If you've played any of Creative Assembly's Total War games, you've certainly seen your fair share of massive battles. But they're always limited by internal caps so the strategy is manageable and well, your PC doesn't explode. The developers are taking the gloves off with the introduction of a new game mode, called "The Laboratory", which will allow you to do utterly, utterly mad things within Total War: Warhammer 2.

As predicted when first announced, the fourth race to join the ranks of Creative Assembly's Total War: Warhammer 2 is the rat-like Skaven. Rather than crank out a cinematic trailer to show them off, the developer has gone with an in-engine demo instead.

I had some very nice things to say about Total War: Warhammer a year ago when I reviewed it, but over the last week I thought I'd check back in and see how it was faring after 12 months of updates and DLC. I was happy to find that a very good game has got even better.

It feels like only yesterday that Creative Assembly's Total War: Warhammer, based on Games Workshop's mammoth franchise, was released. In fact, it was less than a year ago. Yet, here we are, with publisher Sega announcing a sequel is under development. There's no release date, just that it'll be this year, though we do have a trailer.

This year was a terrible year for the planet, but a good year for my own personal nostalgia. Spiritual successors, updates and remasters dominated my playtime, but I also pushed my boundaries in terms of the types of games I typically play. I’m counting that as personal growth.

So, without further ado, here are my top 10 games for 2016, in vaguely ascending order.

It's always a pleasure when I get to showcase the work of an entire team on Fine Art, and doubly so when it's a game that I really, really like.

If you were a Total War fan waiting for an extra boost in performance from Total War: Warhammer, good news: the long-awaited patch adding in DirectX 12 support has finally arrived.

Bad news: if you're a NVIDIA owner, you're getting bugger all benefit.

It's been a few years in the making and according to Creative Assembly, they'll be working on it for a decade. I'm talking Total War: Warhammer, of course, the latest iteration of the British developer's tactical strategy game and the latest title to make use of the Games Workshop franchise.

It's not often you see a tactical strategy game sitting just underneath the likes of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2 on the Steam charts.

I was so ready to hate this game.

AMD and Creative Assembly made a big deal of their partnership earlier this year, especially when the British studio talked about all the benefits DirectX 12 would offer. But while things are looking nice and rosy for Team Red, those with NVIDIA cards are having to play a little bit of catch-up.

It's been in the works for a while, and as of tomorrow the latest iteration of the Total War series. (Let's all just agree to call it Total Warhammer to save everyone time.) And because Creative Assembly went to the effort of leveraging the classic Games Workshop franchise, it's not hard to say that Warhammer might be the most anticipated Total War game yet.

But it's also highly intriguing from a technical perspective. Total War games feature a lot of units and they're pretty damn good at pushing your computer to the limit. Unfortunately, they don't seem terribly great at pushing SLI setups to the limit.

It took about ten minutes to get a handle on everything in Total War: Warhammer, and another ten before I was thoroughly enjoying myself. It's not perfect by any means, but I've finally found the Total War game of my dreams.

This could be the studio's best Total War game. That's the argument Creative Assembly is making this morning, at any rate -- an argument for delaying Total War: Warhammer by a month to May 24.

Creative Assembly, the guys behind the Total War series -- some of my favourite games -- have along with publisher Sega tried something new for their next release. And it hasn't gone down too well.

The news that the Chaos Warriors would be gated off from next year's Total War: Warhammer didn't sit well with many readers, and as it turns out Total War fans and Warhammer nuts were also less than pleased.

"In the studio it's sparked off a huge "wtf do we do about it" debate," Mike Simpson, creative director on Total War: Warhammer, wrote in a new blog post. It's part of Creative Assembly's attempt to repair the negative image that quickly surrounded the pre-order model -- although the developers are quick to stress that they understand not everyone will see their point of view.

SEGA and Creative Assembly today pushed out a release date for Total War: Warhammer. That's great -- even if it's not coming out until next year.

But what's more annoying is the news they paired alongside it: the Chaos Warriors. If you want them, you'll either have to pre-order or pay afterwards. And not just one or two warriors, but the whole faction.

Do you think that's too many 'wars' in the headline?

Nah, she'll be right.

Briefly: If you were worried that the announcement of Total War: Warhammer (why not Total Warhammer?) is coming at the expense of proper Total War games, Creative Assembly has told PC Gamer the Warhammer title is being developed by a "completely separate team. The historic thread goes on uninterrupted." Phew.