Creative Assembly's strategy opus Empire: Total War expanded considerably today, with plenty of new content now available for purchase.

The $10 Warpath Campaign promises a more detailed North American map with which to conquer using five extra Native American factions, new units and technologies.

Three new units--the Death's Head Hussars, USS Constitution and Dahomey Amazons--have also been added to the existing $2.50 Special Forces Units DLC. Anyone that's already purchased that pack will get the three new units automatically.

On top of the new content, Empire itself is now half-off on Steam--or $25--until October 12. Considering the big patches of late, it may be an opportune time to jump on board the Empire boat.

Creative Assembly released the much-anticipated 1.4 patch to Empire: Total War today. The update should automatically download by way of Steam. This isn't one of those tiny updates that only addresses random bugs, either. Beyond the two historical battles added to the game's content, there are significant bullet points to examine, including an "overhaul of naval balancing" and plenty of major fixes.

Check below for the full patch notes:... Read more

The first trailer for the just-announced Warpath DLC for Empire: Total War has been released. It features some cool gameplay footage, and Trailer Narrator Guy doing his best Pueblo impression. One of the things I love about historical games isn't that they overtly teach you to things, but that they open the door just wide enough to tease you. When trailer guy talked about poisoning the air, that sounded a bit much for pre-industrial colonies. As it turns out, the burning of forests by the colonists to make way for European-style agriculture did in fact degrade the air quality of the surrounding Native American territories.

And now you get to kill the bastards for it. The trailer follows:... Read more

Despite the announcement of Napoleon: Total War, Creative Assembly isn't giving up on its Empire. In addition to a new 1.4 patch for the game, the company today announced a new downloadable campaign for Empire: Total War will be released in October.

The Native American-centric DLC will see players choosing from five new tribal factions--Iroquois, Huron, Plains, Pueblo and Cherokee--in the new Warpath Campaign.

The campaign will feature an expanded North American map, as well as new units, agents, technologies and objectives. Exclusive to Steam, the DLC can now be pre-ordered for $10.

Empire will also be updated with a 1.4 patch tomorrow. The patch adds minor fixes and two historical conflicts: the Battle of Rossbach and the Battle of Fontenoy. Thanks to mike44w for the alert.

Though Napoleon: Total War is in the pipeline, Creative Assembly hasn't given up on Empire, announcing that Update 1.4 will hit the PC strategy title in late September.

Improving the AI's combat behaviour and diplomatic decisions is a main focus for update 1.4, along with the usual assortment of fixes for bugs, crashes and--as ever--naval warfare, as detailed in the partial changelog below... Read more

Empire: Total War has received its first downloadable content in 'Elite Units of the West,' adding fourteen of the 18th century's fanciest fighting forces to the PC strategy title.

Units on offer include the Legion of the United States, France's Swiss Guard, Prussian "professional scoundrels" the Frei-Korps, and Russia's Gardes a cheval--"selected not for their soldiering ability but more for their relative attractiveness to Catherine the Great."

A comprehensive Empire: Total War patch released on Monday added a free fourteen other less-elite new units, in addition to a bumper crop of performance and bug fixes.

Elite Units of the West is available now through Steam for the small sum of $3.49.

The happy Friday tradition of slashing prices on top-notch video games continues this week, bringing a killer deal on Empire: Total War and assorted other milder savings.

The crown jewel of this week's bargain crown is Steam's offer of Empire: Total War for a mere $25, down from $50--just in time for the sizeable update 1.3 arriving Monday. Also available with 50% off is the $35 Empire: Total War Special Forces Edition.

Steam also celebrates its addition of sixteen titles from war-happy NovaLogic by offering 10% off them all, including the Delta Force and Joint Operations games.

Good Old Games is offering 25% off shooter Painkiller Black Edition, down to a trifling $7.49--the discount will appear when you go to the checkout.

Joining the library expansion fun, Impulse still offers 10% off Ubisoft additions Far Cry 2, Assassin's Creed and Heroes of Might and Magic V - Tribes of the East.

The Creative Assembly has released details on what its hefty Empire: Total War update 1.3 will bring to the historical strategy game when it arrives on Monday June 22.

Fourteen new units, balance changes, performance improvements, and scores of crash and bug fixes are the short and sweet of the full patch notes which follow below:

We've worked on implementing the multi-threading in the game for multi-core processors and made many optimisations that will also help increase performance on single core machines.

Players will see huge benefits through increased frame rates... Read more

While developer Creative Assembly continues to work on bug-fixing and post-release support for its strategy title Empire: Total War (PC), the studio has revealed plans to provide players with several new units, for free, as a "thank you."

The first unit to be revealed was the Russian Grenadiers, with the company noting that the soldiers are "great for assaults and their grenades pack a mighty punch."

While some may worry that the studio is devoting resources to new content instead of fixes, designed Jack Lusted allayed those fears, writing that "the work on the free units is not taking away time for fixes, the free units do not require any work from... Read more

A significant patch for Creative Assembly's excellent, but rather buggy strategy game Empire: Total War is expected to be finished by next week, according to the company.

"There are over 70 bug fixes in this upgrade, plus a tonne of balance and feature tweaks," said Creative Assembly communications director Kieran Brigden in a post on the game's official forums.

Amongst many fixes to crashing problems and other issues, the patch will also partially address the naval AI--though Brigden noted that the system will still remain somewhat incomplete post-patch.

"The technology behind naval invasions is actually really rather heavy and is still causing some issues," said Brigden. "The gameplay upgrade will make naval invasions possible but they will be rare. The AI now has a proper mechanism for the planning involved and can execute that mechanism when required, however increasing its frequency is a balance issue we haven't been able to get fixed in time for this upgrade."

