SEGA and The Creative Assembly today announced Medieval 2: Total War, the fourth Total War game in the series. This is sure to be of interest to many gamers and is due in winter 2006. Your guess is as good as mine as to whether that means before Christmas or not. Anyway, here's a few rather nice Medieval 2: Total War screenshots.

"Medieval 2: Total War is the result of 7 years continuous development of the Total War series and has been designed to appeal to all gamers, not just hardcore strategy fans. " commented Mike Simpson, Studio Director at Creative Assembly. "Each game in the series has outshone the previous one and Medieval 2: Total War is no exception."

Set in the most turbulent and bloody era in European history, Medieval 2: Total War will allow gamers to lead their armies across the battlefields of Europe and the Holy Land before discovering the Americas and doing battle with the fearsome Aztecs.

Medieval 2: Total War offers a vastly enhanced terrain model to create new graphically rich environments portraying breathtaking cliff top castles and enhanced settlement features that are unique to each civilisation. Over 200 new units, greater depth in siege warfare, new weaponry and a highly detailed building damage model all combine to make Medieval 2: Total War the best version of the PC's greatest strategy game ever made.