Tim Stone reports:
''Jim Ansell, the father of Total War, falls out with Creative Assembly's new owners Sega and leaves to form an indie outfit. His studio's first release is a thrilling thirteenth century wargame that runs Cantabrian rings round Medieval II. Reviewers love it. Punters love it. Even people that don't like it love it. A fierce and fruitful rivalry is born. Ah, if only. In truth this doppelganger was made by a gang of Russians, and, though diverting, isn't half the game Medieval II is. Well, actually in one sense it is half the game Medieval II is. Unicorn Games have basically recreated the real-time battling bit of Creative Assembly's latest and greatest. They'd probably claim they left out the map-based grand strategy so they could focus on the fighting. We suspect they were planning another layer, but bottled out once they realised how much toil was involved.''
