Total Annihilation
"Total Annihilation" was one of the first RTS games to feature radar that showed enemy units within its radius on the minimap. This added an additional element of electronic warfare to the game: players could construct radar jammers that prevented units in a small radius around them from appearing on radar. Mobile radar jammers could be used to create surprise attacks, necessitating the deployment of scout units on a regular basis to reveal said units visually. In addition, radar jammers could disguise the presence of visually cloaked units, such as the commander or land mines. Radar fields rendered cloaked units detectable; a radar jammer could make said units undetectable until the radar jammer was destroyed. "Total Annihilation" was also one of the first RTS games to point the way towards battlefields with hundreds and thousands of units. Previous games could field a hundred units or so. However, Total Annihilation initially permitted 250 units per side which was later patched to 500. A third party patch allowed up to 5,000 units per side.
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".