Empire: Total War

By Tom Bramwell Published 3 March, 2009

Your Creative Assembly live chat in full.

Empire: Total War

by Mugwum Mugwum

03/03/09 15:00

Your Creative Assembly live chat in full.

PC
Empire: Total War PC
Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (33) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Rudovich #1 3 years ago

    will the loading times in the real game be a little faster, though I don't mind slow, I can wait for a game like this :)

  • El_Draque #2 3 years ago

    " without you having to refresh the page OR ANYTHING"

    Lies! I had it in open window for last 10 minutes without a single new post. :)
    Using Safari.

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #3 3 years ago

    Wow, he answered my question about "dodgy" facets of history! A really good answer, too - didn't realise they touched on slavery like that in Empire. It's a very sensitive and intelligent way of dealing with it, I'd say (although I guess Civ handles it a similar way).

    Bravo Creative Assembly.

  • hiddenranbir #4 3 years ago

    No fair, you got two questions through :(

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #5 3 years ago

    @hiddenranbir
    Yeah, pretty cool... I asked about five questions! I asked one about doing a WWI-themed Total War, was hoping they'd answer that in the affirmative :-)

  • rsslcs #6 3 years ago

    10 questions, no answers boohooooooo Do you have to wait a while?

  • hula hoops #7 3 years ago

    Why would you make the game a Steam exclusive knowing that lots of players avoid Steam like the plague?

    My interest in this game just leaped down the window and splattered all over the pavement. STEAM sucks balls! Jesus, why can't these people see this.

  • Erinan #8 3 years ago

    No, it doesn't (unless you refer to the Steam from four years ago).

    I want to go home and download the game :(

    Thanks for the interview!

  • HermitArcader #9 3 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:17:39 22-12-2011

  • hiddenranbir #10 3 years ago

    Steam isn't the issue. That being the only provider is. It has severely limited my choice as a customer, which is exactly what helps promote fairness.

    Shame my questions didn't get through, but oh well. Still found out some nice things.

    Still a bit iffy on the special forces edition. What is it to stop a normal version owner to just get those units in a mod? I'm pretty sure that'll be one of the first mods to be released.
    Edited by 1 at 03/03/09 @ 17:38

  • sneetch #11 3 years ago

    I will buy a UK TV licence just to watch a new series of Time Commanders using this game/engine, the ancient battles Time Commander was excellent but this would be even better. The Napoleonic wars alone would provide enough content for a season or two.

    And Steam is fine. Just don't buy it over Steam or anything crazy like that, get a hard copy from the shops/online and you'll save yourself a few quid.

  • sneetch #12 3 years ago

    @hiddenranbir
    Steam isn't the issue. That being the only provider is. It has severely limited my choice as a customer, which is exactly what helps promote fairness.

    It's not the only provider. I don't know where that came from, it's not exclusive to Steam as you can buy it in the shops.

    [link url=http://www.play.com/Games/PC/4-/3623155/Emp ire-Total-War/Product.html
    ]http://ww w.play.com/Games/PC/4-/3623155/...[/link]
    [link url=http://www.game.co.uk/PC/Strategy/RealTime/ ~r333586/Empire-Total-War/
    ]http://ww w.game.co.uk/PC/Strategy/RealTi...[/link]

    http://ww w.amazon.co.uk/Empire-Total-War... The cheapest I've seen (if you're in the UK)

  • hiddenranbir #13 3 years ago

    I meant the services, locked in Steamworks - which MUST be used through Steam.

  • sneetch #14 3 years ago

    @hiddenranbir
    I meant the services, locked in Steamworks - which MUST be used through Steam.

    Erm... I don't understand... surely every game only uses one service of this type (matchmaking etc)? How has it limited your choices?

    If they'd, for example, gone with Battle-Net (yeah, I know, damn near impossible) or Gamespy (god forbid) for their online services then would you be any more or any less limited in your choices? (At least Steam offers decent in-built voice comms and doesn't require half the ports to be opened on your firewall, bloody POS Gamespy).

