Rome 2 looks amazing

Total War has always been a brilliant franchise. It combines the strategy elements of conquering provinces and continents with commanding your armies RTS style on the battlefield. Deceptively easy to get started, the Total War games are intricate and unbelievably challenging on higher difficulties. Less than 2% of players have beaten Shogun 2 on legendary.

Now I'm always one to get overly excited about new games that look promising. But Rome II looks phenomenal. The graphics are even better than Shogun, which is still one of the most intensive games out today. It looks like they are going fix all the crippling bugs that made Shogun 2 frustrating. I especially hope they sort out the multiplayer. Matchmaking online was buggy and it was horrendously difficult to even get into a game.

The Co-op campaign had better make a comeback, because conquering the world with a friend brings endless entertainment. I have a simple process to value the quality of a game and tell if I got my moneys worth. I consider one hour of fun worth $1-2. I have racked up an astonishing 311 hours online on Shogun 2, so I definitely got more than I paid out of it. If I get half as much time out of Rome 2, I am happy to pay the ridiculous price it's going to cost.

Sadly, it looks like Creative Assembly are going to pump out DLC packs to earn more money like they did with Shogun 2. It's a little shameful, but they don't cost too much.