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Napoleon Total War comes out 2morrow! I cant wait for this game personally! They look to have really improved alot of things over Empire Total War (which I really enjoyed).
Anyone else excited? Got it preordered?
I will post some pictures up 2morrow after I play a bit of it!
SCORES SO FAR =
- NZGamer.com = 93%
- Gameplanet = 90%
- Eurogamer Italy = 90%
- IGN = 89%
- 3DJuegos = 85%
- Meristation = 85%
- Everyeye.It = 85%
- PC Gamer UK = 82%
- 9Lives = 79%
- Aus Gamers = 85%
A Proper Review From A Proper Gentleman
The Authors Notes
My name is John L. Nuccio. Some of you may know me by my forum name, Nuccio Africanus. I am 22 years old and currently attend Cal Poly San Luis Obispo University where I major in Animal Science and Biology. I am hoping to graduate this June 2010. I hope this review allows you, as the reader, to gain insight into this upcoming game. I have tried to be unbiased inmy review. I feel everything that is stated is fair and stated with reason. With that said, I would like topoint outthat any personal interaction illustrated with people and between people may be exaggerated or somewhat changed, as memories and events canblend fact with fantasy, over time.
The review itself is separate from the Prologue. I do recommend that thereader take time to read the Prologue, as this will allow the reader full immersion. Iprefaced my review for this simple reason. To give the reader the opportunity to join me on my journey. The Prologue will allow you to understand my hopes, fears, and doubts surrounding the game before I tested it. You may think the Prologue to be unnecessary, and if that is so then please feel free to skip it. To those who choose to read the Prologue I hope it allows you, the reader, to be as immersed into my thought process as possible.
The Prologue of Nuccio
2:15 pm, my entourage and I arrived at Sega Corporate offices. As I walked across the Marble floors making my way to the front desk, I recounted the events that had led me to this point. Early that morning my entourage, Patrick Campbell (Urza), my girlfriend Elise and I all met at my house sharply, at 8 am. The three of us jumped into Elise's sleek Volkswagen and headed off toward San Francisco. During the journey northward I went over my prepared questions with Patrick while I thought to myself, "Had my training been enough? Am I prepared for this?" I had worked hard in preparation for this day. During the last week, I had exhausted my body physically at the gym while spending my nights reading scrolls well into the twilight hour. My preparations had been rigorous yet I wondered if I was truly ready to review this game. My mind was filling with doubt. Elise looked at me through the corner of her eye, knowing the thoughts that swam threw my head. She looked over grabbing my hand telling me sweetly in an uplifting voice, "Hey, stop worrying, you're Nuccio Africanus! What could they throw at you, that you couldn't handle?" I smiled back at her, knowing she was right. I was being silly questioning my abilities, but still I had other doubts. I thought to myself, "Would the A.I. really be able to handle all these new features? With all these new tactics, weapons, and turmoil could CA really produce a balanced game? Is Napoleon Total War really a new game or just another Empire with new problems?" Even with my mind darkened by these questions, I eventually was able to relax as I stared out at the Central Californian Country Side. The hills were a rich green from all the recent rain. I kept myself busy looking at the cows and horses that roamed the surrounding hills. I looked back at Patrick and exclaimed," Well we don't know how the game is going to be but the scenery is beautiful and definitely making this drive, scenic."
We stopped in San Jose to pick up my most trustworthy friend Michael O'Sullivan.Though I do consider myself a history buff, I still thought it necessary to bring my own expert on the Napoleonic period so as to authenticate the realism of the game. Michael had studied at Oxford University where he majored in Modern History with an emphasis in Military History. The Napoleonic Wars was not just another subject Michael had studied, but truly was the focus of his life's passion. I had asked him a week earlier if he wanted to come watch me play Napoleon Total War, and was not surprised when he readily agreed to assist me. We picked him up outside of Santa Clara University where he had just finished **** He jumped in the car and introduced himself to Patrick, then quickly exclaimed, "John, thank you so much I can't @+#%%*# wait to see this game!" With that comment both Pat and I began to get pumped up and overly excited about the game. We all talked heavily about what we expected to see at the event.
Finally around 12 pm we arrived at Fisherman's Wharf.My entourage and I were planning on meeting Laurence (Dionysius the Mighty) and his wife for some lunch at one of the many pier food venues. Yet we took so long finding a place to park, that Laurence and his wife decided to eat without us. They abandoned us in an effort to finish up with some sightseeing before the event at 3 pm. So my posse and I decided to grab some Clam Chowder, Fish & Chips, and a beer at one of the local eateries. I watched the pigeons as I threw my fries onto the ground. Chaos ensued as the Pigeons fought violently for the little scraps of food. I wondered if I would be immersed in the Chaos of War like I had been playing "Rome Total War". In all honesty, I never felt like Rome's successors "Medieval 2 Total War" or "Empire Total War" ever really captured the Chaos of War like Rome did and does. Maybe I thought, just maybe Napoleon will be a Total War game that stands as Rome's equal. After we ate, Pat, Mike, and I accompanied Elise as she did some shopping along the pier. We thought it was only fair as she was willing to journey north with us. Soon we would be playing Napoleon for three hours with her as a spectator. An hour of shopping was the least we could do torecompense her.
