A new, full fledged expansion pack for Total War: Rome II (which The Creative Assembly and Sega released last year, and then proceeded to spend the next year trying to fix) is now out. Titled ‘Wrath of Sparta,’ the expansion pack sees the introduction of new tech trees, battlefields and naval units, not to mention ‘an unprecedented folkloric touch that allows players to explore some historical aspects of ancient Greece, such as philosophy, mathematics, and the many athletic competitions and various cultural events.’

But perhaps most importantly for most players, the game also opens up the possibility of a clash in game between multiple ancient Greek civilizations and states, including, of course, Athens and Sparta, alongside the traditional Roman setups we already had.

It also gives us the chance of kicking messengers down an endless well, while proclaiming that this is, in fact, Sparta.

Okay, that last one was made up.

Everything else is true though!

Sorry if I go off on a fanboy gushing session on this one folks. The Creative Assembly have announced their plans to reveal the next entry into the hugely popular, multi award winning series of TOTAL WAR real time strategy video games. The reveal will be coming exclusively from the show floor of EGX which is being hosted in London’s Earl’s Court.

This is huge and important for a few reasons so bear with me. The Creative Assembly just announced their free upgrade for TOTAL WAR: Rome II which brings all the Free DLC to the game in one place, plus Patch 15 and a brand new campaign into one package called the Imperator Augusts Campaign Pack.

On top of that they are also working on the hugely anticipated (but somewhat controversial) ALIEN: Isolation which recently raised some eyebrows with it’s strange DLC and Pre-order arrangements. But this is where the hype train starts to pick up speed.

When THQ closed their doors and auctioned of their assets and other goodies, one of the things that was up for grabs was Relic Entertainment and the Warhammer 40K franchise. Now, The Creative Assembly has extensive experience in the real time strategy market and they are also a subsidiary of Sega. Sega reportedly had the highest bid in the auction which means we may well see The Creative Assembly use certain Dawn of War mechanics in their next Total War game.

I’m not saying that’s what’s going to happen. But if it does, I called it.

A brand new update for Total War: Rome II was released today, via a brand new, free content pack that was downloaded automatically to all copies of the game. The August Warriors Update adds unique units such as the Hex-Bearers, Amazonian Riders and Scythian Noblewomen to several playable factions, and includes a significant upgrade to the Suebi roster.

That was not the only update or change to the game- the Daughters of Mars Unit Pack is also available for purchase today, bringing fearsome new warriors to the game, and who add a swift and deadly mix of fighting styles and abilities to the fray.

Total War: Rome II was released exclusively for PC last year. Its launch was a bit of a disaster (think Battlefield 4 on a smaller scale), though the developer and publisher both worked overtime to bring the game back to the standard of quality that is expected from the series.

Rome II’s launch might have been a bit of a disaster, but The Creative Assembly and Sega got right on the ball and began to address the various bugs and glitches that were plaguing the game. Now, with most of the issues that afflicted the game safely behind them, they’ve released the first campaign expansion for the game, Caesar in Gaul.

More personal than the original Rome II campaign, which offered a wide, broad strokes, sweeping take at the story, Caesar in Gaul follows his his Gallic life in thrilling detail, also offering a new map that that represents an expanded, more detailed vision of Gaul and the south coast of Britannia. The campaign expansion also brings multiple turns per year, seasonal changes, and other stunning visual alterations.

The expansion is available now, so go ahead and download it; and stay tuned to GamingBolt for more coverage on the game.

Sega and The Creative Assembly’s Total War: Rome II, the sequel to the seminal game that solidified the franchise’s place in the gaming pantheon back in the day, was ultimately a good game marred by a host of technical issues, bugs and glitches reminiscent of a Bethesda game at launch. The Creative Assembly promised one patch a week till the game was fixed, and so far they seem to be making good on that promise, as they announced that the second patch has now gone live.

This patch includes optimisations for Campaign performance, AI round time improvements, adds additional options and guidance for players in tweaking the settings of their game and over 100 other changes and fixes, and is applied to your game automatically when you boot it up the next time.

