Venisse: Hegemony Rome - The Rise Of Caeasar

I've been waiting for Hegemony Rome for a long time. Longbow's previous Hegemony game has endured long in the memory, even if I haven't played it for years now. Boasting an enormous map with seamless zooming from a broad imperial view to the details of the battlefield, it's the kind of RTS that I can get behind. The grand scale means that decisions rarely have to be made quickly and you won't need the world's fastest fingers to succeed - expect to plan around seasons rather than split seconds. When battle is joined, however, the pace and your pulse may quicken if you're a map-happy sort of person like myself.

The game is out now, following a stint in Early Access, and contains four campaigns based on Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico. There's also a sandbox mode, with more than a dozen playable factions, taking place on a map over a million square kilometers in size. That's bigger than all the GTA games put together but smaller than any game set in space.

I haven't played at all yet and am glad I resisted Early Access temptations. Time to get stuck in.