Amending a score from 9.5 to 8.5 is the right thing to do, but perhaps a little late?
This game is broken, CA are doing nothing to address the numerous bugs and problems on this game. Graphics are impressive i must say, enjoy them while you can before the game freezes and locks up even on the highest specced gaming machines. This game does not work for me and many others in 3way or 2way sli 260gtx's with 4.0ghz pentium quadcore and 4gig ddr3 memory in vista 64. So be prepared to turn off sli if you want to play the game.
Most of the units look the same, so you won't be able to tell the difference between swedish pikeman and american soldiers. I understand uniforms were much the rage in those days, but it doesn't disguise the cut'n'paste job CA have tried to pull here. The Ottoman army is perhaps the only original looking army in the game, though cavalry could've been more varied also. Hussars were the most flamboyant characters in this era and were full of pomp and glamor in appearance and behaviour, but are sadly under -represented in this game and again turn into a generic cut'n'paste job. Garrisoning is a joke, and AI is also a joke which is a big anti-climax for me, because after organising my vast, well-balanced army to square off against what i perceive to be a worthy foe, the AI does incredibly peculiar things like wonder in seperate directions and stampede right into your guns fov and then look as though they are having second thoughts, retreat and then stampede again, and the cycle goes on and on, all the while you are picking them off at point blank range.
What really gets me is how CA are trying to flog special units and addons now for a broken game, and a sequal in Napolean totalwar without fixing the already numerous bugs and glitches this game suffers from. I think they have released just 1 patch so far which fixes nothing from what i can tell. I have no gripes with CA and have myself been a fanboy of all the totalwar games thus far.
I just hope the review for Napolean is more thought out than what was for Empire. But you never know, Napolean could be a good game. They have announced varied units and more invidualised soldiers. It could be the game that Empire was supposed tobe, but I won't be getting it unless they fix Empire first! And thats a tall order!