Great news for Total War fans. Out of the blue, The Creative Assembly have released the first official modding tool for a Total War game. The map editor is now available to download for free from the Tools section of your Steam library. It'll let you create multiplayer maps that can then be shared and played in custom battles against other players or the AI in Shogun 2 and this year's splendid standalone expansion, Fall of the Samurai .

The Total War series has always had a great modding community. It's nice to see them get some official support from the developers. The editor lets you mould terrain into a battlefield and then place objects to form towns, forests and castles. The Creative Assembly have released a bunch of new screenshots showing off some of the landscapes you can make using the tools. Take a look.