Earlier this month, we asked you to vote for your favourite strategy games of all time to celebrate the launch (and glorious return) of several strategy classics this month, including Relic's WW2 RTS Company Of Heroes 3, Blue Byte's The Settlers: New Allies and Cyanide's fantasy Warhamball Blood Bowl 3. And cor, I've never seen such love for individual expansions and total conversion mods among mainline RTS games and 4Xs. As with all strategy games, however, there can only be one victor - and you can find out what that single strategy game to rule them all is right here. Here are your 50 favourite strategy games of all time, as voted for by you, the RPS readership.
]]>Strategy games is an enormous genre in PC gaming, with real-time, turn-based, 4X and tactics games all flying the same flag to stake their claim as the one true best strategy game. Our list of the best strategy games on PC covers the lot of them. We like to take a broad view here at RPS, and every game listed below is something we firmly believe that you could love and play today. You'll find 30-year-old classics nestled right up against recent favourites here, so whether you're to the genre or want to dig deep for some hidden gems, we've got you covered. Here are our 50 best strategy games for 2023.
]]>If last week's chat about Total War Saga: Troy has got you itching to dip into The Creative Assembly's back catalogue of Total War games, you're in luck, as Humble are holding an entire week of Total War deals right now. With savings of up to 75% in some cases (plus a very tasty 25% off last year's excellent Total War: Three Kingdoms), there's plenty to get excited about. So let's sharpen those deals swords and dive on in, shall we?
]]>Saddle up, Samurai. Total War: Shogun 2 is blowing the battle horn—or bashing the giveaway gong, rather. This week you can snag the war strategy sim set in feudal Japan for free because Creative Assembly (and everyone else) would like you to stay home and play video games if you're able instead of frolicking about in public during the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic. Alongside the giveaway, a handful of other Total War games are going on sale.
]]>Another game giveaway joins the fray amidst the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, imploring you to stay home and do your warring indoors. You can have as many strategic samurai battles as you like if you grab Total War: Shogun 2 next week while it's free for keepsies. Some other Total War games will join it on the front line, going on sale for a week instead of entirely free.
]]>2012’s Total War: Shogun 2 – Fall of the Samurai DLC has been renamed as Total War Saga: Fall Of The Samurai and re-released.
]]>According to an ancient Sussex proverb, there are as many factions in the 20-year-old Total War series as there are sand grains on a beach, as there are angels dancing upon the head of a pin, as there are grenadiers in the armies of his Imperial Majesty Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, King of Italy, Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, Co-Prince of Andorra. This is providing, of course, the answer in each case is “between 100 and 200, depending on whether you include the DLC and think Sicily is a real country.”
From stinky hill tribes through trim Teutonic phalanxes to bawling rivers of undead, Total Warring has certainly come in all shapes and sizes. At a recent hands-on event for Total War: Three Kingdoms, a heinous idea occurred to me: why not confuse and upset all the developers in attendance (plus a couple more over email) by asking them to pick a favourite faction? The results, which involved surprisingly few headbutts, are below.
]]>Total War has been enjoying its time among the greenskins and the undead, but we've been waiting to see exactly which period it'd land in when it returns to its historical roots for its next major installment. Now the answer is here. Total War: Three Kingdoms.
The year is 190CE. China is in turmoil. The Han Dynasty crumbles before the child-emperor. He is but a figurehead; a mere puppet for the tyrant warlord Dong Zhuo. It is a brutal and oppressive regime, and as Dong Zhuo’s power grows, the empire slips further into the cauldron of anarchy... Only one thing is certain: the very future of China will be shaped by its champions. Total War: Three Kingdoms is the next major historical strategy game in the award-winning Total War series.
This is both unexpected and precisely the kind of setting I was hoping for. A mostly self-contained conflict with a clear end-goal and set of factions. The trailer follows.
