Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that can help answer the question.
Query: Is Total War a RTS game?
Total War is a series of strategy games developed by The Creative Assembly for personal computers. They combine turn-based strategy and resource management with real-time tactical control of battles. The first of the series, "" was released in June 2000. The most recent major game released was "" on 3 May 2018. The series has sold over 20 million copies.
GMT Games is a California-based wargaming publisher founded in 1990. The current management and creative team includes Tony Curtis, Rodger MacGowan, Mark Simonitch, and Andy Lewis. The company has become well known for graphically attractive games that range from "monster games", of many maps and counters, to quite simple games suitable for introducing new players to wargaming. They also produce card games and family games. "The Washington Post" called GMT "the modern hobby's highest-profile wargame publisher".
It has a score of 73% on Metacritic. "Destructoid" called "Freedom Wars" the biggest PS Vita release in 2014. IGN's Colin Moriarty writes that the game features plenty of content to keep the player occupied, and never forces them to play alone or online, allowing the player to choose their own pace progressing through the game. "Hardcore Gamer" rated the game 3.5 out of 5, describing it as a solid action RPG with good premise and deep themes, albeit feeling repetitive at times. "PlayStation Universe" gave "Freedom Wars" an 8.5/10 score, noting that the narrative and customisation were positive aspects, even though the endgame relies on a large amount of grinding. "PS Nation" notes that the singleplayer and multiplayer modes are enjoyable overall, and that the game plays well on a PlayStation TV device, giving a score of 9/10.
Mark Brown of Pocket Gamer UK rated the game 9/10 and gave it the Gold Award, saying it was a "high-quality production" that "streamlines the RTS genre for mobile play" without sacrificing its depth.
Since the release of "Warcraft", "Diablo", and "StarCraft" (1998), Blizzard has focused almost exclusively on the "Warcraft", "Diablo", and "StarCraft" series. The sole exception has been the company's latest title, "Overwatch" (2016). All of Blizzard's games released since 2004 still receive expansions and updates, especially the long-running massively multiplayer online role-playing game "World of Warcraft" (2004). With over 100 million lifetime accounts as of 2014 and US$9 billion in revenue as of 2017, "World of Warcraft" is one of the best-selling computer games and highest-grossing video games of all time. Blizzard Entertainment has developed 19 games since 1991 as of 2018, in addition to developing 8 ports between 1992 and 1993; 11 of those games are in the "Warcraft", "Diablo", and "StarCraft" series.
In 2004, Blizzard Entertainment moved the series away from the real-time strategy genre and released "World of Warcraft", a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). Requiring a subscription fee to be paid to play, it also introduced regular additional content to the series in the form of patches. "World of Warcraft" gained popularity worldwide, becoming the world's largest subscription-based MMORPG in 2008. The game reached a peak 12 million subscribers worldwide in October 2010. "World of Warcraft" has had seven expansions as of 2018. During the production of "", Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce stated that "If there's a team that's passionate about doing another "Warcraft" [real-time strategy], then that's definitely something we would consider. It's nothing that we're working on right now, we have development teams working on "", "", "Diablo III", and when those teams are all off the projects they're working on, they'll be intimately involved in the discussions about what's next".
Tony Watson reviewed "Civilization" for "Dragon" magazine #70 (February 1983). He commented: "Once in a while, a new game comes out that proves that there is still plenty of virgin territory out there for game designers to explore and plenty of room for innovative and imaginative approaches to those subjects. Avalon Hill's release, "Civilization", is just such a game."
The first game in the series is based on the video game "Age of Empires III", and was originally titled Age of Empires III: The Age of Discovery before being renamed to Glenn Drover's Empires: The Age of Discovery in 2011 following the loss of the naming rights to the "Age of Empires" series. It was originally published in 2007 by Tropical Games, and is currently distributed by Drover's own publishing company, Eagle Games. The game may be played by up to five players, though pieces for a sixth player were available in limited supply, and are included in the "Builders Expansion", released in 2011 along with the renaming of the series.
World of Warcraft (WoW) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the "Warcraft" fantasy universe. "World of Warcraft" takes place within the "Warcraft" world of Azeroth, approximately four years after the events at the conclusion of Blizzard's previous "Warcraft" release, "." The game was announced in 2001, and was released for the 10th anniversary of the "Warcraft" franchise on November 23, 2004. Since launch, "World of Warcraft" has had seven major expansion packs released for it: "", "", "", "", "", "", and "".
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings is a real-time strategy video game developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft. Released in 1999 for Microsoft Windows and Macintosh, it is the second game in the "Age of Empires" series. An expansion, "", was released in 2000.
