Sega said today that Empire: Total War and Napoleon: Total War are going to be combined in a Gold pack for release later this year.

The new SKU’s shipping on October 19 for $50.

Both games and all their DLC will be included in the edition. That means you’ll get Elite Units of the East, Elite Units of the West, Elite Units of America, and the Warpath Campaign for Empire, and The Peninsular Campaign, Coalition Battle Pack, and the Elite Regiment for Napoleon.

The nect in Creative Assembly’s RTS series, Shogun 2, was shown as gameplay for the first time this morning.

It’s currently at the pre-alpha stage and releases for PC next year.

Steam’s got a huge Sega bundle up for not a lot of money.

It includes Aliens Vs Predator, Empire and all its expansions and tons more. Medieval II, Napoleon, Sega Rally and the mighty Stormrise all make a showing.

The combined individual pricing was €441.27. It’s now all yours for a paltry €59.99. You can’t say fairer than that.

Take a look. The offer ends May 24.

Creative Assembly’s Mark O’Connell has told VG247 the Total War games won’t be coming to consoles unless it absolutely can “replicate the entire experience” that is found for the series for PC.

O’Connell, CA’s PR and Online Manager, was talking to us for a feature on the RTS genre in games. He stated if it were to be done, it’d need to be done right with “intuitive controls and interface”.

He said: “Our UK studio hasn’t yet developed a strategy game for the console, having previously only focused on action-adventure titles such as Viking: Battle for Asgard.

“Of course, PC is the home of Total War but if we ever were to transition to consoles, we’d only do it when we could ensure that we could replicate the entire experience along with intuitive controls and interface.”

Currently, the Creative Assembly team is waiting on the release of Napoleon: Total War. It’s out in the US next Tuesday and next Friday in the UK.

Read our full feature on the state of the RTS genre – featuring interviews with O’Connell, Michael de Plater of Ubisoft and more – through here.

Sign ups for the multiplayer Beta of Empire: Total War are now open for business.

According to RPS, you can play the entire campaign with a pal, fight against the AI or go head to head with your soon-to-be ex-best friend. Huzzah!

Head on over to the official site to throw your name in the hat.

Empire: Total War will go into Open Beta on December 7 in order to test out the upcoming multiplayer campaign.

That’s next Monday, so you may want to bookmark the sign-up page, as entrants will be taken soon.

During the Beta, two players can play on the same campaign map either against or with each other.

“After over 6 months of internal testing, we’re happy to finally give all players of Empire: Total War a taste of the future of Total War,” said creative director Mike Simpson. “Information and user feedback gathered from this Open Beta should help us getting the Campaign Multiplayer mode ready to be a regular feature in upcoming titles in the Total War series.”

Steam’s hosting the Beta, but you’ll still have to sign-up through the link above.

More through Boomtown.

Total War’s Warpath expansion is now available on Steam. More detail here.

For £5.99, you get to unlock a new campaign and all five new American Indian factions. These factions can be played in single player and multiplayer games.

Get to it, ludicrously-detailed RTS fans.

The first video for Empire: Total War expansion Warpath is up on Shack.

It’s full of things no longer present in the American West, as well as a couple of stereotypical Native American accents, but there ya go.

At least this way you can get revenge on the settler’s for all the havoc they caused.

Go get ‘em Tonto.

Sega just announced a full expansion for Empire: Total War – The Warpath Campaign releases in October.

The add-on adds a new North American campaign map and five new American Indian factions in the Iroquois, Huron, Plains, Pueblo and Cherokee tribes. There’s a new tech tree there, as well.

In addition, the game’s being updated to 1.4 tomorrow update 1.4, fixing some “minor issues” and adding two new historical battles: the Battle of Rossbach and the Battle of Fontenoy.

That bit’s free. Warpath will cost £5.99/€6.99. PR after the break.

EMPIRE: TOTAL WAR EXPANDS

Update 1.4 Out Tuesday, The Warpath Campaign Out October 2009

LONDON (21st September, 2009) – SEGA® Europe Ltd. and The Creative Assembly today announce that Empire: Total War™ expands with The Warpath Campaign. This expansion pack will be exclusively available through Steam™ in October 2009.
Empire: Total War – The Warpath Campaign adds a new detailed North American campaign map to expand the Empire: Total War experience. In addition to this, The Warpath Campaign also adds 5 brand new American Indian factions, the Iroquois, Huron, Plains, Pueblo and Cherokee tribes. The new playable factions will battle the invaders in the Warpath Campaign, and are also playable in multiplayer battles. A new technology tree, with 18 tribal technologies, will only be available to these new factions, as well as 2 new agent types, namely the mystical Shaman and the cunning Scout. These new factions will also have their own unique Elite Units.
The all new update 1.4, which is out on Tuesday September 22nd, fixes some minor issues with Empire: Total War, as well as adding 2 brand new historical battles: the Battle of Rossbach and the Battle of Fontenoy. Both battles are available in single player and multi player and are completely free.
“To further iterate our support for Empire: Total War, we’re happy to announce The Warpath Campaign” says Mike Simpson, Creative Director at the Creative Assembly, “With brand new factions, a full new campaign map to play through and changes to the technology tree, this is the definitive Empire: Total War experience.”
Empire: Total War is set in the 18th century, a turbulent era that is the most requested by Total War’s loyal fan base and a period alive with global conflict, revolutionary fervour and technological advances. Empire: Total War was released on the 6th of March 2009 and will expand this October with The Warpath Campaign.