We got back in the car at 1:50 pm and quickly found Sega's corporate building. We entered the building and rode the elevator to the fourth floor. I glanced at the time on my phone and hoped they wouldn't be too annoyed with our early arrival.
2:15 pm, my entourage and I arrive at Sega Corporate offices. Patrick and I walk up to the front desk to inform the secretary of our arrival. I put my right hand on the counter and lean over slightly, looking down at the secretary as I say, "Hello, I am John Nuccio and this is Patrick Campbell, we are here to test and review the game Napoleon Total War. I apologize for our early arrival." The secretary glanced up from her work, looking warmly into my eyes, "Oh sweet heart, don't ya worry now. Just sign in here and take a seat. We are so happy to have ya test out our new game now, don't cha know." I smiled back at her, instantly recognizing the Minnesotan accent. Pat and I signed in and took a seat in the lobby next to Michael and Elise. As I watched the video screen's showing trailers of newly released Sega Titles I noticed out of the corner of my eye the Secretary looking at me. I inferred that she was trying to figure out who exactly I was. I realized after watching the many Sega employees move in and out of offices that I was perhaps over dressed for this event. Probably the formality of my outfit had gained the curious attention from the Secretary. I chose a dark grey dress sweater to wear over my plane white t-shirt. The sweatshirt itself matched my black jeans, while clearly displaying the dappled musculature of my physique. Over the dress sweater I wore a dark black Pea Coat that added a protective layer from the elementswhile also adding a layer of mystery to my profile. Of course I wore black socks and black dress shoes, as they were the only footwear that could possibly go with my outfit. The outfit did much to pronounce my wild blond hair. You could say I looked like a young soldier, serving in the Prussian Infantry. Ironically, as I watched the game trailer for "Planet 51 the Game" replay over, and over, and over again, my body began filling with an extreme rage only known to the German. After I had thought about it, I decided that I didn't care whether I was over dressed or not. I opened my leather bound notebook, gifted to me by the Hotel Raffles L'Ermitage, and retrieved my notes. "I had dressed just as nicely when I wrote hotel reviews for the Raffles L'Ermitage and the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel," I thought to myself, as I reviewed my notes and my prepared questions. I then whispered quietly, "Why shouldn't I look professional and serious while testing and reviewing a game that could possibly become the "Cadillac"of Strategy Gaming?"
Around 2:45 pm, a nice looking fellow entered the main lobby; he was dressed in a stunning "red coat" jacket that highlighted every Anglo Attribute on his body. He quickly spotted me sitting, reading my notes. He stared intensely at me. I quickly looked behind me, making sure that I was the intended target for his gaze. After he had studied me in great detail, he belted out in a low English accent, "Nachio, is that you?" I realized quickly that the English devil was "Dionysus the Mighty", looking the part of the devoted fan. I quickly stood up and replied, "Laurence, how are you?" He smiled back at me, rosy in the cheeks, saying, "Wonderful, just wonderful, we got off the train this morning. Seventeen hours it was. I am just great though. Just that I am not looking forward to the ride back." I laughed and truly didn't have the heart to correct him on the pronunciation of my name. Luckily though my girlfriend, Elise, is French and having no regard for politeness as the French do, she was more than eager to correct the Englishman. Elise quickly said loud and slow, "His name is NU-Ch-E-O!" But Laurence being English readily ignored her critiquing complaints. I then proceeded to introduce Dionysius to my entourage, while Dionysius introduced us to his lovely wife who just seemed THRILLED to be there. I say that last part with some sarcasm. I also met a programmer named Weyland, who was also going to be testing the game along with Patrick, Laurence, and myself. Anyways just as we were well acquainted, an employee named Julian introduced himself to us. I quickly realized that he was "Clumsy Orchid". He gave us a brief rundown of the plan. He said Kieran was running late from lunch but should be here soon. Just then, the knight in shining himself, Kieran, entered. I swallowed hard as his energy filled the room. He approached and shouted loudly at us, but he shouted eloquently, "A-HA, everyone I see is here. I am late, I am the only one late. Oh sorry guys, anyways follow me. Yes come this way." He motioned us back toward a conference room that was retrofitted with sleek Alienware PCs and contemporary Scandinavian furniture. As Michael and Elise took a seat behind me, Kieran closed the door and said that he was impressed with my entourage. I told him, "Well that's how I roll, play-ar." He replied back, "Yes, I am not surprised." I then caught him checking out my outfit which was pretty"metro" of him, at leastit wasin my book. But then again his pristine outfit gave that little tidbit away from the start, plus he is British. Julian gave a little speech or something that I truly don't remember, but It went something like this, "Blah, blah, blah, Sega is so happy to host this event for you the dedicated fans, blah, blah, blah, why am I so awkward? blah, blah, blah." And I was thinking "Ok! We get it, you are happy we came. Let's start letting Kieran show us what Napoleon is about." But then luckily Kieran turned on the huge flat screen and commanded that Julian and the other Publishers be quiet. And with that, Kieran began to introduce us to the world that is "Napoleon Total War".