]]>Total War might have been away in the land of elves and orcs for a while now, but it hasn't forgotten its historical roots. In fact, Creative Assembly are working on three historical Total War games: one is an expansion to an older title, one is a spin-off of sorts called a Saga, and the biggest of the lot is set in an entirely new era. New to Total War, that is. Being historical it will definitely be something old. A big blog post today gives some hints as to what we can expect and I'm just going to come right out and say one word: Vikings.
]]>At its best, the Total War series casts a spell over you. Your empire rises from nothing, surrounded by enemies who are poised to trample it into the dust. Each decision on the strategic level is a gamble on the immediate future, where "one more turn" isn't just a stepping-stone to a new upgrade, but a perilous step onto thin ice. Each time you take to the battlefield is another do-or-die moment, a possible Hastings or Austerlitz that can open the road to conquest or plunge you into a desperate fight for survival.
But the Total War series has also been defined by massive, abrupt swings in quality. While the series has been on a linear trajectory in terms of graphics, the quality of the games underlying those vivid battlefield vistas has varied wildly. Total War at its best is interactive Kurosawa and Kubrick. At its worst, it's a middle-school history textbook as told by Drunk History and filmed by the cast and crew of The Patriot.
So before the series (temporarily) leaves history behind for the grimdark faux-history of Warhammer fantasy, let's put into order the times that Total War was at its best… and why sometimes its lows were so very low. We'll save the worst for last, because if there's one thing that every Total War fan loves, it's an argument over which games were the biggest disappointments.
]]>Love of history starts with a love of good stories. The complexity and doubt come later, when you have heard the same stories so many different ways that the veneer of the Great Men narrative starts peeling away from the foundations of messy, conflicting fact. But that love of a good story never really goes away.
Nobunaga's Ambition: Sphere of Influence [official site] succeeds or fails based on your willingness to hear, and take part in, just such a story. There's a storybook quality to this game that can prove disarming and captivating even as the game itself can sometimes be so repetitive and straightforward that at times it plays almost like a Facebook strategy game. Like its title character, who scarcely has time for anything but his plans for national unification, Nobunaga's Ambition has its gaze fixed on the great themes of its era: warfare, diplomacy, family, and betrayal. It's a little hazy on the details of economy, foreign policy, and tactics.
]]>You've been told plenty about Total War: Rome II, but you haven't seen all that much of it. Not in living colour, full motion, high-resolution video with digital sound and smellovision. How the heady scent of historical battle fills my nostrils! It's just like my office is filled with sweaty Roman loincloths. But then again, when isn't it?
These narrated 11 minutes of man-stabbing cover the same scenario our Jim reported on from GDC - which is to say the battle of Teutoburg forest, in which a bunch of German chaps rather unexpectedly gave three Roman legions what for.
]]>The videogames industry isn't all sexualisation, lies and Doritogates, you know. Sometimes nice things happen because they are nice things. Case in point, the Creative Assembly giving a fan with not long to live a chance to play pre-alpha Rome 2 code, advise on its development and be recreated as a proud soldier of the Roman empire in-game. Tragically, the chap did not survive his battle with cancer, but this seems a touching memorial.
]]>You can't make this stuff up. Well, I mean, I suppose it's technically possible. I could tell you, right now, that the puck from Ricochet will be getting its own talk show on Adult Swim this fall. But is it really that much more preposterous than a Football Manager (no, not player) plying some variety of ball-based voodoo magic in Sonic And All Stars Racing: Transformed? With Team Fortress 2's Heavy, Spy, and Pyro, and Shogun: Total War 2's, er, Shogun in tow, no less? Here, though, is the absolute craziest part of all: The blue-blur-themed kart racer's apparently kind of amazing.
]]>Creative Assembly invited key members of its modding community to its Horsham based headquarters last month for a secret meeting. Seated around a conference table, modders looking over at developers whose work we had been rummaging around in for years, one question was on everyone’s mind: Why?
We now know what they were planning to announce: the Assembly Kit for Shogun 2, a full modding suite combined with full Steam Workshop support. After a short round of applause from the modders, there was one more question: What on earth took you so long?
