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Empire: Total War – 10 Things You Need to Know

pc.ign.com — From historically accurate moustaches to Sir Isaac "duelling champion" Newton, this game has it all.

Who dugg this? Made popular Mar 11, 2009

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  • bmcnally, on 03/11/2009, -3/+51They've added sea battles. Finally, half of my strategy won't be left to the roll of dice.

    Also, support Creative Assembly. I've been a fan since the first Medieval game, and Total War is the one series that I will not buy used - I buy new so that every penny gets back to the developers and sends a message to their executives that this is something I support. Given that this is on Steam and Direct 2 Drive distribution models, you don't even have to leave the house.
  • plaguepony, on 03/10/2009, -9/+39Thanks for stealing a great game, this is why people are focusing on Console games now.
  • Trichomonas, on 03/11/2009, -1/+31The only thing you need to know: It's full of bugs. I can't believe they released this thing...I would have rather they pushed the release date back and took the extra time to perfect the game. I'm a huge fan of the Total War series and hate to see this game suffer from simple bugs and engine crashes.

    Luckily a patch was released with another one set for next week.

    * Fixed Alt-Tab issue which prevents players from switching away from a full-screen window
    * Fixed text rendering for certain resolutions
    * Fixed localized font overrun issues
    * Fixed a variety of crash and memory leak issues
    * Fixed a variety of multi-player client lock
    * Fixed trade nodes for those nations with resource in home region which caused unprofitable trade theatre routes eg: Sweden and Marathas

    <a class="user" href="<a class="user" href="<a class="user" href="http://shoguntotalwar.yuku.com/topic/47908/t/Empir ... rel="nofollow">http://shoguntotalwar.yuku.com/topic/47908/t/Empir ...</a> rel="nofollow"><a class="user" href="http://shoguntotalwar.yuku.com/topic/47908/t/Empir ... rel="nofollow">http://shoguntotalwar.yuku.com/topic/47908/t/Empir ... ...</a> rel="nofollow"><a class="user" href="<a class="user" href="http://shoguntotalwar.yuku.com/topic/47908/t/Empir ... rel="nofollow">http://shoguntotalwar.yuku.com/topic/47908/t/Empir ...</a> rel="nofollow"><a class="user" href="http://shoguntotalwar.yuku.com/topic/47908/t/Empir ... rel="nofollow">http://shoguntotalwar.yuku.com/topic/47908/t/Empir ...</a> ...</a>

    Edit: Still don't regret purchasing it as I'm sure the issues will get resolved...also...please BUY it instead of torrenting...we want to keep this series going.
  • whatthefu, on 03/11/2009, -3/+22Then don't play it. It's simple capitalism. You don't have a right to a product or service. People worked really, really hard on this game. There are gray areas in the pirating community, but this really isn't one of them.
  • da_bradler, on 03/11/2009, -0/+14This game FINALLY helped me understand where Horse show jumping came from. I always thought it was the dumbest possible thing for someone to come up with, but having horses that can jump a farmers fence in full stride is extraordinarily useful when trying to chase down routing Polish infantry.


    You really start to understand why so many people died in World War 1. In 18th century war you really need to pack your units as tightly as possible and have them slowly march into firing range. and they fought like this for over a century, it was simply the best possible tactic in most situations. But with the invention of the machine gun... Imagine all of a sudden the tactics you and your countrymen have been using for over a hundred years go from the best option to the absolute worst possible thing you could try. Imagine trying to convince generals to throw out everything which had been working perfectly fine to that point and figure out a totally new way of fighting war.
  • unhap, on 03/11/2009, -0/+11let me preface this by syaing im a HUGE total war fan. i loved R:TW and Medievel:TW2 to death. I've been playing total war since shogun. that said, a few more things you need to know:

    1) it runs like ***** even on my 8800 and core 2 duo. the settings are lower in E:TW than i had to run crysis at. this in turn does a bunch of funky stuff like make ***** get all sprite-y when you zoom out.

    1.5) half of the sound isnt working in battles. this could be a problem with my computer though.

    1.75) THE ***** TURNS TAKE ANYWHERE FROM 35 to 75 SECONDS TO END. WHAT THE *****. (yes, i have watch cpu moves off. i am not the only person who seems to have noticed this). I literally get up after ending every turn and go get some iced tea. this in turn has caused me to develop diabetes. thanks, sega.

