Rome free for Steamy Empire pre-orders

By Robert Purchese Published 29 October, 2008

Gold Edition of the Total War game, too.

Steam is offering Rome: Total War Gold Edition free to anyone pre-ordering Empire: Total War.

The bundle costs a rather substantial USD 54.99 (GBP 34) though, and Empire doesn't arrive on our shop shelves until 6th February.

However, Rome: Total War is rather brilliant, and the Gold Edition also includes the Barbarian Invasion expansion pack.

Rome, incidentally, was the last of the Total War games made by the Creative Assembly UK, the series creator. Since then, the studio has been working on Empire, introducing full naval combat while also making the game more accessible and less laborious.

Head over to our Empire: Total War preview to find out more.

Alternatively, head over to our Rome: Total War review to relive the days of old.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (13) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • AaronTurner #1 3 years ago

    Don't forget the awesome Medieval II Total War

  • UncleLou #2 3 years ago

    That wasn't made by the UK studio though, which was Rob's point. ;)

  • crozon #3 3 years ago

    yeah that was made in australia

  • Trafford #4 3 years ago

    I am intrested.
    Bought MII via steam ,and having it on the HD was nice and accesable.

  • Loser #5 3 years ago

    yeah, I'll be having some of this when my PC is back in business tomorrow night.

  • Les #6 3 years ago

    Still haven't put that much hours into Rome unfortunately. Too many games, too little time. Will probably pick Medieval II up first (really liked part 1) if/when there's a Gold Edition and might be playing Empire in 2012 or something...

  • X201 #7 3 years ago

    Rob, are you sure this is available in UK/Europe?

    The Previous Total War games have suffered from various availability problems on Steam, the usual result being that they are only available to US users at release date and available to UK users months later.
    Edited by 1 at 29/10/08 @ 11:48

  • Pirotic #8 3 years ago

    The shopto advert on the right has it for £10 less than steam, makes that Gold Edition not quite as good value for money :p

  • Loser #9 3 years ago

    @X201

    Yeah it popped up this morning when I logged into Steam and gave me the prepurchase option - if the content was not available in Europe it would give me the "this content is not avialable in your region" when I clciked through.

  • Jigglybean #10 3 years ago

    Medieval 2 was utter rubbish. All polish and probably the worst AI in the series, until 8 months later when they 'fixed' it. Rome was brilliant from start to finish, I just wish we could have more options for online play

  • michaelius #11 3 years ago

    This price doesn't include VAT.

    For that much i can get Rome + add-on + Empire in boxes separatly.

  • hiddenranbir #12 3 years ago

    Woo CA UK!

    Buy British!

    Yeah watch out for the VAT. Because Steam prices are initially bloated up, VAT stings just a tad more. Digital distribution is no longer the cheaper option. It is actually a better deal to pay for a physical copy now in most cases.

    Not to mention the weakness of the £ at the moment! :D
    Edited by 1 at 29/10/08 @ 21:10

  • Bitkari #13 3 years ago

    Quality game, no doubt. But I'm getting a little wary of Steam games that are considerably more expensive than their boxed versions.

    Some boxed games can be "activated" on Steam, which gives the best of both worlds. More of this sort of thing please!