Support NeoGAF

[Doytch]

Welcome, fellow members of the PC Master Race, to the official Empire: Total War thread.

Credit: *michaelkutsche

Cover Art

Obligatory Wikipedia Blurb
Empire: Total War is a 2009 real-time tactics and turn-based strategy computer game. Developed by the Creative Assembly and published by Sega, the game is scheduled for release in North America on 3 March 2009 and in Europe on 4 March. Announced in August 2007, Empire: Total War is the fifth installment in the Total War series. The game focuses on the modern era period of the 1700s and 1800s. The game follows a similar style of play as earlier Total War titles: players choose a contemporary faction and set out to ensure their faction's domination over the known world through military force, politics, diplomacy, espionage and economics. Although the campaign element of the game is turn-based, players can direct battles in real-time. Empire: Total War is the first game in the series to allow naval battles to be conducted in real-time.

Note about Steam
Empire uses Steamworks, so no matter whether you get it from retail, or directly from Steam, you'll have to first authenticate your purchase through the Steam software. That is, you'll have to download it if you don't have it, and let it do a verification. You can then download it from Steam whenever you want, and you won't need the disc in your tray to play. For more about Steam, see the links section below, Creative Assembly have a Steam FAQ up on the site.

Reviews
Eurogamer - 9/10
PC Gamer UK - 95
PC Format UK - 92%
IGN UK - 95
"It'll rape you in your hole" - IGN.COM
Gamespy - 5/5
Rock Paper Shotgun: Wot I Think

Release Dates:
NA: March 3, 2009
EU: March 4, 2009
AU: March 5, 2009

System Requirements
2.4 Ghz processor
256 MB video card
1 GB RAM XP / 2 GB Vista
15 GB hard disk space

Videos
Advanced Tactics
Advanced Tactics #2

1/5 Naval Battles
2/5 Land Battles
3/5 Campaign
4/5 Road to Independence
5/5 Multiplayer

Links
Official Site
Demo
Steam Page
Total War Center - Unofficial site with great forums and mods
Steam FAQ
GAF Steam IDs

Multiplayer Campaign Interview

Screenshots

 

[MaritalWheat]

:lol Nice Idle Thumbs IGN hole rapeage reference. Ironically enough, it'll be Far Cry 2 that I'll have to delete to free up hd space for this.

 

[thaOwner]

For whatever reason, the demo crashes at the title screen on my PC but I really wanna play this. Anyone know
if it will be fixed in the final retail copy ?

 

[ghst]

reading this thread just made my desktop monitor spark back into life.

sir, i am in your debt.

now, let's talk about the game of the year.

 

[Chris Remo]

That's a nice touch with the localized flags on the cover.

"It'll rape you in your hole" - IGN.COM

This review is Idle Thumbs-approved

 

[EatChildren]

Does anyone know if this is going to download content during the disk installation?

FEAR 2 was much like this, requiring Steam to authenticate, yet despite buy it retail it downloaded nearly a gig of mystery content during the install. It not once said anything about downloading content so I have no idea what it was.

I'd really rather not have it happen again.

 

[Doytch]

I'm so geeked for this. I finally fixed a couple of random issues I was having with Windows, and now by box is running like a rock. A rock with a videocard that I just overclocked to new heights for added E:TW enjoyment.

:lol Nice Idle Thumbs IGN hole rapeage reference. Ironically enough, it'll be Far Cry 2 that I'll have to delete to free up hd space for this.

I wiped Stalker:SoC and BG2. Looking back I don't even know why I took off BG2, it was probably taking up 200MB max. My Total War folders usually end up being well over 20GB with mods installed. :lol

Does anyone know if this is going to download content during the disk installation?

FEAR 2 was much like this, requiring Steam to authenticate, yet despite buy it retail it downloaded nearly a gig of mystery content during the install. It not once said anything about downloading content so I have no idea what it was.

I'd really rather not have it happen again.

Release patch, maybe? I wasn't following FEAR, but Steam automatically patches your games, so that might've been it.

 

[Proc]

My copy could not ship soon enough.

 

[TouchMyBox]

Does anyone know if this is going to download content during the disk installation?

FEAR 2 was much like this, requiring Steam to authenticate, yet despite buy it retail it downloaded nearly a gig of mystery content during the install. It not once said anything about downloading content so I have no idea what it was.

I'd really rather not have it happen again.

Day 1 patch?

 

[EatChildren]

Patch downloaded after the install. This was during. For the entire time it said it was copying from Disk 1 and Disk 2, never mentioning a download. After it finished I checked my net monitor and nearly a gig of data had been downloaded by Steam at the same time. Everything else was updated and showed no instance of patching.

