Rome Total War - Alexander Official Expansion Pack

Coudln't resist to post it. ~D
Anyhow, the rumoured expansion pack is officially here. Just wanted to post this with some "at-a-glance" abilities for the viewers to see.

Rome: Total War – Alexander

Some of the new features include -
- A Brand New Campaign Game
- 6 New Historical Battles
- 6 Multiplayer Battles
- 4 New Factions
- 60+ New Units
- Voiceover By Brian Blessed

Find out more here -

http://www.totalwar.com/community/alex2.htm

It looks really cool. It's scheduled to be released in June, downloadable from the Internet, for a small price(I hope).
And please, don't start bashing CA about this, even though it's a mini campaign.

What do you guys think about this? I think it's really cool.

Just so long as Brian says the line "Diiiiiive!" at some point :grin:

Of course, this isn't Brian's first brush with classical antiquity - he was also in the movie Alexander as well as playing the mighty Augustus in the tv adaptation of I, Claudius.

All together now:

"DIIIIIIIIIIVE!"
http://www.oohnasty.com/media/4/20040622-brian.jpg

:laugh4:

Can't wait to buy it and play it. I just can't resist to buy TW games. Maybe someday I will be a CA developer. :balloon2:

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Originally Posted by Epistolary Richard

All together now:

"DIIIIIIIIIIVE!"

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"DIIIIIVE!!! Onward my brave Hawkmen!"

One of the great over-actors of our time. He also played Blackadder 1's father, King Henry (IV, I think?) in the TV series.

I'm looking forward to this Alexander expansion. The preview stuff on the official site looks good, and I've been reading up on this period lately.

Not interested. I'm done with RTW and its inept and predictable AI. I'll wait and see what MTW II has to offer.

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Originally Posted by Jambo

Not interested. I'm done with RTW and its inept and predictable AI. I'll wait and see what MTW II has to offer.

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Agreed.I had enough RTW AI & Diplomacy

Im not a Alexander the great fan either...

Well, the skins look really nice from the screenshots, so, I guess there will be some fun. ~:)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by edyzmedieval

:laugh4:

Can't wait to buy it and play it. I just can't resist to buy TW games. Maybe someday I will be a CA developer. :balloon2:

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This may be a shock to you and many others...

There are better games out there than TW series.

I know it is hard, but you should really look around before spending your money on this.

Yeah, I know there are many good other games out there, but this is my favourite style of games. TBS + city/army building. :book:

How do you know it's going to cost money?

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Originally Posted by Bombasticus Maximus

How do you know it's going to cost money?

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Do you see CA giving away free games? :laugh4:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bombasticus Maximus

How do you know it's going to cost money?

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Because CA is a game company, and not a user mod group? Aside from that, I'm sure Brian Blessed isn't giving away free voice acting these days. That alone suggests a paid download.

I think this might also be a test bed for selling future games as direct downloads, similar to what Stardock is doing with GalCiv2. Maybe they'll even offer MTW2 in an optional downloadable version, if the graphics and sound files aren't too huge.

My wild-ass guess is the price will be something like $15-$20 US. Anything more might limit the market too much. I just hope the activation/copy protection system isn't too invasive, because that's the only thing that would really be a deal-killer for me. Maybe they'll learn from Stardock and not have any active CP at all, just online registration.

I just hope we get a new patch. And a cool expansion pack of course. ~D

It looks good.

For the first time since I began playing TW games, I am not at all excited and am only slightly interested in a new release. The main reason for my indifference is the drunken soldier physics introduced with RTW. I am curious to see if this will be fixed in MTW II, but fear that the new battlemap obstacles will just make the 'field battles' more like the siege battles in RTW/BI.

As for Alexander I think it's a good idea and I hope it sells well. It's just not for me.

-IceTorque

It appears to nothing more than reskinning and map alteration. Add a few bells and whistles then call it an expansion.

I'm really dissatisfied. But, hey, look on the birght side. It jsut an extra. If it didn't even exist, CA would still be following their same formula for success.