Creative Assembly has announced that it will release a patch for Empire: Total War in late September.

Update 1.4 will improve the AI’s combat behavior and diplomatic decisions as well as the usual bug fixes, and other patchy stuff.

If you play, you may want to read up on the changes and fixes over on Shack.

Over on the official forums, Creative Assembly has announced that 1.4 patch for Empire: Total War will make improvements to naval battles when its released.

“There has been a re-balancing of ships to create greater diversity between different ship types along with improving the overall game play of the battles,” reads the post. “The balance that now exists for naval battles is like this: Ships of the Line beat Frigates who beat Small Ships who beat Ships of the Line who beat Ships of the Line.”

Basically, rock-paper-scissors element to naval battles.

“Ships of the Line are still the best at taking on other Ships of the Line. Special ships such as rocket ships, bomb ketches and galleys fill special niches on the battlefield. This new balance has been achieved by adjusting the hull strength, marksmanship (accuracy), reload rate, ranges, morale and damage of various ships.

No word yet on when to expect the latest patch, but there are loads more details about the upcoming changes through the link.

Via BigDownload.

Steam has Empire: Total War on sale this weekend for $29.99, which is 50 percent off the normal $49.99 price.

While you’re there, BigDownload has reported that 16 Novalogic titles have been added to the service as well.

Those who fancy playing all of the Delta Force games and any other titles in the Novalogic library, will get an additional 10 percent off for the next week.

Hit the links for additional information.

Creative Assembly has announced that Patch 1.3 will arrive for Empire: Total War on June 22.

You can get the update through Steam.

Players can expect the addition of 14 new units, improvements to multi-threading for PCs with multi-core processors and performance improvements for single-core PCs.

Loads more is listed over on the official forums.

Thanks, BigDownload.

Creative Assembly has announced that Empire: Total War will be getting some nice updates in upcoming patch.

Existing units that are currently only available to certain troops, will be made available to others along with changes to uniform and attributes.

Basically, as Kotaku pointed out, Dutch and Swedish troops can now access Hussar units and individualize versions of standard units like changing the reload times and morale.

The Russian Grenadier will be the newest introduction to the game, and along with ten unique replacement units and four existing units ‘unlocked’ for other factions – this brings the total amount of new content to 15 units across factions.

These units are free and will be released via Steam. Extra details and a release date are expected soon.

Via VoodooExtreme.

What a shock.

Here are the top 10 according to NPD, courtesy of Edge:

1. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
2. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
3. Company Of Heroes: Tales Of Valor
4. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest
5. Empire: Total War
6. Left 4 Dead
7. Starcraft: Battle Chest
8. The Sims 2 Apartment Life Expansion Pack
9. World Of Warcraft
10. Nancy Drew: Ghost Dogs Of Moon Lake

NPD has compiled a list of the 20 best-selling PC games at US retailers during March 2009.

Empire: Total War knocked Wrath of the Lich King off its comfy four month-long perch. Don’t worry for Blizzard though: it still dominates the charts.

1. Empire: Total War
2. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
3. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
4. Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II
5. World Of Warcraft Battle Chest
6. World Of Warcraft
7. The Sims 2 Apartment Life Exp. Pack
8. Spore
9. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Expansion Pack
10. Mystery Case Files: Return to Ravenhearst
11. Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
12. StarCraft Battle Chest
13. Fallout 3
14. Civilization IV
15. Empire: Total War – Special Forces Edition
16. The Sims 2 Pets Exp. Pack
17. Warhammer Online: Age Of Reckoning
18. The Sims 2 University Exp. Pack
19. Call Of Duty: World At War
20. Diablo Battle Chest

Courtesy of Shacknews.

A patch is ready and waiting for those of you who own Sega’s turn base strategy historical epic, Empire: Total War.

The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted, or so we’re told. The changes are:

• Multiplayer – can now find friends across regions
• Load time detection on trade routes to fix pathfinding crash in campaign
• Some General Sound balancing improvements
• Fixed UI Chat hang when spectator leaves unranked match with 3+ players
• Varies Campaign Crash Fixes
• Some Save/Load fixes
• Boarding fix where cannon crew board order was not being deleted properly causing crash
• Fix to kill characters instantly to stop crashes in campaign on agent/general deaths
• Save games limited to 1000
• Fix to animation glitch causing repetitive sounds when battle is launched

Mike Simpson, studio director at The Creative Assembly, has told GI that real-time strategy’s constant push towards consoles isn’t doing Total War any damage.

