Rome 2: Total War Officially Announced -- 2013 GOTY

Wow, loads of fans of Rome Total War :P Is it really that awesomely good? (do note that I've never played it)Desmonic

SEGA and Creative Assembly have lifted the lid on Rome II: Total War, showing an impressive 15 minute demo revolving around Roman efforts to reduce Carthage to rubble. The headline new features are a redesigned graphics engine, a greater sense of scale and a stylish new cinematic unit camera.

During the presentation, Creative Assembly walked us through plenty of details about what Rome II intends to offer when it's released in late 2013, and lead designer James Russell spoke about the game's intentions.

• • Shogun 2 was set in narrow geographical areas, with limited sets of units - a comparatively small scale to what's being intended with Rome II. It was designed with a focus on game systems, such as engine polishing and improvements to unit pathing.
  • With that in place, Rome II is going big - it's bigger than Rome 1 in geographical scale.

• • The game's key design vision is in taking players from a macro to micro scale, such as jumping from a campaign map to a single unit.
    
  • Despite that focus, Rome II is still attempting to make its macro scale bigger - we're guessing the senate will play a large part of that, but Creative Assembly won't say just yet.
  • As you rise through the ranks, your success will attract less-than-favourable responses from some of your friends. You will almost definitely get betrayed. There's "more human-level drama on the campaign map" in Rome II.
  • The bigger campaign map has "hundreds" of regions to move your units around, but the game buckets them into provinces to make management easier. The idea is to have you thinking about armies and legions rather than fiddling around with individual units.
  • Ultimately, the game will allow you to decide whether to favour the republic or become Rome's dictator.
  • The game's cameras have been redesigned. You can now lock the camera to single units. In this mode it functions like a sort of documentary cam, shaking while the unit walks ? it's "a soldier's eye view" according to Creative Assembly.
  • The demonstration takes place with a scenario set during the Third Punic War, which took place during 149BC to 146BC. The scenario here is the Siege of Carthage.
  • Rome II: Total War features a new graphics engine, which features particle and deferred lighting.
  • The game can now combine naval and land battles into the same conflict, including naval invasions: in this demo a Roman ship lands on the coast of Carthage.
  • Naval units now have more than one ship per unit.
  • Though expected, we see catapults and ballistae being put to good use.
  • The demo has a big focus on Roman siege towers, and the snap-to unit camera takes the view of the game inside the siege tower itself.
  • Conflicts take place over much bigger environments - much of Carthage has been recreated in the demo. To accommodate this extra scale, the game now features a top-down tactical map.

• • There are multiple ways to capture cities. Walls can be reduced to rubble after they've sustained enough damage, for instance. It's designed to create cat-and-mouse gameplay: "You're not just sitting in the plaza once the walls are breached trying to defend that one area"
  • There's a real oomph when units engage, with walls of shields colliding.
  • The new graphics engine can show some impressive fidelity for a game of this scale. We can clearly see that Cathage's walls have graffiti.
  • Buildings crumble in the background as Carthage deploys its war elephants and the demo ends.

• The unit camera has been designed so the game feels like it's "almost Saving Private Ryan at the beaches".
  
• Each unit has its own facial animations, and leaders bark out a stream of orders throughout. each confrontation.
• Units react to things, such as their colleagues being slaughtered - the idea is that these aren't idenikit clone armies anymore.

Awesome live action trailer : http://www.ign.com/videos/2012/07/02/total-war-rome-ii-faces-of-rome-live-action-trailer

My biggest wish for PC-gaming have been granted and most of my fears have been dealt with. I just hope that we'll see the same amount of faction variety as with Rome 1.

danish-death

Upgrading my PC to monster-levels just for this. :DNinja-Hippo

[QUOTE="Ninja-Hippo"]Upgrading my PC to monster-levels just for this. :Ddanish-death

[QUOTE="Desmonic"]Wow, loads of fans of Rome Total War :P Is it really that awesomely good? (do note that I've never played it)kris9031998

Well that sounds totally awesome :D!

[QUOTE="kris9031998"][QUOTE="Desmonic"]Wow, loads of fans of Rome Total War :P Is it really that awesomely good? (do note that I've never played it)Desmonic

[QUOTE="kris9031998"][QUOTE="Desmonic"]Wow, loads of fans of Rome Total War :P Is it really that awesomely good? (do note that I've never played it)sherman-tank1

[QUOTE="Stevo_the_gamer"][QUOTE="Arach666"]Oh yeah,finally! :DArach666

Pfff, I took my pants off long ago :P

[QUOTE="sherman-tank1"]

[QUOTE="kris9031998"] I would recommend Fall of the Samurai (the shogun 2 standalone expansion) if you wish to have amazing ranged battles. For melee, i recommend Rome or Medieval. BTW, the games aren't totally easy to get into, and can be really hard at times.kris9031998

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKglskMfyWA&feature=player_embedded Not sure if posted already.ShadowDeathX

:shock:

If CA don't screw this up with DLC like they did to Shogun 2 I may get it since I love Total War and I'm a sucker for that period in time.

