Total War: Rome II

[Paelos]

Game will be released September 3rd supposedly! 

Also collectors edition info. It's beyond too expensive for my tastes, but there are people who will get it.

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2013/05/09/total-war-rome-ii-release-date-pre-order-bonuses-and-collector-39-s-edition-revealed.aspx

[Modern Angel]

So how am I supposed to feel about non-Roman nations being DLC, as is implied with that Greek States DLC for free with pre-orders?

[Paelos]

So how am I supposed to feel about non-Roman nations being DLC, as is implied with that Greek States DLC for free with pre-orders?

I imagine that several nations will be DLC, but I would expect that most of them will be included in the base package. Romans, Gauls, Britans, Carthage, Scythia, Germanic, etc.

[Ceryse]

Base game, I believe, is the Romans, Carthage, Egypt, Parthia, Pontus, Macedonia, Iceni (Brits), Arverni (Gauls), Suebi (Germans). Stuff like an Iberian faction, Scythia and such will be DLC most likely.

[Modern Angel]

That's not great but better than the disaster I was suddenly fearing.

[Ceryse]

Its not something I'm overly liking either.

Regardless.. I'll probably end up pre-ordering this when its closer to release simply because I enjoyed the original TW: Rome so much and would love a more modern version of it and some of the changes sound pretty good and I'll want to play it when it comes out. Pretty rare for me, these days.. I only buy 1 or 2 titles a year, if that, at launch.

[Paelos]

This will be my only preorder of 2013

[WayAbvPar]

This will be my only preorder of 2013

And you roll your eyes at the people supporting the Hex KS! At least they don't have a proven track record of releasing buggy, unfinished messes  

edit: oops. meant to edit my post. 

[Rasix]

The dollar amounts involved allows anyone, anytime to make fun of Hex preorders.  Forever.  No matter how good.

But yes, TW preorders seem silly.  It's not like they'll give you something worthwhile.  Hey, we unlocked Madagascar!

[HaemishM]

But yes, TW preorders seem silly. 

This. Shogun has pretty much burned all my goodwill with Creative Assembly, especially when it comes to preordering. I'm just not sure they can make a game that doesn't shit itself anymore.

[Paelos]

No they won't give out anything meaningful, but I'm going to buy it at release, so something > nothing. I don't really care if it's buggy out of the box, and it probably will be. This is THE THING that I wanted from them. If I can't get excited by this, I can't get excited about gaming. I'm a well known Total Whore.

Also, I will continue to roll my eyes at the Hex cult. The amount of money in there could fund several people's steam accounts for the next decade.

[HaemishM]

It doesn't bother me so much if Rome is buggy out of the box. It bothers me that Shogun 2 is still buggy 2 years, tons of DLC and 1 expansion later. As is Empire 4 years after release. Their last 3 products have had pretty severe issues that are never fixed despite a litany of DLC and at least 1 expansion/campaign DLC per game. Until they bother to fix those games, they ain't getting money from me again.

[WayAbvPar]

It doesn't bother me so much if Rome is buggy out of the box. It bothers me that Shogun 2 is still buggy 2 years, tons of DLC and 1 expansion later. As is Empire 4 years after release. Their last 3 products have had pretty severe issues that are never fixed despite a litany of DLC and at least 1 expansion/campaign DLC per game. Until they bother to fix those games, they ain't getting money from me again.

This.

I would love to play Rome II Electric Boogaloo, but I have no reasonable expectation that it won't be a fucking disaster. If they get their shit together and get it out in a playable state, I will probably pick it up. I would have grabbed Shogun II a long time ago but everything I hear is that it is still a mess.

Pre-ordering (at least to my mind) says 'I forgive you all your trespasses. Please shit directly into my gaping maw again at your earliest convenience.' Make them EARN your money, son!

[Paelos]

I didn't like the time periods on those, though. So I played them minimally at best. I wasn't really going to like the games even if they did work, so I didn't even buy Shogun 2 at release.

It's Rome. It's my favorite time period of all history. WHEEEEEE!

[HaemishM]

It's Rome. It's my favorite time period of all history. WHEEEEEE!

Mine is the 7-Years War. I preordered Empire. Though I still love it, it is buggy as fuck. And a lot of the problems in Shogun are leftovers from both Empire AND Napoleon.

[WayAbvPar]

Empire was the first game I bought for my new quad core PC. What a huge disappointment that was. I hated almost everything about it. Have never gone back to see what the patches might have cleaned up since I just didn't care for the whole design. /sadf

[Paelos]

Empire was a total disaster, don't get me wrong. I ordered it at release, and it was a clusterfuck. The AI was broken, the maps were stupid, and the strategic points system was pointless and annoying at the same time. Not only that, they streamlined everything so much you had no idea how to actually set towns to do stuff. The menus made zero sense from the jump. The agent system was convoluted. The load times were horrific.

Shogun fixed most of that except the loads. I'm guessing Rome will fix the loads since that was the A#1 complaint they heard over and over and over.