    That said, I've noticed an increasing number of Games for Windows Live games that require Steam... what are the odds on a big announcement from Valve and MS in the next few months? ;)
    Edited by 2 at 03/03/09 @ 18:38

  • Olemak #15 3 years ago

    Too bad I did not have time to submit a question.... I would like to know if there are any plans for a Viking: Battle for Midgard sequel. The game was good fun, although flawed and tiresome in places. I certainly see a potential for a polished follow-up to it.

  • ASHBERY76 #16 3 years ago

    The commies did not post my question. :(

  • GreatUncleBaal #17 3 years ago

    Shame about being unable to preload the game - interesting since the purchase page on steam that pops up when you exit the demo says something like "play the moment it's released" - which you clearly can't do.
    I wonder if Steam have cost themselves a few sales with this - people might pay the higher digital download price if they can have the thing preloaded and ready to play on release day, but realistically if someone bought it now it would take all night to download, so they might as well pick up a hard copy for less.

  • makeamazing #18 3 years ago

    Mine came in to Blockbuster last week, but I wasnt allowed to have it :D... not sure I have time to play this this weekend....really looking forward to this..

  • grantc7 #19 3 years ago

    Lovefilm is selling for around the £23 mark. Around the £21 mark if you use the discount code MARCH10. Just ordered mine there now.

  • EzyRyder #20 3 years ago

    Dont forget Quidco, it is an extra 4% off :)

  • matrim83 #21 3 years ago

    Good stuff, enjoyed reading that.

    Its on my must buy list.

  • ShiroBen #22 3 years ago

    I thought this was a concept review at first glance. I miss concept reviews.

  • CrusaderJEA #23 3 years ago

    I hated the question about the sequal to the console game... Dont give CA any ideas for console games... console games by CA are just a waste of time (no offence) dont wasted the CA's time, its better if they keep making awesome PC titles such as rome or empire... consoles are a waste of time for RTS

  • Olemak #24 3 years ago

    CountFapula: thanks for pointing out the thing with Viking, I completely missed it when I skimmed through the interview.

  • NorfolkNClue #25 3 years ago

    MrZ - I agree with you. Steam is rather good, except it is a little bit more expensive sometimes. That said, it' is great. It was awful when it first started, but it's stable and fast now. What's not to like?

  • EzyRyder #26 3 years ago

    I like Steam, its only real cons imo are the fact that you can not sell your games 2nd hand and that if you buy the game through Steam it is usually more expensive. That aside I think it is a great service, fantastic online gaming community, stable, solves piracy problem and I don't need the CD. it is also very convenient as I don't need the CDs to reinstall and makes patching games a doddle.

  • autogunner #27 3 years ago

    steam is almost the perfect gaming platform now you haters, it just needs more competitive pricing and and a higher server stess limit. the in game chat and online matchmaking is flawless compared to GFWL and the copy protection is minimalist and does not even require you going online everytime you want to play one of your games.

    I really do not see the problem

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #28 3 years ago

    @ Mr Z & Norkolk

    Agree entirely. Steam is the best thing about PC gaming, and I'm one of those who likes to physically own games, too. I know some people had problems when it launched (I remember HL2 taking about two hours to install!) but right now I think it's the business.

    BTW: if I buy Empire in a shop, does it still authenticate with Steam? So, will I have benefits such as not needing the CD, etc?

  • hiddenranbir #29 3 years ago

    steam is almost the perfect gaming platform now you haters, it just needs more competitive pricing

    It will only have competitive pricing if it has competition. Thankfully retail isn't quite dead yet - although we need more in the area of services and less restrictions.

  • Randell #30 3 years ago

    @Britesparc

    Yes, you install from DVD then load via steam without needing disks.

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #31 3 years ago

    @Randell

    Cheers, sounds good!

  • Obli #32 3 years ago

    Creative Assembly: You know the PS3 has mouse and keyboard support? What about using the mLani MoBi? I'd love to see Total War games on the PS3!

  • EzyRyder #33 3 years ago

    The PS3 hasn't got enough memory to deal with the sheer amount of units.