Preview - TOTAL WAR: ROME II

In less than two weeks, Creative Assembly and Sega will release Total War: Rome II, the eighth game in the acclaimed Total War series and the sequel to 2004's Rome: Total War.

Roman and native forces engage in battle in Germania.

As with the other Total War games, Rome II will mix large-scale, turn-based strategic gameplay with a (pauseable) real-time tactical battle engine. Using the map you recruit and deploy armies and navies, build new structures, expand cities and manage diplomatic and economic matters. When one of your armies comes into contact with an enemy force, combat results. The game then switches to a map in which you directly control your army in battle. The focus in these games is on realistic tactics and unit formations, with a wide range of units to control from skirmishers to cavalry and archers. The same rules apply to naval combat, with you deploying fleets packed with troops and able to engage other fleets in battle and undertake boarding actions. For the first in the history of the series, however, the game will also allow combined-arms battles, with navies and armies fighting on the same coastal maps.

A naval engagement off the coast of Egypt.

Rome II also allows you to play as different factions. As well as Rome, you can play as Carthage, Macedon, Britannia (the Iceni), Gaul (the Arverni), Germania (the Suebi), Parthia or Egypt. A free expansion (available on release day) adds Pontus, whilst a month or so later another free update will add the Seleucid Empire. Three of the Greek city-states - Athens, Epirus and Sparta - will also be available to play as a paid expansion on release day, although this will be included free for those who pre-order the game. The game will also feature dozens of non-playable minor factions, many of them with unique forces, for you to defeat and conquer as you try to spread your empire across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

The strategic map showing the deployment of forces around Alexandria.

Available exclusively for PC, Total War: Rome II is the most graphically-impressive-looking game in existence. However, Creative Assembly claim that they have optimised the game so it will work on any machine that can run their previous game, Shogun II, without sacrificing visual quality.

For myself, I was a huge fan of the original Rome: Total War and Medieval II (released in 2006) but not so much of the more recent games in the series. But this is certainly looking hugely impressive, and will be the first Total War game I get on release day since Medieval II. Here's hoping it can live up to its immense promise.

Total War: Rome II will be released on 3 September 2013. It is available to pre-order now on Steam (though those without fast broadband might want to be forewarned that the game will be a colossal 35GB download, and maybe prefer to get a boxed copy for a faster install).

The Shape of Things to Come: 2013

I decided to roll all of my normal 'looking ahead' posts into one this year. It's a bit late, so January is missing from these lists and thus it's a list looking forwards to the next eleven months, rather than twelve.

Books

2013 looks set to be an interesting year. At the more literary end of the spectrum we have new novels by Graham Joyce and Christopher Priest (two novels in three years is, by his standards, astonishingly productive). At the diametric opposite end of the scale we have Raymond E. Feist's last-ever Riftwar novel, which is being published to a reception of stone-cold indifference by most SFF readers. Inbetween we have the ongoing re-release of David Wingrove's Chung Kuo series (set to expand by four volumes this year) and the resumption of Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shadows of the Apt series, which reaches its ninth and penultimate volume. Neil Gaiman also presents us with his first adult-oriented, full-length novel in eight years, which should be worth a look.

Sadly, we have to bid farewell to Chris Wooding's splendid Tales of the Ketty Jay series, which is wrapping up after four volumes. Peter Brett's Daylight War has some hard work to do to make up for the deficiencies of the second volume, whilst Daniel Abraham hits us with another fantasy/SF double-whammy with The Tyrant's Law and Abaddon's Gate. Richard Morgan's divisive Land Fit For Heroes trilogy (no word yet on if it is indeed expanding to four books) also reaches its third volume with The Dark Defiles.

In the area of SF, Alastair Reynolds has the sequel to his Blue Remembered Earth coming out, whilst Stephen Baxter returns to interstellar exploration and colonisation with Proxima.