“I don’t think it’s a threat,” he said. “There’s certainly no sign from our franchise that’s happening. We’re always looking at ways to expand it, rather than working on an assumption that it’s going to decline.

“It is quite a complicated issue, and some of it’s related to the whole console life cycle as well – when a new generation of consoles comes out, PCs suddenly look quite unfavourable by comparison.

“But three of four years later, when you compare the price of a PC with the price of a console, suddenly you’re getting more power for your money with a PC, and things tend to shift back.

“That’s happened with all the previous generations – so I think there is a natural cycle.”

Ubisoft canned the console versions of World in Conflict: Soviet Assault last week, following the closure of Ensemble after the release of Halo Wars.

Creative Assembly has released the launch trailer for Empire: Total War.

Lots of red and blue coats shooting at each other, cannon fire, dead horses on the battlefield, naval warfare.

Looks lovely for the RTS crowd, and it’s out now, both at retail and on Steam.

Watch the trailer after the jump.

Creative Assembly’s released a trailer for Empire: Total War showing how to deal with heavy cavalry in the RTS. Watch it on Shacknews.

Not being set in Middle Ages Scotland, you have to shoot the horses instead of sticking trees through them, which is nowhere near as fun. Also, your po-faced soldiers don’t paint their faces blue or show their “arses” to the English.

Sounds crap. Not really. Watch and see. It’s out next week.

The latest Empire: Total War vid, to be found after the break, shows off show “superior tactics” in the historic RTS, involving men with guns and lots of horses.

There’s some gameplay in there which pretty ably shows why Creative Assembly games are pretty much the full stop for this type of thing.

One of the game’s designer wins a battle, in what looks reminiscent of the scene when we try to play one of these things: a big old warry mess.

Take a look. It’s out next Month.

There’s an Empire: Total War demo up on Steam now, as you can see here.

If historic strategy’s your thing, this is a must. Creative Assembly’s the final word.

Even if it isn’t, it’s free. So get it.

Sega has informed Shacknews that a demo of Creative Assembly’s latest look-at-all-the-ants strategy title will be released on Steam today at 4.00pm GMT (11 am EST).

The demo’s contents are still under lock and key, but really, it’s a quick demo. Why spoil it? Game’s set for a March 3 release date in America – and an insufferable 24 hours later everywhere else.

Sega’s confirmed Empire: Total War for a March 3 release.

The game is the latest PC RTS from Creative Assembly, and is tipped by UK journos as unbeatable in its field. A monster, apparently.

It’s actually America that gets it on March 3: the rest of the game-playing world gets it a day later.

The bad news: Sega’s confirmed the slip reported this week for Empire: Total War. The good news: the delay means Creative Assembly will be able to include a one-on-one mutiplayer campaign.

“The additional time will also allow Creative Assembly to implement the underlying technology for a much desired feature; a multiplayer campaign mode,” said Sega in an email this evening.

“An opportunity to participate in the 1 versus 1 multiplayer campaign mode beta will be made available to all Empire Total War buyers post release.”

Fans will be extremely pleased. Up till now, multiplayer options hasn’t been confirmed.

The game was delayed a month to March earlier this week.

According to this Shacknews report, Empire: Total War’s been delayed a month to March.

No reason’s been given for the slip. The latest in the celebrated RTS series was supposed to launch on February 3.

On Kotaku. We know someone that went into Creative Assembly to see this recently and said it was the most ridiculously amazing strategy game they’d ever seen.

We’re not going to argue. It’s out early next year.

Steam’s offering a free copy of Rome: Total War to those that pre-order Empire: Total War, the latter being available for download immediately.

It costs $54.99. You’ll have to wait another three-and-a-half months for Empire, but at least you’ll be able to kill come barbarians in the meantime.

Thanks, Blue.

On Kotaku. It’s a trailer showing Creative Assembly’s latest in both 3D and isometric views. If it’s a stupidly in-depth 18th Century strategy game you’re after, you’ve pretty much ended your search.

It’s out next February. Take a look.

It’s on GamersHell, and there’s precisely no way this can go wrong. It’s ships shooting the shit out of each other on a pretty sea: what could be bad about that?

Watch.

• MadWorld (Wii – March 2009)
• Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood (DS – Fall 2008)
• Sonic Unleashed (360, PS3, Wii, PS2 – Holiday 2008)
• Alpha Protocol (360, PS3, PC – February 2009)
• Samba De Amigo (Wii – September 2008)
• Bayonetta (360, PS3 – 2009)
• Bleach: Dark Souls (DS – Fall 2008)
• Dinosaur King (DS – Fall 2008)
• Empire: Total War (PC – February 2009)
• Golden Axe: Beast Rider (360, PS3 – September 2008)
• Stormrise (360, PS3, PC – 2009)
• Space Siege (PC – August 2008)
• Valkyria Chronicles (PS3 – November 2008)
• Yakuza 2 (PS2 – September 9, 2008)

By Mike Bowden