Empire: Total War Comments by Kieron Gillen

I'll stick with Medieval II because I prefer the period, but I am awfully tempted to get this and make myself an epic fleet to defend this great island!

I've just never been able to get into the Total War games. Maybe I just lack the patience? Or, more likely, I'm just too thick.

However, I've bought every once since Medieval and will buy this one as well. The reasoning behind my purchases is that I respect the games and the team behind them enough to want to support the devs, even though I just can't "get it". I believe that games like these just need to be made, and my few purchases will somehow help to ensure that they continue to do so.

The above just highlights how thick I actually am ;)

I should get with when I have the time to play it

"My favourite historical error is that they've put Glasgow on the west coast of Scotland. It's for game balance reasons, apparently."

That is absurd. Its not like the west coast of Scotland has no towns that could have suficed.

I mean, what about the great city-hamlets of Troon or Doonfoot? EH?

/closes google maps

Tempted to check M2...

Will defiantely have to upgrade my PC to play this.

100% buying this , its a game that is actually difficult to beat. a real challange , breathtaking & beutiful.

Why does this review not show a single regular screenshot? I hate it when you guys illustrate articles only with canned press shots. You know, it wouldn't have been too bad to get an idea of the actual interface of the game.

Just waiting for me pre-order to arrive. FOR QUEEN AND COUNTRY!

I tried the demo on Steam last week and this is the first time I've tried one of these kinds of games on the PC. It's not too bad although it's perhaps a bit too tactical and deep for me to appreciate properly. I found the sea battles visually spectacular but understandably slow and plodding compared with the land based ones. The scale of the land battles were daunting and I didn't have a clue how to approach the game at all despite the inclusion of a tutorial. I ended up sending all my troops to the enemy and got wiped out within minutes. Very demoralising!

Runs brilliantly and looks fantastic on my PC but I'm not sure it's the kind of thing I could play for long. The era the game is set in isn't an interesting one for me, if I was playing one of these games I'd prefer Greek, Egyptian or Roman as guns and cannons make the game too modern and not as interesting as one set in ancient times. I'm, thus, tempted to try one of the older Total War games at some point.

I am so going to play this. Waiting for my pre-order to arrive!

I can't speak for the whole of Scotland, but most of us consider Glasgow to be "West coast". Take a look at Google Maps - most of those places to the West of Glasgow are generally considered to be in the Glasgow area (apart from the people living there who probably take great offense to the insinuation that they are part of Glasgow).

It's like London being that massive sprawling area in England's South-West, as opposed to the bit that's actually the City of London.

Glasgow has had a bustling port for many many decades, and the Clyde isn't that far in from the coast, so it's West coast.

Love this series, will love this game, just have to set aside some time to play it now :(

3 things:

1) Did you know you can move your defenders (and attackers) before the battle first unpauses, so you should be able to man cannon in plenty of time?
2)When are they going to bring back the hilarious TV series that used the Total War engine on a big screen?
3) At what point will the Total War series intersect and then surpass the present day, and start accurately predicting the future?

@rotm and Darren

Guys, if you have a bit of time, do try. The Total War games are daunting for someone who doesn't have experience with this kind of massively complex PC game, but, like all the best of its kind (the Civilization series, for instance), it has a lot of elements that help you understand what's going on and help you learn. They are not obscure, like the Paradox games for instance. And there is a community where you can find guides and advice.

Once it starts rolling, the game is absolutely fascinating and amazing in it's sheer scale. I was never a fan of Shogun, for some reason, and only moderately liked the first Medieval, but starting with Rome I became a big fan.

Total War games, along with Civ, have a special shrine in my house, at which I worship them.

This period is also fascinating to me, and so I'd love this.

Shame my PC won't run it. What're the min specs?

I suppose Greater Glasgow could be classified as every little bit surrounding Glasgow ie; Dumbarton, Port Glasgow etc. Effectively it's the same size idea as London.

As for the whole west coast thing, we are on the west coast...if they're meaning they've Glasgow on the edge say where Ayr is, then that's a big error. Would need to see the campaign map.

Been waiting since Shogun for them to make this game, sold.

I wish I had a PC (a proper one that can play games after the Pac-Man era I mean), I'll have to wait but I will own this game one day though.

