Napoleon: Total War

Progressing through each campaign in turn should put an end to that nagging feeling in Empire: Total War that what you're experiencing is less a game than a collection of features of which you can't grasp the subtleties.

Changes to the game itself are just as smart. Each turn now represents two weeks instead of the series' more traditional six months, which has a couple of nice repercussions. First, it brings the speed of technological advancement in line with previous Total War games, allowing you to get to grips with the era's warfare.

Second, it means scorching hot summers or frosty winters now drag on over many, many turns, which is important as Napoleon takes a keen interest in weather conditions. As well as the series' usual eye for the effects of hills, sand and snow, Napoleon models attrition. Armies crossing mountains or camping out in deserts or snow now steadily lose men, balanced by a second feature whereby armies will automatically receive reinforcements from home if stationed in a friendly province with a Supply Post.

Even more attention has been paid to the battles themselves. Generals now confer more of a morale bonus to troops close to them, and the range of this bonus is shown by a large circle around their regiment. This transforms your general into the busiest unit on the map, since you'll be sending him racing off to support big pushes or protect flanks which are about to crumble.

The sand and heat of the Egyptian theatre should be a testing ground of the new attrition modelling, although it's a shame that the murderous winters of Russia are restricted to the Mastery of Europe campaign.

As well as the top brass, smoke and mud are also receiving some love. The engine now causes clouds of gunsmoke or dirt kicked up by cavalry charges to hang around longer, turning them into genuine visibility-reducing factors.

There are plenty of cosmetic changes, too. Time's been spent creating tiny differences between each of your soldiers to reduce that unsettling toy-army effect that's cropped up as the series has become more detailed, and in what must be a slight deviation from reality muzzle flashes are now far more fiery and dramatic.

While naval battles weren't available to play in the preview code, Creative Assembly say they're getting some TLC too. For now, we're promised a single new feature of ship crews being able to temporarily forget that cannon business in order to go scrambling around repairing their vessel - patching up holes, bailing water and keeping the ship in the fight. A bit like what CA is doing to Empire, really.

I'm being hugely cynical, but the positive side to all this is that Creative Assembly seems to be in the final stages of tweaking a game with enough new features to demand a purchase from Empire's fans, yet one that also addresses each of Empire's assorted problems. The last word will probably come down to the quality of Napoleon's full-scale Mastery of Europe campaign, but for the moment this is a really, really good sign. Strategy fans? Fix your bayonets. This time the game might tell you what they actually do.