Creative Assembly

Total War: Warhammer developer ‘disheartened’ that fans dislike pre-order DLC

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The whole downloadable content thing is a touchy subject, in practice it should be good. Think about it, you get more content for a game you already love but most fans have been finding stuff like ‘pre-order DLC’ to be more of a rip off due to forcing users to investing in a game that hasn’t been reviewed or that we don’t know the quality of the title.

SEGA’s Creative Assembly announced that the Chaos race, a important fraction in the Warhammer universe, would only be unlocked if users pre-ordered their Total War: Warhammer video game. This obviously pissed off fans, since most Total War fans trusted Creative Assembly back in 2013 when Total War: Rome 2 (which had similar pre-order deals) smashed pre-order records; sadly the game had a bad launch. Creative Assembly did the same with Total War: Attila and Alien: Isolation, offering big pre-order exclusives that many fans felt should have just been part of the base package.

In a interview with Eurogamer, Game Designer for Total War: Warhammer Rich Aldridge tries to explain why they decided to put Chaos as a pre-order race. According to them if they didn’t get it out as pre-order content, they would have to charge later on as DLC. As much as I dislike pre-order DLC, it isn’t as bad now considering that Steam offers refunds on pre-orders if you dislike the game. What really ticks me off is all the DLC they are planning after the release. Is it too hard to buy a complete game for $60 dollars and not get nickel and dimed at every turn?

 

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Total War: WARHAMMER gameplay shows off 16 minutes dwarf scrimmage

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This Let’s Play is an example of an early Quest Battle from the Dwarfs campaign. In the vast tunnels of the Underway, a Dwarfen force lead by High King Thorgrim Grudgebearer is ambushed by a Greenskin horde.

Showcasing new features and never-before-seen units battling underground for the first time in a Total War game, this video is a taste of things to come and a glimpse into the dark and exciting fantasy world of Total War: WARHAMMER.

Total War: WARHAMMER will be released in 2016 for the PC.

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Total War: Warhammer introduces us to the Dwarfen battle units

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SEGA and Creative Assembly have released the latest unit spotlight video, this one focusing a three Dwarfen units: Longbeards, Ironbreakers, and the Hammerers. Since in the Warhammer universe (much like most fantasy universes) the Dwarfen are masters at crafting and expert miners, expect some great weapons along with some amazing beards.

The video above is rather short and more of a basic introduction to the race. Doesn’t really detail all the backstories, lore and seems more like a teaser for an upcoming trailer. Let me give you more details:

  • Longbeards: Are the old, wise and experienced warriors in the Dwarfen ranks. They are respected due to being veterans and no one in the dwarfen ranks have experienced the amount of battles than the Longbeards.
  • Ironbreakers: As miners, someone has to protect the lower depths against Skaven and Goblins who try to tunnel into the Dwarf strongholds. These experienced tunnel fighters are the Ironbreakers, with a saying that for every land battle they partake in, they had dozens more underground.
  • Hammerers: Picked by the King himself as his personal bodyguards, with a rich history in Dwarfen history dating back to a High King, whose body guards got overrun and slain. Miners near by picked up the fallen body guard’s weapons and help the King escape, ever since then the King has had Hammrers as body guards.

Creative Assembly have already confirmed that Total War: Warhammer will be a trilogy. I think there is a lot of lore and back stories to make these games very interesting and deep, I just hope that the base packages are worth it. Honestly, Creative Assembly games have too much DLC.

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Creative Assembly is making Halo Wars 2

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That’s right, SEGA is making a Halo game. Microsoft closed off their Gamescom briefing today by announcing Halo Wars 2, which is being developed by Creative Assembly in co-operation with 343 Industries. This sequel to the 2009 RTS will be coming to Xbox One and Windows 10 in fall of 2016. There are no other details about the game yet, though MS did release the teaser trailer you see above.

This is the fourth game that Creative Assembly is currently developing, the other games the studio is currently working on are Total War: Warhammer, Total War: Arena and Total War Battles: Kingdom.

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New Total War: WARHAMMER trailer introduces the Demigryphs

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Demigryphs are part lion, part eagle mounts that are used for knights or other high ranking members of the Empire. In this trailer Creative Assembly shows off the base model for the Demigryphs and explains their role in the Warhammer Fantasy universe.

The Demigryphs are known for their strength, massively powerful beaks and viciously sharp claws that cut through armor like butter. Much like everything Warhammer, even Demigryphs have their own lore. One of the biggest Demigryphs ever recorded (in this fictional history) was called Reaper who was the mount of Thedore Bruckner, now I wonder if we will be seeing Reaper in this upcoming game? Should be interesting seeing more about the game, considering how dense the Warhammer universe is.

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What we missed: New Mario & Sonic, Total War: Warhammer first screens and SEGA’s mission statement video

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If you haven’t noticed, the site was offline for a few days and there was some SEGA News that we missed. At first I wanted to make a news post for every single item, but that would be sort of a waste. So now that we are back lets have a look at some of the news that we missed which includes the announcement of Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, the first ever screenshots for Total War: Warhammer and a look at SEGA Japan’s mission statement, painting a positive note for the future of the company.

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SEGA officially announces Total War: Warhammer, first part of a trilogy

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Just like The Creative Assembly’s Alien title, SEGA have kept their Warhammer licensed title underwraps, that is until now. The newly announced game only has a CGI trailer with scarce information other than the fact the game will feature “Gigantic monsters, flying creatures, legendary heroes and storms of magical power take their place on the battlefield, alongside thousands of warriors clashing in real-time tactical battles” and that this is but one of two more stand alone installments making a trilogy of Warhammer titles.