    2) there seems to be little innovation in the land battles. it pretty much has the exact same feel to it instead of shooting arrows your shooting guns. no, i take that back. it's worse. why? becuase apparently the BRITISH ***** EMPIRE didnt know how to shoot in a volley or to rotate the front line so that someone was firing constantly. oh, whats that, they did in real life but this engine hasnt improved at all since r:tw? aww man

    3) the sea battles are great. this is probably because it's the only new thing. that said, they're extremely shallow. the same amount of complexity was in sid meieirs' pirates. infact, sid meier's pirates was probably more complex. actually, i take that back too. i think E:TW just straight copied them. it is pretty cool how you can capture ships. (you could do this in SM:P too)

    4) the missions are very unclear. in M2: TW you'd get a mission quickly and it would be kind of like a goal for you to reach. i started a campaign and my first mission was "conquer north america"....well if i do that i've won the ***** game, now havent i?
  • WorldLeader, on 03/11/2009, -0/+10Sort of off topic, but did anyone here ever play American Conquest? Now THAT game rocked!

    You could make an army of over 16000 individual troops and decimate cities.. or load them on rafts and sail them across the ocean to decimate cities! It was ahead of its time.
  • stufflebean, on 03/11/2009, -0/+10Normally I'm with you against DRM, but I think the Steam model is perhaps one of the best out there. Never again do I have to worry about losing my CD keys and/or CDs (DVDs, whatever). All I need is my account name and I can play on any computer, with all of my games just a download away. The convenience and peace of mind outweigh the DRM and update issues as far as I'm concerned. Just my $0.02.
  • m3arvk, on 03/11/2009, -1/+10Well done bmcnally.

    The cannon effects for the ships look righteous!
  • DubiousDrewski, on 03/11/2009, -0/+9You *****. Support these guys, at least. Rip off Justin Timberlake's albums if you want, but support this. This is quality stuff and they deserve better for their efforts.
  • plaguepony, on 03/10/2009, -1/+9A wiff of grapeshot and a few rows of redcoats fixes most problems.
  • damack, on 03/11/2009, -0/+8I have to agree I haven't played an RTS this good in many a year. In fact I haven't played a game this good in a long time. The only real downside is they seemed to have released it too early since it's quite buggy still.

    Their on it though with a patch within the first few days of launch. I haven't really bought a game recently that took an old concept and took it to a new level all we get is ports of last generation games with prettier graphics.

    This really is something else though I'm loving it so far.
  • m3arvk, on 03/11/2009, -1/+9And these kids have the nerve to complain about DRM?
  • garryw, on 03/11/2009, -0/+7My 8800m doesn't seem to like this game, it crashes once in a while, but I was a huge fan of ROME so I'll see if the glitches get worked out
  • withoutamartyr, on 03/11/2009, -0/+7... tone of voice?
  • Lunarbunny, on 03/11/2009, -0/+7Intrusive you say? Despite not installing a single device driver or giving you activation limits?
  • Mzungu, on 03/11/2009, -0/+7finally all my Jack Aubrey readings will pay off
  • RockyCosmos, on 03/11/2009, -1/+7I'm not taking one side or the other, but why are some people saying that it is a crime to pirate a good video game, yet advocate vehemently for the right to pirate music?
  • poopdigger, on 03/11/2009, -0/+6Shogun Total War was one of the best games I ever played! The series got a little more convoluted and too time-consuming for me later, but I also enjoyed them.
  • da_bradler, on 03/11/2009, -0/+61) I personally think E:TW looks better on medium then Medievel 2 did maxed(although you have to run at lower AA and AF which always sucks). I was sick of the engine they used in Medieval 2 it was just the Rome engine with shine. I personally hated the fact that your units would become 2d sprites if you zoomed out far enough. The new engine is true 3d the entire time and overall a lot nicer. a lot more buggy but I think with time it will show itself to be vastly superior.

    1.5) sound seems to be working ok for me, it depends where you have the camera positioned as to how much of the battle you can hear.

    1.75) I normally like to watch the CPU moves, but I agree it's a little retarded how long it can take, you can press space bar to speed up their moves but even then it still takes forever. You should be able to just flat out skip it.

