Empire: Total War

Playing videogames as a student is hard. Away from home, with very little money, I don't have much to play with. Living such a spartan existence, devoid of any modern console, is heartbreaking. I have my laptop, a trustworthy but not especially powerful creatue, and that is all. Making matters worse, my gaming PC at home is reaching the end of it's life, with almost all modern releases too demanding for it. No Fallout, no Far Cry, no Tomb Raider and no Dawn of War II for me.

Of course, it is not all bad. I am now old enough to stock up on all the classics I missed throgh ignorance and youth from the last generation. Great PS2 games that I can now go back at play, finding second hand for pennies. And it is not all ancient second hand games, for Valve do their part to try and make sure their games are playable for everyone, so that when I visit home I can while away hours facing down the zombie apocalypse with friends. And I still hold out some sembelance of hope that some upcoming games such as Starcraft will run on the PC at home, with the same hope applicable for The Sims. But there is only one game that I pray runs.

Empire: Total War. A strategy game with such wild ambitions it goes beyond my imagination. Attemptiong to encompass the warfare, revolution, and international diplomacy of the 19th century. A game where you send your pawns moving about a global chess-board before taking command of them in real-time, assembling the ranks of infantry, before harrassing the enemy flanks with cavalry and cutting them off with a well time naval engagement. I am so, very, very excited.

And yet, my confidence is broken. Will the demands of another modern game be more than my PC can bare. Will I have another box sitting on the self, waiting for the day that the technology I own makes it playable? Or will I find a game to sink hours into, to get lost inside, one which even runs off my laptop? I find out in March, and I have both fears and hopes for the answer.