Yes, future Napoleons - Creative Assembly has just given what they believe would be the time their latest Total War installment would be ripe for the picking. 2009 may be too long a wait for many fans, but at least the developers, together with Sega, have provided us with a means to tide us over. Watch the newest official trailer of Empire: Total War at the full story.

Creative Assembly, creators of the Total War series, leaped centuries from Medieval: Total War to enter the world in the where swords and melee combat were replaced by muskets and firing lines. Empire: Total Earth, most likely to remain a PC-exclusive RTS, was formerly announced to take fans of the series into the age of fighting sails and gunpowder.

CVG sat down with Creative Assembly's James Russell (lead designer) and Mike Simpson (studio director) to unravel their latest offering to the Total War franchise.

Introducing the new title, James Russell said, "Empire: Total War's set in the 18th century and the time of the Industrial Revolution, the American Revolution and the French Revolution." He claimed that fans of the series will be able to experience the employment of combat tactics, strategic formations, and the training of unique units within the era.

Like former Total War video games, the Empire: Total War will grant players access to authentic battle formations and strategies, such as lethal firing lines and the cavalry-stopping square formation. The use of cannon will provide budding strategists with the opportunity to rain death from above. Buildings can also be occupied by infantry and torn down with cannon fire.

No longer limiting itself to a single continent, Empire: Total War will allow Total War strategists to enter theaters in the Caribbean, in North America, Central America, and India to add to the already-visited theaters of the European peninsula and the Middle East.

But perhaps the biggest feature in Empire: Total War is the inclusion of real-time sea combat, a feature lacking in previous Total War titles, despite the integration of naval combat units. James Russell said the visit into the 18th century prompted the dive into naval warfare, since it was the age that naval warfare really advanced to a grand scale.

This avenue, and most features mentioned above, were already explored before by Eidos Interactive's Imperial Glory, however, and the video games' mediocre welcoming left the gunpowder warfare concept with a slightly less invigorating appeal. Will Empire: Total War break open the hatches and blow away skepticism? We'll find out when it delivers broadsides some time next year.

Though Creative Assembly, the developer behind the Total War series, believes that there's no doubt developers could create a great real-time strategy game on consoles, the devs were sure that the recently announced Empire: Total War won't be coming to any console in the near future. "It would be very, very difficult to make anything close to Total War on consoles," Mike Simpson, studio director, told CVG in an interview.

"You'd have to change too much about it to make it work," he continued. Apparently, the likes of Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, Warhammer: Mark of Chaos, and Battle for Middle Earth have all been ported to consoles, but were reflected by PC strategists as plain ports tweaked for gamepads. None were especially noteworthy in the blockbuster department.

Simpson also held this sentiment:

There were a few RTS games developers ported to consoles - and they did it really badly. ... Then pretty much the whole market said 'whoa - you can't do RTS games on consoles'. But it's because they were ports - bad ports.

Although the industry hasn't created a great console RTS, there's still hope that it might. Simpson said that all developers need to do is to plan an RTS from the ground up as a purely console game.

 

Sega and The Creative Assembly just announced Empire: Total War, taking the widely popular and much loved Total War series to the next level. Not only will the campaigns be worldwide, but there will also be full-blown naval battles that fans have been praying for.

Set in the 18th Century, the Age of Sail, Empire offers a lot more than its predecessors. For the first time in the series, rifles and cannons will now be available to add some "oomph" in combat. Players can now recreate scenes they see in historical movies, lining musketeers up as they stand against foes in a battle for survival.

Another breakthrough for the series is the introduction of full 3D naval battles, something that hindered previous Total War games from being complete. During the time when greater powers are starting to expand their horizons, we can expect access to various types of ships they employed during the era.

If those aren't enough, The Creative Assembly is also widening the scope by making Empire: Total  War worldwide. A slew of new factions will be making an appearance, giving you the choice of playing Napoleon or spearheading forces in the east.

Epic land combats will undoubtedly be present, but some nifty features have been added to enhance the experience and make battles faithful to its time. For one, soldiers can now garrison in buildings. Taking cover will also play a major role to avoid certain death from raining bullets and devastating cannons.

Empire: Total War has been secretly in the works for over a year now, but development is still in early stages. The Creative Assembly is aiming for a 2008 release. Still a long wait indeed, so check out the artwork to pass the time.