Interview by Matt S. I don’t think I’ve ever been this excited for an expansion to a game before, but the news that, among a host of other features, the upcoming Civilization VI: Gathering Storm expansion will include the native people of New Zealand – the Māori – as one…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. I would never have predicted that the Nintendo Switch would end up with a strategy game of the scale of Realpolitiks. World Conqueror X was pushing things far enough as a complete simulation of World War 2, but that was almost exclusively focused on the battlefield…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. For a series that has been kicking around since the original NES, Nobunaga’s Ambition has been truly impressive in how it has always managed to find ways to keep reinventing itself for those fans that have been with it from the start. Nobunaga’s Ambition: Taishi is…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. The rarest of rare – the absolute roc’s teeth – in console gaming is the grand strategy genre. There are so, so few attempts at bringing serious strategy games based on real-world conflicts that, as a fan of the genre but who doesn’t generally like playing…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. As a platform, the Apple iPad and other tablet devices are perfect for strategy games. The immediacy of interaction, through touching units and characters to direct them about, has an experiential element that helps strategy games as well, making you feel like an omnipresent commander with…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. When it rains, it pours. After years of missing out on Nobunaga’s Ambition and Romance of the Three Kingdoms games entirely, Koei Tecmo has now localised three hardcore strategy games in just two years. Hopefully they’ll prove successful, because this is a trend I can see…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. A couple of years ago I had all but given up on playing newer editions of Koei Tecmo’s serious strategy games. Both the Nobunaga’s Ambition and Romance of the Three Kingdoms franchises, which have been around for almost as long as games have been, stopped being…
Read MoreRetro Reflections by Nick H. I have had the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series on my mind a great deal of late. There are multiple reasons for that. Recently I wrote about a classic strategy/RPG hybrid Shining Force, so clearly the tactical genre is in the forefront of my…
Read MoreI absolutely love that the PlayStation 4 is developing a stable of simulation and serious strategy games, and already, just a couple of years into its life, it is doing better with these genres than almost any console that has come before it. Nobunaga’s Ambition and Tropico 5 are both…
Read MoreWhile the strategy genre is not for everyone, those who enjoy delving into meaty campaigns, playing with lots of options and sinking in hundreds of hours into an expertly paced historical game should come away incredibly pleased with what Nobunaga’s Ambition: Sphere of Influence has to offer. While this type…
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