Quote Originally Posted by LittleRaven
Maybe. But even if you believe that, Medieval was released in 2002. Shogun in 2000. What games were released in the past two years that were better than Rome? Are you seriously going to maintain that it's not one of the best games since 2003?

I can appreciate that you don't like it as much as its predecessors. I agree that in some ways it is weaker. (I don't think the AI is actually worse, but the system is more complex, so it seems worse.) But the game has its strengths as well. It's a very promising start for a new engine and I'm very hopeful about where the series could go from here. And at $50, it's still a heck of good entertainment value.
Lower the bar enough and squeeze the range enough and you can claim anything you want about it or any other game. I compare RTW to similar style games that I have and its own siblings. As for better games, Civil War Bull Run is much more interesting on the battlefield and at about $20 IIRC when I bought it, soon after release. It is actually an opponent worth playing. Haven't bought many others lately, I wasted a bunch of time on RTW, can't say that the game itself was satisfying. I did expand my knowlege of period warfare and history greatly trying to figure out why the game didn't give the right feel. That's hardly a ringing endorsement of a game...it made me want to acquire more history books instead of playing. In that regards it has been an extremely expensive purchase.