Is Total War a RTS game?
Total War (series)
Total War is a series of strategy games developed by The Creative Assembly for personal computers. They combine turn-based strategy and resource management with real-time tactical control of battles. The first of the series, "" was released in June 2000. The most recent major game released was "" on 3 May 2018. The series has sold over 20 million copies.
Empire: Total War
Players choose an 18th-century faction and set out to achieve domination over the known world through military force, diplomacy, espionage and economics. The interface and play are similar to earlier "Total War" titles: although the campaign element of the game is turn-based, players can direct battles in real-time. "Empire: Total War" is the first game in the series to allow naval battles to be conducted in real-time. In addition to the standard campaign mode, a special campaign follows the development of the United States from the settlement of Jamestown to the American War of Independence. Players may also recreate several historical battles from the early modern era, such as the Battle of Fontenoy, Battle of Rossbach, Battle of Brandywine Creek and Battle of Lagos.
Full Thrust
"Full Thrust" is one of the most popular games representing starship battles. The game has its own military science fiction/space opera universe. However, the rulebook states that this background is entirely optional; the game is intentionally designed to allow players a high degree of creativity within the rule set. There are also many unofficial conversions to other sci-fi universes like "Star Trek" (sometimes called "Full Trek"), "Star Wars" and "Honor Harrington".
Total War: Attila
TJ Hafer from IGN gave the game 8.1/10, praising its dynamic campaign, AI, improved interface, siege battles and utilities, new army types, and enhanced pacing in the real-time battle, which he stated "adds an extra layer to the choice of army composition". He also stated that the game has helped people understand "the perspective of these ancient people, notorious for raiding and pillaging." However, he criticized the game for its impenetrable, non-user-friendly and frustrating internal politics and diplomacy, occasionally nonsensical AI and the disappointing Celtic factions, which are non-playable and lack their own roster or models. He stated that "'Total War: Attila' is a cleaner, better thought-out experience. It is an adept refinement of Rome 2 instead of a glorified expansion pack for its predecessor. In fact, Attila is proudly its own game, and puts a firm foot forward in contrast to Rome 2’s initially unsatisfying jumble."
Halo Wars
"Halo Wars" is a real-time strategy (RTS) video game developed exclusively for the Xbox 360 console, in which players command armies from a bird's-eye view of the battlefield. The game focuses on military combat, but contains streamlined resource management and base construction elements. It was designed with the Xbox 360 controller in mind; for example, the A button is used for selecting units. A single tap of the button selects one unit, while a double tap selects all units of the same type. The d-pad navigates to current battles and cycles through bases, while the right analog stick adjusts the camera angle. A radial menu is used for base construction.
Great Little War Game
Great Little War Game (GLWG for short) is a modern military 3D turn-based strategy video game developed by British studio Rubicon Development. It has been released on App Store, Apple's App Store, Android, PC, iOS, Google, BlackBerry, and other platforms. The game features three environment types (snowy, regular, and desert), and 20 levels in the main campaign mode (10 extra in the Call of Booty campaign mode). "Great Little War Game: All Out War" includes the All Out War and Holiday from Hell campaign modes (both can be bought in the regular GLWG for iOS). An informally named sequel to the game, "Great Big War Game", was released in 2012. A sequel to this game called "Great Little War Game 2" was released in mid-2014. A third sequel to the series called "Epic Little War Game" was released in 2017.
Total War: Attila
Total War: Attila is a strategy video game developed by The Creative Assembly and published by Sega, released on 17February 2015 for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux. It is the ninth standalone game in the "Total War" series of video games.
Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia
Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia is a strategy video game developed by The Creative Assembly and published by Sega, released on 3May 2018 for Microsoft Windows. The game was brought to MacOS and Linux by Feral Interactive on 24 May 2018 and 7 June 2018 respectively. It is the twelfth game in the "Total War" series of video games.
Army Men: RTS
Army Men: RTS is a real-time strategy video game developed by Pandemic Studios and published by The 3DO Company for PlayStation 2, Microsoft Windows and GameCube. In this game, Sarge, his heroes and the Green Army are hungry to put an end to their nemesis once and for all, the tyrannical Tan army, battling them in 15 campaigns missions, 8 special operation missions and 8 great battles in The 3DO Company's farewell to this series. The Greenies hit dirt paths, linoleum floors and carpets and weave through flower beds, strewn boxes and toy train sets to collect plastic and electricity to build snipers to clear the field from afar or amass an army that overwhelms the opposition. The game is based on the movie "Apocalypse Now", where the good guys hunt down an insane colonel, here "Colonel Blintz".
Total War: Three Kingdoms
Like its predecessor, "Total War: Three Kingdoms" is a turn-based strategy real-time tactics game. Set in the Three Kingdoms period, players control one of the game's eleven factions, who must eliminate other factions, unify China and become its ultimate ruler. These factions are led by warlords, including Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Jian. In siege battles, players command both infantry and cavalry units. All the units featured in the game are divided into different retinues, with each led by a powerful general. The player can only deploy three generals into the battlefield at once, and players will only have access to the units that the generals can recruit. The player wins a siege battle when all the opponent generals are killed or the central point of the city is captured. These generals, which can be commanded separately from their troops, have possession of unique weapons and items, which can be looted once they are killed. For instance, Lü Bu's Red Hare can be captured and used by other generals. Generals can also engage in a one-versus-one dueling, which ends when one of them dies or flees. Each general also has different classes and specialties, granting their units with both active and passive buffs. The team also introduces the concept of "guanxi" to the game, in which each general will form social connections and relationships with other characters. Viewing concepts like "obligations, reciprocity, and trust" as important virtues, these generals have unique personalities and desires that players need to cater to. If their demands are not met, their happiness rating will drop and this may lead to various repercussions for players.
Extreme Warfare
Extreme Warfare is a series of professional wrestling management text simulators created by British programmer Adam Ryland for the PC since 1995. The latest in the series is Total Extreme Wrestling 2016 which was released on May 2, 2016.
Total War (series)
In the grand campaign, which is named "Campaigns of the Coalition", the player can play as Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, or Russia in a map that spans Europe. There is also a second campaign available as DLC, the "Peninsular campaign", in which the player vies for control of the Iberian peninsula. The campaign is playable as either France, Spain, or Great Britain. On 3 June 2013 premiered "Napoleon: Total War Gold Edition" for Macs, available for download.
Totally Accurate Battle Simulator
Totally Accurate Battle Simulator (TABS) is a ragdoll physics battle simulation video game currently in development by Landfall Games. A spinoff, titled "Totally Accurate Battlegrounds", was released on 5 June 2018 as a satire of the battle royale genre.
Total War: Arena
Total War: Arena is a strategy game under development by Creative Assembly and published by Wargaming Alliance. It is the first free-to-play title in the "Total War" series. "Total War: Arena" focuses on online multiplayer, mixing elements of real-time strategy and multiplayer online battle arena gameplay. The game features 10-vs-10 battles with each player controlling 3 units, each containing up to 100 warriors.
Strategy video game
While "Herzog Zwei" is regarded as the first true RTS game, the defining title for the genre was Westwood Studios's "Dune II", which was followed by their seminal "Command & Conquer" games. Cavedog's "Total Annihilation" (1997), Blizzard's "Warcraft" (1994) series, "StarCraft" (1998) series, and Ensemble Studios' "Age of Empires" (1997) series are some of the most popular RTS games. In addition, online games such as NukeZone can be considered belonging in this genre as well.