Maybe this is just a test of the waters for future expansions, since M2TW is going to have to last a little while. Maybe we will actually see a napoleonic TW, and even an American TW expansion. I can dream.

read the siggy =)

I'm guessing the next one after Med2 will be: Las Vegas Total Pr0n

I'm soooooooooo getting this

Las Vegas: Total Pr0n. :laugh4:

I wonder how the Naked Female archers look like.... :idea2:

I’m thinking as Alexander never went to far west does that mean that they wont bother having the map go as far as Italy or France, or are we going to have the barbarians bothering us from there

Ok so the campaign map doesn't look very good especially Greece just look at the top left in the following screenshot

http://www.totalwar.com/community/images/2campaign.jpg
http://www.totalwar.com/community/alecam.htm

Still I think this could be a good start for a mod team looking at creating a mod in Alexanders time so I guess I'm all for it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fallen851

This may be a shock to you and many others...

There are better games out there than TW series.

I know it is hard, but you should really look around before spending your money on this.

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Well there is a hugely personal opinion if I ever saw one (even if I do agree)...

I might get this, it really depends on the price it comes out at and what else is available at the same time... If I do get it I just hope Player1 does his normal magic... ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fallen851

There are better games out there than TW series.

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That`s your opinion.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fallen851

This may be a shock to you and many others...

There are better games out there than TW series.

I know it is hard, but you should really look around before spending your money on this.

---

That sounds a little condescending. If someone has bought all the TW series to date and finds them all good value, I'm not sure they need to look around if they can afford this offering.

As to whether there are better games out there, that's a matter of opinion. Personally, I don't think there are better series of strategy games still being produced. Yes, there are individual games that are excellent, but not that many series. For me, only the Civ series might rival TW as strategy games but personally I much prefer the war historical tilt of TW and so would definitely favour that.

I guess part of my judgement here is that the strategy genre seems to have largely bifurcated into glossy mindless RTS clones and hardcore niche wargames that lack chrome and playability. I used to like the old "beer and pretzels" wargames of SSI and Talonsoft, but that part of the market seems to have died. Only Total War persists in striking the kind of balance I seek, in combining the pace and gloss of the mainstream with the historical accuracy and depth of the hardcore (especially when modded).

Outside the strategy genre, it all depends what you like. For me, Bioware's RPGs rival the TW games, I guess. As with Alexander TW, I buy every new one without looking around. But it is hard to call them a series per se as they are pretty different (BG, NWN, KOTOR etc).

CA has created a pretty impressive niche with the TW series and I don't see any big beasts challenging it in its own field right now (don't get me started on Imperial Glory). I confess that a lot of my favourable attitude is due to the amazing work of RTW modders, but personally I think they are standing on the shoulders of giants.

Econ21 is simply right.
Every fan who bought every TW series can't stop buying TW now. They've become addicted.

Example: Me. I have every game and expansion pack from STW to BI. The only things I don't have are the Shogun Warlord, Medieval Battle Collection and RTW Gold. That's all. :balloon2:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fallen851

This may be a shock to you and many others...

There are better games out there than TW series.

I know it is hard, but you should really look around before spending your money on this.

---

That what you Think..

I brought Every TW game to date expect Spartian (don't like it) and I enjoy them very much.


There Many be Invadivanl Games that Better then TW, but not Series. I haved not seen a Series Since,like Econ Said, that can Rival Them expect for Civ. I got Civ 4,the latest one,and think it's cool.

Something like Imperial Glory, that game didn't get really good Reviews. there another Game that coming out I think named Rise and Fall or something like that,looks great,but again.

I don't got a job (I'm 14) and I enjoy TW Series Greatly,so whenever I feel like buying a game or jacking it,I will.

I propbably won't get this expansion, I still haven't bought BI. Not that I don't like RTW is that I want to play Rome and some of its mods for a little longer...

About other games. I haven't been checking out the other games much, but title like Rise of Nations, Civilization, and Age of Empires III, can't match RTW when it comes to historical accurary and battlefield tactics. The TW series is by far the only game (that I've seen anyways) that takes more factors into account in battlefield tactics. Although the one thing that does piss me off some times is the dumb AI.

Even AoE has it's own dumb AI.....

TW games are by far my favourite games. Second place comes Need for Speed(I have 5 so far, had 7 but lended 2 of them and never got them back ~:( )

I like AOE,I got the Very First Ones, I still buy,or pop the AOE 3..

Can anyone sticky this please? :book:

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Originally Posted by octavian

read the siggy =)

I'm guessing the next one after Med2 will be: Las Vegas Total Pr0n

I'm soooooooooo getting this

---

Out of the +60 new units they could have chosen to tell us about, they chose female naked archers. Coincidence? I think not.

