Windows Empire: TW - Demo released 20/02/2009

[impar]

Greetings!

Naval battle video:
Chapter 1 of 5: Naval Battles

Some changes from previous TW games:
GC preview: Empire Total War

Latest screenshots:
http://www.totalwar-zone.de/index2.php?g=etw&id=5


Coming in February.

[Veles]

Oragasm

[glaeken]

Nice.

[alleyne]

Looks really good. been waiting for them to bring in naval combat.

[impar]

Greetings!

New video released.

Land Battles:
http://www.eurogamer.net/tv_video.php?playlist_id=14941

Not in HD.

[Veles]

Do want

I can see that land combat will be completely different now, in all the total wars before it it's been roughly the same as far as the basics go, now that most of the combatants are devastating ranged units it's going to need new tactics.

[impar]

Greetings!

Originally Posted by Veles

... now that most of the combatants are devastating ranged units it's going to need new tactics.

You can have that type army in M2TW.
First example that pops is Milan and its Genovese Crossbow Militia.
They are available early on, very long range units, are cheap to upkeep and allow the faction to switch to an all-city path (no financial worries).

They just need some spears to hold the line and a small force of cavalry to screen the flanks.

My standard milanese army was 1 General, 4 Cavalry Militia, 5 Spear Militia and 10 Genovese Crossbow Militia.

[Veles]

Well the difference here is both armies are likely to be majority ranged.

My English armies were also quite heavily ranged, since the later longbowmen were also pretty good in close combat, but since most of my enemies were mostly traditional armies, the combat style didn't really change. Even when I fought milan it wasn't quite the same as empire will be since the range on longbows and crossbows are huge in comparison to Empire era handguns.

[BigD79]

Looks awesome, i fancy a go! not sure if i'll take to it (or if my old PC would handle it) as i'm usually a FPS kinda chap, tho did enjoy Civ:Rev.

[impar]

Greetings!

HD video:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=FGTT9ICU

[impar]

Greetings!

Campaign video:
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/41949.html
HD

[Veles]

DO WANT!

again

[impar]

Greetings!

It was steamed:

[phenoptix]

That'll be a preorder for me then! Probably should update my whole system first though!!
I'm glad they've done something about sea combat, it was always far too random. I just made a couple of massive fleets and mopped up smaller ones for naval supremacy. I always found it a bit slow for movement of troops too, I wonder if they've addressed that.
My guess is for war of independence battles the format will just be an updated version of "North and South" from the Amiga.

[impar]

Greetings!

Really, really steamed:
http://store.steampowered.com/news/1940/

SEGA Europe Ltd. today announce that Empire: Total War™ will incorporate Steamworks™, a complete suite of publishing and development tools that offers PC game developers and publishers access to the game features and services available through Steam.

[impar]

Greetings!

Empire: Total War Interview: Creative Assembly on the Road to Independence and Not Selling Out

When Empire: Total War ships in early February, it will include a new type of mode for the series--the Road to Independence, a story-driven campaign centered entirely around the American Revolutionary War.

At a recent event, I got the chance to speak with developer Creative Assembly's communications manager Kieran Brigden. We went over the new mode, and of course talked about the game in general. The interview also covers how Creative Assembly approaches these projects--and where the studio might go in the future.

[Veles]

That's cool, it's like a proper steam game now then? Looks like SEGA gave up with their crap digital distribution

[cliffski]

why do people pre-order games again? what is the incentive. Surely it's better to wait for a demo and reviews?

[Veles]

Originally Posted by cliffski

why do people pre-order games again? what is the incentive. Surely it's better to wait for a demo and reviews?

Sometimes you just know you're going to enjoy the game, I will find it very surprising if I don't like Empire, I also, a lot of the time demos either are crap or come out before the game's release, and I find few reviews to be actually useful. The incentive for pre-ordering is right there, rome gold edition for free, and on steam usually a discounted price and you're able to pre-load it so you can start playing the day of release. If you pre-order from a web store then usually it arrives a day earlier.

IMO, there's little incentive not to pre-order a game, a review isn't really going to change my mind all that much, and you get lots of previews before a game comes out anyway to give you a good idea of what it will be like.

[cliffski]

I suppose so, although you might hear things between now and release that put you off the game.
I did pre-order spore because I knew I'd like that and wanted to get a copy as soon as possible. I would prefer to play a demo of Empire before buying it, although as I recall, they either don't do them, or drag their feet with the demos for the total war series?
I loved shogun, but the others I wasn't so keen on. The battles all turned into a bit of a strategy-free pub fight once the sides actually met each other. Here's hoping that's less of an issue here.