Digital Jesters unveils Samurai Wars

When Digital Jesters announced its plans for a bumper Savage deal in Europe, the main point of discussion amongst the game's followers was the enigmatic promise of an official "Samurai Wars" mod, of which very little had been seen or heard. Given how much we liked the rest of the game, we were curious to say the least.

Now, as we rapidly approach the game's February 27th release date, DJs has finally revealed what's in store, and released a large batch of screenshots to show it off. Set in feudal Japan, Samurai Wars is more like a Savage TC (total conversion), which replaces Commander with Daimyo, units with different types of foot soldier, and generally spruces up the rest of the not inconsiderably pretty graphics to fit.

There are some neat additions here too, outlined in detail on the newly launched official Samurai Wars website. All sorts of new units are in, from the basic Samurai and Kengou up to Yari Samurai and Sohei Warrior Monk, and the siege weapon units are back too - including a katana-wielding samurai on horseback, limited to attacking only on the right hand side. Would we be wrong in thinking the developers drew inspiration from the epic battles in The Last Samurai?

Replacement structures have all been remodelled as well to replicate feudal Japan, and S2 Games has even replaced the ostriches, knife-monkeys and other stat-building sword fodder with wandering Ronin, who trample around the forests attacking people with their weakened katana, often yielding cash - and of course experience points - when slain.

Savage: The Battle for Newerth is due out this Friday, and as soon as we get our mitts on the retail edition we'll be putting Samurai Wars through its paces.