    2) Just give it a little time, I thought that at first too, This game has a tech tree so you need to research things like Rank fire(a line will fire then kneel to reload while the line behind fires). There are also different formations and ammunition types(for artillery) to research in the military tree.

    3)I find most of my time in sea battles is taken up just trying to make sure all the ships stay in formation. I'd say there is more to it then pirates, you start to develop a better feel for it when you start playing some uneven battles. When the forces are equal you just end up pounding the hell out of eachother until it doesn't really matter who wins since you both crippled eachother.

    4)Yeah missions don't seem to mean the same thing. In this game you only get one mission at the start. I'm 70 turns in and I haven't gotten any other missions so I assume there is just the one.
  • Firescape, on 03/11/2009, -1/+7All of the updates for this games are done through steam, so if you want bug fixes (which this game really needs a lot of) then I recommend buying it.
  • jggr, on 03/11/2009, -1/+6Support your game companies by buying the game please.
  • UltX, on 03/11/2009, -3/+8I pray for the day when we can buy everything off steam.
  • e36wheelman, on 03/11/2009, -0/+5Do you have any idea how long that would take? I take like 10 minutes in between turns. Just imagine having to wait for someone else.

    Also, it's Creative Assembly, not Creative Arts.
  • Rujigajer, on 03/11/2009, -0/+5Well as far as I can tell there's no additional DRM included... so I have to assume you are talking about steam.
    If so, you're a gigantic pussy.

    V Hell yea, stuffle... I've bought WC3 at least twice (not even sure anymore) and lost countless games. It's just not a problem anymore, Steam is just so convenient. If you think steam is bad, god forbid you ever touch the DRM people actually bitch about.

    ... now if theyd just put some blizz games up there :/
  • jggr, on 03/11/2009, -0/+4First time buying new software?
  • average650, on 03/11/2009, -0/+4what are you talking about? the engine looks superior to Medieval 2, I don't know what you're talking about. The textures and colors all look fine... This engine is far better.

    I do admit there are some bugs, especially with artillery, but they aren't major and they've already fixed some bugs so I can only assume they'll fix the rest as well.
  • Darkranes, on 03/11/2009, -0/+4Still looking forward to co-op campaign Creative Arts, Don't let me down here!
  • netneutrality, on 03/11/2009, -2/+6After a very hard Total War victory, I shake my fist and roar at the enemy on the screen as they run from the field. "Yeah that's TOTAL WAR YOU COWARDS!" etc. Awesome series.
  • 2Bnor2B, on 03/11/2009, -1/+4All the complaints listed above are true. There are sound glitches, graphics glitches and AI glitches. I have been a great fan of the Total War series, especially the support of the modding community. However, Creative Assembly seems to be exploiting their fan base by releasing this beta version.

    My question to all the hard core fans defending Creative Assembly is: "Would we expect these same problems from Blizzard when Starcraft 2 is released?" The answer of course is NO.

    We all have our favorite titles and some of us can even name key individuals within a developer that we like. Please do not allow your enthusiasm for a title to excuse that fact that this product was a premature birth and is in dire need of intensive care!
  • nugz85, on 03/11/2009, -0/+3my computer isnt good enough :(. which makes me so sad because i am still playing rome and medieval 2 right now. im still playing rome total war 4 years after i got it, it is the greatest game ever.
  • annenk38, on 03/11/2009, -0/+3Bugs, bugs, bugs. The game was released in its early beta stage at best. Save for the sea battles, which indeed look spectacular, the game is a giant step backwards from Medieval 2. As for the land battles and campaign maps, the visual quality is inferior to Medieval 2: everything from vegetation colors to building textures looks "wrong". They should have simply extended Medieval 2 engine to include sea battles. A huge disappointment.
  • Grazzit, on 03/11/2009, -0/+3dump the porn, probably need new material anyway =)
  • Griminald, on 03/11/2009, -0/+3There are plenty of bugs, but it could hardly have been avoided considering all of the new features CA put into the game. I got the idea that they may have over-reached on their ambitions on Empire in this sense; they simply didn't have the resources to find them all.

    So yeah, in a way we were paid beta testers, but given 3-6 more months, CA's team wouldn't have found half of the stuff that a lot more of the paying public did. I'd rather have the game now and put up with bugs.

    The AI in Empire is hit-or-miss. It's great where it's great, and sometimes totally borked in the spots where it's not. I have just as many stories of the CPU surprising me as I do with the CPU staying inside a house I'm firing on and letting it crash down on top of them.

