I just tried to play the demo, but it was buggy as hell (I think my demo might be corrupt?). It wouldn't load for shit, and the game (audio) started while still loading.
One big criticism of the multiplayer: all players have to be in the same download region (settings->download->download region) to be able to connect. Hopefully this will be changed in a patch, but until it is, it makes matchmaking very annoying.
After spending a good day or so playing around with ETW, I definitely say that I am very disappointed with it for one reason, the enemy AI. One would think that one of the most integral parts of the entire game would receive more than enough attention, but, apparently, CA was more concerned with making the game look pretty over actual content.
After spending a good day or so playing around with ETW, I definitely say that I am very disappointed with it for one reason, the enemy AI. One would think that one of the most integral parts of the entire game would receive more than enough attention, but, apparently, CA was more concerned with making the game look pretty over actual content.
Very disappointing.
What exactly is wrong with the A.I.? Is it to easy? Does it cheat? What?
What exactly is wrong with the A.I.? Is it to easy? Does it cheat? What?
Scott hit he nail on the head, the AI is incredibly inept on both the battle map, where the enemy soldiers just stood still and took it no matter how weak I was, and campaign map, where the nations that surrounded mine tried to trade their most productive cities for my shitiest ones. I can understand their being a few bugs in the initial release, but this goes beyond the acceptable amount and into the realm of "why the hell did you even release this?". Hopefully a patch will come out soon to fix this, otherwise I may just try and get a refund since this game is definitely not worth the money I payed for it.
Scott hit he nail on the head, the AI is incredibly inept on both the battle map, where the enemy soldiers just stood still and took it no matter how weak I was, and campaign map, where the nations that surrounded mine tried to trade their most productive cities for my shitiest ones. I can understand their being a few bugs in the initial release, but this goes beyond the acceptable amount and into the realm of "why the hell did you even release this?". Hopefully a patch will come out soon to fix this, otherwise I may just try and get a refund since this game is definitely not worth the money I payed for it.
I thought the demo was pretty porky. Takes forever to load and start up on a Q6600. Once you are in the game it worked ok, just takes longer than expected to start up. Is the full game that way? In re. the RTS, the impression I got from the demo is that it was really a pseudo RTS in that you're giving orders and the AI tries and figures out what to do, with a bit of lag of war (you give orders and they try and figure out how to do it). It's not a click and instantaneous action type of RTS.
Scott hit he nail on the head, the AI is incredibly inept on both the battle map, where the enemy soldiers just stood still and took it no matter how weak I was, and campaign map, where the nations that surrounded mine tried to trade their most productive cities for my shitiest ones. I can understand their being a few bugs in the initial release, but this goes beyond the acceptable amount and into the realm of "why the hell did you even release this?". Hopefully a patch will come out soon to fix this, otherwise I may just try and get a refund since this game is definitely not worth the money I payed for it.
What difficulty level were you playing it on?
If he's talking about Road to Independence, you can't even change the difficulty.
I'm definitely not impressed with this game now that I've tried it. It's nowhere near the level of polish of even Rome:Total War. Maybe after a few patches it will get better, but at least the bay "loaned" it to me, so I didn't have to waste the money.
Edit: Oh, I forgot, I had to edit the preferences file to even get past medium graphics, even though my 256mb HD 3850 runs the damned thing fine with almost everything on Ultra.
Yeah, the game is seriously undercooked right now. Campaign multiplayer, if and when it is released, along with some serious patching, will save this game.
Also, wtf? Sure, I've been playing this game a lot, but 19 hours a day? That seems unlikely, Steam.
Napoleon Total War comes out next week. I'm definitely going to be picking it up. A few of my friends and I have gotten back into E:TW in preparation. The carnage we have produced is just nauseating (One of our 4 v 4 games had over 11,000 deaths).
As much as I've enjoyed the series up to this point, I can't bring myself to get excited about Napoleon. Not only are they charging their Australian customers $70 USD for a standalone expansion, but Creative Assembly continually promised campaign multiplayer in Empire and still haven't yet delivered. I'm sure Napoleon will be a great game, better than Empire, but I'm not going to pay more than full price for an expansion pack, particularly considering that their track record in supporting their previous games is so poor. I'll wait until the price drops down a significant amount before I even consider a purchase.
Not only are they charging their Australian customers $70 USD for a standalone expansion, but Creative Assembly continually promised campaign multiplayer in Empire and still haven't yet delivered.
For the benefit of Americans, this gets even worse, when you consider that a regular game is even more expensive(though not by much), usually in the $90-$120 dollar range.
I've been playing a few of these games quite a bit lately, and I really can't get into them. It doesn't feel like anything I do in the actual battles matters, and silly little "strategies" like walking a single horseman back and forth in front of the enemy troops (drawing them repeatedly into missile fire from my men) seem to work all too well. I seem to get the same results whether or not I plan my troop movements or just send them all in.
Are these games really worth it? Am I just missing something? I really only care about the battles: the campaign modes just make me want to play Civ IV instead... ^_~
Not only are they charging their Australian customers $70 USD for a standalone expansion, but Creative Assembly continually promised campaign multiplayer in Empire and still haven't yet delivered.
For the benefit of Americans, this gets even worse, when you consider that a regular game is even more expensive, usually in the $90-$120 dollar range.
