The new campaign is set just after the death of Julius Ceasar, with Octavian, Mark Antony, Lepidus and Pompey's son Sextus all vying for control of the Republic. Benefiting from several updates, bolstered by the new Imperator Augustus expansion and now titled as the Emperor Edition, Total War: Rome 2 has filled out. The enemy reinforcements aren't here yet? What a shame. While Rome 2 can't be given a wholly clean bill of health, it's in better shape than it was at release, when I wrote Eurogamer's original Total War: Rome 2 review. It was a bit of a pain, as a number of things in Total War: Rome 2 are a bit of a pain, but it didn't really get in the way of my continental ambitions and, more importantly, it didn't stop me from enjoying myself. None of the time controls worked until a crash to desktop had me restarting the game. A journey back through the main menu allowed me to rescue my destiny courtesy of an autosave, and so this didn't become one of those stories of how a kingdom was lost for want of a snack, but I did face a compromise. When I came back, everything all browned and buttered, Total War: Rome 2 refused to unpause. My lunch popped up and so I paused the pitched battle I was waging with another local tribe - a pivotal battle where I had a numerical advantage, but nevertheless had to press home my assault. The Getae civilisation was nearly destroyed by two slices of toast.