Undated, but pretty certain to hit in 2013, is Ian Cameron Esslemont's Assail (working title). Easily the most eagerly-awaited of Esslemont's novels, this book takes us to the much-dreaded continent of Assail. Expect to see a showdown involving the T'lan Imass, Silverfox, the Crimson Guard and much more besides. Less certain for 2013 is Fall of Light, Steven Erikson's middle volume in his Kharkanas Trilogy, which might still just sneak out before the end of the year The ever-fecund. Brandon Sanderson, meanwhile, has several dozen novels due out, with his second Stormlight novel being the most eagerly-awaited (but also one of the most likely to slip to 2014). Stephen Donaldson is also tentatively scheduled to publish the tenth and final Thomas Covenant novel (thirty-six years after the first), The Last Dark, before the end of the year.

That's about it for the epic fantasy big-hitters. No Rothfuss, and Lynch's Republic of Thieves remains MIA. Martin fans will get some more Song of Ice and Fire morsels in the form of a narrative history of the Dance of Dragons, which will appear in Dangerous Women, and then a big coffee-table guidebook to the world with The World of Ice and Fire, which is tentatively scheduled for November (but again delays are possible).
At this stage my most eagerly-awaited novel of the year is River of Stars, a semi-follow-up to Guy Gavriel Kay's excellent Under Heaven.

February

The Daylight War by Peter Brett

Jimmy and the Crawler by Raymond E. Feist

Dreams and Shadows by Robert Cargill

March

The Art of War by David Wingrove

The High Kingdom by Pierre Pevel

April

The God Tattoo by Tom Lloyd

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill

Abominable by Dan Simmons

River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay

Son of the Morning by Mark Alder (MD Lachlan)

May

The Tyrant's Law by Daniel Abraham

Magician's End by Raymond E. Feist

Dangerous Women by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois (ed.)

The Year of the Ladybird by Graham Joyce

The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson

June

Abaddon's Gate by James S.A. Corey (aka Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck)

The City by Stella Gemmell

On the Steel Breeze by Alastair Reynolds

The Time of Contempt by Andrzej Sapkowski

Cold Steel by Kate Elliott

The Dragon Queen by Stephen Deas

Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

A Discourse in Steel by Paul S. Kemp

An Inch of Ashes by David Wingrove

Requiem by Ken Scholes

July

Twenty Trillion Leagues Under the Sea by Adam Roberts

The Glass God by Kate Griffin

Gallow: The Crimson Shield by Nathan Hawke (Stephen Deas)

August

Shadows of the New Sun: Stories in Honour of Gene Wolfe by Bill Fawcett (ed)

The Adjacent by Christopher Priest

Emperor of Thorns by Mark Lawrence

War Master's Gate by Adrian Tchaikovsky

The Dark Defiles by Richard Morgan

The Ace of Skulls by Chris Wooding

Blood of Tyrants by Naomi Novik

Gallow: Cold Redemption by Nathan Hawke (Stephen Deas)

September

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

The Broken Wheel by David Wingrove

Shaman: A Novel of the Ice Age by Kim Stanley Robinson

Gallow: The Last Bastion by Nathan Hawke (Stephen Deas)

Proxima by Stephen Baxter

October

Drakenfield by Mark Charan Newton

November

The World of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin, Elio Garcia and Linda Antonsson

Moon's Artifice by Tom Lloyd

December

The White Mountain by David Wingrove

Undated

Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

The Last Dark by Stephen Donaldson

Happy Hour in Hell by Tad Williams

Assail by Ian Cameron Esslemont

New Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett

King of Cobwebs by David Keck

Possible For 2013 But Uncertain

Fall of Light by Steven Erikson

The Free by Brian Ruckley

Seal of the Worm by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Spellbreaker by Blake Charlton

