Meng Huo is absent from this early promo.

It's a good day when I get hold of some concrete information regarding my favourite hack-and-slash series, and most especially when said information addresses a lot of the issues fans have aired regarding the latest installment, Dynasty Warriors 6. The first tie-in title to the black sheep of the family, Dynasty Warriors 6 Empires was expected to be more of the same, but KOEI's Omega-Force team seem to have taken some of the negative feedback on board for once, with the restoration of unique move sets for many characters, the return of characters who were missing altogether, and some tweaks to gameplay.

KOEI have confirmed that character move set changes from the special Japanese PS2 edition of Dynasty Warriors will be carried across to Empires. While some characters return to their usual weapons, such as Zhang He's claws, some who were previously cloned will be given entirely new move sets, as for example Ling Tong wielding a three-section staff (ala Hideyoshi Toyotomi of Samurai Warriors fame). The full list of characters whose will receive unique move sets includes Cao Pi, Taishi Ci, Ma Chao and Yue Ying. This last change may be disappointing to fans of Yue Ying and Sun Shang Xiang's cloned DW6 move sets, but will please those who felt the characters were cheapened by the somewhat over-powered archery extravaganzas. Interestingly, the small changes to characters such as Huang Zhong and Xiahou Yuan made in the upcoming PSP title Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce, will not carry over into Empires.

Zhou Yu: famous strategist and hair care spokesman.

With this news, KOEI will soothe enough ruffled feathers so as to be able to dole out the rest of their news in dribs and drabs. While it is suspected that several of the series' earlier characters missing from DW6 will return, only one, Meng Huo, has been officially confirmed - although his weapon has been altered.

Empires is expected to follow a similar gameplay formula to previous titles in the spin-off series, with the return of the popular Edit Mode (create-a-character) confirmed. There is some doubt as to how the special move system of DW6, which bore a striking resemblance to moves previously found only in the spin-offs, will be handled, but KOEI are hinting that the release date has been pushed back due to gameplay adjustments. Since Empires will be the first revision of the new engine introduced in DW6, it is expected (and fervently hoped) that a lot of re-balancing will be going on behind the developer's doors; early screens are showing an unprecedented level of complexity both on and off the battlefield.

All in all, things are looking decidedly more cheerful for Empires' release; currently the North American date is 30th June on both Xbox 360 and PS3, but I'm expecting at least one delay before the Australian release.