Rome: Total War (impressive screenshots!)

[A Black Falcon]

Kessen? Never played that... it was a early PS2 game, right? Shogun: Total War was out before that (it came out in early/mid 2000)... its just that Shogun and last years Medieval had sprite-based units (and no towns).

As for if they turn into sprites, well, maybe... but it doesn't look like it in those screenshots. I can't tell for sure, but if they do its very well done. Even the guys in the back definitely look like polygons and not sprites like Medieval here.





Oh... one more thing. If you haven't played one of these games, how you'd control so many thousands of guys might seem overwhelming... but its not. You see, they are divided into units -- 60-100 men each -- which you control as one... you only control units, not individual soldiers. See all of those flags the guys are holding? Each of those is that units' selection flag... you click it (or click and drag to select multiple groups, etc) to select them, then move, maneuver, or change the facing/settings for the unit. Simple, yet cool... much better than many games of the type, which would use one guy to represent each unit the Total War series represents with 60 to 100 guys.