Stormlight Archive #2 by Brandon Sanderson

Next Gaunt's Ghosts novel by Dan Abnett

Dresden Files #15 by Jim Butcher

The Unholy Consult by R. Scott Bakker

The Sea Beggars by Paul Kearney

The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch

Endlords by J.V. Jones

Triumff: The Double Falsehood by Dan Abnett

The Wheel of Time Encyclopedia by Harriet McDougal

Games

In terms of games, 2013 is looking reasonably good at this point, though (thankfully for my wallet) not as jam-packed as last year. There's a lot of much-delayed games coming out in 2013, such as Aliens: Colonial Marines (which somehow looks less interesting with every trailer that appears) and StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, which is arriving a full two years behind schedule. I expect both will be playable, but will be surprised if either is outstanding (in particular, Blizzard really need to hire some new writers).

Also long-awaited is SimCity 5: A Truckload of DRM (or just SimCity as we now have to call it). Long-term fans of the venerable city management series have seen increasing disappointment as they learned of the always-on internet connection and the fact that the biggest cities you can build in the game are disappointingly small.

Looking much more interesting is BioShock Infinite. Whilst I was somewhat underwhelmed by the original BioShock's gameplay, certainly the art direction and visuals were striking and the sequel is following up on that end of things in spades. Hopefully the gameplay will match up this time.

Unfortunately, the dissolution of THQ has left the release dates for Company of Heroes 2, Metro: Last Light and South Park: The Stick of Truth all up in the air. Though the three games have all been rescued (by Sega, Deep Silver and Ubisoft respectively), their transition has left final release dates in some doubt. In particular, there is a legal tussle over South Park that could delay it indefinitely, which is a shame as it was looking like a particularly interesting take on the RPG genre.

Also suffering a delay is Grand Theft Auto V, which slips back four months to September, but only with the console versions confirmed. We all know there will be a PC version - given they released GTA4 on PC at a time when PC sales were rock-bottom and still sold shedloads, they'd be completely idiotic not to now the PC format is back on top of its game - so Rockstar's refusal to confirm it is just tiresome.

Arriving at the end of the year will be the new consoles, and with them the first 'next-gen' titles, such as Star Wars 1313 (likely a launch title for them). However, potentially more interesting is the arrival of the first batch of bigger games funded through Kickstarter (a few, like FTL, have already come out). Wasteland 2, Double Fine Adventure and Carmageddon: Reincarnation should prove whether the concept has legs. 2014 promises even more Kickstarted goodness, with Project: Eternity, Star Citizen and Elite 4 (hopefully) all arriving in force.

For me, the most promising game of the year is easily Rome II: Total War (or Total War: Rome II under Creative Assembly's new naming scheme). There hasn't been a really good Total War game for me since 2006's Medieval II, but Rome II looks like being both more epic and more fun than the last few games in the series.

February

Dead Space 3

Aliens: Colonial Marines

Crysis 3

March

SimCity

Tomb Raider

StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm

BioShock Infinite

Spring/Summer

Company of Heroes 2

ARMA 3

Broken Sword: The Serpent's Curse

Metro: Last Light

South Park: The Stick of Truth

September

Grand Theft Auto V

Late 2013

Rome 2: Total War

Uncheduled

The Elder Scrolls Online

Star Wars 1313

Wasteland 2

X: Rebirth

Carmageddon: Reincarnation

Double Fine Adventure 

Films

 

Film-wise, 2013 looks a bit same-old, with a strong focus on superhero movies (even if these are some of the more interesting ones). We'll have to wait and see if Zack Snyder can resurrect the Superman movies (I'm not holding my breath), but Thor, Iron Man and a Japanese-influenced Wolverine should at least be fun.

The trailers are also suggesting that Into Darkness will be a more interesting, larger-scaled movie than J.J. Abrams's first Star Trek movie (which I was underwhelmed by: all the right ingredients, but not mixed together quite well). Benedict Cumberbatch certainly looks like a far more compelling villain than Eric Bana, at any rate. Also packed full of CGI and large explosions is Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim, which initially looks like a Michael Bay Transformers movie with added Idris Elba (which is in itself quite a good idea, actually). However, Del Toro's trademark weirdness could make this a bit more interesting than it appears.

