Empire Total War

[Lützow]

The KI is dumb as hell and can't even transport units over sea. I won every battle on campaign map by moving 2 full stacks of line infantry close together. For the strategic part you simply have to wait for KI dow's in order to annex them one by one and after a while you get so much money every turn that's impossible to lose anymore.

This game would not only need a KI patch but severe balancing as well. In it's current state it has no longtime retention and due to the Steam thing you can't sell on Ebay afterwards. Anyway, if somebody wants to buy a Steam account with Half Life II and Empire for like € 30,-, just drop me a pm.

[JudgeDredd]

ORIGINAL: Tactics
...Seriously? You're working on AE, right? [&:]

LMAO...[:'(]

[cdbeck]

ORIGINAL: Tactics

If you lust for it, get it, but it's bug ridden and as noted above - Way too easy right now.  Here is some wonky clipping. Which wouldnt be too terrible, but it was during a boarding fight....except both parties just stared at each other for abuot 10 min....while clipping and not fighting.

In land battles I've had AI stand with their backs to my forces and not move, even while I shoot them down. AI cannons (theirs and mine) regularly shoot their own citybuildings and fort walls. Routed units also have the tendency to just move to the maps edge and wait to be slaughtered rather than actually exit.  Too much to name really. Hopefully a patch this week.



I'd follow up more, but until we see that patch for CCMT to remove the 1 + year old skid while prone bug...lets just let it go and stay on topic.

For every screenshot you post like this, I can post 5-10 of the ships actually coming together with a rather impressive boarding fight, lines shooting across, people fighting, and cannon exchange. Games like this are likely to have some clipping issues (real time strategy or FPS). I haven't found the game to be "easy," although I haven't put much into the grand campaign yet (been playing Road to Independence). I know there is a trade bug, but I can't figure out what it effects (it must be mostly under the hood).

So lets not get melodramatic here - one screenshot of poor clipping belies hundreds of battles working properly, and exciting land and sea combat. Obviously, there are differences in this game and CoG:EE as far as mechanics go, and so you aren't going to see the same level of historical detail in E:TW as you are in CoG (but that does not mean that one isn't as complicated or offer the same grand strategy-style options as the other).

I also didn't find the Steam release to be overly annoying. Meh, no worse than an MMORPG launch anyway. I had the game the day after it released, pretty much in the morning, and I was able to access it fine. Some people had worse time with the release, and I understand the frustration of people who bought the physical box only to find out that they were going to have issues as well (well, serves them right for lording over those of us forced to do the digital method [8D]). Even Matrix has had problems on release days, I distinctly remember certain releases where the store got turned on early, downloads were getting corrupted, or immediate patching was required to get games to work with certain people's systems.

SoM

[Scott_WAR]

Uh, doesnt matter if it works right 90% of the time. That 10% of the time ruins games.

[Terminus]

ORIGINAL: Tactics

One was a real patch, the second was a patch to fix what steam broke. Some game clients got updated with a different language, like French updated with English - The second patch fixed it. So you actually only got 1 patch. It's all very documented. Visit the CA forums or TW Center.

Do my impressions vary from yours? You find the AI to be challenging, money to not rain from the sky, no memory leaks, every countries 'line infantry' has the same stats (as in English Infantry not better than France) you don't notice that stuff? Seriously? You're working on AE, right? [&:]

No, the AI isn't particularly challenging, money is too easy to come by, there are memory leaks and so forth. Never said this wasn't true.

However, given that this is a GAME, and said GAME allows the player to research improvements to the units within the GAME, I have no problem with my Austrian line infantry being better than everybody else's. I paid my research points; if they couldn't be made better, what would be the point of playing any of the countries available in the game?

Lighten up, for heaven's sake. Empire was never marketed as a grognard's game, and neither were any of the other games in the TW series. If you expect it to act like one, then you're the one with a serious problem.

[Terminus]

ORIGINAL: Scott_WAR

Uh, doesnt matter if it works right 90% of the time. That 10% of the time ruins games.

It works right far more than 90% of the time...

[V22 Osprey]

So does E:TW suck or not.....I just got my Nvidia Geforce GTX 295 and I want to know if its good.Too many mixed reactions to decide.I want a good game to test out my brand spank'in new grahpics card.[:D]

[Joram]

Which is why I said 'it depends'.  If you want a lite game with gorgeous eye candy, epic scope, and plenty of things to occupy you with the building management, the naval side, the tactical game and the diplomacy, then you'd probably like the game. 
 
If you're looking for a historical reenactment of the time with realistic situations and battles then you will be disappointed.  The historical veracity is a common complaint in the whole series to be fair but I don't think this game in any way has improved over MTW2 in that respect. 
 
My biggest issue personally is that the tactical battles has been turned into a pretty arcade game.  In fact, in past series there was an arcade mode and that is what it feels like it is stuck on, to me now.  I actually am getting more enjoyment out of not fighting most of the tactical battles and just concentrating on the strategic side.  I do occasionally do a tactical battle when there is a result I want to guarantee (as it's very hard to lose a battle if you manage it personally) but for the most part forgo them now.
 
So, again, it depends what you are looking for.  I think fans of the series will still enjoy it if you keep your expectations down to this being just a further evolution of the game, not a revolution.  To amalgamate and paraphrase several points of views, it can be fun to just beat up on the AI and the game looks gorgeous doing it too.