]]>Modding's been a bit of a sore spot for Total War fans in recent times, but Creative Assembly - to its credit - has spent the past few months fixing up that rather glaring crack in its series' armor. And certainly, Total War: Shogun 2's dedicated (and not-entirely-uninituitive) map editor was a nice start, but people demanded more. More breadth, more tools, more tiny virtual ant men throwing away their tiny virtual ant lives in the name of history. So Creative Assembly listened. Specifically, Shogun 2's now packing full Steam Workshop support, some seriously upgraded map-making tools, and a brand new "Assembly Kit." Find out about all the new ways you can make sweet, sweet war to your friends after the break.
]]>"The world is so crazy that it is considered 'controversial' to call for an end to people killing each other, but not to make money from selling video games about Total War." This is why former TV sports pundit and nemesis of the giant lizards that secretly control society, David Icke, is very cross that he's not been allowed to use a piece of music from Total War in his stage shows. While the notorious Icke might have become a lecturer on all manner of conspiracy theory-based socio-political topics since his, uh, awakening, he's unlikely to ever escape the lizard-shaped albatross that he hung around his own neck back in 1999. Or the thing about being the son of God. Or the thing about how we're all being remote-controlled by the moon. Or the thing about how Bush, Blair, the Queen and chums are holograms.
Or... well, anyway, SEGA/CA own the rights to 'anti-war song' We Are All One by Angela & Jeff van Dyck (as used in Medieval: Total War II), which Icke had hoped to use in his upcoming talk/show at Wembley, 'Remember Who You Are.' They've since blocked this from happening.
]]>That's as in "A Row With Saints", of course. You won't see Johnny Gat downing a beer with Musashi in the new Total War: Shogun 2: Saints and Heroes Elite Unit Pack, as much as that would shake things up. Nor are there any latex nuns, unless they're just hiding.
With this DLC pack, you will however get the likes of Tadakatsu’s Tetsubo Warriors ("As strong as Oni"), Hanzo's Shadows ("Can climb walls very fast"), Gozen’s Hime Heroines ("Excellent morale") and The Spears of Shizugatake ("Vulnerable to Yari and Naginata") fighting for you on the battlefield. There may even be a trailer to show off what this looks like...
]]>I came, I saw, I previewed Total War: Rome II. I also chatted to Total War series lead designer James Russell about the enduring appeal of the Roman Empire, how it's possible to control a wargame on this kind of scale, introducing a human element to the game's soldiers and politickers, and branching storylines on the campaign map. This is part one of a two-part interview - more tomorrow.
RPS: I guess my immediate question is the complexity of controlling something that’s so much bigger. Does it feel, when managing all these units, like a big step up, or is it more about the amount of soldiers within each troop?
]]>Most of the internet knew the nature of the Creative Assembly's next Total War game as of last week, but as a man of honour I have ignored the leaks and waited to mention it until I could tell you about it properly. Onwards then, and to battle... 'Big' would be the obvious word. "Enormous" is probably a slightly better one. "Bugger me, what an awful lot of soldiers and boats and increasingly demolished buildings that is" would be a more accurate summary of my thoughts at the time of seeing Rome: Total War II. "My deepest sympathies to anyone else currently working on a historical real-time strategy game" would be my thoughts now.
]]>It's apparently DIY Day in the gaming industry. First, ShootMania came down with a case of BetaMania and indulged in TrailerMania to celebrate. And now, Creative Assembly's seen fit to lunch Total War: Shogun 2's long-awaited map editor. (Yes, two semi-related events apparently qualifies them for "day" status. It actually makes perfect sense because... shut up.) Simply titled The Editor - which has somewhat amazingly been designated "Ted" for short by Creative Assembly - it's described as "a powerful tool that enables users to alter terrain type and height, and comprises libraries boasting hundreds of unique battlefield props, such as trees, buildings, railway lines and coastal batteries." The Editor is also, of course, free, so simply venture over to Steam's tools section and chant a few incantations to summon the fearsome Might of Ted. Alternatively, if you'd like to hear a bit more about Creative Assembly's future plans for mapmaking and ease-of-use, head past the break. But beware, you may incur the Wrath of Ted by doing so.
