Real-time Strategy articles, reviews and guides

Age of Empires II Definitive Edition ★★★ | Review

Posted on 14 November, 2023 By Erik Twice

Real-time strategy games got simpler over time. The genre, which combined base-building with action, began to focus exclusively on the latter. But during its golden age, it was possible to go in the opposite direction. Age of Empires II dared to add the features of civilization games to the pressure of real time tactics. Rough, unadulterated and, yet, beautifully remixed by its Definitive Edition; it delivers on its promise, though not without flaws.

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Gain Ground ★★★★

Posted on 22 January, 2021 By Erik Twice

Logarithmic action. That cryptic label was how Sega defined Gain Ground, their 1988 action-strategy hybrid. And the more I play it, the more accurate that description becomes in my mind. Gain Ground combines the cold logic of strategic planning with the fiery tradition of arcade action. It’s a wholly unique game, rewarding and often misunderstood.

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Nobunaga’s Ambition: Sphere of Influence ★★★★

Posted on 25 January, 2019 By Erik Twice

After the decade-long Ōnin War (1467-1477) ended without a clear victory, Japan fell into a state of constant war and conflict. With the power of the shogunate in tatters and the emperor relegated to a purely ceremonial role, local warlords known as daimyos fought over land and influence, hoping to reunify the nation under their power. It’s a romantic age, an era of change and turmoil in which a newly found meritocracy subverted a social order previously seen as untouchable. Amidst the might of tradition, the chaos of treachery and the smell of gunpowder, laid the opportunity to forever define a country and set its future for centuries to come.

Sphere of Influence, the fourteenth entry in the Nobunaga’s Ambition series, let’s you revive that opportunity.

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