Empire: Total War
"Empire: Total War" was released on 3 March 2009 to the North American market, on 4 March in Europe, on 5 March in Australia, and on Christmas Day in Japan. The game has become the fastest selling "Total War" title to date; "Empire" topped British video game sales charts for all platforms in the week of release, the first PC exclusive title to do so in a year and a half. The game was reported to have sold nearly double the number of "" and "". In the United States, "Empire: Total War" and its "Special Forces" edition were ranked as first and second respectively in the PC sales charts for the week of release. The game's Australian version debuted as the top PC game; across all platforms "Empire: Total War" was ranked fourth, behind "Halo Wars", "Wii Fit" and "Killzone 2". Sega reported the game sold 810,000 units worldwide during their last fiscal year period of 2008. However, consumer response was hampered by technical problems arising from incompatibility with certain Nvidia drivers released after the game's development was completed and reports of installation problems with the Steam content delivery system. In an interview with IGN, Studio Communications Manager Kieran Brigden discussed the problems inherent in developing such a huge and ambitious game, saying: "Are there some issues with "Empire"? Yes there are." As part of its post-release support, he said that Creative Assembly is planning on addressing issues with stability and performance, as well as adding improvements for gameplay and artificial intelligence.
Medieval II: Total War
One of the main focuses on the "Total War" franchise is its incorporation of battle within the greater sphere of gameplay. A battle consists of two or more factions' armies fighting each other. Battles play similar to those in "Rome: Total War", with formations of various kinds of troops fighting. The objective of the battle is to defeat the enemy army by completely destroying it or causing the whole army to flee; in a siege battle, the objective is to completely destroy the army or to take control of a plaza in the centre of the settlement. There is also an option which allows the player to allow for time limits on battles, meaning that the attacker must defeat the defender within a certain time limit (determined by the computer) or the battle results in a victory for the defender.
Unlike in previous "Total War" titles, a new system of modelling troops on the battlefield has been introduced. Each soldier has a varying number of elements to him, such as arms, legs, body armour, shield heraldry, and so forth; each element has a varying number of styles. When a battle is entered, the computer randomly selects elements for each soldier in the unit, thereby making each soldier look different from the soldiers around him. This can lead to some errors; for example, a general's bodyguard of the Holy Roman Empire can be portrayed with a shield that has an English or Byzantine twist upon it. Upgrades to a unit's armour are also depicted - a unit of unarmored spearmen upgraded to have leather armour will be depicted wearing it. Another departure from earlier "Total War" games is that combat is depicted more realistically, with soldiers performing motion-captured attacks - rather than one or two standard attacks - utilising their shields, parrying blows and delivering killing strikes to downed foes, all based on the weapon they are using and the weapon of their opponent. Blood can also be seen on the uniforms of soldiers who have been fighting and a mist of blood will be visible on soldiers hit by arrows. The amount of detail in the fight sequences can be turned up or down along with the other video options in the main menu. A player can also have up to 4800 (huge units option) troops in their army.
Rome: Total Realism VII
Rome: Total Realism VII or (RTR VII) is a complete modification for the computer game "" intended to correct and enhance the historical accuracy of the original game. "RTR VII" is also intended to add a heightened sense of enjoyment. "RTR VII" serves as the name for a new line of RTR mods which stands independently from the previous "Rome Total Realism" 6 series. The "RTR VII" series currently has two releases, in the form of "Rome Total Realism VII: The Iberian Conflict" (or "RTR VII: TIC") (2008) and" Rome Total Realism VII: Fate of Empires" ("RTR VII: FOE") (2009). "RTR VII" has had enormous success and received five awards during the Total War Center 2009 modding awards for FoE. The final mod planned for release in the "RTR VII" series has been named "RTR VII" (without a sub title)
Total War: Rome II
The Creative Assembly has tried to ensure the uniqueness of different cultures and fighting forces. Lead unit designer Jack Lusted stated that instead of the "rebel nation" of the original "Rome: Total War" representing minor states, there are a large number of smaller, individual nations and city-states represented by their own faction. Each ethnic group has a unique play-style. A tribe of British barbarians looks and feels different from a disciplined Roman legion. Different agents and technologies are implemented for different factions. There are over 500 different land units in the game, including mercenaries. Over 30 different city variants avoid siege battles feeling and playing out the same every time.
Spartan: Total Warrior
The game was officially announced at the Game Developers Conference on March 8, 2005, when Sega revealed they had partnered with Creative Assembly to publish a console spin-off of the "Total War" series. It was revealed the game would be more action orientated than other games in the series, and the player would control a single warrior throughout the entire game, rather than command a legion. The following day, Sega announced they had purchased Creative Assembly as part of their strategy "to strengthen [their] emphasis on the western market." Sega also stated
Totally Accurate Battlegrounds
Totally Accurate Battlegrounds (TABG) is a multiplayer battle royale video game developed by Landfall. Released on June 5, 2018, as a spin-off of its predecessor "Totally Accurate Battle Simulator", the game is a satire of the battle royale genre, with a heavy emphasis on exaggerated player and weapon physics.
Tribal Wars
Tribal Wars (TW) is a browser-based, real-time strategy, massively multiplayer online game set in the Middle Ages. The game is set with each player starting off controlling a small village, with the objective being to slowly expand and conquer new villages through the formation of complex armies and a tactical combat system. The game incorporates multiple components of teamwork, planning, and strategy. The game allows players to collect resources, build armies, construct buildings, combat other armies (players or neutral), and conquer new villages. The game also allows for a level of player-specific customization, in regards to village names, army types, and troop-counts. The game operates under world-specific settings that vary from world to world.
F-22 Total Air War
F-22 Total Air War, also known as Total Air War or by its acronym TAW, is a combat flight simulator video game game developed by Digital Image Design and published by Infogrames United Kingdom in 1998. It simulates the F-22 Raptor fighter aircraft.
Soldiers at War
Soldiers at War is a turn-based tactics game set in World War II. The player takes control of eight-man squads through the campaign of fifteen historically based missions, starting in north Africa and ending in Germany. Soldiers gain experience with time and can take items with them onto the next mission. The game also features a selection of single play stand-alone missions and a scenario editor. The multiplayer mode allows up to four people to participate in competitive games via LAN or online.
War (Swedish band)
Total War (formerly known as War) was a Swedish black metal band, formed by Tony "IT" Särkkä of Abruptum, David "Blackmoon" Parland of Dark Funeral and Peter Tägtgren of Hypocrisy.
List of video game genres
The gameplay of turn-based tactics games (TBT) is characterized by the expectation of players to complete their tasks using the combat forces provided to them, and usually by the provision of a realistic (or at least believable) representation of military tactics and operations. Examples of this genre include the "Wars", "Jagged Alliance" and "X-COM" series, as well as tactical role-playing games such as the "Fire Emblem" and "Final Fantasy Tactics".
Rome: Total War
Rome: Total War is a PC strategy game developed by The Creative Assembly and released in 2004 by Activision, although its rights have since passed to Sega. The Mac OS X version was released on by Feral Interactive, who released the iPad version on November 10, 2016, and the iPhone version on August 23, 2018. An Android version was also released on December 19, 2018. The game is the third title in The Creative Assembly's "Total War" series.
Halo Wars
"Halo Wars" garnered generally positive reviews. The game has an average of 82/100 on aggregate web site Metacritic. Critics were split on whether "Halo Wars" was a successful console translation of the RTS genre. GameSpy's Allen Rausch argued that, as "" showed that first-person shooters could work on consoles, "Halo Wars" "is an RTS ... on a console ... and it works". Tom Price of TeamXbox said that gamers have been waiting a long time for a console RTS "to get it right", and "Halo Wars" did so; reviewers for "Official Xbox Magazine" credited Ensemble with creating a strategy game that felt "absolutely at home on the console", rather than a "poorly shoehorned ... port" of a PC game with clumsy controls. 1UP's Thierry Nguyen was neutral about whether it was a good RTS game or "Halo" title, but called it a "solid beginning towards what could be a really good console RTS". Digital Trends' Scott Steinberg said that, while not perfect, "Halo Wars" made a strong case for the viability of RTS on consoles; "There's certainly the potential to have PC holdouts seriously reconsidering hoisting the controller." Peter Hartlaub of the "San Francisco Chronicle" offered a dismissive summation of the game as "a remedial game—real-time strategy for dummies", and stated that the game offered relatively little innovation when compared to other "Halo" titles.
