Video games I want to play forever #1: Total War series

First off, I want to apologize to readers of this space for being remiss in my posting duties. December is a hectic month, what with the holidays just around the corner, and finding time to play good, classic video games is getting harder.

So with that in mind, I’ve decided to start a new topic or category, Video games I want to play forever. It’s very literal. It will feature video games that I love and those that I want to keep playing until my computer conks out, or until my body crumples from exhaustion.

Without further ado, I present to you the Total War series on the PC:

Total War is a strategy game series developed by Creative Assembly. The games combine turn-based strategy and resource management with real-time tactical control of battles. On June 30, 2006, a box set of the first three Total War titles and their expansion packs was released. Called Total War: Eras, the boxed set also included several extra features and the Rome: Total War expansion Alexander, which had previously been only available through download.

When I first laid my eyes on the Total War series, via Rome: Total War, I wasn’t impressed. I found the game dragging and lacking in action. But that was just my initial reaction—a way of challenging myself to try out the game. Raymz Maribojoc, the friend who introduced me to the Total War series, was insistent. Thank the gaming gods I listened to him.

So, on a rainy evening around two years ago, I played Rome: Total War on Raymz’s, uhmm, office PC like there was no tomorrow. Upon my friend’s recommendation, I started the game playing the Brutii, one of three playable Roman factions in the game, the other two being the Julii and the Scipii. (The three factions are named after three great figures in Roman history, namely Gaius Julius Caesar, Marcus Junius Brutus, and Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus.

Check out the details after the jump.

Each faction or house has a campaign to follow, mostly at the direction of the Roman Senate. Here’s a brief description from Wikipedia:

Rome: Total War (often abbreviated to RTW or Rome) is a critically acclaimed strategy game composed of both turn-based strategy and real-time tactics, in which the player fights historical and fictitious battles set during the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire (270 BC – AD 14). The game was developed by Creative Assembly and released on September 22, 2004. It is the third game of Creative Assembly’s Total War series.

The endeavors of the player involve a duality of turn-based strategy and 3D real-time tactical battles. The high-quality 3D graphics engine is able to render over thirty thousand men on a single battlefield. The strategic and tactical modes integrate such that the landscape for the battles is the same as seen on that particular spot on the strategic map where the armies meet.

The player takes a role equivalent to the head of one of the three great Roman houses at the time: the Julii, the Scipiones (known as the Scipii in the game) or the Bruti (called the Brutii). Each of these factions has a different set of attributes and initial objectives. After winning campaign as Romans (or using a simple mod) it is possible to play with other factions and take on a role similar to that of Hannibal, commander-in-chief of the Carthaginian armies during the Second Punic War or the Gallic Warlord Vercingetorix.

Prior to its release, a preliminary but completely workable version of the game engine was used in two series of television programs: Decisive Battles by the History Channel, where it was used to recreate famous historical battles, and Time Commanders by BBC Two, where teams of novice non-gamers commanded ancient armies to replay key battles of antiquity. The game engine was fine-tuned specifically for these TV shows by military historians for maximum historical accuracy.

Speaking of Rome, you might want to check out Google’s Ancient Rome 3D project. Sravan Bhamidipati of That Damn PC wrote about the Ancient Rome 3D layer in Google Earth and the LIFE photo archive late last month.

Cool, eh?

Now I’m looking for a full, updated version of Medieval II: Total War and eagerly anticipating the release of Empire: Total War. Yes, I’m going to play these games for a very long time.