Click HERE to see this thread with all of the graphics, features, and links.

I know this has been announced and the developers have been working for two years already on it, but really, this game is looking fantastic. Here's the link I found (I'm well aware it was announced before this):

http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/866/866990p1.html

I don't actually get alot of time to play Computer Games (I'm not wasting money on a Next-Gen yet & I travel too much to have access to a decent Desktop PC) but I was into Rome: Total War and all that quasi-historical malarkey (liked Medieval II too) but I am over the moon to find out about this. I'm just going to have to make some avant garde financial decisions to invest in a decent spec PC.

Here's a snippet:

The action begins around 1700 and continues throughout the 18th century and dips into the 19th. We wouldn't want to put a fixed end point where we stop the player from continuing, and we have included some 19th century technologies that can be researched. We always want the player to be able to take history in a different direction, and we have to allow for the possibility that the player will drive tech research faster than happened in reality.

It's a fabulously colourful period, and there are many reasons why it's the perfect choice of era for the next Total War blockbuster: the 18th century is the great age of fighting sail, and it's the obvious arena in which to set our spectacular new sea battles. It's a dynamic time when the world was changing fast -- the Industrial Revolution was powering an astonishing rise in technology, which was also reflected on the battlefield.

Conflicts were becoming global as Europe extended its power across the world, fighting in India, the Caribbean, and of course against the rebellious American colonists in the War of Independence. All this is included in Empire -- so despite the relatively focused time period, this is the most varied, dynamic and large-scale Total War game to date.

Also, the mass-use of gunpowder weapons and artillery in this period gives us the opportunity to develop some really interesting new features and gameplay dynamics that make for a lot of variation.

I can't wait til I destroy the British Colonists in America with the 95th Rifles. Gonna be the nuts.

No release date yet.

Sounds very interesting

I've been with Total War since Shogun, but it has lost some of its gloss for me, with the strat layer having become far too tiresome and full of micromanagement.

Still, one to keep an eye on.

I only ever started with Rome - you reckon it is worth picking up the previous titles?

Medieval II seemed like a carbon copy of Rome to me - a period I find more interesting no doubt, and that is what allowed me to play it - but all the same, I hope this game is a step forward instead of a shimmy to the left.

Sorry to revive this thread, but this game I am very excited about. I just hope that the fact that muskets will rule won't turn it devoid of strategy and a "stand in a line a shoot" game.

I have the mideval 2 gold edition and it's great. love the "americas" camapaign with the apachi, maya, aztec and the euro invaders. the nights templar era campaigns' cool too.

there's so much to do. there's more to do in this game than any game i've ever played.

Originally posted by FistOfThe North
I have the mideval 2 gold edition and it's great. love the "americas" camapaign with the apachi, maya, aztec and the euro invaders. the nights templar era campaigns' cool too.

there's so much to do. there's more to do in this game than any game i've ever played.

I have it too.

Great news, Empire Total War gets delayed one month!

Why is that great news, 'cause this extra time will give them time to also implement a multiplayer campaign mode, the one thing this whole series has been missing from the get go; http://news.bigdownload.com/2008/12/12/empire-total-war-to-add-multiplayer-campaign-mode-after-release/

This got me really interested, I always hated the multiplayer in the previous TW games, never cared about the boring battles, the fun is on the campaign map.

Ooh multiplay campaign is good.

I'll tell you what hacked me off in Medieval II (other than it becoming increasingly plain how clunky the campaign interface was)- no computer players in multiplayer! Arrrrgh! I loved teaming up against computer forces in Rome; whay on Earth take that out??!

This one had better have that back in...

Cant belive the amazing Empire total war has gone to the second page.

So what nations are everyone looking forward to play? being a Brit and liking the idea of wiping those revolutionaries off the face of America warms me with joy, especially if I can do it with the HMS victory at the front of my naval power. A HMS Victory VS USS Constitution would be a grand fight.

Although it seems a very detailed and highly polished game, I even read somewhere that balance will take a step back and realism will be taken forward, for example stronger factions at the time will stay strong, the weaker ones will stay weak.

I look forward to being the UK too. Largest Navy and with those seabattles...

