If the Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment sale on Steam isn’t for you, then maybe Creative Assembly’s sale on the Total War franchise is going to perk you up. The entire series has been discounted on Steam, with slashes ranging from 10 percent to 90 percent, and they include some must-have titles.

For example, Total War: SHOGUN 2 has a 75 percent discount for the base game, and for the base game with its collection of DLC (not including the Fall of the Samurai DLC, which is discounted separately). Though released in 2011, the historical strategy title still offers an incredible rendition of 16th century warfare in Feudal Japan. As the Daimyo, players will have to re-unite Japan using diplomacy, Art of War tactics, and much more.

Other titles that have been discounted include Total War: ATTILA, Empire: Total War, and Medieval: Total War – Collection (all discounted by 75 percent), along with Total War: ROME 2 – Emperor Edition (discounted by 66 percent). Sadly, Total War: Warhammer 1 and 2 are not part of this sale. Looks like we’ll have to wait for a site-wide Steam sale in the meantime. Meanwhile, the current Total War sale ends on October 1st, 10 AM PST.

The Creative Assembly and Sega have released the official mod kit for their latest grand strategy game that released back in February, Total War: Attila. It’s called the Attila Assembly Kit, and though it is still currently in beta (technically), it is already the most extensive set of modding tools in franchise history yet.

The Attila Assembly Kit offers four separate editing tools- DaVE (database editing), BOB (processing of raw data), TeD (creation of individual battlefields for land, sea and sieges), and Terry (campaign map editing). It also offers a Terrain Raw Data resource pack that includes a a staggering 60 GB of in-game production data to play around with, should you want to.

Also, The Creative Assembly and Sega have both confirmed that this game will not be supporting paid mods. Unfortunately, it seems like this is a question most companies releasing modkits for their games on PC via the Steam Workshop will have to answer for a while now.

Total War: Attila aimed to outdo and succeeded for the most part but perhaps the biggest step up has been with the graphics. With its latest release, The Creative Assembly had added a new “Extreme Quality” setting and it proclaims that no card is set to this out of the box. Nvidia Titan X consumers will have plenty to look forward to for sure but what about the rest of us?

To start off with, Total War: Attila features a fairly large amount of customization in its graphical options. Settings like texture quality, shadows, water and sky are divided on the basis of performance and quality – Max. Performance obviously means the lowest possible quality, thus delivering a better frame, while Max. Quality is focused on the best visuals at the cost of frame rate.

 Attila features an in-depth graphical settings.

One can also customize the level of detail in the terrain and units along with deciding on the number of units on screen once. What the last option essentially entails is how epic and large scale some of the battles look while individual units can have their animation quality and detail level customized accordingly. Other options include screen space reflections, depth of field, screen space ambient occlusion (SSAO), V-sync, distortion effects and the ability to enable “unlimited video memory”. This taps into your hardware memory if your video RAM isn’t enough to play the game.

Right off the bat, it should be noted that Total War: Attila looks great. Even without a large number of anti-aliasing options, MLAA is supported along with up to 8x anisotropic filtering. The sheer number of particle effects on screen at once along with the units, each with highly detailed animations, and the balance of screen space reflections make for some fairly amazing battles. It’s to the credit of The Creative Assembly that even on the Max. Quality setting, the game imbues a sense of historical realism and bloody warfare from the get-go. If you’re not a fan of the series, a single battle under these circumstances will be enough to tell you what all the fuss is about.

I tested Total War: Attila on a fairly modest set-up with a GeForce GTX 660 2 GB, Intel Core i5-4440 3.1 GHz and 8 GB of RAM. Tests and comparison shots (for which you can check the screenshots above) are primarily between the Max. Performance and Extreme Quality settings within the game’s own benchmarking tool. This is to give players a limited but clear look at how the settings contrast with each other. Default resolution was 1920×1080 (with options for up to 2560×1600).

Max. Quality tests were done with V-sync and proximity fading enabled. Everything else was set to the lowest quality – screen space reflections and anti-aliasing are both disabled while trilinear filtering is in effect – and overall, the game ran with an average of 57.3 frames per second.

 Head to head comparison between Extreme and Low Quality settings.

Extreme Settings.

Low Settings.

Now for the Extreme Quality test – for the sake of my system not dying immediately, basic MLAA and 4x anisotropic filtering were applied. Regardless, everything else was set for the maximum level of quality. Unlimited video memory had to be enabled after the first benchmark when a warning flashed about graphics being downgraded. The average frame rate came to 16.9 frames per second and there were plenty of drops throughout. So don’t even think about the Extreme Quality setting unless you have some serious hardware.