Can I be picky and pretentious for a moment? It's not a representation of Tolstoy-style War. No strategy game could be. The whole point of the battle-bits of War and Peace is that Tolstoy considers it total chaos, that the orders and strategies of the commanders have no effect whatosever on the course of the battle, which will be determined by completely random coincidences. Which makes for good literature but bad gaming.

So you're saying Tolstoy foresaw Total War software bugs? That's pretty rad.

Interesting, but dissapointing about the siege AI still sucking. It's funny, I think I'm gonna end up buying this AND Dawn of War II - two games which really couldn't be more differently from one another strategically.

It doesn't surprise me about the siege AI. It must be incredibly difficult to program if you think about it, hey ho, previous total war titles always have patches that solved a good amount of issues. Lets hope they focus on that :)

Looking forward to DS version.

What kind of Ninja PC does this game need ???.

total war games are by far the best value for money... endless hours of replay and long drawn out campaigns... compulsory purchase for me.

The only problem with total war games is the steep hardware requirements to get the best out of the game presentation wise.. cest la vie.

Definite purchase for me. Have the load times been improved from the demo in the final version - it's no deal breaker, but the current lengthy loads will seriously increase my tea intake over the course of a grand campaign!

The only thing that intrigues me about this game is how the man in the eurogamer feature picture of this article... managed to stretch his mouth so wide.

"Total War games, along with Civ, have a special shrine in my house, at which I worship them."

lol +1

I remember once in Rome: TW, I was outnumbered by an insane amount of barbarians, but, through deft use of tactics, I crushed them with minimal loss.

One of the best gameplay moments ever.

/wants new PC

Are the jump kicks from the previous game still in this one?

@Feanor
Why yes, jump kicks are in, as well as assault rifles and evil megacorporations. I hear that if you zoom in on the cities after war you can see alma of fear 2 fame lurking in there also.
Hehe.

@ Darren -

It might be worth trying anyway - I love the Total War games, and after the initial few hours, I very rarely play the battles at all, as I largely suck at them. I just love tooling around the campaign map. Pick up Rome Total War, it'll probably cost you a fiver, and it's chock full of awesome.

My favourite Total War moment - in Medieval 2, having conquered the Iberian Peninsular, I see one final Rebel stronghold. Tiny little place, so I shrug and attack it with my somewhat battered and weary armies. Out comes El Cid and his enormous army of ravening psychopaths, who slaughter my forces almost to the man.

I forgot to ask: does anyone know if the campaign diplomacy has been changed in any way? I ask because I've always found the diplomacy in the TW series to be less than adequate, never really giving the player feedback as to how other factions regard you.

They say it has been reworked and I think in this era it will naturally be more than a second thought.

the thing i love about this game are the war stories. everyone has a different experience

Don't have much to add except "Hurrah" etc.

For some reason, it seems to have gone on sale early here in Germany (namely today), but amazon will probably not send out my "special forces" pre-order earlier than next Wednesday. Meh!

Woo! perfect timing, new puter arrives a week today :)

MOIST!

The game is awesome and so big it going to take ages to get to grips with. althou the loading times are also very long even on a quad core PC but its a small issue for such a great game. Does anybodyknow if when you reach the turn limit you will be able to carry on like in Medievil 2?

I can't wait ! :D

Aw man, wednesday seems so far away; it's like waiting for christmas.

I knew making that Glasgow gag in a caption without further elaboration would be a bad idea.

KG

I dont understand the Glasgow comment. You do realise it IS on the West coast? Or am I missing some hilarious joke and have just made a fool of myself? :(

It's not ON the coast though, which is what I was trying to get at. Not very well.

KG

Great thing about Total War games is that they don't try to take sides, also they are educational i.e important discoveries/scientific inventions are highlighted as you traverse through the time line and you also learn where important geographical locations are in the world (except for Glasgow!). Looking forward to playing this once I upgrade hopefully soon.

I will probably buy this when the price drops. I'm a big fan of the series.
Don't think I've finished with Med 2 yet.

Fuck this, Hell's Kitchen is out on Wii.

i've just replaced my old core 2 duo with an q6600, good timing. Does this game use a quad CPU to the fullest or not at all?