Rome 2: Total war is coming!

[Genx87]

It is lame that steam doesn't let you choose your installation location when preloading a game. I have steam defaulting to my HDD, but I want Rome 2 on my SSD.

I think that must be on an application by application basis. I was able to install War Thunder on my SSD. But I couldn't find that option for this game.

 

[orbster556]

This review fills me with sadness: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/09/02/wot-i-think-total-war-rome-ii/

Was so looking forward to this game -- have such good memories of Rome: TW and Medieval II: TW.

Oh well.

 

[Grooveriding]

I dunno, regardless of that review I am still really looking forward to firing this up tomorrow

 

[datalink7]

Actually, all of the reviews that I've read so far seem good enough for me. By "good enough", I always knew I would be waiting for mods to make the game as great as it could be. So as long as the base game is good enough, I'm happy, and it looks like it will be a great foundation for mods.

 

[Revolution 11]

I am actually not worried about the campaign AI or gameplay as Total War has always done a decent job there. What I am frustrated about is the infamous lackluster battle AI which seems to be a bad tradition in TW games.

Still, even if the battle AI sucks as usual and the campaign is decent enough, that is close enough to Total War's standards that I am ok with this.

What I am worried about is the diplomatic AI. If the diplomatic AI is not significantly better, the whole game is pretty redundant compared to Shogun 2. If it is much better, this game is a must-buy.

 

[Anteaus]

This review fills me with sadness: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/09/02/wot-i-think-total-war-rome-ii/

Was so looking forward to this game -- have such good memories of Rome: TW and Medieval II: TW.

Oh well.

I'm actually happy with reviews like that. I love the Total War series and have purchased every one but the original Shogun at release. That said, I find first month reviews for these games tend to be far better than they have a right to be. I'm not saying that I wouldn't prefer to read glowing reviews, but I'd rather read honest reviews that the developer can then use as a guideline for future patches or DLC.

For example, Empire Total War came out to extreme critical fanfare with very high reviews across the board. I loved the scope of Empire, but the game had serious performance issues and some dumb game mechanics that were eventually ironed out in Napoleon, which ironically also reviewed well. Basically, the problems with those games were glazed over.

I don't regret preordering as I knew the score. These games always get released with some issues, much like Paradox games do.

Here is another review for any who is interested.

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/09/02/total-war-rome-2-review/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+weblogsinc%2Fjoystiq+(Joystiq)

and another

http://www.pcgamer.com/review/total-war-rome-2-review/2/

 

[Jaiguru]

This guy's already got 3 parts of his Let's Play series up on Youtube right now. He's playing the Suebi faction(Germanic tribe). It's definitely worth a look at how the game is really going to play out. He seems to be having a pretty good time with it.

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIXMeVKKybc
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsgmuQYmb9Q&list=SPSFr-GYCkyTk4FuB6HZ4s8wNRNGwk6WV2
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzUdfvwq1L4

 

[Dumac]

I think that must be on an application by application basis. I was able to install War Thunder on my SSD. But I couldn't find that option for this game.

You can actually install games on whatever hard drive you want, but you can only preload on your main installation drive.

 

[Dumac]

The reviews are all over the place and contradicting each other.

Generally, it sounds pretty good though. There are some bugs I'm sure, but they'll be patched out quickly. Again, AI on normal is pretty easy to beat.

Excited for tomorrow.

 

[Grooveriding]

This is good for a laugh. You can look up the profiles of people with the reviewer's copy of the game and how long they spent actually playing it to base their reviews off of...

As you can see in this case, only 1 in 5 reviewers - if that -, spent 10 hours playing the game. 1 in 3 spent more than an hour....

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

This is good for a laugh. You can look up the profiles of people with the reviewer's copy of the game and how long they spent actually playing it to base their reviews off of...

As you can see in this case, only 1 in 5 reviewers - if that -, spent 10 hours playing the game. 1 in 3 spent more than an hour....

So this is the standard required for a game review?

Does that mean that restaurant critics need only taste entrées?

 

[Anteaus]

So this is the standard required for a game review?

Does that mean that restaurant critics need only taste entrées?

There has never been a bar to entry for game reviews...or for journalism in general for that matter. Ultimately it's the end user to filter the good from the bad.

