Age of Empires II Definitive Edition ★★★ | Review

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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Sekigahara: The Unification of Japan ★★★★★ | Review

Japan was unified by three feudal lords. The first, Oda Nobunaga, spent twenty years bringing the nation under his power. After being betrayed, Toyotomi Hideyoshi governed for a decade before his death. The last one, Tokugawa Ieyasu, would create a dynasty after a military campaign lasting seven weeks. Matt Calkin’s Sekigahara: The Unification of Japan tells that story, in one of wargaming’s best and most elegant designs.

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