Turns, rounds and time-keeping systems in games
Other video games, such as the "Total War" series (2000–2011), "X-COM" (1993) and "Jagged Alliance 2" (1999), combine a turn-based strategic layer with real-time tactical combat or vice versa.
Herzog Zwei
The game concept of a central command/fighting vehicle directing other friendly units to attack remote enemy base appeared in past games, such as Sir Tech's 1984 game "Rescue Raiders". However, Scott Sharkey of 1UP.com states that the 1988 game "Modem Wars" was possibly "[t]he closest predecessor" to "Herzog Zwei", but that it "was fairly primitive and abstract by comparison," that earlier such games lacked the ability to construct units or manage resources which made them "much more tactical than strategic," and that the slower processors made the ticks "so long that the games were practically turn based". "Total Annihilation" (1997) and its spiritual successor "Supreme Commander" also inherit the concept of a large robotic command vehicle which is used to construct and command an army. However, "Total Annihilation" and "Supreme Commander" are controlled in similar fashion to traditional real-time strategy games; unlike in "Herzog Zwei", the command vehicle in those games is mainly nothing more than a particularly powerful and versatile unit.
Europa Barbarorum
Although set in a similar historical period and geographical area to the unmodified game (covering a timespan of 272 BC to 14 AD, compared to the original game's 270 BC to 14 AD), "Europa Barbarorum" is a total conversion modification as it replaces all the aspects of the original "Rome: Total War" game that can be replaced, such as unit models, statistics and the musical score. The modification has received favourable reviews in a number of computer gaming magazines. "PC Gamer" magazine ranks "Europa Barbarorum" as the best mod for any of the seven "Total War" games released for the PC at that time.
Empires: Dawn of the Modern World
"Empires: Dawn of the Modern World" is a real-time strategy (RTS) game in which the player guides a civilization through five historical periods, from the Middle Ages to World War II. As in many RTS titles, the player collects natural resources, erects buildings, and trains and maintains a military. Players use a mouse cursor interface (or hotkeys) to direct their units, which range from crossbowmen to King Tiger tanks. A three-dimensional (3D) camera system allows the player to view the action from any perspective, including isometric and first-person angles. A mini-map is included as well.
Empire: Total War
"Empire: Total War" ships with nine different versions of box art, eight of which represent the major faction for the market the game is sold in, and one general international version. For instance, German customers are presented artwork displaying colours with the Prussian eagle and Prussian army uniforms, whilst the American artwork shows the American revolutionaries and the Betsy Ross flag. A special edition version of "Empire: Total War" entitled "Special Forces" incorporates six elite faction-specific units: HMS "Victory", the French Irish Brigade, Spanish guerillas, Gurkha infantry, Rogers' Rangers and the Ottoman Ribauldequin. Additionally, three retailers were provided with a special unit for customers to receive; Amazon.com customers were given the Dahomey Amazons, buyers from Best Buy were able to receive the USS "Constitution" and customers buying from Game received the Death's Head Hussars. A further 14 units were added with the objective of increasing graphical and unit variety among the factions. These 14 units were released as part of the game's 1.3 patch in June 2009; accompanying the update was a second set of 14 units, released as downloadable content for purchase.
Tom Clancy's EndWar
"EndWar" received mixed to positive reviews. "The Guardian" gave the game a 4/5
It was praised for its "Highly addictive solo play...the game comes into its own with the massively multiplayer online Theatre of War." while being docked somewhat for "occasional voice recognition blip".
The website www.gametrailers.com gave "EndWar" a 9/10 saying that it was "Console strategy done right."
IGN rated "EndWar" as an 8 out of 10 taking marks away for the "Uninspired single player campaign" but still saw it as a more than solid RTS.
Game Spot's Kevin VanOrd rated the PS3 version of "EndWar" as a 7.5 out of 10 praising its "Innovative voice command mechanic" and stating "Persistent online campaign makes matches feel meaningful" but berated it for its lack of story and "simple rock-paper-scissors skirmishes".
1Up and Electronic Gaming Monthly both gave the game a C.
Theatre of War (video game)
Theatre of War is a real-time tactical strategy game centering on the decisive battles in the European Theatre of World War II 1939–1945. The game allows the player to control armed forces of France, Germany, Poland, The USSR, United Kingdom or the United States (combined in actual campaign) in over 40 missions. Players will command a special task force composed of different kinds of units, including tanks, APCs, field guns, mortars, various infantry regiments and will also have an opportunity to call for artillery and air support. With a focus on unit detail and combat realism, would-be generals are faced with authentic battle scenarios, taken straight from actual World War II records and maps.
Empire: Total War
The campaign mode is similar to those in "" and "", but with several enhancements. It features three main theatres of play: Europe (which also includes North Africa and the Middle East), the Americas, and the Indian subcontinent, as well as four minor trade theatres: the East Indies, the Ivory Coast, the Straits of Madagascar and Brazil. The way provinces work has been decentralised: although a central settlement is still used, other locations within a province can generate trade and technology, allowing factions to disrupt a province's productivity without assaulting the main settlement. Diplomacy, taxation, and trade have been streamlined to reduce the need for micromanagement, including allowing the player to appoint ministers to govern the nation. Previous Total War games required the player to promote a governor for each major city, whereas in Empire ministers' qualifications affect the government of all cities, modified in each case by the size of the metropolitan administration, reflecting the shift from premodern city-statehood to modern nation-statehood. The wandering scholars, spies, emissaries and assassins used in previous titles to deal with diplomacy, trade and espionage have been replaced with just three units: gentlemen, rakes, and missionaries. The former handle research and can challenge other characters to a duel (thus eliminating the diplomatic risk of being implicated in an assassination plot), while rakes perform clandestine tasks such as spying, assassination, and sabotage. Missionaries serve to convert the populace to the state religion, which reduces religious unrest and softens cultural unrest. Isomorphic units also exist for the Ottomans, Persians, and other near eastern nations, replacing rakes with Hashashin, while Indian nations use Thugees for the same purposes, and all nations south and east of the Ottoman Empire use Eastern Scholars instead of gentlemen (although these cannot duel). The isomorphic religious leaders are Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant missionaries, Imams, and Brahmin. The way armies are produced also differs: in addition to being produced at settlements, generals can now build their armies in the field by recruiting from nearby settlements. Players can now research technologies along a technology tree, advancing in areas such as infrastructure, politics, agriculture and the military.
Star Wars: Empire at War
"Star Wars: Empire at War" was first mentioned in 2004, by then-president of LucasArts Jim Ward. He discussed the possibility of a RTS video game set in the "Star Wars" universe, stating "...there's a bright future there for games based on these new properties as well as original Star Wars games like a new real-time strategy PC game that Petroglyph is developing for next year". Ward described the game as taking the real-time strategy genre in a new direction and outlined plans to balance the gameplay between hardcore games and audiences familiar with the "Star Wars" franchise. The game was unveiled by LucasArts on January 21, 2005 with an original release date set for the end of 2005. LucasArts said that the newly formed Petroglyph Games would be developing an original 3-D game engine, titled Alamo, for "Star Wars: Empire at War" and that the game would support online battles for up to eight players.
Act of War: Direct Action
In "Act of War," heavily wounded soldiers are immobilized and are unable to engage in combat until they receive medical attention. They may bleed to death or be taken as the prisoners of war by the enemy. Buildings are realistically destructible and barricades can be created. Unlike RTS games in which all-around-effective units may be mass-produced and used almost exclusively over other units, "Act of War" requires the player to use a variety of units.
AI War: Fleet Command
AI War's more positive reviews said "AI War is a revolution in terms of how RTSs play," "[The first three AI War Expansions] are perfect examples of what an expansion should be," and "AI War breaks most of the genre's rules. Which is precisely why it's incredible." These same reviewers also noted "it’s got a considerable learning curve," "The one thing [the first three expansions] have in common, however, is how much the[y] increase the difficulty compared to the original game," and "It has the presentation of a spreadsheet, but as much heart and soul as Dune 2, Total Annihilation, Homeworld, Galactic Civilizations and Desktop Tower Defense rolled into one."