]]>Dan fights against the inexorable tides of history to bring traditionalism back to the the Japanese archipelago. Part One. Part Two. And now:
Months have passed. Togichi and Fukushima have become relative havens of tranquility - but Hitachi is a permanent wreck; I’ve fought at least a battle there every month, the first three months recapturing it from another rebel force I bribed into existence to kill off the Jozai, and then twelve months of defending it from the huge armies of new enemies; Odawara and Nagaoka, who have changed sides to Imperial, ostensibly to piss off the shogun, but mainly from realpolitik, and Kakegawa.
]]>Dan Gril returns to continue his inevitably doomed attempts to restore traditionalism to an increasingly modernised Japan in Total War: Shogun 2: Fall of The Samurai. Here's part 1 in case you missed it.
It’s misty out there. A thick old pea souper soaking into the old Japanese wood. Did you know that a Japanese wood called Aokigahara is the world’s second worst suicide hotspot (after the Golden Gate Bridge)? Apparently, the police have a yearly trawl of the forest for any bodies they’ve missed. It’s got so bad that they’ve stopped publishing the numbers, for fear of encouraging people.
Anyway, knowing that makes me feel much worse. Somewhere in the fug of this digital wood is a huge rebel army, comprising about 1500 gunners and 200 sabre-toting horsemen, all after my blood.
]]>Dan has been playing through Total War: Shogun 2 - Fall of the Samurai for us. Here’s the first diary of his attempts to restore traditionalism to an empire heading towards modernisation: a tale of betrayal, Fukushima and Project Gutenberg.
]]>It's a weekend, it's sunny, and that means you should stay indoors playing videogames. Or reading about videogames. Either really, just stay indoors no matter what. Another way you could do that is by entering our competition to win an Alienware M11X R3 gaming laptop, courtesy of the men of war at The Creative Assembly. They've just this week released expandalone Total War: Shogun 2 - Fall of the Samurai, which moves the setting 400 years on from the original game and brings semi-modern weaponry as well as America, Britain and France into the fray, and they'd jolly well like to celebrate it by giving one RPS reader one of these 11" ultraportable gaming notebooks. It comes equipped with an Intel Core i5 brain, 4GB of remembering power and GeForce GT 540M graphicsability. Four runners-up can have a Steam key for a Total War game of their choice.
]]>The British Academy Video Game Awards took place on Friday night and Portal 2 was awarded highest honours, taking home little gold faces not only for Best Game, but also for Story and Design. Congratulations to Valve, who by this point must be making plans to put up some new shelves of award-bearing load strength. The popular vote went to Battlefield 3, which also won awards for Online Multiplayer and Audio Achievement.
The full list is celebrating after the jump.
]]>Fall of the Samurai, a standalone expansion for Shogun 2, is the most modern Total War game yet – and quite possibly one of the most fascinating. It’s the tale of what happened when Japan met the West – where the industrial revolution and social turmoil that had been brewing in other nations for centuries was suddenly played out in the space of twenty years. “We’ve never really done anything quite like this.” explains Lead Battle Designer Jamie Ferguson as he sets out the stall for his project. “It’s all of the periods we’ve ever done, piled into one game. It shows you how truth is stranger than fiction. We’re making a game that has gatling guns and samurais, then ironclads with torpedoes fighting against wooden warships with archers…”
]]>Videogames can expand now? Whatever is going on? And they can do it alone? I shall call this... EXPANDALONE! (You know, the last time I went on about how utterly brilliant that word is, the guy who coined it got in touch. He is my hero.) Shogun 2: Total 2 War Shogun is doing this some more, with the addition of Fall Of The Samurai: Total Shogun: War, and as further proof they've released a new video of non-game footage, and some shots: screen, which are by far the most ludicrously watermarked images I have seen in over a decade of doing this nonsense.
