Assassins Creed II is such an improvement over the original game which, while fun to explore and leap around, had not much to actually do except the core assassinations.

This adds apart from new weapons and an obvious new era to go around in, a good set of side missions and extra things to do. I explored everything and it was amazing fun for moderate periods of time. You can make things more difficult with self-imposed ways of doing the missions too. There are also additional tombs you need to complete which usually are much more about jumping then combat or stealth.

The fighting is pretty reasonable; timed counter moves, varieties of weapons. Still pretty easy and no difficulty select anywhere to be found.

The improvements to the writing are also welcomed since there are a ton of cutscenes. Bad guys are villianous and evil! Good guys are nice and humorous! You can ignore it being "a recreation of the past via. DNA" if you so wish. Seeing historical figures talk is great fun!

Dawn of War still holds up as a fun, fast paced RTS game today. The multiplayer is perhaps improved in Dark Crusade so I'll discuss the singleplayer campaigns.

The original campaign is lax, ultimately pretty boring except for the odd exception. It is essentially a tutorial for playing the game and specifically the Space Marines. It also is a prelude to all the later Blood Ravens stuff in Dawn of War 2.

However the Winter Assault campaign really shines above all others; this has so many inventive additions and interesting objectives that it shines above almost any other RTS game's past and present. Frankly unless it is an open world RTS (ala Total War) more games should have fluid changing between multiple sides on one map, maps with multiple optional objectives, each mission being drastically different yet retaining the core RTS elements!

The writing is good, a plot that makes sense with armies acting much more in character then most of the time. Brilliant fun!

Random weapon loot, fast paced action against pretty dumb opponents - this is a game best played with another friend, or preferably 3, since you get a much more lively game (it gets harder) - especially since you can revive each other in battle.

The vistas and enemies do end up being pretty varied and you can find some tough fights. Luckily not much corridor cover shooting, just blasting enemies more Serious Sam style, ducking out of combat to heal up your shields.

Graphics, sound and controls are all reasonable to good. Cell shading works, and once the PC config files are altered a wee bit you can remove the awful feeling of sludge movement your mouse might otherwise have.

I've not finished all the DLC packs as of writing but they're entertaining expansions of simply just "more" - more levels, enemies and levelups. If you enjoyed the original game you'd enjoy them simply put. If you really enjoyed the original game, you can play through more times against levelled up enemies.