Medieval II: Total War Kingdoms

For those who are into the real-time battles (I was bored of them long before I grew tired of the campaign), the game boasts a new unit count somewhere over 100, but I suspect most players will parse everything as "weak infantry," "strong artillery," or "shoots arrows" anyway -- even when they're hurling hornets' nests or javelins instead. I suppose someone out there might be paying close attention to all the stats of the varying units, so they know what separates one spearman from the next -- but for me, Medieval II already has enough numbers to worry about.

"On the whole, instead of messing with the familiar basic gameplay mechanics, Creative Assembly decided to deliver as much fresh content as possible, which means you'll be busy with the game for quite some time. Each campaign provides a unique experience and we fully recommend the game to fans of the series. Some of the drawbacks mentioned earlier, thankfully, haven't spoiled the overall experience."

"That I'm showing this much unvarnished excitement over the pack with a month and a half until release is proof of that this is looking like something special. The only possible bugbear is that the campaigns becoming increasingly buggy past the early stages (I've only got into the mid-game in the Crusades pack, which showed no problems). Since Creative Assembly's record is hardly clean on that point, that's a relatively large possible bugbear. If that's not true...well, if there's a better add-on pack this year, then...well, I'll be incredibly glad. But also surprised."

"This great new expansion offers a significant amount of new content for veteran Medieval II players."

"In the end, players who know and love Medieval II won't be dissuaded by the annoyances present in Kingdoms. Minor pathfinding errors and a gameplay mode most will never touch can't possibly compare with the chance to run a Crusade, face down pagan warriors, beat back the Irish or battle a blood-thirsty horde of Aztecs looking for sacrifices. The Creative Assembly team knows what Total War fans want, and the huge amount of new content found in Kingdoms is it."