Shogun 2: Total War

Ahh can't wait. Rome was my favorite, Medieval 2 Kingdoms next, and anything with guns landed last. Just not as awesome as clashes of infantry/cavalry.
 
Oh yeah, guns are terrible, nothing is better than swords on steel and cavalry. Plus castles are infinitely cooler than forts.
 
KatalDT said:
Ahh can't wait. Rome was my favorite, Medieval 2 Kingdoms next, and anything with guns landed last. Just not as awesome as clashes of infantry/cavalry.
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Didn't help that the AI was hopeless at using said guns.
 
The original Shogun is still my favourite of the Total Wars. I hope they bring back the little cinematics for the ninja/geisha assassinations and seppoku.
 
Johnked6 said:
Pre-order Shogun 2: Total War on GamersGate and receive 35% store credit.

http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-TWS2/total-war-shogun-2

30% cashback + 5% bonus at checkout = $17.50 in store credit.

This should be activated on Steam for those that only like to purchase on Steam.
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You could also order it through D2D and use the wetkitty promo code to get it for $40.

However, I am standing firm and will not buy this right off until I know for sure they haven't pushed it out in a buggy state and the AI is actually improved.
 
PanzerBoxb said:
You could also order it through D2D and use the wetkitty promo code to get it for $40.

However, I am standing firm and will not buy this right off until I know for sure they haven't pushed it out in a buggy state and the AI is actually improved.
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doesnt work on pre orders....
 
Seems Shogun will have a "hardcore" level of difficulty called Legendary. Looks interesting.

Firstly it is only available in campaign games and it applies to both battle and campaign difficulty (i.e. you can't play with easy battles and legendary campaign difficulty)

Not only does it effect the difficulty of the AI but also removes some of the elements of your UI that would not be available to a 16th century Japanese warlord.

- No radar map for land and sea battles
- While the game is paused no orders can be given
- The camera cannot be moved while the game is paused
- You cannot move your camera more than 200 meters from the center of any of your units. The camera will be "rubber banded" to the nearest unit
- Enemy units more than 600 meters from your units are treated as hidden
- Enemy Tooltips have minimal information
- Enemy Unit ID's are removed
- The game automatically saves before and then after every battle fought and you can only load the last save made.
- If you complete a campaign on Legendary level you will get the achievement "Legendary Commander"
- You cannot change game difficulty during a Legendary campaign.
 
Legendary mode interests me very much...sounds fun as well as enfuriating lol
 
I think I'll try Legendary mode on my first campaign. Looks like quite a survival experience!
 
First review in,

PC Gamer gives it a 92% and Editor's Choice Award
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/02/11/f...-and-scoops-editors-choice-award-in-pc-gamer/

We’ve played and reviewed Shogun 2 and awarded the game a score of 92 and an Editor’s Choice award. The review appears in the latest issue of PC Gamer UK, on-sale February 16, and the May issue of PC Gamer US, on-sale March 29.

Why did it get that score and the Editor’s Choice award? Try improved AI that attacks from the sea and uses terrain to its advantage, an online clan system with excellent matchmaking that encourages teamworks between allies, and the artful realisation of the Sengoku period. We say that “Shogun 2 is the Total War series back on form,” and that it “boasts the most outrageous hats in martial history.

If you can’t wait to read the review until then, check out the latest Total War: Shogun 2 trailer, and our preview of the game’s revamped multiplayer mode. The game’s available to pre-order now. Check out the system requirements to see how well it’ll run on your PC. Subscribe to PC Gamer UK here and PC Gamer US here.
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Summary of article from another forum,

They've given it 92%

Will try to include opinions and new info only rather than scene setting or flavour:

Reviewer experienced a naval invasion against him very early in the campaign. Sounds like it was a sound strategic move by AI as well.

Played on hard (doesn't say whether it was for campaign and battle but i assume both)

Clans show strong personalities through diplomacy and diplomacy is important on higher difficulty settings. More frequent offers.

