New Gameplay Video (16th Feb)

**Sir Beane** · 02-17-2009, 14:37

Originally Posted by TB666

Doubt we will see a demo today.
Next week probably.

If the Demo comes out next week you have to wonder what the point is really. The game will be out in two weeks.

**TB666** · 02-17-2009, 14:39

Originally Posted by Sir Beane

If the Demo comes out next week you have to wonder what the point is really. The game will be out in two weeks.

Still released before the real deal

.
Unless SEGA is taking the Sony approach and release the demo after the game has been released.

**CBR** · 02-17-2009, 14:48

IIRC for both RTW and M2TW they managed to send out a demo about 4 weeks before the game was released. Now we are looking at 2 weeks or less. Does not bode well IMO.

CBR

**Merak** · 02-17-2009, 14:55

and the official home page say it will be released in march not a date in march (but i could be wrong on this one)

it seem that i was wrong it say on the preorder page that it will be released in 3th of march (through steam)

http://www.totalwar.com/empire/gameinfo/pre_order.php

**TB666** · 02-17-2009, 14:56

Originally Posted by CBR

IIRC for both RTW and M2TW they managed to send out a demo about 4 weeks before the game was released. Now we are looking at 2 weeks or less. Does not bode well IMO.

CBR

Yeah I can't really understand why they are dragging it out like this.
By this point we usually have several mods already for the demo alone.
Anyway, there is plenty of games out there to enjoy while you wait

**CBR** · 02-17-2009, 15:20

Oh I'm pretty sure I understand why. Call me pessimistic or a cynic but based on the vids seen so far they are still busy getting battles to work properly. Remember how the first M2TW demo had bugged movements and CA actually released a second demo some time after that with some fixes.

It seems to me that the release delay was not done to make it more polished but it was simply time needed just to get it sorta OK.

But all that is of course guesswork and we will be a lot wiser in 2 weeks time.

CBR

**Fisherking** · 02-17-2009, 15:37

Originally Posted by CBR

Oh I'm pretty sure I understand why. Call me pessimistic or a cynic but based on the vids seen so far they are still busy getting battles to work properly. Remember how the first M2TW demo had bugged movements and CA actually released a second demo some time after that with some fixes.

It seems to me that the release delay was not done to make it more polished but it was simply time needed just to get it sorta OK.

But all that is of course guesswork and we will be a lot wiser in 2 weeks time.

CBR

Yes and at this rate we will be downloading the changes to the manual and last minute code changes to the game….and the demo will be out in May…

**Sir Beane** · 02-17-2009, 18:07

The video is down, removed due to a copyright claim by Sega. Looks like we weren't meant to see it. Odd.

**Barkhorn1x** · 02-17-2009, 18:20

Originally Posted by CBR

Oh I'm pretty sure I understand why. Call me pessimistic or a cynic but based on the vids seen so far they are still busy getting battles to work properly. Remember how the first M2TW demo had bugged movements and CA actually released a second demo some time after that with some fixes.

It seems to me that the release delay was not done to make it more polished but it was simply time needed just to get it sorta OK.

But all that is of course guesswork and we will be a lot wiser in 2 weeks time.

CBR

You may be correct, but I just find it hard to believe that there wasn't some type of go/no go meeting in late January and they took a look at the remaining items list/bug list*** and figured that they needed to delay a couple of weeks until March 4th to finish/polish and squash the bugs. I mean, how can experienced game developers not know that their baby is far from ready?

And could they really think that getting it, "sorta OK" would be acceptable?

***But then again, I am always kind of shocked that what must be major known bugs are allowed to slide by. And how do we know that these bugs are known? Because it takes the gaming public all of about 1 day to identify them.

**CBR** · 02-17-2009, 19:33

Originally Posted by Barkhorn1x

I mean, how can experienced game developers not know that their baby is far from ready?

We all experienced RTW didn't we? The battle engine was basically a beta: memory leak, bugged group movement etc etc, oh and the primary/secondary weapon stat bug that took a few months before modders spotted that (but nonetheless a quite serious bug) MP was of course screwed with replays not working and at first did not even have a server that could handle more than 30 people.

After such a debacle it was clear someone saw terms like "ready" and "acceptable" in a very different light than others.

I certainly hope ETW will not be the same, actually I doubt it can be that bad. But can anyone be blamed for being pessimistic?

CBR