Total War (series)
On 2 July 2012, The Creative Assembly announced "Total War: Rome II" with a live action trailer that features different scenes with the theme, "How far will you go for Rome?". Work on the title began during the development of "Total War: Shogun 2". The Creative Assembly announced that the game would have a bigger map than its predecessor, "Rome: Total War", it will "go more to the east", have many new game features and that it will have new camera views in-battle, allowing the player to see the battle from almost every angle. They further claimed that the game was developed using a new programming system, which allows it to achieve graphical quality never seen before in the "Total War" series, including dynamic facial expressions. The game was released on 3 September 2013. This title hit record high pre-order sales for The Creative Assembly, with the Greek States Culture Pack unlocking Sparta, Athens and Epirus in the campaign as a pre-order bonus. The initial release suffered from significant performance issues as well as having many bugs which severely affected gameplay.
Original War
"Original War" is an RTS: The player builds a base, finds resources, builds vehicles, and destroys the enemy. Its distinguishing feature is the way the game mechanics reflect the backstory's scarcity of resources and isolation.
Empire: Total War
"Empire: Total War" received "universal acclaim" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Reviewers praised the large scope of the game's strategy map "PC Gamer UK" noted that the game "takes a great deal of its design philosophy from the events and trends of its era", which enabled the game to reasonably reflect the challenges faced by the factions' historical counterparts. Praise was also given to the extensive number of factions, down to very small factions such as the Knights of St. John and a renegade pirate settlement. Kieron Gillen, reviewing for Eurogamer, described the campaign map as "endless" and due to the large amount of content, observed that he had managed to complete the entire campaign without even visiting the Indian theatre of play (approximately a full one fourth of the playable game world); a factor that enhanced the game's replayability. Other reviews echoed this sentiment; GameSpot stated that "even a short, 50-year campaign can take a good amount of time to complete, given that each turn requires strategic thinking on multiple fronts". Praise was further bestowed on the refined interface, introduction of a technology tree and level of strategic thinking required for the campaign map. However, some reviewers noted inconsistent behaviour with the campaign artificial intelligence; 1UP.com noted that it could perform illogical choices, such as "the occasional suicidal war between Dagestan and Russia", while "GamePro" was critical of the artificial intelligence in a number of areas, including the inability to mount a naval invasion or utilise effective strategies on the campaign map.
Total Annihilation: Battle Tactics
This was met with mixed reactions and became one of the sources of criticism for "Battle Tactics". Many gamers loyal to the original gameplay methods disliked how many of the scenarios eliminated resource management as critical component of the game, since its revolutionary economy system is part of what made "Total Annihilation" unique and popular. Other players came to accept "Battle Tactics" for what it was meant to be—a completely different side of the RTS, to be discovered in its own way.
Empire: Total War
"Empire: Total War" was announced by Creative Assembly and publisher Sega at the Leipzig Games Convention on 22 August 2007. In their press release, Creative Assembly outlined various features in the game, such as the new game engine and the addition of real-time naval combat. However, while the game had been in the planning stages since the release of "", it was still in early development; no gameplay footage was demonstrated at the convention. The game was announced alongside The Creative Assembly's console title "". Media releases over the subsequent months showed screenshots of the game and elaborated more on "Empire: Total War"s game mechanics. The game's trailer, consisting of computer-generated cut scene footage, was released 10 July 2008. A playable demonstration of the game's naval combat was showcased at the E3 convention later in July 2008, where it was estimated that the game would ship in 2009. The land combat was demonstrated at the later 2008 Leipzig Game Convention in August 2008. At the convention, Creative Assembly announced that the game was out of the alpha development phase, and that they were aiming for a release date of 6 February 2009.
Trade Wars
Today, classic Trade Wars is primarily hosted by Windows NT/2000/XP computers running the Trade Wars Game Server (TWGS), which accepts incoming telnet connections and launches the Trade Wars ANSI game. Trade Wars is also run by many of the surviving BBSs, and variations have been ported to the web, cell phones, and the Palm OS.
Empire: Total War
The second major area of gameplay is the battle system. Unlike the campaign game, here players control battles in real-time. As with all titles in the series after "", battles can take place on both land and at sea. However, "Empire" is the first to allow naval battles to be fought in real-time; in previous titles they were automatically resolved by the game's artificial intelligence. Automatic resolution of battles remains an option for both land and sea battles. Separately from the main campaign game, players can recreate individual historical battles in the 18th century and early 19th century.
In land engagements, players have an 18th-century army consisting of units such as cavalry, musketeers, riflemen and artillery. Each has its own intrinsic advantages, disadvantages, cost, and overall effectiveness. Players must use 18th-century tactics and formations to defeat their enemies. The battlefield terrain and the weather are also important. Factions can lay siege to settlements, replacing open land battles with street fighting and close-quarter combat. Each unit has morale, which increases if the battle goes well, or decrease after heavy casualties, army losses, coming under artillery bombardment, or with the death of the general. Tactical situations such as attacking from a flank or the rear, or depriving a unit of allied reinforcements, also hit morale. When a unit's morale is sufficiently depleted, it will be routed and flee the battlefield. Depending on whether morale is merely broken or entirely shattered, the player may be able to rally the unit and regroup. Victory is achieved by causing every enemy unit to rout, or be annihilated. In addition, sieges can be won if the attacker manages to take control of the settlement's central square for a set amount of time. "Empire: Total War" also introduces several new battlefield elements to the "Total War" series. Units can take cover behind walls or in buildings, allowing increased interactivity with the terrain and making some buildings points of tactical importance. Field defences may be constructed on the battlefield. Infantry units can also scale small obstacles such as walls and fences. Each unit has different capabilities such as Square Formation, Wedge, Diamond, Equip bayonets, or Fire at will.
Total War: Warhammer
"Total War: Warhammer" had generally favourable reviews from critics. It has a score of 87/100 on Metacritic. IGN awarded it a score of 8.6 out of 10, saying "Total War: Warhammer brims with exciting ideas, awesome characters, and delightful units and faction mechanics." GameSpot awarded it a score of 9.0 out of 10, saying "It's a triumph of real-time strategy design, and the best the Total War series has ever been." PC Gamer awarded it a score of 86%, saying "If you find real history a bit bland compared to glorious nonsense made up by strange British people then Warhammer is the Total War for you." Game Informer awarded it a score of 8.75 out of 10, saying "the series has never felt so fun...Total War: Warhammer is one of the best Total War games I've ever played." The Guardian awarded it a score of four out of five stars, saying "Total War: Warhammer has done the best it can do with the legacy Total War engine, and is also a loving tribute to Warhammer."
Advanced Third Reich
"Empire of the Rising Sun" (1995) is a companion game, also developed by Bruce Harper, set in the Pacific Theater of Operations in World War II. "A3R" and "ERS" can be played separately or together in a "Global War" simulation, using rules that are part of the "ERS" package. By 1997 the development of a new version - originally entitled "Global War 2000" but eventually renamed "A World At War" - was underway ("Ultra" continued to be published online) and thereafter the original published version of "Advanced Third Reich" was referred to by aficionados as "classic". In 2003 GMT Games published a new Bruce Harper game, "A World at War" ("AWAW"), a substantially revamped, larger, and more complex version of the combined "A3R" and "ERS".
List of video game genres
The moniker "real-time strategy" (RTS), usually applied only to certain computer strategy games, (however, this genre is probably the most well known of strategy games and is what most websites mean when they say "strategy games") indicates that the action in the game is continuous, and players will have to make their decisions and actions within the backdrop of a constantly changing game state. Real-time strategy gameplay is characterised by obtaining resources, building bases, researching technologies and producing units. Blizzard Entertainment's "Starcraft" is a popular RTS played competitively in South Korea and televised to large audiences. Other notable games include the "Warcraft" series, "Age of Empires" series, "Dawn of War", "Command and Conquer", and "Dune II" (essentially the first RTS game). Outside PC world, very few strategy games are real-time; a few examples are "Battle for Middle-earth II", "Pikmin" and "Halo Wars". Even fewer ones use physical pieces, but at least "Icehouse" is an example of such.