 

[Skott]

I'd wait for more reviews. Especially from the gaming community. My expectations were never really all that high because CA can be rather lackluster with their series at times. I'm expecting the modding community to be the ones that make it a good game and not CA. Assuming CA didn't make it hard to mod the game. Also, I'd say if you can get a reviewer to spend at least 10 hours on a game, any game, these days that's not too shabby. Too many are too busy doing other stuff to bother with proper reviews nowadays.

 

[boxleitnerb]

Craig from CA said on the forums yesterday that the reviewers had pre-release code and that the launch-patch today will address some of the issues. Seems like this game was made with a hot needle and would have needed a few more weeks/months for polishing...

 

[Dumac]

Am I the only one who never modded a Total War game?

Maybe I'll try it years down the road for Rome 2.

 

[Wet Squirrel]

cant wait for this

 

[BrightCandle]

1 hour of gameplay I can forgive, its a total war game so you only really need to look at the differences and new stuff. But never even playing through a battle? That is terrible.

I have been saying for a long time that the review system appeared from the outside to be corrupt. Games would get 7-8/10 reviews and yet when you got them they would be riddled with bugs, bugs that were never mentioned in the reviews. At least RPS did note the flaws and Eurogamer did talk about a variety of bugs that had impacted them. Smells of Cheeto's to me, or the less politically correct way - bribes bribes and bribes. At least we now know the reviews are fabrications created from the PR material with a wad of cash used to make them positive.

 

[acheron]

I have been saying for a long time that the review system appeared from the outside to be corrupt. Games would get 7-8/10 reviews and yet when you got them they would be riddled with bugs, bugs that were never mentioned in the reviews. At least RPS did note the flaws and Eurogamer did talk about a variety of bugs that had impacted them. Smells of Cheeto's to me, or the less politically correct way - bribes bribes and bribes. At least we now know the reviews are fabrications created from the PR material with a wad of cash used to make them positive.

Part of that is also just review inflation. In games reviews, 5-6 = terrible, 7-8 = mediocre, 9-10 = good. 1-4 doesn't exist.

Which is why I like RPS that doesn't give scores, or back in the day Computer Gaming World didn't give scores either. (Later they added stars to reviews but they actually tried to keep a real distribution, at least for awhile.)

 

[Nintendesert]

I've been playing Rome 2 this morning, I started my first game as Sparta. I wanted to see how that would go. So far I'm learning all the new systems and little quirks with technology and building, but I like it. It's a Rome game and it's badass so far. It feels like Rome Total War upgraded. I'll have to start a Roman game to really see how much it retains that feeling, but Sparta is fun and placed in a nice challenging spot.

I think I'll be having plenty of good times with this game.

 

[Skott]

Doing a patch just before release is a double edged sword. Its great they made the corrections but no one to review if said corrections and fixes actually work or if they change game play at all or for better or worse. I've seen CA do fixes and patches before and it didnt help much. Need to see some player reviews. People who have a decent amount of time invested in it.

 

[irishScott]

I'm going to wait at least a month for the most major bugs (and there will be major bugs) to be patched or revealed. Then assuming they're all a non-issue I'll dive in.

As for the gameplay, from everything I've seen I have no doubts it will bring me many hours of enjoyment assuming it functions.

 

[irishScott]

Currently at 84/100 from critics, 8.1/10 from community.
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/total-war-rome-ii

 

[Dumac]

I haven't had any bugs so far but I'm still in the prologue.

Games has been a tremendous amount of fun for the 3 hours I played. The AI was pretty aggressive, attacking from land and sea in different places. I really had to think a lot about army positions since the number of armies is limited.

I still suck at naval battles.

 

[Regs]

Can't wait to be play it. The reviews seem pretty good, other than beating it to death with the probable execution problems of the AI and the new concepts such as Generals retinues and legion perks. All of that can be balanced by a few patches and mods.

PCGamer is starting to earn my respect as a review site and that is mostly because they gave SimCity 69/100 lol.

 

[Regs]

I haven't had any bugs so far but I'm still in the prologue.

Games has been a tremendous amount of fun for the 3 hours I played. The AI was pretty aggressive, attacking from land and sea in different places. I really had to think a lot about army positions since the number of armies is limited.

I still suck at naval battles.

Do you earn more armies as the game progresses? How many armies can you raise to begin with?