Honour is important to pop happiness so dishounourable actions such as breaking alliances will have serious unrest consequences.

Reviewer experienced serveral revolts and reduced trade for expansion.

On higher difficulties AI have larger armies and act more aggressively.

At a point in the game the Shogun declares you an enemy and the whole map turns against you. (new info?)

The battlefields resemble the campaign map better than previously.

Better AI. Uses Cav well, sounds like they don't charge spears. Exploits terrain well.

Mentions morale bonus to enemy on higher difficulty but not other stat bonuses (doesn't mean they're not present though)

Sounds like enemy will actually camp a defensive position this time rather than just attack, attack.

His opinion is that "the AI shows marked improvements"

Very strong visual style

in game encyclopedia was built with google chrome

Tighter more focussed experience
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Looking good, can't wait for March 15th.
 
BladeVenom said:
They list all the improvements, yet they give it a lower score than they gave Empire (94%).
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I bought empire based on the reviews and since I loved Medieval 2 so much...but man I hated that game. Cant remember the last time I bought a new game and barely played it.
 
Why'd you hate it? I thought it was a breath of fresh air to the series. It had problems (with AI, etc) but we just don't get many RTS games set in that era. Hoping after shogun that they may return to do something similar or something out of the area's already covered.
 
Stiler said:
Why'd you hate it? I thought it was a breath of fresh air to the series. It had problems (with AI, etc) but we just don't get many RTS games set in that era. Hoping after shogun that they may return to do something similar or something out of the area's already covered.
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The AI was never great but you give them guns and it is a whole new series of nightmares. Plus forts are infinitely more lame than castles. Plus guns are boring, unit types become way too similar. I prefer their reinterpretation of history with very different units for different cultures.
 
Stiler said:
Why'd you hate it? I thought it was a breath of fresh air to the series. It had problems (with AI, etc) but we just don't get many RTS games set in that era. Hoping after shogun that they may return to do something similar or something out of the area's already covered.
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After the final patch, it was ok. Vanilla game blew... (I bought it on release). So many bugs, such shitty AI, slow performance...

Napoleon was better.

Hopefully Shogun doesn't disappoint, but I'm waiting for forum feedback before buying.
 
no fantasy game, plz!! I want it to be totally historical, my opinion.
History buff here, would hate to have fantasy worked in.

Plus if you have Empire Total War, you really have to try Darthmod mod for empire, it's epic, it's what empire vanilla should have been, totally awesome
 
I'm actually really excited about this now. I happened to find out about the Collector's Edition, but it's not coming to the US? I'd definitely pay for it.
 
BladeVenom said:
I like the historical games, but it would be nice if they also made a fantasy game.
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I like historical as well I was just saying that they can take a few minor liberties in medieval times as they dont have all the information to 100% accurately reflect troop types. I just find guns boring, maybe its just me.
 
Stiler said:
Jesus christ! 6, SIX gigabytes for a DEMO???? Come on...
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....


Hi Everyone,

As all of you on this forum know there is a demo of Total War: Shogun 2 being released today. It’s quite unlike any demo we have released previously. This demo will be giving a snippet of campaign gameplay. It's a big piece, but a snippet none-the-less. Its great fun and the testers have certainly been enjoying it.

Rather than using, as we usually do, just one historical battle and a single tutorial battle, we're basing this demo on the campaign and battle tutorials. The campaign tutorial handholds the player through the first few turns of a campaign game, serves up three tutorial battles of increasing complexity, and then lets go of the player's hand, leaving them free to explore a mini-campaign.

To cut the size of the download down to something even remotely acceptable for a demo, we have had to make all battles, apart from the three tutorial battles and one big historical battle, auto-resolved battles. We did this because the data files involved in creating the battlefields are very large. The demo version of the game for example is approximately 5GB while the full version of the game is approximately 15GB.

For this reason players won't really get the full on Total War experience, but we hope it gives a much better impression of what the game is about than a single stand-alone battle does. For those of you looking to test drive the battles a little, we’ve included the historical battle of Sekigahara, so you can get a feel for the type of warfare Shogun 2 offers. The full game obviously offers a huge amount more.

