Latest ETW Reviews

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Originally Posted by bloodshed

Ign Preview about the Campaign.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/956/956728p1.html

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Nice find :2thumbsup:!

Take note of the 12 factions shown on the Spanish Diplomatic Screeny…

I don’t know what it means but only 12 factions are listed even though they are at war with others…

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Originally Posted by Fisherking

Take note of the 12 factions shown on the Spanish Diplomatic Screeny…

I don’t know what it means but only 12 factions are listed even though they are at war with others…

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They are the 'major nations' i.e the Playable Factions. Which is interesting because the Mughal Empire are on there. There is also a tab for minor nations, which are presumably the rest of them.

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Originally Posted by Sir Beane

They are the 'major nations' i.e the Playable Factions. Which is interesting because the Mughal Empire are on there. There is also a tab for minor nations, which are presumably the rest of them.

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That is pretty much what I thought. Though I thought only one Indian faction would be playable.

Also notice that Spain starts out with a Protectorate, possibly New Spain, explaining the missing provinces that I couldn't get a look at in the GameStar review.

Well, at least I think it solves the mystery of the 12th faction. Apprerently there are only 11 factions, and the 12th is the US in the RtI campaign. I'm a bit surprised that priests (missionaries) made a come back to the game.

I love the provincial breakdown right beside the diplomatic menu. You can see where your enemies are, where your allies are and plan accordingly. No more guess work in gauging an enemy's territory strength, we'll now be able to see how many lands they got right off the bat and know what we're getting into. From the screen it appears you can also select another nation and see how the AI feel toward them, wow, this will open up a lot of options for diplomacy.

Also, it seems people were right, Spain starts with significant holdings in Italy as indicated the highlighted provinces in the relations breakdown.

Eurogamer Review

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/em...-review?page=1

Generally, Kieron Gillen really liked it. Especially the scale and scope of the game. Besides all the stuff to do, he also really liked the standard land battles. He didn't find the naval battles particularly compelling and apparently resorted to auto-calcing too. Also, he found the sieges (though rarer) to still be troublesome with pathfinding issues.

Some excerpts.

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Originally Posted by review

Let me expand on that. Empire's Grand Campaign is the grandest of all the Total Wars'. Rather than a single world map, the game is divided into three military theatres: Europe, North and Central America, and the Indian Subcontinent. While the number of actual territories are reduced from the number that would be crammed into the same geographical area in another Total War game, that's a dizzying amount of space to consider. In practice, when you start to play, you don't worry about the world stage. You reduce it to something manageable. In England's case, my colonies. In Prussia's case, the land war. So when I said that I didn't even touch India, I mean that I didn't even send troops to a third of the map. It's an undiscovered country. God knows what it's like.

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But now that I've mentioned fleets, I'd better get on to the biggest back-of-the-box feature: the ability to actually control sea battles for the first time. Like most back-of-box features, it doesn't actually make as much difference as you'd expect or hope. While it's mostly well-implemented, striking a balance between realism and playability, it's just not as interesting as the land battles.

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Perhaps the biggest disappointment is that the game hasn't applied the rethink of the campaign map details to much of the real-time battles. Specifically, the siege maps remain a sore point. The path-finding simply isn't good enough to deal with manoeuvring around the castles in a timely fashion - really, I should be able to reliably man the cannons before the enemy close within range to lob climbing ropes. It's actually worse when the ropes have struck home. Defenders have a horrible habit of leaving the castle via ropes when ordered to move places. Concentrating on a battle to find that one of your troops has decided to climb outside the castle and come back in, opening the gate and allowing cavalry to charge in... well, it's a low point. Loading pauses are painfully long, too.

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9/10

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Originally Posted by Alexander the Pretty Good

Eurogamer Review

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/em...-review?page=1

Generally, Kieron Gillen really liked it. Especially the scale and scope of the game. Besides all the stuff to do, he also really liked the standard land battles. He didn't find the naval battles particularly compelling and apparently resorted to auto-calcing too. Also, he found the sieges (though rarer) to still be troublesome with pathfinding issues.

Some excerpts.


9/10

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Nice link! Just read the review, seems like the game has made a good impression. That review seemed more honest than many, and had the guts to say that the naval battles are pretty inconsequential. He seemed like a real fan of the games to, which is always a plus. :2thumbsup:

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Originally Posted by Sir Beane

Nice link! Just read the review, seems like the game has made a good impression. That review seemed more honest than many, and had the guts to say that the naval battles are pretty inconsequential. He seemed like a real fan of the games to, which is always a plus. :2thumbsup:

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Kieron Gillen is a well-respected and experienced games journalist. I remember reading him in PC Gamer (UK) in the mid-90s.

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Originally Posted by quadalpha

Kieron Gillen is a well-respected and experienced games journalist. I remember reading him in PC Gamer (UK) in the mid-90s.

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I didn't know him, but now after reading him ... i like him! Nice find, and also a very good review. Almost equal to the gamestar review (you cannot know),
even the critical points (except the naval story).