    Sea Battles need work. It looks fantastic, but the control scheme is bad and the morale system a little wonky, with ships surrendering despite fairly even odds. This is a new system so I'm willing to give CA leeway here.

    The campaign map is incredible though . CPU moves take time, but when you want a game that covers most of the world, yeah, you're going to wait a bit.
  • sovietninja, on 03/11/2009, -0/+3Ah i just got this game today from gogamer.com they had AN EMPIRE OF MADNESS sale, got it for 35.99 plus free shipping :P

    And now i must decide to either keep HD porn or HD summer glau.... to make room to install the game.

  • Whorebane, on 03/11/2009, -0/+3I got mine on direct2drive. It's a great game, but whenever I click the trade tab my comp blue screens. =(
  • inactive, on 03/11/2009, -0/+3Ok in all honesty, I downloaded the demo off steam and started downloading the torrent, I finished playing the demo and just went out and bought the game, never finished downloading the torrent.
  • Akairenn, on 03/11/2009, -0/+3May I trouble you for the salt?
  • slvrbullet87, on 03/11/2009, -0/+3A patch came out yesterday, i played for 5 hours last night without a crash
  • average650, on 03/11/2009, -0/+3steam is the way drm should be... would you rather have ea's drm? steam hardly limits anything and it makes things so convenient.
  • Grazzit, on 03/11/2009, -1/+3I can't believe the reviews it's getting, the game has amazing potential but it's scoring.... well here

    Empire: Total War Reviews
    Other reviews of Empire: Total War IGN ** 9.5 / 10 Feb 27, 2009
    1UP ** A- Mar 5, 2009
    Eurogamer ** 9 / 10 Feb 27, 2009
    Total Video Games ** 9 / 10 Mar 6, 2009
    Gameplanet ** 9.5 / 10 Mar 6, 2009
    GameSpy ** 5 / 5 Mar 3, 2009
    Game Informer ** 9.5 / 10 May 1, 2009
    PC Gamer UK ** 94 / 100 Mar 1, 2009
    Total PC Gaming 10 / 10 Mar 5, 2009

    These scores are totally off the mark currently, I honestly don't think any of the reviewers spent enough time with the game or they'd have to complain about the standerd CA horrid AI, terrible pathfinding and multiple crash bugs.

    /shrug the mod community made medieval 2 brilliant and I'm hoping for the mod community to make empire just as good, but apparently they've made the game far more difficult to mod for now... which is another thing to consider
  • Grazzit, on 03/11/2009, -0/+2I'm assuming your not playing with all the bells and whistles on and huge units, with those options medieval 2 runs almost identicaly to empire.
  • Grazzit, on 03/11/2009, -0/+2you guys defending steam apparently are unaware of how badly steam failed the launch of this game. Buy a game from the store, go home to install and wait for 8 hours while the installation hangs talking to steam.

    It apparently did a very similar thing during the patch CA pushed earlier this week.

    I'm no fan of steam for multiple other reasons that doesn't apply here but these 2 instances directly apply
  • m3arvk, on 03/11/2009, -1/+3Here's the deal dude: reality is what you make it. The internet doesn't make you steal things although it may facilitate it. Only an idiot would blame the internet for his actions.

    Piracy is theft.
  • Portwineboy, on 03/11/2009, -0/+2Regarding your vid issues - make sure your drivers are set to "application controlled" for AA and AF. Many folks have noticed a huge improvement when doing this.
  • korvan504521, on 03/12/2009, -0/+2I used to feel the same way about steam, I hated it when half life 2 came out. Its worked very well in the past year for me though, and was great for playing games while I was deployed to a project just south of the arctic circle. We had decent internet, but not a let else, and steam was able to help me not go completely insane.
  • jggr, on 03/11/2009, -0/+2Maybe he's using text to speech?
  • korvan504521, on 03/12/2009, -0/+2Because more of us are programmers than musicians.
  • korvan504521, on 03/12/2009, -0/+2well, us fans don't defend CA ussually. we're just used to it.

    and there's not exactly another game like this, so we take what we can get. they typically get all the kinks worked out in a year or two. which says something about the game that we're still playing it in a year or two.
  • pagan57, on 03/12/2009, -0/+2Damn, I need a new PC!
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