Eurogamer on Empire: Total War

[Jason]

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<p>Eurogamer is the next site to <a href="http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=242108" target="_blank">preview</a> Creative Assembly's upcoming <strong><a href="http://www.sega.com/empire/?t=EnglishUSA" target="_blank">Empire: Total War</a></strong>.</p><blockquote><p>Riflemen and snipers can be garrisoned or hide behind cover for the first time in the series, and there are all sorts of period tactics employed by your opposing numbers and factions. Take storming a city, as you want to settle there and increase your empire. If the defenders decide to garrison in the many houses then your advancement will be slow and bloody. Add to this a heavy downpour and terrain mashed into mud and your advance becomes even more treacherous. And morale in Empire is more prevalent than ever; men will lose belief in many more stages before fleeing, but flee they will if you make foolhardy decisions to embark on a Russian campaign in mid-Winter, or stomp into the tropics during monsoon season. Historic events such as the French Revolution will also play out around you. These are not set in stone, but rather will be triggered if the conditions are right, so history can be altered. In total there are 12 playable factions at launch, with 50 out there to encounter.
</p></blockquote><p>Spotted @ <a href="http://www.eurogamer.net/index.php">Eurogamer</a></p>

 

[Fez]

Sounds like they are taking inspiration from Paradox. I have doubts in their abilities to realise it properly nowadays though.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Not with that fanbase and big money behind them. But at least they promise things that lead in the right direction, and I might buy it just to have something that makes use of my new pc.

RTW was fun for a while, too, especially when I played the Armenian faction, but could never gave me back that STW feeling.

 

[Fez]

You could get some of the demo scene offerings or benchmarking software instead.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Well, you know what I mean, while I am disillusioned it's still a much better game than most RTS / strategy offerings these days.

 

[Burning Bridges]

The battle AI itself has also been completely rewritten, and now reacts in a plan-based rather than state-based way, which prevents predicting that the computer will do A if attacked with B. Plus, these decisions adapt to suit the overall battle plan, which in turn is bossed by the overarching campaign plan.

translation = gameplay will be even more chaotic than ever which creates the illusion of artificial intelligence.

Even the generals have unique personalities that set them apart.

This is so not new.

 

[Fez]

Well, you know what I mean, while I am disillusioned it's still a much better game than most RTS / strategy offerings these days.

Have you played it?

The battle AI itself has also been completely rewritten, and now reacts in a plan-based rather than state-based way, which prevents predicting that the computer will do A if attacked with B. Plus, these decisions adapt to suit the overall battle plan, which in turn is bossed by the overarching campaign plan.

translation = gameplay will be even more chaotic than ever which creates the illusion of artificial intelligence.

Even the generals have unique personalities that set them apart.

This is so not new.

Perhaps you should rethink your claim on how superior a game it is.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Have you played it?

Having played all previous ones I know enough about the series to make a little prediction.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Perhaps you should rethink your claim on how superior a game it is.

which game?

 

[Fez]

My prediction is that it will stink, just like Rome did and MTW2 did before it. There is no reason to expect anything else.

Perhaps you should rethink your claim on how superior a game it is.

which game?

The game we were talking about. The one in the topic and that post before you edited in the bit about RTW after I posted. RTW was garbage too though.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Perhaps you should rethink your claim on how superior a game it is.

I never said it was superior. Maybe you should rethink what the word superior means. Or why you're turning this into a pissing contest.

 

[Fez]

What?

 

[Trash]

The interview gives me hope, just like all the interviews and previews for the previous games did. Than I finally get the game and see how awesome it could and even should be. Unfortunately it's always marred by being unfinished, full of bugs and bloated features nobody needs. Give me medieval 1 with it's attention to detail and atmosphere with the medieval 2 battle engine and I'll be a happy camper.

Untill that day I'll just have my enthousiasm crushed with every new TW game.

 

[Monocause]

RTW was quite good with Total Realism or Europa Barbarorum on top of it. Probably it will be the same thing with ETW - I'll wait for some good mods before toying with it.
I wonder what arcani-like troops will CA put in this time "to make the game more interesting". Any guesses? Maybe the French will have Jacobines with a special guillotine sword, extremely deadly in melee. Or mobile guillotines for battlefield usage.
Maybe Habsburgs will have special multi-national regiments, which will effectively lower morale of enemy forces but will have the same effect on yours, also with the ability to plunder efficiently.

I can't quite understand why many game developers insist so on putting the US in games with historical background as a major player. In the XVIIIth century the colonies were very far from being a major power, economically, militarily and especially politically.
Guess in ETW it's more sensible than in Civilization series though, where you can play Americans as a nation and guide them from 4000 BC ;> I know that historical accuracy isn't too important in Civ, but that's a bit of an exaggeration.

 

[deshields538]

I'll admit that M2TW wasn't good at all but Rome? I thought it was great especially with mods like EB and RTR. I still play EB now actually.

Although one of the reasons I loved it is because it was my first TW game and it was set in my favourite period of history.

I'm really looking forward to Empire but I just hope they don't release it full of bugs like with Medieval 2.

 

[Burning Bridges]

It's not the bugs that worry me, but the shallow nature of it's content and my age in comparison to the average fan.

 

[KazikluBey]

I said this about the article at another forum:

I can't see them mentioning anywhere where they got the information from. That bit about the AI, for example, would require some extensive playing to really verify. All in all, I thought it read more like something a PR person would write (or like a fanboy parroting his favorite company's PR manager) than an independent journalist's take on the current state of the game during this stage of its development.

 

[LCJr.]

Don't forget before MTW2 they were talking about how much they had improved the battlefield AI.

 

[JarlFrank]

I'll probably still buy it and have fun with it. I had fun with all of the Total War games, even though the AI has become really incapable in the more recent games, and even though the historical correctness is fucked in the ass and gangraped by a horde of burning pigs. There's just something about the games that is awesome, and then there's the mods.

 

[Annonchinil]

As the graphics got better and the reviews higher I felt that the game became worse. They should go back to the days of Shogun and Medieval and re-think it.

 

[Burning Bridges]

I've pondered about this oh-so-many times. They wont.

 

[Fez]

Considering the love of all things Japanese with many a weeabo out there a Shogun: Total War sequel in the vein of MTW2 and Rome could be possible.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Or maybe Ran No Jidai gets finished in our lifetime:

link

 

[Fez]

Do you think it is likely to ever get finished or is it doomed to linger in developer hell?

I can't say I've had much joy with the mod scene for the series.

 

[Burning Bridges]

It's been in development for way too long and the makers stick to when it's done.

My feeling is that it will be released, but so late that no one will want to play it anymore. There probably won't even be a patch after version 1.0. Look into the forum for the Crusades mod for RTW. Only a couple of hundred hits after the release, though it was excellent.

I also don't care that much for mods anymore, not only in respect to TW. Exceptions are of course mods which are available or close to release.