Yeah, no kidding. The currency differences were a valid excuse a few years ago, but now that the AUD is almost at parity, it's highway robbery.
Steam's pricing has been a great excuse to buy a lot of reasonably priced games, but if this trend of matching Steam prices with local retail prices continues, I'll have to limit myself to the super special deals, which will mean a lot less money for those publishers. I would have thought that all the money Steam has been raking in with its huge sales events would have taught them all a lesson, but apparently not. Vive la price discrimination, apparently.
Yeah, no kidding. The currency differences were a valid excuse a few years ago, but now that the AUD is almost at parity, it's highway robbery.
Testify, brother. Though, It's never been fair for X-box 360 games, at the very least(as before I bought a 360, I'd just pirate all my games, because I was poor and wanted to spend my money on other things) Xbox 360 games have always been around 120-130 for just the straight up game, whereas as best I know, Americans are paying $60 for the same thing. Don't even talk to me about fucking collectors collector's editions. If I wanted to pay an extra 30-40 bucks for a goddamn art-book and a metal case, it'd better be the best goddamn art-book and metal case you've ever heard of.
Plastic Instrument games? Don't even fucking talk to me. DJ hero, $93 bucks new on amazon. Ordering the same game, with the same stuff online in australia? $175 is the best price New I found online in Australia. Brick and mortar? You're looking at anywhere from $190 to $200.
Combine that with the mad censorship and BS lack of imports - back in the days before the internet was massive, I went to the USA, and I was absolutely gobsmacked at the amount of games that America had that we'd NEVER EVEN HEARD OF. Even the gaming press didn't cover them - We really get fucked over for games back home.
Napoleon Total War WILL have multiplayer campaigns out of the box.
I've been playing a few of these games quite a bit lately, and I really can't get into them. It doesn't feel like anything I do in the actual battles matters, and silly little "strategies" like walking a single horseman back and forth in front of the enemy troops (drawing them repeatedly into missile fire from my men) seem to work all too well. I seem to get the same results whether or not I plan my troop movements or just send them all in.
I've only played E:TW, so I'm not sure about the older games, but I've never been able to game the AI like that. Of course, I almost always play just battles against human opponents. I ignored the campaign mode in E:TW, but I'm pretty sure I'll play the multiplayer campaign mode in N:TW.
Time to start getting hyped for Shogun 2 Total War
Despite my grievances with Empire, CA really delivered with Napoleon with excellent changes to the battle AI. It sounds like they are really hammering on the interface work with Shogun 2.
Empire wasn’t perfect, and Creative Assembly know it. As such, this upgrade of the first game couldn’t have come at a better time. Firstly, compared to the huge tracts of history Creative Assembly’s been wrestling with recently, Medieval Japan is a comparatively tidy time period. Secondly, Creative Assembly are getting to look at their game in the context of the brand-free smash hit it once was- when all the mechanics worked almost flawlessly. Thirdly, the team are borrowing a bit of Eastern philosophy. Creative Assembly wants the design of Shogun 2 to be ‘zen’. Shogun 2, then, isn’t going to be a bigger game than previous Total War titles. It’s going to be better.
Also, I've been playing a bunch of Napoleon multiplayer battles recently. Hit me up on Steam if you want to play.
Comments
Very disappointing.
In re. the RTS, the impression I got from the demo is that it was really a pseudo RTS in that you're giving orders and the AI tries and figures out what to do, with a bit of lag of war (you give orders and they try and figure out how to do it). It's not a click and instantaneous action type of RTS.
I'm definitely not impressed with this game now that I've tried it. It's nowhere near the level of polish of even Rome:Total War. Maybe after a few patches it will get better, but at least the bay "loaned" it to me, so I didn't have to waste the money.
Edit: Oh, I forgot, I had to edit the preferences file to even get past medium graphics, even though my 256mb HD 3850 runs the damned thing fine with almost everything on Ultra.
Also, wtf?
Sure, I've been playing this game a lot, but 19 hours a day? That seems unlikely, Steam.
Are these games really worth it? Am I just missing something? I really only care about the battles: the campaign modes just make me want to play Civ IV instead... ^_~
Steam's pricing has been a great excuse to buy a lot of reasonably priced games, but if this trend of matching Steam prices with local retail prices continues, I'll have to limit myself to the super special deals, which will mean a lot less money for those publishers. I would have thought that all the money Steam has been raking in with its huge sales events would have taught them all a lesson, but apparently not. Vive la price discrimination, apparently.
Plastic Instrument games? Don't even fucking talk to me. DJ hero, $93 bucks new on amazon. Ordering the same game, with the same stuff online in australia? $175 is the best price New I found online in Australia. Brick and mortar? You're looking at anywhere from $190 to $200.
Combine that with the mad censorship and BS lack of imports - back in the days before the internet was massive, I went to the USA, and I was absolutely gobsmacked at the amount of games that America had that we'd NEVER EVEN HEARD OF. Even the gaming press didn't cover them - We really get fucked over for games back home.
Despite my grievances with Empire, CA really delivered with Napoleon with excellent changes to the battle AI. It sounds like they are really hammering on the interface work with Shogun 2. Also, I've been playing a bunch of Napoleon multiplayer battles recently. Hit me up on Steam if you want to play.