Activision, Inc. today announced the development of Rome: Total War for the PC, the next game to be released in the Total War series and the follow-up title to The Creative Assembly's multi-award winning Medieval: Total War.

In the game players return to the golden age of antiquity to take command of the most fearsome armies in a bid to rewrite the annals of history and be proclaimed Imperator.

"One of the biggest challenges we've faced so far with Rome: Total War is getting people to believe what they see when we show them the game," states Tim Ansell, managing director, The Creative Assembly. "The cinematic battles are beyond anything ever before seen in a game. So, when people see a screenshot or the game running, they automatically assume that we're showing a cutscene or that it's going to take a super computer to run the game. Nothing could be further from the truth. Even before final optimizations the engine performance and the system specs are already very competitive."