I am very confident on next week release. Remember, we all were happy with Med2 (almost all), and ETW is a new step onwards .... something :2thumbsup:


Marten

He also contributes frequently on Rock, Paper, Shotgun. It's a pretty good PC-oriented game news site.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/

They had a good ETW preview exclusive thing a while back.

New review from the United Provinces: http://www.insidegamer.nl/pc/empiret...ecensies/24355

With video!

Edit: actually video is mostly three guys talking in Dutch.

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Originally Posted by quadalpha

New review from the United Provinces: http://www.insidegamer.nl/pc/empiret...ecensies/24355

With video!

Edit: actually video is mostly three guys talking in Dutch.

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"De onbeheersbaarheid past niet bij wat de Total War-games zo goed maakt." -> means he is unhappy with the sea battles? Good find! :2thumbsup:


Marten

There's been enough reviews that ETW now has an official score on Metacritic.

:2thumbsup:

http://pc.ign.com/articles/957/957883p1.html

I thoguht I had better post this. This IGN review has it's own thread, but it should probably be here to.

9.5, a fantastic score considering it's a PC strategy title. :2thumbsup:

Nowgamer.com has given ETW 10/10.

CA are probably partying right about now. (Or feverishly working on finishing the release-day patch). :laugh4:

A quote from Nowgamer:

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Ultimately, all you really need to know is that Empire: Total War is a masterpiece, the greatest, most accomplished and ambitious strategy epic in the history of gaming and one of the most exceptional games of all time. It may not be utterly perfect, with a smattering of glitches and shortfalls spattered throughout, but these minor irritants are like mere mosquitoes on a majestic bull elephant’s back, a beast of exquisite beauty and power that crushes its opponents underfoot with effortless ease.

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Can't get much higher praise than being compared to an elephant :2thumbsup:

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Originally Posted by Sir Beane

http://pc.ign.com/articles/957/957883p1.html

I thoguht I had better post this. This IGN review has it's own thread, but it should probably be here to.

9.5, a fantastic score considering it's a PC strategy title. :2thumbsup:

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Actually that was already on the front page when you posted.:laugh4:

Now I have Monk’s there too.

I haven’t linked Marten’s because he is translating and presenting all the screenshots!:2thumbsup:

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Originally Posted by Fisherking

Actually that was already on the front page when you posted.:laugh4:

Now I have Monk’s there too.

I haven’t linked Marten’s because he is translating and presenting all the screenshots!:2thumbsup:

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Ooops, I should have checked the front page first. :wall:

I don't think anyone has posted this yet, a hands-on report.

Thanks Lemur!

Nice to see you up here!

:beam:

My pleasure to be here. I know it's unfashionable to say this, but I'm all a-tingle for Empire. Trying to wrap up a big project by Wednesday so's I can play it guilt-free.

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Originally Posted by Lemur

My pleasure to be here. I know it's unfashionable to say this, but I'm all a-tingle for Empire. Trying to wrap up a big project by Wednesday so's I can play it guilt-free.

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We are all unfashionale in this forum then :tongue:. I think most of the people posting her ecan't wait for Empire :2thumbsup:.

bit-tech review
Seven pages.

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Originally Posted by Mailman653

bit-tech review
Seven pages.

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Bless you, sir. Bless you.

-edit-

I love it when reviewers can actually write. Am I the only one who nearly snarfed coffee through my nose when I came across "Compacting this problem like a loaf of bread in already constipated bowels"?

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Originally Posted by Mailman653

bit-tech review
Seven pages.

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Nice! Now thats what a proper review should be like, extensive :2thumbsup:.

Check out this shot! http://images.bit-tech.net/content_i...review/b04.jpg. I swear that there is a guy dual-wielding revolvers.

A bit of a newbie review, isn't it? Somehow I find it difficult to take seriously someone who writes "might of", devotes two whole pages to comparing graphical differences, and assumes his audience is ignorant.

Hahaha. I believe it's his sword at an odd angle. Officers in the demo weild a sword but sometimes take out a pistol.

EDIT: The first page of that review made me think the guy really wasn't cut out for Total War games. When he said "if you aren’t interested in losing dozens of hours to a slow-burning turn-based strategy epic of overwhelming detail...then it’s best to stop reading now" I got the feeling that he wasn't interested.

So screw that guy.

Having read through the review I have to agree with you quadalpha. He also says that TotalWar is difficult, which is rubbish. And he says this:

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Compared to previous games in the series, it does seem that Empire’s selection of units does suffer from a lack of imagination. There are plenty of different soldiers and artillery at your disposal, but unless you’re willing to get stuck into the real microscopic details then they’re all pretty much the same.

Granted, the selection of units is true to the setting, fits well and is decently balanced even with the slower pace taken into account. Still, we just can’t help shake the feeling that the series has lost something since it abandoned the idea of Elephants versus Flaming Pigs that helped make Rome: Total War so memorable.

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I mean, really. 'Lack of imagination'? what did he want?