Total War: Rome II

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SEGA® of America, Inc. and SEGA® Europe, Ltd. today announced that The Creative Assembly, creator of the multi award-winning Total War™ series of PC strategy games, is currently developing Total War: Rome II™ for PC.

Encompassing one of the best-known periods in world history, Total War: Rome II will combine the most expansive turn-based campaign and the largest, most cinematic real-time battles yet seen in any game.

Total War: Rome II will sink players into the dangerous political machinations of Rome’s senate, while asking them to struggle with family dilemmas and question the loyalty of ‘friends’ and allies. Leading the greatest army ever seen into battle will be just one challenge players will face at the head of the world’s first superpower.

Will they help forge an empire? Restore the Republic? Or grasp the reins of power for themselves, and assume the hated title of tyrant? Who will they conquer? Who will they betray? Who will they sacrifice?

How far will they go for Rome?

“Our games have always encompassed a grand vision,” said Mike Simpson, Creative Director. “But we’re now pushing that vision at both ends of the spectrum. From the immense reach of the sandbox campaign right down to the human-level drama of a single warrior on the battlefield, we’re aiming for an unprecedented level of detail and scale.”

“In our 25th year of games development, it feels fitting to return to our most critically acclaimed era,” continued Rob Bartholomew, Brand Director. “There’s been a multi-generational leap in technology since the original game and we are ready to set another benchmark in gaming.”

Total War: Rome II is due for release in 2013. For more information, and to view the Rome II announcement trailer, visit www.totalwar.com/romeII.

Screenshots (5.4 MB) http://basket.sega-press.com/PVZSega...5628157885.zip

Artwork/Logo (21 MB) http://basket.sega-press.com/PVZSega...5495765998.zip

Fact Sheet (4MB) http://basket.sega-press.com/PVZSega...6951395709.zip

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The various previews and this interview give a more concrete idea of what this means. During campaigns, you'll have a series of chain dilemmas that will change the way your game unfolds. Legions will also gain individual histories based on their activities, providing bonuses and penalties as well as humanizing them. The scale is also much larger, going from squadrons as the base unit to entire legions, and province-level management over several regions rather than per-region micromanagement.

Personally, I'm quite excited. Rome: Total War is arguably the best entry in the series and this looks to wrap in all of the enhancements that have been added to the series since then like smarter AI, combined land/sea battles, and better diplomacy. The new additions also sounds like exactly what the series needs, moving it from battles of a thousand to battles of ten thousands while also making things less impersonal.

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This looks so, so rad. Naval and ground warfare in the same battle sounds awesome. I'd love to see a Blackwater Bay mod, too. Or mod support of any kind, really!

Christ, now I want a Creative Assembly SOIaF game.

Rome was really good. The historical inaccuracies bugged me though, like Egypt basically being the ancient civilization from 1000BC, rather than the Greek-influenced Ptolemaic Egypt which it was during the time period of the game.

Yeah, it was pretty silly to be fighting something out of the New Kingdom when it should've just been slightly darker Greeks. Ever try the Europa Barbarorum mod? It fixes a lot of those historical oddities, like the Roman legions themselves - Lorica Segmentata was a post-Republic creation and thus has no reason to appear in the Republic era.

Man, I hope they do proper mod support this time. That's one of the things that really gave Rome its legs, and it's a shame that it has been basically nonexistent in the last several Total War games.

First in-game footage: