Crush Them, Or Bribe Them...And Crush Them Later

Hey, we're gonna make more subtle and cute and everything. No, you're not. But like the old man said, who is the greater fool, the fool, or the fool who follows?

....

We tolerated too much mediocrity.

But I was always a big sucker for it, because I was curious-- always trying to find the perfect one, wants to know about all the different kinds.... wants to know if the variation really is slightly better.... ready to listen to technical arguments to the effect that it is.... yup, I was a sucker-- and, you know, I didn't really have enough else to do, somewhat.

.... And wow, they released the expansion in the *same year* as the original game (February, October-- 2006)-- and that was one of those things that I didn't pay attention to, if you know what I mean.... (By contrast, it took me a full year, over a year, to get around to expanding this review)

And what else was going on in 2006.... Steve Carell in "Little Miss Sunshine".... Season 8 (the penultimate, ultimately) of "King of Queens"-- well, in February, in October, they were in hiatus....

You know, we really did tolerate too much mediocrity in this stuff.... Even "Barbarian Invasion" didn't really improve "Rome: Total War", let alone this slop, to a game ('SW: Empire at War', just listen to it!), which is just a fun.... little ditty, in its better moments.

Just different enough, although with a hint of that throwaway quality, lol.

Yes.... we accepted much mediocrity, and rarely were our expectations exceeded.

(6/10)