

Despite the stiff competition offered by Westwood's Command & Conquer series and Blizzard's Warcraft line, Lords of the Realm II eclipses both and easily gets my nomination for strategy game of the year. The full version of this game is nothing short of awesome. Virtually everything is improved this time around: gameplay, graphics, siege and battle engines, audio and, well, everything. That's not the case in Sierra's sharp update to 1994's medieval strategy award-winner Lords of the Realm. Strategy games tend to focus on either micromanagement or massive battles, and no matter which one the game tends to focus on, the other almost always suffers.