CONTINUED ON NEXT POST
OR CLICK THIS LINK TO READ THE WHOLE THING!
http://shoguntotalwar.yuku.com/topic/67472
Some more info
Eye Candy:
There is quite a bit of it, its a great looking game. The amount of smoke in our 2v2 game inside a city was staggering and actually prevented us from being able to see the battle at all in some cases. Kieran and I played as a team, and neither one of us brought artillery as we planned to occupy the buildings and fight street to street. I did bring a few heavy cavalry and went after one of the other players artillery units right off which allowed us to take position inside the city. I occupied the buildings and smacked down some artillery units and then sent the rest of my troops to support Kieran. Basically we had 2v1 on one side of the city as our second opponent was coming into the other side of the city. We pretty much put him in full retreat and then tried to redeploy to meet the threat from the other side. Anyone watching this game for the first 10-12 minutes would have bet that the game was over and that we had won handily.
But we ended up losing. A close defeat, but we still lost. I lost most of my cavalry trying to kill the artillery units of our first opponent, and Kieran lost his general. We had a solid position inside the city, and the troops I had in the building had high accuracy and damage ratings, good riflemen. The troops that werent in buildings were mostly skirmishers and the remnants of my cavalry. When player 2 (I forget names, sorry. I think that was ASL) got into the edges of the city from the other side he had some hefty infantry and sent some of them to capture a building I had occupied on the outskirts. It was basically 3v1 against my riflemen in the building. I sent over 2 units of skirmishers to help out. At this point I had 7 units of riflemen inside various buildings, 3 or 4 units of riflemen in the center of the city, and 4 units of skirmishers. I think the only unit of Kierans that had taken serious losses as this point was his generals bodyguard and some other cavalry. He was keeping most of his force together to support my troops holding the center of the city. Player 1 was down to about 50% of his forces, probably a bit less. Player 2 was virtually untouched. Most our troops were working their way from the north east edge of the city towards the center and Player 2 was attacking from the southwest.
It all started to come apart at that first house battle. My skirmishers were no match for his heavy infantry, and though my riflemen inside the building held up well I still ended up losing the building. But thats not what hurt us. He had gotten some artillery into position and they were firing on the buildings. While we were fighting street to street inside the city we were getting pounded by artillery. My forces were fairly spread out between the 7 various buildings and were getting picked off one at a time, but Kieran was holding his own against Player 2 in the streets supported by the few individual units I had not committed to buildings.
But we couldnt find the artillery, and had no real cavalry forces left to do a quick search for them. I still had my general and he died trying to fight through some heavy infantry in an effort to find the artillery. There were two reasons we couldnt find the artillery, we had no real forces to spare in a search, and there was soooo much smoke we couldnt see anyways! The area the artillery was in was entirely covered with smoke, as was most of that side of the city.
At this time I should point out two things which I consider to be bugs. The first pretty much cost me 4 entire units of riflemen, the second might not actually have been a bug but a conscious decision on the part of Player 2, I should have asked him. Player 2 had gotten some heavy infantry into a building at the center of the city and they were fighting hand to hand with my riflemen inside. I sent my 3 units of riflemen from the square into the building. While all this was going on the building was still getting pounded by artillery. I am not sure if Player 2 made a decision to fire on that building, or if the Fire at Will command allowed them on fire on a building containing friendly troops in an even fight, but they kept firing. By the time my 3 units arrived the building was about 50% damaged. Those troops arrived and made fairly short work of his troops trying to get inside, but then all 4 of my riflemen units got stuck. I decided to abandon the building because it had sustained so much damage, and if a building collapses with troops inside they all die. But my troops could not leave. Several men of each unit were inside trying to get out, the rest were outside trying to get in. I had given them all commands to move to a new location as I had secured the building and concentrated on another battle site for a few minutes. When my troops had not yet arrived I went to check on them and they were milling back and forth at the doorway. I pointed this out to Kieran and he asked me if I had issued the orders singly or if I had sent all the orders at once. I had highlighted all 3 of my support units and sent them to the building all at the same time, and when I ordered them out I had highlighted all 4 (the original unit in the building plus the 3 support units) and told them to move to a new position. This caused them to get stuck going back and forth in the building/courtyard and they never redeployed. By the time I noticed that they were stuck the building was about 90% damaged, and when the building collapsed it destroyed most of them. The ones that survived routed. Kieran told me they knew about issues with ordering multiple units into and out of buildings and were trying to address it with the day 1 patch.
