Rome 2: Total War Release Date & Collectors Edition

Well it seems September is now starting to fill up with new releases as well, with Kingdom Hearts being added to that time slot the other day we now have the new Total War joining it.



I love the Total War series mostly because I love to start up a Skirmish map with several thousands troop on the screen and duke it out. I really could do with trying out the singleplayer story more but that's for my to do list. Anyway the release date was announced as the 3rd September and will be a world release so that's pretty sweet. Also if you watched the trailer you will also see that for pre-ordering you get the first DLC pack for free.

The Greek States pack offer three factions to play with their own units, buildings, tech tree, missions and win conditions. I would love to play the Sparta but I think everyone would since how much attention they have had in the movies and tv shows.

Big that got me was the announcement of a collectors edition, normally the games come with a Limited edition that will offer extra DLC. Sometimes they do come in a nice looking box case and then with Shogun 2 we had a chess set which was ok, mine was broken when it arrived so I was never able to keep it.

This time they have gone to town with it and the collectors edition is also numbered with only 22,000 being made worldwide.

In the UK this is exclusive to GAME and can be picked up for £109.99, just put my order down for one last night as soon as they started. So what do you get in this great edition? well a nice giant box that looks stunning with the Roman eagle. Steelbook case for the game which looks so nice, my steelbook collection is getting some nice additions this year. Also since they putting a number on each edition it will be done in Roman Numerals, the little details always gets me.

You get a working catapult kit to put together, meant to be around the 26cm mark so it's not a small thing. Canvas campaign map from the game as well and finally two games to play as well. First a Punic wars card game in a total war style art work and a set of replica Roman dice and roundels which the collectors box can be opened to make the playing board for. No idea how to play these two games but I cannot wait to give them a try.

I'm very impressed with SEGA and this collectors edition, they have really out done themselves with it and although the price tag is quite high it makes sense with what you getting inside. Especially when you normally have to fork out £35 for a board game these days. So yeah I've got my order in and I cannot wait to play it.
~Iznic

Warcraft and Starcraft

Good Morning,
Last night the official trailer for the new World of Warcraft patch went live, say hello to 5.2 The Thunder King.



Shame I'm not in a guild because I would love to have ago at that raid, the bosses shown look amazing and fun. Got to love the part where the army of trolls march along with the giant dinosaurs, anyway the patch is meant to be huge and adding entire new zone with plenty to do. Think it's hitting next week if I can remember right.

Speaking of Blizzard as well a new trailer went up for the upcoming Starcraft game, Heart of the Swarm. Nicknamed Vengeance it's once again showing hints at the continuing story but this video is a little different, included is a developer talk where they talk about the game and answer questions from fans. Then at the end is a showcase match showing off Heart of the Swarm multi-player between Grubby and Crazymoving two famous pro players. It's a pretty sweet match to watch and gives you an idea of things to come, check out the video below.


Watch live video from Starcraft on TwitchTV 
So plenty to keep you busy with you are a Blizzard fan, to me it's brilliant but I am worried with so much happening at once how am I going to play it all.
~Iznic

Strategy Games

Morning folks,
This is a post I've been meaning to do for the last I don't know, four months maybe? five? could be six actually. Either way a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away ... oh wait sorry, so yeah two strategy games was announced last year that I cannot wait for. Total War Rome 2 and Company of Heroes 2 are the culprits that got me hyper, at the time there was only a few screen shots for Rome 2 but from what I heard, I knew I might need a new graphics card.

Sea warfare mixed in with land battles, ships landing on the beach and unloading a invasion army. I'm excited for it I really am, although I really could do with playing the Total War games properly. I always buy them and just play skirmish matches and not a lot of them, I've never started any of the campaigns so I really could do with changing that this year. Could do with making a list of things I want to do this year and one of them is to play the Total War games properly.

The image above is the one that screams to me new grapics card to cope with it, looking forward to seeing some gameplay trailers soon. Anyway onto the second game Company of Heroes 2 and now that's a game I enjoy, I loved the Dawn of War series so when they did Company of Heroes 1 I was all over it. It was amazing and again though I don't remember finishing it, I know I got really far into it because I remember spending hours on it. In fact isn't there like two expansions for it? I remember buying one but not the latest. Something else to add to the list of things to do this year, anyway this time we will be seeing the Russian side of the war. This could be awesome and I am excited for it but there is one major problem, it's made by THQ who if you don't know by now have closed thanks to bankruptcy.

Think SEGA picked up the rights for Dawn of War and Company of Heroes which would be amazing since they make Total War, they would own pretty much most of the strategy market. But it does leave me wondering if we will still see Company of Heroes 2, fingers crossed since I do have order down for it. Was such a shame to see THQ to go like that, they made so many great games and I know most of the rights have been sold so it might not be the end of the games but it's sad to see a good Publisher go and you got to feel for the staff.

Anyway on that sad note I better go since I need to leave for work in ten minutes, too much blogging is going to get me into trouble.
~Iznic

P.S. I just looked up the teaser trailer from last year to show you guys and found a gameplay trailer, omg! why did I watch! I want it! praying that it will be released now. Soon as that tank crashed through the ice into the lake my mind was blown.