]]>What kind of game would be appropriate for the first day of Christmas on a gaming site dedicated to PC gaming? Something intelligent. Something with a modicum of resource management? Perhaps! But certainly something with a sense of history. Let's peek behind the first door on our Amazing™ Advent Calendar and found out what the first of our favourite games of 2011 actually is...
]]>I love saying "expandalone". Say it out loud. Sometimes those cute little terms that spring up can be nauseating, but expandalone is the best. EXPANDALONE! Creative Assembly have announced an EXPANDALONE for Total War: Shogun 2, called Fall Of The Samurai.
]]>Have you heard of Total War Shogun 2? I think it's a rip-off of that new Paradox game, but with bigger battles. Will Porter played the latest DLC for it - Rise Of The Samurai - for us a couple of weeks back, and now there's the first trailer for the DLC, which I've hidden from enemies below.
]]>Last week we sent Will Porter to The Creative Assembly to find out about their forthcoming campaign DLC for Shogun 2. These are his findings.
Shogun 2 Total War wasn’t fascinating for its campaign map politics and tactical intricacies alone. To my mind - a mind squeezed through an entirely western-orientated educational cookie-cutter - a primary draw was olden-time Japan itself. My own historical knowledge has only ever been gently simmered by Henry VIII being miffed with the Pope, or perhaps Harold bullshitting William the Conqueror in the presence of some special bones, so for Shogun 2 to suddenly present those fabulous castles, that intricate history and that awesome array of weaponry was faintly mindblowing. Everything was just so alien, and alluring, to my closed-off western hemisphere brain. It was like stumbling across this incredible new universe on the scale of LOTR or Star Wars, but this one was somehow real.
]]>A source of what could gently be called discontent amongst the Total War community of late has been the lack of modding tools for the most recent games. Empire, Napoleon and Total War have all been bereft of official utilities to alter and add units, maps et al, which was partly a result of the relevant files being compressed and thus tricky to edit. At last, the Creative Assembly have found a way to open things up a little more - releasing the complete, original, unpacked raw database XML (data from tables) and XSD (table structure and field properties) files for both Empire and Napoleon.
]]>Something called the Ikko Ikki Clan Pack has just been released for beautiful grand strategy game Total War: Shogun 2, adding a brand-new faction of warrior monks to the game, as well as new skill trees, a new Ikko-Ikki monk agent, eight new units, a new hero and more for the the price of $5. You can buy it here. I'm actually prepared to call it a fairly generous package, compared with the emaciated Babylon and Polynesia packs for Civilization V. Full feature list after the jump.
]]>Creative Assembly have released a second multiplayer tutorial video for Shogun 2. What's that you say? You don't remember our posting the first one? That doesn't sound like us at all. But just to stop you from complaining, both are below. Warning: they can veer toward 'wacky'.
]]>The Creative Assembly have announced that a patch for Total War: Shogun 2 adding DirectX 11 support will... oh, what's the point. You've already read the headline. A DirectX 11 patch will be released in the first week of May. Why are you even reading this? Hell, I bet nobody's reading this. I bet I could fill it with nonsense and nobody would notice. The Creative Assembly announced today that they're implementing an innovative new office policy of human sacrifice, inspired by the ancient Aztecs. Studio director Tim Heaton had this to say: "Ca yz tonoc in tiquauhtli in tocelutl! Auh in ticueie in tiuipile." Does this mean we can look forward to Total War: Mexica? More on this as it develops.
]]>Jim's already presented his robust review of Shogun 2, but why stop there? Why, indeed. Quinns has also been dropping hour after hour into this fathomless construction, like guppies into the mouth of a coy carp, and met up with Jim in the Talking Room of Castle Shotgun for a chat.
]]>If you wanted to read a considered opinion on Total War: Shogun 2's single-player, followed by a throughful discussion by RPS readers, then you could read this. But I suppose the question now is: how good is their revamped and revised multiplayer offering? And I ask you: is anyone looking forward to that more than the single-player? Or is this one of those games where multi-player will be forever secondary? Questions!