That hurt us pretty badly. We were now pretty evenly matched with Player 2, maybe a bit stronger except for artillery, and the fighting inside the city was getting nasty. But Player 1 had managed to regroup a bit and come back into the north side of the city. The fighting went on for another 20 minutes or so, and I had been decimated so badly that my remaining 4 units eventually routed. As I said we lost that battle, but it was pretty close. I think at the end Player 1 had two units left and Player 2 had 3 units left, all badly damaged. They were actually talking about how little they had left and they were going to lose, but since I was out of the game I was up walking around looking at everyones machine and I knew it was over for Kieran and I.
Battle AI:
The battle AI is quite a bit better. The way Kieran explained it to me is that the AI is now multitasked, it can consider more than a single option at a time. Before the AI would make a decision, then when something new happened on the battlefield it would make a contradictory decision that made the AI seem to get stuck and go back and forth between decisions. Sort of an endless loop. Now the AI can react to multiple situations, and multiple goals at once which helps it avoid that problem. For instance it can have Goal #1 : Eliminate Artillery and Goal #2 Protect General, and give them different weights. Then send some units to go after the artillery while holding some in reserve. Before the AI rewrite it could do this, but if the general was threatened then the units attacking the enemy artillery would get "confused" about what they were supposed to do, which made them go back and forth on the battlefield endlessly. That should not happen nearly as often with NTW.
My first battle I just clicked start without rearranging any of my units, and watched. All I did was deploy the artillery. I had an artillery unit out on the wings, one on each side. The one on the left side was close to my general, the one on the right side had some lower quality militia units close to it. The AI immediately sent out some heavy cavalry and smashed into that artillery unit on the right side while the main force redeployed to match up with my battle line. My milita unit tried to help out the artillery unit but they were no match for the cavalry, and as soon as the artillery unit was destroyed the cavalry unit ran back and joined their main group. It had done its job of killing my artillery unit.
On the other side of the field it was trying to flank me, but I had a terrain advantage because of a luckily placed hill and they had to fight uphill to get to me. I should also mention that I had them outnumbered by about 6 units, and if I had just auto calced this battle I would have won it pretty handily. I won that battle fairly easily without doing anything at all, but I definitely took a lot more losses than I would have if I had actively tried to win. The AI did not just rush into riflefire from the front, it did try to gain a position advantage. It just didnt have the forces to do it.
In another battle vs the AI I had sieged Cairo, and they sortied out to fight. They had a lot of militia units which arent that great to begin with, and I had nearly a full stack. This was a desert battle on a wide open field of sand. I positioned my general, my artillery, a few units of riflemen and 2 units of cavalry on the far left of the field, and lined up the rest of my troops in a single line on the right side of the field. There was a HUGE amount of space in between my two groups. The AI reacted appropriately in my opinion.
It also split its forces, one group went to take out my artillery and general while the other tried to engage my main force on the right side. Some of the militia units attacking my right side ran straight into a line of 10 units of riflemen while the AI's stronger units tried to get around behind them. It was using the cheap militia units as cannon fodder. It would send them in to keep my riflemen busy and withdraw them back to the line periodically while his cavalry and heavy infantry tried to flank. I also could not support one side of my army with the other because of how the AI deployed. I didnt really have to because the AI was so overmatched to begin with, but it did give a valiant effort.
Campaign AI:
The campaign AI ia quite a bit better was well. The above mentioned battle of Cairo was very early in my Egyptian campaign, and I had merged nearly all of the forces I had at the beginning of the game and sent them to Cairo. This left the two cities I started with virtually undefended, and the AI tried to take advantage of that. I was playing as France, and England had landed an army near one of my cities and actually besieged it. As I already mentioned the Mamelukes had sortied out of Cairo to fight, but they didnt have to. They still had two turns left before they lost the city by default. At the time I thought that was an odd decision and mentioned it to Kieran, and he came over to check it out. As it turns out they were moving an army towards my second city, while all my troops were at Cairo and my first city was besieged by England. I took Cairo with losses of about 25%, but I was about to lose my two original cities and there wasnt a damn thing I could do about it. If I had continued that campaign I would have been in serious trouble.
In my Italian campaign, which I actually played before the Egyptian campaign, I was also in trouble early on. You start with two armies, one led by Napoleon and one led by another general, and a single city. I hadnt even ended a single turn when I sent Napoleans army into battle, a battle that I actually lost against the AI. I should mention that when Napolean gets "killed" in battle he goes off screen to recover from his injuries in France and there are huge penalties involved in this. This left me with a single army with a mediocre general and the remnants of Napoleon's army which wasnt in good shape and was way out of position to do any good. The AI sent a small army and camped out between my city and Napoleon's army, they couldnt resupply.