Creative Assembly
A third "Total War" title was announced in January 2003. Entitled "", the game featured a new game engine to "Shogun: Total War" and "Medieval: Total War", and redesigned the approach to the series. Set during the rise of the Roman Empire, the game's code was used for two television shows: the BBC's "Time Commanders" and the History Channel's "Decisive Battles". Upon release in September 2004, the game was given praise, becoming one of the year's top ten best-selling titles.
Total war
Bibliography
Total War: Warhammer
Total War: Warhammer is a turn-based strategy and real-time tactics video game developed by Creative Assembly and published by Sega for Microsoft Windows via the Steam gaming platform. The game was brought to macOS and Linux by Feral Interactive. The game features the gameplay of the "Total War" series with factions of Games Workshop's "Warhammer Fantasy" series; it is the first "Total War" game not to portray a historical setting. It is the 10th title in the "Total War" series and the first title to be released in the "Total War: Warhammer" trilogy.
A World at War
A World at War is a board wargame published by GMT Games, simulating the Second World War in Europe and the Pacific. It is a descendant of Avalon Hill's games Rise and Decline of the Third Reich, Advanced Third Reich and Empire of the Rising Sun. The emphasis of the game system has shifted from novel and far-fetched strategies (pre-1992 versions of the game) to diplomacy ("A3R") to studying the effect of changes in a country's forcepool.
M.A.R.S. Patrol Total War
M.A.R.S. Patrol Total War was a short-lived science fiction/war comic book series published by Gold Key Comics for 10 issues from July 1965 to August 1969. The first two issues were titled "Total War". The artist on the first 3 issues was Wally Wood, who probably had a hand in creating the series. In 1966 the comic won an Alley Award for Best Normal Group Adventure Title.
Total War: Warhammer II
The main campaign of the game is called "Eye of the Vortex". It is a narrative-focused campaign where each of the playable races has its own story and cutscenes. In addition, players who own both Total War: Warhammer and Total War: Warhammer II have access to a huge combined campaign called "Mortal Empires", which is more of a sandbox experience. Mortal Empires must be downloaded manually from Steam, but is free for players who own both games.
Total War (series)
"Medieval: Total War" was released in August 2002. Using the same game engine as "Shogun," the game takes players to medieval Europe. The expansion pack is called "Viking Invasion", and the combined edition is called the "Battle Collection". It was one of the best-selling games in the "Total War" series.
Total War: Shogun 2
"Shogun 2's" blend of turn-based strategy and real-time tactics gameplay is a staple of the "Total War" series. The player plays the role of both the clan leader and general, alternating between the campaign, where the player manages his land and armies turn by turn, and the battles, where the player takes control of the army on the battlefield in real-time.
In the campaign, the player needs to oversee the development of settlements, military production, economic growth, and technological advancement respectively. The armies and units are organised and moved around the stylised campaign map by the player to carry out battles with other factions. In addition to fighting, the player is able to engage in diplomacy, political manoeuvring and the use of special agents to gain the upper hand. Ninja and geisha are also present in the game as assassins and spies. While religion isn't as relevant as it was in "", it can't be neglected by the player. Greater interaction with the European foreigners (Nanban traders), for example, to enhance trade and acquire firearms, exposes the clan to Christianity, which will seriously increase religious unrest in the provinces. Religious agents, such as monks and priests can be used to convert the enemy population.
There are nine major clans that inhabit the provinces of Japan which the player chooses from. There are others, including the "Akamasu retainer clan". All Clans have particular advantages in certain areas, to give a variety of play style with each.
Total War (series)
On 25 September 2014, The Creative Assembly announced "Total War: Attila" at the Eurogamer Expo. Using the same engine as "Total War: Rome II", the game followed the life of Attila the Hun during the Dark Ages of Europe, much like "Napoleon: Total Wa"r did with Napoleons life after "Empire: Total War". According to the Creative Assembly, "Total War: Attila" would implement an "apocalyptic" atmosphere, with hostile weather and darker lighting. "Total War: Attila" was released on 17 February 2015.
Total War: Attila
Atlas Burke from GamesRadar praised the graphics, audio-design, and new additions. He stated "[New additions] seem to be direct responses to the Rome 2 backlash". He also praised the satisfying gameplay, outstanding tactical battles, improved AI and UI, the option to turn settlements into armies, and the heavy emphasis on political machinations. However, he criticized the excruciating build turn, technical issues, over-simplistic interface, and unbalanced units. He summarized the game by saying that "Total War: Attila is a damn fine strategy game in its own right, without having to compare it to its oft-lamented predecessor."
Medieval: Total War
"Medieval: Total War" was the recipient of a number of industry awards. "PC Gamer UK" named it the top game of 2002, replacing the previous entry, Valve Software's "Half-Life". In awarding the distinction, "PC Gamer" stated: "It was the only contender." The game received an EMMA award in Technical Excellence for its audio by Jeff van Dyck, commended for having a "game soundtrack and score that is lush, well-mixed, and adds dynamically to the gameplay. The extensive diverse musical tracks sound authentic and fully engage the user." The game received a number of distinctions from game publications, such as the "Best Strategy Game of 2002" award from GameSpy, mentioning "It's not that "Medieval" is just two great games in one. It's two games that feed off of one another for the ultimate rush." The Creative Assembly itself was also awarded the European Computer Trade Show PC Game Developer of the Year award, for the production of "Medieval: Total War".
Strategy video game
Since its was released in 2000, the "Total War" series by the "Creative Assembly" has become the most successful series of strategy games of all time, with sales of copies of "" numbering in the millions.
Total War Battles: Shogun
Total War Battles: Shogun is a real-time strategy video game spinoff of the Total War series developed by Creative Assembly and published by Sega. It was released on April 19, 2012 for iOS and on August 29, 2012 for Windows.
Total War (series)
"Napoleon: Total War" was released in North America on 23 February 2010, and in Europe on 26 February. The game focuses on the politics and major military campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars in the late 18th century and the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century. "Napoleon" was released with several editions: the "Standard Edition" (as well as a limited edition version of the "Standard Edition"), "Imperial Edition", and the "Emperor's Edition" (available in Australia and New Zealand only). Players assume the role of Napoleon Bonaparte, or one of his major rivals, on a turn-based campaign map and engage in the subsequent battles in real-time. As with its predecessor, "Empire: Total War", which included a special episodic United States storyline, "Napoleon" features three separate campaigns which follow the general's early Italian and Egyptian campaigns as well as the European campaign and the Battle of Waterloo.
Total War: Rome II
Upon release many users reported technical faults such as being unable to load the game following installation, crashes, texture optimization problems and broken artificial intelligence; poor game performance was also constantly reported. In a negative review by Rich Stanton for "The Guardian", he reports having to re-download the full game following problems with his own review copy, noting that his "PC runs Shogun II at ultra settings without any issues but Rome II on medium makes it choke like a dog, and judging by the developer's own forum many others are having the same issues." On the official forums, an "anonymous developer" from another studio posted his own complaints, including numerous bugs and poorly implemented features such as "capture the flag" style battles, feeling that the game had "comprehensively failed" to be tested, blaming the publisher Sega for its state on release. In a review by critic and comedian Joe Vargas (AKA Angry Joe), he also complained about AI problems and unit balancing with in-game video examples while also noting differences with the preview builds, while William Usher of Cinema Blend supported Vargas's review while questioning other reviews due to the number of reported problems on release prior to patching. Following its release, developer The Creative Assembly announced regular patching in order to fix the reported issues, with the first update coming the Friday the same week of release. On the "Total War" official forums, admins on behalf of Creative Director Mike Simpson issued an apology along with a statement, promising to further patch the game, encouraging players to report all problems given the variety and difference of issues between players. Simpson would later go on to state, in a second public announcement about new and upcoming fixes, about asking for further player input while also "hoping we can fundamentally treat our releases differently in the future."