I also know someone who had the same problem when they installed DoW2 on Steam via retail disks. It downloaded a huge junk of content without reporting.

It's not a big deal, I just need to watch my monthly limit, and if being capped halfway through installation stops me from playing Empire I'm going to flip out.

 

[McBacon]

Is anyone here on SEGA's Euro review list? I havn't got this or Ultimate Mega Drive collection, so I have either pissed off sega, or my postman has died.

 

[Fragamemnon]

I'm holding off on getting this until I read some more reactions on forums and see James Allen's review on Out of Eight (he was one of the only reviewers to nail Medieval 2). Hearing what Tom Chick and Troy Goodfellow think about it is also a must before putting down $50, especially since if I don't like the game I'm stuck with it due to Steamworks DRM.

I'm wary of the UK reviews because of the rock, paper, shotgun-affiliated magazines involved, a team of more style over substance folk you will be hard pressed to find anywhere in PC gaming-and Total War games are, if anything, quite stylish!

This series is notorious at this point for reviewers giving a complete free pass to atrocious AI and not talking at all about the micromanagement hell and tedious battles of a grand campaign endgame since so few reviewers get to that point before submitting their reviews.

 

[Gomu Gomu]

So I downloaded the demo on steam, but it ran at 1 fps or something like that :lol

Too bad though, I was very interested in this game.

 

[Fragamemnon]

For another point of reference, my Core 2 at 3.2ghz and GTX 260 ran the Brandywine fight with fantastic framerates at high settings. If you are on weaker hardware go play Rome and the Europa Barbarorum mod, which is still IMO the best Total War experience you can get.

Also, note that over on the Total War Center boards they noted that unpacking the demo files form their compressed state resulted in loading times being decreased by a good half or more. From early reviewer reports the files still appear to be compressed even in the full version, so that trick might also work out when the game is released as well.

 

[RoyalSimonBoobs]

Word of warning to those buying the game on steam.

Hi guys,

We have just received the following information regarding the availability of Empire: Total War on Steam:

"Empire will begin loading upon release. There will not be a pre-load due to the staggered release dates throughout the world. We will be activating Empire throughout the world between Tues, March 3 17:00 GMT and Weds March 4 9:00 GMT."

North American and Canadian customers will be able to purchase a digital download from 09:00 GMT on the 4th of March.

I would like to apologise for the delay in our reply. This has been out of our hands as we had to wait for a response from Valve.

Thanks,

Mark O'Connell
(aka SenseiTW)

link

Makes me a little pissed since they claimed a 48 hour pre-load would happen... and still do I guess.

Anyone who was going to pre-order probably has already but I have to vent somehow.

 

[VibratingDonkey]

I don't understand why stuff on Steam is so bloody expensive. €50 is ridiculous, outrageous preposterous, ludicrous and flabbergasting. No thanks, I shall buy a physical copy for €32 instead.

 

[jeffy_johnson]

I really hope Canada gets the English box art and not the American one.

 

[larvi]

Ugh..more DRM that requires a 3rd party server to always be there in the future. I'll pass.

 

[Mkliner]

I'm holding off on getting this until I read some more reactions on forums and see James Allen's review on Out of Eight (he was one of the only reviewers to nail Medieval 2). Hearing what Tom Chick and Troy Goodfellow think about it is also a must before putting down $50, especially since if I don't like the game I'm stuck with it due to Steamworks DRM.

I'm wary of the UK reviews because of the rock, paper, shotgun-affiliated magazines involved, a team of more style over substance folk you will be hard pressed to find anywhere in PC gaming-and Total War games are, if anything, quite stylish!

This series is notorious at this point for reviewers giving a complete free pass to atrocious AI and not talking at all about the micromanagement hell and tedious battles of a grand campaign endgame since so few reviewers get to that point before submitting their reviews.

All of those "Hands on day" reactions seem pretty positive.

 

[syllogism]

I don't understand why stuff on Steam is so bloody expensive. €50 is ridiculous, outrageous preposterous, ludicrous and flabbergasting. No thanks, I shall buy a physical copy for €32 instead.

Publishers set the price and they continue to be pretty dumb. Retailers are free to sell under RRP.

 

[Fragamemnon]

All of those "Hands on day" reactions seem pretty positive.

The battle AI in the demo was dumb as a brick.

Note that I'm not really looking for AI that will beat me or the average Total War veteran-that's probably not possible. I just want an AI that lets me feel good about myself as I beat it mercilessly, one that embraces defeat with some degree of dignity.

 

[Google]

Anyone who was going to pre-order probably has already but I have to vent somehow.

I always get a little upset with Steam pre-releases, but this is usually because I work myself up into a fever over the game.

