Recent reviews by BigFoot

Salve pedicatores et irrumators! When Total War: Rome II was released, the saying "Bella, Horrida Bella." Was very applicable; it was the buggiest mess of a soup sandwich that you could imagine. Certain mechanics such as having to defend several capture points in settlements otherwise lose the game if you lose only one of them were poorly conceived and terribly executed. This is only one example, there were many more. Then CA decided to take the original release version out back behind the cohort latrine and beat the ever loving stercore out of it. The result was a game that had unf-d itself and became half decent (This was the Emperor Edition we have now, but we still have craploads of evolution to go through). Fast forward a few years, and two rather important DLCs drop: Empire Divided, and Rise of the Republic. It's not the DLCs themselves which are important, but rather the free updates associated with them. The first update revamped the politics system, introduced the concept of seccessions and civil wars along with a loyalty system for other political parties and a mechanic that allows you to change your faction's government system - example being Roma and changing from a Republic to an Empire - and each govt system has its own pros and cons, while the second update put in a family tree system that allows you to better keep track of your familia and associates while giving you a ton of options for political actions so you can gain influence in the Senate (usually lowering the loyalty of the other parties) or manipulating members of other parties in the Senate in order to increase their loyalty, thus lowering the chances of a bellum civili. In short, the game has come a long way and is now "A fine addition to my collection" ;)

Latin translations:
Salve: (pronounced "SAL-we" where the e sounds like a Spanish e rather than an English one. V is always pronounced as a W) "hello", "greetings", and/or "salutations".
Pedicatores: ("PE-dee-cah-tor-es" vulgar) "sodomites"
Irrumators: ("eer-ROO-mah-tor-es" vulgar) think "a meal for two with a terrible view" but only one person is doing the sucking.
Bella: ("Bell" as in church bell, and "a" as in alive) "war"; derived from Bellona (pronounced the same as Bella, but with an "on" as in "is this thing on?"), the Roman goddess of war.
Horrida: "horrid", "horrible"
Stercore: (depending on context, can be vulgar) "pile of dung", or the acronym for "Store High In Transit" - a phrase that comes from merchant ships that had manure as cargo, where if the bilge water reached the bags of, well, stercore ;) , it would release methane gas. All it took was one stulte (fool, idiot, stupid person) with a lantern to walk into the ship's hold, and all of a sudden there's no more ship.
Bellum civili: (The "c" is a hard c, like a "k") "civil war"

this game defined my childhood. it was the first RTS i had ever had, and i got it when i was ten or something. i am now twenty, and to this day i still play it (albeit badly lol) and i think it is a must have for any pc gamer simply because of the nostalgia. while this game might not have the flashiest graphics on the market, the playing experience is second to none simply becaues of the intricate balance between the civilisations, and the variety of units, buildings, and technologies that all have an impact on the game to some extent. when i was younger my favorite strategy was to fully upgrade the seige rams and then load them with swordsmen, also fully upgraded, and send a ton of them at the enemy base. the infantry inside the rams provided a speed and attack bonus, and when a ram was destroyed, six units would pop out and get revenge for me. i don't know how well that would work against a real person, as on the retail version that i got the multiplayer capablitily was dissabled. in short, this is gaminging history right here, and even though it is a little old, it is still worth the buy. one would have to be snorting some funky stuff to pass Age of Empires II up. i know it has been a long review, and if you read this far, thank you. i'll see you all in a game lobby some time eh?

litterally one of the best games i have ever played. the land battles aren't that great, but who cares about land battles anyway. the real action is in space where X wings, TIE fighters, star destroyers, and many more ships do battle for supremacy.