Guardian War
Guardian War is a console RPG or tactical role-playing game released for the 3DO console. It is notable for its use of 3-D animation which was uncommon for console RPGs at the time. It is also known as in Japan and Europe, and is one of the few 3DO games which is region-protected. This only applies to the PAL game and console. Both NTSC versions can play on both US and JP consoles.
Real-time strategy
Allgames lists War of Nerves! as the first RTS ever. Ars Technica traces the genre's roots back to "Utopia" (1981), citing it as the "birth of a genre", with a "real-time element" that was "virtually unheard of", thus making it "arguably the earliest ancestor of the real-time strategy genre". According to Ars Technica, "Utopia" was a turn-based strategy game with hybrid elements that ran "in real-time but events happened on a regular turn-based cycle." According to Brett Weiss, "Utopia" is often cited as "the first real-time strategy game." According to Matt Barton and Bill Loguidice, "Utopia" "helped set the template" for the genre, but has "more in common with "SimCity" than it does with "Dune II" and later RTS games." Barton also cites "Cytron Masters" (1982), saying it was "one of the first (if not "the" first) real-time strategy games." On the other hand, Scott Sharkey of 1UP argues that, while "Cytron Masters" "attempted real time strategy", it was "much more tactical than strategic" due to "the inability to construct units or manage resources". "BYTE" in December 1982 published as an Apple II type-in program "Cosmic Conquest". The winner of the magazine's annual Game Contest, the author described it as a "single-player game of real-time action and strategic decision making". The magazine described it as "a real-time space strategy game". The game has elements of resource management and wargaming.
Total War: Warhammer
While "Total War: Warhammer" is built around the "Total War" system of city and unit building, army manoeuvring and diplomacy with other factions, it has numerous new elements that differ from previous "Total War" games. In addition to those already mentioned, they include the ability of agents to participate in battles to give your army an edge; a wider variety of animations, with 30 different types of skeleton and body types compared to only five or six previously; flying units such as dragons, which make use of the new animation capacity; corruption is now caused by the presence of Vampire Counts or Chaos armies, rather than internal factors; the renaming of Generals as Lords - they now fight as individuals rather than embedded within a bodyguard unit, and can be upgraded via skill and equipment trees to boost both their own and their army's power; and the addition of a quest mode which tasks players to complete missions and battles to receive unlockable items and abilities. One of the most significant new elements, however, is magic. Different factions have different amounts of access to the various "lores" (types) of magic, with some, such as the Dwarfs, having no access whatsoever. Units with access to magic can turn the tide of battles - their abilities are far more powerful than any available to battlefield units in previous games.
Creative Assembly
Despite speculation that Activision might buy Creative Assembly, as the publisher had done with previous successful developers under its wing, the Japanese company Sega announced on 9 March 2005 that they had sealed an acquisition deal with Creative Assembly, purchasing all issued shares in the company. Sega explained that the acquisition was to strengthen Sega Europe's presence in the European and North American video game markets. All preceding titles in the "Total War" series had been exclusively computer games. By July 2005, Sega had acquired the publishing rights to "Rome: Total War" from Activision, and built on the brand strategy by releasing two expansion packs: "" in September 2005 and "" in September 2006. "Spartan: Total Warrior" was released in October 2005 on Xbox, PlayStation 2 and GameCube, receiving a mixed reception from critics.
Total War (series)
"Total War Battles: Shogun" was released on 20 April 2012 for iOS. This game was also later released for Android devices and Microsoft Windows. Set in medieval Japan, the game utilizes real time strategy and, like other Total War games, combines troop organization and management, combat and building management. Available troops confirmed are: samurai, archers, ninja and cavalry. The battle system uses Hexagon tiles for movement and placement and a new key feature to this game enforces the "Bushido" code of conduct where once units are moved forward they can no longer move backwards. 1 vs 1 local multiplayer is available.
Chris Taylor (game designer)
In the August 2005 edition of "PC Gamer", it was announced that Gas Powered Games was developing "Supreme Commander", Chris's first RTS game since 1997. It is described as the spiritual successor to "Total Annihilation", but was not able to be named as such because Atari (formerly Infogrames) owns the rights to the "Total Annihilation" name. Although Atari has shown no interest in reviving the TA franchise, the company nonetheless held on to it until July 2013.
Spartan: Total Warrior
Spartan: Total Warrior is a 2005 hack and slash video game developed by Creative Assembly and published by Sega for PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube. Released in Europe and North America in October, it is a spin-off of the "Total War" series.
The plot revolves around a Spartan warrior, secretly guided by the god Ares, as he fights alongside his Greek allies against the invading Roman Empire. While the "Total War" series traditionally focuses upon real historical scenarios, the plot of "Spartan: Total Warrior" is fictional, involving figures from both Greek and Roman mythology, and featuring anachronistic elements. It is also the only installment in the series to have been released for video game consoles rather than PCs or Macs. It was the first "Total War" game published by Sega, who had purchased Creative Assembly earlier in 2005.
"Spartan" received a mixed reception. Although some reviewers found the game to be a glorified button-masher, and criticized the combat as repetitive, others praised the game engine and the scope of the battles.
Total War (series)
"Empire: Total War" was announced on 22 August 2007 by Sega and had been secretly in development since the release of "Barbarian Invasion". It is set in the 18th century and includes features such as the Industrial Revolution, America's struggle for independence and the colonization of India. For the first time in a "Total War" game, players have the ability to play real-time 3D naval battles. Also a feature that had been developed in the game was the decentralisation of provinces, adding greater realism in that many features, from production to technological advancement, would now occur outside of the capital of the province. "Empire: Total War" was released on 3 March in North America and 4 March in Europe 2009. The expansion pack, "Empire: Total War: Warpath", was released in October 2009. "Warpath" is set in the Americas where it is possible to control one of five different Native American nations. While the game was critically acclaimed due to its innovative game play, the game has been subject to most of the criticism of the "Total War" series by many critics and fans after its release due to bugs; Sega claims nearly all issues have been presently resolved. The issues have been publicly explained by Creative Assembly several months after the game's release. It was the first in the series to use Valve Corporation's Steamworks DRM and achievements system, thereby requiring Steam to be played.
All This and World War II (adventure)
All This and World War II is a role-playing game adventure published by TSR in 1989 for the "Marvel Super Heroes" role-playing game.
Napoleon: Total War
"Napoleon: Total War" was first revealed on 19 August 2009. The game was meant to be the first in an all-new story driven branch of the "Total War" series. On 10 March 2010, a demo was released via Steam featuring a playable version of the Battle of Ligny.
37Games
On December 18, 2015, 37Games published its first mobile game, Fusion War, in the global market on both the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. Fusion War is a 3D FPS developed by Tencent, featuring an engaging storyline that combines movie-like cut scenes, multi-mode gameplays, an advanced PvP system, and challenging Special Ops.
Spartan: Total Warrior
"Spartan Total Warrior" is a hack and slash game wherein the player is able to use two main types of attack; a simple attack which damages one enemy, and a radial attack which damages multiple enemies. The simple attack is fast and causes more damage; the radial attack is slower, but damages multiple enemies moderately. One button is used to initiate the single attack, and a different button to initiate the radial attack. However, each attack can be modified in certain ways; for example, rather than using the character's weapon, the player can initiate either an individual or a radial attack using their shield, their bow or their magic power.
Total War Battles: Shogun
Mark Brown of Pocket Gamer UK rated the game 9/10 and gave it the Gold Award, saying it was a "high-quality production" that "streamlines the RTS genre for mobile play" without sacrificing its depth.
War Leaders: Clash of Nations
War Leaders: Clash of Nations is a turn-based global strategy game bundled with a real-time tactics game mode, similar to that of the "Total War" series.
