is, it’s an acronym for “Defence of the Ancients” - one the most popular and widely played mods for Warcraft III. So popular in fact that Swedish people write songs about it.

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Hammy acting? Check. Completely over the top story line involving time travel and/or mind control? Check. Tanks? Check. Tanks with Lasers? Check. Grizzly bears, dogs and dolphins with sonic wave devices? Check.

Fans of the Red Alert series will not be one bit surprised with the items on this list, it’s what we have come to love and expect from Red Alert games. In continuing with this tradition Red Alert 3 is a game that doesn’t try to be politically correct, doesn’t take itself seriously and is overflowing with cheesy goodness.

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I admit it. I have a soft spot for indie games. Now nothing says indie gaming like two brothers who go into business together to develop titles largely by themselves. Such is the case with brothers Tom and Simon de Rivaz who founded the London based SaintXi games studio in 2008. Despite having possibly one of the ugliest company logos I have ever seen, their debut game Light of Altair is a beautiful space economic and strategy title, surprisingly so, considering the size of the team involved and the selling price.

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I have to say that when I was asked to review Stormrise I was very excited. When I was told it was an RTS I was even more excited because I’m an RTS nut job. But the cherry on top of the cream on top of the pecan nut sundae was when I found out it was developed by Creative Assembly. I’m a massive fan of their work, having played every single total war game, from Shogun to Empire, and I was very excited to give Stormrise a go….but then a lone thought suddenly crept out of from the shadows of the back of my mind: “I wonder why I have never heard of this game before?” In fact a visit to their website reveals that the game isn’t even listed there…uh oh.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of Stormrise.