Probably at the beginning of the game, for instance France was relative weak when Napoleon assumed command (they hadn't been out capturing colonies and lacked the income from that in contrast to UK) but when it climbed upwards it ended with having probably the best ground forces in that periode, So I can imagine that in the beginning Denmark for instance would be weak on the ground but still have a fairly good average at sea, where as UK would rock both, but as the game progresses you will as your empire expand force away the Countries that once where the strong. I don't know if it will be the case but I can imagine it.

Has the playable nations been revealed? I always wnat to play these games with my own country and then conquering the world, here's hoping they have Denmark-Norway playable.

I think the game will be incredible, it seems so massively detailed and youve got most of the world at your finger tips to expand, I think it would be equelly fun to play as a small country as it would a superpower like the UK, I mean expanding as a tiny country, taking over your nearby foes slowly but surely would bring its own reward in the form of challenge.

Originally posted by Morridini
Has the playable nations been revealed? I always wnat to play these games with my own country and then conquering the world, here's hoping they have Denmark-Norway playable.


Denmark should definalty be playable, it was in the old ones and this time even more of the world map is open to you, in the old games many nations were avaiable inlcuidng Denmark and since this one is even bigger I have no doubt.

Downloading the demo now (Steam), will not get a chance to play it until tomorrow evening though. So just making you aware of the demo.

kool, it comes out in a week or so does it not?

Almost three weeks I think it is.

i thot it was 3rd/4th of march, thats in like a week or so? thats what Play.com says

Ah right, was thinking of RE 5's release.

The demo was fun indeed, love the sea combat, I found the larger battles a bit overwhelming, having to make sure all my ships and soldiers (on land battles) were doing exactly what they should be doing at every moment in the game but I won the ship battle. I think its going to take some getting used to it, instead of trying to control each ship one at a time ive got to direct the fleet with equal precision. I found myself using my 1st rater by itself while simply telling my other ships to attack the enemy, when instead I should have been lining up all their broadsides and using each type of shot appropriately. Was a hella lot of fun tho.

oh and in the Naval tutorial I destroyed the second sloop in a single volley , the adviser was still telling me to "capture" the ship because id destroyed its sails.....I blew up more than them

Aslo I cannot select "high" settings, I wonder what sort of graphics/system you need for them, I would have thought I could select them for sure with a GF8800, i use a duel core although I may need Vista or Direct X 10 graphics card for High and "ultra"....not sure...

meh, just got this game and I cant even play it, this is ridiculous. It constantly tells me the steam severs are busy and ive been waiting for the last hour....

Tried the demo.

It was pretty cool. I'm a klutz when it comes down to the interface and controlling your armies. Every once and awhile I would see one of my units in a forest not even close to the battle and I did it because I didn't realize when I was still selected on that group.

Could of been a bit more userfriendly about finding out why a group surrended, or what not and maybe have a option to give you a warning when they are about to battle, or giving up.

Ok playing the game now, its brilliant ,love the battles both land and sea and altho ive yet to play the Campaign mode I hear its a blast and reading about it, Its not hard to see why.

HMS victory is nice!

Bought it through Steam.

Seems like a very fun game. Too bad the game freezes, requiring to reboot and the BSOD every so often.

It's almost playable, but it seems to happen very frequently now. I know a patch is coming in a week or so, hopefully it fixes the crashes.

hmm odd, ive not had this problem and ive played it constantly for hours, its addictive this one. Much like the other Total war games, Ime always saying "one more turn".

Yeah,

I installed numerous drivers, including my Sound Blaster drivers. It seems like that worked. I'm surprised that I could of been my sound card.

And it didn't work. Just less severe.

I even tried their suggestion to take the graphics to low, but after an hour battle (still on the Road To Indepedence) with 4 armies, right afterwords it crashes.

I'm starting to not care anymore, so I'm going to stop playing it until the patch fixes the crashes, BSOD and strange freezes. With my luck, instead of fixing the crash to desktop bugs/problems, they will fix some so minute that its almost pointless. I remember STALKER, when first released, the developers did not patch the insane crash to desktop, freezes, extreme slowdown (for a game that was in development for years, you need one beefy computer to run it at full, let alone on low) but instead patched a few little bugs in vacant MP mode.

Ime with you now on this one, my game is now crashing, and whats worse is my game was working 100% fine with no errors or crashes for hours, infact the past few days I played it fine but today its got into crashing after every battle in the campaign mode, which obviously infuriates me...I was having a brilliant time in what is imo a superb game only to have a random and annoying crash ruin my campaign, hopefully as you said, they patch very soon.

can you play battle mode?