Empire: Total War
"Empire: Total War" was met with universal acclaim; several critics commended it as one of the foremost strategy titles of recent times. Praise was bestowed upon the extensive strategic breadth, accurate historical challenges and visual effects. The real-time land battles, with a far greater focus on gunpowder weaponry than earlier "Total War" titles, were considered successful. Criticisms focused on shortcomings with the game's artificial intelligence and on the real-time naval battles being difficult to control and co-ordinate. The game was a commercial success, topping sales charts within a week of release; nevertheless, several Creative Assembly employees later commented on various issues caused by a perceived early release.
Medieval: Total War
Activision, the game's publisher, produced a combination of "Medieval: Total War" and "Medieval: Total War: Viking Invasion", called the "Medieval: Total War Battle Collection", released on 7 January 2004. "Medieval: Total War Battle Collection" contained both games, patched to the latest version, and their manuals. On 30 June 2006, Sega, the company that took over the publishing of the series, released a collector's edition version of the "Total War" series, called "Total War: Eras". The edition included patched versions of "Shogun: Total War", "Medieval: Total War" and "", together with their expansion packs, a documentary detailing the creation of the game series, and "Total War" memorabilia.
Submarine TITANS
"Submarine TITANS" has the unique distinction of being the only game in the RTS genre where the entire realm takes place fully underwater. It is also the earliest RTS to have a full-fledged spectator feature for single and multiplayer and also the only RTS of its time to have an AI which could, when so instructed, play the entire game for the player, handling combat and building on all sides. This game is also one of the very first RTS games which had fully user-editable AI scripts, including an extremely detailed manual included on the CD on how to mod your own AIs. The game lobby allows a wide range of options, such as removing unit number limitations, starting resources or starting tech level. It also comes with a fully functional map editor, which can create both multiplayer maps and scripted missions and campaigns.
Total War: Rome II
Total War: Rome II is a strategy game developed by The Creative Assembly and published by Sega. It was released on 3 September 2013 for Microsoft Windows and is the eighth standalone game in the "Total War" series of video games. "Rome II" is a successor to the 2004 game "".
Call of Duty: World at War – Final Fronts
"Call of Duty: World at War - Final Fronts" is a first-person shooter game. It focuses on single-player campaigns, as it has no multiplayer. The game is set in World War II. The player can carry two guns at one time, as well as grenades. Levels are played with a team of soldiers from both Britain and the U.S, that assist the player by killing enemies and completing objectives. The game has been criticised by some critics for the poor AI, which is evident when friendly soldiers push the player out of cover and into the enemy line-of-fire.
Spartan: Total Warrior
More information about the game was released just prior to the E3 event in May. Two non-playable demo levels were shown, demonstrating the game engine's ability to create battles involving up to 170 soldiers, with advanced AI resulting in enemies and allies fighting one another irrespective of the player's actions. A new playable demo was made available at E3 itself, with Sega emphasizing that at any one time in battle, the player may have three or four simultaneous objectives. A near complete build of the game was sent out to gaming websites in August. IGN's Juan Castro wrote "while unfinished, "Spartan: Total Warrior" looks good and plays well [...] combat feels intense and moves at a fluid pace, running at a solid framerate throughout." GameSpot's Justin Calvert was equally impressed, especially with the absence of in-game loading; "there are absolutely no load times once the action gets under way--which is no small achievement, given the sheer scale of some of the environments."
"Spartan: Total Warrior" received "mixed or average reviews" across all systems; the GameCube version holds an aggregate score of 73 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on twenty-four reviews; the PlayStation 2 version 74 out of 100, based on thirty-three reviews; and the Xbox version 73 out of 100 based on thirty-six reviews.
GameSpot's Greg Mueller scored the game 7.1 out of 10, calling it "a basic action game with a heavy dose of button mashing and a little bit of task management." Finding the combat repetitive, he argued, "even with the rage moves the combat can get pretty dull after a while." He was also critical of the graphics, writing "detail is sometimes sacrificed to achieve that nice frame rate. The character models are blocky, and they don't animate particularly well. Additionally, all the textures are fuzzy and bland." He concluded, ""Spartan: Total Warrior" is a pretty fun, though derivative, action game that should keep you entertained for at least the six or seven hours it takes you to get through the story. With just a bit more effort, "Spartan" could have been great."
IGN's Juan Castro scored the game 7.9 out of 10, arguing that "as exhilarating and action-packed as the game gets, it also gets mind-devastatingly annoying." He was particularly critical of the targeting camera when using the bow. On the other hand, he called it "a technically great game. The engine pushes hundreds of units at once while offering a good deal of visual panache. There's little to no slowdown throughout the entire experience, even with explosions rocking the screen and body parts flying every which way." He concluded "it does so many things right that it genuinely pains us to see the experience get bogged down by a handful of major annoyances. Creative Assembly crafted a marvelous game engine, too, one that affords spectacular encounters filled with more action, blood and "Holy crap did you see that!?" moments than we'd care to mention. It's therefore unfortunate that the unrefined targeting system, cheap boss battles and generally unhelpful friendly AI make the experience a mixed bag of exhilarating and exasperating moments."
Eurogamer's Kieron Gillen scored the PlayStation 2 version 8 out of 10, writing "initially playing it is a shock, immediately having a scope which few PS2 games - hell, few games full stop - manage to match. Opening scenes with you as a soldier among dozens in the defence of Sparta are reminiscent of "Call of Duty"s Russian scenes. Epic is the word." He also praised the combat and the controls, feeling the game just about avoided being a button masher. However, he found it too difficult in places, and felt that often, the time between save points was too long. However, he concluded by referring to the game as "a whole lot of slick, entertaining violence."
GamesRadar's Brent Goodsmith scored the game 4 out of 5. He felt it was a button masher, arguing that attacking "is executed via the trusted medium of button bashing. The developers will hate us for saying this, because they've pointed out to us on multiple occasions the non-bashy, all-skillsy nature of "Spartan: Total Warrior"s combat." However, he didn't see this as an inherent problem; "regardless of how it is achieved, the result is much the same: oodles of rapid-fire killing and the satisfaction of hacking up enemies more numerous than in any console action game that has gone before." He concluded ""Spartan" does things right out of the box that the première hack-and-slash series "Dynasty Warriors", about to release its "tenth" PS2 entry, has yet to achieve."
Hutsell Computer War Games
Hutsell Computer War Games are a series of popular shareware MS-DOS wargames written by W. R. Hutsell. The games included "VGA Civil War Strategy Game", "EGA Civil War Battleset", "Wars of Napoleon", and "World War II In Western Europe". All of the games are available for free since 2017.
Europa Barbarorum
In the original "Rome: Total War", the player took control of an empire, or "faction", of classical Europe, North Africa or the Middle East, with the aim of expanding their faction's territory and eliminating rival empires through military conquest and city-building. "Europa Barbarorum" retains this basic gameplay mechanic and sets itself in a similar time period and geographical area to the original game. However, as a total conversion the mod replaces the particular factions, military units, buildings, and other elements present in the original game, and adds a new soundtrack and several brand-new gameplay mechanics not present in the original, such as the installation of puppet rulers. The modification's development team's stated aim in making the changes that they have to "Rome: Total War" is to make the player's experience of the ancient world more historically accurate. For this reason, numerous parameters of the game at the start of the campaign in 272 BC, such as generals' names, the diplomatic relations between factions, and the particular understanding of the outside world that each faction has, have been set to correspond to the actual political situation in that year.
Total War: Warhammer
Like previous titles in the "Total War" series, gameplay unfolds both on a scale of kingdoms in a turn-based strategy campaign, managing cities and the movement of armies, and on a smaller scale in real-time tactics skirmishes and sieges, managing the movement and actions of individual units and characters within an army during a battle. The player controls one of several fantasy factions, each with their own units, characters and abilities. These include Dwarfs, Human factions, Greenskins and Vampire Counts at launch, with more added as paid downloadable content.