The next test was for actual gameplay. On heading into the campaign, I attempted a mix of high quality settings with a 1080p resolution, large unit numbers, 2x anisotropic filtering and MLAA (with settings like SSAO, V-sync and depth of field enabled). The purpose of this particular setting was to see just how scalable the game could be, balancing graphical quality with actual performance. As it turns out, it scales very well.

Details like water, shadows and natural lighting are all a bit weak admittedly, but the big battles were all there and running at an average of 26.9 frames per second (as a later benchmark confirmed). There weren’t any significant drops, though some stutters could be made out occasionally when suddenly rotating the camera. The overall flow of the battle was smooth, as one could switch between unit formations, direct them to enemy lines, bring in fleets and archers for support, and still zoom in to admire the abject detail of the battles. There have been reports of stuttering in latter game instances though nothing drastic was encountered at the outset.

Foliage and grass textures are very well modeled, though they didn’t seem as lustrous as one would have thought. Even the texture detail on buildings is good with their destruction appearing natural and unforced. One could arguably bump up the shadow quality and water detail without taking too much of a hit in performance as well.

Conclusion

Total War: Attila strengthens The Creative Assembly’s reputation for creating some of the most historically accurate and graphically intensive real-time strategy games available. It also continues the studio’s tradition of properly optimizing the game to run at a variety of settings. The Extreme Quality will ensure Total War: Attila remains relevant for the remainder of the year while providing graphics hounds a more visually captivating level to play at.

The only real negatives were the lack of other anti-aliasing options and some technical issues that remain, particularly frame stuttering. Though camera rotation wasn’t as bad in that regard, there have been worse instances reported in other scenarios (but nothing on the level of Total War: Rome II). Regardless, Total War: Attila is one of the better looking real time strategy games out there and manages its invasions with a fair bit of visual aplomb.

The Creative Assembly’s Total War: Attila was released earlier this week on the PC and as expected there are a few issues that the game suffers from. But don’t worry as we have a few recommended fixes for the same.  Please be advised that the following methods are to be used at the sole discretion of the platform owner. GamingBolt or its staff members take no responsibility for problems that may arise or issues that may occur from trying the below. Always remember that official support is always the best support. 

Some players have faced crashes when playing the single player component of the game. If you are using any kind of mod, please remove it. Then open up the control panel of NVidia and then click Manage 3D settings. Click the Power Management Mode and choose Prefer Maximum Performance.

If you are seeing low resolution textures, despite meeting the game’s PC requirements then you can override by ticking the unlimited video memory tick box in the advanced graphics settings of the game. But please make sure that you have a capable rig before you do so.

Also, you can find Total War Attila preferences.script file by going to appdata, then opening up the Roaming folder and The Creative Assembly folder, then Attila, then scripts and finally scripts.txt.

• Go to appdata
• this will open the appdata folder
• Go to folder: Roaming
• Go to folder: The Creative Assembly
• Go to folder: Attila
• Go to folder: scripts
• open preferences.script.txt

Using the file above, you can change the resolution by looking out for these in the file.

x_res 1920; # x_res <int32>, Fixed window width #
y_res 1080; # y_res <int32>, Fixed window height #

You can also play the game in the windowed mode by making the value true to false below.

gfx_fullscreen true; # gfx_fullscreen <bool>, Run the application in fullscreen or not #

You can also enable or disable unlimited memory option by finding the line below. Make sure you toggle on and off using the true or false option below.

gfx_unlimited_video_memory true; # gfx_unlimited_video_memory <bool>, Enable unlimited video memory allocation #

And finally you can also adjust VSync using the option below:

gfx_vsync false; # gfx_vsync <bool>, vertical synchronization #

Note: Given that the wide range of PC hardware out there, the fixes mentioned here may or may not work for you. But it’s worth giving them a shot since these have worked for players who own the PC version of Total War: Attila.

The latest in The Creative Assembly’s long running fusion of real time and grand strategy, Total War: Attila, is now here, and while, like all PC games, you will be presented with a multitude of options to tailor your game play experience to your liking, the game also comes with five preset settings for graphics.

The thing about ‘Extreme Quality’ is that it is made specifically for future graphic cards- no existing graphics card defaults to extreme settings right off the bat.Which means  that The Creative Assembly have actually gone ahead and future proofed their game for future hardware advancements right here.

Talk about staying ahead of the game. The settings are:

• ‘Max Performance’ – integrated chipsets and older cards
• ‘Performance’ – low end cards
• ‘Quality’– mid range cards
• ‘Max Quality’ – high end cards
• ‘Extreme Quality’ – future cards

Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more coverage and information on the game.