I'M SO HAPPY RIGHT NOW

Let's hope for a better box art this time.

Let's hope for a better box art this time.

ithilgore2006

I don't think I will buy another Total War game after Medieval II and Shogun II. So little replay value from one repetitve battle to another. It's the same thing over and over until you eventually get sick of it. The franchise needs to evolve further by implementing real-time building or some sort. Turn-based + cardboard map = lame.

Found some high res screenshots. This game looks incredible:

Open in a new screen/tab to view full size

:shock:

Read the preview here

Wow, I'm absolutely excited for this, hype level is over the roof!:D

Are those gameplay screens? If so, then just WOW! :o

Desmonic

Yeah it's gameplay

[QUOTE="Desmonic"]

Are those gameplay screens? If so, then just WOW! :o

R4gn4r0k

Yeah it's gameplay

[QUOTE="R4gn4r0k"]

[QUOTE="Desmonic"]

Are those gameplay screens? If so, then just WOW! :o

lawlessx

Yeah it's gameplay

I'm still shoked Rome 1 was possible at all

Found some high res screenshots. This game looks incredible:

R4gn4r0k

Body....

Body wasn't ready...

I don't think I will buy another Total War game after Medieval II and Shogun II. So little replay value from one repetitve battle to another. It's the same thing over and over until you eventually get sick of it. The franchise needs to evolve further by implementing real-time building or some sort. Turn-based + cardboard map = lame.

Mr_BillGates

I disagree, each of the games are different to each other, Rome and Medieval are probably the most similar but Empire/Napoleonic and shogun are very different beasties that require different strategies to be sucessful in a game.

Shogun 2 is probably the worst example of the Total war games, in that every faction has access to much the same units, but that's civil war for you and a daft mechanic that allows the attacker to have easier movement through a castle than the defender in a siege battle. Fall of the Samurai expansion changes some of that, by adding late 19th century units there is a great deal more variety in battle formations. Though it doesn't deal with the siege problem, which is due to the lack of seige units, such as ladders and battering rams. Having said that I enjoy playing Shogun 2 (apart from the siege battles ;) which I usually skip, unless the odds are heavily against me, then I'll play them).

I'm looking forward to marching my Macedonian phalanxes and Gaulish barbarian mercenaries through the gates of Rome again :)

I just read the preview. Oh my God. This is exactly what the series needed. Shogun 2 was great and all, but it was still built on the Empire Total War engine which had a lot of drawbacks.

The ideas they have for the campaign map are brilliant, the battle sound amazing, and there seems to be a ton more variety than any previous game.

It's going to blow 2013 away.

I hope they can release a special addition for the next xbox/playstation,rts games have not translated well at all this generation of consoles,i believe a controller can work but these kind of games are usually very resource intensive and current systems can cope with that much action on screen at once.blacktorn

Never going to happen. This is one of the last series that truely embraces every aspect of the PC. From the utilization of the hardware to the way they control, they'll never bother with a spin off that limits them.

I hope they can release a special addition for the next xbox/playstation,rts games have not translated well at all this generation of consoles,i believe a controller can work but these kind of games are usually very resource intensive and current systems can cope with that much action on screen at once.blacktorn

Hell yeah. Rome Total War is the t!ts. One of my single greatest video game memories lies with Rome. >Campaigning through Egypt hoping to conquer >Underestimate the size of enemy forces >Get stomped on during a major battle and forced to retreat. >Moving my army across North Africa, I realize my army will never make it; 4 Egyptian armies in pursuit/surrounding >Dig in, build a fort and hope to hold out as long as I can until my own reinforcements arrive. >Fight off attack after attack for months with my small force of only a couple of hundred. >When it looks like all hope is lost, my reinforcements arrive and drive of Egyptians. >Take my rag tag army, new reinforcements and conquer Egypt after all. Epic as f*ck. Never forget.AcidSoldner

I had a similar experience in Shogun 2

After conquering about 1/2 the map, I attacked the Shogunate and won.

During the 10 turns you need to hold everything, a massive naval sneak attack too over my home island(still one of the most incredible AI strategies that I have ever seen... It was LITERALLY the only place that I was vulnerable. I had naval and ground supremacy, but my economy was overly dependent on my homelands. Since it was on an island practically inaccessible with ground armies, and since I had such an overwhelming navy, I didn't expect a near suicide attack that cost them 25 ships and close to 6000 soldiers, but they managed to break through and land a small ground army of 600... It was just enough to take over the entire island) and decimated my food resource. Poor Food supply led to famine and that led to rebellion, which made everything else worse.