It’d be interest to know if this is hinting at a possible Dawn of War 3 which would be using the Warhammer 40,000 license. Whatever the case, enjoy the CGI trailer and with E3 only a month and a half away, you won’t have to wait long to find out more information on The Creative Assembly’s latest strategy title.

SEGA has said that this first title will be part of a trilogy and other content packs they are planning on releasing. This is going to be a big license for SEGA going out, so what do you guys think? Should have SEGA taken the fantasy turn or stuck to time period games?

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SEGA launches free-to-play Total War Battles: KINGDOM on Steam

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SEGA has released Total War Battles: KINGDOM out of its closed beta testing phase and is now free to download as an open beta game. The game will allow you to seamlessly play from PC to mobile when the app launches.

Reviews for the game so far have been mixed with the Total War fanbase disliking the game’s use of free-to-play mechanics that are similar to the ever popular mobile title Clash of Clans. The general complaint is that the game doesn’t resemble much of what people like in Total War games and that SEGA is charging people who want to grow wheat instantly instead of waiting 8 hours.

We shall see if SEGA will further tweak the wait time for basic actions or if they will continue down the same path with this game.

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Total War series sells 11 million within the last 6 years

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SEGA has announced their critical acclaimed series Total War has managed to sell 11 million units between the previous 5 installments (Empire, Napoleon, Shogun 2, Rome II and Attila) and a further 18 million units of DLC sold. What’s interesting to note is due to the fact that Attila is so new, it is almost assuredly that the majority of the 11 million sales is actually made up of 4 titles, showcasing just how popular the series is. Furthermore SEGA revealed that the first week sales in the UK for the latest Total War title, Attila, were 21,680 units with 81% of the sales coming from digital.

Speaking to MVC, Total War brand director Rob Bartholomew said;

“Since the release of Total War: Napoleon in 2010, we’ve built a great tradition of standalone follow-ups to our major titles, and it’s great to see Attila so well-received by fans and critics.

Globally we’re seeing this title reach double the sales of Napoleon in its first week and, as Creative Assembly’s home market, it’s heartening to see the UK taking its fair share of that success. With over a million people playing Total War each month now, it turns out there’s plenty of gamers who just want to watch the world burn. Who knew?”

Total War‘s impressive 1 million active users a month is surely another indication why SEGA, along with it’s life consuming Football Manager series, has been focusing so much on PC. As they continue to curve up a strong position in the PC market and with both Total War: Warhammer and Total War: Arena on the horizon, this series will prove to be a key pillar for the SEGA’s growth and prosperity.

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SEGA announces Total War Battles: Kingdom coming to PC, Mac and Tablets

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Seems that Creative Assembly’s free-to-play title Total War Battles: Kingdom is finally getting a closed beta on PC, SEGA confirmed today.

Total War Battles: Kingdom is being developed by Creative Assembly’s Digital Team (responsible for Total War Battles: Shogun), this entry will take you to the 10th century, unique time period weapons and plenty decisions to make. The game will feature kingdom building,  sim style gameplay and of course tactical battles across multiple devices.

Do you want to participate in the game’s beta? Sign up right here.

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SEGA celebrating Total War weekend, let’s you play Rome II for free

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SEGA and Creative Assembly have launched ‘Total War Week‘ on Steam, through September 25-29th. This means 75% discount on all Total War back catalog, including titles like Viking: Battle for Asgard and Total War: Shogun 2.

Not only that, but if you click here you’ll be able to download the full Total War Rome II and be able to play it for free all weekend. That totally beats a demo, right?

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Alien Isolation on Oculus Rift is just a prototype

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If you guys read all our E3 2014 hands-on impressions, you guys probably saw that we got a chance to try a prototype of Alien Isolation on the Oculus Rift. According to Creative Assembly, the prototype is just that, a prototype. There is no active developement on a full version supporting the Oculus Rift.

“At present, it’s just a prototype and does not represent a game currently in development at this point in time. It’s a truly amazing experience though and brings the game to life in ways we could not have imagined when we started the project. It’s one of the most terrifying demos you’ll ever play.”  – SEGA’s statement to Eurogamer

I have a feeling that Oculus Rift support will come to the title on PC, just not at launch. But you never know, I find it sort of strange that they would show a demo for the Oculus Rift and say its not the game they will be selling the consumer… its not like the last Aliens game was false representation of what they showed at E3 or anything.

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Alien: Isolation release date announced – get ready to not be heard in space on October 7th

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SEGA of America and SEGA Europe have announced the release date of the upcoming Creative Assembly title Alien: Isolation! Fans can expect to get their hands on the game on October 7th, 2014 on Xbox One, Xbox 360, Playstation 4, Playstation 3, and Windows PC. Hey, just in time for the Halloween season! Via a press release from SEGA, Alistair Hope, Creative Lead at Creative Assembly had this to say of the game’s release: “We couldn’t be happier to finally announce a date for Alien: Isolation, the reaction we have seen so far has been simply incredible, from the screams and shrieks to the cold sweats and racing hearts. It’s the Alien game that we’ve always wanted to play and we can’t wait to let everyone get their hands on it this fall.”

View the full press release after the break.

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Alien: Isolation developers diary – ‘Origin’

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Check out this developer diary for the newly announced Alien: Isolation, now we get to hear the guys at Creative Assembly talk about what they are trying to create and so far it sounds good. They want to focus on the original Alien, from the first movie. Not give the players ‘tons’ of Aliens to mow down, make the space ship look low-fi sci-fi feel to it. I like what I’m hearing, but talk is cheap so I can’t wait to play this title.

What are your impressions?

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