The Creative Assembly’s Total War: Attila can now be yours on PC via digital download and retail worldwide. Like previous games in the developer’s Total War franchise, it lets you build your own front, complete with an army, to conquer the world.

This edition puts a twist on things by setting itself in the Dark Ages and letting introducing Attila the Hun, the infamous warrior king that dominated in numerous battles. There will be some new mechanics this time around as you fight off the ever encroaching danger from Attila’s forces. Keep in mind that you’ll have to survive as much as plan out your attacks.

Total War: Attila is available for PC and should help The Creative Assembly clear some of the ill-will gained from Total War: Rome 2 which wasn’t as well received as one would have expected. Will you be picking up Attila? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

The game come out today and GamingBolt’s Martin Toney found it to be one of best strategy games that you will find on the market. Before the launch of the game, I got the chance to speak to the Project Lead of Total War: Attila, Janos Gaspar to know what kind of changes they have implemented in the sequel.

Rashid Sayed: Rome II received mixed reactions because of the aggressive changes to the formula. Having said that how did that affect while developing Attila?

Janos Gaspar: Rome II was a very ambitious game, and we went on to make some significant changes to it in the year after launch. This culminated in the Emperor edition, which has become the largest entry in Total War history,and got a very positive reception. With Attila we took these solid foundations and built from there. Total war is 15 years old now, and with every iteration we look at all the features and ideas we have and decide what would go best with the scope and the theme of the upcoming game.

We wanted to make Attila one for our core fans, so we looked through the community feedback and incorporated many features and tweaks that were not just in our backlog of things to do but also reported as favourites by them. For example, the family tree is something that was missing from Rome II and Empire because of the grand timeframe of those titles, but the more human scale level of Attila and the sentiment of our fans made it a very early candidate for inclusion in Attila.

"The long sieges, the worsening conditions provide a fertile soil for outbreaks of nasty diseases. And as these epidemics spread between armies and cities, through trade routes and the road network, you’ll be in grave danger, even if you manage your realm well."

Rashid Sayed: Total War Attila is set very close to the Dark Ages, a period where famine and diseases were common. How deeply will Attila include these calamities? Furthermore, how will this impact gameplay?

Janos Gaspar: We call Attila a survival strategy game. All the new features revolve around this survival aspect. No matter which faction you play or how cautious you are, sooner or later you’ll encounter the deteriorating conditions. The encroaching war and the climate change will affect your economy and food production and will cause famine sooner or later, especially if you are not ready to migrate or defend your territory.

The long sieges, the worsening conditions provide a fertile soil for outbreaks of nasty diseases. And as these epidemics spread between armies and cities, through trade routes and the road network, you’ll be in grave danger, even if you manage your realm well. And there’s a lot more to worry about: the arrival of the Huns uprooting tribes, and the new migratory elements can do the same. At the end as a chain reaction, all these people end up on the borders of the Roman Empires, trying to claim a new home for themselves and protect it at all cost.

Rashid Sayed: Total War is one of those rare real time strategy franchises that consistently break into millions of sales with each entry. How does it feel to lead the genre with such dominance?

Janos Gaspar: It’s very humbling to work on such a title, and with such a dedicated and talented team. At the end all of us are total war fans and players, and we want to do the best we can!

Rashid Sayed: How many people are working on Total War Attila right now?

Janos Gaspar: Currently around 80, as we are ramping down in the run-up to launch. At its height there were around 150 of us.

"Attila and the Huns are true nomads, they can never settle. So you have to completely change your mind set about how you play a total war game. Usually you go out, capture territory, and build up a huge empire. Now that doesn’t work for them."

Rashid Sayed: I have this assumption that in real world events, the reason why Attila was so successful was because he had access to superior technology. How are you making sure that this is reflected in the game?

Janos Gaspar: The technological differences are present in the factional tech-trees, but the unit availability and their different battlefield roles, the overall political climate and the freedom of hit and run tactics even on the campaign map also make them fearful enemy…Or a very interesting and fun faction to play with.

Rashid Sayed: The climate change and the migratory factions seem to be interesting concepts. How are you planning to make them work within the context of the game?

Janos Gaspar: Some of the key reasons behind this migration were overpopulation and climate change. As time passes in the game, the winters will become more and more severe and the fertility of the land decreases. This will prompt tribes to consider moving, but the arrival of the Huns will definitely dislocate them.

If a faction is migrating, their armies effectively carry their cities with them – these are what we call hordes.When the horde chooses to camp, it can get to work on constructing and upgrading its buildings, enabling the horde to sustain itself and generate income. At any points, they can pack up their tents and move on again.