Rolling its weekly charts into one monthly bundle, sales-tracking firm NPD has compiled a list of the 20 best-selling PC games at US retailers during March 2009.

As seen below, Empire: Total War has ended Lich King's four month-long reign of the monthly charts, with the Diablo and StarCraft Battle Chests continuing to hold ground.

1. Empire: Total War / Creative Assembly / $48
2. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King / Blizzard / $38
3. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe / EA Maxis / $19
4. Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II / Relic / $48
5. World Of Warcraft Battle Chest / Blizzard / $38
6. World Of Warcraft / Blizzard / $20
7. The Sims 2 Apartment Life Exp. Pack / EA Maxis / $19... Read more

An update meant to "fix some random crashes in sound" has actually introduced a new set of problems into Creative Assembly's Empire: Total War (PC) for some players.

Those that now experience crashes when leaving a battle are told to "try turning off sound effects" while the developer readies a more permanent solution.

The top-selling but bug-ridden strategy game has seen two patches released thus far this week, reportedly resolving numerous crashing issues and other glitches.

Empire: Total War, already reigning triumphant over the sales charts, has now declared victory over a variety of bugs and glitches following the rousing of a new patch.

The smattering of fixes includes campaign problems, multiplayer issues and savegame bugs--hopefully including the ones which rendered the game unplayable for many.

Click through for a full list of casualties:... Read more

So you wanted to win Empire: Total War in our last contest, but didn't have a computer powerful enough to play it anyway. Most PC gamers have been in that situation at least once. But Shacknews is here to bail you out.

Thanks to Sega and Alienware, we're giving away a crazy Alienware m17x gaming laptop to one random winner. How crazy is this thing? It has two Nvidia 9800M GT 512MB graphics cards running in SLI mode--and a built-in subwoofer. Yeah, it's one of those laptops. And the beastly machine is valued at a staggering $3400.

Other notable features include the 17" WUXGA widescreen monitor, Intel Core 2 Duo 2.6GHz processor, HDMI/TOSlink out, integrated HDTV tuner... Read more

Marketing research firm NPD has issued its weekly list of the ten best-selling PC games at United States retailers, this one covering the first week of March.

That week saw the debut of The Creative Assembly's historical strategy game Empire: Total War, which also topped the chart for digital distribution site Direct2Drive. Mythic's Warhammer Online also reappeared, probably due to a lowered average price.

As NPD's figures do not include digital distribution, you'll find Direct2Drive's corresponding list of PC best-sellers below. However, please note that this only covers one of many online outlets, while NPD covers a variety of brick and mortar stores.

NPD's Top Ten (3/1 - 3/7)

1. Empire: Total War / Creative Assembly / $48
2. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King / Blizzard / $39
3. Warhammer Online: Age Of Reckoning / EA Mythic / $16
4. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe / EA Maxis / $20
5. Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II / Relic / $48
6. The Sims Carnival: Bumper Blast / Electronic Arts / $2... Read more

The first patch for Empire: Total War has fixed a variety of issues with the game, including memory leaks and random crashes.

But the game still remains largely affected by some of its worst bugs, including one that can surprisingly render save games useless.

Users are still reporting that the save-killing bug--which sees the game consistently crash during an AI turn, ruining campaigns that can last for dozens of hours--still exists following today's patch. Shacknews has independently verified that the bug remains in the game post-patch.

Empire developer Creative Assembly plans to release regular updates, slating the next patch for early next week. Check out today's patch notes below:... Read more

In return for three copies of Empire: Total War, we asked you to give us your best suggestions for Creative Assembly's next Total War game. The results were a mix of predictable and very much unpredictable responses.

The most popular periods of history for Total War adaptation seemed to be the American Civil War and World War I, while a sequel to Shogun: Total War is clearly wanted by more than a few fans. Modern day and futuristic Total War games were also popular choices.

A few entries provided some humor to the serious strategic pitches, such as robosextoid's pitch for a Total War game based around his ex-girlfriend. Insect-based concepts by fugu124 and good man represented some of the more out-in-left-field, but novel ideas.

But only three random winners can ultimately walk away with... Read more

Update: Tonight is the last chance to enter!

Strategy fans, the day is upon us: Creative Assembly's latest opus, Empire: Total War (PC), has been released.

To celebrate the occasion we're giving away three copies of the massive game, along with two art pamphlets, two maps, and assorted unit downloads.

To enter, simply write a comment in response to this post telling us where you think Creative Assembly should go next with the Total War franchise.

Total War: 1942? Total War: Terminator vs. Predator? Cold War: Total War? Share your reasoned or insane Total War concepts for a chance to win Empire: Total War.

Creative Assembly communications director Kieran Brigden has confirmed that the first major patch for Empire: Total War is scheduled to be released next week.

"We fully intend to support Empire consistently post-release," said Brigden on the official Total War forums. "Therefore I can confirm that we are currently working on a patch that will be automatically rolled out via Steam, sometime next week."

The patch will fix a gameplay bug related to trade routes and improve upon the game's stability and performance, which has been criticized by fans following the game's Tuesday release.

"There is a patch schedule that means regular patches will be appearing after this point," added Brigden.

At long last, today marks the day that Creative Assmebly's historical strategy simulator Empire: Total War (PC) arrives. You can find it at stores, or just download it on Steam.

In celebration, publisher Sega issued a new trailer. But will I ever see fellow editor Nick Breckon again? He's been obsessed with the demo. In fact, the entire reason I posted this was because he'd probably read it, and someone needs to remind him to eat.

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