Rome : Total War goodness.

[B-prime]

While being bored as hell at work, I stumbled across some videos of Rome: Total War that were recently released at E3.  The battles just look amazing, and everything I have read about the game makes it look even better than the other two before it.

This video is my favourite.

If they can solve the problem that Medival had with it not being fun anymore after a few hundred years and only a few mega-factions left with gigantic armies that aren't that fun to fight with, and give the factions some decent AI outside the battlefield, I'd go so far as to say they would have perfected their game.

[Speedy Cerviche]

Im a huge STW/MTW/RTW fanboi, best RTS ever IMO. The problems you listed arent too bad (and indeed, the new strategy map with dynamic borders should help remedy it), the main problem I had with MTW was the AI was a bit too dumb. It's actually pretty decent as far as games go, and could give a good challenge, on the strategy side especially with mods that improve it like MedMod, but there are some glaring battle AI probs that are hard coded and untouchable to modders. The worst is the AI's inability to place artillery properly, and also their total inability to use hybred units: Strong archer units capable of mixing it up. In MTW they just stay in skirmish mode the whole time even if they are more than capable of mixing it up with strong units.

That said, RTW will definitely be fixing the latter issue, as the game's flagship unit, Caesar's legionnaire, was an armoured infantry famous for it's javelin, so it would be a huge foul up if they couldnt get it working properly.

Add in more modability (and MTW has some very competant modders around), the vastly improved strategy mode that could give EU2 a run for it's money, and all the new improvements to tactical mode, and you have what could potentially be one of the best games ever.

['ST]

Just picked up Shogun recently after having such great fun with Medieval.  I cannot wait for Rome: Total War.  It looks amazing, it sounds like many of the new features will be amazing, and they're going to expand on all of the good things and fix up other issues.  They're supposed to be making cavalry and missile units more strong, which is definitely something I look forward to.  It really cannot come out soon enough.

[Train Wreck]

STW is a classic.  When you can improve your skills by reading Sun Tzu's Art of War, that's pretty damn realistic.

[evan]

The Total War series brought something new and fresh to tactical RTS gaming, at a time when the genre seems all played out. No other game comes close to giving you the feeling of commanding a massive army on the field.

If Rome Total War plays even half as good as it looks, I'll probably upgrade my system to play it. That's saying a lot as I am a cheap-ass bastard. Probably the only game I will admit to being a fanboi about, and with damn good reason.

PS: Hopefully they get the same guy to do the music.