Let’s face facts straight away; I’m a PC gamer. It’s been my main platform for many, many years and even though I have been getting into the 360 a lot recently (and, to a lesser extent, the Wii) I’m still a PC gamer at heart. A good thing too, because it actually sounds like it going to be quite a good year for the PC market. Gaming like Diablo III, Operation Flashpoint 2, Dragon Age are all looking pretty good, to name but a few, and show that there is still life in this supposedly “dead” system.

Strangely though, most of the games that I’m most excited about are from a genre that is still predominantly PC only. I’ve always loved strategy games, both turn based and real-time, and this year’s batch is looking very tasty indeed. Things like Starcraft II and Demigod are looking very promising but there are two others that I’m going to focus on here, mainly because I went out completely out of character and actually pre-ordered them. That may not seem like a big deal to many of you but for me it is very unusual. Before these two I can’t actually remember the last game I pre-ordered. It must have been years ago. Anyway, on to the games.

Dawn of War II 

Dawn of War II, the sequel to Relic’s massively successful Warhammer 40K title, is a game I’ve been waiting for with eager anticipation for many months. I have loads of happy memories of playing the tabletop version years ago so the franchise has always held a special place for me. The original Dawn of War’s mix of fast pace, tactical gameplay was great and consumed more hours of my life than I care to admit, so when I heard that a new one was being made the adrenaline really started to pump. It will be really interesting to see how the developers have shook things up, particularly with the lack of base building. I know that a lot of the purest are upset about that but I’m actually really excited to see how it works. I’ve always thought that style was more fitting for this universe anyway. I won’t have to wait long to find out at any rate, as the postman put it through the letter box about 10 minutes ago so once I’ve finished this I’ll be giving it a good shake down.

Empire: Total War

My anticipation for DOW II is but a fraction when compared to this however. I many have been waiting for DOW II for a few months but I’ve been anticipating Empire since 2002. Let me explain. The original Medieval: Total War was one of those defining games in my life. It showed a scale and scope which I had never seen before and the massive battles were captivating. It was truly epic and I loved it for that. It was also the first game I ever modded as well and there was one in particularly by the name of “Napoleonic: Total War” which really stood out. It was developed by a team known as the Lordz and focused on of the rise and fall of Napoleon during the late 18 and early 19 centuries. Being the sad history loving freak that I am this mod was extremely engrossing. The level of care and detail that they put into it was breathtaking and really caught my imagination as few games ever had before. I started wondering what would happen if an official game was ever made and as the series started to evolve with Rome and Medieval 2 those hopes kept building. Finally, almost six years later, Empire was announced and my excitement levels went through the roof. The more I saw of it the more I wanted to get my hands on it. It’s been a real obsession over the past year, as sad as that may sound. I know that there are a lot of people who are rather lukewarm about it because of its complexity, scale and general bewildering qualities but it’s for those reasons that I’m so eager to try it. As soon as it was available I pre-ordered it because unless the reviews are absolutely devastating I can’t see any reason why I would wait. I’m not a religious man but I’m praying with every fibre of my being that this will be everything that the developers claim it will. They have certainly been hyping it up, but any man and his dog can talk a big game but the proof is in the pudding. Creative Assembly hasn’t let me down yet though so I’ll keep the faith. not long to wait now! :)

I could write pages and pages about Empire but I’ve waffled on far too long already. :) I’ll try and keep my entries shorter from now on.

Thanks for reading!