Empire: Total War

[In advance, I scrolled through a good few pages in Search and couldn't find this.]

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....