Dragon Quest is the first role-playing video game (RPG) in the "Dragon Quest" media franchise. It was developed by Chunsoft for the Family Computer (or Famicom for short) and published by Enix in Japan in 1986 as "Dragon Quest" and by Nintendo in 1989 in North America for the Nintendo Entertainment System (or NES) as Dragon Warrior. "Dragon Quest" has been ported and remade for several video game platforms, including the MSX, PC-9801, Super Famicom, Game Boy Color, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 4 and mobile phones. In play, players control a hero character who is charged with saving the Kingdom of Alefgard and rescuing its princess from the evil Dragonlord. "Dragon Warrior"s story became the second part in a trilogy. Several more anime and manga series, which revolved around this overarching plot were created.
"Age of Empires", released on October 26, 1997, was the first game in the series, as well as the first major release from Ensemble Studios. It was one of the first history-based real-time strategy games made, utilizing the Genie game engine. GameSpot described it as a mix of "Civilization" and "". The game gives players a choice of 12 civilizations to develop from the Stone Age to the Iron Age. The expansion pack, "The Rise of Rome", published by Microsoft on October 31, 1998, introduced new features and four new civilizations, including the Romans. Although the two games had contained many software bugs, patches resolved many of the problems.
Prior to the first "Civilization" video game, an existing 1980 board game of the same name had been developed by Francis Tresham, published in Europe by his company Hartland Trefoil and licensed for publication in the United States by Avalon Hill. The board game and video game share many common elements including the use of a technology tree, and while Meier stated he had played the board game, he stated it had far less influence in his video game's design compared to the significant influence of "SimCity" and "Empire". When MicroProse opted on the name "Civilization" for the video game, the company worked out a deal with Avalon Hill to allow them to use the "Civilization" name.
However, many critics have also noted the game to be one of the best of its genre. "GameFaqs" described it as currently the best first person Civil War shooter in its "Top 10 American Civil War Games". "What Culture" listed it as #10 in its 10 Best Historical First-Person Shooter Video Games, stating, "While Civil War: Secret Missions was a low-budget game that garnered only mediocre ratings, it was the first to show the gaming industry that there is a place for shooters beyond the invention of tanks and portable machine guns. Civil War action games such as "" and "War of Rights" would take and improve the same steps years later."
"Rise and Fall" was received by critics with both positive and negative scores, with an average rating—according to GameRankings—of 65% (78th PC game of 2006). "PC Gamer UK" called it "Pure 24-carat gaming gold!" Games Radar said "This RTS has its ups and downs...", while Games Radar UK said "The RTS Rubicon has been crossed." GameSpot remarked that "this game doesn't quite know what it wants to be."; IGN stated that "...there's very little reason to recommend this title to fans of the strategy or action genres."
These massively multiplayer online games include "Call of Duty Online", a massively multiplayer online game that consists of previous "Call of Duty" titles with added content;" Dungeon Fighter Online", a side-scrolling online beat 'em up game; "QQ Fantasy", a 2D online game that incorporates elements from Chinese mythology; "Xunxian", a 3D, online RPG; "QQ Sanguo", an online casual role playing game set during the historical three kingdoms period; "QQ Huaxia", an online RPG; "QQ Dancer", an online musical dancing game that offers QQ IM interactivity; "QQ Nanaimo", an online game set on a desert island where players maintain houses and pets; "QQ Speed", a casual online racing game; "QQ R2Beat", an online in-line skating game; "QQ Tang", an "advanced casual game" with gameplay derived from Chinese literature; "QQ PET", and a QQ IM-based desktop virtual pet game. Tencent also develop and publish mobile games such as the MOBA title "Honor of Kings" ("Arena of Valor"), fully own "League of Legends", and partly own battle royale games such as "Fortnite" and "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds".
In 2017, 21 April, Tencent announced the rebranding of its Chinese 'Tencent game platform' as WeGame, which was launched in September 2017. Tencent has since announced plans to develop a Hong Kong edition of WeGame that can be used by players outside of China, potentially setting up the platform to compete with Valve Corporation's Steam platform.
"" is the sixth main game in the "Guitar Hero" series, released by Activision to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii consoles in September 2010. The game was developed by Activision's subsidiary studios RedOctane, Neversoft, and Vicarious Visions; the latter provided support for additional features in the Wii version of the game. Following a decline in sales of music games in 2009, partially due to the large number of music games released that year, Activision scaled back their efforts in the "Guitar Hero" series. "Warriors of Rock" represents the final game developed by RedOctane and Neversoft. Both studios' respective "Guitar Hero" divisions were closed once the game was complete, with key personnel brought into Activision directly for future games. It was initially announced that Vicarious Visions would take over future game development of the "Guitar Hero" series, however due to declining music game sales, all further development of the "Guitar Hero" series was cancelled, until 2015 when "Guitar Hero Live" was released.
In 1991, Sid Meier released "Civilization" and popularized the level of detail that has become common in the genre. "Sid Meier's Civilization" was influenced by board games such as "Risk" and the Avalon Hill board game also called "Civilization". A notable similarity between the "Civilization" computer game and board game is the importance of diplomacy and technological advancement. Sid Meier's "Civilization" was also influenced by personal computer games such as the city management game "SimCity" and the wargame "Empire". "Civilization" became widely successful and influenced many 4X games to come; "Computer Gaming World" compared its importance to computer gaming to that of the wheel.
