I bought myself a new laptop about four months or so ago. It has reasonable game capability with a decent graphics card and processor. I haven't played a PC game for a long, long time and used to love the old strategy games, especially 'Age of Empires'. So I was looking for something similar and predictably ended up with the latest Age of Empires game 'The War Chiefs'. This is a 'back up' DVD and has the earlier games plus the new one. Anyway it turns out that they all work fine except the new one which asks for codes before starting. Thats the end of that idea.

So, I am looking for a similar game to this to play. I played 'Tiberium Sun' on my 360 to the point of being stuck, so not that one. I would prefer something based on reality rather than Sci-fi, but any suggestions noted.

Sim City franchise, Europa Universalis, Civilization, Medieval: Total War, Rise of Nations, Command and Conquer.

I hope I won't get banned but it is actually fairly easy to get around the registration codes, a quick "Google" should do the trick.

hannos answer was spot on.

both parts of his answer.

feel free to PM me (and/or presumably hanno?) for more info.

Regards,

Kayo.

Total War series gets my vote. One of the best games out there and Empire is out soon.

I second the vote on the Civilization series.

Having read all the stellar reviews for Total War:Empire I'd say that this will be the strategy game to beat for this year

Can't wait to play it (comes on 2 DVDs so will be a HUGE install!)

The "stronghold" series is good in this genre.

"Civ IV" or "Company of Heroes" would get my vote, I played Anno 1404 and that was quite good fun.

yeah, you can get Civilisation IV game - great strategy game and provides years of fun!

PC strategy games are one of my hobbies, here are the best imho :

- Age Of Wonders Shadow Magic

- Civilization IV

- Heroes of might and magic V

Have fun

I second the vote on the Civilization series.

me too !

possibly the best strategy game ever

(if your PC doesn't support the newer ones, the 'old' versions are still amazing )

Thirded for Civ4. Easily the most engaging turn based game ever made. You can replay it so many times!