Like the clouds of dust raised by an approaching army... it was easy to see the greatness of this title coming from miles away. Not only does Rome's developer Creative Assembly have an impressive track record with their two previous strategy classics, Shogun: Total War and Medieval: Total War, but my previous exposures to the game had me shaking my head in disbelief of its potential every time I saw it. (See THG's previous coverage here ).

Now that I have spent hours upon hours with the finished game, I have a terrible neck ache. I still watch the battles with a feeling of disbelief and shake my head in awe of the strategic depth of the empire-building campaigns.