Total War: Rome II – Emperor Edition releases later this month, is free to all Rome 2 owners

After a troubled start, Rome 2 is now in a much better place—its patches and tweaks fixing many, if not all, of the community's major issues. The new "Emperor Edition" is set to bring even more improvements, as well as an add-on that Creative Assembly claim is on the same scale as the base game's main campaign. It'll all be released, free to all existing Rome 2 owners, on 16 September.

A new trailer sets up the events of the Imperator Augustus Campaign Pack, included in the Emperor Edition.

The DLC covers the 2nd Triumvirate War—a conflict between Octavian, Marcus Lepidus and Mark Antony that ultimately led to the end of the Roman Republic.

The Empire Edition will not only redevelop the game's politics system, but also rebalance battles, improve building chains and—last, and probably least—upgrade the lighting for battle and campaign maps.

For more, see the latest episode of CA's Rally Point series, where they talk through the upcoming changes.

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.