Patch should be this week.

It's roughly happening to me after every battle. That's generally where they come.

I never tried battle mode.

Actually decided to buy this in the end. Been playing TW since Shogun but the I've considerably cooled on it as of late to the point where I was not enthused to buy Empire. Too much micromanagement, lack of computer opponents in multiplayer, and frankly the general blandness of the campaign process (logically speaking you strategically win some a hundred turns before it actually plays out, and once you realise this there's not a whole lot left in the game) really put me off.

I know Empire is meant to settle some of those issues. I'm not convinced the entire idea of the campaign mode can ever truly be fixed myself... so... well, I've ordered it anyway. Will arrive in the week.

(The thing is... no matter how you slice it, non-linear campaigns like these ones sound great on paper but in the end they encourage dullness. You need scripting for proper entertainment in the end).

I enjoy the campaign because I like playing as the British, the feel that my enormous empire is expanding in riches and power because of my actions and that other nations are crumbling as well. Destroying the United states for one was a fun factor. Although I am a power hungry player, so taking over huge landscapes for my country are enough satisfaction and the Campaign map in Empire total war is pretty enormous.

It always fizzles in a dramatic sense, though. The hardest part is normally just after the start, and other than the micromanagement nightmare of actually running an expanding empire, the challenges in front of you actually DEcrease as the game goes on. There's no climax, nothing to build up to, no denoument. Just one more fight or turn identical to all the dozens or hudnreds that came before.

I VERY acutely remember in Medieval II where it had become inevitable I would win I was thinking "What the heck is the point of playing on? What do I get? There's nothing more to see, there's no final super mission, just busy work with no value and much pointlessness, all to get a 'well done' message and perhaps a few seconds of cinematic." I'd had misgivings before, but that was really the point where the series fell out of favour for me.

Gameplay wise it is poor, and I loathe to see poor things like that in otherwise well-made games. The campaign mode feels like a setting with no decent objective- they TRIED decent objectives with the first Medieval and failed totally. At least Rome had the 'destroy the Senate and take Rome' thing, which whilst was not all it could be it did at least feel like a decent endgame objective. They could have built on that for MII but they actually took it entirely away! Just hold a bunch of stuff; once you have taken 20 provinces you've taken 100. No good.

Games need an endgame. Look at the Civ series- in theory those games could go on forever but the point of them is that there is a definitive endgame to it.

Of course M2 was not helped by my aforementioned removal of AI opponents thing- the best times I had in Rome was pairing up with friends playing against AI Barbarian hordes. Couldn't do the equivalent in M2. What nonsense.

Yeah, I can see where your coming from.

I dont know, to me being an imaginative person every major take over is like the reward your talking about, every major victory I have on the campaign map in the start of the game is memorable and once my forces have become so powerful that most cannot stand against them theres always my enjoyment of taking over a capital, seeing the burnt out flag of the USA when it tells me that ive wiped them out is more than enough of a reward for me because its an accomplishment ive set myself.

There is an objective....maybe your not seeing the total control of the world through the empire you have governed from the beginning the objective? thats more of an objective than some silly "kill Sultan A in far eastern country B". Your Empire spanning the world as the prime untouched force is the objective.

I think yuo will find me not shrot on imagination, which is precisely why I can see how these things can be done better.

That's only an objective in a literal sense- it is irrelevant in the ganeplaying sense of the word. Like I say, no endgame. And it is great that you get enjoyment out of something that is gameplay empty, but that doesn;t make it good game design in any way and it is still a flaw.

Originally posted by Ushgarak
I think yuo will find me not shrot on imagination, which is precisely why I can see how these things can be done better.

That's only an objective in a literal sense- it is irrelevant in the ganeplaying sense of the word. Like I say, no endgame. And it is great that you get enjoyment out of something that is gameplay empty, but that doesn;t make it good game design in any way and it is still a flaw.

What do you mean gameplay emptey? that makes no sense because the whole thing is a game...the whole campaign is the gameplay.

give an example of what you think would be better?

There are plenty of games with appalling gameplay; don't confuse the two.

