Stronghold 2 (PC Games, 2005)

I bought this game a few days ago and can hardly drag myself away! I have always been a fan of RTS(real time stratagy) games such as the Age of Empires series and I must say that Stronghold 2 can run with the best of them. It was a nice change of pace from the other games in it's genre. Most mideville warfare RTS games concentrate on building huch armies of foot soldiers and marching them against other huge armies of foot soldiers and hoping that your army was bigger than the other guys army while sitting back and enjoying the fireworks. Stronghold 2, however, richly immerses you in the life of a feudal age lord. You must command you pesants to collect food to support your growing population, gather resources to expand your glorious castle, clean up the wastes that come as a side effect of eating and the vermin that are attracted by it. Hold feasts, dances, jousts and shows to increase your honor. Then, once you have a thriving economy and an invincible keep, you march grand armies of knights and pikemen against an opposing castle that is just as invincible as your own. Using advanced seige equiptment like balista and trebuchet, and supporting your laddermen with scores of archers, you overcome the flaming rolling logs ang ths falling rocks (not to mentain a rain of arrows from the tops of the towers). The 3D views are great! You really can see what ever you want, from any angle, and in increadible detail! I would certaintly say, if you haven't played it, you are missing out on a great game!