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[Patticus]

The image below was taken by a reader of PCPowerPlay magazine, and it seems to tease at a reveal of Rome 2: Total War coming in the next issue of the magazine and spotted on NeoGAF by CVG.

Unfortunately, we don't have anything else to go on besides this single, relatively uncertain image. Then again, we're having trouble coming up with any other realistic ideas about what this might be.

Sure, there are some possibilities like Pompeii 2, Grand Ages: Rome 2, Gods and Heroes 2, History Channel Great Battles of Rome 2, The Republic of Rome 2 (for all we know it's a remake of Caesar 2) but we can't see those games being teased on the back page of a magazine.

It's much more likely that we're getting a sequel to one of the most highly rated strategy games ever made. Which is awesome. July 18 can't come soon enough.

Spoiler

I hope that this is truly Rome 2: Total War, as the first RTW was a fantastic gaming experience which still holds up remarkably well today, even if you like a more realistic approach and thus own the wonderful (if hard) Europa Barbarorum mod. As the article says, July 18th can't come soon enough!

Also, BBC, please bring back the show Time Commanders. With so many eras of Total War released since that show aired originally, the scope for famous historical battles being replayed on TV is now far bigger than it was back then.

Oh and Nintendo, you guys do know this game series would be fucking awesome on the Wii U, right?

[Patticus]

Bumpity bump! New media has arrived! Be warned though, some of it is really big, so I've elected to Spoiler Box the four biggest pieces.

The game's logo, and non-final box art:

Spoiler

Two pieces of concept art, depicting urban and naval warfare respectively:





And two presumed screenshots of actual gameplay! They show incredibly intricate battle scenes; armadas of Triremes and similar warships swarming a coastal city (Carthage, in all likelihood), a city rendered in unprecedented detail, huge armies and generally jaw-dropping visuals. If any game can persuade me to upgrade my PC specs, this is it.

Spoiler

Punic Wars a-go-go!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBq_04CF0qc

[Patticus]

DETAILZ!

SEGA and Creative Assembly have lifted the lid on Rome II: Total War, showing an impressive 15 minute demo revolving around Roman efforts to reduce Carthage to rubble. The headline new features are a redesigned graphics engine, a greater sense of scale and a stylish new cinematic unit camera.

During the presentation, Creative Assembly walked us through plenty of details about what Rome II intends to offer when it's released in late 2013, and lead designer James Russell spoke about the game's intentions.

- Shogun 2 was set in narrow geographical areas, with limited sets of units - a comparatively small scale to what's being intended with Rome II. It was designed with a focus on game systems, such as engine polishing and improvements to unit pathing.
- With that in place, Rome II is going big - it's bigger than Rome 1 in geographical scale.
- The game's key design vision is in taking players from a macro to micro scale, such as jumping from a campaign map to a single unit.
- Despite that focus, Rome II is still attempting to make its macro scale bigger - we're guessing the senate will play a large part of that, but Creative Assembly won't say just yet.
- As you rise through the ranks, your success will attract less-than-favourable responses from some of your friends. You will almost definitely get betrayed. There's "more human-level drama on the campaign map" in Rome II.
- The bigger campaign map has "hundreds" of regions to move your units around, but the game buckets them into provinces to make management easier. The idea is to have you thinking about armies and legions rather than fiddling around with individual units.
- Ultimately, the game will allow you to decide whether to favour the republic or become Rome's dictator.
- The game's cameras have been redesigned. You can now lock the camera to single units. In this mode it functions like a sort of documentary cam, shaking while the unit walks – it's "a soldier's eye view" according to Creative Assembly.
- The demonstration takes place with a scenario set during the Third Punic War, which took place during 149BC to 146BC. The scenario here is the Siege of Carthage.
- Rome II: Total War features a new graphics engine, which features particle and deferred lighting.
- The game can now combine naval and land battles into the same conflict, including naval invasions: in this demo a Roman ship lands on the coast of Carthage.
- Naval units now have more than one ship per unit.
- Though expected, we see catapults and ballistae being put to good use.
- The demo has a big focus on Roman siege towers, and the snap-to unit camera takes the view of the game inside the siege tower itself.
- Conflicts take place over much bigger environments - much of Carthage has been recreated in the demo. To accommodate this extra scale, the game now features a top-down tactical map.
- There are multiple ways to capture cities. Walls can be reduced to rubble after they've sustained enough damage, for instance. It's designed to create cat-and-mouse gameplay: "You're not just sitting in the plaza once the walls are breached trying to defend that one area"
- There's a real oomph when units engage, with walls of shields colliding.
- The new graphics engine can show some impressive fidelity for a game of this scale. We can clearly see that Cathage's walls have graffiti.
- Buildings crumble in the background as Carthage deploys its war elephants and the demo ends.
- The unit camera has been designed so the game feels like it's "almost Saving Private Ryan at the beaches".
- Each unit has its own facial animations, and leaders bark out a stream of orders throughout. each confrontation.
- Units react to things, such as their colleagues being slaughtered - the idea is that these aren't idenikit clone armies anymore.

http://www.videogame...w_detailed.html

Two more videos; a live-action trailer (no gameplay) and another interview:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKglskMfyWA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tycIeIDUbw

Ohgoditsoundssogood.