Strategy

Many's the day I spent in my childhood trying to combine my two favorite things: Card games and Chess. I never quite succeeded. When I first fired up The Wild Kingdoms for review, I found that I was clearly not the only one who had ever dreamed of combining these two disparate genres. But is The Wild Kingdoms everything I dreamed of?

If you’ve ever looked through the papers, hoping to find a shred of explanation as to why politicians act the way they do, knowing full well that you could do a far better job, Masters of the World is for you. It’s the third in Eversim’s geo-political simulator series, and while other games task you with ruling the world or coming to an uneasy peace with every other nation, in Masters of the World you’ll make difficult decisions, work to jumpstart the economy and still struggle to get into the people’s good books. Forget Civilisation; if you truly want to ...

Football Manager 13 was released last September, just in time to cause poor exam results up and down the country this year. A crown I’m sure it was keen to keep from last year, as the Football Manager series has always been a favourite of the side-tracked student turned PC gamer. Some have even called it an addiction, but will this year’s instalment keep you hooked?

There has been a distinct lack of business sims these past few years. While Theme Park and its ilk bring back happy memories for those old enough to remember them, something about the genre has led to it disappearing almost completely, and when it does show up it’s usually watered down on mobile devices. Arcadecraft hopes to change that by lettings fans control their very own arcade at the height of their popularity in the eighties. Pick which games you want to be available, how much to charge, how difficult they are and a whole host of other options, all ...

It took an awful long time and a lot of legal wrangling with Blizzard for Valve to be able to call their new game DotA 2, but that’s what it is. In terms of spirit and content, this is the follow-up to the top Warcraft 3 mod that started a genre and remains popular to this day. Although the characters and maps aren’t a million miles away from those available in, for instance, League of Legends, it’s the unique polish and the effort placed into graphics and gameplay that really make DotA 2 a game worth checking out.

Omerta – City of Gangsters had a lot of promise. It’s developed by the same people that make the endlessly fun Tropico series and promises a Gangster-based strategy game, not really something we’ve seen since the sequel to the Eidos classic Gangsters: Organized Crime. The incredibly high price point at least hints at the idea that Omerta has been worked on to the level that’s deserving of that amount of money. Gangster Sims are criminally overlooked and I’m sure there’s a market for them. Unfortunately, Omerta has probably put off any of that market taking ...

Guardians of Middle-Earth is the first MOBA game made specifically for consoles and the first set in the Lord of the Rings universe. That alone would make it worth playing, but the fact that it’s a big part of PlayStation+ (or that it’s going to be, depending on your location) should push that excitement over the edge. Good or bad, this is a title that is part of MOBA history and as MOBA is one of the most popular genres in the world right now, that’s a pretty big deal.

Star Craft 2: Wings of Liberty, is part one of three planned expansion packs to be released by Blizzard over the next following years, allowing the gamers to play the story from completely different races. Just like its predecessor, Star Craft 2’s universe revolves are the classic races. The ancient and intelligent alien race, the Protoss, the hive creatures, the Zerlings who are controlled by their queen, Sarah Kerrigan and the exiled race of humans known as the Terrans, who take the central focus of the first Starcraft 2 release.