It then sent another army around the mountains on the east side of my city. Again I was in trouble on the campaign map, mostly because of my stupid decision to immediately attack without doing any real preparations, but also because the AI knew it now had the upper hand and moved to exploit it. I did manage to get my act together and beat the AI back a bit, but it wasnt easy.
Diplomacy:
The diplomacy seems to be quite a bit better, but its hard to figure out why the AI makes certain decisions when you do not know what is going on in the rest of the world. Kieran mentioned in ETW that the AI values its technology at about 5 to 1 compared to your technology. So if you offer to trade tech with the AI, and the two tech items involved are at the same place on the tech tree, the AI will refuse because it considers its tech to be 5 times more valuable than your tech. This is designed to prevent the player from trading straight across for one piece of tech, then trading that piece of tech to another faction for something else, then trading that piece of tech for something else, and so on. A player doing this could theoretically amass a huge technical advantage over the AI in a single turn.
The AI now tries to account for what is going on in the rest of the world when deciding how to deal with diplomatic offers from players. To demonstrate this Kieran and I played a multiplayer campaign in Egypt where there are only 4 factions involved. He played as the Ottomans, I played as France, and we were at war from the start with the Mamelukes in between us. Kieran made some diplomatic offers to the Mamelukes to get them more on his side, and I was trying to do the same. He spent more money on this than I did, so obviously the Mamelukes sided with him.
However if I had not known what he was doing, I would have thought the AI was being stupid in refusing my offers of tech and 1000 in gold for military access. Because I knew what Kieran was doing, it all made sense when they refused, and since I didnt have access I couldnt get to him without declaring war on the Mamelukes and going through their territory. That suddenly made the game 2v1, Kieran and the Mamelukes against me.
I didnt get to spend a whole lot of time testing every aspect of diplomacy as I was more interested in the BAI, but it definitely seems to be improved and there are more options.
Multiplayer:
CA has really gone after the multiplayer market with NTW, and there are 3 ways to play multiplayer. Multiplayer battles, multiplayer campaign, and drop in battles.
Multiplayer battles are nothing new, so nothing really needs to be said.
The multiplayer campaign is interesting, and the way they have set it up works fairly well. Basically the host selects an amount of time for each turn. Kieran selected 5 minutes. When it is your turn, you can do everything just as if you are playing a single player game. When it is not your turn, you can manage all your cities and build armies and research tech, but you cannot move armies, navies, agents, or engage in diplomacy. This allows you to do something besides just sit there for 5 minutes while the other player takes his turn, and makes the game play at almost single player speed. If you have the turn times set at 5 minutes (or even 3 as we tried once) and you make all your management decisions while the other player is moving armies, then you can quickly move your armies and agents around when it is your turn. If the other player does the same, then the turns progress fairly fast and you dont get bored doing nothing. For me personally I never really got into multiplayer battles, but playing multiplayer campaigns this way is actually fun. At this time its limited to 2 players but in the future I hope they expand that and figure out a few other ways to speed up gameplay in multiplayer campaigns.
And my favorite part of the new multiplayer options is the drop in battles. This was a great idea. Basically you are playing a single player game, but throwing your battles open for multiplayer action. If you select this option, every time you go into battle someone from Steam can jump in and take the place of the AI. The player that joins has to play with whatever the AI has available, but as we all know, no matter how good an AI is it will never replace a human. This allows other players to affect your single player campaign because you dont get stuck in a rut or have the chance to figure out a simple way to beat the AI. And you never know which human player will see your battle posted online and decide to join in. I really like this feature.
Revolution/Evolution
I actually spent quite a bit of time talking with Kieran about the production process for the entire TW series as well, not just NTW. His way of explaining it was Revolution and then Evolution. The idea behind this model of design is that you do something Revolutionary for one game release, and then that release Evolves to a better product in the next game. And then you start over with a new Revolutionary idea.
You can see this if you look at the past releases. RTW was the Revolution. It brought a 3D campaign map and a ton of new features that we all loved. M2TW was the Evolution but based on the same engine. ETW was the Revolution, NTW is the Evolution.
The new production model is constant Evolution. There is a core of code that is stable and solid, and everything else is attached to that. Kieran compared it to the human body. The core code is the spine, the other parts of code that attach to it are the ribs. You can remove one rib (feature), and plug in another rib, and radically change gameplay.
I will compare that design model to other software platforms. Most games are short term peices of software. You produce one game, then you go and make a completely new game. You have all seen this in nearly every game you can think of. Some of them follow specific themes, like Star Wars or something similar, but essentially they are completely new rewrites based on a similar world.
Other pieces of software are more long term, like operating systems or suites of software like Office or Adobe. They have a central core that is built upon with each release. Linux and Windows both are good examples of this, as is Photoshop or even TurboTax. You dont have to recreate the wheel every time you produce a new product, and this saves time and money that you can then use to do other stuff. You still make core improvements and changes, but its not a total rewrite. Unreal Tournament is another game platform that follows this concept, and its worked well for them as well. I think that this ****of approach to gaming will lead to better improvements and makes for a better product long term. Time will tell if this approach works for games as well as it does for other applications, but I suspect it will.