Rashid Sayed: Will Attila and the Huns play in a very different manner? If yes, can you please explain how?

Janos Gaspar: Attila and the Huns are true nomads, they can never settle. So you have to completely change your mind set about how you play a total war game. Usually you go out, capture territory, and build up a huge empire. Now that doesn’t work for them.

You can only subjugate people, raze their settlements and wage war around Europe. This gives you an unprecedented freedom which, combined with their unique faction traits, makes them the force that sets events in motion across the map. If you play with the Huns you can become very strong, very early and take whatever you want, eliminating anyone who resists. If you’re playing a different faction… Well, then they will come after the waves of tribes fleeing from them, and make your life miserable!

"Supporting multiplayer is important for us and with Attila we made sure all the new features are available and valid in multiplayer as well."

Rashid Sayed: Is there a specific reason why the same co-op system from Rome II is being carried over to Attila?

Janos Gaspar: The framework is but the game isn’t entirely the same. Supporting multiplayer is important for us and with Attila we made sure all the new features are available and valid in multiplayer as well. So you can migrate and raze settlements in multiplayer campaigns, but now you have your family and political matters to worry about, for example.

Rashid Sayed: You have probably been asked this question a lot in the past. Given the success of PS4 and Xbox One, are there any plans to bring Attila? Don’t you think the game could do well given the console’s emphasis of social engagement this time around? 

Janos Gaspar: There are certainly no plans to do so at the moment, but it’s fair to say that we keep an eye on new and emerging technologies to see if they fit with what Total War is.

Total War : Attila has a certain, je ne sais quoi. It’s rather difficult to point to one particular aspect of the game and say, “this is what makes it better.” So in this review, I will attempt to point out what it is that makes this a worthy entry into the series and a powerful sequel to Rome II.

"Total War : Attila has a certain, je ne sais quoi. It’s rather difficult to point to one particular aspect of the game and say, “this is what makes it better.”"

When I started the game, the first thing that I noticed was the game’s massively improved load times. One of the most reported problems for Rome II was the lengthy load times that players were forced to sit through upon launching the game. That’s not the case here as I am at the menu screen in well under 20 seconds, having skipped the intro scene of course. The menu screen itself retains the same left aligned layout of icons, so once you’re loaded up, the process will be instantly familiar, but I suggest you hang around a bit to listen to that pretty entrancing theme music.

First things first, the options available to the player. You will be pleased to know that the game offers fully rebindable keys for those of you that prefer to tweak your game to better reflect what you find most comfortable because gone are the days of using arrow keys for ingame camera controls, this is the time of W,A,S,D, by default.

Customisable UI’s return with the options to have selection markers, target zones for archers and trebuchets etc and threat indication markers toggled on or off depending on your personal preference alongside other options such as the ability to turn of the Advisors. Thankfully. Graphics settings are as in-depth you would expect from a Total War game. Sliders and multiple options for everything from texture quality to the quality of trees is the name of the game here, you also get a selection of well chosen pre-sets.

The Prologue, unlike that found in Rome II is a masterclass in old school video game design for the strategy genre which so often becomes bogged down in the details which are frankly best reserved for later in the game. The game will drop you straight into a defensive lineout, controlling a crowd of Visigothic locals defending Olbia from an encroaching Ostrogoth attack.

"Perhaps one of the more surprising things about Total War: Attila, is how well the game runs. Performance was brilliant, even on the higher settings I rarely saw performance drops."

Both sides rush forth as you’re advised to take hold of the high ground and use it to your advantage. Naturally any seasoned armchair general knows to take the hill but save a unit to send in from the rear to prevent the enemy from escaping your swords and spears. We arrived just in time to line out before our units crashed together. Fighting ensued before a thrusting attack from the flank saw us draw our forces back to Olbia to defend it.

It was at this time that I realised that this already feels more dynamic than Rome II. We had defenders in the town loosing arrows toward the new horse borne attackers and every rider we hit went down lack a sack of stones. No arrow sponges here it would seem. The battle went as you would expect and we successfully repelled the attackers before being introduced to the campaign map which ran me through the usual rigmarole of unit recruitment and city building which all rolls out much in the same way it did in Rome II. But the inclusion of faster moving units on the campaign map alongside a rather beautiful landscape made the whole ordeal, which is normally quite uninteresting, worth working through.

Perhaps the largest complaint that can be levelled at the recent entries into Total War is the poorly handled manner in which armies and cities are maintained. At one point, I had some trebuchets that were low on ammunition. Six months later and they still hadn’t gathered more stones to throw, despite having raised a number of buildings  and expanded our borders which would have resulted in plenty of stone being available to my people.

