Total War: Rome II is once again the tool wielded by historians to give a visual flair to the retelling of some of Rome's most embarrassing bloopers like their crushing defeat at Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. Three Roman legions were lost that sent shockwaves across the empire as they realised how terribly overstretched they were becoming. If only they had had Update 7 at the time.
SEGA and developer Creative Assembly has just announced the first campaign expansion for Total War: Rome II. Four playable factions feature in the upcoming Caesar in Gaul expansion, due December 12th. The team always planned to "focus more closely" of key historical conflicts, and Caesar's military tour of Gaul is their starting point. A new campaign map with 24 turns per year.
Creative Assembly has announced that the developer is releasing a free downloadable content pack for Total War: Rome II, adding Baktria to the mix.
SEGA and Creative Assembly's first campaign expansion for Total War: Rome II is now on the march with Caesar in Gaul. It's an all-new campaign map focusing specifically on Caesar's Gallic war. The campaign spans seven years with turns also dealing with the change in seasons, with Rome and several key barbarian states to play from. Conquer Gaul and southern Britannia.
Modders assemble! Creative Assembly have just released the beta of the Rome II Assembly Kit which lets mod enthusiasts get their hands on approved methods to creating new content for Total War: Rome II. It's available in the Tools section of Steam to download. The strategy game's database, variants, "textures, models, animations" and other gems are all for the pillaging.
Sony Online has announced the closure of four MMO properties as they each saw numbers dwindle so low they feel they couldn't justify keeping the doors open. "No more kids games," declares John Smedley. Vanguard: Saga of Heroes had been performing poorly "a long time", admits Smedley. Free Realms and Clone Wars Adventures closed down first at the end of March.
Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley has clarified his recent Reddit AMAA by stating that the new Sony MMO in the works is not Star Wars related, but will appeal to Star Wars Galaxies veterans. He felt the need to make this clear after speculation began that it could see a return as Disney, now owner of the Star Wars IP, renewed the SWG trademark in December.
Creative Assembly has brought Patch 9 out of beta as they officially release it to all Total War: Rome II gamers. The studio has been focusing on "performance and memory optimisations" again. There are CPU load reductions in battles too, and greater support of multi-GPU setups and multiple displays. Plenty of AI tweaks in pathfinding and behaviour.
This weekend, SEGA has unleashed the dogs of war on Valentine's Day. They want us divided into camp Total War and camp Company of Heroes as the two go head-to-head... but not really. For every battle won in Total War: Rome II or Company of Heroes 2, a point is scored. The community with the greatest horde of points wins DLC for their chosen game.
The strategic showdown between Total War: Rome II and Company of Heroes 2 had ended with Relic's WWII RTS winning the Make War Not Love competition. That means two Commander DLCs go free. While Total War: Rome II would have received a free DLC if its community had won enough battles, Company of Heroes 2 gets a free German and Soviet Commander pack until February 22nd.
SEGA and Creative Assembly have unleashed the dogs, camels, elephants, bees, scorpions and snakes of war with the new Beasts of War DLC for Total War: Rome II. Conquer the world with your bee armies... Well, not quite a whole army of bees per say, more like: bombard your enemies with bee hives to start a panic. 'Is it in my hair?! It's in my hair!!' Dogs are also barking for Greeks and Celtics.
Before Total War: Rome II launched it was said that any downloadable content wouldn't include content that was cut from the game, but the community point to video evidence of the contrary with recent DLC. Caesar in Gaul and this week's Beasts of War DLC 'both contain units that were cut'. Creative Assembly remark the "naming is unfortunate," but that they aren't the same.
The free-to-play MOBA Total War: Arena from Creative Assembly is now accepting registrations for its closed beta, which also grant "exclusive Vanguard Armoury items" when it officially launches. Should you already own Total War: Rome II then you're entitled to "privileged access" to Arena content, "advanced beta access" and Legion Armoury bonuses.
SEGA has announced a new campaign from Creative Assembly for Total War: Rome II. Hannibal at the Gates features a new campaign map with Scipio and Hannibal ready to set the world aflame. Five playable factions bring new units with Rome and Carthage getting civil tech for diplomacy, and they join Syacuse, Arevaci and Lusitani. It's out March 27th.
Creative Assembly have released a free update before the launch of Hannibal at the Gates for Total War: Rome II. The Seasons and Wonders update adds wonders and seasons to maps and the Grand Campaign. There's also a unit roster expansion for Carthage, and support for Twitch streaming and even touchscreen. This update includes a new major patch with fixes and balance tweaks.
By the end of next month the matchmaking services of GameSpy will be switched off, and that means a number of PC titles won't function properly or at all online. Exactly how far-reaching is the GameSpy service? Reddit has put together a doomsday list that includes the likes of Halo, Star Wars: Battlefront, Stronghold, the Battlefield series, Crysis, Tom Clancy titles and Quake.
Creative Assembly have announced a new Culture Pack for Total War: Rome II that adds the factions of Ardiaei, the Odrysian Kingdom and Tylis, which call the European Balkans their home. This makes the first playable Thracian and Dacian factions for Rome II, but Creative are also releasing "free LC" with the Getae, another Balkan people, plus an historical battle.
The recently announced Pirates and Raiders Culture Pack for Creative Assembly's Total War: Rome II is now available. After parting with some of you hard earned denarii, three new factions become playable. Ardiaei of Illyria, and the Thracian tribes of Tylis and the Odrysian Kingdom make up the new Culture Pack. Each comes with their own military and naval units, as well as traits and religions.
Total War: Rome 2's latest patch 13.1, entitled "Hotfixes and Festivals", adds the usual bunch of new technical fixes and gameplay improvements, alongside new "seasonal festival events" across all campaigns. Most of the other changes relate to the recent Pirates & Raiders DLC, fixing problems with recruitment and unit stats.
The Creative Assembly has announced Total War: Rome 2 Emperor Edition, a free update for the swords-and-sandals strategy game that bundles all the free DLC content already released, along with various gameplay enhancements and a whole new singleplayer campaign. Along with the new content players can apparently expect a reworked politics system, new building chains, improved battle AI, and various visual tweaks and upgrades.