]]>Shogun 2 is set to be released on the 15th of March. For the past week I've been playing the single-player campaign, and I've written up my thoughts on this below. What I haven't done is play any of the multi-player. While Sega did provide a multi-player test for press and other interested parties, I don't really see the point of talking about it until there's a live service. That should, all being well, arrive with the game's launch on the 15th. We'll take a look at it after that time.
So then: how do I get busy with that shogunate?
]]>As TF2 continues its transformation into a strange hybrid of Pokemon and ultra-death, another game has revealed exclooooosive in-game items for willing pre-orderers.
In this instance, it's Total War: Shogun 2 or Shotgun: Total War 2 or Total Shogun 2: War or whatever the hell the naming order is now. There are eight different hats and Japanese-themed killing tools to be had if you punt some money Steam's way for CA's upcoming RTS, and they're available as of today. Looks like you can also buy them separately if you like, too. How many hats are in the game now? All the hats, I guess.
The full list of items and a couple more pics are below, hat-fans.
]]>Morning, my salty denizens of this divided and endless land we call PC gaming. Big Download's posted a couple of fun videos with some key members of Creative Assembly talking their way through each title in the Total War series. It's quite fluffy PR, but there's some subtext to chew on, too, especially with the developers talking about Empire- "We basically added a new, third game to Empire," "In less than the time we created Rome," "We were mental!". Followed by some interesting discussion of real-life naval battles. Watch it below.
]]>It's DEMOTIME! Can your connection handle getting 2GBs of Dragon Age II AND 6GBs of Shogun? I dare you.
]]>So it seems that the men of The Creative Assembly are keen to talk to us about about the resplendently buffed multiplayer features of their new strategy game, Shogun 2. With that in mind, they've gone and fashioned a trailer to outline some of said multiplayer features. The hats you can put on your general are, frankly, ludicrous, but there are more intriguing things still, like unit veterancy. Go take a look, and marvel at the speeded up speediness of it.
]]>Yesterday the good Jim Rossignol brought you his preview impressions of Total War: Shogun 2. Today you can take a step further toward experiencing the game, by watching its three-and-a-half minute opening CGI video mcdoodah. It's very pretty, and of course in no way representative of the game. But focus on the pretty. You like pretty thing, yes? Stare into my trailer. See it's pretty pictures. That's it. Stare deeply in. Deeeeeeeply in.
]]>It's true, I've been playing a build of Shogun 2. That build includes the extensive tutorials - covering a slice of the campaign map, naval battles - and a historical manfight, the Battle Of Sekigahara. Find out how I got on below.
]]>You probably have a decent idea of how Total War plays already, but this new trailer is also full of in-game footage, and details stuff like the XP system for agents, which allows you to unlock new skills for them, as well as a bit about the agent types themselves, such as ninja and geisha assassins. There's also a selection of campaign map action and some spectacular battlefield sequences. Whatever your grumbles about the series, there's no denying this looks seriously impressive. Take a look, below.
]]>The subtitle that became the name of an entire series has finally been given its rightful place. The next Total War game will be called Total War: Shogun 2, and that's the game I talked about with The Creative Assembly's studio boss, Mike Simpson. We didn't stop there, of course, because the conversation had to turn to Empire, Napoleon, problems with AI, the nature of multiplayer gaming on the PC, and the possibility of Total War: The 20th Century. So read on for some perspective from the strategy supremos of Sussex.
]]>What happens in the video? Well, it seems that a young castle is killed. Poor thing. It was quietly grazing on the mountainside and along came some castle-hunters and stuck a siege-machine in its belly. It was then skinned and the bricks were eaten by peasants. Nasty business.
In related news: I interviewed CA studio director Mike Simpson the other day. We talked about Shogun 2 and the problems with Empire and lots of other interesting stuff. Expect that interview on Monday. It's a decent read. Now, go take a look at the fate of that castle.
