Medieval II: Total War

With Empire - Its young, more attractive relative -ready to drop anchor in early February, Medieval II: Total War has had its price slashed, presumably in order to entice holdouts who weren't bothered with revisiting post-Battle of Hastings Europe. Shame on you if this was the case.

Medieval II is easily as good as Rome: Total War and, in some ways, surpasses it by a country mile. The battles feel more epic and sprawling, the campaign is more engaging and, graphically, things are still damn sweet. Things weren't all rosy though when the game was first launched with bugs and the campaign Al being dumber than a village idiots' convention. Thankfully, most of these issues have been fixed through patches.

If you also happen to spot a copy the Kingdoms expansion lying around (it can be had for $6 online), you've got potentially hundreds of hours of gameplay. And there's a large modding community who offer plenty of unofficial expanded content.

Empire to arrives Medieval II is worth $10, especially if you don't relish the idea of gunpowder combat.