In reality, if I look back and think,

"I've just purchased a videogame, of which I will more than likely play for 60+ hours over the next couple of years, in 3 minutes, without leaving my house. It will take less than two hours to download, and the only reason I'm upset is because I know I will like it, and I want to play it now"

 

[epmode]

Ugh..more DRM that requires a 3rd party server to always be there in the future. I'll pass.

If there's one company I trust to actually solve this problem in the future (eventually removing the authorization requirment,) it's Valve.

But I guess avoiding an awesome game on principle is almost as fun as playing it!

 

[Forsete]

Danish pigs.. meet your new overlord! Hopefully I'll get mine tomorrow.

Either I will start with Sweden or Prussia.. I reckon both countries be pretty hard to play as. Sweden was universally envied and Prussia is surrounded by some powerful enemies.

 

[John Dunbar]

Are all the factions playable from the start this time? If not, what are the starting ones? Couldn't find it on Wikipedia.

 

[SpinningFrog]

Are all the factions playable from the start this time? If not, what are the starting ones? Couldn't find it on Wikipedia.

They mention 12 different ones on the website, I didn't see anything about unlocking them before being able to use them.

 

[Fragamemnon]

Are all the factions playable from the start this time? If not, what are the starting ones? Couldn't find it on Wikipedia.

This is like the first thing that will get modded if true. Even if they aren't all available at first in the base game, it's no big deal.

 

[Doytch]

Frag, I hear what you're saying about reviewers giving TW a free pass, but it really is a game that you need to have a good amount of time with before you can offer a solid conclusion. And it's not exactly an easy game to review. It's monstrous. So I sort of give the reviewers a free pass when they review TW.

In any case, for me, TW games are about enjoying the story you create. EU3, Civ4, SoaSE, same thing.

 

[Fragamemnon]

Frag, I hear what you're saying about reviewers giving TW a free pass, but it really is a game that you need to have a good amount of time with before you can offer a solid conclusion. And it's not exactly an easy game to review. It's monstrous. So I sort of give the reviewers a free pass when they review TW.

A grand campaign game should only take about 20-25 hours before reaching the point where you are just about done and can make a decent critique of it. This is not a substantial amount of time but for the most part almost every review of Medieval 2 didn't mention how crippling the bad battle and campaign AI and tedious, repetitve micromanagement really bogged the game down to Civ2-esque levels near the end of the game. It's not like I'm averse to that kind of micromanagement either-look at the other games I play-but with TW it it was required yet pointless at the same time.

[/quote]In any case, for me, TW games are about enjoying the story you create. EU3, Civ4, SoaSE, same thing.[/QUOTE]

This is indeed the huge part of the draw to the TW games. I just haven't enjoyed TW in a while unless it was heavily modded, and I'd like to know if some of the problems that really bothered me in the previous releases are still there.

 

[Steeven]

I'm holding off on getting this until I read some more reactions on forums and see James Allen's review on Out of Eight (he was one of the only reviewers to nail Medieval 2). Hearing what Tom Chick and Troy Goodfellow think about it is also a must before putting down $50, especially since if I don't like the game I'm stuck with it due to Steamworks DRM.

I'm wary of the UK reviews because of the rock, paper, shotgun-affiliated magazines involved, a team of more style over substance folk you will be hard pressed to find anywhere in PC gaming-and Total War games are, if anything, quite stylish!

This series is notorious at this point for reviewers giving a complete free pass to atrocious AI and not talking at all about the micromanagement hell and tedious battles of a grand campaign endgame since so few reviewers get to that point before submitting their reviews.

Ah, excellent post. Glad to see some people know about the real deal with the Total War games. Everywhere I go I seem to run into an endless stream of fanboys who will not tolerate negative talk about their precious Total War series.

PS: I nailed the game in a review too ^^

 

[Dedalus]

This is indeed the huge part of the draw to the TW games. I just haven't enjoyed TW in a while unless it was heavily modded, and I'd like to know if some of the problems that really bothered me in the previous releases are still there.

I feel the same about TW games, ever since RTR the vanilla game has never felt the same.

Regardless, I think I will buy this, but at a much later date, or I might get it to dabble for a while until the realism mods roll in :/

 

[MrPing1000]

Preparing for dispatch from gameplay. Hopefully arrive on wednesday morning. Woo.

I will play this for the next few years lol.

 

[Open Source]

I'm holding off on getting this until I read some more reactions on forums and see James Allen's review on Out of Eight (he was one of the only reviewers to nail Medieval 2). Hearing what Tom Chick and Troy Goodfellow think about it is also a must before putting down $50, especially since if I don't like the game I'm stuck with it due to Steamworks DRM.