[Lützow]

ORIGINAL: V22 Osprey

So does E:TW suck or not.....I just got my Nvidia Geforce GTX 295 and I want to know if its good.Too many mixed reactions to decide.I want a good game to test out my brand spank'in new grahpics card.[:D]

If you're looking for a fun but short ride, go for it. Empire is by no means a 'bad' game, there are many improments in comparison to previous TW titles and some eye candy as well. However, once you figured out how the KI works, all the chrome evaporates and the gameplay becomes dull.

[Titanwarrior89]

I would have to agree with Lutzos and Joram. I think overall they hit the nail on the head. EU2 will give you more history and it's ahistorical[:D]

ORIGINAL: Lützow

ORIGINAL: V22 Osprey

So does E:TW suck or not.....I just got my Nvidia Geforce GTX 295 and I want to know if its good.Too many mixed reactions to decide.I want a good game to test out my brand spank'in new grahpics card.[:D]

If you're looking for a fun but short ride, go for it. Empire is by no means a 'bad' game, there are many improments in comparison to previous TW titles and some eye candy as well. However, once you figured out how the KI works, all the chrome evaporates and the gameplay becomes dull.

[Terminus]

But, if you're looking for a fun, good-looking, light game, then this is a good choice.

[IronWarrior]

Any game that relegates Napoleon to a possible expansion pack automatically gets a thumbs down from me. [:D]

The review (an actual fair and sensible one) that keeps getting censored on the TW forum:

http://www.crispygamer.com/gamereviews/ ... ar-pc.aspx

[FirstPappy]

This four minute clip on You Tube is hilarious. Someone took the movie Downfall and added subtitles. Whether or not you are pro or con Steam, you will enjoy this if you are a wargamer. It's titled, "Hitler curses creative assembly for making Empire: Total war a STEAM only release!"


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjnc4jqWa_w

[Terminus]

ORIGINAL: IronWarrior

Any game that relegates Napoleon to a possible expansion pack automatically gets a thumbs down from me. [:D]

The review (an actual fair and sensible one) that keeps getting censored on the TW forum:

http://www.crispygamer.com/gamereviews/ ... ar-pc.aspx

Erm, why would Napoleon be in a pre-Napoleonic era game?

[Terminus]

ORIGINAL: Pappy

This four minute clip on You Tube is hilarious. Someone took the movie Downfall and added subtitles. Whether or not you are pro or con Steam, you will enjoy this if you are a wargamer. It's titled, "Hitler curses creative assembly for making Empire: Total war a STEAM only release!"


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjnc4jqWa_w

Man, he should have run those subtitles through a spell-checker first...[X(]

[Yogi the Great]

I almost purchased the game yesterday.  I have the other games in the series and enjoy playing them now and then.  No indication on the box front of any "problem" but LUCKILY I turned it over an happened to notice in small print that activation via internet was required.  Then in even smaller print the information on the need to install and accept steam contract.  That was the end of that, so no new game for me, at least not yet.  I wonder though how many buy the game and find out later about it.  Loved the warning, go to steam and read etc, and if you don't accept return the game unopened.  I have a feeling that a number of folks don't find out about the issue until after they have already opened it.  Seems to me that games should be required to clearly in reasonably large print post right on the box front that such things are required.  I noted a few other games that do just that.
 
Any word on when/if they may issue this game the way they should without the need for internet dowloads, steam etc?

[Yogi the Great]

ORIGINAL: Terminus

ORIGINAL: Pappy

This four minute clip on You Tube is hilarious. Someone took the movie Downfall and added subtitles. Whether or not you are pro or con Steam, you will enjoy this if you are a wargamer. It's titled, "Hitler curses creative assembly for making Empire: Total war a STEAM only release!"


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjnc4jqWa_w

Man, he should have run those subtitles through a spell-checker first...[X(]

Sad part is, that was pretty much my reaction too! [:D]

[Terminus]

ORIGINAL: Yogi the Great

I almost purchased the game yesterday.  I have the other games in the series and enjoy playing them now and then.  No indication on the box front of any "problem" but LUCKILY I turned it over an happened to notice in small print that activation via internet was required.  Then in even smaller print the information on the need to install and accept steam contract.  That was the end of that, so no new game for me, at least not yet.  I wonder though how many buy the game and find out later about it.  Loved the warning, go to steam and read etc, and if you don't accept return the game unopened.  I have a feeling that a number of folks don't find out about the issue until after they have already opened it.  Seems to me that games should be required to clearly in reasonably large print post right on the box front that such things are required.  I noted a few other games that do just that.

Any word on when/if they may issue this game the way they should without the need for internet dowloads, steam etc?

Never. Why would they?

[Greybriar]

ORIGINAL: Terminus

ORIGINAL: Yogi the Great

....Any word on when/if they may issue this game the way they should without the need for internet dowloads, steam etc?

Never. Why would they?

So those with 56k modems or *gasp* no internet access at all can play and enjoy the game, perhaps?

[Titanwarrior89]

They closed that out ASAP! on their forums. People are really frustrated with the game. Getting alittle overboard. Plus they permanently band the guy.[:)]

ORIGINAL: Yogi the Great

ORIGINAL: Terminus

ORIGINAL: Pappy

This four minute clip on You Tube is hilarious. Someone took the movie Downfall and added subtitles. Whether or not you are pro or con Steam, you will enjoy this if you are a wargamer. It's titled, "Hitler curses creative assembly for making Empire: Total war a STEAM only release!"


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjnc4jqWa_w

Man, he should have run those subtitles through a spell-checker first...[X(]

Sad part is, that was pretty much my reaction too! [:D]