Rome had the example- a definitve end goal to work towards with unique and rewarding mechanics. It didn't work 100% but that was the theory of it, right there- and playing as a non-Roman faction was always much more boring.

The point is this. Say there was no end date and no space race in Civilization. Now, I am sure there are plenty of people who get a hoot out of destroying all other factions (despite it just taking turn afetr turn of nothing new, nothing different, and no challenge once you are established) and thetrefore would say "Nothing is missing, this game has all it needs."

They'd be totally wrong. The fact is that Civ is MUCH the better game for its endings and the whole space race idea.

Total War has recently lacked this kind of thing. And whether you enjoy it or not, I don't think there's any excuse for the flaws I outline above. If your game gets progressively easier with nothing new to show- that's poor. if the largest challenge for half the campaign isn't strategy or fighting battles, but moving your bloody administrators around a massive map- something that has no inherent difficulty but is longwinded, time-consuming and annoying- it is poor.

It's poor- and that you like it doesn't change that.

Originally posted by Ushgarak
There are plenty of games with appalling gameplay; don't confuse the two.

Rome had the example- a definitve end goal to work towards with unique and rewarding mechanics. It didn't work 100% but that was the theory of it, right there- and playing as a non-Roman faction was always much more boring.

The point is this. Say there was no end date and no space race in Civilization. Now, I am sure there are plenty of people who get a hoot out of destroying all other factions (despite it just taking turn afetr turn of nothing new, nothing different, and no challenge once you are established) and thetrefore would say "Nothing is missing, this game has all it needs."

They'd be totally wrong. The fact is that Civ is MUCH the better game for its endings and the whole space race idea.

Total War has recently lacked this kind of thing. And whether you enjoy it or not, I don't think there's any excuse for the flaws I outline above. If your game gets progressively easier with nothing new to show- that's poor. if the largest challenge for half the campaign isn't strategy or fighting battles, but moving your bloody administrators around a massive map- something that has no inherent difficulty but is longwinded, time-consuming and annoying- it is poor.

It's poor- and that you like it doesn't change that.

No you said its emptey of gameplay, thats impossible if the entire campaign is gameplay, if you meant you think the gameplay is poor then fair enough.

err what end goal? destroy the senate and take rome? thats no diffrent than destroying any capital in Empire total war....explain how this is somehow a rewarding mechanic?

There is a tech race in Empire total war, although this one gives you more choice in what route you put emphasis on. And all games of a turn based nature have zero challenge once your established or once youve taken over enough territory.

Empire total war is unique in the fact that the play style of each of the races is not only unique but the decisions you make are influenced by the rest of the world, it gives you the choice to either hold trade routes in the carribean or lose them and keep knocking back the Cherokee in America. These are player set goals, if you require the game to tell you your goals for it to be fun then thats fine but it cannot be called a bad game because of it.

I could turn that around easily and say you not liking it does not make it poor

Well, moved the graphics to a lower rez, and to medium settings and I played for at least 4 hours non stop.

But then, it crashed twice in 5 minutes. I'm pretty sure it isn't my video cards. It could be the case that the just released patch fixed a few things, but not all the crashes. I haven't got the BSOD yet, so I'm hoping.

Great game though. I'm casually playing it. I tend to build up everything and not attack anybody. As the British, I'm just starting to attack the Cherokees so the 13 colonies can be under my rule. Let's just say I'm too easy.

Very fun game though, well, when I get to actually play it.

Hmm the patch is released you say? I hope my steam has downloaded it "shrug"

Still worthless, as most people say ive read online that the patch did not help the vast amount of crashes people are having, we seem to be at a similiar progress, my British have taken "new france" and Georgia and are heading towards Cherokee territory, with the 13 colonies under hand the rest of the campaign should be easy since my sea and military power are already high.

Unfortunaltey all of this is demolished because as soon as its the Cherokee turn, the battle that they commence crashes my game. Looks like ill have to wait for a patch before I can even continue the campaign

ah well, ime enjoying the Russian campaign so far

I heard how it crashes alot more now than before the patch.

It seems to me that it works a bit better than before.

Having some bugs is one thing, but crashes/freezes, that's total bullshit.

So, what do ya think'll be the next total war game?

I'm all in for one set in modern day...IF they could get it right.

yeh ime sick of the crashes, I have them very rarely but it broke one of my saved campaigns, making it impossible for me to continue as the british, but its still all fun.

