Rome: Total War

Rome: Total War is such an improvement over its predecessors that it's my new strategy game of choice. The shorter, more digestible campaigns and the intense immediacy of the battles have made it hard for me to drag myself away long enough to get this review written; the more I write about it, the more I want to play it.

If you're looking for a complex, addictive, conquer-the-world campaign, you can look forward to the imperial campaign, which is good for countless hours of gameplay all on its own. Meanwhile, if what you want are realistic, cinematic-style battles, you can dive into the historical battles or the skirmish or multiplayer modes, or have the computer manage all the details in the campaign and just join the battles. And if you're looking for both, then you'll probably find Rome: Total War to be perfectly sublime blend of the two.

Rome: Total War masterfully blends two complete games: a turn-based strategy game steeped in history and a real-time strategy centerpiece that is more tactical battlefield simulator than game. The turn-based half enables you to manage everything in the strategic theater (like the board game Risk on steroids), but the battlefield is where the action happens.