I'm wary of the UK reviews because of the rock, paper, shotgun-affiliated magazines involved, a team of more style over substance folk you will be hard pressed to find anywhere in PC gaming-and Total War games are, if anything, quite stylish!

This series is notorious at this point for reviewers giving a complete free pass to atrocious AI and not talking at all about the micromanagement hell and tedious battles of a grand campaign endgame since so few reviewers get to that point before submitting their reviews.

This is my opinion, too. On the other hand, I paid $50 for the express purpose of experiencing the disappointment of Spore in person, so I'll probably get this even if the clear-eyed people don't like it.

 

[Doytch]

PCFormat has a small interview up with Mark Sutherns about the multiplayer campaign. Pretty interesting, for some reason I never really thought about what would happen when the other player is doing a battle. :lol

 

[Mkliner]

1 day left

 

[Flambe]

*taps thread*

I assume everyone interested bought this already and is too busy playing (one more battle) to post thoughts >.<

 

[BobJustBob]

Not for 11 more hours + download time.

 

[Forsete]

Well I have been playing some combat missions..

One taking place in the woods, kind of hard but I managed to survive, but it was very confusing.

The AI seems good, he uses his cavalry alot, attacking your flanks and trying to swing around and stab you in the back. He also tries to take out your field artillery ASAP, I had to guard those with my cavalry.

The battles can become quite huge, so its a little confusing whats going on sometimes. I find myself pausing just to check out what is what.

Played a siege and that was very epic and pretty hard, I had alot of casualties before I managed to secure a section of the wall and open the gates. The mortars managed to blow a whole in the wall later on so I could flood the place.

I'm at the beginning of the campaign, not going to well at the moment, stripped for cash so it looks like I'll be heading off into war soon.
I haven't had time to check out the diplomacy bit very much, but it seems to be deeper compared to the old TW games.

Fun note, the swedes talk in Swedish, and not some fake Hollywood Swedish, real Swedish!


Edit: Oh and Steam sucks balls. I got the DVD version but Steam insisted on trying to download the game anyway! So I had to deactivate my internet connection in order for Steam to actually look for the DVD disc. The installation took perhaps 20 minutes, the total install is over 15GB.
I'm getting tired of Steams DRM, I got the game early in the morning but couldnt play it as the game was still locked by Steam. Total suckage.

 

[Forsete]

Btw, how do I watch saved "replays"? I cant find anything in the main menu.

 

[MrPing1000]

my copy better arrive early tomorrow. I will binge all day.

Washington I'm COMING FOR YOU.

 

[John Dunbar]

Forsete, are all the factions playable from the start in the campaign?

 

[Forsete]

Forsete, are all the factions playable from the start in the campaign?

I think so, there were a lot of nations to choose from. But I dont remember seeing United States, they have their own campaign though.. the grand campaign starts in 1700.

 

[Doytch]

*taps thread*

I assume everyone interested bought this already and is too busy playing (one more battle) to post thoughts >.<

Unfortunately, no. I preordered on Amazon Canada cause it saved me $30 over retail, so I have to deal with the shipping times

 

[Google]

I'm getting tired of Steams DRM, I got the game early in the morning but couldnt play it as the game was still locked by Steam. Total suckage.

It's obviously a CA issue, not a Steam issue.

Valve dont give a fuck if you play the game a day early.

 

[Technosteve]

the demo of this game crashed and crippled my computer for hours. sigh

 

[Forsete]

It's obviously a CA issue, not a Steam issue.

Valve dont give a fuck if you play the game a day early.

Well then CA can bugger off.. DRM for the epic fail anyway.

Anyone figured out the replay/record thingy?

 

[Surfheart]

This is available in the shops here today. Thinking about grabbing it but would like to wait on some more GAF impressions.

Steam auth seriously annoys me though.

So I just got home with this. Is it possible to install the game where I want? I like to keep my games off the system drive but steam seems to do whatever the fuck it wants.

Only PC exclusive I've bought in donkeys years tarnished with this bullshit DRM

 

[Waikis]

 

[RoyalSimonBoobs]

So I just got home with this. Is it possible to install the game where I want? I like to keep my games off the system drive but steam seems to do whatever the fuck it wants.

Steam will install games on whatever drive you've installed steam on. I've got it kicking on my D drive right now because I feel the same way about the system drive.

Awesome Stuff.

Sigh... I have no idea why I preordered on steam. Got suckered in with the Rome deal because I lost one of my discs but I always love the CE crap I get with boxed versions.

 

[Doytch]

[boxes of awesome]

JEALOUS! Harsh economic times dictated that I couldn't spend $90 on one game