Synopsis
Overall I was fairly impressed. The game is not perfect, and Kieran and company will readily admit that. However it is a good product, and I have no qualms about dropping a few bucks to get it. There are a lot of improvements, and as I pointed out a few problems as well. But the improvements vastly outnumber the problems and I think CA definitely moved in the right direction both in terms of NTW and in terms of their long range goals.
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=330276
Hope he got paid by the word to spew that out. Hooray for viral marketing.
bogaty
We get the point, your pissed off.. can look at your first post and see this, no reason to post more trolling.
Dont wanna see user reviews or the review scores for mags? Then dont look, its as simple as that.
[QUOTE="bogaty"]
Hope he got paid by the word to spew that out. Hooray for viral marketing.
kozzy1234
We get the point, your pissed off.. can look at your first post and see this, no reason to post more trolling.
Dont wanna see user reviews or the review scores for mags? Then dont look, its as simple as that.
Who's trolling?
Prior to ETW's release, CA promised a new, robust, and intelligent AI, a multiplayer campaign, and a host of other features. The "professional" game news sites all toed the line and waxed rhapsodical about what a wondorous, bug-free, and superbly polished game ETW was. Then it was released. Memory leaks, random crashes on far too many people's systems, an AI that was incapable of conducting amphibious landings, a diplomatic AI that was completely broken, and no multiplayer campaign. It's been nearly a year and the game is still in a terrible state.
I simply say DO NOT BUY THIS GAME until it has been thoroughly tested and commented upon by trustworthy members of the community and not some bought-off hack from IGN or GS.
[QUOTE="kozzy1234"]
[QUOTE="bogaty"]
Hope he got paid by the word to spew that out. Hooray for viral marketing.
bogaty
We get the point, your pissed off.. can look at your first post and see this, no reason to post more trolling.
Dont wanna see user reviews or the review scores for mags? Then dont look, its as simple as that.
Who's trolling?
Prior to ETW's release, CA promised a new, robust, and intelligent AI, a multiplayer campaign, and a host of other features. The "professional" game news sites all toed the line and waxed rhapsodical about what a wondorous, bug-free, and superbly polished game ETW was. Then it was released. Memory leaks, random crashes on far too many people's systems, an AI that was incapable of conducting amphibious landings, a diplomatic AI that was completely broken, and no multiplayer campaign. It's been nearly a year and the game is still in a terrible state.
I simply say DO NOT BUY THIS GAME until it has been thoroughly tested and commented upon by trustworthy members of the community and not some bought-off hack from IGN or GS.
user score of 8.4 says most people actually like the game alot.
Great post Kozzy, I really like the review from John Nuccio. Sounds like the game is going to be great, I will get this on my birthday in April. I have to first get BFBC2 and Metro 2033. Sounds like it should be quite fun, enjoyed E:TW, can't wait to test this out. @ bogaty - it is fine if you are not buying the game, not big deal. Though must you come into a thread based upon someone who is looking forward to it and just down the game? I really do not think it is necessary.millerlight89
If it keeps one person from buying NTW before its been throoughly vetted, then yes. Anyway, the thread title is "Napoleon Total War thread" not "only post here if you have positive things to say about NTW". If you disagree with my opinon, that's fine but don't tell me where or what I can post.
[QUOTE="millerlight89"]Great post Kozzy, I really like the review from John Nuccio. Sounds like the game is going to be great, I will get this on my birthday in April. I have to first get BFBC2 and Metro 2033. Sounds like it should be quite fun, enjoyed E:TW, can't wait to test this out. @ bogaty - it is fine if you are not buying the game, not big deal. Though must you come into a thread based upon someone who is looking forward to it and just down the game? I really do not think it is necessary.bogaty
If it keeps one person from buying NTW before its been throoughly vetted, then yes. Anyway, the thread title is "Napoleon Total War thread" not "only post here if you have positive things to say about NTW". If you disagree with my opinon, that's fine but don't tell me where or what I can post.
I respect your opinion. I thought the game had AI trouble. I am not trying to tell you where and what to post, so just calm down. I was more referring to what you said about the review. Just seems really unnecessary.Looking forward to seeing screenshots of gamespot members playign Napoleon and seeing what all you think about it!
kozzy1234
I see someone is super hyped :D
[QUOTE="kozzy1234"]
Looking forward to seeing screenshots of gamespot members playign Napoleon and seeing what all you think about it!
kazakauskas
I see someone is super hyped :D
Good Diablo2 games tonight :D
Im a long time fan of Total War series and have enjoeyd each game in the series. The only issue I had with Empire was the AI wasnt very good, but other then that it was fun times.