Following Market Garden's success, Activision and id Software asked Splash Damage to produce three additional multiplayer maps for the "Return to Castle Wolfenstein Game of the Year Edition". The same year, Splash Damage partnered with the two companies to develop "", a stand-alone expansion based on "Return to Castle Wolfenstein". The Windows version of "Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory" was released online for free on 29 May 2003, with Linux and Mac versions following later. "Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory" won several Game of the Year and Editor's Choice awards and remains one of the most popular online first-person shooter titles.
In June 2017, Adam Isgreen, creative director of Microsoft Studios announced "Age of Empires: Definitive Edition" at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2017. It features overhauled graphics with support for 4K resolution, a remastered soundtrack, and other gameplay improvements, and was planned to be released on October 19, 2017, but was delayed until February 20, 2018. "Age of Empires: Definitive Edition" was released through the Windows store and was met with mixed or average reviews and weighted score of 70 out of 100 in Metacritic. PC Gamer gave the game 60/100, calling the game "solid remake of a game past its time". GameSpot gave the game 6/10, praising its 4K graphics and upgraded soundtrack but criticizing old problems still persisting.
Relic Entertainment, known as THQ Canada Inc. between 2004 and 2013, is a Canadian video game developer based in Vancouver, founded in 1997. The studio specializes in real-time strategy games and is known for series such as "Homeworld", "" and "Company of Heroes". Acquired by THQ in 2004, the company was sold to Sega on January 22, 2013 as part of THQ's bankruptcy. Relic is now a part of Sega West, which also comprises Creative Assembly, Sports Interactive and Amplitude Studios.
Many reviewers however felt the RTS gameplay was still too conventional, regardless of the subject matter. IGN found that, "While "War Front" isn’t anything particularly new, it does traditional very solidly and creates a decent action atmosphere." "PC Gamer" similarly agreed by concluding, ""War Front" is a solid and entertaining game, though far less original than it purports to be." Because of the game's traditional RTS formula, "Eurogamer" reviewed the title while at the same time satires reviews in general by outlining the traditional conventions in most reviews, such as concluding, "Lazy conclusion? Wrap things up with a witty line that leaves readers grinning. Or, just stop writing in the middl..."
"Star Wars: Empire at War" was first mentioned in 2004, by then-president of LucasArts Jim Ward. He discussed the possibility of a RTS video game set in the "Star Wars" universe, stating "...there's a bright future there for games based on these new properties as well as original Star Wars games like a new real-time strategy PC game that Petroglyph is developing for next year". Ward described the game as taking the real-time strategy genre in a new direction and outlined plans to balance the gameplay between hardcore games and audiences familiar with the "Star Wars" franchise. The game was unveiled by LucasArts on January 21, 2005 with an original release date set for the end of 2005. LucasArts said that the newly formed Petroglyph Games would be developing an original 3-D game engine, titled Alamo, for "Star Wars: Empire at War" and that the game would support online battles for up to eight players.
"Halo Wars" garnered generally positive reviews. The game has an average of 82/100 on aggregate web site Metacritic. Critics were split on whether "Halo Wars" was a successful console translation of the RTS genre. GameSpy's Allen Rausch argued that, as "" showed that first-person shooters could work on consoles, "Halo Wars" "is an RTS ... on a console ... and it works". Tom Price of TeamXbox said that gamers have been waiting a long time for a console RTS "to get it right", and "Halo Wars" did so; reviewers for "Official Xbox Magazine" credited Ensemble with creating a strategy game that felt "absolutely at home on the console", rather than a "poorly shoehorned ... port" of a PC game with clumsy controls. 1UP's Thierry Nguyen was neutral about whether it was a good RTS game or "Halo" title, but called it a "solid beginning towards what could be a really good console RTS". Digital Trends' Scott Steinberg said that, while not perfect, "Halo Wars" made a strong case for the viability of RTS on consoles; "There's certainly the potential to have PC holdouts seriously reconsidering hoisting the controller." Peter Hartlaub of the "San Francisco Chronicle" offered a dismissive summation of the game as "a remedial game—real-time strategy for dummies", and stated that the game offered relatively little innovation when compared to other "Halo" titles.
Total Annihilation: Battle Tactics (abbreviated TA:BT) is the second of two expansion packs for the popular RTS computer game "Total Annihilation", released on June 30, 1998 in the United States. Its features include 100 new missions as either the Arm or the Core, four new units (the Arm Stunner & Phalanx and the Core Neutron & Copperhead) and new keyboard shortcuts. Six new multiplayer maps are included, and, for the first time in the "Total Annihilation" series, some single-player missions are set on acid and crystal worlds.