The acquisition of The Creative Assembly a while back is a perfect example of how a publisher can still get their act together and come back from the bring. SEGA wasn't exactly hemorrhaging money like an Acclaim or a 3DO, but they certainly weren't the Second Coming of Sonic after exiting the hardware business and moving to third-party development. For whatever reason, the pool of amazing talent that helped SEGA birth some absolutely fantastic home ports of their arcade hits just couldn't connect when they weren't working on their own hardware. The result was a string of less than popular releases and a general apathy surrounding the SEGA brand.

Luckily, the house that Sonic built understood what was going on better than most thought. Rather than milking their franchises (though the pumps are still hooked up, no doubt about that), SEGA moved toward either publishing up-and-coming hits that were well beyond their usual portfolio -- stuff like Condemned: Criminal Origins in the early days of the Xbox 360 -- and started hand-picking development houses to add to the fold. One such group was The Creative Assembly, who managed to make a name for themselves in the PC space with their Total War series. The first console project to come out of the deal was Spartan: Total Warrior, which ended up being a modest hit, though nothing that absolutely blew everyone away.

Still, it proved the CA team wasn't suck in a rut of releasing RTS games and could do something a little different. Not that we minded stuff like Rome: Total War, but it was nice to see at least a different take on things. With next-development gearing up, though, exactly what CA was working on was kept pretty hush-hush -- until now.

VIKING: Battle for Asgard, they're calling it, and though it's still firmly seated in the realm of ass-kicking lone warriors taking on the gods (and no, we're not above making at least a casual mental connection to God of War), the vibe here is decidedly Norse. That means Vikings and Valhalla and flawed gods and goddesses to deal with -- specifically Hel, a goddess, deciding it's about time for Ragnarok, the final battle that will obliterate god and mortal alike. To this end, she's summoned a demon army to control Midgard (that'd be our puny mortal plane) and stoked the fires of battle around the halls of Valhalla.

Ah, but there is one Viking, fueled by rage and confused at his station in the world as he is toyed with by the gods, who decides it's time to take the fight to them. Along the way, he's gain the gods powers, free enslaved warriors to fight with him an-yeah, okay, it sounds a lot like God of War now that we think about it. Still, this is a next-gen game, and the one thing The Creative Assembly knows a little more about than most devs is creating massive battles. They're promising a truly next-gen level combat experience that scales from smaller fights that you'd see in that other game (and yes, those do include brawls with epic-sized beasties) all the way out to huge battlefield clashes.

"Set in the mystical universe of Norse mythology, VIKING: Battle for Asgard is a spectacular adventure filled with the most visceral battles and ruthless warriors," gushes Scott A. Steinberg, SEGA of America's VP of Marketing. "The Creative Assembly, and their expertise at making incredible games on an epic level, have brought to life the brutal combat and offers players a journey into the rarely-explored and ferocious Viking world."

Time (and screens, and video) will tell if the similarities between VIKING and GoW will be more than passing, but combining one of the best action games ever made with one of the best real-time strategy games ever made sounds like a pretty next-gen way to amp up the whole genre. As soon as we get the full details on the game, we'll make sure you know about 'em. Keep them eyes peeled!