From what ive heard alot of the issues with Empire are fixed for Napoleon so yeah im looking forward to this ;)
[QUOTE="kazakauskas"]
[QUOTE="kozzy1234"]
Looking forward to seeing screenshots of gamespot members playign Napoleon and seeing what all you think about it!
kozzy1234
I see someone is super hyped :D
Good Diablo2 games tonight :D
Im a long time fan of Total War series and have enjoeyd each game in the series. The only issue I had with Empire was the AI wasnt very good, but other then that it was fun times.
From what ive heard alot of the issues with Empire are fixed for Napoleon so yeah im looking forward to this ;)
There are no bad Diablo matches , game is simply too good :D
Im a fan of TW games too, but for some reason Empire TW didnt have that charm for me :S Maybe because i like Mediaval age more. Ill probably still try Napoleon TW .
[QUOTE="kozzy1234"]
[QUOTE="kazakauskas"]
I see someone is super hyped :D
kazakauskas
Good Diablo2 games tonight :D
Im a long time fan of Total War series and have enjoeyd each game in the series. The only issue I had with Empire was the AI wasnt very good, but other then that it was fun times.
From what ive heard alot of the issues with Empire are fixed for Napoleon so yeah im looking forward to this ;)
There are no bad Diablo matches , game is simply too good :D
Im a fan of TW games too, but for some reason Empire TW didnt have that charm for me :S Maybe because i like Mediaval age more. Ill probably still try Napoleon TW .
Yeah Medivel is great age no doubt
This game is completely impractical. 10,000 soldiers max on a battlefield is ridiculous for the time period. Take the Battle of Leipzig for instance, 174,000 French vs. over 400,000 Coalition forces. I know the technology does not exist to render these kind of battles yet, but please don't call your game the best representation of Napoleanic Battles and Diplomacy. Don't say your game is historically accurate either, minor nations are not supposed to topple all of Europe, your Battle AI is constantly blobbing across the screen. Eye candy is not gameplay and that is what keeps people playing games, not graphics. So please, don't preorder this game just to own it, take the time to adequately review the gameplay from demo's and honest reviews.
CA are notorious for buggy as hell games.
This game is completely impractical. 10,000 soldiers max on a battlefield is ridiculous for the time period. Take the Battle of Leipzig for instance, 174,000 French vs. over 400,000 Coalition forces. I know the technology does not exist to render these kind of battles yet, but please don't call your game the best representation of Napoleanic Battles and Diplomacy. Don't say your game is historically accurate either, minor nations are not supposed to topple all of Europe, your Battle AI is constantly blobbing across the screen. Eye candy is not gameplay and that is what keeps people playing games, not graphics. So please, don't preorder this game just to own it, take the time to adequately review the gameplay from demo's and honest reviews.
CA are notorious for buggy as hell games.
stupiddk
Now this is just nitpicking. Game wont be 100% acurate as you play and change things . Total War games were always like this and they are very acurate for that kind of style games.
This is what a few Game-spotters do. They find some reason to just hate on games. They can never see what the games due well, just the bad. Which is sad, because they are excellent games. Some people just gripe to gripe.Now this is just nitpicking. Game wont be 100% acurate as you play and change things . Total War games were always like this and they are very acurate for that kind of style games.
kazakauskas
Seems to be many TW haters. Really sad, great game if you all opened your eyes for what it does right and not wrong.millerlight89
It seems people dont know what they want : TW games arent realistic , but i wont play Europa universalis because its too boring.
I love both : TW series for its action and Europa universalis for it deph .
This game is completely impractical. 10,000 soldiers max on a battlefield is ridiculous for the time period. Take the Battle of Leipzig for instance, 174,000 French vs. over 400,000 Coalition forces. I know the technology does not exist to render these kind of battles yet, but please don't call your game the best representation of Napoleanic Battles and Diplomacy. Don't say your game is historically accurate either, minor nations are not supposed to topple all of Europe, your Battle AI is constantly blobbing across the screen. Eye candy is not gameplay and that is what keeps people playing games, not graphics. So please, don't preorder this game just to own it, take the time to adequately review the gameplay from demo's and honest reviews.
CA are notorious for buggy as hell games.
stupiddk
How about ya try Napoleon first and see if its as bad as you think :)
Its getting pretty good reviews so far aswell
[QUOTE="stupiddk"]
This game is completely impractical. 10,000 soldiers max on a battlefield is ridiculous for the time period. Take the Battle of Leipzig for instance, 174,000 French vs. over 400,000 Coalition forces. I know the technology does not exist to render these kind of battles yet, but please don't call your game the best representation of Napoleanic Battles and Diplomacy. Don't say your game is historically accurate either, minor nations are not supposed to topple all of Europe, your Battle AI is constantly blobbing across the screen. Eye candy is not gameplay and that is what keeps people playing games, not graphics. So please, don't preorder this game just to own it, take the time to adequately review the gameplay from demo's and honest reviews.
