The Dynasty Warriors franchise is huge, really huge and not just in the amount of copies sold but increasingly the amount features in game as well as the amount of warriors on screen.

Family Friendly Gaming routinely explains why physical copies of games are better than digital downloads. If you download Dynasty Warriors 8 Xtreme Legends, you will need 23 gigs of room on your Playstation 3. And you will need to make sure you are not going over the download limit with your ISP.

My little empire.

Plenty of depth; Satisfying combat; Seriously a lot of depth

Horrifically difficult to penetrate; Vague tutorials

Despite my many praises for the core Dynasty Warriors games, most recently being Dynasty Warriors 8 XTREME LEGENDS Complete Edition , there are still many players who dismiss the games for their repetitive nature.

Ever since 2004, the Dynasty Warriors franchise has regularly received two spin-offs for its numbered main entries - Xtreme Legends and Empires . Xtreme Legends can be considered a more standard expansion pack, generally including new characters, weapons, moves, and game modes.

Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires is a predictable expansion that ingrains deep strategy and customisation into the main game's hack and slash combat. It's overwhelming for the uninitiated, but the vast customisation ensures fans will get out what they put in – but that in itself is a point of contention.

+ Heaps of customisation; + Decent strategy elements; + Up to the player to make a good experience for him/herself

- Hideous presentation/visuals; - Boring combat that lacks impact; - Still too repetitive; - Overwhelming introduction; - Same old stuff

Strategic, fast-paced, and incredibly wacky.

Almost exactly the same features as Dynasty Warriors 7 Empires, and although it's still more entertaining than the main game the lack of effort put in is downright insulting.

The strategy elements help to make the core game a lot more interesting, and at the ruler level the options are fairly involved; Edit mode is quite powerful

The strategy elements are the same as the last game and Dynasty Warriors 8 is a poor foundation for any spin-off, with shallow combat and last gen visuals; Only one new character

Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires Price: System(s): PS4 (Also available for Xbox One, PC) Release Date: February 24, 2015 Publisher (Developer): Koei Tecmo (Omega Force) ESRB Rating: "Teen" for Violence, Alcohol Reference, and Mild Suggestive Themes I honestly can't remember the last time I played an...

Ever since the Empires spin-off for Dynasty Warriors were introduced back with Dynasty Warriors 4 , the series has been following a stable pattern for each numbered title. You get the main entry, in this case the great Dynasty Warriors 8 .