Originally posted by Hewhoknowsall
So, what do ya think'll be the next total war game?

I'm all in for one set in modern day...IF they could get it right.

Maybe late 1800's, early 1900's and WW1. That might be neat, or include WW2.

yeh i want some ironclads during 1800s, and seeing the beauty of a huge charge of soldiers across the trenches and ofcourse when you get the technology, one of those first old tanks moving across the battlefield.

Although ime happy with Empire atm, ime not so interested in the future for now. I want them to get working on a patch to fix it 100% first.

Hopefully they will.

Does anyone know where the saved games for this are? somewhere in steam perhaps?

I need to delete some because I dont like seeing lists of old saves that I dont use anymore, perhaps ime missing something and there is actually a "delete save" button in the game.

Well, it would be on whatever drive you have it installed and the Total War directory.

This game is doing its utmost to make me hate it.

They have not improved the clunk control method for battles, where taking a line of soliders and cright clicking to advance them does not result in all of them mjoving in line to that point, but instead going all higgledy-piggledy, swapping place,s getrting confused and lost etc. You have to right clicmk and drag all units into their correct formation continuously, which is as ridiculous now as it was in all the earlier games. In a skirmish game, I frequently find my light infantry pointing the wrong damn way despite precise instructions (and the green facing arrow cvlearly visible when issuing orders).

Meanwhile, even in the tutorial game, I win battle after battle against the last place you have to capture, it says I have killed all but a handful of the defenders in the stats screen, but then on the campaign screen it says 'siege broken' and their defenders are all alive and I have to start the siege again.

I am full of contempt. Shelving this game for some future time. Extremely unimpressed.

Hm I dont seem to have the problems your having Ush with the soldiers, they move fine for me.

The only problem ime having is the crash, which a lot of people are having, once thats fixed then ill be happy.

Originally posted by Smasandian
Well, it would be on whatever drive you have it installed and the Total War directory.

There is not a total war directory that I can find, just "steampapps" folder

Issue is easily repeatable with a line of units given a simple right-clock move on anything other than flat terrain (it's a pathfinding issue)- they break formation apparently randomly and have done in every Total War game. The issue is endemic to the game and affects everyone; the only question is whether people notice.

Grouping reduces this but there are other behaviour absurdities with grouped units.

I have no idea what is causing the mis-facing however.

Oh, and your game directory will be in steamapps/common.

I have notice a bit of that.

I move them and when the shooting starts, they're facing the complete opposite direction. Then I have to move them again in battle to face the right direction.

I probably would be annoyed if the game didnt keep on crashing on me.

Must be based on luck, ive never had my men face the direction ive not told them to face or facing the wrong way.

I have to admit it's not actually crashed on me yet.

I had a battle using Russian Cossacks with hand mortar grenadiers behind them, that kind of combination was very effective, the opponent who had much better infantry and more groups of them were defeated by such a combination quickly.

Ridiculous, I must say Ive not seen anything I dont like when the game actually works but ime sick with the problems, I think ill leave the game until they fix it now. I started my British campaign again because it was broke by the white screen crashes before, so now ive got to about the 30th turn and ime attacked from the North by a Cherokee army, my settlement is besieged...

But you know what? I cannot sally forth and stop the attackers, everytime I try and move my army out, it keeps telling me I cant and they are all killed in the final turn as my settlement surrenders....

I couldn't stop that problem where I couldn't TAKE a settlement as the enemy army I just killed was always still there.

Though actually it didn't happen if I auto-resolved the battle, though that's hardly an ideal solution.

It's simply buggy.

Such a shame it could be a damn good game if the fools who created it bothered to make sure such silly problems, A.I bugs, crashes etc were fixed, for so many people across the net complaining about similiar bugs and many of them in common with others....the "testing" of the game before release must have been sloppy to say the least.

Looks like to continue my campaign ime going to have to allow my whole army to die and waste another 10 turns maybe more making teh army again from scratch (and probably losing half of my so far gained land while doing so...)

I'm going to wait, and then redo the campaign.

Well, I waited after 3 update patches. Still getting the same ****ing freeze.

Still ****ing annoying. I understand coding a game like this requires a ton of work but how the **** do they still have jobs?