Totally Games
Totally Games was a video game developer located in Marin County, California. Their titles included the "X-wing" series of games based on the Star Wars universe, a series of PC-based World War II flight combat simulations ("Battlehawks 1942", "Their Finest Hour", "The Battle of Britain", and "Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe") and "Bridge Commander" based on the Star Trek universe. They created "Secret Weapons over Normandy" in 2003 for the PS2, Xbox and PC. They broadened their scope to create products for the PSP and the Wii ("Alien Syndrome") and an interconnected theme park/internet experience, "Buzz Lightyear Astroblasters", commemorating the 50th anniversary of Disneyland. The company was originally founded in 1985 as a sole proprietorship, incorporated in 1993 as Peregrine Software and soon thereafter renamed Totally Games by Lawrence Holland, a Cornell University graduate.
Total War: Attila
Dan Griliopoulos from "PC Gamer" gave the game 83/100, praising the in-game representation of history, enjoyable multiplayer, stunning music, animation and sound-effect, improved army and character management as well as the themes, which he stated "has reflected the era accurately" and the new family system, which adds new complexity into the game. He also praised the developer for fixing the long-term problems in the series. However, he criticized the extreme difficulty, AI problem, laggy chat in multiplayer, frame rate issues and bugs. He concluded the game by saying that "[Total War: Attila] is a barbarous twist on Rome II, with a handful of fixes. The Total War games still need work to reach that perfection they’re aiming for, and the bugs this close to release are worrying, but Attila shows that Creative have been listening."
Total War (series)
"Total War: Arena" is a free-to-play game that is currently under Open Beta Testing. During his session at the 2013 GDC in San Francisco, lead designer James Russell revealed the title under development at the UK studio. "Arena" will be The Creative Assembly's first title in a free-to-play model, a new spin-off for the "Total War" series. Offering players the chance to pitch history's greatest commanders and their armies against each other in massive team-based battles, "Arena" will focus entirely on online multiplayer, mixing elements of real-time strategy and multiplayer online battle arena gameplay.
Total War (series)
From the team behind "Total War Battles: Shogun", "Total War Battles: Kingdom" entered open Beta on PC on 9 March 2015, following a limited closed Beta. Set in Medieval England, the game combines realm building and management with real-time battles and has been released for PC, Android and iOS.
Medieval: Total War
"Medieval: Total War" features a multiplayer game mode similar to that in "Shogun: Total War", where players can engage in real-time battles with up to seven other players. Players create and control armies from the factions available in the game, where players can use them to compete in online tournaments or casual battles. The campaign mode cannot be played multiplayer; this feature was later added to the "Total War" series in "Empire: Total War" – but only at the beta stage, before being later removed.
Medieval: Total War
Medieval: Total War is a turn-based strategy and real-time tactics computer game developed by Creative Assembly and published by Activision. Set in the Middle Ages, it is the second game in the "Total War" series, following on from the 2000 title "". Originally announced in August 2001, the game was released in North America on 19 August 2002 and in Europe on 30 August for Microsoft Windows.
Total Overdose
"Total Overdose" is a third-person shooter open world action/adventure game. Players assume control of Ramiro, Tommy and Ernesto. The most playable character in the game is Ramiro, while Tommy and Ernesto can be played only in the two beginning missions. The game parodies Robert Rodriguez's "Mexico Trilogy". Throughout the game, players can run and dive and have the ability to use weapons including shotguns, rifles, handguns and rocket launchers. The game features cheap and special cars. The special cars include "Conquistador", Orange Dirtbike, Purple and Flame Pickup, Tow Truck, DEA and Military SUVs. Players have the ability to shot dodge, during which the player dives in any direction with a slow motion effect. This move gives players more accuracy in shooting enemies in combat. Loco moves are special attacks which players can pick up by scoring large numbers of points and combo kills. These moves can be used for eliminating heavy and a group of enemies. Players can perform six different kind of loco moves: Golden Gun, Tornado, El Toro, El Mariachi, Sombrero of Death, Explosive Piñata and Mad Wrestler/Mysterioso.
Napoleon: Total War
Napoleon: Total War is a turn-based strategy and real-time tactics video game developed by The Creative Assembly and published by Sega for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. "Napoleon" was released in North America on 23 February 2010, and in Europe on 26 February. The game is the sixth stand-alone installment in the "Total War" series. The game is set in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Players assume the role of Napoleon Bonaparte, or one of his major rivals, on a turn-based campaign map and engage in the subsequent battles in real-time. As with its predecessor, "", which included a special United States storyline, "Napoleon" features three special campaigns that follow the general's career.
Command &amp; Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath
"Kane's Wrath" features a "Risk-like" gameplay mode called "Global Conquest", where players build and control their forces from a strategic, global level with the goal of either destroying all enemies or completing their side's alternate victory objective. Instead of the traditional "Command & Conquer" RTS gameplay, the mode uses a turn-based system where the player issues higher-level orders such as "build a base here" (to have the computer automatically build a base with preset structures) or "upgrade this base" (to have the computer automatically perform multiple structure upgrades on a base); the orders execute at the end of a turn and the other sides then get theirs. Combat in this mode occurs whenever two opposing forces collide on the world map; the battle can either be played traditionally (as a standard real-time C&C game) or be automatically resolved by the computer using the forces' relative strengths.
Order of War
Order of War features detailed graphics and a historically accurate storyline. The main focus of the game that sets it apart from other strategy offers is the sweeping scale of battlefield vistas featuring company level engagements. 
Players take command of multiple unit types, including ground troops, artillery, tanks and aircraft in strategic assaults based on key missions and operations from 1944.
Order of War is a Real Time Strategy (RTS) game without requiring the player to manage traditional base building or resource collection activities. Much like the Relic Entertainment's "" series or the subsequent "Company of Heroes", Order of War rewards players with reinforcement points over time for capturing command points that are spread out across the map. However, utilization of these points is similar to "World in Conflict" and "Blitzkrieg".The game has received a mixed reception with a Metacritic score of 69/100 based on 39 critical reviews.
Rome: Total War
On 2 July 2012, The Creative Assembly announced the development of "" as the next edition of the "Total War" series. "Rome II" became its successor on 3 September 2013 when it was released, featuring gameplay during the time of the Roman Republic and Empire, a larger campaign map, as well as a number of game mechanics both new and carried over from previous "Total War" entries.
Medieval: Total War
The Creative Assembly's creative director, Michael de Plater, stated in an interview that "We were never 100 percent satisfied with the name "Crusader"...it didn't cover the full scope or the rich diversity of the game". The focus on the medieval period was chosen because "it was perfectly suited to the direction in which we wanted to take the gameplay...we wanted to have great castles and spectacular sieges." Designer Mike Brunton wrote before the game's release that sieges were one of the most important features to be added to the "Total War" series, explaining how it led to increasing the troop limit from twenty in "Shogun: Total War" to over a hundred in "Medieval: Total War". For increased authenticity, research was carried out into the medieval period aspects such as assassinations and historical figures. Leaders from the period were included in the game; to represent their personalities and actions the "vices and virtues" system was incorporated into the game, designed to make characters more realistic in their actions.
Empire: Total War
In January 2009, after the delay of the release of Empire Total war, the addition of a full campaign multiplayer mode was unveiled. The technology to create a multiplayer campaign game was not available in previous Total War games, and the extended development, due to the delayed release, allowed the Creative Assembly to implement the underlying technology for such a mode in Empire: Total War. On 7 December 2009 Sega released keys for a beta multiplayer campaign where two players could play online together as separate nations. Eventually, due to the incomplete and buggy nature of the beta alongside other development focuses, it was cancelled, never being fully patched into the game. In 2013, CA's community team released some additional keys for Fans of the Game, so they could play the incomplete Multiplayer Beta. Even after the closing date at the end of 2013, beta keys for the campaign was still available from Sega customer support.
Rome: Total War
The game's main campaign is set during the mid and late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire (270 BC – AD 14), with the player assuming control of one of three Roman families; other factions are playable once they have been unlocked. Gameplay involves real-time tactical battles framed within a turn-based strategic campaign, taking place across Europe, North Africa and the Near East. At the strategic level, players manage diplomacy, develop infrastructure, move armies and manage the population's growth and public order through taxes and gladiatorial games. On the tactical scale, the player commands real-time battles against enemy armies within or between cities.