When Empire Divided, Total War’s latest expansion, trundled into our garage, Fraser was the mechanic on duty. He walked around the chariot, kicked the wheels, took the pencil from behind his ear and made a few notes. “It’s not in bad nick,” he said, after some deliberation, “but it’s no Warhammer.”

You should read the rest of his review if you’re considering buying this new expansion for Rome II. It’s out now, gives the game a brand new grand campaign and loads of other gubbins, and might scratch that historic itch. But it also highlights one of the issues of a post-Warhammer world; namely, that loads of people with various pointy or clubby things don’t quite match up to dragons, dinosaurs and man-eating trolls.

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How can a historical Total War compete with dinosaurs besieging a fortress filled with wraiths and shambling corpses? Ever since the launch of Total War: Warhammer, but even more since the arrival of Warhammer 2, I ve been wondering if Creative Assembly has backed itself into a corner. Total War s historical games will undoubtedly continue to appeal to those craving a more grounded strategy romp, but so many of the series most significant improvements are inextricably linked to a fantasy premise. So where does that leave Total War: Rome 2 – Empire Divided?

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A brand new expansion is coming to Total War: Rome II, developers Creative Assembly announced today, four years since the game came out and three since its last expansion. Empire Divided will travel back to the third century for a new grand-scale campaign as the Roman Empire risks collapsing. It’ll feature ten playable factions, from good ol’ Rome through the goths to Armenia, and bring new problems such as plagues, excess bandits, and cults.

The paid expansion is due later this month and will be accompanied by a free update overhauling expanding Rome II’s political system. (more…)

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.

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A new branch of Total War games, going under the badge of ‘A Total War Saga’, will focus the historical strategy action on more specific times and places. Total War devs The Creative Assembly announced the new line today, which will kick off with “another spiritual follow-up” to Total War: Rome II. Total War Sagas will drill down into pivotal moments connected to eras the series has already covered, see, much like 2012’s Total War: Shogun 2 – Fall of the Samurai did. They’ll play the same but have a tighter focus. … [visit site to read more]

Time Commanders, the BBC game show where contestants order around someone playing Total War, returns to British screens tonight. Imagine a blind Let’s Play of Rome: Total War directed by teams who didn’t know what Total War was but did between them share a Desmond in classics, a Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, experience leading their university rugger society, and four awful haircuts. After eleven years away, Time Commanders is back tonight with Gregg Wallace off Masterchef pitting board gamers against wrestlers in a recreation of 202 BC’s Battle of Zama. Have a butcher’s at this: … [visit site to read more]