[rk47]

Nice.. I'll get the BBQ pit ready on release.

[K9]

Get hyped

Who's playing this?

[Ceryse]

I started the prologue just to see what's what, before I jump into a proper campaign. Have to say I miss the old interface though. New one may be far more minimalistic and 'stream-lined', but I hate it.

[jakonovski]

The word seems to be that this is just more of the same, bugs and all. Basing this on RPS and Eurogamer reviews.  

[Ceryse]

Only bug I've seen so far is the achievement for finishing the prologue didn't fire off. There are a number of small issues (announcements flash on your screen when they arrive and then vanish, forcing you to go to the announcement interface to see them, as an example) and some design decisions I have not taking a liking to at all (armies can only exist with a general, apparently, which are capped in terms of how many you can have -- no more moving troops between armies unless they're right beside each other, and no more stand-alone garrisons to help keep unrest down).

Overall, thus far, its what I expected; an updated Rome with shitty changes. Still, I expect I'll get at least 70 hours out of it, at least.

[Phildo]

I've spent a few hours with it tonight and haven't encountered any noteworthy bugs.  Most of my Total War experience comes from Shogun, so most of my play-time so far has been spent agonizing over how to develop my cities.

[HaemishM]

The word seems to be that this is just more of the same, bugs and all.

This is the reason I just haven't cared to follow this. Shogun 2 was so buggy I couldn't finish a game and that was over a year after release AND after the release of many DLC and an expansion. Fuck CA - they aren't getting my money until they can prove they can make one of these goddamn games stable.

[Ghambit]

stable==no cata 

[calapine]

The word seems to be that this is just more of the same, bugs and all.

This is the reason I just haven't cared to follow this. Shogun 2 was so buggy I couldn't finish a game and that was over a year after release AND after the release of many DLC and an expansion. Fuck CA - they aren't getting my money until they can prove they can make one of these goddamn games stable.

Hmm. No stability issues here in singleplayer. Multiplayer yes...quite some desynchs. The setting wasn't my favorite one in Shogun but overall it felt to me like one the best rounded versions of the series. Empire had a large map, many nations, different units, but the AI didn't seem to be able to handle it, so games got stale pretty quick. Compared to that Shogun 2 felt smaller in scope, but worked better. A tight knit game (if that phrase exists?). Which left me with great hopes for whatever title they'd make next.

[Paelos]

Luckily for my wallet this released right as the second round of tax season stuff comes into full view. That means I'll have to wait until Halloween to pick it up, hopefully with the first set of patches that fix anything stupid.

[Teleku]

The word seems to be that this is just more of the same, bugs and all.

This is the reason I just haven't cared to follow this. Shogun 2 was so buggy I couldn't finish a game and that was over a year after release AND after the release of many DLC and an expansion. Fuck CA - they aren't getting my money until they can prove they can make one of these goddamn games stable.

That is so weird.  I've played the hell out of Shogun, and have not once had a single bug or crash.  The game is incredibly stable, more so than many other games I play in fact.

[WayAbvPar]

Saw Phildo playing this last night on Steam, which is how I learn about all the new game releases these days 

Would like to try it out, but can definitely wait for a Steam sale (and the inevitable much needed patching).

[Phildo]

I'm a weak-willed man.

[Ingmar]

The word seems to be that this is just more of the same, bugs and all.

This is the reason I just haven't cared to follow this. Shogun 2 was so buggy I couldn't finish a game and that was over a year after release AND after the release of many DLC and an expansion. Fuck CA - they aren't getting my money until they can prove they can make one of these goddamn games stable.

That is so weird.  I've played the hell out of Shogun, and have not once had a single bug or crash.  The game is incredibly stable, more so than many other games I play in fact.

Yeah, while I haven't put crazy hours into Shogun 2 it's always been rock solid for me.

[Zaljerem]

One of my favorite things about the first RTW was the family tree / heir / traits system. Does that exist in RTW 2 ?

[HaemishM]

I got 15 hours into a Shogun 2 campaign and it would hitch every time I clicked on a city for the last hour or two that I played (obviously not all in one sitting). Then, every time I started a battle, CRASH. Finally, I just gave up. The campaign game was fantastic but something they did in the tuning of the real-time battles made them end too quickly.

If they remade Empire and fixed it, I'd be all over that, because that is my favorite time period. But I haven't really dug what they've done to battles since Napoleon and Shogun's crashes just drained me of all desire to play this series.

[Daeven]

I've only done the first bits of the Prologue. No idea if they do Family Trees. I hope they do. Although adding abilities to Generals through experience gain  does make one 'care' about them significantly more.  Now if only I didn't have to do that whole work thing. It's getting in the way of my entertainment. Bastards.

[Zaljerem]

I've only done the first bits of the Prologue. No idea if they do Family Trees. I hope they do. Although adding abilities to Generals through experience gain  does make one 'care' about them significantly more.

No family tree, says the forums.

I'll wait until a decent sale, assuming I even bother. Plenty of other things to play.