Yea


Las veags;Total pr0n
Rasie up a Army of Pron Stars and $ex Slaves and battle you way to become the leader of Las Veags!!!!!!!!

I getting it now too!!

I know what you mean,Gaulth, they not going to say "Female naked archers" for no resons..

All we see is Female Naked Archers and other naked Females...

I wonder why we don't see Male Naked Warriors or something.... :laugh4:
Guess they're scared of the Gesetae too much. :laugh4:

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Originally Posted by Gaulgath

Out of the +60 new units they could have chosen to tell us about, they chose female naked archers. Coincidence? I think not.

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Well, actually that unit doesn`t exist..

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Originally Posted by JeromeGrasdyke

Sigh... going to have to have a word with those marketing folks again :sweatdrop:
naked female indian archers, what were they thinking...

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If I interpreted that correctly.. :sweatdrop:

looks worth getting, as long as i can pick it up in a store.skins look really nice.I wouldnt even think of downloadin if its over 265 mb. (have dial-up take too long)

I'll pass on this one, and I'll be keeping a sharp eye on MTW2 to determine whether I'll buy. They've gotta produce a better product, eye candy just wont cut it for me. I'm currently playing RTR for the first time after leaving TW to play civ4. Despite all the mod-ers efforts with RTR, the failure of the 1.2 patch level just leaves a bad taste.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by edyzmedieval

Econ21 is simply right.
Every fan who bought every TW series can't stop buying TW now. They've become addicted.

Example: Me. I have every game and expansion pack from STW to BI. The only things I don't have are the Shogun Warlord, Medieval Battle Collection and RTW Gold. That's all. :balloon2:

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Not quite. RTW deeply disappointed me, the way they made that like they were in a hurry not to miss the big money bandwagon. MTW AI on the totally new campmap, superoctane cav, a "tactical engine" that was apparently on vacation, and endless, completely endless historical errors...

I play games for their gameplay. Not for their fancy trinkets and bells in the forms of dumb little features and graphics. RTW's gameplay was a disaster. We shouldn't have to be modding to get a better game -- it should be good from the get-go and we should be modding just to get another scenario that we prefer over the one taken. The basic principles of the game, however, should've been good from the outset. They weren't.

This expansion won't be any better. It's Sega fishing for some more dough.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Viking

Well, actually that unit doesn`t exist..




If I interpreted that correctly.. :sweatdrop:

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Ah, I see. :sweatdrop:

Presumably this is just a CA-developed MOD rather than an 'expansion' pack. Yes I know there's some voice-overing and the like, but essentially it's a set of new units, a new small map and some custom battles. I don't see any mention of new functionality in there.

That said, if it's pitched at the right price (ie cheap) then I'm sure they'll sell enough to cover their development costs.

If I was being cynical (surely not), the thought would even have crossed my mind that this was a little side project worked on for a few months by a couple of the devs in their spare time, and that someone had the idea over of beer of 'hey, lets see if we can sell it'. I don't have a problem with that to be honest, and let's face it, it's hardly going to boost the sales of vanilla RTW is it? You'll get the die-hards, the curious and the Alexander fans picking this up, and that's about it. (probably me included). Just take it for what it is and either buy it or wait for M2TW.

Cheers,

Rob.

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Originally Posted by RJV

Presumably this is just a CA-developed MOD rather than an 'expansion' pack. Yes I know there's some voice-overing and the like, but essentially it's a set of new units, a new small map and some custom battles. I don't see any mention of new functionality in there.

That said, if it's pitched at the right price (ie cheap) then I'm sure they'll sell enough to cover their development costs.

If I was being cynical (surely not), the thought would even have crossed my mind that this was a little side project worked on for a few months by a couple of the devs in their spare time, and that someone had the idea over of beer of 'hey, lets see if we can sell it'. I don't have a problem with that to be honest, and let's face it, it's hardly going to boost the sales of vanilla RTW is it? You'll get the die-hards, the curious and the Alexander fans picking this up, and that's about it. (probably me included). Just take it for what it is and either buy it or wait for M2TW.

Cheers,

Rob.

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I agree.
I think it looks like any picture from some of the mods around here, and to be honest, most of the mods looks better and more different from this. I won't buy it, and I'm an "Alexander fan".

I would really like to buy this game, but as others have said, only at a reasonable price. Im not going all out for a game that will probably be less fun than EB.

Basically EB is a whole new game on the TW engine. ~D