KMC Forums - Empire: Total War

[In advance, I scrolled through a good few pages in Search and couldn't find this.]

I know this has been announced and the developers have been working for two years already on it, but really, this game is looking fantastic. Here's the link I found (I'm well aware it was announced before this):

http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/866/866990p1.html

I don't actually get alot of time to play Computer Games (I'm not wasting money on a Next-Gen yet & I travel too much to have access to a decent Desktop PC) but I was into Rome: Total War and all that quasi-historical malarkey (liked Medieval II too) but I am over the moon to find out about this. I'm just going to have to make some avant garde financial decisions to invest in a decent spec PC.

Here's a snippet:

The action begins around 1700 and continues throughout the 18th century and dips into the 19th. We wouldn't want to put a fixed end point where we stop the player from continuing, and we have included some 19th century technologies that can be researched. We always want the player to be able to take history in a different direction, and we have to allow for the possibility that the player will drive tech research faster than happened in reality.

It's a fabulously colourful period, and there are many reasons why it's the perfect choice of era for the next Total War blockbuster: the 18th century is the great age of fighting sail, and it's the obvious arena in which to set our spectacular new sea battles. It's a dynamic time when the world was changing fast -- the Industrial Revolution was powering an astonishing rise in technology, which was also reflected on the battlefield.

Conflicts were becoming global as Europe extended its power across the world, fighting in India, the Caribbean, and of course against the rebellious American colonists in the War of Independence. All this is included in Empire -- so despite the relatively focused time period, this is the most varied, dynamic and large-scale Total War game to date.

Also, the mass-use of gunpowder weapons and artillery in this period gives us the opportunity to develop some really interesting new features and gameplay dynamics that make for a lot of variation.

I can't wait til I destroy the British Colonists in America with the 95th Rifles. Gonna be the nuts.

No release date yet.