Heatwave Interactive recently released Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising, a massively multiplayer online game that's been in development since at least 2005, and it looks just as good as it looked back then. Unfortunately it's 2011 now.

Almost two millennia before the rest of humanity entered the industrial age, the Greek inventor Hero invented the steam engine, wind-powered machinery, and theories of light that couldn't be improved for centuries. And then he invented some really crazy stuff.

Rome. The Eternal City. Its elected leaders are the inheritors of a millennia-old tradition forming the basis of modern municipal and state government. Yet where senators once debated inside the august walls of the Curia, now city councillors play video games.

During its third quarter financial conference call, Ubisoft revealed that the next Assassin's Creed adventure would see Ezio revisiting Rome, taking the fight to the Templar, when he's not busy taking out his friends online.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun linked to this nice retrospective of Roman-themed games over the years, starting with Legionnaire (1982) and ending with Rome: Total War (2004). The series of musings includes wrap ups and discussion, strengths and weaknesses. I began my academic life as a classicist with a knack for lyric poetry…