Posted 09/21/09 at 11:53:41 PM by Nathan Grayson

Napoleon’s getting ready to start up his own Total War, but that hasn’t stopped Empire from expanding. Today, developer Creative Assembly announced a new Empire mini-expansion called “Warpath.”

It’s got five new American Indian factions, a bigger North American campaign map, new elite units, and new objectives. What’s not to like?
 
So, how much would you pay for this heaping helping of new content? $10.01? $10.00? Nope! For the entire Warpath campaign, you’ll only be dropping $9.99. What a deal!

It’s coming in October, but you can go ahead and pave the Warpath's way with a pre-purchase right now.  

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Posted 08/20/09 at 02:11:21 AM by Nathan Grayson

Despite what your middle school history classes may have led you to believe, the past is pretty interesting. After all, the past invented wars, backstabbing, and catapults. How can you say “no” to that? For those who’d still rather drain their brains with videogames than learn about history, though, Creative Assembly’s got you covered. See, with the newly announced Napoleon: Total War, you can do both.

The game’s the first in a new line of “story-based” Total War games. This one, obviously, is set to dig up dirt on the titular diminutive dictator, telling the story of his rise, fall, and everything in between.
 
Spanning three campaigns, the game will allow you to control Napoleon or his enemies all the way up to good ol’ Waterloo.

So basically, more of the Total Warfare you love, with a smidge of story on the side. We don’t know about you, but we could find worse ways to, er – knowing this series – probably spend hundreds of hours.

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Posted 03/05/09 at 02:49:23 AM by Nathan Grayson

Developer Creative Assembly’s new-er RTS, Stormrise, isn’t a simple, no-strings-attached type of girl like its sister franchise-in-arms, Total War. No sir – while Total War only aims to please (and succeeds, by the look of things), Stormrise won’t relinquish the key to its post-apocalyptic chastity belt without a little wining and dining first. However, whereas Windows XP’s reliable charms might’ve brought the princess back to your castle back in middle school, Stormrise wants – nay, needs – more.

And that’s where Vista comes in.

"Stormrise has been designed for DirectX 10 and Vista only right from the start," said Stormrise lead designer Artem Kulakov."Vista only. DX10 only. No fallback option. We have never suggested this or hinted at it, so it shouldn't be a surprise."

But why bet the success of a new franchise on a pie-in-the-sky setup that only 25% of PC gamers can even access? Short answer: consoles.
 
"DX10 has offered a lot of advantages over DX9," Kulakov added. "First of all, DirectX 10 allowed us to simplify the rendering engine. It matches capabilities of next generation consoles better than DX9, which is important for us considering that Stormrise is a multi-platform title. We had fewer driver-specific compatibility issues with Stormrise compare to our previous games released with DX9."

Person-with-bad-idea-during-a-recession-says-what? Consoles and RTSes (especially those of the obscure, generically titled variety) are notorious for their inability to play nice together. Really, it's like putting all of your eggs in one basket with a gaping hole in the bottom; the expected outcome is as clear as day, so why even do it? 

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