Thats what I am thinking ,you know I contued playing as British up to like the year 1780 and suddenly, i get a crash when its the Spanish A.I turn, infact even if I try and interact with the air before I press "end turn" by buying its land, it will still crash, its like the system dies as soon as the Spanish A.I is interacted with, ime very angry at the moment so ill stop before I make an essay of ranting, getting so far into the game for it to suddenly break is unnacceptable.

What I can't believe is that when a huge game like Crysis has a few bugs like a enemy stuck in a door, everybody criticizes it as a buggy piece of shit.

But when a game like Empire Total War can barely play, let alone show stopping bugs like saves missing, not a single word.

The game is beautiful, every musket ball being rendered and every single soldier thinking and breathing themselves it's just great. However, my new high-end computer can't even handle it with full graphics... D:

Originally posted by ChakraStrings
The game is beautiful, every musket ball being rendered and every single soldier thinking and breathing themselves it's just great. However, my new high-end computer can't even handle it with full graphics... D:

What are the components of your computer and what resolution are you playing at?

Originally posted by ArtificialGlory
What are the components of your computer and what resolution are you playing at?

An nVidia 9100 for graphics card I think.
I haven't checked the resolution but I think I will now.

It's when I turn everything up to max that it doesn't run at a usual brisk pace and his a bit of lag and what not.

It runs perfect when I tone some settings down though.

Originally posted by ChakraStrings
An nVidia 9100 for graphics card I think.
I haven't checked the resolution but I think I will now.

It's when I turn everything up to max that it doesn't run at a usual brisk pace and his a bit of lag and what not.

It runs perfect when I tone some settings down though.

A GeForce 9100? Are you using a laptop? I must admit, I'm surprised how that graphics card can run Empire: Total War at all. It's extremely low-end.

Originally posted by ArtificialGlory
A GeForce 9100? Are you using a laptop? I must admit, I'm surprised how that graphics card can run Empire: Total War at all. It's extremely low-end.

That must be my problem then,
I'll just need to pick up a new graphics card that can handle the game.
And yes, I'm on a laptop.

Any suggestions for a card?

Originally posted by ChakraStrings
That must be my problem then,
I'll just need to pick up a new graphics card that can handle the game.
And yes, I'm on a laptop.

Any suggestions for a card?

Go for a 9800M GS or something, if the motherboard can handle it, and if the other components don't suck.

Ime getting a upgrade to my machine, will a

Intel CPU Core i7-920 2.66ghz

XFX Geforce GTX 295 1792MB PCI-E 2.0

be able to run this on high settings?

Easily.

Very easily actually.

ah good, klkl, just thinking this is one of the main games i was upgrading for, if the chosen hardware was not up to the task I may have reconsidered, ty.

Nah, the card and the processor are up to snuff. Easily. They're top of the line.

Your putting down some cash though. New mobo, alot of RAM, new card....lot of cash.

Originally posted by Burning thought
Ime getting a upgrade to my machine, will a

Intel CPU Core i7-920 2.66ghz

XFX Geforce GTX 295 1792MB PCI-E 2.0

be able to run this on high settings?

What resolution you play on that you're getting such a beast?

ime buying a 24 inch monitor to play on, playing at 1920x1200 I think, altho thats what ill play at, the monitor can do that 2000 resolution one (sry not good with remembering numbers for resolutions) but apprently even the best hardware cant run smoothly at huge resolutions.

I got Vista 64. I find it perfectly fine.

If you have an old copy of XP hanging around, you could wait for Windows 7.

Originally posted by Burning thought
ime buying a 24 inch monitor to play on, playing at 1920x1200 I think, altho thats what ill play at, the monitor can do that 2000 resolution one (sry not good with remembering numbers for resolutions) but apprently even the best hardware cant run smoothly at huge resolutions.

Yea, that's about right for a 1920x1200 monitor. Though I don't know any 24inch monitor that can display 2560x1600.

Originally posted by Smasandian
I got Vista 64. I find it perfectly fine.

If you have an old copy of XP hanging around, you could wait for Windows 7.

nah ive got Vista 64, I just use XP for the moment because ime unsure of it but now obvioulsy I want to make use of all the features i can so ill use Vista 64 now

The only problem I had running games in Vista 64 has been Splinter Cell Chaos Theory and that's only because of Starforce drivers didn't support 64 bit systems below a certain version. It blows, but well, its more of Starforces fault.

