Just got in from Tesco and saw the new issue of PC Gamer UK, with a massive cover of MTW2. So, purchased it, read it and the general feeling of it follows:

(Reviewer was Tim Stone who is a strategy fan, so probably one of the better choices to review it.)

- Good words for the campaign, gave lots of credit to it's depth and the new features such as princesses marrying enemy generals, merchants and the role of the Pope.
- Says battles are "spectacular" and he pays credit to how good it looks when you zoom on in.
- Goes into a good bit of detail about the importance of the Pope, reinforcing pretty much everything we already know regarding excommunication, the autonomy of Inquisitors and issuing of missions. All informative and while no real new info there are a few bits you might find interesting to learn.

Few negatives were:

- During battles which he says are much slower affairs, both your units and the AIs are at times "dithering foolishly", seems to mean that they don't engage at will to the closest unit which surprises me as I'm sure I read it somewhere that they would auto engage but maybe I'm wrong, thought he does state that this may be because of Fear and Fatigue.
- Basically just says that the control and AI hasnt matched the advances of other aspects.

Overall the review is very positive, it acknowledges that the game is not the massive step that Rome was but he puts it over as being particularly good. If you get a chance to read the review do so as it has some very informative bits about select nations and has good summaries of pretty much every major aspect of the game. I'm very reassured by this review, Gamer staff typically are on the money with their views and this seems no different. I knew I was buyign the game anyway and this has helped reinforce that view.