Empire Total War

[JudgeDredd]

Just played the demo (comes with a naval battle English v French and a British vs US forces land battle).

Looks absolutely gorgeous. Ran flawlessly on my
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.33 Quad, 4GB, 8800GT OC2, Windows XP SP3

The land battle gave some very good options for flanking. Looked like it had some tactical playability. Unfortunately, the AI seemed as dumb as a box of rocks. It did have some troops hidden in forests at a couple of obvious routes, but didn't do a lot. IT had a superior force...longer range riflemen for example, and more infantry/horse as well as more artillery (I didn't get details of the composition).

The naval battles were stunning looking and played fairly well. I don't if all the options were there because I'm not a big naval geek, but just to see the big ships broad siding each other was a sight for sore eyes.

Nothing in the demo showing how the strategic layer will play.

Long and short...I will buy (being a self confessed graphics whore) but not on release. They want £39.99 for it and £44.99 for the "Elite Units" edition (comes with HMS Victorious and special land units with distinctions).

Oh...and the demo (and prices quoted) is from Steam - I don't know if it's out anywhere else.

[Erik Rutins]

Don't forget about the upcoming Crown of Glory: Emperor's Edition if you want detailed land and naval battles, great strategic gameplay as well as a great AI! [8D]

[leastonh1]

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd
Oh...and the demo (and prices quoted) is from Steam - I don't know if it's out anywhere else.

I was getting all excited until I read that bit! I'll pass. Cheers for the mini review though JD.

[JudgeDredd]

Oh, but Jim...the naval battles alone are oh so gorgeous!!

[leastonh1]

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd

Oh, but Jim...the naval battles alone are oh so gorgeous!!

No, no, no!! I'm not listening! I have uninstalled Steam for the last time and will never use it again. That's final. I can't hear you any more. Laa laa laa <fingers in ears> Nope, still can't hear you JD!...Can someone delete this thread please?! Erik, where are you? [:'(]

[cdbeck]

Oh Erik, there is room in our life for both games...&nbsp;[8D]

[Tomus]

You don't need Steam the game is also coming out in a normal version. I thought it was pretty good.

[Lützow]

I'm going to rent Empire from video store when it's released and rather save my money for CoG:EE.

[LarryP]

Here is a link to download it March 3rd:

Direct2Drive

[Kung Karl]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Don't forget about the upcoming Crown of Glory: Emperor's Edition if you want detailed land and naval battles, great strategic gameplay as well as a great AI! [8D]

I've noticed CoG comes up when talking about Empire: Total War.

BUT, isn't Empire Total War 1700 - 1800 and CoG Napoleonics? I mean doesn't CoG start were E:TW ends?

Edit: E:TW ends at 1815. But still, CoG is alot more focused and thus not a competitor for E:TW. Two diffrent games with diffrent focus.

If CoG is a competitor to E:TW then it is a competitor to Europa Universalis 3 as well. EU3 cover the napoleonics too but not very good and very short. I am sure CoG is a btter simulation of Napoleonics Europe than both EU3 and E:TW.

[JudgeDredd]

Jim...Jim...come over to the dark side! [:'(]
&nbsp;
Well God knows I had my trouble with Steam regarding their policy of "fingers in ears and eyes closed...can't help, soz"...on the other hand, that particular purchase was my fault.
&nbsp;
Steam as a delivery system I have found to be very reliable in the past. Besides I couldn't possibly get rid of it because my beloved Team Fortress 2 is on there

[moose1999]

Just played the demo and I'm now looking even more forward to CoG:EE as well as East India Company from Lighthouse Interactive (check EIC out here if you're not familiar with it already).
The demo was alright, though. Pretty much as expected.
Although the naval battle was quite fun the arcade feel to it means I would tire of it pretty quickly - and the land battle likewise.
As has become the rule for the TW series, the modders have some work cut out for them.
But the strategic layer sounds like it has improved from previous titles, so that'll be interesting to see up close.

I'll buy it, of course, and play through the campaign one time - but not untill a year or two down the line after a handfull of patches and an expansion and after the first big mods have matured into something playable.
By then I might even have a computer that can handle the game... [:)]

EDIT: Oh, and while I'm at it - check out this upcoming game for a more grognard take on realtime 3-D Napoleonic battles:
Histwar Les Grognards. Ugly as hell (at least compared to Empire), but with extremely ambitious goals concerning AI and realistic tactical gameplay.

[hadberz]

I agree with briny, the naval battles feel like a arcade game. The pathfinding sucks. It's a pass for me at least until some patches come out.

[JudgeDredd]

True, but they did look divine...watching all that shot fly through the sails and take the masts down.
&nbsp;
Also, it is 100 light years better than in previous carnations.

[Banquet]

Thanks for your thoughts Judge, appreciated

ORIGINAL: Tomus

You don't need Steam the game is also coming out in a normal version. I thought it was pretty good.

Is that confirmed? Because it's the first I've heard of it. I don't have anything hugely against Steam, but much prefer Matrix and Gamersgate, and have Impulse.. I just really don't want another and will pass if Steam is required.. if there's a version that doesn't need Steam that's great news, but as I understood even shop bought versions would require Steam validation.

[Phatguy]

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&nbsp; 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......

[Terminus]

As far as I know, you only need Steam to activate Empire. At first I balked at the idea, but now I've got Dawn of War II (also Steam-activated) up and running with a minimum of irritation, I'm getting Empire as well.

[leastonh1]

I sacked Steam because of its intrusiveness, I can't play my own games without it, I can't play a game when Steam decides I MUST download and patch 400Mb worth at their convenience instead of mine, I can't download and keep patches, 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. Nope, not for me. Steam is an example of a nice idea with very poor execution. I know lots of people use it without problems, but there are plenty more out there who feel the same as me after having fingers burned.

Sorry, hijack and rant over. I feel better now. Got to have that little tantrum every now and then [:D]

[LarryP]

ORIGINAL: Jim_H

I sacked Steam because of its intrusiveness, I can't play my own games without it, I can't play a game when Steam decides I MUST download and patch 400Mb worth at their convenience instead of mine, I can't download and keep patches, 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. Nope, not for me. Steam is an example of a nice idea with very poor execution. I know lots of people use it without problems, but there are plenty more out there who feel the same as me after having fingers burned.

Amen Jim!!! I could add my horrid experience with Steam 2 years ago (it's actually here in this General section too), but my nerves are calm now and I am not in the mood to change that. [;)]

[doomtrader]

My first try with Empire lasts for 3 minutes (I'm not counting horrible long loading time).

I just don't like it. I'll give it one more try but ATM it looks like I will cancel my preodrer.

And infantry shoots with tracers or what?