That’s ultimately the point. This is just a taster of the final game; in every aspect what you’re seeing is the smallest example, so we’d urge you to keep that in mind as you play.
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Yes, but still, that's a fairly decent size for just a demo. Woulda been nice if it had an mp map to play on against people, woulda gladly traded the tutorial for that.
 
Got in a few minutes. I love to see the cavalry and the archers again. There's a few things relating to the interface about which I'm not wild. Perhaps those can be fixed in the settings, though.

I have a much better impression of this game so far than I did of Empire. The load times aren't nearly as long, either.
 
How does the engine look a) on the campaign map, and b) in the battles? Also, how well is it running for you?

Wow, six gigabytes. On my slow connection that will take 12 hours. I love me some Total War though.
 
Here are some of my quick impressions,

Pluses
+ Campaign map looks great, very detailed with a lot of small touches to be discovered. Saw a rainbow on a mountain waterfall.
+ Can finally rotate the campaign map
+ Interface feels very polished, the art style is well done. I like the rice paper look for all the menus. Lots of useful information to be found neatly tucked away.
+ I like the unit descriptions, very detailed. It gives you a short summary of what the unit is used for then lists all its stats and bonuses.
+ Battles feel good, they seem to go faster than other TW games which I like.
+ Animations look good. Watching several stacks of melee fighting with arrows flying over their head makes for some nice cinematic moments.
+ Campaign map seems to have a lot of complexity. You'll have to juggle province upgrades, tax rates, diplomacy between other clans (lots of options in diplomacy), recruitment, trade routes, managing your generals, managing your agents, managing your tech and military trees, deciding which resources you'll need to conquer and how to get them, and lots more.
+ Siege battles are fun.

Cons
- No AA enabled in the demo
- Several auto resolved battles
- Demo is very restrictive, you won't be able to do much on a lot of your turns.
- No chance to test out battle A.I., demo is heavily scripted.
- Soldiers eyes seem to be silver when you zoom in on them.

Overall the demo feels very polished, the art, music, and animations of the game gels together pretty well. I can see a lot of late nights with this game.
 
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I agree with Johnked6 pretty well across the board, at least from the limited time I had with the game.

Performance wise, I had great success, even on an old 9600Gt. The game seems very well optimized compared to Empire.

I look forward to getting some more time with the demo.
 
Damn my slow ass Frontier connection. Others impression's are making me want to play it that much more.
 
Johnked6 said:
Here are some of my quick impressions,

Pluses
+ Campaign map looks great, very detailed with a lot of small touches to be discovered. Saw a rainbow on a mountain waterfall.
+ Can finally rotate the campaign map
+ Interface feels very polished, the art style is well done. I like the rice paper look for all the menus. Lots of useful information to be found neatly tucked away.
+ I like the unit descriptions, very detailed. It gives you a short summary of what the unit is used for then lists all its stats and bonuses.
+ Battles feel good, they seem to go faster than other TW games which I like.
+ Animations look good. Watching several stacks of melee fighting with arrows flying over their head makes for some nice cinematic moments.
+ Campaign map seems to have a lot of complexity. You'll have to juggle province upgrades, tax rates, diplomacy between other clans (lots of options in diplomacy), recruitment, trade routes, managing your generals, managing your agents, managing your tech and military trees, deciding which resources you'll need to conquer and how to get them, and lots more.
+ Siege battles are fun.

Cons
- No AA enabled in the demo
- Several auto resolved battles
- Demo is very restrictive, you won't be able to do much on a lot of your turns.
- No chance to test out battle A.I., demo is heavily scripted.
- Soldiers eyes seem to be silver when you zoom in on them.

Overall the demo feels very polished, the art, music, and animations of the game gels together pretty well. I can see a lot of late nights with this game.
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Really nice post.

I was surprised to learn that the campaign map can now be rotated. That's fantastic.
 
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