Later in the year we have sequel city, with the second Hunger Games movie hoping to repeat the better-than-the-book trick of the first one. There's also the second Hobbit movie. I'm hoping against hope that Peter Jackson learns the art of editing so we can get a lean 90-minute (okay, two hours max) action movie, but I'm not holding my breath on that one. What is likely to be a lot shorter and a lot funnier is The World's End, Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright's long-awaited conclusion to their thematic Three Colours of Cornetto trilogy (following Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz).

For me, the movie I'm most interested in is, perhaps unexpectedly, Riddick. The third film to feature Vin Diesel's titular character, we've been promised a picture that jettisons most of the excesses of the second film in favour of a tighter scope and more condensed storytelling. With Katee Sackhoff on board to provide support and Karl Urban resuming his role from the second film, this could be a bit of a dark horse.

April

Oblivion

May

Star Trek: Into Darkness

Iron Man 3

June

Man of Steel

World War Z

Kick-Ass 2

July

Pacific Rim

The Wolverine

September

Riddick

October

The World's End

November

Thor: The Dark World

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

December

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

TV

Crimson Nuptials. Does more need to be said?

Community Season 4

Game of Thrones: Season 3

Doctor Who: Season 33.5

Doctor Who: 50th Anniversary Special

The Walking Dead Season 3.5/4.0

ROME II confirmed and looking impressive

Following last week's leaks, the Creative Assembly have confirmed that their next game will be Total War: Rome II.

Details on the game are still somewhat sparse, but we know that the game will feature some serious graphical improvements over the previous titles in the series and, after the tight focus of Shogun 2, will be again opting for a sprawling, epic scale. This time around the game will cover all of Europe, extending further east than the original Rome: Total War map, although it will again feature many of the same factions. Whether the Roman faction will be split between three families as before has not yet been confirmed. Creative Assembly have said that the game is their biggest project to date, requiring a budget 40% larger than their biggest previous game.

The battle engine, although based on the same Warscape technology that every Total War title since Empire has employed, has received some serious upgrades. Combined-arms land-and-sea battles have been retained, but now expanded in scope for assaults on harbour cities. The above screenshot depicts the Roman fleet assaulting Carthage's harbour, whilst below shows ground forces attacking the city centre. Cities are now absolutely massive, with numerous 'points of control' that have to be secured to ensure the city's surrender. The old trick of racing to the city square and holding it for a couple of minutes is no longer possible, in a sop to both realism and the computer's AI (which used to either make the city square near-impregnable or simply abandon it for no good reason).

The Creative Assembly are also expanding the game's graphics and animation, with soldiers in units whose morale is slipping now reacting more noticeably, perhaps panicking or showing fear on their faces. Another major change is the addition of characters, people like Scipio or Cicero whose presence will affect the way affairs unfold (and perhaps make assassinations more necessary to proceed).

Total War: Rome II will be released for the PC in the latter half of 2013, er, sorry, MMXIII.

ROME II: TOTAL WAR (sort of) announced

A fan-made logo.

 Creative Assembly have revealed that the next Total War title will be announced on 6 July at the Rezzed gaming convention. At the same time a number of PC gaming magazines have said that there will be a big reveal in their July issues. One of them, PC Gameplay, went as far as listing the contents for their next issue and confirming there will be an article on Total War: Rome II (or Rome II: Total War for those who preferred Creative Assembly's old-school naming system).

Excellent news. Rome: Total War was an excellent strategy game (well, once the patches upgraded the AI to something more formidable) and the last title in the series to garner near-universal praise. We can assume that Rome II will have vastly superior graphics and will likely employ the same format as the recent Empire, Napoleon and Shogun 2 (apparently it will continue to use the Warscape engine of those games) games by having both naval and ground battles, as well as possibly combined-arms operations. Expect more news in a couple of weeks' time when the formal announcement is made.