After 10 years of cranking out Total War games, Creative Assembly is still down with making another Total War game. In fact, Sega has announced that the studio is currently crafting a sequel to its original Total War game, creatively titled Shogun 2: Total War. Like its predecessor, you'll be tasked with re-uniting a splintered feudal Japan. But in order to do this you'll need to use pansy crap like diplomacy and economics along with the manly sport of warfare. The end goal, of course, is to become the shogun.
The press release notes that Shogun 2 will feature a new AI system inspired by Sun Tzu's Art of War, a book that already happened to be on my top ten list of "Things AI Should Be Designed After." Considering that the game is a sequel, you shouldn't be too surprised to see improved visuals, as well as better land and sea battle elements (including, for the first time, coastal warfare).
Shogun 2 will also purportedly sport an eight-player competitive multiplayer component on top of separate competitive and cooperative modes inside its campaign multiplayer mode. Expect character progression frills, too, if a leaked fact sheet (via Ace Gamez) is legit.
Some artwork has been released on top of these details. Highlight? In one of the images there's a rather colorful scene of a couple of dudes getting stabbed by arrows.
"Developing Shogun 2: Total War gives us the opportunity to use recent technology to portray one of history's most exciting civil wars," Creative Assembly creative director Mike Simpson said in a statement. "Ever since we developed Shogun: Total War 10 years ago, the team at The Creative Assembly has always dreamt of using our accumulated experience to revisit Total War in Feudal Japan."
Shogun 2 is slated for a PC release in 2011.