The third patch is already in beta testing and will add further gameplay enhancements in addition to optimization for more hardware configurations. Props to The Creative Assembly for at least handling this hot mess.

Of course, there have been several new entries on the charts, including Total War: Rome II which debuted at the number 2 spot. The Creative Assembly’s newest real time strategy game and the latest iteration in the multi-million selling franchise has already received a good amount of critical acclaim. Diablo 3 also debuted but at number 3, with Farming Simulator in at number 10 (seriously).

Meanwhile, Splinter Cell: Blacklist fell to the fourth position, with Disney Infinity at fifth place and Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition in at sixth. Payday 2, Killzone: Mercenary and Rayman Legends make up the rest of the chart for this week. Will the Saints make it till next week on top? Maybe but we can’t possibly see them beating out Grand Theft Auto V when it releases worldwide on September 17th.

The Creative Assembly has announced that it will release a new update, which will see the game being balanced further, AI routines tweaked and much more based on input from players. Now, it seems that the first update will be arriving this Friday, with weekly updates currently planned from now till the foreseeable future.

Full patch notes will be coming out on Friday itself, but it has been confirmed that performance issues and instances of crashing due to hardware incompatibility will be addressed in the coming update. Stay tuned to the official site for more details.

Total War: Rome II is the eighth standalone entry in the Total War series, and is the successor to Rome: Total War, which was released in 2004.

Total War: Rome II will feature a number of new features, terrains, battle modes, and units not found in previous entries in the Total War series. Developers The Creative Assembly have included a mix of old and new playable factions — the list is as follows:

– The Roman Republic – The Roman’s are skilled metalworkers, crafting exquisite weapons and armor with which or arm their soldiers. They have one of the most disciplined militaries of all featured factions within Total War: ROME II.

– Carthage – Carthage, which boasts a strong naval presence is the sworn enemy of Rome, with colonies spanning across the Mediterranean.

– Macedon – Macedon is a hellenistic kingdom, and is one of the strongest military powers of South-Eastern Europe, Macedon also boasts excellent trading.

– Iceni – The Icini are a Celtic tribe from Brittannia, and are a fierce, warlike people. They are well known for their use of armored chariots in battle.

– Arverni – Another Celtic tribe, The Averni are a primitive, warrior society who live under the rule of sacred priests.

– Suebi – A barbarian tribe located in central Germania.

– Parthia – Parthia is comprised of a number of different tribes, known for both their cavalry and mercenary factions.

– Egypt – One of the most storied cultures featured in Total War: ROME II, Egypt, under the rule of Pharoahs, utilizes spearmen in combat.

Total War: Rome 2 launches today for Microsoft Windows.

Sonic Lost World, Total War: Rome II, Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse, Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F and Heroki will be at this year’s PAX convention, and will be playable to attendees on the floor. Interestingly, Sonic Lost World will also be shown at Nintendo’s booth as well.

Along with play-time for each of its games, SEGA has also announced that The Creative Assembly, developer of Total War: Rome II, will be hosting their first ever panel at PAX on September 1st at the Kraken Theater. The panel has been dubbed, “History vs. Gameplay – Hey Creative Assembly, where’s the accuracy in my pew pew shooter?”, which in itself is an awesome reason to attend. Stay tuned for more details.

Arguably the biggest release on PC this year, Creative Assembly’s sequel to their seminal grand strategy game classic Rome: Total War, Total War: Rome II is looking like the ultimate culmination of all the real time strategy/turn based strategy/grand strategy trappings of the venerated franchise. Sega and The Creative Assembly have been busy drumming up hype for their upcoming game for the last few months. Now, here’s a video of the unboxing of the Collector’s Edition of the upcoming title. Except this time, the unboxing takes place as the ones doing the unboxing get chased by, er, trained war dogs. Trained war dogs that might maul them to death!

Have to say, that is a really neat spin on the ‘game unboxing’ concept.

Total War: Rome II hits PCs later this year; stay tuned to GamingBolt for further coverage of this game, including our review for the game once it releases.