]]>Recently I paid a visit to Creative Assembly, had a play of Total War: Shogun 2 and wrote about it. Yes. But not here! No. I did the deed over at IGN, and if you feel up to braving the journalism badlands outside of RPS then you can read it here. If you've lost interest in Total War, this preview is probably for you. Look, I say things like this:
]]>Stop the presses! Of course, being a website we don't have any presses, so I just threw a mousemat out of the window.
]]>Are you interested in information pertaining to the release date of Shogun 2: Total War? If not, then click away now. Otherwise, it's the 15th March 2011.
]]>Total War games and their AI, eh? I hear people are universally content with it, most especially with how solid, reliable and believable it was in Empire: Total War. Not even the slightest grumble. Oh, wait, I'm thinking of that dream I had again, just before the bit with the anteater wearing a sweater.
Grumblers! You have been heard. "This game is not going out the door until the AI is perfect," the Creative Assembly are saying of the upcoming Shogun 2: Total War. Crumbs. Maybe they mean it this time...
]]>Gamers go crazy-mental-biscuits for those little assassination FMV videos from Shogun: Total War. I know it, you know it, and The Creative Assembly know it, hence the mass of attention those same video shorts (not to mention the agent units themselves) are receiving in Shogun 2. And guess what? They've just released one of those shorts for your viewing pleasure. Want to see it? Ooh, g'wan then. It's after the jump.
]]>Some kind of embargo has ended! The genetically engineered newsbats of VG247 have posted a collection of new Shogun: Total War 2 screenshots showing the as-yet unseen campaign map, and IGN's trained news dolphins have posted a preview talking about it. Or rather, the dolphins squeaked and clicked about it, and this was transcribed by an interpreter.
But I know you don't like to hear your news from these cost-effective animals. That's why I've collated all the information and images for you, and you can find it right after the jump.
]]>GameTrailers, who we do like to thank for their seemingly infinite video bandwidth, have snaffled the scoop on Shogun 2: Total War in-game footage, and I've posted it below. The video features The Creative Assembly's chirpy Kieran Bridgen and AI programmer Ingimar Gudmunsson talking through one of the real-time battle sequences. It shows off the new detailed unit models, the general's speeches, the massively detailed new battlefields and buildings, the weather effects, and, of course, lots of tiny men who won't be going home to their virtual wives at the end of the day.
You are going to want to watch this.
]]>Shogun 2 is coming, and I believe we have SPLENDID information about it arriving on the shores of our isolationist archipelago quite soon. In the meantime you can gaze sullenly at this cinematic trailer, which implies boats, fortresses and lots of angry-looking samurai. They're going to do some war, real soon. Like, totally. Arf.
]]>I'm not even sure that's a pun. In fact, I'm pretty sure it isn't, so let's move on swiftly. Following on from last week's trailer and art, Creative Assembly have decided to release some screenshots for the E3 Electrocomputional Festival Of Loveliness. You can click through to see the full one, or go below to find two more. These feature ships (or maybe boats) and trees (and maybe fields).
]]>Yesterday we had it confirmed that Shogun 2: Total War is to come out next year. Today we have the first trailer. Where "trailer" means, "a man sticking a knife in a map." So there's some analysis of what this could mean below. There's also some rather lovely promotional art stuff that you can enjoy.
]]>As Kieron so cleverly speculated, the new Total War game is confirmed to be Shogun 2: Total War. As Earth's leading authority on strategy gaming news I can inform you that Shogun was of course the very first in the TW series, released ten years ago this month. Since then there's been Rome, Napoleon, and Evil Space Mice: Total War, but now it's time to head back to Japan. There's some details below.
]]>There's a couple of leaks which seem to point towards it. Firstly, as reported by Kotaku, a Sega PR booked a trade show appointment with Turkish site Oyungezer for Shogun 2. Secondly, a press-release for it appeared on TWCenter, apparently leaked. The thread's been removed though still shows up on google, but has been mirrored all over the place. We'll only know at E3 - or with PC Gamer's next cover, whichever comes first. The leaked alleged press-release is below, plus some initial thoughts...
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