Empire Total War

[JudgeDredd]

ORIGINAL: Jim_H
...and not least because Steam "support" took over 2wks to respond to a request for help from me and even then expected me to jump through many hoops to get their help.

Well, sounds like we've all been there [:D]

[Banquet]

ORIGINAL: Jim_H

I can't play a game when Steam decides I MUST download and patch 400Mb worth at their convenience instead of mine

I hear ya

My first experience of Steam was buying Half Life 2 to cheer myself up after a really bad day. I got home, registered with Steam and was forced to download a patch which I think was about 70meg.. I was still on dial-up in those days and so I never got to play the game at all that evening. That's the closest I've ever come to throwing my computer out the window..

[IronDuke_slith]

ORIGINAL: apathetic lurker

Really really despise steam.....But installed it just to see the demo. Not to shabby, ok, really beautiful graphics, but I do not like some of the things i'm hearing about the full game.
Seems CA is slowly but surely sneaking into bed with the pimple-faced Ritalin addled crowd  and leaving the ones who "made" the franchise slowly spinning in the wind looking for thier next strategy fix. Very arcade-ish. Dumbed down management portion. meh....but i still might buy it.

Not sure how the mods are going to work out for this game though, with some "special" units only available in the collectors edition and if they will crash the non collectors or vice-versa because 99% of the modders will have the collectors while the rest have the vanilla version.

So I might end up buying but begging Matrix to release thiers before Empire so I can have no qualms about dropping my money on CoG:EE..After all I can only afford one and still face about 2 months or so before my doctor says I can go back to work......

I think this dumbing down process started with Rome. It simply wasn't playable until someone sorted out the arcade battles. The Maker's business model seems to be to produce something flash to appeal to the console crowd and then allow the modders to make it playable for those wanting something more.

I recall with Rome that everyone thought it was due out one September. All the Computer mags were carrying articles to this effect the previous march, someone had clearly said something. Then closer to to September they announced it was going to be another 12 months if memory serves.

I picked up a nasty rumour somewhere that they had taken the game to some convention in the States and got some excellent feedback (in commercial terms) on the potential but were told it was too complicated for general American tastes. So, they cancelled the release and spent twelve months dumbing it down to increase sales. Anyone else recall this delay and why? I remember a number of very experienced "clan folk" in the forums expressing reservations before it was even released and for a while afterwards.

Except for graphics, I don't really it see it as having come far enough from the original and excellent Shogun. Even the switch from provinces to a more open format was a cop out in my opinion. It hasn't evolved far enough in the non-graphic areas of the game and I look forward to the "Empire: Total realism" mod far more than I do the game.

Regards,
ID

[jagdwolf]

Well having just tried the demo, my biggest question is what the heck is up with the massive loading times for everything? I have a nice high end system, no reason I should be able to go make coffee and come back while a simple demo battle loads. If it is that bad in campaign play, it will be horrible.
 
The game is a bit dumbed down and "arcadey" but it's always that way at release, the question is can the historical modders still make it better?
 

[Phatguy]

Hmm..my system is running towards long in the tooth these days... took a short time to load..you might have something else going on

[hadberz]

It took forever to load on my computer too. My system is high end as well. I imagine its just some weird bug, since all my other games load normal. I notice when you fast forward the battle it gets really choppy, but at normal speed the framerate is fine. The game does look good though.

[Grell]

Thanks JD for the mini review, I'll be purchasing it as well.

Regards,

Grell

[V22 Osprey]

I may get Empire:Total War, but I am not willing to pay 50 bucks for it.

[JudgeDredd]

I thought the load times were excessive too...I'll have to try again, but that's what I recall.

[JudgeDredd]

Two minute load time for the land battle....not that bad I suppose, considering what it's loading
 
There are worse out there (World War One!!)

[moose1999]

I have a pretty mediocre system and the load times weren't that terrible for me...
About 1-2 minutes.

[leastonh1]

LOL! So, the better spec PC you have, the longer it takes to load. Ironic. Is that just because of the textures and mappings you get with a better gfx card and more memory?

[Joram]

I have a decent system and it didn't take too long though it did crash on me once.  Lots of eyecandy but found controlling the units a bit more difficult for some reason.  Just have to get used to it I guess though I really do like the fine tuning controls they have now (turn right, left, forward, back).  Those helped considerably.  I really didn't feel like I had a clue with the naval battle but it was very pretty.  The 'tracer' comment someone had was a bit harsh.  They are very unobtrusive and is a fair enough concession for gameplay so you know that you are firing at what you expect to be firing at.   If you're looking for realism in the naval battle, be prepared for lots of concessions.
 
