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Strategic war game buffs, take note: All of the Total War titles on Steam are receiving a massive discount this week, to the tune of a whopping 66 percent off. In fact, you can pick up the Total War Mega Pack, which includes Medieval II: Total War, Rome: Total War -- including the Alexander and Kingdoms expansions -- and Empire: Total War for $20.39. Additionally, the Empire: Total War Downloadable Content Pack, containing all the Empire content released thus far, is available for 10 percent off at $16.19.

Incidentally -- but probably not coincidentally -- the latest game in the series, Napoleon: Total War, releases February 23.

The latest trailer showcasing Napoleon: Total War takes us for a decidedly multiplayer spin. Whether it's playing through the three multiplayer campaigns (Italy, Egypt and Europe) or one of the historic battle recreations for up to eight players, it's apparent that the quest for RTS enjoyment isn't one you'll have to face alone. There's even drop-in support for the main campaign, allowing one of your friends to take over for any of your ill-fated CPU opponents in a given match.

The "Imperial Edition" of Napoleon Total War includes DLC that may give it a boost over the standard edition. The special edition steps up the presentation with a wall chart displaying the history of the French general's conquests and includes codes for 10 exclusive units. It also comes with the five units found in the Elite Regiment bundle, but that's already included in the standard edition's box set.

Actually, thinking about it, the Imperial Edition can get off its high horse, it's not all that fantastic. Availability and pricing for the special edition in the States has yet to be announced.

[Via Big Download]

It's now confirmed that The Creative Assembly's upcoming RTS title, Stormrise, will only support DirectX 10 on the PC, thus making it exclusive to Windows Vista by default.

In an interview with PC Games Hardware, Stormrise lead designer Artem Kulakov confirms the title's DX10 support, making it the first (and possibly only) Vista-exclusive game (Update: Uh, except for all those other ones). According to Kulakov, the reason for only supporting DX10 is to make it easier to port to console platforms and to give the developer an "opportunity to increase performance and improve visual quality."

While we aren't experts in the field of how to launch a new franchise, we suspect that limiting the potential user base to only those with Vista (and without some hacking skillz) seems counterproductive to the goal of making a profit.

[Via Big Download]

Stormrise is an upcoming console RTS from The Creative Assembly, developer of the Total War series. Among the standard promise of intuitive console controls, Creative Assembly is introducing "verticality" to console RTS players. Units can be deployed in the air, on rooftops, at ground level, or below the planet's surface. Okay. So far, so good ...

Uh-oh, wait a minute. Stormrise's box art looks like the class project of a paint-by-numbers after school program. Sure, it's the game inside that matters -- and we're excited for it -- but imagine if, instead of saying Stormrise on the cover, the box read RoboCop vs. Zombies. This art would still totally work, and probably be twice as rad.

When a trailer for a video game trailer begins with the phrase "The following trailer has been rendered using the game engine," an implicit statement has been made. That statement reads thusly: "The graphics in this game are so good, you won't believe it isn't pre-rendered." That is not the case with Stormrise, an upcoming real time strategy game from Creative Assembly (Viking) and Sega (lots of games). It doesn't look bad by any stretch, but we found the disclaimer a little unnecessary. Anywho, what we get to see is a bunch of soldiers facing off with Predator-like monsters, enemy soldiers, and what look like miniature Brumaks (sort of). The video concludes by saying "A change is coming" for console RTS games in 2009. Seems like everyone is trying to reshape the console RTS genre these days.

Given Creative Assembly's experience with the Total War RTS series, we're eager to see what's in store. And to see some real gameplay, of course.

Real Time Strategies have never been a good fit for consoles, thanks to their over-reliance on a mouse and keyboard. The Creative Assembly are hoping to change that with Stormrise by creating a fully intuitive, pad-based control system. Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to try the controls out for ourselves, but from what we saw it has some potential.

Selecting units is as simple as flicking the right analogue stick. Holding it in any direction will bring up a radar screen, showing your troops throughout the level relative to your currently selected unit. Rotating the right stick will let you highlight your units and, letting go of the stick, select them. Quickly "whipping" the right stick in any given direction will select the nearest unit in that direction, allowing you to switch between units swiftly.

Once selected, the game's viewpoint switches to above and behind the unit, allowing you to see what they see. They can then be moved to any visible ground using a 3D cursor. This seemed to work well, but there are also other methods of controlling units that seemed to work even better, depending on your play style.

Okay class, it's time to take out your notebooks and no. 2 pencils. Today we're going to be learning a new word -- verticality. The word traces its origins back to the Total War chaps at Sega-owned The Creative Assembly, who coined the term to describe the studio's latest project, Stormrise, a new real-time strategy game "built from the ground up" specifically for the Xbox 360 and PS3.

Who here can tell the class what verticality means? Billy, put your hand down. No one? Verticality, according to Sega, is a means of allowing players to control multiple layers of units, from the sky to beneath Stormrise's "bleak and barren" earth. Currently gathering resources for a 2009 release, the game represents The Creative Assembly's first attempt at creating a RTS for consoles, so if they fall on their face we must do our best to keep any criticisms constructive. Class dismissed.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

Sure, we've played games with basically the same premise, location and enemies as Viking: Battle for Asgard, but one thing's for certain, we haven't grown tired of them yet. Battle for Asgard is shaping up to be a must-buy, and with The Creative Assembly, which is responsible for the excellent Total War series, at the helm, we're confident that it will deliver the goods.

The game has a spring 2008 release date, which is great, because we should finally be finished with our immense backlog of games to devote our attention to it.