Drivers haven't been an issue either.

hm cool, well thats encouraging, hopefully Ill not have many problems.

Originally posted by Burning thought
hm cool, well thats encouraging, hopefully Ill not have many problems.

Yep, only half of the scare stories you heard about Vista 64bit are true.

Just a note- not tried it out yet but a big patch has just been released. It has a big list of crash fixes, and in campaign fixes it says it has fixed a bug where sallying armies break a siege even in defeat, which seems to relate to what I complained about above.

So with any luck this has helped.

Hopefully,

I don't want to try it out because I'm afraid I'm going to be disappointed again.

There's a patch on the patch already. Gee! That game breaks easily.

Yeah, I saw the patch, I was like "what the ****"?

Too bad it didn't fix my problem. I'm hoping a couple of Windows Hot Fixes will fix the issue, or a new videocard driver, but I don't have high hopes.

Ok I got all my gear, its incredible, ive not seen such detail, I can run Empire total war (tested with maximum ships in naval) on maximum settings, Crysis on max and supreme commaner even with a lot of units on max without any problems at all so ime happy thats for sure and my 24 inch shows it in a clarity ive not seen before (altho I have sensitive eyes so ill need to get more light in my room to equel it out)

Cool dude, have fun.

ty, hopefully the latest patches will fix problems as well, hmm

I highly doubt it.

Have they increased the size of groups of soldiers? I used to have 60 men per Line infantry group, now ive got 120 when playing as british and most other sides (I think its prussia gets a 150 one)

That was always a custom option in earlier TW games and I believe still is. Check your gameplay options.

I've always had 120 infantry units in a line when using the British.

hm thats strange, well after looking at the options I cannot find anything to ajust how many soldiers in a group

edit: nvm, found it under "graphic" options hmmm

Ordered this game, can't wait to try it out.

Are the Naval battles anything evolutionary? And how does the gun fire system work out?

Hopefully it works for you.

There's an arc you see and the ship automatically shoot another ship in that arc. Or you can click on the broadside button and hit it again to control how they attack.

It's kinda of boring.
I've only done it a few times because the game does not work on my system for some reason.

Well it's arriving today so I'm pretty excited. I heard that it the AI on the Campaign is pretty horrible at release, so I'm going to patch it up before I start it though. Is the patch large? Don't want to wait longer to play it...

It would be cool if the next total war game would be a total war version of civilization/empire earth where you'd have a game spanning from the dawn of time to even the future. I'd love to pit Napoleon vs Alexander the Great or Samurai vs Knights

Originally posted by Spidervlad
Well it's arriving today so I'm pretty excited. I heard that it the AI on the Campaign is pretty horrible at release, so I'm going to patch it up before I start it though. Is the patch large? Don't want to wait longer to play it...

I have it on Steam, so I don't know. But there is alot of patches.

The is buggy as shit, and hopefully you can even play it. I can't. It freezes my computer to the point on where I have to cold reboot it.

It would be cool if the Total War series went from the dawn of time to now, but if they can't even make a non-buggy game spanning an hundred years, how the hell do you expect them to make a guy going over thousands of years.

My computer is not so bad now, whether its my new machine or recent patches i dont know but ive not had a crash and ive played it for a good few weeks.

It's not my machine, I know that for sure.

Every other game works and I have the most common videocard out there in 8800 GT.

So I was playing with Russia in the Grand Campaign, and I was about to conquer Georgia, and then my whole monitor became white and crashed. Very cool.

Yep, that sounds like mine. Instead of complete white, it has a kaleidoscope kinda of thing.

At least you had something pretty to look at then.

Yeah, I guess while my computer is having a seizure.

I gave up trying to play this game. I really like it.

So instead I bought Civ4 and its exp packs and I'm loving it.

Well, it's a little bit more stable now didn't crash once since. Been playing a few multiplayer battles, their pretty fun and the lag isn't that big even if its a 4 v 4 battle. Big change from Medieval 2 : Total War and it's lag issues.

Never been a fan of Civ 4, it looked tos complicated and at the same time the combat too simple.

I loved Empire Earth and Empire Earth 2. How they screwed up Empire Earth 3 so bad, I really don't know.

Civ 4 isn't that complicated once you get the hang of it.

But at least it works.