Before I knew it, I had lost my home island and half of my other cities to rebellion. My army had abandoned the frontline war with everyone else and turned to retake all of the cities that I had lost.

After about 20 turns, I had retaken my home island, but my armies were falling apart. A marauding rebel army was taking city after city, and looked to destroy my entire military force on the mainland.

I split my army and was just trying to take cities back while avoiding the marauding army, but ended up getting my largest force cornered... After a couple battles, they had decimated that army and I was down to 400 units on the mainland. I took up a defensive position in one of my cities and decided that if I was going to lose my entire army then I was going to take as many enemies as possible with me.

200 Samurai and 200 Archers held that city against 20000 soldiers, across 5 turns. They had quite possibly the worst unit composition possible for taking cities, but their sheer numbers alone should have won... It was long enough for my to gather my reinforcements and push my counterattack. I demolished the remaining armies and quickly returned to counterattack the other enemies I had been fighting before the mass rebellions.

If I had continued losing cities, I was going to run out of resources, so holding that city basically won the game for me.

It was the most infuriating and incredible 4 hours of gaming that I had ever experienced.

Is there a gameplay trailer yet?

I just read the preview. Oh my God. This is exactly what the series needed. Shogun 2 was great and all, but it was still built on the Empire Total War engine which had a lot of drawbacks.

The ideas they have for the campaign map are brilliant, the battle sound amazing, and there seems to be a ton more variety than any previous game.

It's going to blow 2013 away.

Wasdie

The preview sounds very promising indeed. I also read the interview with Rock Paper Shogun.

[QUOTE="AcidSoldner"]Hell yeah. Rome Total War is the t!ts. One of my single greatest video game memories lies with Rome. >Campaigning through Egypt hoping to conquer >Underestimate the size of enemy forces >Get stomped on during a major battle and forced to retreat. >Moving my army across North Africa, I realize my army will never make it; 4 Egyptian armies in pursuit/surrounding >Dig in, build a fort and hope to hold out as long as I can until my own reinforcements arrive. >Fight off attack after attack for months with my small force of only a couple of hundred. >When it looks like all hope is lost, my reinforcements arrive and drive of Egyptians. >Take my rag tag army, new reinforcements and conquer Egypt after all. Epic as f*ck. Never forget.KingsMessenger

I had a similar experience in Shogun 2

After conquering about 1/2 the map, I attacked the Shogunate and won.

During the 10 turns you need to hold everything, a massive naval sneak attack too over my home island(still one of the most incredible AI strategies that I have ever seen... It was LITERALLY the only place that I was vulnerable. I had naval and ground supremacy, but my economy was overly dependent on my homelands. Since it was on an island practically inaccessible with ground armies, and since I had such an overwhelming navy, I didn't expect a near suicide attack that cost them 25 ships and close to 6000 soldiers, but they managed to break through and land a small ground army of 600... It was just enough to take over the entire island) and decimated my food resource. Poor Food supply led to famine and that led to rebellion, which made everything else worse.

Before I knew it, I had lost my home island and half of my other cities to rebellion. My army had abandoned the frontline war with everyone else and turned to retake all of the cities that I had lost.

After about 20 turns, I had retaken my home island, but my armies were falling apart. A marauding rebel army was taking city after city, and looked to destroy my entire military force on the mainland.

I split my army and was just trying to take cities back while avoiding the marauding army, but ended up getting my largest force cornered... After a couple battles, they had decimated that army and I was down to 400 units on the mainland. I took up a defensive position in one of my cities and decided that if I was going to lose my entire army then I was going to take as many enemies as possible with me.

200 Samurai and 200 Archers held that city against 20000 soldiers, across 5 turns. They had quite possibly the worst unit composition possible for taking cities, but their sheer numbers alone should have won... It was long enough for my to gather my reinforcements and push my counterattack. I demolished the remaining armies and quickly returned to counterattack the other enemies I had been fighting before the mass rebellions.

If I had continued losing cities, I was going to run out of resources, so holding that city basically won the game for me.

It was the most infuriating and incredible 4 hours of gaming that I had ever experienced.

DAMN! I gave up on Total War far too early, never got back to it. Never went far enough to experience stuff like this. Regret is all I feel now!

I welcome ROME II

lol @ RTS games

lol @ RTS games

Harisemo

Lol @ ignorant console fan boys

[QUOTE="danish-death"][QUOTE="Ninja-Hippo"]Upgrading my PC to monster-levels just for this. :DNinja-Hippo

ALL ROME WILL BE AMAZED AT SUCH A VICTORY! THE DAY IS OUUURS!

I cannot wait to seize barbarian lands for the SPQR again and defend my towns successfully with 1/5th of the attacking army size and inflict disproportionate casualties.

I wanna do 300 spartans vs. 10,000 peasants again like the old days :P