There go my holidays.

Well, here's a turn up for the books. You know all those announcements of thrifty, comprehensive games collections that are being released in every territory except Australia? They can go jump! Sega Australia are obviously attempting to keep us locked in our homes for ever and ever and ever by releasing a new Total War boxed anthology containing five games as well as some interesting additional content. The best bit? It's exclusive to Oz! Well, and New Zealand. I guess.

Inside the enormous box you'll find Medieval, Medieval II, Shogun and Rome. Each of these classics is represented by their Gold version, meaning you nab yourself a large slice of the available expansions and updates in one go.

If you were keeping a tally, you'll notice we're missing the promised fifth title, which I will now reveal to be the Special Forces Edition of Empire, which from what I hear, is very nearly playable (Hurrah!) and comes with a great big paper map on which to, I don't know, move markers around with your pointer.

The pack seems like an excellent opportunity to discover a respected franchise if you've never dipped your strategic toes into its various pools, and might even be a worthwhile purchase even if you have one or two of the individual releases. What really puts the cherry on (or maybe makes you want to stab yourself in the eye as you reach for your wallet again) is the promise of exclusive content for the upcoming Napoleon: Total War.

Apparently the pack will include collectibles like a letter from Napoleon to his generals, a map of the battle of Waterloo and half a dozen character cards, but there's no word yet on what the "exclusive content" will entail, which is a shame since I'm sure it's going to be the deciding factor for hardcore fans. Hopefully we'll manage to grab further information and an idea of the RRP over the coming weeks.

The anthology releases on October 1st, and the sheer amount of gameplay included will probably last long enough to provide a welcome distraction while hiding from family events over the holiday season.