I was a little surprised to win only a 'close' victory in both the land and naval battle despite in both cases having inflicted more than twice as many casualties.  In the naval battle, didn't even lose a single ship or come close really(though flagship morale wavered because it somehow got set on fire).  Did experience some pathing issues on my side though the AI side seemed improved.  A couple times my cav went into odd drawn out formations.    In the naval battle, I couldn't figure out if there were formations or not but it would be a real shame if there weren't.
 
Will have to withhold judgment until the final product and a patch comes out. 

[Joram]

Oh, and regarding "Steam".  The pre-order box quite clearly states that you will need an internet connection and Steam to activate.  I would presume this means you need the client but I suppose they may have come up with something new.

[leastonh1]

ORIGINAL: Joram
Oh, and regarding "Steam".  The pre-order box quite clearly states that you will need an internet connection and Steam to activate.  I would presume this means you need the client but I suppose they may have come up with something new.

Yes, that does mean you do have to have the Steam client installed, which defeats the object for me. Presumably, it also means patches will only be available via Steam too. Again, I'll forget it and save my money for when Matrix release something shiny and new. [:)]

[Phatguy]

ORIGINAL: Jim_H

ORIGINAL: Joram
Oh, and regarding "Steam".  The pre-order box quite clearly states that you will need an internet connection and Steam to activate.  I would presume this means you need the client but I suppose they may have come up with something new.

Yes, that does mean you do have to have the Steam client installed, which defeats the object for me. Presumably, it also means patches will only be available via Steam too. Again, I'll forget it and save my money for when Matrix release something shiny and new. [:)]

Yeah, I have issues with anything that forces me to patch when it wants, not when I want

[sol_invictus]

ORIGINAL: V22 Osprey

I may get Empire:Total War, but I am not willing to pay 50 bucks for it.

Amazon has it for $40.




Yes, you do need Steam to activate your game and I presume to patch, but you don't need Steam running while you play; after the game has been activated.


Demo was great and the AI was a step up from previous TW games. It does seem from my own experience and reading several forums, that the ones having the most technical problems are those who have higher end systems.

My Specs

Duo 2.4 E6600 4MB cache
2 MB Ram
GeForce 7900 GTX 512MB
XP

A fairly mediocre system. I auto-detected to Ultra settings but went with Trilinear and no Shadows and the game runs great. Once I get the boxed game and activate it, I can turn off Steam, Firewall, and Anti-Virus after I disconnect from the internet, so the game should be able to run that much better without those background programs running.

[Phatguy]

ORIGINAL: Arinvald

ORIGINAL: V22 Osprey

I may get Empire:Total War, but I am not willing to pay 50 bucks for it.

Amazon has it for $40.




Yes, you do need Steam to activate your game and I presume to patch, but you don't need Steam running while you play; after the game has been activated.


Demo was great and the AI was a step up from previous TW games. It does seem from my own experience and reading several forums, that the ones having the most technical problems are those who have higher end systems.

My Specs

Duo 2.4 E6600 4MB cache
2 MB Ram
GeForce 7900 GTX 512MB
XP

A fairly mediocre system. I auto-detected to Ultra settings but went with Trilinear and no Shadows and the game runs great. Once I get the boxed game and activate it, I can turn off Steam, Firewall, and Anti-Virus after I disconnect from the internet, so the game should be able to run that much better without those background programs running.

Sure you can, until everything goes splat when steam and your computer try to contact each other so steam can foist the patch on you when it wants... While I hope it is like you said and we all can disconnect steam, I have a deep dark suspicion that every once in a while Empire will try to call steam to see whats up with a patch and if there is no connection..oops

[JudgeDredd]

Far be it for me to stick up for Steam, but you can right click on your game and select "Do not automatically update this game"...the only downside to this, that I know of, is inconsistent online versions, meaning you will have issues playing against other people (like Team Fortress 2).

So you are NOT locked in to automatically updating games with that 400MB patch...you can switch it off.

And the game will not break if it cannot get a connection. You will be able to play as before.

Thanks alot you guys....making me stick up for steam [:@] [:'(]

[Joram]

LOL JD.  Before you know it, you'll be the Man! 
 
I'm with you though, I have Steam and never had any issues with it since the early days of Vista.  But they patched it up and it's pretty unobtrusive to me.  I'm much more concerned with the gameplay and some of the bugs people have pointed out from the demo than I am about Steam.