CA are notorious for buggy as hell games.
kozzy1234
How about ya try Napoleon first and see if its as bad as you think :)
Its getting pretty good reviews so far aswell
Oh come on, you actually want gamespoter to play a game before hating it ?! Your expectations are too high :S
Perhaps theirs smaller battles within battles and lets say your controlling whats within the playing field instead of 100,000+ vs 100,000 and besides war takes time you dont see everyone barraging into each other like savages or else it would had end in a day.
Edit: This looks very awesome btw.
http://www.ausgamers.com/games/napoleon-total-war/review/
Another Napoleon Total War review! This one got 85%...
What They Liked =
- Minor Improvements across the board
- Character Driven Campaign Mode
- Drop-In Multiplayer Mode
- Less-Buggy than previous releases
What They Didnt Like =
- Linear Campaign feels restrictive for a game of this scope
- Naval Battles still a matter of quantity vs strategy
- Campaigns for other nations to similar to main game
We Gave It = 8.5/10
Seems to be many TW haters. Really sad, great game if you all opened your eyes for what it does right and not wrong.millerlight89
I'm not seeing that at all. I am seeing lots of TW fans who were disappointed by the serious problems with ETW. I am one of them.
I want to buy this game but I am going to wait. I certainly won't buy it based on reviews because ETW got fantastic reviews and they were basically bogus as they didn't disclose any of the major problems. The reviews posted above were done by people taken to SEGA HQ and given the razzle dazzle. I have worked in publishing and I know just how effective that can be so I will wait until the public have played the game.
All this talk about Napoleon made me want to play good old Cossacks 2 :D Installing it now .
This game is completely impractical. 10,000 soldiers max on a battlefield is ridiculous for the time period. Take the Battle of Leipzig for instance, 174,000 French vs. over 400,000 Coalition forces. I know the technology does not exist to render these kind of battles yet, but please don't call your game the best representation of Napoleanic Battles and Diplomacy. Don't say your game is historically accurate either, minor nations are not supposed to topple all of Europe, your Battle AI is constantly blobbing across the screen. Eye candy is not gameplay and that is what keeps people playing games, not graphics. So please, don't preorder this game just to own it, take the time to adequately review the gameplay from demo's and honest reviews.
CA are notorious for buggy as hell games.
stupiddk
You might want to have a look at Histwar: Les Grognards. Much more realistic interpretation of tactics during the Napoleonic era.
[QUOTE="millerlight89"]Seems to be many TW haters. Really sad, great game if you all opened your eyes for what it does right and not wrong.strawdogstudios
I'm not seeing that at all. I am seeing lots of TW fans who were disappointed by the serious problems with ETW. I am one of them.
I want to buy this game but I am going to wait. I certainly won't buy it based on reviews because ETW got fantastic reviews and they were basically bogus as they didn't disclose any of the major problems. The reviews posted above were done by people taken to SEGA HQ and given the razzle dazzle. I have worked in publishing and I know just how effective that can be so I will wait until the public have played the game.
All the review scores on the first page are from legit magazines/websites. I also decided to post 2 user reviews from community members who are long time Total War fasn aswell. If anything they are harder on the series then others.
Thought a nice mix of professional review scores and user reviews/info would be enjoyable, nothign more.
It's nice it's getting good reviews, but I'm going to wait until the game gets around $20. I wish they would have done some sort of Steam deal like they did with Stalker CoP where if you bought Clear Sky or SoC then you get a discount. This is how it should be for people who previously bought Empires.
Played about 3-4 hours so far and its pretty impressive.
There are alot of little improvements that they have made.
- The AI is MUCH better then in empires
- The world map is MUCH faster with no lag or slowdown now
- The music is alot better
- The battles feel more epic then empires
- The units now look alot better aswell
- The drop in Multiplayer is pretty cool to
Overall im very impressed, they have fixed the things i wanted them to.
Played about 3-4 hours so far and its pretty impressive.
There are alot of little improvements that they have made.
- The AI is MUCH better then in empires
- The world map is MUCH faster with no lag or slowdown now
- The music is alot better
- The battles feel more epic then empires
- The units now look alot better aswell
- The drop in Multiplayer is pretty cool to
Overall im very impressed, they have fixed the things i wanted them to.
kozzy1234
Post some screenshots !!!! :P
The world map is MUCH faster with no lag or slowdown nowkozzy1234Isn't it just Europe though?
Can't wait to pick this one up. I still need to play Empire a little longer before I buy it, though.
Napoleon Total War
Really enjoying this game, they have improved the AI alot, done ALOT more for the multiplayer, done some great unit work as far as how they look, done a more cinematic story aspect and its just more fun and feels more epic then empires. Its a bit smaller in size and exploration but I am enjoying it more persoanlly.
I'd rather not pay $40 for Empire Total War 1.5, built in mods edition.
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