Unit attrition, something that is often complained about, makes a return and is still bothersome. My people were well fed, my forces happy, we had constant profits and excess food, yet still my men left the army in droves. While it is of course realistic to have units leave an army in the real world, this is a game, and this is my army. I should be able to lay down decrees of execution for deserters or rewards for those who serve a certain amount of time, but we are instead told to tend to sanitation levels and the allocation of governors.

Perhaps one of the more surprising things about Total War: Attila, is how well the game runs. Performance was brilliant, even on the higher settings I rarely saw performance drops. It wasn’t until I laid siege to the home of the invading force that I saw a dip in frame rate. Later, at the larger siege of Apulum the frame rate dropped quite a bit, but it stayed playable throughout.

"Total War: Attila is a great example of modern day war games set in an ancient setting done right. Few other games felt this fresh despite being based on an already existing model of gameplay, so I was genuinely surprised to find it as enthralling as I did."

Moving units and making use of their special abilities remains the same as ever with your general fielding a number of units buffs and morale maintaining abilities whereas your normal swordsman can only muster the sense to spread out when they come under arrow fire. The flow of combat seems faster than that of previous Total War games.

Your units in Attila are less armoured, with the exception of course being the more developed empires or late game units, and so they die a little bit easier than you may expect. If you leave the flanks of your line open, the enemy can roll up your force with a well placed cavalry charge and crush great numbers of your men.

The flow of the battles also seems more realistic, perhaps not a 1:1 replication because I still had units of peasants fighting to the last man, but it has a visible ebb and flow that you can see in both the press of bodies and from the overhead tactical view. The enemy will adapt to your battlefield tactics and try to wear you down. They will spread ranks and run in and out to exhaust your arrows, but if you’re hitting them with artillery, they will sprint in and close the distance to remove the threat of bombardment.

When playing a Skirmish as the Western Roman Empire I rolled out in the Triplex acies, ready to repel an oncoming army of Huns. The strength of the triple line out comes in the ability to cycle fresh units to the front, giving your exhausted men time to rest. Seemingly aware of this the Huns ran parallel to my line causing me to turn my army. With the triple line out being so broad, this is a huge movement to make. When I turned right, they forced me to turn left until I overextended my men. The Huns rode down my first line and delivered heavy casualties, but ultimately lost the day to my spears which were hidden in the rear echelons of my force.

Total War: Attila is a great example of modern day war games set in an ancient setting done right. Few other games felt this fresh despite being based on an already existing model of gameplay, so I was genuinely surprised to find it as enthralling as I did. I’ve expressed criticism towards The Creative Assembly before and I went into Attila expecting a re textured build of Rome II, but I was surprised and drawn in by this elaborate sequel that improves on many facets of the established format.

Total War: Attila is one of the best strategy games you can find on the market right now if the historic world is your field of interest and I strongly recommend it to you.

This game was reviewed on the PC.

Total War: Attila is the newest entry in The Creative Assembly’s long running, critically acclaimed and commercially successful PC exclusive strategy game series; it was announced last year, looks absolutely stunning and gorgeous, and looks to wash away the bad taste that the disastrous launch of Total War: Rome II left in everybody’s mouth.

If you’ve been excited for the game, this new Let’s Play of the game will be even more hype generating for you, especially since it is touching on something about the game that we have not yet seen- The Vikings Forefathers Culture Pack, which is the first of many planned Culture packs for the game, and which introduces three playable factions to the game- The Danes, The Geats and The Jutes. These warlike Norse factions have their own unique land and naval units, missions, cultural and factional traits, and are poised to launch southwards from their icy homelands on campaigns of raiding, looting and conquest, and each of them will bring a unique style of play with them to the game.

Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more coverage and information.

While The Creative Assembly’s Total War games are all known for their ridiculous sense of scale and ambition (seriously, you have armies of thousands of people on each side fighting each other), they are also noted for their historical settings. The games, by virtue of being games and having to make concessions because of that, may not always be the most accurate, but they are very well researched and steeped in history.

The new game, Attila, looks to be no exception if this newest video is anything to go by. The new video for the game, released as the latest episode of Rally Point, sees The Creative Assembly walk us through one of the nine historical battles that will be included in Total War: Attila, when it launches exclusively on PCs in February.

Check it out for yourself. Also take note of the amazing graphics and, as noted above, the strong historical flavor.

Let us just hope that Attila, when it launches, is a complete product and not rushed to launch, like Rome II was back in 2013.